Odyssey of the Blind God

When the chubby merchant saw the crystal Nial had pressed into his hands, he was momentarily confused.

Even though he thought more highly of the young man than before, he presumed the Earth elemental crystal to be of the Common rank, and not ungraded with the [Comprehension] tag.

As such, he frowned for a moment and was about to tell Nial that the elemental crystal was not worth enough.

However, when he saw Nial's expression, the chubby merchant knitted his eyebrows and took a second glance at the crystal.

After inserting a trace of mana into it, he was able to read its full name, including the [Comprehension] tag, causing his eyes to widen in shock.

"You…where did you get it from??"

There were only a few dungeon beasts that dropped unique crystals like elemental crystals, but the number of beasts that dropped elemental affinity crystals with the [Comprehension] tag was even rare, and the chance to receive one was less than one in a million.

As such, the number of elemental affinity crystals just like the one he was holding was close to zero. Maybe…the one he was holding was the only Earth affinity crystal with the comprehension tag that existed!

Swallowing his saliva, the chubby merchant didn't even need a second to comprehend that the Cursed Crystal [Hodur's Heir] was way more valuable than the elemental affinity crystal Nial offered him.

This had multiple reasons, but the simplest would be his son.

He was a late bloomer and had just awoken his origin a few months ago, yet, he didn't dare to bind a single ability to his mana core owing to the Innate ability he had awoken.

His son's Innate ability was called [Elemental comprehension] but there was no further information about it.

However, given the fact that there was news about this Innate ability existing in the form of a single element, comprehending the meaning of the Innate ability was not difficult.

To put it simply, the chubby merchant's son was able to comprehend everything about the elements much easier than everyone else…or so it was supposed to be.

Given his Innate ability, binding just any powerful ability to his mana core was useless, and the chubby merchant knew that his son required an elemental affinity with the [Comprehension] tag to make the most use of the Innate ability.

Thus, he didn't hesitate to hand over the Cursed Crystal [Hodur's Heir(Basic)] without even negotiating further.

He was simply too relieved and happy to have found the perfect crystal for his son.

The Cursed Crystal was useless for him, but the [Earth affinity(Comprehension)] crystal would finally help his son advance.

"We have a deal, but keep in mind that our shop doesn't take any responsibility for ANYTHING that happens when you use the sold goods! Keep that in mind, and…stay alive!"

All of a sudden, the chubby merchant blurted a warning and looked like he wanted to excuse himself. Saying so, he impatiently walked through the room, and into the warehouse, only to come out with a jacket.

From the looks of it, he wanted to leave his shop too, and seeing that Nial was simply staring at the Cursed crystal, the chubby merchant shook his head before heading home to find his son.

'I did it! There is still one more month left, maybe…just maybe my little rockstar can do it!' He thought while leaving his attendant and the one and only ordinary customer they had for the entire month, alone.

The skinny attendant was confused by the sudden excitement in the eyes of his boss, but instead of minding it, he sat down on the small chair behind the corner before he closed his eyes once again, returning to the sweet dreams he had before Nial had appeared inside the Cursed Crystal shop.

As such, Nial was left alone, but he didn't even notice anything as he was simply staring at the Cursed crystal in his hand with excitement.

He didn't even question if he was doing the correct thing because the Odyssey seed was vibrating wildly.

It was almost as if it was trying to share its excitement with Nial which was weird but also quite intriguing.

However, instead of fulfilling his desire to bind the crystal to his mana core, right away, Nial returned to the flat he had rented.

On his way home, he purchased many origin crystals for himself so as to bind the crystal to his mana core.

In most cases, binding an ability to the mana core was not difficult, and could be initiated relatively easily.

With stronger abilities, one used mana to slowly transfer the ability, the information of the ability, and other properties through the crystal, catalyzing them with mana in order to prevent causing damage to the mana core.

This was very important if one was of weaker nature, or the ability was too potent.

Unfortunately, in Nial's case, both the cases were true. On one hand, he was weak and the Cursed Crystal was very potent according to his gut feeling, the Odyssey seed's reaction, and the chubby merchant's words.

Thus, he decided to be a little bit more careful, instead of adding another thing to the list of reckless tasks he was doing.

After all, even considering binding the Curse [Hodur's Heir] to his mana core was the purest form of insanity, to put it simply!

Yet, everything within him screamed that it was fine and that it was his fate to bind this Curse!

With that in mind, he spread out hundreds of low-quality origin crystals in the room and loosened a small thread of mana from all of them, which he then connected to the Cursed Crystal.

Afterward, he took a deep breath to calm himself as excitement along with a trace of fear flared up from the depths of his conscience when he inserted his own mana into the Cursed Crystal.

[Hodur's Heir(Basic)]

At that moment, the familiar words manifested in his mind, and he grasped the words with his conscience while moving them towards his mana core.

There, he tried to connect his mana core with the words, slowly draining the Cursed Crystal of its energy.

When Nial started his first attempt, the mana threads which he connected to the Cursed Crystal were quickly being used up, allowing the Cursed energy that was intertwined with mana to enter his body at a slow pace.

This was quite advantageous because the provided mana gave him the necessary energy to properly bind the Cursed energy that was forming and binding the Curse to his mana core.

Piercing through his mana core, the Curse didn't take long before showing its potency, as it coursed through his body, reaching every single cell.

Feeling the energy of the Curse, Nial's white eyes began to glow, only for the Cursed energy to course through his head, targeting his almost completely white eyes and changing the milky white pupils into those with black outlines.

This made his eyes seem more alive, and less devilish, yet, at the same time, the eerie sensation radiated by the pitch-black color caused everyone who looked into his eyes to shudder in fear.

That was under the condition that their will was weaker than the Curse that had infiltrated Nial's eyes.

Yet, the curse was not completely bound to Nial yet.

Rather, it had just begun the process as black miasma was released from his body, which was slowly filling the entire room, and trying to expand further.

However, this was not possible owing to multiple factors, with the biggest being Nial's abysmally weak strength and the measly amount of mana he possessed.

As such, the energy of the curse that was coursing through his entire body was slowly damaging him.

It was too potent for him to handle and soon began to scream. ｆ𝓇𝘦ℯ𝙬𝑒𝐛n𝐨νe𝙡.c𝑜𝗺

The pain engulfed him and he could do nothing but endure it while writhing and twitching on the floor uncontrollably. The black miasma tightly enveloped him like a shroud of darkness.

At this moment, Nial felt that something was happening to his body.

Every single cell within him was starting to change owing to the cursed energy. It was a slow process and seemed to take an eternity, but Nial gritted his teeth, while trying to ignore the pain by all means.

Yet, despite all of his efforts, it was impossible for him to stop screaming.

Through this, the cursed energy was partially released from his body, strengthening the restricted mana that began to expand even further.

In this very second, the window's glasses shattered and shot out in all directions, but Nial didn't notice any of this.

He was even oblivious to the cracks that began to spread through his room, followed by the door that was torn out of its frame, releasing the black miasma that spread through the large corridor.

It could be his fate or just an unfortunate coincidence that occurred the moment the black miasma advanced through the hallways. A young woman with blonde hair walked through the hallways, wearing combat clothes, blood smeared on the fair skin on her flawless face.

Having returned from one of the most dangerous dungeon conquests she had ever been, Bella, the young blond-haired woman didn't even notice that the entire hallway in front of her was suddenly filled with black miasma.

Her only desire had been to take a good amount of sleep inside her room, but sensing the black miasma, it looked like her sleep was bound to be eternal if she were to go near it!

Bella's golden eyes widened, and bright flames flickered in her eyes as her hair began to burn in a bright golden light, making it look like she was prepared to tear apart the miasma with her bare hands.

Though she had imagined herself doing that, she could feel an eerie feeling crawl up her spine in the presenceof the miasma. She felt oddly insignificant in front of the black miasma which had never happened to her before in her life, EVER!

It was almost as if she was bound to be devoured at any moment if nothing were to change.

When Nial perceived what was just about to happen, that too because of him, he managed to shout out with all of his remaining strength.

"STOOPP!"

The moment he shouted out, darkness shot out of Nial's body, enveloping the black miasma with an even darker tone before everything was retracted, leaving behind nothing but the destroyed surroundings, and a heavily breathing young woman that stared at the empty hallway with fear spreading through her entire body.

'Was…I just dreaming?!'

Meanwhile, Nial was oblivious to what was going on as severe pain spread through his entire body, as if electricity was crackling through him, thousands of milliampere at once.

The only thing he realized was that his Odyssey seed had saved him from killing an innocent person…or so he thought.

Yet, his Odyssey seed that had released the darkness to retract the black miasma which had its origin in the cursed energy, didn't pulsate twice as it was the case last time when it had released the darkness.

What confused him is that it didn't pulsate at all, meaning that Nial had instinctively accessed the Odyssey seed to manifest the darkness from within it in order to retract the black miasma.

Forcing the black miasma inside his body, where it was supposed to be, the changes occurring within Nial were taking on a proper form.

After that, they slowly merged with each other before accepting the remnants of the black miasma which had merged with his body as well.

Under normal circumstances, these changes would be the part in which everything within him would be enhanced, while the curse would slowly start showing signs of doing something.

Yet, Nial was unable to feel a single negative property, let alone some enhancements.

At most, he was able to perceive something around his eyes, something dark, which was probably the curse that was blinding him…if that was even possible to do to someone who was already blind!

At this moment, Nial noticed that the Odyssey seed had not only known about the area the curse would affect him, but owing to the seemingly ordinary seed, the (Basic) tag of the Curse [Hodur's Heir] had disappeared!

This was already shocking enough, but that was not everything because the Curse was not only bound to his mana core, but it was, in fact, also connected to the Odyssey seed!

He was unaware of the exact meaning of this, and even if he were to know, it would be impossible for him to comprehend the truth behind it.

Having endured the excruciating pain, his body began to feel extremely heavy, the pain that had seeped through his body began to disperse at a slow pace, and was replaced by unbearable drowsiness that pulled him into a deep sleep out of which he couldn't escape.

Oblivious to the truth, he didn't even understand that he had been dragged into something he had never wanted to be a part of- the War of the Gods!