Odyssey of the Blind God

Nial was subject to even weirder stares than before now that the efficiency of his plan had been unveiled.

His Tier-0 runic boots and chestplate had been of exceptional use, especially the heavy boots which he had cast for the close-combat Runic Puppets.

They had been able to use their weight to elevate the strength and momentum behind their attacks. This was something many Runiciers had yet to learn about, the influence certain pieces of equipment had on the overall combat prowess of any being.

Simultaneously, they got to understand that Tier-0 runic armaments were not entirely useless. Tier-0 runic armaments may not be on par with Tier-1 runic armaments in various aspects but they were certainly not worse.

Given the fact that the Runic Puppets had the strength of beings at the Mirae rank, Tier-0 runic armaments were the most common equipment they could wear. Beasts wouldn't be able to easily pierce through the protective garment of Tier-0 runic armaments either.

This was a major factor the Runiciers had missed out on, believing that only Tier-1 runic armaments were of any importance.

However, even Nial ignored the crucial importance of Tier-0 runic armaments. He could have created far more casts to create a full-armor set for every single Runic Puppet. This would have been quite interesting!

Various ideas formed in Nial's head and he began to wonder if he shouldn't be more focused on learning more Basic and Intermediate runic constellations of other races, new techniques to engrave runic constellations, and so on.

This might even allow him to study enough to grow stronger at a much faster pace than advancing in the ranks of a Runicier rapidly.

Nial was contemplating what he should do next.

'Well, it's not like I will be able to start anything new, or rather something else as Runicier before the tournament comes to an end. And the moment it ends, I should leave as quickly as possible as well…the murders, or rather, disappearances of Runiciers are worrisome,' Nial reminded himself, not even noticing that his thoughts had drifted back to the missing Runiciers.

Finn, the Balgris, Nial had been talking to for quite a while, looked at him with a faint smile.

"Looks like your runic armaments are stronger than they look…or maybe it's the Runicier, who planned everything to happen?" Finn sounded mysterious as he talked to Nial, but Nial just shrugged his shoulders.

He was neither satisfied nor disappointed with his final result. It was good enough for increasing his probability of advancing to the 3rd round and that was everything that mattered.

The following challengers were not nearly as good as Nial, and he got bored. Finn was also bored, which was why the two, who had become friends, continued to talk with each other.

They shared their knowledge about runic armaments, Runiciers, and much more, which was quite helpful to fill the gaps both of them had.

None of them was all-knowing and they learned a lot. Nial was quite happy that he had finally found someone to talk to. It hadn't been lonely in Yggdrasil but being alone in the Golden City was a bit different.

His family was far away and not even a single Elf could be found in the Golden City. Nial didn't really think that the Elves were that important to him but he could also tell that it would be easier to talk to just any Elf rather than approaching strangers.

Elves would immediately be able to tell that he was loved by mana and nature, and that would help him have an easy and pleasant conversation with them from the get-go.

Nial was not much of a talker when it came to strangers, which was why he would have been quiet until the entire U21 Runicier tournament would have ended.

Fortunately, Finn was an extrovert, who was easily able to make friends. He was a bit young, barely 16 years old but that made things a bit easy for Nial didn't feel that there was any pressure talking to such a young teenager.

"Isn't it your turn soon?" Nial asked, and Finn nodded his head in anticipation.

"I may not be able to get as far as you but it looks like I will be able to get around 20th place or something around that. Barely enough to advance to the 3rd round," Finn acknowledged, but that didn't lower his anticipation in the slightest.

He was still excited and wanted to show off what he was capable of as a 16 year old Balgris!

In the end, he was the only Balgris, who had advanced to the second round, but that was already beyond everyone's expectations because the Balgris race was said to be good alchemists and not Runiciers.

Finn's runic solutions were the best, by far, and that was how Nial found a good way to figure out many things related to alchemy, while Finns' knowledge about runic constellations was deepened through Nial's knowledge.

Finn had ranked at place 121, which was quite low in Nial's opinion, especially since the young Balgris was confident of advancing to the third round.

However, the customized runic weapons he had created were all special, even if they were only Tier-0. All of his runic armaments were Tier-0 but they had been customized after taking into account all possibilities and needs of the puppets, which was why Finn's Runic Puppets easily reached the 11th round before they were finally destroyed.

More than 36 hours had passed before the last participant of the U21 Runicier tournament finished his challenge. Nial ended up in the top 5, while Finn ended up advancing to the 3rd round at the 25th place which was a tremendous improvement from his previous position.

This overjoyed Finn, while Nial could smile drily.

'Seems like he's quite lucky that more than 40 participants were missing, otherwise, he would have never been able to advance to the 3rd round,' Nial thought though he was happy for him.

However, in the end, it was a fact and many depressed Runiciers voiced out their anger without restraint.

"This young kiddo is really lucky. To think that the death of more than 40 Runiciers would affect the tournament so much… even a small kid with no talent as a Runicier can advance to the 3rd round now…ridiculous!" A Stilak was fuming in anger and many other participants of the tournament, who didn't meet the requirement nodded their heads, adding more fuel to the fire.

"It is truly ridiculous, a Balgris without talent was able to advance. If I tell that to my master back at our territory, he will probably die of embarrassment. How could I lose out to someone like this tiny bastard?"

Finn didn't even seem to notice that anyone was talking about him. He was just happy, which caused Nial to smile.

'He is a really good kid!' Nial grew certain that Finn was a good and well-raised kid. He smiled gently and congratulated Finn for advancing to the next round.

[Now that the final 25 participants of the U21 Runicier tournament have been determined, we will allow everyone to rest until tomorrow morning. We have prepared separate rooms for everyone in the Colosseum to guarantee the participants' safety. Nobody will be able to visit you until the tournament is over!] Card Melphy's voice resounded in the entire Colosseum and Nial inwardly rejoiced.

It was quite advantageous that they would rest in the Colosseum, especially if there would be a few powerful Originals protecting them.

Nial had hoped that they would finish the tournament today but that didn't happen and he had to accept it.

'Well, a bit of rest won't harm me,' He tried to console himself before he followed his personal attendant who had appeared in front of him.

It was a young woman, who led him to a small room that had been prepared in a hurry.

"Feels like a small weapon storage to me," Nial sensed the remnants of mana that came from runic constellations. He could tell that the room had never been designed to be used as a sleeping place but that was not something Nial had expected to find inside the Colosseum, to begin with.

Stretching out his range of perception, Nial activated [Mana Sense] as well. The other participants of the U21 Runicier tournament were brought to rooms similar to his. Each room was quite small and they were quite cramped and closely packed.

Some Runiciers were talking with each other, while others preferred to rest.

Nial chose to rest as well and he fell asleep after a while. Several hours passed and it was already late at night when he heard a knock at his door.

His range of perception quickly detected that it was Finn, who was knocking at the door. Nial was drowsy, and he stifled a yawn before he got up from the bed.

"Finn, what's going on? Did I oversleep or something like that?" He asked, lightly slapping his cheeks to get over his drowsiness.

When he was fully awake, Nial halted in his tracks. His hand was already grasping the doorknob of the locked door but he didn't hear anything from Finn.

This was weird, especially since the young Balgris was a talkative young man.

Thus, Nial released his [Mana Sense] to focus on Finn to perceive if something was wrong.

Nial didn't detect anything around the young Balgris, but there was something about the young man that seemed to have changed drastically.

Nial frowned lightly before he released his range of perception and [Mana Sense] outward. It spread out, and as if he had already seen it coming, he found more than 6 dead Runiciers in their rooms.

He clearly visualized them, one big wound that killed them immediately.

'Finn…killed them? Doesn't he fear getting found out…and I'm his next target? Just what is he planning?' Nial was confused, but that was only obvious. The young Balgris was weaker than the Runiciers he seemed to have killed.

'But it seems like he is a bit dumb for thinking that I'm naive enough not to notice what is going on…' Nial realized that Finn was taking him way too lightly just because he was blind. Or else he wouldn't walk upto him without fearing that Nial wouldn't sense the tiny droplet of blood of another Runicier that was splattered on the Balgris' feathered wings.

He pressed a button that everyone received at the very beginning of the Runic tournament. It created the copper sphere around him and notified the authorities that someone had activated the protection sphere. This would be enough for anyone to be able to conclude that something was wrong.

"How did your mana kill all the Runiciers?" Nial asked and he opened the door in a sudden movement before he activated something he had retrieved from his spatial ring.

A tiny black ball heated up in his hand, releasing a dazzling light that forced the young Balgris to stop moving. He had planned to charge forward and end Nial's life in an instant. After all, the young and blind Original was naive and at a much lower mana core rank than himself.

"Weren't there a bunch of them with much higher mana core rank? Your Mana core rank is only at the 5th Superior Mirae rank, so how did you do it?" Nial asked, looking straight at the young Balgris, who had retrieved a pitch-black dagger from his spatial ring.

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