Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial didn't really plan to enter another dungeon so soon, but he was eager to figure out how powerful the others were.

As such, he didn't say anything and silently followed them.

Making use of the fact that he was surrounded by several people to his advantage, he wanted to figure out how exactly he could adjust his hearing and smelling sense.

Right now everything sounded extremely loud and the air that he smelled was somewhat between good and horrifyingly bad.

Thus, he didn't dare to breathe through his mouth either and felt filthy doing so.

Attempting to do all kinds of things by using tiny traces of mana, Nial slowly got the hang of the enhancements he had undergone.

Everything was both simple and complex at the same time.

While some tasks were rather simple, trying to complete them with something else turned them into weirdly complex tasks.

He knew that he had to use his entire focus, while simultaneously paying attention to the changes occurring inside his body which prevented him from understanding where they were going.

They had already entered a large shuttle in order to reach one of the newly emerged dungeons that were a little bit further away.

Not sure how much time had passed, he left the shuttle after they reached their destination before continuing to follow the others.

Initially, they were trying to talk to Nial in order to get to know him, but it didn't take long before everyone realized that he was in his own world of thoughts, and thinking about something.

After that, none of them said anything to him, believing that it was best for them to leave him to his thoughts for the time being.

This was the most important to figure out what one wanted to do in the future, and even more so to fight properly, without any distractions.

As such, the entire group walked toward the dungeon entrance in a rather calm manner.

They were conversing with each other in hushed whispers, in a volume that wouldn't allow a passerby to hear them…or so they believed.

Because they became quieter, Nial's mind was less strained from their voices, which allowed him to understand the basics of the enhancements and how to control them.

His timing was perfect because right when he figured it out, they arrived in front of a gate. It had three to four times the density of mana fluctuations than that of the Machnam dungeon portal.

This meant that there were either four times more beasts, the strength of the beasts inside was four times higher, or it was a mixture of both.

However, knowing that he wasn't alone and had skilled Originals by his side, that didn't really bother Nial as it was crystal clear that they were able to easily take care of every single threat inside the dungeon.

At the same time, he figured that they wanted to test him, which they had, most likely, told him already but he hadn't been paying attention.

Thus, after entering the dungeon with them, Nial told himself to keep his focus on the surroundings, and not be overwhelmed by his enhanced senses.

Hence, he allowed his senses to be fully unleashed, bombarding him with a lot of information at once pertaining to everything within a radius of 100 meters.

This allowed him to quickly realize that there were no other Originals inside the entrance area of the dungeon, which didn't astonish him.

After he had regained his senses, one of the first things he heard was that the dungeon had just manifested.

It was labeled as a public dungeon, and thus open for everyone to enter.

With that in mind, Kark and his team had decided to clear it quickly, reaping the benefits of being the first ones to clear it, while testing Nial.

Such a combination was perfect for them, and exactly what they required.

They had been searching for all kinds of ability crystals but the ones they were almost desperately looking for still eluded them.

Thus, they were mostly focused on finding the boss monster before giving Nial the opportunity to show that the Machnam beasts were not the only foe he could defeat.

Yet, before that was possible, a group of more than a hundred beasts emerged near the horizon of the dungeon.

Hearing the thunderous footsteps of numerous beasts owing to his heightened sense of hearing, Nial was informed about their appearance, which made him instinctively issue a warning,

"More than a hundred beasts east from us! They're heading towards us!"

A fraction of a second after he had issued the warning, the beasts were revealed to the others who hadn't seen them owing to the dense cover of countless large, redwood trees.

These trees were known for their ginormous height and width, and resistance to basic elements.

Owing to that, everyone believed that the dungeon would be exploited before one would kill the dungeon boss.

Probably a few lumberjacks would be ordered to clear a path towards the dungeon in no time, once the military would find out about the redwood trees.

Unfortunately, Kark and his group were the first ones to encounter the redwood trees.

Thus, the entire forest was ought to be cut down by them…or so Nial thought.

Yet, instead of focusing on the redwood trees, the small group of Originals looked at him in astonishment.

"Did you just sense them with your mana fluctuations…or did you hear them?"

The former sounded more plausible, but with the way in which Nial's ears twitched, Miriam couldn't help but voice out her second assumption too.

However, in the end, none of that mattered because they were able to see the outlines of a horde of nearly pitch-black bison running through the forest and the gaps between the huge trees.

The noises they created were overwhelming, but they reached them in a slow manner as if a flood was suddenly bursting out from faraway.

As such, given the huge number of opponents they had to face, Kark's group disregarded their earlier idea to create an opportunity for Nial to show his true combat prowess.

Instead, weapons manifested in their hands, as they entered a basic battle formation in a simple, but smooth manner.

It was clear that they had fought hundreds of life-and-death battles together, giving them the necessary courage and calmness to face more than 100 bison.

Their eyes were pitch-black too, and there was only a small dot in the center of their forehead that was faintly red-colored.

This was considered as their mark of weakness, which would come in handy for Kark and the rest to fight their opponents.

Other than that, their entire body was extremely powerful, much stronger than that of other beasts at the same rank.

Given that, the large horde was able to trample through the redwood forest dungeon as if it was a walk in the park.

They were simply marching through their territory, or so they believed.

Unfortunately, with the emergence of the unique bipedal beings, their supremacy was challenged and quickly went downhill as several arrows pierced through them, hitting the red marks on their foreheads accurately.

This was not even necessary, but the archer of Kark's group killed several bison while honing his archery skills.

As such, he was able to both perfect his skill and get rid of multiple opponents.

​ Perceiving the speed at which the archer of their group shot one arrow after another, Nial could only gulp nervously.

The man stood right next to him, and the sound of the bowstring being released followed by arrows flying through the air repeated itself over and over again.

The rapid pace at which the arrows were shot astonished Nial a moment because he could clearly hear and sense that the archer didn't make any extraordinarily fast movements. Rather, he was moving smoothly seemingly without wasting a single moment.

Oddly enough, the noise was not displeasing, and rather comfortable for Nial's ears.

Thus, he smiled lightly, while focusing his attention on hearing the horde of bison that had still not entered the range of 100 meters.

Through this, Nial got to know that the archer next to him was phenomenal in his skills and could kill one beast after another while his designated target was still more than 100 meters away from him.

Under normal circumstances, this was extremely difficult, but Nial was clearly able to sense the few dozen redwood trees that were in their way.

Because of that, Nial was truly awed by the archer's expertise so much that he couldn't help but feel like praising the archer.

Yet, just when the injured bison entered the range of 100 meters, many things started to change.

First of all, Miriam, another woman, and a young man, whose name Nial had already forgotten, began to release their abilities, confusing Nial.

Miriam shouldn't be able to do anything but heal their teammates, yet, when he sensed how she manifested two marbles of mana with the use of her mana, Nial realized what she was doing.

Using neutral mana, enhancing it with the use of her wand, and turning it into a marble that would work like the bullet of a pistol, she shot them towards her opponents, while the others used fireballs and icicles to attack their opponents.

However, that was not enough to attract Nial's attention because he had already witnessed Melvin's lightning affinity, which was much grander than a fire or ice affinity.

The lethality and speed of lightning were simply too powerful to forget just like that.

Despite that, Nial was not interested in that kind of affinity, while his current interest was focused on Miriam, who seemed to be smiling subtly while shooting out another batch of mana marbles.

While only a few seconds had passed, more than half of the charging bison had been killed.

The other half continued with their advance, only for Nial to notice that Miriam, the archer, and everyone else had stopped attacking.

Only Kark, and the tall man, who had been speaking to him were left behind.

While Kark was still wielding the maze, the tall man had manifested a huge battle-ax in his hand.

Just a moment later, they charged ahead, with the intention to slaughter everyone.

At this moment, Nial couldn't help but feel that it would be much smarter to just kill every single bison with long-range attacks.

He believed that this was the best tactic.

Yet, before he could implement it, four hands went around him before pushing Nial out of the circle he had been in as everyone shouted,

"Go"

"What are you waiting for!"

"Go little rockstar!"

"Fight for your life!"

If he were not sure that they were serious and stronger than him, Nial would have loved punching them at least once.

He didn't want to fight against 50 pitch-black bison that were much stronger than normal beasts at the same rank as them.

In fact, he was not even close to reaching their rank, in the first place.

As such, how was he supposed to fight even one of these bison?.

Unfortunately, there was no way for him to escape his foes anymore as even his allies forced him to fight.

With that in mind, Nial chose to give his best in order to fight everyone who dared to go up against him.

In that case, he could either fight Kark's group, or the bisons, which caused Nial to smile lightly as he circulated mana through his body.

Sensing the vibrations of the ground that originated from the two close combat fighters and the remaining bison ahead of him fueled him with determination.

They were about to clash with each other, and the distance he had to cover was still close to 50 meters.

Sensing the noises of a battle, the smell of blood, dirt, and sweat, followed by the vibrations that stimulated his heart, Nial was unable to hold back as the lust for fighting ignited within him once again.

'Argh…fuck it! Let's kill all of these bison!!'

**

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