Odyssey of the Blind God

All the runic armaments of each participant created were stored inside a small spatial ring that had the participants' numbers engraved on them.

Nial was pretty sure that it would take a while to finish evaluating the runic armaments. Thus, he cleared his working space which ended up looking just like it did before Nial touched it for the first time when he had arrived.

Afterward, he lay down on the stone ground, where he rested for a few hours.

He was sleeping like a log and didn't mind the people or the noise around him in the slightest.

"Isn't this participant too nonchalant? He is disrespecting the Golden Armaments Union for the second time by dozing off…has he no shame?" One of the spectators, who was also a member of the Golden Armaments Union, complained loudly.

Everyone around him could hear the young man and most other spectators couldn't help but feel the same.

"His nonchalant behavior is clearly visible. He created a mold to start casting weapons…what did you even expect?" Another spectator sneered as he stared at the sleeping bling human.

"I know that humans are shameless, but this…is still a bit too much," A Stilak spat out these words as if he was disgusted to even say 'human' out loud. Many humans turned around at once, glaring daggers at the Stilak, who just shrugged his shoulders.

He turned silent but his comment made everyone understand his opinion of the human race.

"Whether we're shameless or not is of no concern to you. You should be more worried about how to console your 'prodigious' Runiciers when they come crying to you after being thrown out of the tournament," The loud and angry voice of a human reached the Stilak and all the spectators around them.

He stressed the word 'prodigious' a lot and revealed a mocking smile as he stared straight into the grey eyes of the Stilak, who had spoken before.

The spectator wasn't going to let the Stilak throw shade on humans, and let him escape unscathed. Thus, he didn't hesitate the slightest to fire back.

"You!! Do you want to fight?!" The Stilak took the bait and was immediately offended, which was exactly what the human spectator wanted. He waved his hand and laughed mockingly.

"If you dare to fight me, come and get me," He laughed, not moving from his chair as the Stilak shot up from his seat.

"Sit down, you fucking idiot," The Stilak next to the one, who had been offended, jumped up from his seat to pull down his friend.

"If you seek death do that outside the Colosseum, not here, where you are publicly disgracing our entire race…Do you want to end up like the Elves, and be thrown out of the tournament for the next few centuries?" The Stilak, who spoke, was much taller than his friend, and his presence was more than enough to hold the enraged Stilak.

He quieted down and took his seat again, albeit unhappily, while the human continued to laugh.

"What a sweet friend you have! He even plays your nanny. Cute," the human said with a pouty smile, knowing that nothing would happen to him in the Colosseum.

"You're funny. Just tell me where you want to be buried. I may show you some mercy and let you rest there," The taller Stilak spoke calmly while holding his friend back. He was about to do something stupid but the iron-tight grip of his tall friend was more than enough to prevent anything from happening.

The silent threat of the tall Stilak didn't really feel like a threat to many spectators around him. However, others with keen senses and a properly working brain, and danger sense could tell what the tall Stilak was doing.

Seconds after he issued the threat, the tall Stilak saw that his plan had worked. The human paled because he realized that he had made a big mistake, which might even cost him his life. It caused him to shake for a moment before he heard the Stilak's voice once again, now even calmer than before.

"Let's go back to the topic. Don't you think that your little blind human fellow is trying to offend the authorities? I would be more worried about saving my own skin than our race being thrown out of the tournament," The tall Stilak threw a snarky comment.

The human frowned deeply before he turned back to look at Nial, who was sleeping soundly, without any worries.

"He passed the first round. Don't worry too much about us," A new voice joined their heated debate all of a sudden. It was an old man, who nobody had noticed before. He was seated in between the rows of the two Stilaks and the human, who had been conversing for a while by now.

"And how do you know that? I doubt you observed the engraving process of all ten thousand participants, did you?" The taller Stilak was not angered by the sudden interference of the old man. In fact, he was pretty sure that the old man was not any ordinary person, which was why he genuinely asked why the blind human ought to have passed the first round.

The old man was eerily calm and his presence was almost unnoticeable, yet, the tall Stilak was not able to sense the slightest bits of his strength. The old man's mana core rank had to be much higher than his own!

"That's pretty simple. He created great high-quality Tier-1 runic armaments, more than 10 of them at that. Even the bad quality of his forging, or the usage of a rather commonly used runic solution won't change that fact. As for the casted runic armaments they're of Peak-quality and at Tier-0.

He should have earned enough points to enter the top 50, and if he didn't focus on customizing the runic armaments, one for each of the listed mysterious Originals, he would have easily created more runic armaments or even better ones," The old man kept speaking and it was quite obvious that his opinion of the young sleeping Original was quite high.

"Of course, this would just be the case if the mission of the first round was that simple. It may look like the mission tested the participants' ability on the creation of a high quantity of high-quality runic armaments but that is only half true," The old man caressed his beard as he shared his insights.

"Why is that only half true? I mean the mission clearly states that you get points according to the runic armaments you create for the 10 Originals that have been listed. Shouldn't that mean creating numerous high-quality Tier-1 runic armaments would be the best solution?" The tall Stilak countered, not understanding what the old man meant. He was also a Runicier though he was not a renowned one or a Runicier with many talents.

Nonetheless, he had his fair share of knowledge.

"Of course creating a high quantity of high-quality runic armaments does the job as well, but for the second round, customized weapons will be of more use than random high-quality TIer-1 runic armaments!" The old man declared, looking at the tall Stilak with a faint smile.

"The second round?" Many people asked themselves at the same time, while the quiet human, who had been in a discussion with the Stilak before, had hastily blurted out everyone's confusion.

However, the old man didn't pay any attention to the troublemaking human. His focus returned to Nial and his expression lit up just a tiny bit as he mumbled,

"Seems like the kid figured it."

Their discussion came to a halt as everybody's attention turned to the evaluation chart that had been updated and the scores were revealed to the spectators.

Many cries of desperation and disbelief filled the air when the Runiciers didn't find their number in the top 200. Everyone's points were clearly shown, with some Runiciers easily crossing 2000 points.

However, no one was impressed with the top spots because they were quite obvious. Nobody thought that the top prodigies of the Golden Armaments Union and other Runicier groups would lose against individual Runiciers or self-proclaimed prodigies.

The vast majority of participants, who advanced to the second round were known by the public. Only a few were dark horses including Nial!

<<-Rank 48- [8931] with 1205 Points!>>

Nobody had managed to create as many runic armaments as Nial, let alone such a high quantity of Tier-0 runic armaments. However, from the looks of it, this was exactly why Nial ranked so high on the scoreboard.

Each of his Tier-0 runic armaments got him 5 points, and he received 100 points for equipping each of the Originals with, at least, three runic armaments.

The old man didn't seem to be surprised by the result but many spectators were baffled when they tried to find out who the unknown participants were that nobody had ever heard about.

Most spectators only tried to remember the numbers of the participants, who were famous, not someone like Nial, who was a nobody.

Only the old man seemed to have taken a liking to Nial, which was something the poor young man had yet to realize.

Nial was still asleep when he was woken by the commotion around him.

He felt a bit more energized than before but it didn't seem like he slept long.

"Can't they give me a little break? I don't demand a lot but a break would certainly be helpful…" Nial complained quietly as he got up on his feet.

He saw the list of evaluations just a short moment later, and his ranking.

'Well, that is not particularly surprising. I finished 10 high-quality Tier-1 runic armaments and loads of casted Tier-0 runic armaments of Peak quality, in 48 hours at that... If such an achievement wouldn't be enough to pass round 1, I could have just stayed at home.' Nial thought with a meek smile on his face.

He could tell that there were quite a few participants, who were better than him. They could forge with more precision and their runic solutions were also purified. This was something Nial was not capable of, not yet, and he was not sure how long it would take before he would reach that level.

However, he knew that his runic armaments were special because their quality exceeded the norms of what most Runiciers could create. Even Master Crevian acknowledged that he rarely saw someone who could engrave runic constellations as quickly and precisely as Nial.

This was a talent and something that had been of exceptional use for the first round.

[Now that the evaluation chart has been revealed, only 200 Runiciers are left behind. The second round of the U21 Runicier tournament will be held in three days and the spatial rings with all the runic armaments that have been created in the first round will be stored away.

To all the Runiciers, who failed today….failure is just a small bump and a stepping stone in your career. As long as you can overcome your failure, learn from it and grow, you will receive and learn much more than countless victories can teach you.

Don't be discouraged and give your everything to stride forward and emerge victorious the next time you challenge something!] Card Melphy's voice resounded through the entire Colosseum, and many discouraged Runiciers felt comforted by the words of the Union's President.

It may not heal the scar their loss inflicted on their hearts but it certainly helped them to overcome the struggle.

[As for the rules of the second round, they'll be announced in three days!]

**

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