Odyssey of the Blind God

For the next few hours, Nial was unable to think straight.

While Bella changed her clothes behind a small partition she had set up to prevent anyone from peeking, he began to test out a few things.

Meanwhile, Mathias was taking a shower, brushing his teeth, and trying to prevent himself from going insane due to the events of the last few days.

As such, Nial received a short period in which he could test out manifesting the darkness portal before letting it disperse once again.

He was trying his best to keep his calm, but the moment the darkness portal emerged in front of him, Nial froze in place.

'It's really working… I can materialize this weird portal…'

Only by inserting mana in the crimson outlines of the 'I' was it possible for him to manifest the portal.

This meant that it was not only Nial's doing but mostly a reaction to his supply of mana.

But even then, it was quite hard to keep his calm.

Fortunately, the portal seemed to be harmless as he couldn't feel a dungeon portal's mana fluctuations.

They were unique, and the portal in front of him was just something that used his mana and thus also his mana fluctuations.

Because of that, neither Bella nor Mathias noticed that anything was off.

Owing to their high sensitivity towards mana, they could sense that Nial was doing something, but they had no idea what it was.

And the moment they took a look, the darkness portal had already disappeared.

In the short period where he could test a few things, Nial even reached for the portal and touched it.

His fingers lightly brushed its surface but nothing seemed to be off, and he felt eager to jump through completely.

However, instead of doing so, Nial felt that it would be odd to disappear just like that.

As such, he wanted to make a few more experiments, and wait until the military gave them updates on what would happen to the Teradan military camp.

It was almost lunchtime when the first piece of news reached them, issued through the notification sender of the Originals bracelet that everyone wore.

[Hello dear participants of the Teradan military camp. I hope everyone can hear me!]

The voice of a calm, middle-aged man came from the Originals bracelet, reaching out to every single participant of the military camp.

[First of all, I hope everyone is doing well, and nobody is facing any major issues after the dungeon breakout. Most of you might not know what I am talking about, but I want to say that all of you did a great job in protecting your own life, whether inside or outside the base!]

After the middle-aged man said this, the Originals bracelet turned quiet for a few seconds before the man began to speak once again.

[Because not every participant has reached the military camp yet, and due to the gruesome battle that we are still recovering from, the next mission will be given out after one week of rest! Everyone shall recuperate from the events of the last few days.

The Originals, who sustained serious injuries, please stay patient, our Medics will tend to your injuries!]

It was not a surprising decision to let the young Originals rest for a few days.

After all, the military had to send out various reports owing to the losses they had faced, because of the various incidents that occurred so far, and to request reinforcement.

Even if it was not for the sake of the military camp, they required reinforcement to hold the fort of the hidden basement on the nameless island and prevent further mishaps.

As such, they requested the reinforcement of more Soldiers, including powerhouses, and Scientists that were ought to research the issues at hand.

It was unusual and unexpected for a total of a hundred dungeons to break out at the same time, all of them on the nameless island at that.

There had to be a reason for the sudden breakout and the scientists were supposed to figure out what kind of cause lead to the dungeon breaks.

If it was something natural, the government wanted to know how to be informed about it beforehand in the future, and if it was something intentionally done, they would try to figure out what, or who had caused the dungeon breaks and punish them.

Nial could think of a few more reasons why a sudden break was initiated, apart from the fact that they wanted to allow all originals to be fully healed once the second mission was to start.

He didn't even think about the possibility of the military camp being canceled because this would prevent the young generation from understanding the dangers of reality, and just how much stronger they had to become in order to survive in the wilderness.

And there were many people who had thoughts just like Nial in many regards, only for Bella to have a slightly different opinion about the speech of the basement's leader.

"I guess that is a disguised mission. They want to test out if we're really resting after witnessing just how weak we were against the forces of the dungeon beasts, or if our motivation to become stronger has been strengthened after what we've witnessed!"

Bella said this rather nonchalantly, feeling that it was obvious for it to be a hidden mission.

However, Nial was not so sure about that.

He thought that the few days of rest were more of a mental healing period for the young Originals who had never witnessed something as terrifying as the dungeon breaks.

The reality check they had to face, understanding that they were extremely weak, and that even mankind's current position in the race to absolute control over the planet was far behind than expected, should have hit quite a few young Originals deeply, mentally more than physically.

Because of that, the resting period could be considered as both, a hidden test for a few individuals who might have faced similar situations in the past already and to see if the new generation of Originals was able to overcome the pressure and dangers of reality.

But Nial had too many thoughts running through his mind to start a debate with Bella.

As such, he simply agreed to her before he began wondering.

'Should I just tell them about the darkness portal? Bella seems to know much more about the unique conditions of certain Originals…'

Nial was not sure if a situation similar to his had ever occurred in mankind's history, but if he could ask someone about unique situations, then it was Bella.

She might not be that old yet, but oddly enough, Nial felt as if Bella might know something about his current condition.

Deep inside him, he was also able to tell that he was just overreacting and that his mind was simply making him worry about something that might not even happen for sure.

With that in mind, he sighed deeply, making both Bella and Mathias turn to look at him before he unveiled a portion of his secret.

Clearing his throat he said,

"I am not sure if this is the right moment to speak about this, but I have a weird feeling about something. Ever since the end of the dungeon break when I was fighting alone, and was separated from everyone, something changed about me.

And I'm not sure if that has to do with my Curse, or if it is something else…"

There were a few more things Nial wanted to say, but instead of beating around the bush, he manifested a plate-sized darkness portal.

He didn't supplement more mana in the 'I' stroke to allow it to enlarge but kept it at a small size.

This was something he decided to do while questioning himself about how to explain the situation to his friends.

In the end, he simply thought that the small darkness portal was less dangerous owing to its size.

Nial even added the curse to make it seem as if he had truly no idea what was going on, which was, somehow, the case.

Staring at the darkness portal, Bella and Mathias quickly noticed that it had Nial's mana fluctuations.

As such, it was not a dungeon portal, which caused Mathias to sigh in relief.

But Bella on the other hand was quite excited which was evident if they looked at her eyes that were gleaming brightly as she asked,

"Are you sure that this has nothing to do with an innate ability? I heard that sometimes portals appear if an innate ability is about to become stronger?

To be honest, I already thought you had an innate ability, but I didn't want to bother you too much about it.

Mind if I take a closer look at it?"

Because Bella had an Innate ability as well, she had been taught a lot about them.

Kassandra had given her a lot of information about Innate abilities, including the fact that there were many different ways for them to undergo major advancements.

It was publicly known that Innate abilities would grow and enhance as their host advances further in strength.

However, only a few knew that powerful Innate abilities required more than just the growth of their host to develop further.

Minor changes could happen just like that, but that was not the case for big changes.

'But my mana perception just got stronger…and my innate ability is not exactly normal owing to the Odyssey seed's influence, and…its existence.'

Nial was glad to have asked his friends about what was going on because Bella could provide him with quite a few pieces of information and clear his confusion to some extent.

Matthias hadn't known the information Bella shared, as well.

Thus, his first reaction of astonishment and a slight trace of fear changed to curiosity.

He wanted to get to know more, which was why he stared at Bella with gleaming eyes, instead of focusing on the darkness portal that disappeared only moments later.

"If you can manifest the portal whenever you want, through some sort of 'door', which your innate ability creates, you should be fine. This 'door' will only open after you meet the requirements to undergo a major improvement in your Innate ability."

Though she had told him things he didn't know earlier, he was still clueless of what to do next.

This led her to think that Nial's situation might be a little bit different compared to others.

As such, she decided to prevent him from overthinking as she added.

"Either way, shall we go out and sell our goods, first? I think I heard some originals talking about the beast-controlling necklaces… and we wanted to sell all of them for the highest profit, right?"

Smiling brightly, she averted her focus from the dungeon portal, before leaving their room.

Yet, just when she crossed the doorframe, Bella couldn't help but point out one last thing.

"About this darkness portal of yours…It's probably not that bad, just try it out if you have a good feeling about it. If you don't feel like giving it a try, just ignore it.

Just do what you think is correct, and don't regret it later…because regret is the worst…"

**

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