Odyssey of the Blind God

The Celtic shield began to hum after Ophelia engraved most runic constellations and that noise never stopped. It attracted the attention of three finalists, and almost every spectator craned their heads to stare at the Celtic shield with widened eyes.

"Is that really possible?!" A spectator blurted out without realizing, while many others thought exactly the same. Nobody could truly gauge what would happen in the next few minutes but the U21 Runicier tournament would end soon and it seemed like the Celtic Shield was sentient!

To call this shocking was the understatement of the century. An Original below the age of 21 was able to create a sentient runic armament…if that was not shocking, nothing would be considered such.

"She didn't use any unique runic constellations, so how is it possible for her to awaken the sentience of the Celtic shield?!" One of the younger Runiciers, who came to witness the U21 runicier tournament asked dumbfounded.

His knowledge was shallow, just like that of many others, and it took a while before one of the veteran Runiciers was able to regain his composure before he explained.

"For the Celtic shield to gain sentience, the alloy, the runic solutions, and the runic constellations she used to need to have great compatibility with one another. This is not easy to achieve, especially since it is hard to find out how compatible certain runic constellations are with specific metals.

But that is not everything because the metals cannot have a high amount of impurities if they want to gain sentience. Not all metals can gain sentience, and even amongst the metals that can gain sentience, it is a herculean task to awaken it.

However, Ophelia made this possible, while using an alloy made of a mixture of several metals at that! She must have used some special runic constellation with a highly purified runic constellation to increase the chance of awakening the Shield's sentience…" A veteran Runicier explained calmly, trying not to leave out a single point.

In the end, even the veteran Runicier was not very knowledgeable in the ways of awakening the sentience of runic armaments. He was fortunate enough to create one or two Sentient weapons but that was just luck and not his vast knowledge.

All the spectators around the veteran Runicier nodded their heads as if they could understand his words. The reality was different and their understanding lacking but they didn't want to sound ignorant in front of all these well-known Runiciers.

Nial noticed that his range of perception sensed something from around his artisan space but he never averted his focus. It remained on the task ahead of him, allowing Nial to create the best runic armament he could label his own.

Never would he have expected that he could reach such a high threshold as Runicier in such a short time but the finished product in front of him was certainly a success. It was a great runic saber with numerous runic constellations he had engraved on it.

He was proud of his achievement, which was why he looked up to take note of everything that happened around him. There were only 20 minutes left before the final round of the U21 Runicier tournament would come to an end and Nial wanted to sharpen the runic saber's blade when he noticed what was going on with Ophelia's Celtic shield.

'How monstrously talented can someone be?!' Nial cursed, realizing that the Celtic shield was not only a Lowest ranked Tier-2 runic armament but that it showed signs of gaining sentience as well.

At the age of 20, nobody was supposed to be able to create a runic armament with sentience, no matter how prodigious. In fact, even at the age of 30, 40, or 50, there was no known record of someone who had successfully achieved this miraculous feat.

At least, it shouldn't be possible to do so at will. It would need a stroke of luck to create a runic armament with sentience while being so young. Nial recalled that someone like Master Crevian was able to create even Spiritual Weapons right from the get-go.

However, Master Crevian was extremely old and he had the experience and knowledge of over a thousand years. Nial didn't even know how old Master Crevian truly was but he was respected even by High Elves while being a normal Elf.

The difference in the status between ordinary Elves and High Elves was more than huge, yet, Master Crevian was able to ignore this difference as he was treated like an honorary elder by the High Elves.

Even the Royal Princess was somewhat respectful to Master Crevian. For Nial, it was not a big surprise that Master Crevian was able to create sentient Runic armaments.

But Ophelia, a woman at his age? Nial could hardly believe it, and he started to realize the difference between being a good Runicier and a true talent.

All present Runiciers were the cream of the crop, even Nial, who was exceptional at engraving runic constellations.

However, none was even close to comparing with the talent Ophelia managed to showcase in merely eight hours. Her creation was a masterpiece and Nial could only frown deeply, hating the given situation.

'She will definitely win…' He thought gloomily. After understanding this point as well, the three other runiciers stopped doing what they had started with. In the last 20 minutes, it was not as if any additional changes would improve their runic armament drastically either way.

In fact, it was more likely for everything to become worse because their motivation had been shattered after seeing Ophelia's creation. All of them were ambitious men and women, but looking at Ophelia, all their earlier confidence seemed to be breaking apart.

Continuing to work on their runic armaments might as well destroy their creation if they were to do something stupid in their current flustered state.

Only Nial was able to regain his composure and return to the sharpening process of the runic saber's blade. The following 20 minutes passed quickly and a loud sound echoed through the Colosseum, indicating to the remaining five finalists to step back from their creation.

Ophelia and Nial had been the only ones who still wanted to give their final touches on their runic armaments, while the remaining three finalists seemed to have given up already.

This was frowned upon by many spectators, while the exact opposite was the case for the Runiciers, who watched the three Runiciers in pity.

"I don't think anyone would have expected such a terrifyingly talented monster to appear out of nowhere…They were really unlucky. I hope their will hasn't been broken by the setback…" Many Runiciers shook their heads, feeling sorry for the finalists, who had had the bad luck of taking birth in the same generation as Ophelia.

She was just too powerful of a Runicier even for most veteran Runiciers, who felt pressured by her mere existence.

The sound of someone clearing his throat echoed through the Colosseum bringing everyone out of their shocked state.

[I think everyone can already estimate the winner.] Card Melphy's voice boomed through the air as if he wanted to elevate Ophelia Narit's talent and reputation even further.

Nial's expression didn't change much when he heard his comment, but the other finalists frowned deeply. They felt even more dispirited than it had been the case before, and they didn't want to keep listening to the Union President's words anymore.

[But to make things fair, we'll have to take two particular tests. First, we will evaluate the runic armament and how strong they ought to be theoretically, and then we will test them practically!]

That being said, five well-known Appraisers hired by the Golden Armaments Union stepped inside the arena. They carefully evaluated one Runic armament after another as the crowd watched in silence.

The Appraisers became the five judges, whose evaluation would be calculated as a cumulative average and shared with the outside world.

Card Melphy was the first to receive the reports of the Appraisers after they finished their evaluation within 30 minutes. He looked through their analysis and was slightly astounded by what he saw.

He looked down from the VIP aisle and kept staring at the young finalists for a while.

Nobody knew what he was thinking except for himself, and it was only when he regained his composure that the tournament truly ended.

[I will announce the final result of the theoretical evaluation!]

[#1 Ophelia Narit - Semi-Sentient Low ranked Tier-2 Shield

#2 Kirant Leviant - Low ranked Tier-2 Sword

#3 Nicola Hurak - Low ranked Tier-2 Spear

#4 Nial Orin- Lowest ranked Tier-2 Saber

#5 Ulgarn Syzan – damaged Low ranked Tier-2 Sword]

The evaluation sheet was also shown in an enlarged holographic screen for everyone to see and all the spectators looked at it in interest.

The evaluation didn't really give much detailed information, which was why everything looked quite similar.

Thus, none of the finalists could complain about the given rating, whether they liked it or not.

Nial was surprised that the two other finalists had been able to create Tier-2 runic armaments in eight hours as well but he presumed that their potential had been fully unleashed under the pressure their common archenemy revealed.

"Are you disappointed?" A sonorous voice emerged next to him all of a sudden, but Nial just smiled. He was not startled because he had already sensed that Ophelia Narit, the female Draco, had approached him.

"Why should I be disappointed? The tournament is not over and the theoretical evaluation may be faulty," Nial answered in a simple manner, speaking to Ophelia as if he had known her for a while already.

He didn't act like others, who were overly friendly or respectful to Ophelia due to her talent, because he couldn't care less.

After he would get his hands on the reward he came for, Nial would rush back home as quickly as possible.

It hadn't been a month since he left Jundra but he was worried about everyone's well-being nonetheless. On Jundra something could happen every single day.

One time, a high-ranked dungeon portal might manifest in the middle of a shelter, another day, a new race would descend on Jundra, or there might even be the Incarnation of a God playing chess with humans as if they were his chess pieces.

Nial knew that this could happen, which was why he was not really fond of Ophelia, who prevented him from winning the tournament. She was one of the many unknown variables that had appeared in his life without warning.

"Your runic constellations will be the reason why your saber will be ranked second at the end of the day, exactly," Ophelia said in a confident voice before she added,

"I thought you would feel desperate by now but you are quite calm. That is a bit unexpected, not gonna lie!"

Nial was a bit confused about why Ophelia would come over to him and start chatting, which was why he asked bluntly,

"Did you come here to console me?"

Nial's expression was funny, which caused the female Draco to laugh lightheartedly.

It didn't look like she was worried about the tournament, at all. Her Celtic Shield spoke volumes about her confidence, which was something everyone could see clearly.

"You don't need the Blaze Dragon's heart, right?" Ophelia suddenly asked Nial, who could only shake his head in response.

"Then you will get what you want, I guess!"