Odyssey of the Blind God

Three months had passed in the blink of an eye in which everyone was busy becoming stronger as quickly as possible.

However, that was easier said than done. Spending 20 hours a day on training on average left both Mathias and Nial extremely exhausted.

Even with the nourishment and energy mana provided, it was clear that they were overworked.

Every single day, the two had to use the nutrition capsules to make full use of the four hours of the break they received in which they slept soundly.

While Mathias spent around 14 hours a day practicing the Ciran taria technique to create his first Advanced Origin ring, he was also focused on increasing his control and accuracy of Mana.

Through the mana control training and the technique he executed to improve his mana control, he progressed slowly.

Every few minutes, Mathias could perceive that he was able to absorb more mana in 14 hours than it had been the case beforehand.

This was motivating enough to prevent him from going insane with all the boredom he was feeling.

It was certainly not interesting to spend all day sitting in Miranda's mansion and focusing on absorbing Mana, annexing the mana that was absorbed into his body, or improving his mana control.

To add some variety to their schedule, he and Nial went out hunting three times in a week, so that they wouldn't get rusty in combat, and potentially increase their combat awareness as well.

They improved slowly but steadily and grew better in fighting with every week that passed.

The moment Mathias finished creating his primary Advanced Origin ring, his strength was elevated by several times.

His physique was enhanced while the impurities within his body, especially those in his mana veins were expelled and his control over mana increased manyfold nearly instantly.

Even his mana became stronger while circulating through the Advanced Origin ring, clearly showing how terrifying and important Origin rings were.

Mathias' mana got, at least, 50% stronger thanks to his primary Advanced Origin ring. This was great, but even more so was the fact that he could finally engrave another ability to his mana core.

Without any hesitation, Mathias had chosen his second ability. Unsurprisingly, it was the [Water affinity (Comprehension)], which he bound to his mana core.

He now owned two Elemental affinities with the [Comprehension] tag in addition to his Innate ability [Elemental Comprehension]. As long as Mathias worked hard and found a way to use all of it together, there wouldn't be even the slightest problem in conquering Low Expert dungeons all by himself.

Meanwhile, Nial was obviously far from creating his first Ancient Origin ring. Quite some time would have to pass before he would reach the Prym rank.

But that was not something he was actually bothered about. His control over mana kept increasing as he continued to practice the training methods he had read about in the Control of the Ancient Monarch manual.

His talent as a Runicier was questionable but oddly enough his Innate ability [Mana Sense] was quite helpful to detect the flaws of engraved runic constellations relatively easily.

With [Mana Sense] it was even possible to determine which the runic solution was not suitable for the engraved runic constellation.

If the wrong runic solution was used, the full potential of the runic constellation couldn't be released, even if the runic constellation had been engraved perfectly.

Nial had noticed many interesting things about Runiciers in the past few months.

In the beginning, it had been a little bit boring to repeatedly practice engraving the most basic runic constellation on a piece of paper.

However, the more time passed and the better Nial got at engraving runic constellations, the more intriguing he found it to be.

He learned a lot about multi-layered runic constellations, the complexity and obstacles one tackled while engraving them single-handedly and much more.

Everything revolving around Runiciers became much more interesting. But this was also owed to the fact that the hidden content written in the Control of the Ancient Monarch manual seemed to have opened an entirely new world to Nial.

Attempting to carve engravings on an Origin ring was simply insane, and he would have found it absurd had anyone asked him to do this a few months ago.

But right now? Nial was highly inclined to do so. And all of this was due to the content written in the hidden content he had procured.

Nial had also told Miranda about achieving a perfect mastery on the Control of the Ancient Monarch technique because she should be able to get her hands on the same knowledge he had procured.

At first, Nial had simply planned on sharing information about the Ancient Origin rings with her and Mathias. However, this was somehow not possible because his mind blocked off the hidden content whenever he thought about revealing the information he had gotten his hands on.

This was weird but similarly interesting if one were to ask him.

"Just where did Junades get this book from? Was it from another Ancient ruin, potentially a higher ranked one? It could have been a different type of unique dungeon as well…"

Nial had no idea how Junades had gotten his hands on this technique or why he had never practiced it to the perfect mastery.

However, Nial was happy to have been rewarded with that manual when he 'won' the bet against Junades in the spar long ago.

When it was necessary, he would research more about the manual's origin but that could wait for the time being. After all, there were many other things he had to research, and he had yet to find even a spare minute to do stuff out of his tight schedule.

'It might not bother me right now, but this Ankh is truly….weird. Just what is it even doing? I cannot sense the slightest inconvenience or change…other than the fact that my skin seems to have become better than before.

I might feel healthier than before as well but that doesn't necessarily have to do with the Ankh.'

Nial was always frowning at the thought of the Ankh, the Symbol of Life, that was engraved on his Odyssey seed.

It bothered him but there was actually nothing he could do about it. Thus, he reminded himself to not waste his precious time thinking about it. Not until he would have the possibility to find out more about it.

There was only one more day left before they would depart to the third shelter to finally reclaim it.

The conquest was the most anticipated event the civilians awaited because never before in history had mankind dared to reclaim a lost shelter.

This was also because the Heaven's Gates Organization had distanced itself from the general populace as well as the government. And without their help, the government never had the necessary strength to reclaim a shelter.

This had changed now as the Heavens Gates chose to help out.

Using the last day to finish their preparations, the two young men simply slept for 24 hours.

Even after sleeping for an entire day, they were still tired but that was fine.

As they left Miranda's mansion, she wished them good luck while simultaneously threatening to haunt and kill them if something were to happen to them and bid them farewell afterward.

"I hope they'll be fine. I mean nothing should happen as long as the Heaven's Gates' members don't mess up the mission completely.

Kirlia won't mess up…I know that…"

Miranda tried to reassure herself that everything would be fine. However, she didn't sound convinced, at all.

'Just why do I have so many tasks now? They're deliberately trying to hold me back from following them…'

Her gaze was trained on the broad backs of her two disciples as they vanished into the shuttle, driving off toward their first conquest.

Meanwhile, as Miranda voiced out her worry openly, Gianna, the young female butler, could only smile confidently.

"They'll be fine. Nial is there. He is powerful, and far stronger than I wish to acknowledge…"

It was rare for Gianna to praise anyone. In fact, she would never praise a man, neither secretly nor in front of anyone else.

That was also why Miranda looked at her butler with slight astonishment in her eyes.

'Since when does she like Nial? Didn't she hate him? Or does she just acknowledge his strength? I wonder where that confidence comes from…'

Miranda didn't ask Gianna what she meant but she smiled faintly upon seeing that her butler seemed to have a change of heart.

However, despite her butler's confidence, Miranda couldn't help but feel a bit uneasy.

'Just don't die, kiddos!'

Meanwhile, Nial and Mathias didn't have to drive long before they reached their destination.

They met at the city center's plaza, exactly where the Dryx's invasion had occurred.

However, instead of an invasion of vicious and dangerous beings like in his last experience, Nial was able to sense a huge crowd of people surrounding the plaza.

There were probably tens of thousand civilians looking at the center of the plaza, where close to 5,000 Originals were standing.

Many of them were extremely powerful and at a high rank, while others were quite popular heirs, well-known Soldiers, and many other Originals that were more or less known by the public.

"Why are there so many Originals? Isn't this a joint mission with the other seven shelters? Is it really necessary to send out so many people?" Mathias was baffled. He was familiar with many of the present Originals as well.

This astonished him even more as he could see more than two dozen Originals of his age, all of whom were at the Prym rank. They came from influential families and were known for their terrifyingly high talent.

On the other hand, there were also many promising Originals at the Origin rank, participating in the conquest.

"Well, the jury is still out on how many dungeons have manifested in Juna, how many dungeon beasts roam through Juna and the surrounding area and how often we'll have to conquer the permanent dungeons to release their overflowing energy so that they won't keep releasing more and more beasts.

That's also why there are so many Originals. At least, that's one of their reasons to participate in the conquest.

Another is that they'll gain lots of fame by participating in the first reclaiming mission of a shelter. This has never happened before and their names will be written in golden ink in the pages of the history of mankind." Nial said lightly without giving it much thought.

Both Nial and Mathias had been forced to come here, so there was nothing they could do. They had to survive- that was their mission. Everything else was at a much lower priority.

"By the way, we don't have much information about the third shelter's current state, which is why we'll have to use different teleportation circles than usual.

We won't be able to get teleported close to the shelter but we'll have to find our way through the wilderness."

Nial's casual comment attracted Mathias' attention.

He was aware of it but hearing it once again didn't make him feel any better.

Only Nial's demeanor that was at ease, allowed Mathias to become as calm as his friend.

'I have become stronger than Nial, so I should be as calm as he is!'

Clenching his fists, Mathias felt the determination within him rising. He gave him a confident smile and looked ahead.

However, his friend's lifeless eyes looked at an empty space while his Mana sense was spread all over the plaza, using up a tiny bit of his mana.

'Ah, I forgot, he cannot see…how dumb of me..' Mathias thought in embarrassment, happy that he didn't say anything stupid out loud.'

**

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