Odyssey of the Blind God

The broken runic armaments might be bad for Originals, who were already strong enough to fight opponents that were at a higher rank, but it was obvious that the number of Super Elite Originals was only a handful.

There were numerous wealthy Originals with rather ordinary combat prowess instead of being extraordinarily powerful Originals.

With that in mind, Nial didn\'t have to be worried about making a huge fortune if the Swirl of Chaos were to be useful for him.

He felt that he could bind the ability crystal to his Mana Core but it was only obvious that he couldn\'t be certain whether the Swirl of Chaos was truly compatible with him, or if it would just become an ordinary ability.

No matter how powerful an ability was, the moment he learned that it wouldn\'t be able to become one of his linked abilities, Nial would give up attempting to bind it to his Mana Core.

It was simply not worth trying to get something in his arsenal that would slow his progress as much as an ability that was hard to improve.

Nial hoped that the last two weeks before the Alliance Auction would pass in the blink of an eye, but he was pleasantly surprised when something else happened.

He hadn\'t expected to be lucky enough to find another ability with a high chance to become a linked ability but upon finding something in particular, Nial\'s opinion changed drastically.

His Mana Core vibrated so much that his body began to tremble wildly.

"Another one? Great!" Nial exclaimed to himself and he set off in the direction of the Merchant shops. Almost all older shop owners within the Alliance City had become familiar with him by now and it was no surprise that he was shown the newest batch of ability crystals upon entering their shops.

The news of his buying an ability crystal for 100 million contribution points had already spread through the merchant community like wildfire. Thus, it was only obvious that he was treated with respect and a bit of admiration.

Nobody would try to push away a big fish after catching it in their net. That would be way too stupid.

Nial understood their mindset as well, which is why he let them treat him like a royal prince. His hands reached out for the small box of ability crystals and he held each of them one after the other in the hopes that one of them would react with his Mana Core.

Unfortunately, more than half a day passed without any progress, and Nial was forced to check out the newer shops that had been recently put up by the new citizens of Alliance City.

There were more than ten million citizens in Alliance City by now and the number of new shops had increased rapidly as well. They weren\'t aware of Nial\'s fame. Hence, he was forced to show them his Insignia, including the huge fortune sitting in his bank account to make sure that they would follow his requests and pay him adequate attention.

\'It looks like everyone is getting a little bit greedier now that the Alliance Auction is about to start,\' Nial deduced at the sight of the merchant\'s uncontrollable greed. It glimmered in their eyes the moment they saw his finances that were in the billions, followed by his Mana Core rank which was only at the Prometheus rank.

It was obvious that anyone would be interested in getting their hands on his contribution points and he could imagine that even Keltia ranked Originals would consider attacking him in Alliance City, whether it was forbidden or not.

\'A wise decision by me to make all necessary preparations in advance...\' He mentally patted himself.

It was good that he had left Ryu at the Pagoda of the Thousand Bodies Refinements Dojo, and that he was wearing a black robe and a Crow mask to ensure that nobody would recognize him as a human, or uncover his entire identity.

Nial quickly left the merchant shops where he couldn\'t sense anything and he tried to focus on the other shops. There were numerous shops but only one ability crystal that could be linked to his Mana Core.

He was dreading that someone else had already bought the ability crystal and that his great fortune had run out. Nial felt terrible at this thought and he quickened his pace to make sure that he would get his hands on what he was supposed to possess, in the first place!

"That\'s a fucking scam!!" A high-pitched voice rang in Nial\'s ear the moment he entered a rather unkempt shop that had only been opened the same day. No building in Alliance City was truly shabby but the small shop Nial had entered could be considered as one of the most ordinary and least taken care of places he had entered since he arrived in Alliance City.

Nial used his range of perception to figure out who was screaming at whom, and found out that a small little girl was shouting at the merchant of the shop.

\'Why would a child be here? Nobody would pay the teleportation fee for someone who cannot hunt monsters, or do something else for them...\' Nial wondered. He was pretty sure that no God would be willing to pay the teleportation fee for someone, who had recently awoken their Origin.

The little girl at the other side of the merchant shop was probably six years old and she had barely awoken her Origin.

She wanted to buy her first ability crystal, but nobody paid attention to her as they believed that there was no way that she possessed enough contribution points to purchase a powerful ability crystal from within Alliance City.

Nial ignored the little girl as much as possible and he walked through the merchant\'s shop while focusing on the ability crystals all around him.

He had a weird feeling and his gut was rumbling, almost as if it wanted to tell him that something frustrating was about to happen.

Nial had a premonition but he really hoped that the situation would end up differently.

"Calling someone a scammer just because you don\'t have enough contribution points to pay for the value of the ability crystal is not exactly nice, little girl!" A hoarse voice reached Nial\'s ear and he let out a subconscious sigh.

\'Why did I know that they were talking about ability crystals?\' He asked himself before he finished checking the last ability crystal.

The merchant had glanced over to Nial several times by now but so far the masked man hadn\'t taken or shown interest in anything. Thus the merchant didn\'t pay any more attention to Nial. His entire focus was on the little girl, who had grasped one of the most precious ability crystals with the intention to take it for herself without paying the price!

That was something the merchant couldn\'t accept and he was merely being nice to her because he feared that the little girl would blindly absorb the ability\'s Essence. That would be the most terrifying and the merchant\'s calm words felt like they were the only means to prevent a catastrophe.

"Little girl, give that to me for a moment!" Nial instructed with the use of [Dominion] as he reached out to the hand of the little girl.

She didn\'t move an inch when Nial grasped the ability crystal before a bright smile appeared on his face.

"I will buy it. How much for this one?" He asked while his body was shaking more than ever before.

\'Finally, I found it! And barely in time at that!!\' Nial was elated as he firmly held the ability crystal after searching for one for hours.

The Merchant looked over to Nial with a blank expression on his face and it took him a few seconds before he realized what was going on.

"Of course, Sir, of course!! It\'s 500 million contribution coins for the [Summoning] ability crystal!" The merchant quickly added, rubbing his hands greedily.

He flashed a bright smile at the crow-masked man and expected Nial to readily agree to the price. Sadly, he heard no answer from Nial.

"Sir...please don\'t call me a scammer as well...This ability crystal was harvested from the Great Devi--..." The merchant was just about to explain the reason behind the high price of the ability crystal when Nial lifted his hand.

"I don\'t care where you got it from, I will just pay the price," Nial said calmly, even though he felt a sting deep down in his heart.

"You thief...Don\'t take my stuff!!!"