Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial had decided to team up with only Bella and Mathias, and nobody else.

That was not because he felt as if it was enough for him to face the future dangers with just two combatants.

Rather, his reasoning was much simpler.

He didn't trust the other participants!

In fact, Bella and Mathias had revealed that they felt the same, and thought that the other young Originals were not reliable.

Having discussed this a few moments earlier, Nial believed that the words he spoke had been not just his decision, but that of his entire team.

It was just that he had been the one to say it out loud instead of the other two and become the spokesperson without meaning to.

This irritated Nial a little bit, but he felt that both Bella and Mathias were pushing him to become the scapegoat.

As such, he had accepted his fate, only to face Master Junades head-on.

"So the three of you want to be teleported to the island without anyone else?"

It was a simple question, but the meaning behind it could be interpreted in many ways.

Yet, instead of beating around the bush or feeling too intimidated to speak with Master Junades, Nial could only be thankful that it was someone he knew rather than a complete stranger whom he was facing right now.

"To be honest, nobody will want to team up with me either way. After all, I'm blind and only at the 3rd Origin rank, which means they'll see me as a burden.

I'm dead weight to them, and they don't want to get merits deducted because I will die either way.

That is at least what most Originals here think of me.

I don't want them to think that they'll be failing because of me, so we should pay attention to their mental health.

Allowing them to realize that they're trash who would fail even without me being a dead weight to their team should serve as a good reality check!"

In the beginning, Nial quickly noticed that many gazes were drawn toward him.

After visualizing everyone in his room, it was easy to see that their expressions were filled with disgust, or uncertainty when looking at him.

Thus, he decided to change the way in which he explained the situation before lightly taking a jibe at them.

Earlier, Nial had already told the others that he had been asked to do something, in particular, which might attract the anger of many.

As such, Bella and Mathias figured that Nial had a plan, which is why they didn't try to stop them when he started speaking.

Yet, even they had not expected their new friend to openly insult the other Originals, stating that they would fail even if he were not to be on their team.

His taunt had hit more than a dozen young Originals who had jumped up from their chair, and clenched their fists as if wanting to beat him into a pulp then and there.

However, the moment they jumped up, the said Originals realized that Nial had not singled out anyone.

Reacting to him would only mean that they considered themselves to be weak. After all, empty vessels make the most noise.

Thus, only those who were actually not confident in themselves had jumped up, causing the others to eye them with cold gazes, making mental notes of their competitors and dismissing the others as weaklings.

The others that were unaffected by Nial's insult told themselves not to team up with the Originals that had jumped up after clearly understanding the situation.

Meanwhile, Kassandra, and Orian looked at Nial for a moment before nodding their heads lightly.

They couldn't tell whether Nial was brave, stupid, or possibly both.

Yet, it was a fact that his voice didn't tremble, while his mana fluctuations, breathing, and stance were stable as he became the center of attention of more than a hundred Originals and three Instructors.

He was bound to have created enemies right now, but simultaneously, there weren't too many as only those with weak self-esteem would have been affected by his words.

After all, Nial had targeted this group of Originals especially, which was not difficult to figure out.

Suppressing a faint, and mysterious smile, Junades turned around towards the two Instructors that nodded their heads before he turned back to Nial.

"Because 103 Originals that participate in the Teradan military camp are present right now, you will be allowed to make a group of three before leaving.

You'll leave first, while the others can make up their teams! Come up to me!"

The last sentence was a little bit unexpected, but it was not like Nial could care about it.

As such, he got up from the bench before moving towards Master Junades while precisely avoiding the young Originals that stood in his way, in addition to the items that were spread all over the ground.

Initially, the young Originals had wondered what they should think about Nial.

Underestimating anyone who had been recommended to participate in the Teradan military camp would be stupid, yet there was still a minority that was acting foolishly and looking at Nial as if he was a pushover.

Meanwhile, another group of minorities felt extremely vigilant of Nial because they had noticed something odd about him from the moment he entered the basement.

However, the majority of the present Originals were neutral about him, despite the provocative words he had spoken.

Having been trained psychologically to ascertain if somebody was playing a mind game, the majority realized what Nial had done, and if they were to be honest, it was impressive.

Offending a minority of Originals, while gaining the attention of the Instructors, along with receiving permission to proceed with the only people he trusted had been achieved with a few simple sentences.

Stating how weak he was while sharing that others would see him as a dead weight was a good tactic in order to gain what he had hoped for.

Simultaneously, directing his insult to those Originals with low self-esteem, and speaking his words right in front of everyone, including the Instructors meant that he was confident.

And that was despite his earlier statements about his low Origin rank and blindness!

It was only obvious for him to gain the interest of the Instructors, which was noticed by the majority of people, who couldn't help but think that Nial was far more calculative and intelligent than they credited him to be.

Maybe that was his strength and forte; to use his intelligence in order to exploit other people to make them act like he wanted?

Funnily enough, they didn't even know that Nial didn't think highly of his own intelligence.

He was only able to focus on one thing at a time, and multitasking was something he was unable to do properly.

As such, even his fighting style was still lacking.

While fighting it was slightly easier for him to control mana while moving around, but that was mostly because mana felt like an extension of his body.

It was not exactly that, but comparable while he felt the same about the Viper spear too.

Nevertheless, there were still issues he had to face with multitasking even during battles.

Thus, rather than thinking too complicatedly, Nial just did what he had been asked to.

The sisters, Kira and Mara had asked him to attract the Instructors' attention, whether it was by creating trouble, or by being the strongest.

As such, Nial decided to take the first step toward both paths before he clearly understood which path of the two was feasible for him to choose.

In the end, this simply meant that he didn't think about all the things the other Originals believed Nial to have thought about.

Rather, it was the complete opposite!

Yet, while the other Originals and even the two female Instructors were interested in what exactly Nial had planned to do later, Junades couldn't help but look at Nial when he stood in front of him, holding out the spatial ring in order to be inspected.

'Just what did these two troublemakers do to you? I thought you would become someone righteous…is that still possible under the sisters' influence?'

He was not sure about the answer, but given the serious expression on Nial's face that allowed Junades to realize lots of things, he could only shake his head.

Nial must have overcome many obstacles, and lived through numerous dangerous situations, only to face frustrating times since they had encountered each other.

As such, Junades didn't say anything as he picked up the spatial ring, which he received permission to access.

Doing this, he noticed that everything inside the Spatial ring was sorted neatly and did not have too many items.

There were just two weapons, a few miscellaneous items, and that was already it.

Thus, only half a minute after he was done, Junades nodded his head.

"Alright, you can go down to the second basement!"

That being said, Nial retrieved his spatial ring and walked away from Master Junades while ignoring the gazes of the other Originals.

In his opinion, they had become too curious about him, instead of the anger and hospitality he had expected.

It made the entire situation a little bit weird for Nial, who was wondering what was going on in the heads of the other Originals.

Unfortunately, there was not much he could do about their behavior, and instead of minding them, he gave them a cold shoulder.

At the same time, Bella and Mathias had gotten up from the bench, and handed over their spatial rings to Junades for inspection, and like Nial, were given permission to go ahead a minute later.

Nobody paid much attention to Mathias because he was trying to make himself as small as possible, and hide from everyone's gaze if possible.

Yet, the fact that Bella teamed up with Nial made a few Originals gossip in hushed whispers.

Some men that were eying Bella with naked lust, had wanted to approach her during the formation of the team.

However, now that she left with Nial, this was hardly possible.

This caused them to sigh deeply while feeling jealous of Nial, who could gaze at Bella's bosom even after being teleported.

Only moments later did they realize that this was not even the case, which caused them to feel a sudden wave of pity towards Nial.

After all, Bella would certainly not even look at Nial. Her fair skin that was without any imperfections, her big golden eyes, long eyelashes, and seemingly otherworldly facial features that were only further highlighted by her long blonde hair that cascaded down to her lower back made them confident that she would not even look at some of the best looking men let alone Nial.

However, if Bella were to be only beautiful owing to her face, this wouldn't be enough for some male Originals to feel pity towards Nial.

Rather, it was her bombastic figure, her slender figure that had the curves in all the right places.

Her ample breasts and hourglass figure were accentuated by the tight combat clothes she wore, making her appearance seem even more divine, and dangerous for the eyes of men as was already the case.

Yet, it was exactly because Nial didn't harbor any improper thoughts for Bella that she felt comfortable around him.

He was not approaching her needlessly either, which was something she was comfortable with.

It was a great change, and incomparable to how she had lived in the past while being subjected to constant lustful gazes, and unbending desires.

Even the thought about everything that had happened in the past made her stagger a bit as she quickened her pace to catch up to Nial, only to notice for the first time that she was almost one head shorter than he was.

'Wasn't he shorter before?' She wondered, not sure if she recalled directly.

Yet, when she recollected their first meeting, Nial seemed to be interesting in many more ways than one would expect upon taking a first glance of Nial.

In fact, after today's event, Bella believed that it would never be boring to walk around with Nial.

All of these emotions were something Mathias felt too, and he was glad to have come to today's gathering, even if he had hated the idea earlier to the core!

It hadn't been as bad as Mathias had imagined, and he was quite comfortable with Nial, and even Bella around.

Though Mathias believed that only Nial was connecting Bella and him, which both noticed.

Nial was oblivious to this, as even his new friends' emotions were something he had yet to figure out.

However, he would learn this with time, and Nial was quite sure of the fact that they had more than enough time to spend together in the wilderness on their search for the Teradan military camp, or rather the town in which everyone would be staying.

And that included every single participant of the camp from all the shelters who would pass the first test which might be in the hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands!!