While they were walking to the Original association's branch inside the military camp, Nial's mind was in turmoil.
He had not expected Bella's words to hit him that hard.
Bella didn't want him to regret the decision he was about to take.
She had revealed all the information Kassandra had shared with her, without leaving out anything important.
As such, both Nial and Mathias were much more knowledgeable about Innate abilities than was the case before.
Considering that Bella could roughly gauge what the darkness portal might be, Nial could rest assured that it was nothing bad.
But even if it were to be bad, was it possible for him to let go of any kind of opportunity to strengthen himself?
'If it would increase my strength, and I don't grab the opportunity, maybe I won't be able to protect my family in the future… If they were to die in front of me just because I was too weak, I would regret being too weak for my entire life…'
This thought flashed through his mind over and over again.
Then again, there was the possibility of losing himself in the portal.
With the Odyssey seed changing his behavior from the day it had awoken, it continued to influence him actively.
Of course, this was bad if it crossed a certain threshold, which it almost did in the past, but Nial was always able to keep it under check.
Furthermore, he had no bad feelings about the darkness portal. On the contrary, Nial was pretty sure that it was advantageous.
As such, even if it were to be something bad at the end of the day, he didn't want to regret anything.
'If the Odyssey wants to take me over, I will simply endure it and fight against it with all my might!'
Clenching his fist, Nial was ready to enter the darkness portal.
His mind was set in stone, and a subtle smile emerged on his face.
The tension saturated in his body was released after the encouraging words of Bella.
Perceiving this, both Bella and Mathias looked towards him, the corners of their lips curled upward as they understood that Nial made his decision.
Because Bella knew what it meant to be able to create a trial portal to enhance their Innate ability, she was a little bit jealous.
After all, her Celestial transformation had yet to gain the chance to undergo a major development!
'Well, my Innate ability was powerful from the get-go…so I will just unlock the already existing paths of my transformation…maybe that's different in Nial's case?'
In the end, she simply shrugged her shoulders but felt happy for Nial.
This was even more so the case because Nial had decided to trust them enough to share his secret.
It might have been only one small secret, and he didn't tell them what his Innate ability was, but that was just a matter of time.
Understanding that Nial had taken the leap of faith, Bella felt great. Meanwhile, Mathias started contemplating.
'If Nial can share his secrets, maybe I should do that as well…Though, though I do not really need any help, and it doesn't really make a difference if I were to tell them about it or not, right?'
Asking himself various questions, Mathias decided to let his secret continue to be one for a while.
There was no need for him to rush and force himself out of his comfort zone right now.
It might relieve him from a big burden if he were to talk about his reincarnation and so on, but the bigger issue he had to take care of was to become stronger and learn how to act more confidently.
The fight against the beasts of the dungeon breakout clearly showed him that there was no time to waste.
He might have reincarnated, had great talent in terms of mana core and mana veins, followed by a powerful Innate ability.
But without hard work, he wouldn't be able to grow stronger, and survive in Jundra and the world that was reigned by powerful beasts, not humanity!
Mathias had hoped that the Teradan military camp would give him a glimmer of hope, showing him that mankind was on the rise.
He had wanted to see the glorious day when humans would reclaim their sovereignty over all other living beings which would automatically make him not work overly hard to live a comfortable life.
There were many things he wanted to do in a world where mana existed, where everything he knew out of legends, novels, and games seemed to be reality.
Unfortunately, the Teradan military camp showed him the other side of the coin; the darkness of the world which made it far more dangerous to live on Jundra than expected.
The dangers of dungeons were constantly increasing, and Mathias could clearly sense this!
Even Katu was not as safe as a few years ago, anymore.
Thus, gaining strength was the most important thing right now!
Being timid would only weaken him, which was something Mathias was fully aware of.
As such, while Mathias was busy thinking of a way to become more confident, change his frustrating behavior, and overcome the traumas of his past life, they reached the Originals' association.
Because everyone had been told to rest, there were not many Originals in the small branch of the association.
But that was perfectly fine for them as they gained the receptionist's entire attention.
"We would like to sell a few corpses of beasts we hunted before the dungeon breaks!" Announcing the reason for their arrival, Bella was about to release all the corpses they had collected, only for the receptionist to lift his hand.
"I am sorry, but can you prove that the monsters are not from the dungeon break? If not, I will have to make some deductions because the amount paid in exchange for the corpses of the dungeon break is supposed to cover the costs of support and rehabilitation of the fallen Soldiers' families."
The way in which the receptionist spoke was quite calm, and Bella simply nodded her head before saying,
"There was no Horned Wolf, or Goblin dungeon in the Rookie ranked dungeons that broke out, so there won't be a problem, right?"
Smiling lightly, she looked at the receptionist, who just nodded his head.
Because he had more than enough time at hand, he personally led them to the merchant section of the Originals' association before telling them to release the monsters in a specific room that was used to count beasts, the value of their skin, bone, organs, flesh and so on.
Following the instructions, the three young Originals released all corpses of beasts, only for Nial to hesitate with one last corpse.
"I have another corpse but it's quite heavy. Should I release it in a second batch?" he asked, feeling like the Lesser Titan youngling's corpse might squash a few body parts of the wolves and Goblins.
The receptionist just nodded his head before pressing a few buttons on the mainboard next to the door of the special corpse assessment room.
Afterward, the corpses within the room disappeared as they were moved toward one of the attached storage devices.
"You can go on." The young man said before Nial moved, releasing the huge corpse of the Lesser Titan youngling.
Its weight was more than five tons, and the special corpse assessing room shook wildly when the Titan youngling smashed into the ground.
Seeing the sudden appearance of the Titan, the young receptionist couldn't help but look at the group of three for a few seconds in surprise.
It took him some time, but he recalled reading the report about a few Originals that had managed to defeat a beast at the Prym rank the afternoon before the dungeon break.
'So it was them?' He wondered only to shrug his shoulders a moment later.
"What mode of payment do you prefer? Merit points, or Origin crystals?"
Because he thought that the young Originals were done after selling all corpses, he didn't think that it was necessary to postpone the question about the type of payment they would want.
However, it was just a moment later that Mathias held out a few red gemstone necklaces.
They were the beast-controlling necklaces that the receptionist had also heard about.
Yet, what followed suit was Bella stretching out her hand as well, with two rings, and three pendants in her hand.
After debating it for quite some time, their team of three had chosen to sell the runic armaments they didn't need.
Amongst these were two Elemental rings, the human language pendant, and two pendants that were capable of inducing subtle dizziness in the designated target.
Seeing the runic armaments that had numerous unknown runes engraved on them, the receptionist could only swallow nervously.
He looked at them for several minutes only to glance at the three young Originals every now and then.
"If I may ask…do the higher-ups know about these runic armaments…and that you want to sell them?"
In the beginning, Nial and the others had looked like perfectly ordinary Originals to him.
Maybe their presence was a little bit special but it was nothing too extraordinary considering that they were in the Teradan military camp, where the strongest prodigies were usually discovered and nurtured into future powerhouses.
But after seeing the Lesser Titan youngling, and now even the runic armaments, the young receptionist couldn't help but look at the three young Originals with newfound respect.
"They know about the runic armaments, and they told me to sell them here when I would not want or need them anymore."
Bella was the only one in their group, who had been in contact with other higher-ups.
And that was only because of the runic armaments as well.
Thus, she answered the questions about the runic armaments, while Nial and Mathias remained silent.
Nodding his head faintly, the receptionist realized that he had to ask his superior to handle the situation.
With that in mind, he excused himself before rushing off in order to report everything to his boss.
While they waited for a few minutes, the three took a look around the shop.
Nial perceived all devices, weapons, potions, and other objects within the merchant shop that was attached to the Originals' association.
Thus, he understood that the quality of all goods was extremely high.
However, even then, it was pretty difficult to find anything that was on par with the Viper spear.
At least, if he were to only consider goods at the [Common] grade, irrespective of whether it was a mythical weapon or an 'ordinary' one.
There were weapons that could be used with more mana. Some of them even required liquefied mana to be used.
But those were already at a higher grade, which was not something that interested Nial.
After all, he had planned to undergo 9 enlargings to reach the 10th Origin rank before creating Superior Origin rings by using more mana than an ordinary 10th Origin rank Original could possess.
That was his rough plan to become the strongest, even if building up the foundation would take a while.
He had the best preconditions and a perfect constitution to create Superior Origin rings. This was attributed to the artificial enlargement of his mana core which he had received due to the potency of the Titan's heart!
With that in mind, Nial felt that it would be best to make the most use of it.
As such, it would take quite a while before his dear Viper spear would lose its value.
While he was still browsing through the various items, a loud voice suddenly resounded near them, penetrating Nial's ears, and startling him.
"Hey kiddos, I have heard a lot about y'all! Let's do some nice business!!"
**
If you want to support me use your golden tickets and powerstones.
You can also visit my pa treon: Pa treon.com/HideousGrain
More character images and nice chats about the HideVerse:
https://discord.gg/EdsDgFVWwZ
Link also in my description.
Do you like it? Leave a review and add it to the library!