Odyssey of the Blind God

Configuring the Originals' bracelet didn't take long because it scanned his ID, and imported all the previously stored information about him in seconds.

This allowed him to access all websites only Originals were permitted to look at.

There were many things he had to pay attention to, but Nial's mind seemed to be a mashed pulp of thoughts, similar to the visualization of his mashed arm- chaotic, tangled and broken.

For a moment, he was unable to make sense of the situation he was currently in that rendered himself incapable of thinking of the next step of his non-existent plan.

Unable to think of anything he was supposed to do right now, Nial simply sat in his new home while staring at the walls.

He felt extremely useless, his mind felt empty, but at the same it was as if he had too many things that were important to be solved right at this instant.

As such, while trying to come up with the perfect plan, several possible ideas popped up in his head, making it hard for him to pick one.

It was extremely difficult, and an extreme burden for his entire being.

After all, he had always had his parents or Melvin to discuss his issues if he were to get stuck somewhere. But, he would take some time in getting used to doing and deciding everything on his own.

Because of that, Nial's brain was overflowing with plans but none of them was perfect which prevented him from doing anything.

Forcing himself to get his act together, Nial picked the one he found the most feasible and started to think on it further.

With that in mind, he began to absorb the Mana out of the origin crystals he had at hand, annexing every single trace of mana out of them.

This allowed him to increase the amount of mana stored inside his mana core tremendously.

However, even after two days passed and the last origin crystal had been emptied, Nial realized that the 'huge' amount of mana was only slightly more than a tenth of his entire mana core.

That meant he had to purchase close to 900 poorest quality Common rank origin crystals in order to fill his mana core to the brim.

If he were to purchase Low ranked origin crystals instead, he would require less but that did not make much difference because the advance to the 2nd Origin rank would cost him far less than 50,000$.

This was unexpectedly low, considering that his current fortune was more than 3 million dollars.

Maybe it was even enough to allow him to enter the 3rd Origin rank but it would eat up almost his whole fortune because every subsequent rank demanded far more mana of higher quality than the previous rank.

But even that was not something Nial paid much attention to because he couldn't think about purchasing something.

Instead, he wanted to distract his mind from anything that could possibly make him recall his family, or the fact that he was completely alone.

Thus, he left his new flat for the first time in almost three days, with a familiar destination in his mind.

It was a place where he was able to release all his emotions without hurting anyone… except monsters.

His goal was the Melind dungeon!

Unsure of how much time had passed, Nial was deep in thought as his feet automatically carried him to the Melind dungeon, which he wanted to enter without wasting too much time.

However, what he didn't think about before was the fact that he didn't have the free pass, aka Melvin, by his side anymore.

Realization struck him only when he was asked to show his Originals ID card, which Nial did with some reluctance.

This was noticed by the soldier, who took a glance at the Originals ID card before he frowned a little.

Yet, instead of commenting, he returned the ID card before allowing him to enter the dungeon.

Even though Nial hadn't thought about the restrictions beforehand, he was fully aware of the fact that only government officials and a select group of individuals with special permission were eligible to enter the Melind dungeon.

In the end, this was owing to the fact that the dungeon was in a tricky area with a dense population of humans, followed by the fact that it was a permanent dungeon, where the monsters within respawned at a quick pace.

As such, the government was forced to send in their troops in quick succession, while their reasons to prevent other Originals from entering the dungeon were mainly based on materialistic gains.

After all, the Melind dungeon had many rare bosses, such as the Sekyr Sound Centipede that dropped very rare ability crystals.

This was not everything but more than enough for Nial to clearly understand that the government was sending in their own troops to fill their own pockets, even if it was only to pay the bills of the increasing number of soldiers they had to nurture on a monthly basis.

Nial didn't blame the government for this strategy as it required huge amounts of funds in order to control their shelters, and taxes were falling short of the ever-increasing expenses which wasn't the case before the first dungeon emerged.

Multiple reasons caused the old tax system to break down, and Originals wouldn't voluntarily create an Originals ID, if they had to pay high.

Otherwise, they would simply create a barter system with which they would use the goods from dungeons, physical money or other necessities that couldn't be detected by the system.

Thus, taxes were a difficult matter and in order to create a working system in a world with dungeons, the government had found several ways in order to fund themselves, which worked relatively well in a world where the weak would do everything in order to make their ends meet.

One such way was to hire the poor and weak to nurture them to turn them into teams of Originals, whose sole goal was to clear permanent dungeons, in order to earn origin crystals which in turn would allow more people to be nurtured.

Wealth would accumulate slowly but steadily, and after some huge investments of countless powerhouses, everything seemed to work perfectly fine.

Nial didn't know all of this because history was something he had yet to study properly, and it would probably take a while to increase his knowledge up to the point that he would be comparable to his peers.

However, that was perfectly fine, and for now being able to enter the Melind dungeon was a top priority.

It would help him calm his mind and he had already reminded himself of one particular task which he couldn't neglect.

'I should definitely return to the library, and study as much as possible. Acquiring knowledge is important but that's not all! If the librarian…Mara, I think was her name, is still there, I might be able to ask her about Liondra.

She knows Master Junades, after all, so wouldn't she know one or two things about the strongest shelter of mankind?'

Nial was not really sure how influential Master Junades, Librarian Mara, or even blacksmith Arnold were, but he knew that they would be able to help him better than Serl Tyr, who was still hiding some things from him.

As such, while being inside the Melind dungeon which he was allowed to enter, Nial's mind began to work once again.

Freed of the countless ideas that had tormented his mind earlier, he was finally able to come up with a good plan to solve all the issues he had at hand.

However, before thinking of anything else, or fighting in order to ease the tension in his coiled muscles, Nial enveloped his Originals ID card with mana, in order to figure out what kinds of changes had happened.

The Originals ID card was similar to a smartphone application that would be updated on a regular basis.

As such, Nial, who had been struggling to fight the loneliness surrounding him, he had been unable to see the newest updates, including the special remark that was added to his ID card.

Only now was he able to visualize it, and upon reading the words he was a bit astonished.

[Civilian Honor Badge(Bronze)]

He had not done a lot in the dungeon, except trying to find and take care of Shana, but after thinking about it for a moment, it did not matter what task of his made him receive this honor badge.

Rather, he should make use of everything he received in order to find a way towards the Liondra shelter and his family.

Thus, ignoring the honor badge, he visualized his surroundings by using some of the mana inside his mana core to empower the [Mana Perception(Poorest)] ability, allowing him to perceive a bigger range of his surroundings.

It was not even important for Nial to visualize anything around him because being able to perceive his surroundings, and the moving masses of mana was already more than enough for him to locate his opponents.

He knew that there were many Goblins inside the Melind dungeon, and after having emerged in the middle of the plains, there was not a single sign for him to figure out which direction the forest was.

Even if he were to find the forest, after venturing in the deeper areas of the first floor, Nial was not sure if he should enter it because the dangers were several times higher than it was the case with the outskirts that were represented by the plains.

As such, Nial knew that he had to be a little bit careful about what he was supposed to do as he could not pay attention to several things at once.

What was more important was to fix the issue he had with long-range opponents, which meant that he had to figure out how to find and kill them without the need to see them.

Sensing them would be the easiest, but the mana consumption of the [Mana Perception(Poorest)] ability increased exponentially the further he wanted to see.

This was obvious because the range increased to an exceptional degree despite the ability itself being at the poorest possible of the lowest quality at the Common rank.

Such a ranking spoke volumes about the ability itself, the amount of mana that was required, and how potent the ability was in relation to the used mana.

With that in mind, Nial knew that he would have to become stronger in order to increase the rank and thus the strength of his Innate ability, overcoming even the disadvantages he had of being blind.

He was fully aware of the fact that he kept thinking about his disability a lot, but it was simply too much of a disadvantage not to think about.

Dying at the hands of someone who would attack him from a long distance, or the possibility that he was unable to sense the advance of specific beings was certainly not acceptable.

The latter would have a low chance, but would still be possible.

As such, Nial got carried away in his thoughts once again and momentarily went blank.

Goosebumps sprang up all over his entire body in an instant, and it was just at this moment that Nial moved his leg left backward.

Twisting himself, he tilted the Viper spear before he pierced out with it.

*Clang* *Clang* *Clang*

Hearing three sounds as different objects collided with the Viper spear's blade, Nial understood that he was facing three different attackers as the direction of each of these attacks was different.

Having expected only one opponent, the Earth Mole that shot out of the ground quickly disappeared, realizing that its attack failed, leaving Nial with two unknown attackers that were to his right and left.

"So…you guys want to play? Good for you, but I don't like playing around!"

Growling out these words, Nial's already bad mood only worsened, and without hesitation he released the majority of his mana in order to utilize the [Mana Perception(poorest)] ability.

Through this, he was able to perceive many masses of mana to his right and left, numbering more than two dozen on each side.

Normally, this would be something to be afraid of, but Nial couldn't help but smile lightly as his frustration disappeared into thin air, sensing that he was able to let off some steam!

"Being in the wrong place at the wrong time was never good…but now..DIE!!"