Chapter 166 Different Paths

With the 'information' written in the thesis they had just read, things were bound to become more difficult.

However, that was only the case if it would be a true fact, which was not the case.

It was only a thesis and not proven facts. That ought to be reassuring but the Odyssey seed's reaction caused Nial to feel the opposite as he kept frowning.

'Well, for now, it doesn't matter. I should be prepared for the future, though.'

Nial wanted to distract his mind from the mess a simple piece of paper caused. Thus, Nial used his range of perception to focus on the robe he was wearing.

It felt both like an armor and a cape and looked much better than some large robes.

As such, he was not even bothered that the Tier-2 runic armament enveloped his body tightly.

'It's made out of high-grade materials, with some of them having gained sentience…that's surprising'

Nial didn't expect to encounter a sentient runic armament so early on. However, the cape that moved of its own accord as if it was a small child had to be sentient.

It had sensed Nial's mana fluctuations before Mathias' and attached itself to him owing to this simple reason.

Now that the cape had chosen him, he could call the cape his property. Nial spent some time figuring out what runic armaments had been inscribed in the cape.

"Temperature regulation, Self-cleaning, passive mana replenishment, magic resistance, and a concealment function!!"

Nial was quite astonished by the result of his research. The Tier-2 runic armament was certainly better than expected.

That was also why he didn't even think of removing the cape from his body. Calling it a cape suited the runic armament better than a robe, which Nial found to be an unsuitable name for such a great runic armament.

When he averted his attention to the others, he saw that they were still reading through the thesis. It was their third or fourth time reading the same paper over and over again.

*Clap*

"How about we empty the office and leave afterward? We can take a look at everything when we're outside the dungeon. Miranda might even be able to gain a deeper understanding of the situation!"

Nial had clapped his hands to gain his friends' attention.

Afterward, he had already begun to collect all the books from the shelf in front of him while continuing to speak.

Bella and Mathias merely looked at him for a moment. They felt that Nial didn't take the thesis seriously enough because he looked so relaxed.

His new robe made him look much better but that didn't change anything about his nonchalant attitude.

But even if both Bella and Mathias felt like saying something to Nial, they couldn't. Seeing that, at least, one of them acted calm and as if everything was not as bad as they presumed, was oddly reassuring.

Nial didn't notice how much of an influence his attitude had on his friends. He would be astonished if he were to know the truth.

But his attention was elsewhere, which is also the reason for him to focus on clearing the office.

Not even ten minutes passed before the small team of three left the office. They walked down the hallways before descending the revolving stairways.

Reaching the next floor, Bella and Mathias immediately saw that there was another batch of six Guardian Knights.

They knew that it was important to defeat and destroy the Guardian Knights as quickly as possible.

There was no need to play fair, which was why the team of three chose to eliminate the Guardian Knights before they would even be activated.

This was rather easy to achieve because they had already fought against the identical-looking Guardian Knights before.

After half an hour of planning, Bella turned into the bait, while Nial and his Tier-1 Dragonflame spear were tasked with destroying the Guardian Knights by inflicting the least damage.

On the other hand, Mathias used his Living Earth trap once again, so as to prevent anything worse from happening.

In a matter of minutes, the Guardian Knights had been destroyed and stored in the storage rings of the three young Originals.

"If every floor has Guardian Knights, we can make a fortune just by conquering the floors!"

What Mathias said made sense. The value of each Guardian Knight was enormous whether it was the price of the materials it was made of or the value of the research material it provided owing to the numerous runic constellations inscribed in the hollow space within the Puppet runic armaments.

But Nial could only smile wryly.

"I guess that we'll only have to deal with these Guardian Knights until we leave the guest rooms inside the palace. If there is another floor with Guardian Knights, then that only means that the palace was often used to lodge many guests."

Mathias frowned the moment he heard Nial's assumptions.

However, what the young Original seemed to forget was that the highest floor of the ancient ruin's palace had been divided into the palace's terrace and the highest floor.

The second top floor was double the size of the highest floor.

Thus, there were more than enough things to collect for each of them.

Bella understood this, which was why she lightly touched Mathias' shoulder before pointing at one particular location in the middle of the hallway.

"There is an intersection, and after following it you might find more Guardian Knights, another hallways, and of course, more rooms."

Despite being often annoyed by Mathias' behavior and his seemingly non-existent social skills, Bella couldn't help but feel like teasing Mathias every now and then.

However, she also understood that this was not appropriate, whether it was because she knew that he always misunderstood her way of poking at him, or that it was simply because the ancient ruin's palace was more dangerous than it seemed for now.

One might not notice it at first glance but the dangers the three young Originals had faced until now were not life-threatening.

But that was only obvious because their current position needed to be the least protected. Nobody should be able to reach the highest floors without getting through the other floors first.

Even if that was possible, the highest floors had only little treasures, after all, the treasury was somewhere else… and riddled with countless deadly traps.

However, all of this was known by Nial. He never planned to reach the treasury, neither did he want to face numerous traps nor was his plan to waste his time on the lower floors.

He wanted to reap most benefits while avoiding as much trouble as possible, which was why they had hatched the plan of plundering the ancient ruin's palace from the top.

While Bella had readily agreed to Nial's decision to start plundering the palace from the top, she wondered what was on his mind.

She doubted that he was confident of clearing the entire palace in less than two weeks.

Unfortunately, before she could ask him what she was curious about Nial chose to follow Mathias, who had rushed to the intersection of the hallways.

Bella could only shake her head at that, sighing deeply before taking a few breaths to calm herself!

Sometimes, Mathias behaved like a restless bunny, while he was an idiot during other times.

Meanwhile, while fighting, Mathias was quite serious.

"As long as he doesn't get us killed, it should be fine… I guess…" Bella followed her two teammates, clearly understanding that she wouldn't have to endure Mathias for much longer anymore.

Once the Teradan military camp was over, they would go their own separate ways. She already had a path to walk upon. As such, it was not even worth reconsidering if their team of three should stay together.

It would be a lie if she were to say that her heart and mind didn't want to stay with the two young men.

They were quite comfortable to be around despite all the frustration she felt. However, Bella was also fully aware that her path was a different one than the others.

And dragging them down her path just for the sake of staying together was certainly not something Bella would do.

After all, she was not even sure if her path would lead to a bright future or a suicidal trip!

Bella felt a little bit conflicted at this thought and seeing Nial's back, she wondered for a moment if it would be okay to lean against it and rely on him.

But it was only a moment later that she shook her head. Her Innate ability was once again acting up. The moment she thought about staying by Nial's side, her [Celestial transformation] began to overflow with disgust and the desire to leave Nial at once.

It was a weird feeling, and Bella could only sigh deeply, only to see that both Mathias and Nial had disappeared in the intersection that led to the other hallway.

"Wait for me!" Bella shouted as a faint smile appeared on her face.

Even if her Innate ability was clearly telling her to stay away from Nial, Bella knew that he was not a danger…not yet, at least.

That was why she felt that it would be a shame to stay away from everyone and everything just because her innate ability told her so.

She didn't want to regret her time in the Teradan military camp and Bella knew that if she were to follow the wishes of her Innate ability, she would definitely have regrets!

With brisk steps that felt heavier than ever before, Bella followed Nial and Mathias…

Like this, close to two weeks passed and it was soon the day before the Teradan military camp's true training would officially start.