Chapter 68 Blessings And Curses

The biggest hurdle he had to overcome was his body, including his blindness.

However, while his physical traits could be adjusted relatively easily with arduous training and proper nutrition solutions, this was not the case for his disability.

Because of that, Nial began his research about the various kinds of abilities once he finished making notes, which was his means to clear his mind.

What he lacked in intelligence, he more than made up for in hard work and determination.

He took a bit longer to figure out specific things, however, the weird part was that he could easily decipher things once he found a great point to start at.

As such, it had always been the most important for him to organize everything and have a blueprint ready that allowed him to follow the paths the procured intel would unveil to him.

Thus, his mind was clear, and he made a few adjustments about the criteria the ability he was looking for required.

With that, the pool of available results with ability crystals decreased drastically, hitting a big zero the moment he finished writing down all requirements.

Reading and writing was not problematic for him anymore, and thus Nial could utilize the Originals bracelet relatively easily.

There were no further restrictions than being able to perceive the holographic screen, which was a relief as long as he had even a little bit of mana free to be used.

Because of that, Nial browsed through the online stores to search for some abilities, but that was not really helpful.

As such, he decided to change the way he approached the situation.

Instead of looking for specific requirements, Nial now started to read through the register of all abilities, whose information had been anonymously shared with the Original's association.

Through this, they could create a register with numerous abilities.

These abilities and their information had different trust factors, which meant that the anonymously shared intel could be trusted if it had a high trust factor.

This in turn would mean that hundreds of people had the same opinion about the ability's characteristics, potency, strength,s and weaknesses.

Meanwhile, a low trust factor didn't mean that the intel was wrong but it meant that there were only a few individuals that bound a specific ability to themselves.

With that in mind, Nial first wanted to take a look at all the abilities with a high trust factor.

There were many of them, even after he added the requirement that the ability had to be Common ranked.

Unfortunately, this was a necessity because the first ability one bound to their mana core could only be at the Common rank, otherwise, the binder's mana core would get overloaded, and in the worst case, explode.

There were quite a few people who ignored this, and they had met an unexpected death or were permanently injured.

Only a few individuals with specific Innate abilities or unique traits survived binding a stronger ability crystal to their mana core, but this required the ability to be perfectly compatible with the host!

Nial was not searching for something like an ability crystal that might cause his death owing to its high potency.

Thus, he added the requirement of the ability's rank to be on the safe side.

He even added a few more criteria such as not being an ability that allowed him to fly, nightsight, underwater breathing, transformation abilities, and abilities that had to do with auxiliary occupations like blacksmithing, forging etc.

Other than that, abilities to attack, defend, elemental affinities, and similar abilities, were also filtered out.

Now what was left for him to choose from were mainly support abilities.

The number of abilities he found in the section with a high trust factor was lowered to a handful, which caused Nial to add all abilities, even those with a low trust factor.

He knew that it was better to be careful while picking them because their information could be wrong, but that was not something he could bother about right now.

As long as he found the clue to something, it couldn't matter less how high or low the trust factor was.

Thus, hours passed in which he looked at all abilities that might help him even if it was only a little bit, but each of them seemed to have slight disadvantages, too little effect, or other things he found problematic.

Finding a perfect ability to make up for all his disadvantages was quite difficult, and it was only obvious that it would take time to find a perfect ability.

Unfortunately, a month was not exactly a lot of time to find a proper ability, and the only thing he could think of while searching for an ability was to add two specific things.

There were not only normal abilities, Innate abilities, and special traits, humans could awaken at birth or during their origin awakening.

Rather, there were also conditions, unique effects, and other means that could be awoken, and even externally bound to the mana core instead of an ability.

All of these things could be put together under two broad categories, officially called [Blessings], and [Curses]!

While Blessings were something great and had the sole purpose of enhancing something such as one's mana core's endurance, mana circulation speed, the potency of one's mana, the potency of other abilities, and so on, curses were a mixed bag.

In fact, there were many Curses that were considered the exact opposite of a Blessing, owing to the several negative effects they provided.

However, at the same time, there were even more Curses that had just one particular negative trait, mixed with multiple other advantageous traits.

Earlier Nial had never known nor understood why Cursed crystals that could be bound to the mana core instead of an ability were so scary for some people.

However, it was only today that Kira had explained to him the reason behind this.

In the end, a Cursed crystal could be compared to a curse and a blessing at the same time.

While several traits of the Curse's binder would be enhanced just as it was the case of the blessings, only one trait would be cursed, to the extent that it was never usable again.

Unfortunately, many foolish humans believed that the cursed trait of a Curse was not bad enough to outweigh the advantages of the enhancements one received!

Thus, there were more than enough humans that bound Curses to their mana core, gaining monstrous abilities, only to lose much more than they could have ever expected.

Some gained all necessary capabilities to control enormous amounts of mana, all possible elemental affinities, and much more, only to lose out on the most important to make use of this; their mana veins!

By cursing their mana veins, the specific Curse destroyed the future of the few humans that had been tempted by the Cursed Crystal.

As such, Cursed Crystals had been forbidden for some time before the authorities of the government removed the restriction on them once again.

Nial was not sure why the trading of Cursed crystals had become legal once again, but it didn't really matter because not many people dared to make use of these crystals due to fear and worry.

It was only the most desperate people that purchased Cursed crystals.

And, in the end, Nial felt that he was bound to be added to the rows of the desperate people that were deemed insane.

The trust factor of the cursed abilities was close to zero because there were more than enough humans who lied about the Cursed crystal's curse in order to make others believe that they were not as bad as deemed.

However, everyone knew that Curses were horrifying, most sellers were trying to trick someone into binding them, and Nial was currently running intentionally into a trap.

That was the case because Blessed Crystals were always sold out, which was quite obvious owing to their tremendous value.

Nobody sane would sell them, and even while bartering a Blessed Crystal, the item one would receive in return was bound to have a shocking value.

As such, Nial did the stupidest and most ignorant thing he could think of; he looked at Cursed Crystals and their descriptions in order to figure out what kind of crystal he might be able to use.

"There….is a shop selling Cursed crystal?! Great!"

The shop even had the government's approval which was something Nial didn't expect, and furthermore, it provided others only with information that was revealed by trustworthy individuals who tested the Curses themselves.

As such, there was not much Nial could understand by looking at the information, and there were numerous crystals with just their names and nothing else.

A few revealed the name and appearance of the beast from which they dropped.

Given that, Nial was able to figure out some things because the beast must have a curse in order to drop a Cursed crystal.

At least that's how it was with abilities. A beast had to possess the ability to drop the ability crystal.

With that in mind, everything was bound to become easier, but that was not the case.

Instead, Nial felt that everything became more difficult, which was the reason for him to go and take a look at the Cursed crystal shop instead of solely looking at the Holographic screen.

He needed to feel the Cursed Crystals and inspect them himself, and understand if his body felt a connection with one of them or not.

It was extremely dangerous to bind a Curse to his mana core, but Nial felt that it was the best he could do if he wanted to become stronger, as fast as possible!

That being said, less than an hour passed before he entered the shop, in which he was immediately greeted by a skinny attendant who hadn't awoken his origin.

As such, Nial simply stated that he would be inspecting the Cursed crystals through touch while pointing at his eyes.

Being unable to see, he had to feel everything in order to get the same sensation about an ability crystal, or in this case, Cursed crystals.

Quite some time passed, and Nial was not sure if he was doing it right because none of the Cursed crystals attracted him or made him feel like he had to bind it.

Yet, just as he was about to give up, and leave the store to continue his research, his Odyssey seed began to pulsate.

It was out of nowhere, and he had no idea what was going on but continued with the task at hand. Suddenly, he picked up one particular crystal that caused his expression to lift as a faint grin manifested on his face, while the Odyssey seed sent him obvious signs!

[Hodur's Heir(Basic)]

The merchant, who had been looking at Nial, since returning from the storage room saw the crystal Nial was holding, and with widened eyes, he rushed towards him before taking away the ability crystal.

"This Curse…I do not sell this one. I'm sorry, but it looks like my attendant made a mistake here…" Looking back, the chubby man stared daggers at his skinny attendant, who was already shivering in fright, while trying to find an excuse.

"I-I…It was in t-t-the section of selling…it–....I'm SORRY!!"

While the attendant was stammering for a response, Nial felt a little bit odd. He couldn't help but be sorry for the attendant, but at the same time, his attention was drawn to the Cursed Crystal which the chubby merchant had taken out of his hand.

"How about an exchange?" Nial blurted out before realizing what he had done.

This caused the chubby merchant to turn back to Nial before he began to laugh.

"Hahaha, good joke youngster. Do you even know how valuable the Cursed Crystal [Hodur's Heir] is? I really don't want to be rude or offensive, but I seriously doubt that you have just anything that has the same value as the Cursed Crystal!"

Under normal circumstances, the chubby merchant's words would have been true, and Nial was fully aware of this.

However, in the last few weeks, many things had changed, and he had found quite a few items that could be interesting enough for the chubby merchant.

With that in mind, he first manifested the Fang spear in his hand, holding it out to the chubby merchant in order to allow him to inspect it.

"Is that something you might be looking for?"

Nial was sure that the Fang spear was worth a fortune, but at the same time, he knew that it was probably not comparable to the Cursed Crystal [Hodur's Heir].

There might not be any information provided about the Curse, but considering that the Odyssey seed reacted to the Cursed crystals, it seemed to be perfectly compatible with him, just like the [Mana Perception(poorest)] ability.

In the end, there were slight differences in the Odyssey seed's reaction, but that didn't matter right now, because Nial knew that he needed the Cursed crystal!

His future advancement speed was on the line after all!

"It looks like I underestimated you. For that, I do apologize, but I'm sorry, you're still not understanding the value of this Cursed Crystal.

The being that dropped this crystal was certainly strong enough to obliterate an entire shelter of mankind, so we can be fortunate that it was defeated before it could cause further harm.

If you don't have anything better, please search for a different Cursed Crystal or leave my prestigious shop!"

Nial was not sure if the chubby merchant was just exaggerating about the terrifying being from which the Cursed Crystal had dropped.

However, what Nial knew was he needed the Cursed Crystal, which caused him to sigh deeply as he took out the [Earth(comprehension)] affinity crystal.

Taking back the Fang spear, he stored it away before handing over the elemental crystal.

"If the spear is not enough, this will certainly be. If it's not, you are simply pulling my leg, or you never intended to do anything with the Cursed Crystal, to begin with!"

Nial's mood was already bad, and he was unable to hold back anymore.

There was no sign of his usual calm demeanor anymore because the chubby merchant was getting on his nerves.

"Do we have a deal or not?"