Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial's mind was overflowing with all kinds of thoughts about the enhancement that the Curse had brought forth.

They were by far more useful than he first assumed, and there was no way he could complain about that.

Thus, instead of grumbling, he entered a shop to purchase a filter mask and earplugs.

Once he acquired them, Nial put on the filtering mask that covered his mouth and nose, while looking like an Oni.

Afterward, he wore the earplugs before dissolving the mana membrane that had covered his ears, nose, and mouth.

This made his appearance look quite odd owing to the fact that he was evidently blind.

However, Nial couldn't be bothered about what others thought of him because he was able to hear and smell everything clearly, in a slightly filtered way.

Yet, the mask was still not enough to filter everything, which caused him to frown before he forced himself to adjust to the intense smell.

After all, he wanted to find a way to live without the artificial restrictions of his senses.

If that was possible, it would be great because it was certainly important to hear, feel, and sense everything around him.

And that was even more crucial if one was unable to see!

As such, Nial was slowly trying to adjust himself to the sensation and was tweaking the level of the filtering system every now and then to check its efficiency.

The earplugs he had purchased were also not normal earplugs and had the option to configure the extent of the soundproofing however one pleased.

This was great, and more like a necessity to Nial who wanted to adjust his ears to the higher sensitivity, they seem to have received.

With that in mind, he decided to spend a few hours inside the Library which he visited while wearing and adjusting both the filtering mask and the earplugs.

It was frowned upon by the attending librarian, but there was no rule against wearing either of them.

Because of that, Nial paid no attention to the librarian after realizing that she was neither Mara nor Kira, either of whom would be able to answer his questions about the Teradan military camp.

An alternative to this would be to message either of them and clear his doubts.

But instead of chatting to them individually, he created a group chat with the two siblings and began to ask all kinds of questions.

He was not sure if librarian Mara was okay with that but only hoped that neither of them would find this behavior rude.

If she didn't want to be a part of the group, she could exit it any time and nobody would force her to stay. But considering that she did no such thing, Nial took a breath of relief.

As such, there was no need for Nial to feel guilty as he prepared a huge list of questions.

It mostly included questions about the Teradan military camp, but Nial was also eager to figure out more about the organizations like the Eclypse assassins, how powerful they were, and if their juridical power could intervene in the doings of the military.

In the end, Nial could predict some answers, but assuming something to be the case, and his prediction being accurate were two different things.

With that important difference, Nial felt as if his questions were becoming longer, and more profound.

Yet, ending his questions with one last but also an important point, he explained his plan, including the fact that he had bound a Curse to his mana core in order to balance out the disadvantage of his blindness.

Afterward, he explained his experience of the curse, including the fact that his physical strength had increased and that his senses were currently wreaking havoc in his mind and entire being because they had been amplified manifold.

If Nial were to known that the two sisters were currently sitting next to each other, looking at their holographic screen with a confused expression on their faces, and waiting for him to send the message he had been typing for half an hour, he would have behaved differently.

Yet, the moment he sent the message, he averted his attention to the books about the basic knowledge mankind had procured about the dungeons, the various types, and ways of detecting a mutation in them, believing that everything was perfectly fine with himself.

After all, he was feeling healthy, and there was nothing wrong with him.

Rather, his entire being was brimming with energy, and Nial was ready to devote the next four weeks and arduously work to become as strong and knowledgeable as possible!

Unbeknownst to him, the huge message caused the two sisters to simply stare at the screen with wide eyes before reading everything in one go, the bowl of ice cream that was placed next to them turning into a bowl of milkshake, while they read his long essay that ended with the explanation of his Curse-binding adventure.

"He…didn't really do that, right?" Kira asked, not sure whether Nial was joking or not.

However, the moment she looked at Mara, Kira realized that it was neither a bad joke nor a lie.

Rather, it was the truth only Mara was able to comprehend because she had researched the disease called Myset Hoeart after Melvin had left his friend, Nial, inside the library.

Afterward, she had been informed about a specific individual forcefully taken away by two of the Eclypse Assassins that were supposed to keep an eye on the anomalistic two-element dungeon.

When she put two and two together, the bigger picture manifested in front of her.

Everything made sense, and Mara couldn't help but sigh as she mumbled,

"To think that he was that desperate…"

Turning towards her sister, Mara's expression turned angry as she scolded her.

"So…you didn't only convince him to enter the Teradan military camp, but you left him alone while he was under the highest level of pressure he probably had ever faced in his entire life?! Don't you feel the slightest responsibility for Nial's well-being after you recommended him to the camp?

I didn't know that I had such an irresponsible sister!"

Kira had already been baffled by the fact that Nial had bound a Curse to his mana core. However, her sister's reaction was completely out of the ordinary.

Normally Mara was extremely quiet, and would never show off her knowledge. Even while fighting, she would never lose her temper.

Yet, for a little young man she didn't even know well, Mara lost her cool, causing Kira to feel utterly dumbfounded.

"Sis…what is going on? Didn't I tell you that my gut feeling and Innate ability told me about him? What's wrong…?"

Unsure what she was even supposed to say anymore, Kira felt as if she was crouching below the ever-increasing form of her sister who was towering over her like a titan.

"You are…unbelievable! Okay, then let me tell you something that you might have already forgotten-..."

Saying so, Mara began to tell her sister a story of their childhood. It was a story Kira had already forgotten, but after hearing it once again, her eyes widened in shock.

However, when Mara finished telling the story of their childhood, or to be precise, their best friend, she began to tell Kira everything she knew about Nial, his friend Melvin, and the time at which the Eclypse Assassins had been residing in the mansion of the Tyr family.

"Why…does that sound so familiar…almost as if it's the…same?!"

While it was almost as if Kira's world had shattered, Mara could only nod her head, trying to calm herself once again.

Though Kira had been unaware of his background, she had been a bit reckless by handing Nial an opportunity without knowing how desperate he was to go to Liondra, in order to reunite with his family.

"Oddly similar, right? So…What are you going to do now?"

Staring in the depths of Kira's soul, Mara seemed to have returned to her calm demeanor, looking at Kira as always with a calm and knowing expression while awaiting her answer.

"Fuck this shit!! How was I supposed to know that he will bind a curse to his mana core…or that his situation was like that….where the hell is this little monster…let me find him and give him a nice lecture with a beautiful beating first…

Only then will he learn to value his life a little bit more…afterward, I can mentor him!"

**

Unaware of what had just happened between the sisters, Nial continued to read several books that imparted basic knowledge.

At the same time, he continued to tweak the configuration of his earplugs and the filtering mask.

The library was quite silent so the difference between the things he was able to hear clearly was not that grand.

Nevertheless, it caused great pain to his ears, and the adjustment to the loud noises was much more difficult than previously imagined.

His smelling sense was giving him an additional headache as the smell of the old books penetrated his nose.

Yet, owing to the multitude of materials used to bind the book's cover and serve as its pages, including the skin of certain beasts, Nial could adjust to the overwhelming smell extremely fast.

The time he decreased the filtering intensity was horror, terrifying Nial extremely.

Slow but steady was one way to proceed, but the extreme speed at which he attempted to adjust to the drastic changes in his body forced his entire being to accept everything much faster than it was usually possible.

Maybe, the changes in every single cell of his body played a huge role in this as well, but Nial couldn't know this for sure.

The only thing he was aware of was adjusting himself to the several changes he was undergoing.

Furthermore, his mana core and Odyssey seed seemed to have created a subtle connection through the engravement of the Curse [Hodur's Heir] on his mana core.

It was connected to both the Odyssey seed and his mana core, making things within him more complicated.

At the same time, Nial was able to sense the Odyssey seed much better than before.

Yet, oddly enough, he couldn't tell whether this was something advantageous or not!

In the end, the Odyssey seed was something that caused him a lot of misfortune because Nial was sure that he would have awoken his origin several years ago if there hadn't been the unfortunate incident 15 years ago.

The Odyssey seed and the incident he had been involved in were linked to each other, but Nial had yet to find out how closely tied they were.

As such, he was vigilant about this little grain-sized thing that seemed to be growing in proportion to his increase in strength and saved him from certain death multiple times just in the last few weeks.

Several hours had passed in which he had adjusted to his new senses to some extent, and Nial could feel the way his fingers were starting to itch.

This was not because of his heightened sense of touch, but because he was thinking of entering a dungeon.

Even if he had sold the permanent slime dungeon which had manifested in his backyard, there were more than enough dungeons inside the shelter, which he could enter.

As such, he opened the Originals bracelet's holographic screen, ignoring the barrage of messages he had received, thinking that they were answers to his never-ending list of questions.

Instead, he used his mana perception in order to perceive the numerous dungeons that had appeared in the shelter in the last two weeks.

"Aren't there too many dungeons all of a sudden…only a dozen dungeons should have manifested in the last two weeks, why are the information speaking close to a hundred??"

It was at this moment that Nial noticed that something huge and grand was approaching mankind.

Everything that occurred seemed to take a long time to complete, but the changes were being set in motion one after the other in rapid succession, unbeknownst to the vast majority of people!