Odyssey of the Blind God

"C-Can I join you guys?" Hana halted in her tracks right in front of Nial, and next to the others.

She glanced back, and felt uncomfortable with the gazes on her as goosebumps sprang up on her entire body.

'Why are they acting so weird, all of a sudden? Can't they ignore me, just like they did before...?' Hana thought, taking another step closer to Nial the moment she noticed that the Elves wanted to approach her once again.

However, before she could do so, she felt a light grasp around her left arm before she was gently pulled toward Nial's left side.

"Of course, you can join us." Nial said in a welcoming voice, ignoring the gazes that turned to him. Hana was also a bit confused because she did not notice him flinch while touching her.

'Is he immune? That shouldn't be. Weird...' Hana felt a bit odd, but she didn't dislike that. It was just a bit confusing.

While Hana looked at Nial from behind her veil, the young blind Original's head had turned to the Elves. They were amongst the younger batch of Elves, who belonged to the Forest of Life. Thus, they had yet to learn many things, including not to bother a woman if she was obviously uncomfortable.

"Don't they have any manners?" Miranda suddenly asked, sneering as she looked at the situation in front of them.

Miranda knew that the veiled woman was Kirlia's disciple so it was no problem for them to take her in their group for the time being. However, Miranda's attention quickly turned to Nial, who had let go of the veiled woman's arm.

'Do they know each other? They seem comfortable around each other which means they talked when Kirlia didn't notice it. Well, I didn't notice it either.' Miranda thought, keeping her attention on the two.

However, before she could ask something to quench her thirst for answers, Miranda was distracted by the start of Master Crevian's lesson.

Because she was not able to understand the elven tongue completely yet, it was of utmost importance to observe every single action of Master Crevian, what he showcased, and the designs he drew on the blackboard with eerie precision and no hesitation.

Time passed slowly, and the open class went on for over three hours. While Mathias, Miranda, and Nial were fully focused on the class, Hana was trying to make herself comfortable while being seated between Miranda and Nial.

The distance she kept to them was less than 30 centimeters, and she subconsciously moved closer to Nial, thinking that it wouldn't be as bad if she were to come in contact with Nial by accident as with Miranda.

'How long has it been since I was surrounded, or in such a crowded place? Even with Kirlia, we don't dare to enter such crowded places because Master fears that something may happen to me.' Hana recalled as her gaze kept flitting to Nial. Her condition was not something one could take lightly.

That was why it was odd for Nial to be perfectly fine after he had touched her, even if it was merely through her clothes.

Her clothes and her veil were created using special material, to prevent her unique condition from influencing the people in her surrounding.

If not for her clothes, it would be impossible for Hana to walk around like she was doing right now.

But despite being very careful, she seemed to have lightly brushed past some male Elves before, when she had entered the wooden hut to join the open class.

This was why she had ended up being surrounded by the Elves, whose eyes had glowed weirdly.

Hana remembered too many incidents where her condition had messed up everything. There were not many people, who were less affected by it, let alone anyone, who was immune.

That was also why she didn't have any friends, or why she was always by her master's side. Kirlia Maverick was one of the few, who were less affected by her condition.

'Well, even then, the moment I touch Master with my bare hand, she cannot escape the effects of my condition.' Hana thought, a deep frown of disappointment appearing on her face.

Her attention stayed on Nial, who noticed that he was being looked at. However, this was something that had to do with the fact that he had touched her. Nial was aware of this.

After he advanced to the 1st Ancient Mirae rank, Nial's [Mana Sense] was much more precise. He might not have felt something when he lightly touched Hana's arm, but his [Mana Sense] had perceived something interesting.

'Her body has two special traits. One is directly related to Mana, and another one is...no idea what it does.' Nial thought as his interest in Hana's special traits increased.

Thus, he couldn't help but get excited as he got a pretty neat idea.

"You have multiple Superior Origin rings, right?" Nial suddenly asked in a barely audible whisper aimed at Hana's ear.

Her first reaction was to flinch on impulse when she heard his voice, but she slowly turned her head toward him.

'How does he know? The isolation runes on my clothes...are they not working anymore?' Hana thought in shock, fearing that all the runes that had been engraved on her clothes had somehow lost their effect.

However, when she checked them, everything seemed to be fine. 'I almost got a heart attack...' Hana nearly blurted out loud, just for a sigh of relief to replace her words. She then found her voice and answered,

"Yes, I have 3 Superior Origin rings. Why are you asking, and how do you know that, to begin with?" She tried to speak in a low voice as well. But both Miranda and Mathias turned their heads in the direction of Hana and Nial the moment they heard her speaking.

'3 Superior Origin rings?! Doesn't she sound like she is around our age? Just...how talented is she?!' Mathias nearly exclaimed, feeling suffocated to be surrounded by so many talented people.

Not just him but even Miranda was a little astonished.

'How did Nial notice that she has several Superior Origin rings? Even I cannot perceive anything through her clothes...not even a trace of mana... and where did Kirlia find such a monstrous talent, either way?' She wondered as her eyes darted from Nial and Hana. But, a moment later a proud smile appeared on Miranda's face.

'Well, my monster is still superior to yours, Kirlia!'

"I have pretty good senses. When I pulled you towards us earlier, I could sense what lay behind your facade." Nial answered nonchalantly. Miranda's eyebrow rose upon hearing what he said to the veiled woman but he ignored his master and continued to speak.

"Either way, that's not important. How about it? Do you want to spar with me?"

How could Nial not want to spar with Hana? She had three Superior Origin rings, which was basically the perfect amount Nial's training partner needed to have.

He had once tried to spar with Mathias, but both Nial and Mathias quickly realized to their dismay that the gap between their strength was simply too high.

The moment Nial used his dark energy, Mathias was bound to lose against him. This was a bit annoying, which was another reason for the two to not spar with each other again.

They knew each other's tactics and holding back was not something Nial or Mathias were good at, either.

"You...want to fight me? Is that really necessary?" Hana asked hesitantly, the eyes behind the veil trembling slightly.

'If something goes wrong, Nial's mind might get harmed...' She thought while nibbling her lower lip nervously. She could not fathom why Nial was so excited to fight her to begin with. And, then his expression changed drastically upon hearing what Hana said, confusing her further.

"Necessary...I guess it is not." He first said in a bit disappointed tone, before he added with a little bit more enthusiasm,

"But it would help both of us to become stronger, I believe... Don't you want to become stronger? Jundra is changing every day, and who knows how long it will take before a hostile race descends in the same way the Elves descended in the Forest of Life?" Nial said whatever came to his mind. He was not great at convincing people to make them listen to him.

At least, that was what he thought about his own conversation skills. In his opinion, he was not the best at socializing, let alone talking someone into doing something they don't want to.

He didn't want to force anyone to do something if they hated the thought of it. Thus, he felt a bit disappointed at Hana's first reaction.

"I-I don't have anything against a spar, but it would be best if we don't use our abilities, at all.

We need to prevent anything bad from happening. That should be fine, right?" Hana asked, still hesitating.

Nial was not actually sure what Hana meant with 'prevent anything bad from happening', but when he recalled seeing the Elves earlier, he could tell that they had been influenced by something or someone.

"The Elves had been affected by your special trait, hadn't they?" Nial suddenly asked, realizing something.

Hana flinched upon hearing him find out the truth so easily, but she nodded her head a moment later. "Y-Yeah..."

"In that case, it's fine. Let's spar once the open class is over, without using our abilities!" Nial said, his mood lit up once again.

'I will never understand him. Wasn't he fully focused on learning about runic armaments before? Now he wants to become stronger again, or what is his plan now?' Mathias wondered, looking at the veiled woman and Nial.

His friend was a little bit weird and would always surprise him with his somewhat spontaneous decisions. However, Mathias felt that it would never get boring with Nial, his weird, and only friend.

'Well, there is also Bella. I wonder how she is doing. It is a little bit weird that she didn't join to see the Elves. She might be busy with something else. As long as she is fine, it will be okay!' Mathias sighed thinking about his other friend, but there was nothing he could do against it.

Bella was independent and she was probably doing something important, somewhere she wanted to be.

With the improved teleportation circles that have been engraved in the shelters, it was much easier to travel around as well.

Thus, the economic situation of the entire human race had improved quite a lot.

And all of that just because the Elves improved their teleportation circle a tiny bit, boosting the teleportation range by 200%!

The government had traded information with the adjustment of the teleportation circle's 'flaws'. This was the real reason for the Elves' support.

However, nobody really cared about this because it made things so much easier and convenient. Traveling between the shelters was now possible because every single teleportation circle in the hall of teleportation teleported them straight to the shelters now, instead of the wilderness.

There was no need to be afraid of traveling and getting lost anymore, and the only burdensome factor was the increase in the demand of mana one teleportation required.

But that was actually no problem for most Originals because they were rich enough to pay for the teleportation fee that had been set up to allow everyone to use the teleportation circle as long as they wanted to.

This service was new, and extremely helpful, even more so, considering that the Forest of Life was also one of the destinations one could teleport to.

More and more people reached the area in front of the Forest of Life. There were many tourists, who merely wanted to see what Elves looked like. They were of a different race, so it was only obvious for them to be interested in their appearance.

Leaving the walls of the shelters was something most civilians never dared to do. Even amongst the Originals, who had awoken their Origin, there were only a few, who dared to leave their shelter and enter the wilderness.

But now, this had changed, to a certain extent. Some civilians were slowly finding the courage to leave their shelter, to look at the situation around them, and see how vast the world truly was.

Seeing the vast world without the obstruction of the shelter walls made everyone's heart itch for adventures.

Whether they wanted to or not, humans began to see hope again, the hope that everything would be fine, that they would be able to retaliate against the forces that had restricted them in the past, and that it would be possible to reclaim the land that had been taken from them.

It was almost as if a new Era was about to start.

But would this Era be one of hope and growth, or bring forth pain and destruction?

**

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