Due to the dungeon breaks inside the deeper parts of the base, and outside, where most young Originals were located, chaos had descended upon the humans on the nameless island.
As such, even after the dungeons had been closed and the most powerful beasts around had been killed as well, there were lots of things for everyone to do.
Most young Originals within the camp had been told to rest, but only a few followed this instruction.
The others helped store away the beast corpses, the Origin crystals, the ability crystals, and even some other unique objects some beasts left behind.
With a team effort, the caves were quickly cleaned, mostly in order to prevent other beasts from getting attracted to the pungent stench of the blood of more than ten thousand beasts wafting through the air.
This had been an important task, followed by the retrieval of all young Originals from outside the camp.
Most of them might not have encountered Goblins as it was the case for Nial, Bella, and Mathias, but there were still some that had encountered Goblin Wolfriders.
Luckily, there had been no second encounter with a Lesser Goblin Shaman, let alone the emergence of more runic armaments.
Because of that, the military had calmed down a little bit, allowing them to get over the pain and sorrow of having lost more than 3 higher ups, and 10 more that had been gravely injured.
All of them owned at least 4 Intermediate Origin rings, which made them one of the strongest in the rows of mankind's Originals.
The fact that so many powerful Originals were injured, or even dead, clearly indicated what mankind's place was in the food pyramid.
They might not be at the lowest, but to become the dominating race of Jundra once again they needed far more strength.
And this was something that every single human could clearly sense.
Owing to this feeling, the Soldiers that were in charge of the Rookie dungeon breakouts felt quite relieved.
It was not that they were happy about the death of their higher-ups or anything like that.
Instead, they were witnessing the strength of the new generation, which allowed them to feel a trace of hope.
Even the blind youth, they had expected to cower in fear had shocked them to the core.
Not a single of the 20 young Originals, who fought by their side was weak, but there were a few exceptional cases that attracted the Soldiers' attention.
These Originals had received a special mention in the reports which Soldiers had been told to hand over to the authorities about the entire situation, once the previous tasks had been fulfilled.
And this included that all participants of the military camp had finally entered the basement, and completed the first mission that had been given to them.
In the end, it had been chaotic, but the only Originals that died had been those who had succumbed to the terrifying force of the Lesser Titan youngling.
This astonished everyone quite a bit, but it was considered a small trace of luck and a relieving factor within the misfortune of the dungeon breaks.
Meanwhile, as the other participants of the military camp flocked towards the base within the mountainside, Nial and the others handed over all the corpses of the beasts they picked up after the dungeon breaks were over.
They were about to hand over the Origin crystals and ability crystals they had picked up as well, but the young man, who worked in the warehouse, quickly shook his head.
"I have been instructed not to accept the Origin crystals or anything other than the beast corpses. If you don't want them, please go to one of the few stores in the base, and sell them there.
You will be allowed to retain everything you picked up as a means of gratitude from the military for your contribution today."
Nial, Mathias, and Bella simply nodded their heads without thinking about not accepting the gains they had made before they returned to their rooms.
After taking a well-deserved shower, they changed into comfortable clothes, only to fall into a deep slumber, as they gave in to their body's demand for rest.
All three of them took a rather long nap of more than 18 hours and woke up the next day.
Their eyes felt heavy and their body sore while the mattress was simply too comfortable to get up.
As such, both Mathias and Bella gave up on their efforts to wake themselves up and simply fell asleep once again.
That left just Nial who was now awake, his lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling of their room.
He was also tired, but his Odyssey seed was bothering him right now.
The 'I' that had been engraved on it in a crimson color was something he didn't understand.
But something within him told Nial that it was important and that there were things he should do with it.
Thus, after giving it some thought, he inserted a few traces of mana inside the crimson 'I' stroke.
Nothing happened at first, and Nial began to think that he was doing something wrong.
However, it was just when he felt like stopping the supply of mana that he noticed something.
'The stroke is disappearing?'
The more mana Nial supplied to the crimson stroke the dimmer its crimson color turned, changing from a brighter, vibrant crimson to a mellow, pale red.
This confused him a little bit, but he also understood that the Odyssey seed and the stroke had no distinct connection with each other.
It was different from the connection that his mana core and the Odyssey seed had, owing to their bond to the [Hodur's Heir] curse.
As such, Nial was slightly confused, only to continue supplementing traces of mana inside the crimson stroke.
Hours passed, and Nial had to stop his supply several times in order to replenish his mana naturally.
As such, instead of solely focusing on tending to the crimson stroke, he attempted to hasten up his mana recuperation process as well.
For this, Nial used the knowledge he had procured from the Control of the Ancient Monarch technique.
The technique provided him with numerous tips and tricks on how to use mana in a better way, irrespective of whether it was for fighting purposes or to absorb and annex mana!
He simply continued to switch between supplying mana to the crimson stroke and altering his mana replenishing process for a few hours. He was so engrossed in the task that he didn't even notice that it was already early in the morning.
What he didn't notice as well was the fact that now only faint crimson outlines were left behind from the stroke on his Odyssey seed.
And even the remnants were slowly dimming down, changing to a black color.
However, this black tone was much deeper than the Odyssey seed's natural shade, which made Nial curious about it.
Unfortunately, his entire focus was on the abyss-like black stroke that the outside world and the surroundings around him were something Nial barely noticed.
As such, the fact that a swirl of dark energy had emerged from the left side of his back was also something he didn't notice at first.
Congregating at one place, the darkness swirl turned into a small pitch-black portal that began to enlarge right next to Nial.
But until he noticed this quite some time had already passed, and it was only when he regained his senses that Nial froze in place, realizing that a portal had just manifested near him!!
"Wait…no!" He suddenly blurted out with shock reverberating through his voice, waking up both Bella and Mathias.
They jumped up from their beds, thinking that something bad was about to happen.
Yet, upon casting a glance through the room, they could only see that Nial was sweating profusely.
There was nothing else wrong, and the small black portal had disappeared.
This happened the moment Nial had exclaimed in astonishment and voiced out his unwillingness for the portal to manifest.
In reaction to his outburst, the crimson outlines around the stroke reappeared once again.
'I…just manifested a portal with the use of this weird stroke?!'
Though he realized this, it didn't make him feel any better.
But at the same time, he had clearly felt that the portal of darkness hadn't been something bad.
There was no reason for him to truly believe that nothing would happen to him by stepping through the darkness portal.
Yet, somehow he felt drawn to the portal.
And this was the truly bothersome part because Nial had no idea whether he had this feeling because of the Odyssey seed's intention, or if it was his own conscience that was urging him to manifest the darkness portal once again.
'The Odyssey seed is not reacting, at all…but does that really mean it is not influencing my decision, right now?'
Nial was unable to answer this confidently.
Unfortunately, it was a very important question, which led him to reconsider manifesting the darkness portal, once again.
He was not worried about it as he knew that he could do at any time, as long as the crimson outlines of the 'I' shaped stroke would turn black.
If he were to be in a predicament because of a shortage of time, he wouldn't have entered the Darkness portal.
After all, the incident from 15 years had been more than enough for him to think that the sudden emergence of portals was certainly bothersome.
This was even more so the case if it was not even a normal dungeon portal but something entirely different, something created out of pure darkness.
"Nial…are you fine? Did you have a nightmare, or is there some other problem?" Bella asked all of a sudden, appearing near him.
However, not everyone was like her, and she might have expected too much from Nial and Mathias.
Only a single glance towards Mathias told her that he was not feeling all that well either.
As such, she began to wonder if there was something she could do to help the two young Originals.
If Kassandra or someone else, who had known Bella for a longer time, were to see her right now, they would be shocked.
Their first thought would be to wonder whether this was still the same cold-hearted Bella they knew from a few years ago.
After all, the young girl they knew would never even think of worrying about the mental health of others.
Yet, this was exactly what happened as she was genuinely concerned about Nial, only for him to shake his head.
"I'm fine. Do not worry, and I am sorry for waking you two!"
Forcing a small smile on his lips, he hid his worries from his friends.
They shouldn't know about what had just happened, or the fact that he had just manifested a portal in their small room.
But it was not difficult to see that Nial was hiding something from them.
Nonetheless, instead of forcing their friend to tell them what bothered him, they didn't say much about it.
While Mathias kept his silence, knowing that he was not able to tell them about his deepest secret as well, Bella just smiled before saying,
"In that case, don't worry too much. If something is bothering you, just know that you can talk to us!"
Nial just nodded his head after hearing her words and knew deep within him that Bella's words were true and that he could trust them.
However, the current situation was not even close to being considered simple.
As such, before telling his new friends about the darkness portal, Nial wanted to figure out what was going on with him first!
Little did Nial know that this was far more difficult than expected and that this was likely to endanger everyone close to him even more.
After all, Nial's secrets were far more dangerous to others especially because nobody knew about them!
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