Odyssey of the Blind God

If he hadn't been familiar with Kark, the little middle-aged man who had just rescued him, Nial wouldn't have been able to feel reassured.

However, because he knew him, Nial was able to take a breath of relief.

And, after hearing about his offer, he quickly nodded his head, barely suppressing a sigh of relief.

"Yes…please!"

He could clearly feel that the black Miasma would have almost been released from his body, but since he was interrupted, it was retracted into his back.

As such, he would die, the moment he rejected the helping hand.

After all, he was not insane, let alone eager to die at the hands of Originals who wanted to take everything from him, including his life.

"Alright, just relax, it will be over soon!" He said in a calming manner before a mace manifested in Kark's hands.

Releasing his mana fluctuations, he enveloped the Originals in front of it with the fluctuations before it enlarged, intimidating the batch of Originals that could only stare at Kark in fear.

"Y-y-you are…Kark Mandra, right?! We…We just wanted to take back what had been stolen from us..this youth stole our weapons and equipment before taking away our dungeon!!"

It was the same female Original who had dragged Nial into the mess, and her bewitching voice bounced off the walls of the alley.

However, it was only a moment later that Kark disappeared from his position, appearing right in front of the women, the maze lifted over his head as he ordered.

"Sleep, you cheap bitch!"

Owing to his mana fluctuations that enveloped everyone, Kark could clearly determine whether he was being lied to or not.

There were people that could lie well, but even they had to train to control their heartbeat, and mana fluctuations while blatantly lying.

As such, Kark immediately knew that the woman had lied to him.

Smashing the maze on her head, blood splattered through the surrounding, and Nial was too stunned to even move as he heard the noise of a cracking skull.

'Did…he just kill her?' He asked himself, as the blood drained off his face. But a moment later, he perceived that she was perfectly fine.

This confused Nial, because his hearing sense was exceptional.

Because of that, something must have gone wrong, but he had no idea what it was.

Perceiving the mana fluctuations and outlines of the woman through his own mana, he figured that she was perfectly fine.

She fainted, but that was the only thing that seemed to have happened to her.

As such, the moment Kark moved, eliminating the threat of the other Originals in the same way, Nial's confusion only intensified further.

He was still unsure about what had happened, but he could clearly tell that there was something unique about the maze.

The moment before it impacted the Originals, it seemed to pass through the physical body of the Originals, hitting them at random places.

This was confusing, and Nial had no idea how he was doing it.

To avoid his mind from getting muddled, he just kept telling himself that it was an effect of the maze, which helped him stay sane and level-headed.

After the Originals had lost their consciousness, Kark simply ignored them as he approached Nial, who was still lying on the ground.

Extending his large hand that was anti-proportional, Kark gave him a smile.

"How about you get up from the ground? It's cold and dirty!"

Reaching for his outstretched hand, Nial grasped it and got up.

"Thank you for helping me. I'm not sure how I would have survived without your help!"

The last statement of Nial was not true, because he was fully aware of what his black Miasma would have done to the Originals.

From the looks of it, Kark seemed to think the same as he laughed before questioning,

"Do you really think so? In my opinion, I saved them from dying in this dark and dirty alley!"

Flinching upon hearing Kark's words, Nial took a few moments before he was able to smile lightly.

He refrained from commenting, and it was only when the pain spreading from his thigh overwhelmed him that he twitched, and a painful grimace appeared on his face.

Grasping the arrow, he attempted to envelop it with a trace of mana in order to pull it out more easily.

Unfortunately, there was not a single particle of mana left in his entire body, forcing him to pull the arrow out of his thigh.

Clenching his teeth, he tore the arrow out of his thigh before throwing it to the ground.

A moment later, his entire leg began to tremble, and he could barely take a single potion out of his spatial ring before a fresh bolt of pain shot up from the wound.

Without any painkillers, Nial could only endure the pain, and wait until the injury would heal.

With the supply of enough potions, this would probably take only a few days.

However, this meant that he would be rendered incapable of entering any kind of dungeon for several days while working out was bound to become extremely difficult, or even close to impossible.

This caused him to sigh deeply as he mumbled,

"Another obstacle to overcome…healing this frustrating wound…it's not like I have lots of time left…Well, at least I'm alive!"

Nial's mind was filled with countless thoughts and he had just blurted out a few of them before realizing that he had said them out loud, instead of solely thinking about the mess he had entered in his head.

Lifting his body, he bowed once again to Kark Mandra, who was calmly standing in front of Nial, looking at him with a glint of interest in his eyes.

"Once again, thank you very much for saving me. My name is Nial Orin, we met each other earlier in the Originals association a few weeks ago if I remember correctly. But you probably don't recall me, so… it's nice meeting you!"

Nial seemed genuinely thankful for Kark's arrival, which was only obvious.

It was forbidden to kill others inside the shelter, and Nial didn't really plan to kill other humans, to begin with.

If Nial were to accidentally do something to others just because he was unable to control the black miasma of the Curse [Hodur's Heir] or the darkness of his Odyssey seed, he would certainly regret it later!

"I remember you, kiddo. Nice to meet you again, I'm Kark Mandra, and behind you is my small but exquisite team!"

Turning around, even if it didn't make a difference to his senses, Nial perceived that five other Originals had finally arrived near them.

"It's already over? What a shame…Couldn't you have let me fight them?"

The voice sounded extremely young, but Nial perceived that it came from the direction of the voluptuous woman.

She had shoulder long hair, and seemed to be nearly as powerful as Kark, yet the battle intent she released was frightening.

None of the present Originals were as strong as Master Junades, Librarian Mara, or Kira.

However, it didn't mean that they were weak.

On the contrary, everyone present was quite powerful, which was oddly reassuring as he asked something that confused him.

"I can tell that they're powerful…but exquisite?"

This simple question caused a few of the Originals to laugh lightly as one of the taller men answered him in a gentle tone.

​ "We are just a bunch of random people with all kinds of abilities, but our boss likes to call us exquisite, don't mind that!"

Nodding his head, Nial returned the smile, while taking another recuperation potion out of his spatial ring, in addition to a bandage.

He wanted to tend to his wound because he felt that dirt must have entered it and could lead to an infection.

They were in one of the dirtiest alleys inside the central district.

As such, he wanted to avoid the risk of the wound festering into something uglier.

However, when the youngest member of Kark's exquisite group saw the wound she quickly approached him. A one-meter-long staff with a crystal embedded in it manifested in her hand.

Nial had barely torn his pants to tend to his wound while the young woman had already emerged next to him. She bent down, and pushed away his hand before inserting some mana into her wand.

"Don't move, or you might make it worse!"

Getting bossed around was not really something Nial had hoped for, but he simply accepted everything the young woman was doing.

Her mana had a faint transmutation that made him feel extremely calm. The soothing sensation of solely sensing her mana further away calmed him down.

As such, the moment she catalyzed her mana through the wand that targeted his wound, he felt a sudden cold wash over him, soothing the pain that spread through his entire leg.

The cold replaced his pain, and it was just a second later that the cold feeling was also dispelled.

A soothing warmth reached him, causing a faint tingling sensation around the area of the wound the arrow had caused.

However, that was not where the soothing feeling stopped. It spread through his entire body, and eased his tension, calming him in a matter of seconds.

This made him believe that the cold somehow cleansed his body, while the warmth initiated the healing process, accelerating it tremendously.

It was a weird but miraculous feeling.

Nial could only sense how energy was seeping from his body while his nutrition was being used up.

He felt that this was extremely interesting, but also quite dangerous as he was not sure what would happen if he were to have too little nutrition.

Thus, he could only keep his quiet, and hope that the woman knew what she was doing.

Meanwhile, Nial's focus was solely on the women, and the few types of energy she used to heal him, questioning what kind of ability, or possibly abilities, she bound to her mana core in order to have a purification and healing property in her mana.

However, after giving it some more thought, he felt that it had been her wand that caused these effects, which made him feel intrigued about the wand she wielded.

Yet, before he could ask any of the questions that filled his entire mind, Kark began to speak up,

"Earlier, you said that you don't have much time anymore. Are you preparing yourself to apply for a University, an Academy, or possibly a training camp for the military? I'm just curious, so ignore me if that's too personal for you to answer!"

It looked like he was interested in Nial, which was not really challenging to figure out.

Nial himself had already sensed something about the dwarf-like man as he had doubted that he wouldn't have been able to defeat the Originals that were still unconscious.

As such, Kark must have seen the black miasma, which caused Nial to feel like he had to answer honestly.

After all, an obvious lie wouldn't allow him to gain Kark's trust.

"I got recommended to the Teradan military camp, and I awakened my origin a few weeks ago…so I'm in a bit of a hurry. That's why I'm bothered about my injury!"

Just as Nial finished his sentence, the soothing warmth in his thigh disappeared as the young woman got up from the ground.

"I'm done. It might itch a little bit, but there won't be any issues. You were lucky that only your flesh was pierced through and it didn't reach your bone!"

Bowing deeply to the young woman, he thanked her and meant to ask a few questions, but he was interrupted by Kark once again.

"Is the recommendation from…the government, the higher authorities of the military, or an organization?!"

He was genuinely curious, which was clearly visible in his voice, and even the other Originals drew closer, interested in what Nial had just said.

They didn't expect the youth they had just saved to be worthy of receiving a recommendation for the Teradan military camp.

The camp was not to be taken lightly, and Nial didn't look strong, at least to them.

Furthermore, he was only at the 1st Origin rank.

"Oh, I was recommended by someone I know, not the government or anything like that!"

Answering honestly, Nial quickly realized that the others were even more interested in him than before as almost everyone began to speak at the same time.

His ears began to ache painfully upon hearing the loud voices of five people speaking to him while being less than two meters away from him.

As such, he groaned, while firmly placing his hands on his ears to shut out the noises.

His act made the others fall silent as they looked at him in confusion, while the young woman and Kark looked at him with interest.

'Does he have sensitive ears…or is it more?'

Intrigued by multiple factors that revolved around the individual Nial Orin, Kark presented him with another offer.

"How about you join our team until you depart?"

[A/N: If you like the support me with golden tickets]