Odyssey of the Blind God

"What do you mean by 'score'?"

Mathias looked at Nial in confusion. He had yet to understand the reason for the junior Soldiers to have been stationed at the base within the ancient ruins dungeon.

This told Nial once again that Mathias was rather simple-minded and that his friend was quite naive as well.

"I think what Nial means is that you can consider the 'protection fee' and the appearance of the junior Soldiers as a part of the Teradan military camp's mission."

Bella's answer was quite simple. In response to her, Mathias nodded his head in a faint notion before he turned his head in Nial's direction.

"A hidden test was it? So…the team of Originals that was in front of us failed?"

He wanted to know what was on Nial's mind, but his friend just shrugged his shoulders.

"Well, the test was quite obviously not very well hidden, right?" Nial asked him a counter-question before thinking something through.

"But I don't actually believe that the military will let the Originals in front of us fail. They might just get a low evaluation score. Of course, I don't know that for sure."

In Mathias' opinion, Nial was way too calm right now. Maybe, it was just his misconception but Mathias believed that his friend might have already gauged that something like this would happen.

Even if Bella could now understand the situation in front of her, this had not been the case at the very beginning.

Otherwise, she would have initiated the fight against the junior Soldiers even before Nial.

Mathias could not say that Bella was overly ambitious or anything like that, but from what he understood about her, she hated those who abused their power.

That was also why Mathias had been so astonished that Nial was the first to move instead of Bella.

'Maybe she was worried about getting us in trouble with her?' He thought while he kept looking at Nial.

His friend was extremely calm as the dark energy that had surrounded him was retracted.

Nial used quite a bit of his mana but he didn't look exhausted.

Rather, owing to the high mana density within the ancient ruins dungeon, Nial was able to replenish the used-up mana rather quickly.

"Shall we leave?" Nial simply asked, unable to act as if he couldn't sense Mathias' stare on him.

"Eh…yeah, ok." Mathias replied as his gaze flitted to the unconscious junior Soldiers.

"...but shouldn't we do something about them?"

He was a little bit worried that something bad might happen.

Even if there were not that many beasts in the surrounding area, there were still a handful.

They could have heard the commotion of their battle, and sensed an opportunity to kill the unconscious junior Soldiers as easy prey if they were to be left behind.

Nial just smiled dryly, understanding that Mathias was overthinking.

"What should we do to them? Should we rob them?" Teasing Mathias, Nial's smile grew wider as he sensed Mathias' shock.

Meanwhile, Bella just shook her head before intervening in the discussion that was about to turn even more a waste of time than before.

"The junior Soldiers from within the base should have heard our fight already, so let's leave. There is literally no reason to pay any more attention to the unconscious junior Soldiers!"

Bella walked around the earthen walls and unconscious junior Soldiers once she finished speaking.

Nial followed her at once, showing no concern about the possibility of some beasts attacking the base, while Mathias could only sigh deeply.

'She is probably right, I'm just overthinking again…'

He quickly rushed after Nial and Bella and not even half a minute passed before Mathias saw that other junior Soldiers rushed to the gate they had entered through.

This calmed Mathias' mind, and a faint smile emerged on his face as he kept looking at both of his friends.

'They're really weird…but in a good way!'

For a very long time, Mathias had felt lonely and desperate owing to his unique circumstances.

It was not normal to reincarnate in a world that was somewhat modern but reigned by sword and magic.

While the technological advancement on Jundra was similar to the place he hailed from, Mathias could only cower at the mere thought of dungeons, beasts, and the fact that one could wield mana to achieve things that ought to be impossible.

The dangers of Jundra had been one reason for Mathias to be a petrified soul, even after receiving the opportunity to turn over his life by reincarnating as a little baby.

But the dangers that swept through Jundra were only one of many reasons for him to be unable to make friends.

Only when he had been told to enter the Teradan military camp to become stronger did his personality change.

Maybe Nial and Bella didn't understand how important their influence had been on him, but Mathias knew just how much relaxed he was only to feel their presence right next to him.

And that was something he was thankful for. They didn't try to act overly friendly with him and let him be his own self.

If they did not like something, both Nial and Bella would tell him that. There was no need to hold back anything from them, even more so because Nial was exposing one secret of his after another.

This may seem like a foolish tactic for some people, but Mathias liked this way of Nial's thinking.

He was rather simple, yet also somewhat mysterious.

The three friends had not spoken about their families, their background, and so on but from the way all of them acted, Nial seemed to belong to a humble background and a doting family.

On the other hand, Bella was more disciplined and strict, which made people presume that her background was quite solid and of a certain standard…high standards to be exact.

As they left the ancient ruins dungeon, Mathias was still deep in thoughts. He kept thanking his friends in his head and questioned himself if it was time for him to expose his most important secret.

However, after giving it considerable thought, Mathias could only shake his head.

'In the future, I will tell them…definitely!'

Mathias was not ready for now, but that was perfectly fine as everyone had their own burden and responsibilities to shoulder.

Nial had already realized that Mathias was deep in thoughts.

He may not know what was going on, but his friend's expressions changed several times in a single minute.

That was also why he began to think that it might be best to distract his friend.

There was no need for Mathias to start overthinking anything, not right now, at least.

"How many runic armaments should we sell? And what are we supposed to do with the books we looted from the Tower?"

Nial was of the opinion that they should only sell most of the runic armaments. On the other hand, the books they looted were too valuable to give away.

Rather, he thought that they should study the books before trying to turn the theoretical knowledge they would gain into practical use.

Earlier Nial had been pretty sure that it was not necessary for them to learn more about runic armaments and Runiciers.

After all, it was quite obvious that mankind would start focusing on nurturing many Runiciers as the use of runic armaments was unfathomable and irreplaceable to further mankind's advancement.

But even Nial underestimated their use, along with the fact that it was possible for Tier-1 runic armaments to be used by Originals at the Origin rank.

The importance and true potential of runic armaments was not even something the late Darkness God's memories had told him about.

That was also one of the reasons he changed his initial opinion about becoming a Runicier.

While it could have been considered a waste of his precious time beforehand, Nial was not confident that it was best to create his own runic armaments!

It was obvious that he would take some time to study everything, and that the required practice would shorten the time he could use to improve in other fields but Nial was fine with this!

"I think we should sell all ungraded runic armaments and the majority of Tier-0 runic armaments. That way we can keep all Tier-1 runic armaments and some of the Tier-0 runic armaments with us.

As for the books, how about we keep all of them for now? It might hinder mankind's advance if we act like this, but that shouldn't be much of an issue because the other Originals are likely to sell everything they looted from the other towers!"

Mathias was happy to be able to distract his mind from the thought of revealing his deepest secret.

That was also why he revealed his thoughts about selling the runic armaments and the other loot they procured in one of the towers that surrounded the palace within the ancient ruins dungeon.

"How about we sell all ungraded runic armaments but only a third Tier-0 runic armaments? After all, we won't always need the military's merit points.

Bartering Tier-0 runic armaments should be quite useful in the future, even selling some of them to merchants outside the Teradan military camp will bring us some money.

It will take a while before the government can start mass-producing runic armaments, after all! That means the value of runic armaments outside the Teradan military camp will stay high for quite a while!

We might even be able to use them to gain favors from powerful families."

Bella's train of thought was already more advanced than it was the case for Nial and Mathias. They were still thinking about using the current situation in order to make the most out of their gains.

Bella was simply thinking about the long-term profits.

As such, she was already far ahead of her friends' thoughts, which was clearly visible.

"But I agree with Mathias. We shouldn't sell any of the books so that we can stay at an advantage!

They kept discussing their next course of action for quite a while before stepping through the dungeon portal to return to the nameless island.

When they were finally outside the ancient ruins dungeon, Nial and the others immediately understood that the government focused on advancing humanity in the ancient ruins dungeon.

Several merchants had set up a stall near the ancient ruins dungeon portal, while the Originals association had even constructed a device to test the mana conductivity of runic armaments.

That was one of the easier ways to figure out the grade of a runic armament.

It was not perfect, but by scanning the inscribed runic constellations and testing the runic armaments to determine their use and potency made things much easier.

However, even then, there were still limits to the government's current methods of assessment.

After all, runic armaments were comparable to an entire new world to mankind…as of now!

"Soo.. shall we start earning a fortune?"

**

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