Odyssey of the Blind God

Even after reaching the basement, Nial and Bella did not stop talking to each other.

They liked the genuinity all of them showed, and it was even more comfortable to have someone around who they were a bit familiar.

And this was something they truly needed because the two of them quickly noticed that groups had already formed.

The moment they entered a large hall, the smaller and larger groups of several dozen people turned around.

Yet, Nial didn't really focus on them, knowing that they kept their gazes on him, quickly singling him out for his blindness and low Origin rank.

However, that was perfectly fine with him as his attention quickly switched to Bella.

She seemed to be attracting lots of attention too, which was most likely owing to her eyes. Not only were they beautiful but also quite unique.

They were golden in color, and gleaming in vigor, clearly showing that she was powerful.

And this was what a single gaze allowed everyone else to realize.

Her eyes had been metamorphosed owing to the awakening of her Innate talent, but that was not something others could know, at least not with absolute certainty.

Nonetheless, what attracted most Originals in the room was Bella's appearance which was extremely bewitching. She was not just beautiful, but otherworldly gorgeous owing to her eyes that highlighted her beauty even more.

Nial couldn't know that as he was only able to visualize her outlines and some details about her appearance without being able to differentiate between colors.

Yet, he still knew that she was beautiful, which was something that would attract numerous men.

Thus, Nial believed that she would be able to join any kind of group as long as she adjusted herself to fit them, even if it was only a little bit.

However, instead of doing that, it almost felt like her eyes had turned ice-cold the moment the others started to throw weird gazes at the duo.

Only after she turned her head back to Nial did her cold features relax a little bit.

"Did you eat lunch already?" She suddenly asked before pointing towards the banquet on their left.

It was only a moment later that Bella realized what she was doing, pointing out something Nial was unable to see.

Biting her tongue, she was about to apologize and explain where she wanted to go, only to see that Nial approached the leftmost table of the banquet where plates and cutleries were placed.

"Not yet, let's eat something!"

Nial knew that it was quite easy to forget the condition of other people, even more, if one was just starting to get to know each other.

As such, he didn't think much about her behavior.

Instead, Nial showed her that he was able to move around and manage things on his own, just that it was a little bit different; and with the help of his other senses.

Smelling the pleasant smell of roasted meat to their left, and the aroma of drinks to their right side, followed by his mana perception that allowed him to visualize everything, Nial started to serve himself.

Accurately picking up whatever he wanted to eat and placing the food items neatly on his plate, he continued filling the plate while ignoring the onlookers that were starting to discuss amongst each other, wondering if he was conning them with his 'seemingly' lifeless eyes, or if there was something they didn't know.

But after a while, they decided that he wasn't worth their time and attention and quickly returned to focus on their own talk.

They bragged about their own achievements while showering their friends with praises, showing off their social background, and connections.

As for their strength, most Originals held back from revealing too much about their strength, the abilities they bound to their mana core, or even the Innate abilities some of them had awoken.

Thus, most of the discussions were rather superficial, which caused Nial to smile lightly.

He understood every single word that was spoken in the entire room, which was quite inconvenient and hence not required in his conversation with Bella.

She had quickly adjusted her mindset to what she saw.

Because of that, Bella believed that Nial might be blind in terms of eyesight, but that his other senses and perception replaced everything.

As such, she filled her own plate before sitting down on the bench next to Nial.

There were not many benches to sit down and eat as it was something unlikely to do during times such as the period before departure to the Teradan military camp.

After all, everyone was nervous, and forcing themselves to eat in such a state would only make them puke at the most unfortunate time.

Owing to this, the drinks and food were, in most cases, just decorations.

However, Nial and Bella felt quite comfortable right now as they were eating the food that had been prepared by a master chef.

Never having eaten something so great, Nial completely disregarded the stares at him that were filled with various emotions.

On one hand, nobody knew Nial, and from the way he was clothed, the blind young man was certainly not from an influential family.

This indicated that he didn't really have a great start.

Adding to that, he had either awoken his origin later, or he had taken a very long time in order to reach the 3rd Origin rank.

However, all of that became insignificant when they recalled the fact that not a single individual with the right to recommend someone to the Teradan military camp would waste their recommendation letter on a nobody, and a talented being.

As such, Nial was bound to be special in one way or another.

The only issue was to figure out how special he was, if he was a threat to the others, or if he had just been fortunate, and someone was gambling on him due to their gut feeling.

If the participants knew that the biggest reason for Kira to recommend Nial for the Teradan Military camp was her gut feeling, they would curse her for taking such a bold risk.

After all, the gamble could crush one's entire career if it led to a disastrous and unfavorable outcome.

However, on the other hand, given the fact that the recommendation had gone through, and that it was approved, something was certainly going on in the 10th gathering place.

It was weird, but the participants of the Teradan military camp felt odd, especially because those participants of the 10th gathering place knew that each of them was recommended and how the process of the recommendation was held!

The conclusion of all of these facts pointed at only one thing- it was not easy to meet the requirements of the Teradan military camp, at all.

Yet, that was something Nial was oblivious to because the sister duo Kira and Mara had taken care of everything, solving the hurdle of him ticking all the boxes with the use of their connections.

If he were to know everything the sisters had done for him, Nial would feel even more grateful to them.

Nevertheless, even if he were only to consider the few things that he knew, Nial was already overjoyed to have encountered great people like Kira and Mara.

They were certainly worth getting to know even if he would have to go through hellish training.

Smiling lightly while eating, he savored every single bite of the food, which caused Bella to look at Nial with a small grin.

She had already figured that he belonged to an ordinary family, otherwise, he wouldn't have lodged a room in her mother's apartments.

Thus, she found him to be even more likable as he didn't hide his emotions.

With genuine interactions and heartfelt emotions, it was easy to make people around you more comfortable.

As such, they didn't even notice that after seeing them eat casually, more groups had decided to eat something.

Initially, they had been extremely nervous, and unable to eat much for the last two days.

Yet, seeing how Nial was enjoying his meal, the others' stomachs began to growl.

Soon, the aroma of the food began to overwhelm their nervousness as all of them made a beeline for the banquet, and soon filled their plates with a few small portions of various food items.

They didn't dare to eat too much, but their mind and body were clearly relieved as the intense nervousness they had felt had dispersed and was replaced by hunger.

Despite seeing Nial eating, and even enjoying himself there were still many other Originals that didn't dare to eat a single bite.

For all they knew, this could be their first test of the Teradan military camp that had already started.

Poisoning the food was something the cruel instructors of the Tearadan military camp were certainly capable of.

As such, even though some of them were feeling hungry once their nervousness disappeared, they didn't dare to eat at all.

If Niall were to know their anxiety which was clouding their judgment, he would have calmed them down.

After all, his mana perception, tasting, and smelling senses were exceptional.

Thus, the moment he would have smelled something odd, Nial would have refrained from eating.

There might be specific types of poison that couldn't be sensed by one's tasting, smelling, or even mana perception.

However, they were in a military camp, most of them were below the age of 20, and he believed that they would be at least given a chance to figure out if something was poisoned or not.

As such, there should be, at least, one relatively easy indicator to figure out if someone was harmful or not.

Otherwise, it couldn't really be considered a test, but simply curb one's temptation to eat, and a clear indicator that one couldn't trust the Teradan military camp's instructors.

He believed that worrying too much about traceless poison in food before they even stepped into the camp was a little bit over the top.

Knowing that he was calmly having his food even though some young men and women began to take out certain testing devices with which they tested the food for poison.

These devices would be taken away later, but for now, they were quite useful.

Because many Originals were eating, Nial didn't even notice that a young man had walked towards their bench, and sat right next to him.

Not catching even a whiff of the disgusting stench of sweat had already astonished him when he had encountered Bella as she didn't smell as bad as the others.

This was quite favorable for Nial because he smelled the slightest bit of purities in sweat, which was something Bella didn't seem to have much of.

Meanwhile, the youth next to him smelled slightly unique as if he was refreshing.

It was weird to describe, even more so because Nial sensed that the youth next to him was able to precisely control mana.

The refreshing scent also had traces of soil, and several types of dirt, astonishing Nial a bit.

Soil smelled much better than sweat, after all.

This was quite obvious, but refreshing to Nial in a sense as the entire room was filled with Originals that had used all kinds of perfumes, cologne and so on, just to smell better, and to mask the smell of sweat that flowed naturally from their bodies owing to their nervousness.

Unfortunately, all of those mixed scents had made it uncomfortable for Nial to be around them.

But, with just Bella and the unknown youth, it was now much better to endure.

Because of that, he turned towards the youth next to him, while smiling lightly before he spoke.

"Hey, sorry to interrupt your meal, but I wondered if you already found a group to stay with?"

Nial didn't have any ill intentions, but owing to his bad socializing skills, he spoke utter nonsense, causing the young man to look up from his plate.

He had been the last to arrive, and just randomly chose to sit in a less crowded place, which was right next to Nial.

As such, he felt quite comfortable that nobody had spoken to him, only for Nial to start a small discussion.

Yet, instead of answering, the young man could only look into Nial's eyes, without saying a word.

This caused Nial to feel a little bit weird, thinking that he must have said something wrong as he gave it another try.

"My name is Nial Orin. Nice meeting you… what's your name?"

Despite giving his best, Nial began to feel uncomfortable under the gaze of the young man, and even Bella, who noticed what was going on next to him, couldn't help but wonder why Nial was even continuing to try.

To be precise, even Nial had no idea why he was trying to befriend the silent youth, only to hear him mumble.

"M…Mathias…C-Car—Cartel…nice me-meeting you t-too!"

**

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