"Eh, no thanks…?"
Nial bluntly rejected the offer of the Old Medic.
He didn't even think about accepting it.
But what he was forgetting to consider was that the Old Medic was possibly one of the strongest existences in mankind's history.
After all, Captain Clara had already said that the Old and feeble-looking woman was stronger than Master Junades, a listed Original, and one of a few hundreds of the strongest Warriors that mankind had!
Because of his blunt refusal, Captain Clara merely blinked her eyes while switching her attention from Nial to the Old Medic in a hurried manner.
'She won't do anything to him, right?'
Nial's straightforward way to reject her offer had been even more surprising than the Old Medic's sudden offer. As such, the young Captain could only hope for the best.
And what happened next shocked her even more. Instead of being angry or throwing a fit, the Old Woman started laughing.
It sounded like a hysterical cackling, which made Mathias have the mad urge to pull Nial towards the hut's door.
He moved a few steps while continuing to drag his friend with him, wondering what the hell such the old granny was doing inside the Teradan military camp.
After all, she might be the most dangerous amongst all the existences they had encountered until now.
'Should we just return to the wilderness? Maybe it's more secure there?' Mathias even began to wonder as he started comparing the dangers of sleeping outside in the open with the Old Medic's craziness and potential threat.
A few minutes passed, and Mathias felt like they could simply sprint out right at this instant.
But it was just at this moment that the Old Medic stopped laughing.
She took a few deep breaths and wiped off the lone tear that trickled down her cheeks.
"Oah..I didn't laugh like this in a very long time…" Her expression had eased, but it didn't take her long to look at Nial seriously.
"But back to the topic… I guess you don't want to waste your time helping me by doing some seemingly unimportant tasks that just anyone could do.
You want to enlarge your mana core, widen your horizon in terms of knowledge, accumulate wealth, improve your proficiency in fighting, and become the strongest.
Is my assumption correct, or at least close to what you want to do?"
'Wasn't that obvious…everyone wanted to do that…'
But that was not the point.
Mathias was slightly astonished about how calm the Medic was, and even Captain Clara felt the same.
She had heard more than enough rumors about Miranda, the Old Medic, how crazy she was, and how frightening it was to work for her.
In fact, a single sweeping glance through the hut was enough to tell her that the rumors were mostly true.
Because of that, she felt slightly baffled upon seeing how calm the Old woman could stay despite having been rejected in a blunt, and rather rude manner.
However, that didn't bother Nial as he nodded his head faintly, agreeing to nearly everything the Medic had said.
He was not exactly sure why Mathias or Captain Clara were so scared of the Old Medic.
In fact, if he were, to be honest, Nial felt quite comfortable right now, ignoring the fact that his nostrils were being tormented by the smells that clouded the entire hut.
"In that case, you shouldn't be too worried. I can make you the strongest, and teach you everything you want!!
Of course, that means you have to support me as well!"
Rejecting such an offer would be a shame, and everyone could clearly notice this upon understanding that Miranda was considered to be one of the strongest humans.
However, even then, Nial could only frown deeply as he felt a sudden discomfort spreading all over his body.
"But there must be a reason for you to do so, or am I wrong?
We hardly know each other, and providing me with such an opportunity means that you have some other intentions…it has to be like this… I don't believe it's just your curiosity about the remnants of energy currents in my arm…"
Nial wanted to figure out her true intentions, and to do so he spoke the last sentence out loud. Thus, after he said it, Nial focused on his senses, including his mana perception to figure out what exactly the Old Medic had in mind.
"Well, you are interesting, and I want to find out more about your energy. For example, take a look at my little timid friend….or sense him with the use of your mana… Did you even perceive his arm, once? I believe you caused this accidentally, or are my assumptions wrong?"
Of course, Nial knew about Mathias' arm, and he was grateful to the Old Medic when he saw that she approached Mathias, using her ability to heal him.
The Old Medic had not even been asked to do this, but in order to make Nial feel indebted to her, she did so nonetheless.
Despite that, too many things made him feel suddenly uncomfortable about the situation at hand.
And this was the worst owing to the things that occurred to him during the last few days, and even hours.
Everything revolving around the Odyssey seed was something Nial wanted to find out first before making use of it once again.
"I'm sorry, but I still have to reject…I don't want to be in contact with this type of energy for the time being, and I know that you would want me to show it to you, I can sense your curiosity about it."
When Nial rejected her once again, the Old Medic squinted her eyes. Not many people dared to reject her even once, let alone twice.
Her patience was waning, which was something everyone could see as the Old Medic's expression was slowly changing.
This was something Clara was able to perceive as well, causing her to feel like intervening.
However, on second thought she felt that this might worsen the situation which prevented her from doing anything.
Miranda was slightly angered, and couldn't help but feel like forcing the young man to reveal his secrets.
Never in her life had she been rejected, and now the young chick in front of him dared to reject her twice, after all the effort she took to convince him to join her.
She was about to give him a piece of her mind when the Old Medic saw his expression. Something deep within her conscience held her back from doing anything.
Her body reacted drastically, forcing her to take a second to think about what she was going to do right now.
This made her question her agenda for a moment, while her curiosity about Nial only increased further.
'Such a reaction…from a youngling at the Origin rank?... Why?!'
In the past, her body had only acted up before something dangerous was about to happen.
This had saved her life several times, whether it was owing to an exploding cauldron or the attack of a ferocious beast that was far more powerful than her.
As such, the fact that her body reacted could have been caused by multiple reasons.
One of it could be that her body reacted to something other than Nial, but that was unlikely.
She presumed that it was the energy remnants or the origin of the remnants that caused her body's reaction.
However, instead of believing it to give her a sense of foreboding of something that was about to happen, Miranda presumed that it was more of a warning not to overdo it right now.
This was quite interesting, and it caused her curiosity about Nial to increase even further.
There was also the possibility that Nial harbored some sort of Innate ability that had grown to such a great extent that his body couldn't cope with it.
In fact, there were some overly powerful Innate abilities that could kill anyone around them.
Miranda had seen something like this a few times already, and the beings that died had been the wielder of the Innate abilities, and existences that were on par with her strength, or even stronger!
And that was just because the powerhouses wanted the prodigious youths to become their disciples, for research purposes, to obsess over them and strengthen them to become pillars upon which mankind's future could rest and so on.
Thus, what was occurring right now was not rare as many Originals could tell whether a diamond in the rough was right in front of one, but hidden under piles of dirt.
Miranda was one of such Originals, who could sense whether it was worth paying attention to someone, or not.
And Nial was certainly worth it.
To be precise, Nial was worth far more than Miranda's measly offerings, which made her even more agitated.
Just thinking about it caused her to feel like lashing out at not just him but everyone around her.
Fortunately, Nial noticed that he might have overdone it, making him think of a way out of the misery.
"As an apology for my rudeness, I would like to present you with something that our team procured on the nameless island!"
With that being said, a familiar red gemstone necklace manifested in Nial's hand.
He took it out from his spatial ring, and handed it to the Old Medic.
Miranda had already calmed down a bit, but that didn't mean her anger had subsided completely.
Only after she received the present from Nial did she fully calm down.
'So he is really sorry for not accepting my offer, and not just acting as if he's worried about divulging the truth about the energy that held his arms together…'
The old woman squinted her eyes and figured that the youth would be willing to show her the origin of the remnants she had sensed if he were to be confident in controlling them.
In fact, for her to gain interest in the mysterious energy, it had to be unique, powerful, or have some sort of special trait!
With that in mind, the Old Medic shook her head, ignoring her earlier thoughts as her understanding of the youth's behavior increased drastically.
'If he is not even confident of being able to release it without injuring himself or those around him, he should really become stronger and wait for it.
Maybe I should wait for him, just a little bit?'
She thought, while moving her hand that held the red gemstone necklace.
After understanding the youth's mindset a little bit, her little grudge against Nial subsided, and was replaced with a tiny trace of respect.
He solved the dilemma in a nearly perfect manner, preventing anyone from feeling offended.
This caused Miranda to wonder what kind of background Nial had in order to wriggle free out of situations and possible aftermaths as if it was a walk in the park.
However, instead of starting a background check, she was attracted by the faint mana currents the red gemstone necklace radiated.
Peering at the necklace intently, she interested her mana in it.
Through this, numerous runes were unveiled to her.
Those runes revealed secrets to the Old Medic that nobody else had yet figured out, owing to her vast knowledge.
But even then, she couldn't help but stare at the runes with squinted eyes.
"This…"
She trailed off, feeling confused as the runes on the marked object were not something she had ever seen in her life.
'I knew it!' Nial could just think, not sure whether he should be happy or devastated by her reaction. Perceiving her confusion, he informed her,
"This is a beast controlling necklace…one of the few that were bound to ordinary Goblin Warriors, at that!"
**
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