Their arrival was not awaited so nobody spoke to them. To most Originals, both Nial and Mathias were insignificant.
They were not well known and most didn't know that they were Miranda's disciples either.
She didn't hide it but it was not as if Miranda openly told everyone that she took in new disciples either.
However, that was to Nial and Mathias' liking as they had some time for themselves.
It allowed them to spend more time getting to know the strength of the other Originals, to see who they might know and a few other pieces of information, which they could hear just by listening to the gossip all around them.
The attention all Originals received from the civilians was ignored by Nial, while Mathias went stiff as a board, giving his best not to do something stupid.
"There are a few members of the Sacred Knights. I can even see their leader amongst them." Mathias suddenly mumbled while pointing at a specific direction.
Nial had already perceived quite a few powerful individuals all around the plaza, but the direction Mathias pointed at was the most intriguing.
After Nial visualized everything around him, he could make out the rough appearance of the Sacred Knights, including the leader.
He wore rather ordinary armor that clung tightly to his broad shoulders. One could easily see the muscles that rippled beneath his armor, showing that he knew how to take care of his body very well.
'His strength is definitely on par with Kirlia's. Is he already at the Prometheus rank?' Nial frowned, not knowing whether both Kirlia and the leader of the Sacred Knights were at the Prometheus rank or if they were in possession of 9 Advanced Origin rings.
It was possible for the Sacred Knights leader to possess multiple Superior Origin rings as well.
The truth about their actual strength was not exactly important for Nial right now, simply because he was weaker than all of them, either way.
That was why he averted his attention to the newcomers, who made him feel far more interested than the potential incarnation of the God of Devils and Saints.
'Kirlia and the veiled woman are here!'
Even if Nial didn't want to irk Kirlia or her student in any way and face her wrath, he simultaneously hoped that it would be possible for him to figure out more about the veiled woman.
The only thing he wanted was to be able to visualize her face, just for one second. If his assumption was wrong and he was misunderstanding the woman for his sister, he would never bother about them again.
However, if he were to be right, Nial would have finally taken a big step toward reuniting with his family.
But even if he wanted to see the face hiding behind the veil, it was not as if he could approach her and simply tear apart her veil right here and right now.
That was why Nial decided to spread out his mana once again.
All of a sudden, he heard a few startled gasps in the most crowded area of the plaza.
The other Originals all around began to move as well, striding to the area where everyone had gathered before.
While the Originals from the outer areas of the plaza slowly made their way to the center, the crowded area of the plaza was slowly thinning despite the influx of people.
More and more Originals disappeared, only for others to replace them. However, they disappeared as well a few seconds later.
Nial perceived a teleportation array below the plaza's center. He grasped Mathias and moved toward the teleportation array.
"I guess the conquest is starting in a rather informal and unceremonial way," Nial remarked though he did not mind it.
Mathias nodded his head feeling unbothered that there was no ceremony before the conquest began.
"I wonder where we'll end up." Mathias said feeling a bit excited as well as curious about their destination.
However, what he didn't actually expect to find out was that they would be using additional teleportation arrays after they had been teleported away from the plaza's center.
They had ended up in a huge underground hall and some Soldiers had led them to one of the more than 20 teleportation arrays Nial could perceive in the huge hall.
'Did they teleport us to an intersection that leads to the different shelters? If so, does that mean each of the teleportation array represents a shelter?'
If that was true, the huge underground hall must be quite old by now. It must have been build when mankind had still more than 20 shelters, after all.
Nial was quite impressed that the huge underground hall had not yet been reduced to ruins if his prediction was truly correct.
But there was no time for him to research more about the underground hall, such as the reason for it to stay relatively unscathed for such a long time.
He and Mathias arrived in front of an inconspicuous teleportation array that brought them to a completely different place.
When the second teleportation was completed, a fresh gust of wind splashed on Nial's face. He took in a deep breath of air and smiled faintly before he expanded his range of perception using some traces of mana.
His Mana Sense was fully unleashed and he tried to perceive everything around him.
The ground below them felt a little bit soft and by perceiving his surroundings, Nial quickly noticed that they had ended up in a region that was sandwiched between a swamp and plains.
It was the second time for him to leave the shelters and enter the wilderness if one could count the nameless island as wilderness.
That was also why Nial was quite intrigued about the surrounding area, and the differences in the environment.
However, he quickly realized that everyone was tense. Not a single Original dared to slack off. They immediately formed groups and were ready to fight right at this instant if need be.
But that was not necessary because no dungeon beast was in their immediate surroundings. At least, Nial was not able to perceive any hostile moving lumps of mana.
"There are more than 5 dungeons in our vicinity." Nial suddenly said when he noticed the five dungeon portals which he could perceive.
Mathias was even more nervous than the others. He felt that he had to be strong and reminded himself that he had to give his all to outshine the others.
This was merely an urge he felt, and Mathias was not actually compelled to do it; outshine others. Surviving in the conquest today was more than enough.
"It looks so beautiful…the scenery is full of life…" He suddenly said, not even listening to Nial's comment.
When looking through his surroundings, Mathias couldn't help but explain.
He was stiff and uncomfortable with so many powerful Originals around him but the more time passed the easier it was for him to focus on the scenery around them.
Mathias was impressed by the things he perceived, and his body's tension eased a bit.
Nial didn't say anything about the beautiful scenery but that was only obvious. His visualized perception did not allow him to find many differences between the interior of dungeons and the wilderness. More or less, everything looked the same to him.
But there were probably some differences, which one would have to see to realize them, otherwise, Mathias wouldn't be so baffled by what he saw all around him.
All of a sudden, while many other Originals appeared behind them one after another, a huge group of more than a thousand beasts charged toward them.
Nial had quickly noticed them but the stronger Originals had already taken note of them beforehand.
Most of the beasts charging at them were at the Prym rank. They were not too strong but their numbers were higher than the Originals, who had already arrived in the wilderness.
Thus, three stronger Originals stepped forward, with two of them unsheathing their weapons.
Meanwhile, the third Original conjured more than a hundred crescent-shaped wind blades with a simple flick of his wrist.
Without waiting for the others to do something, the third Originals continued to move his hand to which the crescent wind blades reacted accordingly.
They blasted forward and shot at the charging hordes of the Bulls.
The moment the crescent wind blades encountered the Bulls, shrieks and howls reverberated through the plains, blood spurted like gushing fountains, and body parts were flung through the surrounding.
However, the Originals controlling the wind blades wasn't done yet even after more than a hundred Prym ranked bulls had died at his hand.
He continued to control the crescent wind blades, forcefully averted their trajectory to pierce through the hide and flesh of the bulls, and continued with his slaughter-feast.
The other two Originals looked at the third one with a deep frown, feeling that they had just been overpowered without receiving a chance to do anything.
But they kept mum and stepped back to avoid getting embarrassed any further.
In less than a minute, the Original had killed the entire horde of Prym-ranked bulls. More than 100 Origin crystals had dropped but the young man, who was wearing a robe that fluttered in the gust of wind that continued to whoosh around him at all times, didn't make a move to collect the monster corpses, let alone the Origin crystals.
While the Original had been fighting, Nial and Mathias had been pushed forward. The Originals behind them, who had just been teleported, pushed each other around because the area was too crowded.
Thus, without even wanting to, the two Originals had ended up closer to the third Original.
"It's such a waste to leave the corpses behind… The tendons of Prym-ranked bulls are great to create Tier-0 runic bows. Maybe if tempered properly, they would be endurable enough to create Tier-1 runic bows with. As for their horns, they look quite sharp and sturdy as well. They would make good arrowheads, daggers, and so on.
And these bulls were even physically attributed, so their body parts have been tempered with neutral mana."
Nial might not be able to create Tier-1 runic armament or even Tier-0 runic armaments for now but he was still a little bit sad that such precious corpses were simply littered on the ground.
To observe the fight just like the others could, Nial was forced to expand his range of perception and to focus all his senses in the direction of the battlefield.
The fight had been around one or two kilometers away from them, meaning that it shouldn't be that much of a hassle to collect the corpses.
Many Originals looked at him with slight interest when Nial began to speak about runic armaments and how useful the bull corpses were.
However, when they saw that Nial was blind, had not even reached the Prym rank, and was less than 20 years old, most of them snorted before they turned their heads away.
Nial was not fazed by their behavior, at all. He had long since accepted that others would have a prejudice against him wherever he would go.
But there were still a few Originals, who kept looking at him. They had noticed Nial's excitement while he was speaking about runic armaments, so they didn't think that he was lying.
They knew that being blind doesn't mean that one was not able to perceive anything about their surroundings.
In fact, most disabled Originals had their own unique way to counterbalance their disadvantages. They had a harder path to walk on than others, which was why many of them were stronger than the average Original.
But that was, of course, not something narrow-minded and arrogant Originals would ever accept.
Thus, most had prejudices against people like Nial.
"Collect the corpses then, if you want to."
**
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