Odyssey of the Blind God

"I wonder if I can message them from Jundra…" Nial mumbled, holding a high-quality messenger crystal in his hand.

Numerous runic constellations were engraved on the messenger crystal, and they were supposed to require only mana to be used seamlessly throughout three or four galaxies.

Nial was not exactly sure where Jundra was located in the Universe, let alone how far Elvian and Ximatra were located from each other.

Thus, he couldn't even be sure if it was possible to message Ophelia if he ever wanted to meet the Draco race.

Nial was just making his final preparations to leave Yggdrasil. He had stored a bunch of books that were directly related to forging techniques, concoction techniques, and other engraving techniques from races such as Rulikan Dwarves, Mechalins, and many more.

The Elves used only their techniques because they were the most suitable and compatible with them. The techniques the Elves used were not necessarily great for him, which was why Nial ended up with all the books he was allowed to take with himself.

None of the Elves needed them, which was why they had been sitting on the shelves of the library, collecting dust until now. Nial would make much better use of them.

Nonetheless, he couldn't help but keep thinking about Ophelia and her unique engraving technique. Ever since Nial had clearly visualized her Celtic Shield with [Mana Sense], he had been dying to replicate it. But for that, he had to comprehend the technique behind what he visualized which was a big hurdle.

In order to comprehend everything, he would have to get a better understanding of the basics first.

But despite thinking that it may be for the best to message Ophelia right now, it was not necessarily helpful to message her once and ghost her afterward.

Nial didn't know when he would return to Elvian, after all.

'It would be pretty darn interesting to challenge her right now…My affinity toward mana is much better now…a Lowest Tier-2 Runic Lightsaber is no issue for me anymore…I guess,' Nial thought, trying to find excuses that allowed him to feel better.

He was certain that Ophelia had definitely become an even stronger Runicier in these past three months and that it would be impossible for him to defeat her as Runicier, not just now but maybe never.

His pride was hurt but he tried to make it seem as if he was perfectly fine. Instead of allowing his defeat in the Runicier tournament to crush him, Nial decided to be the person, who would learn, adapt and overcome his struggles.

He was not ready to be defeated a second time, and he worked on himself as much as possible to make sure that nobody would ever be able to defeat him when a life and death battle or challenge awaited him.

With that thought in mind, he activated various runic armaments, and stepped through the portal in the Holy Hall, without looking back.

Master Crevian and a bunch of other Elves, who had intentionally suppressed the advancement of their mana core's rank followed Nial quickly, readying themselves for the horror trip through to Jundra.

Meanwhile, the Royal Princess and many other High Elves looked at the situation ahead of them with a deep frown.

"Jundra will awaken in a few months…have all preparation been completed?" The Royal Princess asked with an imposing voice. Her expression was stiff and the atmosphere turned gloomy.

"Your majesty…are you sure that you want to do this?" One of the High Elves asked, looking at the Royal Princess in concern.

"If I don't want us to get overthrown after the Origin reawakens, we will have to be ready, just like everyone else…I just hope that the Origin awakens slowly, and does not erupt like a volcano completely….otherwise…" The Royal Princess was not even able to finish her sentence as she involuntarily shuddered.

She didn't even want to imagine the worst-case scenario. Princess Evalyne was just about to turn around when a golden portal manifested in the middle of the Holy Hall.

A tall female Elf emerged from the portal, wearing a full set of armor with the highest quality. She looked at the Royal Princess without a change in her expression as she spoke in a clipped tone,

"Daughter, we have unwelcome guests, get out and greet them!"

Princess Evalyne hadn't expected her mother to appear out of nowhere. She hadn't been in Yggdrasil for quite a while, so her return was a bit surprising. She had many questions but couldn't ask anything as her mother stared sharply at her.

"There is no need to greet us," The voice of a man echoed through the holy hall all of a sudden and a purple-skinned Elf emerged out of the shadows within the room.

He flashed a smile at the Elven Empress and her daughter before he bowed deeply.

"I hope it's not a problem that I let myself in," The purple Elf said with the same disgusting smile on his face, just for a black-skinned Elf to emerge next to the purple Elf.

"Shut it, Mikas," The Nightshadow Elf snapped at the Dark Elf, who turned silent at once.

"Greetings your Majesty," The Nightshadow Elf turned to the Empress before he bowed a little. His expression was unchanged and he pointed in the direction of the portal before his voice changed at once as he released a suffocating aura.

The Holy Hall began to tremble and the Nightshadow Elf's voice echoed through the room.

"Your majesty…how come you missed telling us, and all the others about the Origin's reawakening and that you have a permanent portal to it? I hope you just forgot to inform us about it, and that you didn't do so intentionally!!" The Nightshadow Elf spoke coldly, while releasing a set of pitch-black tang knives from his back.

Simultaneously, dozens of Nightshadow Elves emerged from the darkness all around the Holy Hall, with unsheathed weapons, ready to fight to their death.

They were the Nightshadow Elves. Created by the darkness that embraced them when they were at their lowest, feeding onto their hurt and insecurities and fueling them with hatred.

They had evolved from the Dark Elves and were more cunning and violent. They were desperate to snatch back their glory and would not mind sacrificing themselves to retrieve what had once been taken from them; their spot in the rows of the Elven, at the top!

**

Time passed in a blur for Nial because he focused his mind on reading through one of the many books he had visualized in his mind.

It was one of the more complex books, which was why he took his time slowly comprehending everything.

'The connection between Origin crystals, Mana, and runic constellations, how intriguing…' Nial thought when he got to know various new things. All of them interested him a lot and he couldn't help but feel a bit sad when his trip through space ended rapidly.

He emerged in the middle of the Forest of Life and deactivated all his runic armaments. Afterward, he unleashed his range of perception and the passive augmentation of [Mana Sense] to perceive the entire Forest of Life.

Many things had changed, more Elves lived in the Forest of Life by now, and the Forest of Life had expanded and flourished to a great degree.

The mana it could release was much more than before and the Forest's vigor felt much stronger as well but Nial was not impressed by that anymore.

There was no way that the Forest of Life could compare to the highly intense vigor and the high quality and quantity of the purest mana Nial had ever sensed.

'It's obvious why we need so much longer to create Origin rings than the Elves,' Nial thought lightly, shaking his head before he disappeared from his location.

The Forest of Life opened a path especially for Nial, and he was not the slightest bit obstructed wherever he went. Even if the Forest of Life didn't know that Nial had procured the augmented Dryad Princess' tear, it could sense that Nial had been accepted by Yggdrasil and the Fairy Queen.

This was a big change from before and the Forest of Life submitted itself to Nial without resistance. Nial was not sure what was going on but he was glad that he could pass through the large forest so quickly.

He first went to his wooden hut to change his clothes. He couldn't sense Miranda, Mathias, or his parents right now but he was not too worried.

After he changed into a new set of clothes, Nial shot in the direction of the newly constructed shelter. It was the biggest shelter mankind had ever worked on since the first dungeon portals had manifested, and that was only possible because humans were more confident in surviving.

The shelter was not in a well-protected area, but it was openly visible to everyone. This was supposed to be dangerous if there weren't any powerful Prometheus Originals, or Prometheus Elves, who could help out if something troublesome were to happen.

However, the chances that something bad would happen had decreased drastically during the last few months. The human Originals had grown much stronger, and were capable of conquering more powerful dungeons than before and by joining their forces with the Elven, it was even possible to create forces that could eradicate the biggest threats all over the other shelters.

There had always been certain beasts that had been extremely hard to kill, even for Prometheus humans, and it was only now that they gained the necessary strength to defeat them.

The humans within the other shelters were thankful for the help they received but they were a bit worried. All the talented and strong Originals left their side to be close to the Forest of Life and its high mana density.

This was only obvious to accelerate becoming stronger, but it was troublesome for the normal citizens, who were worried about the protection of their city.

Fortunately, certain groups had emerged out of the shadows and were finally able to show off their might after all the powerful groups had chosen to focus on the development of the shelters next to the Forest of Life.

Some of the other shelters were now solely protected by smaller groups, who received status and power from citizens because they protected them.

Nial found this to be quite interesting when he heard many Originals gossiping in low voices inside the new shelter. The construction progressed rapidly because numerous Originals were helping out, and Nial made his way to one particular piece of land; his land.

His land was much bigger than Nial had expected. It was located near the central district of the new, huge shelter, where more than three billion residents ought to live in the future.

A huge mansion had been constructed on the plot of land he owned, which was even larger than Miranda's mansion in Liondra. Additionally, an even bigger workshop where runic armaments were constructed had been set up.

Currently, nobody was in the workshop that covered more than half of Nial's land, and he averted his attention to the house.

Entering the mansion his parents seemed to have bought, Nial smiled brightly as he entered the room where all the people he had visualized before were in.

"Hey guys, I'm back!"