Odyssey of the Blind God

Manifesting more than a dozen earth spikes around him, Mathias shot them toward the group of Goblins.

Enhancing them with the ability to spin around themselves at a blinding speed, Nial turned each spike into a sharp blade that was powerful enough to pierce through the Goblin's hide, flesh, and even bones!

However, Mathias didn't even notice this as he kept manifesting new batches of rotating earth spikes.

They required only little mana to be created, and owing to Mathias' high comprehension of the earth affinity, not much mana was utilized in the creation process of the earth spikes.

This made things much easier when he activated his Innate ability.

[Elemental comprehension] was a great Innate ability that not only passively increased the comprehension of elemental affinities, but it could also be actively used!

When Mathias activated his Innate ability, he was able to use every affinity he owned to a much higher extent, while his mana consumption was nearly halved.

Through this, Mathias was able to manifest more than 20 earth spikes for half the mana consumption and effort!

While Mathias was fighting long-distance to keep the high number of Goblins in check and prevent them from crowding around Nial and Bella, the other two were fighting with all their might.

At first glance, it looked like Nial was fighting in a slow and cruel manner.

However, the moment Bella emerged next to him, she couldn't help but be shocked.

She almost felt dizzy while trying to keep her gaze trained on Nial's movements. He was unpredictable and she couldn't determine what his next move would be.

From a very young age, Bella had learned to read one's movements.

But without her entire focus on Nial's movement, it was impossible for her to determine anything.

This was beyond her expectations. Yet, even more surprising was what Bella could sense in the dark energy from up close.

Not only was the dark energy that Nial wielded extremely lethal to the living beings around him, but it was almost as if the dark energy had a devouring and decaying trait.

Nial's dark energy could weaken other types of energy, and slowly destroy them the longer they were in contact.

Bella was not even sure if her Innate ability [Celestial transformation] was strong enough to allow her to endure the decaying effect of Nial's dark energy for more than 10 minutes.

Because she could clearly sense the dangers that radiated from the dark energy, Bella chose to be extra careful in the fight.

She maintained sufficient distance from Nial, freeing him of the worry of accidentally hurting his friends in the process.

With a simple movement, Bella averted her trajectory, which led her to the outskirts of the tower.

On the other hand, Nial made a beeline for the tower. He knew that the number of Goblins within the building was several times higher than outside.

That was to his advantage because he would be able to make use of his form-changing weapon and the surrounding environment efficiently!

Nial thus entered the tower without any hesitation.

Accurately controlling the range of perception, Nial's Mana Sense could almost perfectly visualize the entire tower.

His Mana Sense could perceive everything up to several hundred meters ahead, but by restricting it, his mind was able to focus on the little details of his surroundings.

Through this, Nial was even able to sense whether mana-empowered traps were located within the tower.

Each floor had its very own system on how to trap and kill intruders. But even then, most Goblins had already activated the said traps, just to die in a painful and cruel manner.

This was in Nial's favor as it allowed him to gain even more benefits from the Goblins.

'They didn't get their hands on every treasure!' Nial suddenly noticed as he sensed quite strong mana fluctuations from the higher floors of the tower.

Earlier, he had already been quite intrigued about the towers around the ruins of the palace, but that was mostly because each tower seemed to inhabit different types of beasts.

Even if all beasts were intelligent and sane enough to understand the value of runic armaments, Nial was pretty sure that they were still lacking behind in comparison to mankind's intelligence.

After all, intelligence was what made the most distinct difference between a 'beast' and a 'rational being'!

The further one developed their mana core, the more intelligent one ought to become.

However, humans and other beings wouldn't clearly notice this change in their intelligence simply because their intelligence was already advanced, which was completely different to beasts as they would first gain 'true' intelligence.

But until mankind would encounter such beasts quite some time would have to pass.

After all, there had yet to appear a beast at the Prometheus rank!

Slaughtering the Goblins without hesitation, Nial passed through the ground floor of the tower without any delay.

Only when he reached the second floor did problems start to occur.

Different types of Goblins had emerged on this floor, such as Goblin Warriors, Goblin Spearman, Lesser Goblin Shamans, and even Hobgoblins.

If his perception was correct, there were even some Goblins with unique mutations amongst them.

Some were physically much stronger than they were supposed to be, and a Lesser Goblin Shaman seemed to own a water affinity!

Because of the water affinity, and the fact that dozens of water jets were shot at him in mere seconds, Nial was under quite some pressure.

But that was quite advantageous because it allowed him to reveal more of his strength.

He didn't have to hold back! Thus, the darkness shrouding the Viper spear slowly detached itself from Nial.

Every second six five-centimeter-long needles of darkness were shot out at the Goblins.

Their velocity was terrifically high and so was their penetration force as he could clearly perceive how the needles pierced the chests of his opponents.

Nial didn't plan on ending their life directly.

Rather, he aimed to use the dark energy of the darkness needles to destroy his opponents from the inside.

In the first seconds of impact, the initial effects would kick in. Their senses would deteriorate such as their sight would get blurred. Simultaneously, their control over the mana in their body was bound to worsen gradually as well.

Only after around 10 seconds would the dark energy start wreaking havoc in their bodies.

But to notice the lethal effects of the dark energy, one had to survive for more than half an hour.

And that was something Nial didn't allow as he hacked and slashed his way through the horde of beasts in a swift manner.

Every beast he had encountered was already weakened due to his highly lethal dark energy which allowed Nial to end their life in a swift and seemingly simple manner.

It looked like he was playing around with his opponents.

At the same time, it was odd as his smooth movements and the cold sweat that trickled down his forehead were a huge contrast to his demeanor.

Nial's back was already drenched in sweat as well, just for him to notice one particular thing he hadn't realized before.

'This is far more exhausting than it had been in the darkness domain!!'

If he could use the dark energy consistently within the darkness domain, utilizing it for 10 minutes straight was already a great achievement.

But right now, almost 20 minutes had passed since Nial had begun controlling the dark energy and he hadn't made a mistake or lost control of it.

And he was even moving with rapid motions, fighting against hundreds of monsters at once.

Goblins may not be powerful, and their defenses were rather weak, but their numbers were way too high for Nial to defeat in a short period.

If he were to keep using the dark energy, more than two hours would have to pass before he would have killed every single of his opponent.

However, that was not feasible with his condition, and his proficiency that seemed to need improvements…even now!

That was also why Nial felt a little bit frustrated, giving him an additional boost in his combat prowess.

He was trying to exceed his limits once again. Unfortunately, it required far more for the Odyssey seed to start pulsating after he passed the primary Trial of the Gods.

Nial was not sure why, but the Odyssey seed seemed to have become more sensible in terms of requirements that were needed for it to pulsate.

Because that was the case, Nial was forced to stop releasing dark energy.

Nial had to keep a check on his mana consumption as well, while the same applied to his Stamina which was rapidly being drained.

Even if the enhancement he received from devouring the heart of the Lesser Titan youngling was great, it didn't enhance his Stamina as much as his physical strength, or the enlargement it had caused to his mana core.

Because that was the case, Nial began to breathe heavily due to the pressure of the consistently utilized dark energy.

His control over the dark energy might have increased, but that didn't mean he was able to adapt to the burden of the dark energy and use it to his heart's content.

As such, Nial was standing at the end of the hallway toward the stairs that lead to the third floor, breathing heavily while staring down at the dozens of Goblins that obstructed his path.

He was tightly clutching the Viper spear and changed his combat stance in order to prepare himself for the next few exhausting minutes.

However, just when he saw that the Goblin Warriors and other types of Goblins charged at him, two dozen spinning earth spikes shot past him.

In the rather narrow hallways, it was impossible to evade all the earth spikes.

Thus, more than 10 Goblins were punctured by the spikes at once before they were flung backward.

This provided more than enough time for Nial to take a few more breaths, while Bella shot past him.

She appeared to be confident and composed as if she had no problem maintaining the use of her Innate ability, at all.

Mathias was exactly the same. Actively using [Elemental comprehension] didn't demand much from his body or mind.

The only thing he had to take care of was his mana consumption and that was not really difficult for him to do.

After all, he didn't overexert his mana under normal circumstances.

Mathias knew that he was not alone as well, which was why he didn't go overboard as he left behind some beasts for Bella to finish off.

Nial was someone who fought better alone.

However, he still had to learn to perfectly control and not be overwhelmed due to his abilities.

This was quite obvious considering that he looked as if he had been fighting for several hours at once.

Meanwhile, Bella was wielding her two shortswords. She emerged in front of her opponents after activating her Innate ability as holy energy circulated through her body, further enhancing her physical strength.

She moved in a rhythm, making it look as if she was dancing.

Yet, even before one could do anything, a bloody feast was unleashed all around her.

Bella didn't hesitate to kill the opponents around her, but that was not something that astonished either Mathias or Nial.

Instead, Mathias was astonished by how graceful Bella looked while killing the beasts around her.

On the other hand, Nial was more baffled by her terrific control of mana, followed by her mana fluctuations to deal additional damage to the opponents she reached.

This was quite weird, but it was also something that provided an opportunity on how to handle one's altered mana, or other energies better.

"Maybe I should tweak everything a little bit? Instead of going all in, small portions of dark energy might be better!"

Nial understood that the experience he gained within the darkness domain was not everything and that he had a lot to learn.

But that was something that allowed him to smile as his understanding deepened once again.

'As long as I can still improve, I shall take every possible opportunity!'

**

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