Odyssey of the Blind God

After he defeated Jase, Nial was rarely challenged. The few challenges he had received were from promising young Originals, who had wanted to test Nial's strength, or ignorant Originals, who hadn't heard the rumors about Nial.

In the end, all of them left him alone and decided to not irk him. As such, Nial didn't really have any problems continuing with his tight-knit schedule thanks to the great performance he delivered during the first time he had been challenged.

That was why the remaining two months of the hellish training passed without much disturbance.

However, that was only the case for him. While Bella was also not challenged that often after delivering a similarly overwhelming performance the first few times somebody thought of dueling with her, Mathias had struggled a little bit more.

His fights were not less impressive than Nial or Bella's but the situation was quite different because the young Original, who had challenged him had an Innate ability related to mana disturbance.

It prevented Mathias from using his Earth elemental affinity properly, creating many issues in the rather drawn-out fight he fought against his opponent.

Mathias won after fighting for more than half an hour but the strain he caused to his mana core by forcing himself to keep fighting had been too high.

He had to rest for several days and he was challenged the moment he got better.

Fortunately, his experience in terms of melee combat had increased drastically, which was why it had been possible for Mathias to change his combat style without too much of a difficulty.

Nonetheless, Mathias was only able to reach the 8th Origin rank after the last two months of the hellish training had ended owing to the time he required to fight, recuperate after fighting, and prepare for new fights.

Mathias was the only one running behind the schedule while Nial reached the 6th Origin rank and Bella reached the 10th Origin rank.

Contrary to everyone's belief, the issue related to Nial's mana core enlargement that was supposed to hinder him after entering the 5th Origin rank never occurred.

He was said to be only able to enlarge his mana core four times naturally. Yet, Nial easily entered the 6th Origin rank as if the Originals' association had made a mistake in their examination.

This confused Miranda and the others a lot because they had come up with several options to help Nial to stay unscathed when breaking through his mana core's limit.

Nial didn't reveal the truth about his mana core because nobody would believe him either way.

'The Titan heart which I absorbed has increased my mana core's limit drastically, while the Odyssey seed did exactly the same after I successfully completed the Primary Trial of the Gods. But its not like anyone would believe me if I were to say that…'

That had been Nial's assumption when he was asked how it was possible for him to enter the 6th Origin rank so easily.

Little did they know that Nial was already close to reaching the 7th Origin rank and that the biggest issue was the extremely high amount of mana he required to enlarge his mana core, followed by the long cooling-off period his mana core needed before it was ready to face another enlarging process.

The enlarging process was taxing to the mana core, which was why it was very dangerous to enlarge one's mana core several times in a single month.

For some Originals, whose mana core was a bit frail, it was even suggested that they shouldn't enlarge their mana core more than once every three months.

But that didn't apply to Nial because his mana core was powerful and extremely large. After merely five enlargings, his mana core was already able to hold the same amount of mana as an Original who had undergone nine enlargings and entered the 10th Origin rank.

That was also why Nial could be said to have reached the same Origin rank as Bella, which was certainly impressive because Nial had awoken his Origin only seven months ago.

His progress was rapid and there was no sign that Nial was thinking about slowing down. Rather, he wanted to further improve his progression…just a tad bit differently than others might believe.

'Once I reunite with my family, I should start an in-depth research about runic armaments. If I produce powerful runic armaments with various effects, it should be possible for me to survive all kinds of dangerous situations inside dungeons, or even in the wilderness of Jundra!'

However, for his plan to succeed, Nial had to locate his family first, and this was definitely not easy, even less because many highly influential Organizations and Guilds that came from Liondra to witness the Military Games were facing several issues that cropped up with more emerging dungeons.

A unique type of dungeon had emerged for the first time when the hellish training of Nial and all the others had begun, and that dungeon type had evenly spread out, reaching the 8 remaining shelters as well.

Ugly, purplish-leather winged beasts, whose purple skin looked rotten and highly poisonous had emerged from these dungeons, spreading infectious diseases through the wilderness and the surrounding areas.

It was pretty hard for mankind to prevent the diseases from infiltrating the shelters, let alone preventing it from spreading the moment it reached the inner parts of the shelters.

Each of the remaining 8 shelters was overcrowded and it was near impossible for all the people to stay inside the house to isolate themselves from the others.

Too many Originals were required to fight every single day to clear the dungeons that emerged inside the shelters.

If they wouldn't keep clearing the dungeons, the number of dungeons would steadily increase and the dangers of potential dungeon breaks would reach an alarming degree.

Fighting against the flying beasts that were the breeding ground of infectious pathogens and trying to prevent their disease from spreading made it impossible for many influential Organizations to leave the shelters.

Even the situation on the nameless island and in the other nine military camps was turning grave. It was still fine in most places but there were many occurrences that caused many issues.

The three months of hellish training had not only been hard on the young participants of the 10 military camps.

Instead, one could say that the majority of human beings had had a hard time during the last three months, and everyone hoped that things would get better.

But for things to get better, one had to fight with all their might, become strong enough to solve all issues, and use one's brain to solve certain situations from happening before they could occur, to begin with.

However, all of this was only partially related to Nial, and the others. They didn't even hear about the incidents that were happening around the eight shelters and the ten military camps.

If anyone would have told them about the incidents and every single detail of what was going on, none of the military camps' participants would be able to train without being distracted.

They might have injured themselves accidentally as well, and that was certainly something none of the instructors wanted to happen.

Thus, only when the training was over did the first information about the incidents reach them.

For most Originals, the news about the 3rd shelter was the most shocking, even more so for the Originals, who had lived in the said shelter since their birth.

There were quite a few of such Originals in the Teradan military camp, and all of them wanted to know what had happened to their families.

This was only normal because it was not every day that mankind was forced to abandon one of their hard-earned and well-preserved shelters.

Fortunately, everyone was fine, which calmed down the youths, who had spent their entire childhood in the third shelter.

But Nial had nothing to take away from this. He could tell that his family was still fine, simply because his gut feeling was telling him so.

Thus, he could safeguard his mind from the corruption others had to face at the thought of their family's death, or falling ill after contracting the rapidly spreading disease.

'I know these monsters…I'm pretty sure I know them….I have actually seen them as well…'

When Nial heard the description of the purple flying beasts for the first time, he could clearly recall them.

They were lower demons used by a particular God in times of war. They were mostly used when trying to weaken their opponent by spreading the highly contagious bacteria.

The diseases caused by the bacteria did not result in an instant death but over a long period, they would slowly deteriorate the mana absorption and circulation speed of the majority of living beings.

Only the beasts and races with a strong and refined immune system would be able to counter the effect of the highly contagious bacteria.

In fact, they would be able to make use of the bacteria in the surrounding environment to increase their mana absorption speed and grow stronger than everyone else in a short period.

"These monsters are Dryx…weak and easy to kill. But their numbers increase as fast as the population of Goblins if not nipped in the bud…"

Even if Nial didn't want to expose the memories of the late Darkness God for the sake of his family, he shared a few pieces of information with Miranda.

"To defeat them, you will have to pierce through their heart and mana core in a timeframe of half a minute, at most, otherwise they'll start regenerating. Even if they lose their head, it won't really bother them. After they are killed, it's necessary to burn their bodies and dispose of their mana core.

If the Dryx consumes their brethren's mana core, their own mana increases by leaps and bounds and they might even evolve."

At first, Miranda simply gaped at Nial but the more he spoke, the weirder she felt.

"Need to be burned…regeneration…Ordinary Beasts with a mana core? Devouring their brethren's mana core strengthens them? Is that why some of them are so powerful…"

Nial heard the words Miranda blurted out but he didn't dare add anything else. Miranda had a strong urge to ask Nial how he knew about the Dryx, how to defeat them, and what to pay attention to but she forced herself not to ask.

'If his Innate ability provided him with memories of the Origin of dungeons, he should have seen a few dungeon beasts as well…that's probably it.'

Prying into the memories of others was rude and as long as Nial's advice was correct, she need not waste her time worrying about the rest.

"Ah…by the way, the contagious bacteria spread by the Dryx  will die the moment all the Dryx, who live in the surrounding area have been taken care of."

Nial shouted after Miranda, who had already left for the meeting of the camp's higher authorities.

They were currently speaking about what to do with the new threat of danger that radiated from the Dryx, followed by the final preparations to start the Military Games.

'Ordinary Beasts? Dryx are definitely not Ordinary Beasts…rather, they're considered the most inferior, yet also extremely dangerous race….

If not taken care of properly, they will turn into an even bigger menace, even for higher races, let alone the human race…'

Nial sighed deeply when recalling the Dryxs. He clearly remembered the master of the Dryx race, which was why Nial couldn't help but shake his head in frustration.

'I guess it will be impossible to consider him as an ally in this life. This sly bastard, I wonder what kind of crazy plan he has come up with this time…'

**

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