On the next day, Nial finally found time to enter a dungeon.
While it was not his main motive to enter dungeons within the abandoned shelter, it was certainly helpful to get his mind off the confusing things and to let off some steam.
And that was exactly what Nial focused on. He chose the Rookie dungeons that were restricted to Origin ranked Originals and entered the one that was labeled as the most dangerous.
A few Elite Junior Soldiers had died trying to conquer the said Rookie dungeon earlier, clearly showing that the dungeon was far from easy to be conquered.
However, what Nial didn't expect was that the boss of the Rookie dungeon was similar to him. The Four-armed metal ape he encountered as the last beast in the Rookie dungeon was at the 10th Origin rank, and it had a further enlarged mana core.
That was why its physical strength was much higher than any kind of Origin ranked Boss. Its strength rivaled that of Originals with one Intermediate Origin ring!
For others, this was a bit problematic to handle, but Nial didn't face even the slightest issue.
He didn't even need to use the Dragonflame spear to defeat the Four-armed metal ape. Instead, Nial focused on using the dark energy to create several darkness spears that were hovering around him.
With precise control, he shot the darkness spears that pierced straight through the ape's head. Its skull burst open and brain mass splattered through the surroundings.
The ape was not even able to retaliate to the darkness spears before it had already succumbed to its inevitable fate.
"Yay…an Origin crystal…" Nial mumbled, faking excitement at the sight of the Origin crystal that dropped after the four-armed metal ape had reduced into countless particles.
However, for Nial the beast's corpses were far more important and valuable than some Common grade Origin crystals.
After he had conquered the dungeon that was deemed 'impossible' to be cleared by Origin ranked Originals, Nial left the dungeon. His clothes were not even crumpled and appeared spotlessly clean as he emerged from the dungeon portal.
Some Originals saw him, and they looked at him with contempt. It was obvious that their opinion of him was not high.
'How dare he make it look like he was the one to conquer the dungeon?! He obviously just went inside, waited some time, and is now leaving…?
The three Origin ranked Originals had come up with a detailed plan on how their teamwork could lead to a victory against the four-armed metal ape. They had fought against the Boss beast before already.
Thus, they knew that it was, at least, as powerful as one, or two Elite Soldiers with one Origin ring.
"Do you guys have a problem with me?" Nial merely asked upon noticing the hostile gazes on him.
"Don't even speak to us, you're just fak–...." One of the easily provoked Originals was about to curse at Nial, and teach him a lesson when he fell silent all of a sudden.
The dungeon portal behind Nial became unstable and the mana that had been held together began to dissipate in the surrounding area.
It nourished the earth and the air all around them. The wave of mana fluttered through Nial's silver hair and his cape, causing the other Originals to gulp nervously.
'Is he really human?' One of them wondered, feeling as if Nial's appearance was otherworldly as his milky white, lifeless eyes stared in their direction.
Being in Nial's 'sight' was scary, and the three Originals scampered away quickly, feeling that their life was on the line.
They didn't even give Nial the chance to retort anything to the youngest Original's comment.
"Well, whatever. There are always some weirdos everywhere." Nial shrugged his shoulders, not feeling really bothered about what had just happened.
He returned to the base, and scanned the blackboard with his mana before visualizing the area where the other Rookie dungeons that were deemed impossible, or extremely hard to clear, were located.
'There are quite a few restricted Rookie dungeons…are there always that many?' Nial wondered when he finished imprinting all the locations in his mind.
However, instead of wasting his time thinking about something that was entirely useless to know, he went on to complete his task.
He didn't rush anything or tried to look cool while conquering the dungeons. On the contrary, Nial was experimenting quite a bit while conquering the 'impossible' Rookie dungeons.
To Nial, conquering them was not a problem. He had the Dragonflame spear, numerous other runic armaments with special uses, his standard strength that exceeded the norms, and numerous abilities that were quite useful against powerful opponents.
Hours passed, and Nial had learned quite a lot in the meantime. He used his Curse's black miasma and dark energy in various ways, in an effort to try out new things to elevate his combat prowess even further.
This was far more difficult than he expected, but it was also quite interesting.
'If I create a hollow ball of darkness with an extremely thin membrane, filling it with compressed black miasma will be quite interesting.
The moment they touch something, the ball of darkness will explode, and explosively release the compressed black miasma.'
Nial wanted to find ways to find a way around his blindness. While others would have problems not seeing anything the moment his dark energy or the black miasma was to fill a huge room, his [Mana Sense] would be perfect to perceive everything.
Right now, he could release his black miasma explosively from within his body. However, the speed and the range at which the black miasma turned everything dark in a large room were still too high.
Thus, the hollow ball of darkness filled with compressed black miasma was one way to solve the issue as he could throw the balls anywhere, flooding small spaces with the compressed miasma.
However, this was just one of the many ideas Nial had experimented with. His control with the dark energy was already quite high, but it was not even close to the miraculous things he had seen in the memories of the late God of Darkness.
'Damian is just on a completely different level. I need to practice hard to become better at controlling the dark energy, as well.'
The God of Darkness' signature power was dark energy. That was why Nial diligently practiced it every single day and tried to improve his control with it. The power became stronger over time the more the God of Darkness improved with it.
However, for Nial, the dark energy was initially not supposed to be his signature power. He had also the Curse [Hodur's Heir], his [Mana Sense] and Nial was pretty sure that he would learn many new abilities the further he walked on the path of advancing as a human being.
'Apparently, there are not many people who can bind as many abilities as humans. In fact, if I'm not wrong, the God of Darkness' race was not able to bind any other ability than the one they were born with.
This is something quite common apparently, and the human race on Jundra is a unique case in this aspect.'
The memories he received from the Odyssey seed were quite impressive as well. He could conclude many things from them, including that it might be Jundra's influence that made the human race extraordinary, thereby giving them the chance to bind more ability crystals to themselves.
Simultaneously, it was also possible that the human race was simply special or lucky to receive lots of attention from Divine beings, and numerous races.
"Well whatever, I should conquer a few more dungeons, and once I'm done, I can rest for a few days. I already did more work than a team of 10 Origin ranked Originals can achieve in a day, either way." Nial mumbled, stretching his body before he went to work once again.
It was late at night, but Nial was still busy conquering a few more dungeons. He didn't know how many beasts he had slaughtered but there had definitely been quite a few.
However, their corpses were mostly useless, and only Rare Bosses and the Dungeon Bosses were somewhat valuable.
Unfortunately, most of them dropped a bunch of Origin crystals, and once in a while, he received an ability crystal because he was the first one to clear most of the 'Impossible' Rookie dungeons.
Nial returned once he was done, before he slept for a bunch of hours, only to be woken up by a huge commotion.
"I am not even allowed to rest properly…" He grumbled in frustration as he turned to Mathias, who had also been woken up. "What is going on?"
Nial's range of perception could detect quite a few things and he was able to hear the voices of many Originals outside the tent, but Mathias seemed to be better connected to the happenings of their conquest group.
"I guess, the other groups have arrived." Mathias could only say, his attention moving to the flag that was now hoisted in the middle of their small base of tents.
It revealed their location to others, and also displayed the symbol of the Liondra shelter's governor family.
Mathias shared all of this with Nial, who furrowed his eyebrows before he recalled something.
"Ah, right. I forgot that each shelter is governed by some family. The Stinon alliance is really weird." Nial could only say while shrugging his shoulders when he visualized that Mathias was looking at him weirdly.
The Stinon alliance's structure was somewhat simple, yet also complex for those, who didn't actually care about it.
While each shelter was governed by a family, they were not allowed free reign.
They may have enough rights to govern the shelter, but the President of the Stinon alliance was said to reserve most rights for himself.
Furthermore, the governors are not actually the strongest families within the shelters they manage. Rather, the strongest families were not willing to govern the shelters for the government because the perks weren't lucrative enough compared to the duties.
To Nial that was never important because he couldn't be bothered less about the governors. He only knew the daughters of Katu's shelter, and that was already enough for him to know about Katu's governor.
Nial had never heard the voice of the President and neither had he ever heard someone talking about him more than a single sentence.
If the Heaven's Gates Organization and various other organizations could be said to have some sort of mysterious vibe around them, the President of the Stinon alliance was one big mystery for many people, whether Originals or citizens.
'Well, it's not like I can be bothered about the President, as long as he doesn't interfere in my business.' He thought before expanding his range of perception with the use of some mana.
When his range of perception reached its current limit, Nial could already faintly perceive a few hoisted flags, along with Originals that were approaching their camp.
There were a total of four flags, which Nial detected at once, but he predicted that there were more following up soon.
'So we were the first to arrive, and the other shelters came together, in a bulk. So they gathered up somewhere before?' Nial realized while shaking his head.
'What great communication skills! Liondra wanted to make us enter the abandoned shelter before anyone else, while the other seven groups are going to enter the abandoned shelter together.'
The arrival of the seven groups created a big commotion.
Many Originals were glad that reinforcement had arrived. However, at the same time, there were more than enough Originals, who couldn't help but complain.
"I don't want to share the mana density around Juna with the others. It's the first time I've sensed so much mana in my surroundings!"
"Why did they have to come now? I just found a great permanent dungeon to earn huge profits for every time I conquer it."
"Now that this weird Minotaur has been killed, and the most dangerous beasts within and around Juna have been taken care of, they want to take everything away from us?! How shameless can they be????"
"They should just leave and let us earn all the honor. We did the most work, and we were the ones to suffer the most as well. Can't they just return?"
While many Originals were quite frustrated, Nial felt that he was at an advantage. He was completely at ease, and could finally take a deep breath.
'Please, just leave me alone, everyone. No more trouble for me please.' He could only think with a wry smile on his face.
He wouldn't have to waste his time conquering dungeons as long as the Originals from the other shelters were strong enough to handle them.
There should be a few powerful Originals amongst their groups, which was why Nial averted his attention to them the moment he got to know that the other groups had arrived.
'Finally, more time for myself.' He just thought before he decided to focus on absorbing and annexing mana while exerting the Control of the Ancient Monarch technique.
But what Nial didn't expect to happen just a few days later was that Silvian would be standing right in front of his tent, impatiently waiting for Nial to stop creating his primary Origin ring.
'Oh please…no more trouble. I swear, I will just leave mankind and live on a small island with my family when I will reunite with them!!'
**
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