Odyssey of the Blind God

'Her name cannot be Oracle, right?' Nial wondered, pretty sure that it was more of an occupation or title rather than an actual name.

However, it was not important to him whether the name was correct or not. He was more concerned that he wouldn't be able to find anyone who knew the little girl.

"Is it possible to make a city-wide announcement here?" Nial enquired upon reaching the guild hall. He was still holding the little girl in his arms and his face was covered by the crow mask he had been wearing for the last few hours.

Nial had to show his insignia to the receptionist, which was why he was treated very well. All receptionists working in the guild hall knew that he was one of the Adventurers with the highest completion rate of high-ranked missions.

Thus, they were overly polite to him.

"It is possible to make a city-wide announcement but it will be very expensive and the content of the announcement has to be approved by a representative of a Devon, Sir!" The receptionist explained, giving Nial a slight headache.

"What exactly does 'very expensive' mean? Give me a precise number, please!" Nial requested and it was not long after that the receptionist wrote a big number on a piece of paper.

"Yeah...that's too expensive for now..." Nial acknowledged when he visualized the number in his mind.

The little girl looked at the number and squealed.

"Woaahhh, that's a big number! So exciting!" She clapped his hands excitedly but Nial could only frown at her reaction.

"Will you be fine if we wait for a few weeks before making the announcement? After that, we can find your parents if they don't file a report that you're missing..." Nial asked, trying not to sound inconsiderate. He could tell that it was selfish of him to think that the Alliance Auction was more important than the little girl reuniting with her family, but the opportunity to get his hands on the Swirl of Chaos ability crystal would only unveil itself in front of him once in a lifetime.

That was something Nial was certain about and it was also the reason why he felt a little bit bad for the little girl, who gave him a small smile.

"I have no parents. How do you want to find something that doesn't even exist?" She asked, curious about Nial's answer.

However, Nial could only wonder how the little girl could be so fluent in the universal language. Oracle, or whatever her real name was, seemed quite intelligent and Nial began to wonder if her words might actually be the truth.

'But that doesn't make any sense...' He thought, tapping his free hand against his thigh.

"Alright, if you say so...how about I bring you to the Pagoda of the Thousand Bodies Refinements Dojo, or if you don't want to go there, I can take you to an orphanage as well..." Nial gave her two options, not sure what else to do right now.

He didn't want to spend too much time thinking about what to do with the little girl, but it was definitely wrong to leave her behind just like that.

"I want to come with you!" She screamed and Nial perceived that hundreds of pairs of eyes flicked over to him. He nodded his head and lightly stroked her hair with his free hand.

The little girl let out a happy squeal after seeing that Nial wasn't letting her wander on the streets all alone. They both left the guild hall not long after.

"Are you sure that it will be fine to leave them alone? This seems to be a little bit too weird..." an older Original spoke to the receptionist in front of him. His eyes were filled with worry and his legs began to quiver when trying to see what was covered behind the black cloak and the crow mask.

To the older Original, Nial seemed extremely dangerous. Thus, he couldn't help but feel a little bit worried about the well-being of the young girl.

"Do you think that little girl behaved as if she was being kidnapped?" The receptionist responded with another question that was supposed to convince the older Original that everything was fine.

However, this didn't work out well because the older Original kept looking at the retreating figure of Nial with a deep frown on his face.

"It's possible..." He merely said before he heard a deep sigh from the receptionist.

"The masked man is a respected Adventurer, who has finished the most missions since the guild hall has been built on the Origin. Please refrain from tarnishing his image..." The receptionist told him off in a seething tone before he added a few more convincing words "...ask yourself why a kidnapper would be bothered about bringing a child to the guild hall and inquire if we can do a city-wide announcement!"

The older Original clearly heard what the receptionist said but he didn't really want to accept it. The situation was simply too weird and it looked like he was the only one seeing the bad in this situation.

'Maybe I'm wrong then?' He wondered, just to get back in line to accept a C-rank mission.

Meanwhile, Nial and the little Oracle spend their time purchasing a bunch of Origin crystals and other essentials for the little girl.

"After the Alliance Auction is concluded, I'll find your parents...it's not possible for you to drop from the sky or appear out of nowhere!" Nial informed, visualizing the eyes of the little girl. They were swept through with a purple glimmer, which was something that Nial had never perceived before.

Furthermore, it was only now that Nial heard other people speaking about the appearance of the girl. He knew that she looked like a cute little doll but that was already everything.

Apparently, she had long straight silver hair, a round face, and brightly glistering purple eyes. Silver hair was extremely rare and so were purple eyes. Nial had silver hair as well, which was why he knew that not many people had such hair color!

When Nial arrived in the Pagoda, he was eyed weirdly by some of the present Valxians and a bunch of challengers of the Thousand Bodies Refinements Dojo entrance test but he ignored them.

There was no more time to waste because he had to make up for the investment of 500 million contribution points and earn more than that if possible.

Furthermore, he had to bind the [Summoning] ability to himself. Nial was pretty sure that it wouldn't be difficult to bind the ability to his Mana Core because [Mental Control] didn't make things difficult for him when he bound it to his mana core either. It was different than binding an ability crystal to his mana core and the Odyssey seed that had evolved to the Heart of Darkness.

There would be a few more things going on when the Heart of Darkness was involved, but that was not the case right here.

Thus, Nial would be able to bind [Summoning] to his Mana Core quite easily.

"Little Oracle, please have some fun with Ryu, my comrade," Nial said when they entered their room as he introduced the wingless Gryphon to the little girl. Ryu was already waiting for Nial and the wingless Gryphon was overjoyed when he finally saw Nial.

He jumped toward his master and demanded to be caressed just to notice that a tiny little girl was sitting on his arm.

"Kieuk?" Ryu chirped in confusion and tilted his head as Nial explained who was the new member.

"I somehow picked up this little girl, and she says that she has no parents...sooo I have no idea what I'm supposed to do. You can play with her while I bind a new ability to my Mana Core. Afterward, I will have to craft a few runic armaments to make up for the contribution points I've invested." Nial knew that his explanation was not very helpful but Ryu could sense the complex emotions Nial felt right now.

It was obvious that Nial was overwhelmed with the thought of taking care of a little child, and he was not really supposed to do that, to begin with. He was not the father of the little Oracle after all nor was he someone of age or experience to look after a kid!

Ryu rubbed his head against Nial's chest to reassure him that he would look after the kid. That gave Nial the necessary confidence to remove all Origin crystals from his spatial ring.

He held the [Summoning] ability crystal tightly in his hand. After accessing all Origin crystals around him, Nial made sure that the strands of pure mana would sweep through the ability crystal.

The power of the ability crystal would then be circulated through his body while the crystal crumbled. There was no hesitation in Nial's movements as he bound the ability to his Mana Core. However, the same unique scenario as it had occurred with [Mental Control] happened once again.

The ability evolved and an abyssal black insignia was engraved on his Mana Core instead.

This was something Nial had hoped to happen but he didn't actually expect his newly bound ability to evolve once again. After all this meant that all of his abilities had already evolved to a certain degree.

The Curse [Hodur's Heir] had had a tag removed when it had been bound to him, [Crimson Moon] had evolved to [Blood Eclipse Moon], [Mental Control] had evolved to [Dominion], and now [Summoning] had evolved to an ability called [Awakening of the Prymal]!