Odyssey of the Blind God

The following days passed quickly.

Nial didn't get any sleep except on the last day, where he felt the need to sleep to wash away his tiredness.

He finished the engravings on the third Ancient Origin ring within days, which was much faster than one would usually require to engrave all the necessary runic constellations.

Nial's forte was runic constellations, which was why their engraving process wouldn't drag on his advancement in any way.

Now, the only thing he had to do to keep advancing was to absorb more mana, compress it and turn it into the fourth Origin ring's frame. The fourth Ancient Origin ring would be slightly more problematic than the third because there would be many Intermediate runic constellations he would have to engrave.

The higher their perfection grade the higher the efficiency of the Ancient Origin ring. This was something quite obvious but Nial only realized how true the perfection grade of runic constellations was when he finished the third Ancient Origin ring.

Contrary to the first two Origin rings that hadn't been perfect, the third Ancient Origin ring was perfect, in every sense. The potency of every function it provided was more than 30% higher than it was usually the case.

Nial's affinity toward mana increased drastically, which reinforced his range of perception, the functions of his Innate ability [Mana sense], and all of his senses.

"Given my current prowess, Intermediate runic constellations are not a problem anymore. It's just a bit sad that Master Crevian didn't teach me any Advanced runic constellations, otherwise, I would have tried to show off during the tournament," Nial mumbled to himself as he passed through the crowded streets.

Everyone was trying to find their way to the huge colosseum that was designated to be used for Artisan tournaments, including the U21 Runicier tournament.

This year, the prizes for the U21 Runicier tournament had increased, which was also why the number of participants skyrocketed. Usually, only close to 1000 Runiciers would dare to participate in the tournament, and even that number was quite high.

The participation fee was quite high and interestingly, the number of somewhat talented Runiciers below the age of 21 was low. It was not unlikely that the young and arrogant 'talented' Runiciers would tarnish the bits of reputation they had built at their young age.

If they started their career with a bad reputation, they may as well give up becoming renowned Runiciers in the future.

The majority of the participants considered themselves prodigious but in the end, they were not all that talented. In the face of true talent, they were merely rookies.

Unfortunately, in most cases, reality would always catch up to them too late and they would disgrace themselves and their masters for daring to attempt facing truly prodigious Runiciers.

Nial had no idea how talented he was in comparison to others but he would give his best to win the grand prize and to learn a lot.

Demanding more from him would be quite ridiculous because giving his best was usually equal to 120% of what he was truly capable of.

As all these thoughts were churning through his mind, he kept passing through the crowd of spectators, all of whom frowned at him. Some spectators even tried to grasp Nial's collar to lecture him and push him back in the queue, however, he quickly evaded them.

After some time, the spectators became too annoying for Nial, which was why he created a small copper sphere around his body with the use of a runic constellation.

Everyone kept a distance from this dome because that copper sphere indicated that Nial was a participant in the U21 Runicier tournament. Manhandling him could be considered a severe crime because one might think that other participants hired the perpetrator to increase their chances of victory.

Similar incidents happened often enough, which was why the device that created the copper spheres had been created in the first place.

'What was the number of participants this year? 10,000 or something around that number?' Nial tried to recall the number he had heard last time. He was pretty sure that the number of the participants had swelled to ten times that of the last time the U21 Runicier tournament had been held.

This was actually quite interesting because it clearly showed that the Dryad Queen's Tear was far more valuable than one might imagine.

However, it wasn't only the Dryad Queen's Tear that attracted everyone's attention. There were several other grand prizes that could be chosen instead of the Dryad Queen's Tear, such as a Blaze Dragon's Heart, or a Silvergaerd Unicorn's Horn.

But that was not everything because many renowned and legendary Runiciers from various clans, sects, and other organizations chose to visit the Golden City and spectate the U21 Runicier tournament.

Even independent Runiciers chose to join the tournament, ignoring their principles of working alone for the small possibility that their talent was enough to attract these legendary Runiciers.

Becoming their disciple was the dream of the vast majority of Runiciers. Nial didn't belong to this majority, which was why he couldn't care less about the legendary Runiciers.

He passed through the crowd and walked toward the counter, where the participants of the tournament would receive their numbers before they would be screened and inspected. Only after his identity was proven and once he was thoroughly checked was he allowed to enter the Colosseum.

His number was [8931] and he had to go to the 9th levitating platform that was located high in the air above the Colosseum.

The colosseum was huge and a thousand small ordinary smithies, ordinary tables, and tools for both concocting and engraving were placed neatly next to each on the first floor.

Platforms that were levitating 20 meters above each other were stacked above the Colosseum which was more than 200 meters in height. Nial was pretty interested in the platforms because they were hovering in the air through the use of special runic armaments. They attracted his curiosity more than the thousands of participants he passed by.

After perceiving 10 flying platforms above the first floor, Nial knew that the number of participants was just a bit above 10,000.

Without hesitation, Nial jumped high in the air. He reached the first platform without much difficulty and continued his ascend. As an Original at the 3rd Ancient Mirae rank, his physical strength alone wouldn't be enough to allow him to jump 20 meters in the air over and over again.

However, the gravitational force on Ximatra was even lower than was the case on Yggdrasil. At first, Nial hadn't noticed anything but after a week in Yggdrasil and another week in the Golden City, Nial knew that Jundra's gravitational force was much higher than that of Elvian and Ximatra.

His physical strength was higher than that of others, just considering the fact that he was born on Jundra, where the gravitational force strengthened his flesh and bones. Nial was thus able to reach the 9th floor and his small workplace without difficulties.

"Now it makes sense why we were told not to bring anything with us. Looks like everyone will have the exact same condition for the first round," Nial mumbled quietly as he started to assess everything around him.

He focused his perception and [Mana Sense] on the workplace and quickly comprehended everything about it. A few runic constellations had been engraved on the ordinary smithy to light it up and release some of the coal that was stored in the storage space within the smithy.

The tables he was supposed to work at were separated, one was located opposite the smithy and it was the place where he would engrave all the runic constellations in the medieval-looking smithy. As for the other table, it was placed vertically between the smithy and the other table.

A corner of the table designated for runic constellations and another corner of the smithy touched the table Nial would have to use for concoction.

"That is such a stupid setup…" Nial mumbled as he enlarged his range of perception to figure out how much space ought to belong to him as his work area.

There were neat borders that had been carved on the ground to clearly show how big everyone's space was.

'So the first step will be to relocate the tables and place them away so to make sure that the smithy's heat won't affect the concoction process of the runic solutions!' Nial concluded, while also understanding that the concoction table and the engraving table shouldn't be that close to each other.

During the concoction process of the runic solutions, some liquid could splatter through the surrounding. This was nothing uncommon to happen and if even a drop of the unfinished runic solution would splash on a finished runic armament, it would be damaged, or possibly even scrapped entirely!

The tournament would start two hours later but everyone was told to be there as early as possible. In fact, the Golden Armaments Union had even let the information leak that one might be able to gain an advantage by showing up way before the start time.

Nial didn't think much about it, which was why he had finished the creation of his third Ancient Origin ring without a hurry before he went over to the Colosseum.

Now he understood why it was better to be present early. Not only could he have some understanding of the first round but it was also possible for him to find out what materials they could use.

Both the concoction table and the engraving table had storage space built inside them. Nial could access them to figure out what kind of ingredients he had received.

Most ingredients were common and there weren't actually many exceptionally rare ingredients in the storage spaces.

Only a bunch of different ores attracted his interest because he had only heard of them and had never seen them.

Master Crevian wanted to show him many things but that didn't mean it was possible to show him everything a Runicier had to know, not in the seven days he had been in Yggdrasil.

Meanwhile, in the 13 months before he arrived in Yggdrasil, Nial had been taught a lot but he was lacking most resources to start creating unique runic solutions, or runic armaments that focused on a specific trait.

This was one of his many disadvantages and it was also why Nial was rather thankful for the low-ranked and rather common ingredients he and everyone else received.

'I can create the most basic runic solution with it, a few modified runic solutions and it should be possible for runic solutions that are affable to elements to be created as well…' Nial was deep in thought that he didn't notice how fast time passed.

The rows inside the Colosseum were quickly filled, while Nial was trying to figure out what the best way would be to create powerful runic armaments with the given ingredients.

There was a wide variety of alloys he could create, a big range of modified runic solutions and so on but it would require quite a while to create most of them.

'I wonder what the first round will actually be!' Nial got more excited as his mind began to come up with possible tasks.

And finally, after two hours had passed, the tournament started as a sonorous voice resounded through the entire Colosseum.

[Dear esteemed Guests, I, Card Melphy, president of the Golden Armaments Union, welcome you to witness the glorious Runicier tournament, where more than 10,000 participants fight for the Grand Prize, and the right to call themselves, Heavenly Blessed Runicier!...]

**

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