Odyssey of the Blind God

"They're much weaker than expected…" A Nightshadow Elf, following Nightingale, voiced out when he cut down another guard.

Calling them guards was already too much of a compliment in the Elf's opinion because it didn't take even three slashes to end the life of one of them.

Only the Guards at the Keltia rank were somewhat decent, but that was to be expected. They were the mercenaries that had been hired by the cowardly Shelturion to make up for the low fighting skills of their guards.

"Just be happy about it. Would it be better if all of us were forced to use our whole strength and fear dying…for a mission like that?" Another Nightshadow Elf pointed out with a shrug.

The current situation was pretty simple, Nial had separated from the Nightshadow Elves, and the group of Nightshadow Elves had split up as well.

There had been three paths leading away from the entrance of the hidden laboratory and they had decided to use all of them.

As for the reasoning for the shrugging Nightshadow Elf, it was pretty obvious. Their mission was to raid the hidden laboratory of the Shelturion race. No being above the Keltia rank was currently capable of emerging in Jundra nor was it possible for runic armaments above Tier-3 to appear in Jundra…not if they were not produced outside of Jundra.

There were also some restrictions on the ingredients and materials that could be brought to the current awakened state of the Origin. That fact and the point that the Shelturion race were bad fighters, who had solely focused on hiding their laboratory while creating and spreading a maleficent drug, made it quite obvious that the raid wouldn't be too difficult.

Luckily, their preparations and numbers were too high to reduce their chances of failure of raiding the hidden laboratory. The only somewhat problematic task was ensuring that no Shelturion would be able to escape, destroy important notes, or kill themselves.

Escaping was near-impossible for them by now. The High Elves and Sacred Elves sealed the space outside the ravine. It wouldn't be possible to use any runic armaments or magic circles to teleport far away from danger.

As for the remaining two points, the Shelturion Alchemists were unlikely to dare kill themselves.

"Makes sense, but was it fine to leave Nial all by himself? I know that he is a little stro–..."

The Nightshadow Elf couldn't even finish his sentence as Nightingale interrupted him. "A little strong? That's probably one of the weirdest underestimations I've recently heard."

It was not usual for the Royal Nightshadow Elf to praise anyone but it made sense. The other Nighthshadow Elves closed their mouths and returned their focus to the task they had been assigned.

Meanwhile, Nial spread his mana through the surrounding hallway and the rooms that were adjacent to it. Everything with the slightest value, including seemingly simple pieces of parchment that were scribbled on in a unique hieroglyphic language, was stored in his spatial ring.

He was in possession of a huge spatial ring for a reason and it was time to make use of it!

Only dust was left behind in the rooms Nial passed by. He didn't even leave behind the furniture…

[Master…if you need money, we can conquer a few dungeons…]

Kaeldur's voice rang through Nial's head all of a sudden. Nial just smiled in response, shaking his head.

Why would he be in need of money?

Just because he collected everything within the hidden laboratory didn't mean that he was doing it for the sake of money. In fact, he was just too lazy to search for the important files which were why he simply dumped the entirety of the contents of the laboratory in his ring.

He used his range of perception and Mana Sense to let it spread through every single room and analyze them precisely. That required most of his focus as he was looking for secret passages, and treasures that were hidden behind walls or stored in a secret shelf hidden away from the eye in some furniture.

From the information Nial had collected about the Shelturion race, they were intelligent and very vigilant cowards. Thus, it was only obvious that the important documents wouldn't be lying around in an unused room.

Either, the documents were well hidden, or someone was always holding them.

Despite that knowledge, it didn't mean that the files, which the Shelturion race considered unimportant and of no value, wouldn't possess any value to the human race.

The progress of the human race was rapid thanks to various factors but they were still lacking a lot in comparison to any other race that had been in possession of mana for a few thousand, or even hundreds of years.

The Jundra humans had yet to get their hands on more knowledge. This included knowledge that was not directly related to Runiciers, combat Originals, or abilities! There was too much knowledge for the human race to procure but they had yet to get their hands on the necessary time to absorb the knowledge, digest it and start creating their own theories about worldly things.

​ "If you worry about my financial situation, that means you can go out and make money with Tyrant once we return. I will make sure that you two will have some toys to play with and then you can conquer dungeons with your best friend, for a few months!"

Nial's comment caused Kaeldur to turn quiet. The Devil didn't say a thing for almost a whole minute, only for Tyrant to complain.

[Why…me? With him…and who are you calling his best friend? Hopefully, it's not me…Kaeldur is creepy…]

The Tyrant of Destruction was more than just a little displeased. However, he knew that Nial was their master and that it would only bring him trouble if he were to shout loudly at him. Nial might be a good master, who wasn't as petty as Damian had been, but that didn't mean that their current master was a pushover.

On the contrary, Nial knew when to pull the necessary strings without even realizing it, at that!

"Then let me give the two of you an offer…or let's just call it a competition instead," Nial suggested all of a sudden while pointing at the huge door at the end of the hallway.

"Whoever kills more guards, catches more Shelturions, and collects the most useful information sheets will be given the position of the Leader when you guys go out to raid dungeons!"

The moment Nial finished his announcement he spread his dark energy out in front of him.

One huge and one smaller body emerged from the dark energy at the same time and they charged toward the huge door at the end of the hallway. The opportunity was too exciting to not jump on for both of them.

The huge door connected the hallway with the main hall of the hidden laboratory, which in turn, connected to every other space inside the laboratory. There were a few dozen guards shivering in fright, looking in all directions to find an escape route if someone would reach their position.

It was not long after they had been told that the entrance hall of the hidden laboratory was under attack when two doors leading to the main hall were thrown open.

A group of Hight Elves, led by a gorgeous young woman, Princess Evalyne, emerged from one side, while the other side had a mixture of Sacred Elves, Glacier Elves, and Pyromas Elves. They were led by an old man, who bowed lightly in the Royal Princess' direction when he saw her.

"Looks like we were the first to arrive. Unfortunately, the guards didn't react as we hoped…so unfortunate…" The Old man said without showing much of a reaction at the sight of the trembling guards.

"They made quite a commotion though…The entire building shook. But th—...." The Royal Princess was trying to distract the guards by casually chatting with the Old Sacred Elf when her eyes flicked toward the huge door to her right.

"I didn't hear anything about monsters. Did the Shelturion have some pets?" The Old Man asked after he felt that the ground below him began to tremble.

Eerie mana and a chilling cold came from the direction of the door, yet, Princess Evalyne didn't grow vigilant, let alone prepared herself to fight what was about to come.

"Those are not the Shelturion's pets…I don't even know if you should label them as pets. They're on our side…" The Royal Princess answered just before the huge metal door was ripped out of its frame.

A huge giant-like figure emerged from behind the metal door, followed by a swift black humanoid figure. Darkness oozed out of them, hiding their bodies, and only revealing the gloomily glowing ruby eyes.

"...probably…"