The two human Originals looked around with a frown on their faces. Three of their colleagues were unconscious while the remaining five looked no better.
A knife manifested out of darkness was held against each of their throats.
The situation didn't look good but that was quite obvious.
"H-How are you so strong? Weren't you in a coma before, and recuperating? You created your first Origin ring not too long before as well…how does that add up?" There was no trace of arrogance in the Original's voice.
He looked defeated right now but that was not something Nial was bothered about even though he visualized everyone around him.
Timothée and the others had come out of the underground cave not too long ago as well. They witnessed only a part of the fight but it was enough for them to feel a bit stupefied as well.
"Don't all of them possess 4 Origin rings? Even if they're only Intermediate Origin rings, isn't Nial too strong?" Timothèe asked while shaking his head. He was not even shocked anymore and it was only his brain that had to accept what kind of monster he had befriended.
"Well we already expected him to have a Superior Origin ring, didn't we?" Cecile asked rhetorically while shrugging her shoulders. At first, she wanted to fight against Nial to figure out how strong he actually was. Cecile had planned to force Nial to give his all.
However, she quickly realized that Nial was not only mysterious but also like a bottomless pit with an unknown amount of power.
It was already quite frightening to fight by his side. Cecile didn't want to imagine how it would be to fight against him.
"I definitely made the right choice by not challenging him…" Cecile mumbled quickly, only for Leo to nod his head.
"That's for sure. You did great," He said, while his large hand landed on her head and ruffled her hair.
"You piece of fat shit. Let go of me!" Cecile grumbled almost immediately and was ready to throw her fist at him. Leo just smiled before he let go of her.
"Are you guys not gonna answer? How about I behead one of your comrades for every minute you guys are stalling?" Nial asked coldly, ignoring all the friendly banter around him.
He was already annoyed that he couldn't start creating his first runic armaments. There was so much planning he had to do because Miranda and Mathias were not there, so his schedule was already crammed full.
"Wait…wait a moment!!" The young man next to the Original, who had been arrogant before, immediately turned soft. He lifted his hands as a sign that he had given up.
"I will speak!" He said, clearing his throat to prepare to reveal everything. However, the other Original didn't feel that this was a good choice.
Nial was only one person, but if they betrayed their clients, a bunch of problematic kiddos might turn their life into hell.
"Fuck you, I will speak. These fucking heirs are nothing but pieces of shit. I don't want that my friends to die just because you wanted to accept this stupid job! You got too greedy, you jackass!" The young man shouted out in rage. The 'jackass' looked at his friend in dumbfounding before he quieted down.
He acknowledged that he had made a mistake, and could only grit his teeth…
"So, let's go back to the topic, please," Nial took control of the conversation by releasing his dark energy in a threatening manner as the knives manifested out of darkness moved.
"Yoo, calm down! I already told you that I will speak!" The young man shrieked while moving his hands in a calming manner before he cleared his throat.
"We were hired by a bunch of young Originals. All of them are heirs of influential families and they wanted to teach you a lesson. But because they didn't want to dare to offend you by themselves as it would malign their families' image, their honor, and all that shit, they hired us to do the dirty work.
Our leader was a bit dazzled by the fortune we would have earned to beat you up a little bit, so…please forgive us…" The young man sounded enraged about what his leader had done, and the fact that some heirs had ordered them around like paid ruffians.
Despite the young man's weird behavior and the fact that he seemed truly enraged, Nial didn't show any emotions. He merely nodded his head before he sighed deeply.
"Tell me the names of the heirs and you guys can leave. Just tell these bastards that you were defeated by me. They will probably think of a way to 'teach me a lesson' in a different way, but who cares," Nial rubbed his hands as he answered and a devilish smile appeared on his face.
It looked like he had already come up with a plan on what to do with the young heirs of the influential families.
The young man had long since surrendered so he nodded his head, while their leader could only sigh deeply. Nial released the knives manifested out of darkness once he received the names of all heirs before he waved his hand.
"Now fuck off before I change my mind," Nial said coldly before he ignored the entire existence of the 10 hoodlums.
He turned back to the others and his smile didn't falter.
"Either you are a very good actor, or you have crazy mood swings," Cecile suddenly remarked while chuckling lightly. Nial's lips twitched but he kept up with his act.
Nial kept up his smile as he spoke in a slow and calm voice,
"If you want to be beaten up like them, just tell me…"
"That's not necessary, my dear friend!" Cecile exclaimed in shock and quickly hid behind Leo's huge body, shaking her body vigorously.
"Let's go, you guys are about to get rich…and I am about to turn dirt poor," Nial laughed at Cecile's reaction before he left the Nightfall valley dungeon with the others.
Once they were outside, Nial accessed the Originals' bracelet before he transferred his money over to them.
[240,000,000$ have been transferred!]
When Nial received this notification he could only sigh deeply. For a moment he felt like crying but he forced himself to stay strong.
For Prometheus Originals, a quarter of a million dollars was not exactly much. They could procure it by selling a single ability crystal.
However, their needs to advance were extremely high as well. It required hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy resources for themselves to advance just a tiny bit. And that would just be the price of a single Origin crystal, which would be used up in minutes.
Most Originals wouldn't sell their Origin crystals if they were at a higher rank. After all, one could advance much faster as long as one used the pure mana from Origin crystals.
The Forest of Life might be a great and extremely cheap replacement but it was still not as pure as the mana within Origin crystals.
Everyone could tell this but to save money advancing a bit slower was still fine.
After all, there were more than enough other expenses one had to take care of.
In Nial's case, all the ores and the magnatit crystals cost him almost his entire fortune. He barely had enough money left to buy a small storage box in which everything he owned would fit.
The box was the size of his upper arm, and it couldn't be stored inside the spatial ring. Thus, when Nial separated from the others, he was forced to carry the storage box around as he returned to the Forest of Life, and the hut he had been assigned for a temporary stay, to be precise.
The Elves greeted him formally, which was odd for many new Originals, who had never seen Nial. However, most of the Originals, who had been longer in the Forest of Life knew what Nial had done to receive the respect of the Elves.
They would probably do everything they could in order to help Nial the moment he was to get into trouble.
It was almost as if they were overprotective parents, who wanted to spoil their children. Yet, their child didn't want to be spoiled and worked hard on his own.
"Nial!! Finally, you are back!" A familiar voice echoed through his small wooden hut. Mathias stood in the middle of the hut, welcoming his friend with a hug.
"Huh? Mathias, what are you doing here? I searched for you guys but nobody knew where you and Miranda were. I merely figured out where Kirlai and Hana went…" Nial said, confused about Mathias' sudden appearance. He didn't expect his friend to be here after asking for him all around the Forest.
Mathias moved away from Nial, who was visibly uncomfortable with the hug before he smiled slyly.
"Well Kirlia and Hana are a different topic but Miranda and I left the Forest of Life to figure out who spread the rumors about the possibility of other races descending, and the truth about Jundra's mana awakening!" Mathias said with an air of mystery.
However, Nial just lifted his eyebrows at this as he waited for his friend to continue.
"Well, in the end, we have no idea who it was. Kirlia and Hana didn't want to leak the information yet because of Miranda's warning to be meticulously prepared for everything!" Mathias added after he took a deep breath.
Nial had already expected such an outcome but he didn't know who could have had the same thought as their small group of five.
"So it was not you guys who shared the rumors but someone else?" Nial asked to make sure that he had understood everything correctly. Mathias just nodded his head as someone else appeared in the wooden hut.
"Hey Miranda, do you have an idea, who else could have the necessary information and guts to share the same, or at least similar rumors as we wanted to spread in the public?" Nial asked in a low voice but Miranda could hear him.
He didn't have to turn around to know that it was her. Nial had already perceived her from the moment he noticed that Mathias was in his hut.
"Nice to see you again as well…" Miranda greeted her disciple at first before she went over to answer Nial's question, "I don't know any names but I guess other Incarnations of Gods could release this news.
But it could also be some higher-ups, who have memories from their Innate ability just like you, or even someone ordinary, who is good at connecting the dots after understanding what happened with the Dryx, the Elves, and how Jundra's mana awakening will make everything…intenser and more dangerous."
In the end, Miranda had no proper answer, and it actually didn't matter. They wanted to share similar rumors, either way. And now the rumors spread through the shelters and nobody could connect them to their small group.
It was basically perfect.
"We should be happy, nonetheless…" Nial said before he changed the topic as he revealed the storage box to his friend and master.
"How about we have some fun with runic armaments?"
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