Odyssey of the Blind God

Bella understood a lot more about the runic armaments than both Nial and Mathias did.

Thus, she was able to come up with multiple theories about the existence of the elemental rings and the other unique armaments.

But even then, it was impossible for her to understand the complexities associated with them thoroughly.

This was obvious as Bella was not only young but also in an environment that was tense.

The time she had spent on coming up with some theories was quite less yet her thoughts were not wildly off the mark.

Meanwhile, Nial grew so interested in what Bella had come up with that all the sleep and drowsiness were driven out of his eyes in an instant.

Instead of sleeping, he discussed quite a few things with Bella, while waiting for Mathias to wake up.

After their friend got up, they decided on what to do next before leaving along with the first rays of sunlight.

Their plan was quite simple- to rush to the Teradan military camp and inform the authorities about the runic Armaments.

The most likely cause they had in mind was that a new type of dungeon had emerged on the nameless island.

Bella believed that stronger, more intelligent and advanced Goblins emerged from this dungeon and passed on their knowledge and teachings to their kind inhabiting the island.

None of the three could be certain about that theory as even their combined knowledge was shallow.

Because of that, they began to advance through the forest, searching for the Teradan military camp as they believed that the Instructors would be able to provide more insights.

Even if the Instructors were oblivious to what was going on with the runic armaments, they could, at the least, contact the government to initiate an emergency plan.

Nial didn't believe that an emergency plan was necessary. According to him, it would be better for the Instructor to simply annihilate the Goblins on the island before doing anything else.

The Goblins were far too dangerous for the participants of the military camp, but for Originals like Junades, and the other instructors, they were but tiny, weak ants.

From the way Bella spoke about it, the strongest individuals of humanity had already advanced to a higher rank way beyond the Origin rank and were progressing towards becoming existences that couldn't be compared to ordinary humans.

Mara and Kira had already informed him of such Originals when they were helping him prepare for the camp.

However, during that time, he didn't pay much attention to it as Nial was sure that knowing more about them would only make him feel worse about himself.

His mana core's potential was simply too bad, and he could only enter the 5th Origin rank as per the assessment conducted by the Originals association.

As such, Nial knew that he shouldn't bother about higher ranks if he was already struggling to be on par with his peers in terms of rank and grading!

Hence he consoled his mind telling himself that the higher ranks were out of his reach for now.

But this was not the case for both Bella and Mathias, whose talent was far higher than Nial's.

Their knowledge of the ranking system was far better, and they could roughly gauge the strength of their Instructors.

Bella knew the most as she had been taught by Instructor Kassandra.

She knew that her teacher was very knowledgeable, even if Bella didn't want to acknowledge it.

After all, who would want to believe that a pervert, combat maniac, and sadist was one of the most intelligent humans he or she knew?

From a young age, Bella had believed that this was just wrong, and the thought clashed with the image of an ideal Original in her mind.

But even then, she had to accept it right now!

"Let's go up the hill right there. Even if the Teradan military camp won't be there, we should hopefully be able to see a few glimpses of the camp from that height!"

Making use of nature to their advantage, they climbed up the hill that was much taller than they initially expected.

However, when they reached the top of the hill just a few hours later, they sighed in relief.

The height was good enough to allow them an aerial view of the island that spanned up to several kilometers in all directions.

Had the Teradan military camp been easy to find, it wouldn't be their first task as participants of the camp.

With that in mind, Bella and Mathias looked around intently for the tiniest clues to find it.

They came across quite a few clues of the interference of intelligent beings, such as chopped trees, terraforming, and the destruction of the surrounding.

However, not a single clue indicated that the camp was nearby.

Everything they saw was likely to have been created by the other participants, and powerful beasts.

This caused Mathias and Bella's spirits to dampen but they continued to search through their surroundings.

Meanwhile, Nial's face had a deep frown while he released his mana perception before inserting some of his mana into it to further expand his range.

'Not a single beast…'

Since they had begun to climb up the hill, Nial had been unable to sense a single beast roaming around them.

Not even the smell of or sounds of beasts reached him, let alone the vibrations of any beasts from the underground that his senses would otherwise pick could be sensed.

'Is there any kind of overly powerful beast hibernating on the hill?'  He wondered, not sure about what was going on.

The entire situation made him feel suspicious about the existence of the hill, worsened by the utter lack of beasts.

Every single plant around him was flourishing, and overflowing with vigor, owing to the density of mana that increased the higher they climbed.

As such, many beasts would love to be high up, where they were.

'Wait…more mana…that means we have more dungeons around here!'

From the moment they had arrived on the nameless island, Nial had been feeling that something was off.

And now he knew why he felt like this!

'Our planet…doesn't release mana naturally. Doesn't that mean that there are countless dungeon portals on the nameless island?'

Nial knew that his theory was correct. Jundra was unable to release mana actively.

This was something the sisters Kira and Mara had explained to him over and over again.

It was also the reason why the sisters had 'collected' a multitude of Rookie ranked dungeon portals in their front yard, to begin with.

"Ehm…guys…"

Nial said after a few moments as he sensed something.

The Viper spear manifested in his hand, and he began to circulate mana through his body.

Yet, even then, the others were too focused on straining their eyes in order to find clues to the Teradan military camp.

They didn't hear him, and neither did they sensed the approaching danger, trusting that Nial would warn them.

"GUYS!!" he hissed, making use of mana to enhance his voice reached the two other members of his team nearly instantaneously.

At once both of them turned around and stared at Nial in unison, only to see that Nial was focusing on a particular direction.

There was a small path leading further away from the hill.

However, because there was a large wall, blocking the view, the group of three had ignored the path before, believing that they had found the best spot to take a good look at the surrounding area.

"I can sense a few mana fluctuations five hundred meters ahead, fighting against each other!! There is also something big and very strong!"

Under normal circumstances, the radius at which Nial was able to sense mana fluctuations didn't exceed 300 meters.

And this was after inserting mana in his [Mana Perception(poorest)] ability.

But right now, owing to the density of mana that surrounded him and the entire area around the hill, it was possible for him to get a glimpse of mana fluctuations farther than his normal range!

Nial had yet to share the realization about the fact that mana reached every nook and cranny on the nameless island.

He was not sure why, but he felt that this was far less important than the fighting beings ahead.

It was almost as if he was being pulled towards the location as if someone was calling for him.

Because of that, he didn't spend a lot of time thinking anymore, and simply let his instincts take over.

Pushing his feet off the ground, Nial shot ahead without even telling Bella and Mathias what he wanted to do.

He just left their side, forcing them to follow suit because they could tell that he was behaving quite weirdly.

Knowing that Nial's senses were manifold higher than their own, the two decided to trust him.

Thus, within a few seconds, they fell in steps beside him and prepared themselves to fight alongside their friend.

All of them wore some of the runic armaments, giving them an additional layer of protection, and an increment in their combat prowess.

Because of that, their mind was at ease as they knew it would be possible for them to flee when everything else would fail.

But even then, Mathias couldn't help but feel a little bit restless.

'Nial is not someone who acts reckless…even while fighting it looks like he always has a plan…'

It was obvious that Mathias didn't know everything about Nial.

They had become friends just two days ago, after all.

However, even then, it was possible to understand the mindset of someone else, or at least a portion of it, by spending all the time with someone else for a few days!

Thus, Nial's current behavior was odd, which only he seemed to mind.

This became even more obvious as he looked over to Bella, whose eyes were gleaming brightly, almost as if she knew that something exciting was about to happen.

'She is a battle maniac, isn't she?' He could only wonder before sighing deeply.

'Why did I join these two, to begin with?'

Smiling lightly at this thought, Mathias also his reasons for forming a team with them.

But never would he allow anyone to get to know what was on his mind.

After all, it was his opinion, his secret, and he would never allow someone to understand everything about him…not even his dearest people…too many secrets revolved around him, and even Mathias was scared about revealing them!

Most of the secrets were something even his father didn't know of, and this was all for a good reason.

Who would still love their son, if they knew that he had died long ago and now the body was just a vessel for some other soul to wander around, claiming itself to be their son, to begin with?

Shaking his head, Mathias tried to dispel his anxious thoughts and worries at once.

Unfortunately, this was not easy, and only the thought that Nial was acting weirdly gave him the necessary distraction to get his act together.

Reaching Nial, the three of them ran together for a few seconds.

However, all of a sudden both Mathias and Bella struggled to continue running as their eyes widened.

Both of them were staring in a particular direction, in front of a huge crevice that spread through the mountain wall ahead of them.

"Just what the hell is this?!" Bella asked, forgetting to act in her character as she stared blankly at the huge human-like existence ahead.

Nial didn't know what kind of existence they were facing ahead either, but if he were to give it a guess, he would compare it to an armored giant, or even a Titan!

The beast ahead was powerful enough to cause tremors in the ground, sending warning signals to Nial that an encounter with it would be too dangerous.

But even then, it was not possible for him to halt in his tracks because he sensed that multiple groups of humans were ahead.

All of them were fighting desperately and using their entire strength to not join the four corpses that were already lying on the ground.