"Collect the corpses then, if you want to."
A sudden voice echoed out in front of him. It was the Original, who could control the wind, the man, who had killed the physically-attributed bulls with ease.
Now that he could visualize him better as he was closer, Nial could perceive his chiseled face, his muscle-packed body below the large robe he was wearing, and the powerful aura the man suppressed with ease.
'Is he also as strong as Kirlia?' Nial wondered for a moment, feeling a bit dumbfounded that there were so many stronger Originals than he believed mankind would have.
'Why is the public knowledge and reality so different? I think the officials announced that the highest rank an Original attained until now was the Low Tritan rank with seven Advanced Origin rings.
However, Kirlia, the Leader of the Sacred Knights, and this man are definitely not just at the Low Tritan rank!'
Nial only noticed that the young man was still looking at him when Mathias tugged at his shirt.
"Nial! You should answer him. Don't just stare at him with a blank expression."
Mathias understood that Nial couldn't do anything about his eyes but his expression was as blank as his lifeless eyes. And this was more than just a little bit weird.
Shaking his head, Nial's expression turned apologetic before he replied,
"I'm sorry for my rude behavior. I didn't want to ignore you. I was just amazed by the way you controlled the wind blades without wasting your mana unnecessarily.
It was impressive."
He didn't intend to flatter the man in front of him. Nial was truly impressed by the way the man had controlled his wind affinity.
Mathias was gobsmacked but that stemmed from the fact that he knew how difficult it was to do what the Original in front of them had done.
His eyes were glued to the young man, and one could easily perceive how much Mathias admired the young man.
"Oh, that? That was nothing, just a bit of a show-off. So what about the corpses now.? If you don't want to take them, I'll tell others to collect them. Their blood attracts other beasts, so the corpses will have to be stored. I don't really care if you do it or others."
The nonchalant way in which the young man spoke showed Nial that he was truly not interested in the corpses.
There was no need for him to waste his time with the Prym-ranked corpses. They were of no value to him and would just eat up the space in his spatial ring needlessly.
And it was not as if they would only fight a single group of monsters on their trip toward Juna, let alone inside Juna.
Their trip to the third shelter would take up more than a week, and they would probably have to spend more than 10 days in travel.
Afterward, they would stay within the shelter to build a small base before they would start clearing the shelter and its surrounding.
Once that was done, they could either stay, or fix the teleportation array, if necessary, and leave to be teleported back to the huge underground hall.
From the huge underground hall, they would be able to teleport to any area close to the eight other shelters. However, they would still end up in the wilderness, and it would take them a several-day trip to reach the protection of the shelter.
Thus, a thousand Prym-ranked beast corpses were merely a drop in the ocean to most high-ranked Originals. Their spatial rings were bound to be overflowing with the corpses of stronger beasts once the conquest was over, either way.
However, Nial didn't care about any of that. He knew that they would spend quite some time in the wilderness and that they were bound to fight tens, if not hundreds or thousands of beasts in the following weeks.
But that was something he felt quite good about. It would be possible for him to collect numerous raw materials for runic armaments from all the beasts if the other Originals were just like the man in front of them.
"That's great. Thank you very much, Sir…I'm sorry, I don't know your name Sir…will you be kind enough to tell me?"
Nial didn't know much about popular Originals, so he had no idea who the handsome man in front of him was.
The young man began to laugh in response, feeling that Nial was quite interesting to talk to.
Many Originals had listened to the discussion the young man had with Nial. They frowned when they heard that Nial had not even an inkling of who the young man was.
However, hearing the young man laugh was even weirder to them. It didn't feel right, but nobody dared to say anything.
"Some call me Windbreaker, but my actual name is Sam Anderson. Call me whatever you want." Sam Anderson didn't seem angry about being asked to introduce himself.
In fact, it was something that didn't happen often. Most people would fangirl over him, which was quite stupid in his opinion.
He was not bothered about the fact that he was called one of the most popular Originals in the entire Stinon alliance that included the eight remaining shelters.
But it was quite interesting to see that there were still people who didn't know him.
The young blind man was polite and it didn't look like he was lying about not knowing him. This was even more so when Sam Anderson heard Nial's quiet voice that was directed toward his friend.
"So it's Sam Anderson, Windbreaker…Is he popular?"
Nial was mostly focused on his own business, so he actually didn't know more than a handful of popular Originals.
However, Mathias was quite different because he had studied a lot about Originals on online platforms and streaming platforms so that he could improve his strength faster.
He was learning a lot through videos and trying to understand their fighting styles which had helped him a lot in the past as well.
Thus, Mathias was well aware of the popularity of many Originals.
"Y-Yes, he is popular, now let's leave, or you'll embarrass us even more." Mathias quickly mumbled. He bowed toward Sam Anderson before pulling Nial along with him and was trying to escape the stares that fell on him and Nial.
"Why would I embarrass us? Is it weird to ask someone else for his name? It's not…right?" Nial was evidently confused but Mathias didn't say anything.
He kept dragging Nial behind him so that they could reach the slaughtered bulls as quickly as possible.
Afterward, he ignored Nial's questions and changed the topic as quickly as possible.
"We should store their corpses for now, right? Do you want to dissect them when we're having breaks later this night, or should we squeeze all corpses in the new spatial rings we bought?"
Mathias' question was quite weird but Nial just smiled faintly. He could tell that his friend was actually embarrassed, which was quite interesting.
Even if Mathias' timidness seemed to disappear when fighting, or when he was talking to people he was comfortable with, Nial felt like his friend's shyness and timid behavior hadn't changed at all when it came to strangers.
Thus, Nial chose to answer Mathias' question, even if the answer was logical.
"We can store the corpses for now, and once they're filled to the brim, or we have enough time to get our hands on the beasts' most valuable parts, we can dissect them."
Without wasting too much time, Nial released his mana through his [Mana Sense], spreading his mana fluctuations through the surrounding using his range of perception.
His control of mana was precise and as long as he had enough mana and focus, it was possible for his mana to reach every nook and cranny in his range of perception.
By now, his range of perception had reached 1500 meters even if he was not using much mana.
However, by using [Mana Sense] actively with the support of some mana, Nial could further expand his range of perception.
Thus when he released his mana through his [Mana Sense] Nial was able to shroud the majority of bull corpses with his mana fluctuations.
A moment later he lifted his right hand, where a new, silver-colored spatial ring could be found. It was of a much bigger size than the spatial ring he had received from blacksmith Arnold and could store all the bull corpses easily.
In a matter of seconds, the bloody battlefield had been cleared. Not a single corpse, Origin crystal, or ability crystal was left behind.
The Originals, who had seen what Nial had done couldn't help but be astonished.
Everyone could spread out their mana, and sense their surroundings just by making use of mana.
However, this range of perception for ordinary Prym ranked Originals with three Origin rings was not even close to 100 meters.
They were also able to store the corpses in their surroundings just like Nial had done a few seconds ago.
But even then, their range of perception was a joke in comparison to Nial's.
The narrow-minded Originals, who had laughed at Nial in their mind, didn't even dare to consider Nial as a pushover anymore.
For a 10th Origin rank Original to have a range of perception exceeding 1500 meters, and to have enough mana to spread it evenly through such a huge range of perception was certainly not normal.
Nial's control over mana had to be exceptional, to put it simply, and it was impossible for his mana core to have the same size as that of an ordinary Original at the 10th Origin rank.
Most Originals had understood by now that the young blind man was extraordinary.
Nial didn't notice that his action had attracted the others' attention. His initial plan had been to prevent wasting too much time outside the protection of the stronger Originals.
That was why he had stored everything valuable as quickly as possible before rushing back.
Yet, instead of avoiding Sam Anderson, who had also noticed what Nial had done, Nial approached the young man once again.
He was holding two crystals, which he held with his hands outstretched in front of Sam Anderson, the moment he reached him.
"The bulls dropped two ability crystals. Quite lucky, isn't it? They're yours, Sir!"
Nial smiled brightly while holding out the two Superior ranked ability crystals. He didn't intend to steal something as valuable as ability crystals from someone else.
That was not who Nial was, so he didn't avoid Sam Anderson and went straight towards him.
"You don't want to keep them for yourself? They could fetch you quite some money if they're not of use to you and your friend."
Sam Anderson had grown fond of the young man in front of him. He was actually a much better person than one would expect most talented Originals to be.
And Nial's talent was certainly noteworthy. That was something Sam Anderson noticed the moment he perceived Nial's mana.
'With his control over mana and so much mana stored in the mana core of a 10th Origin rank, this boy will create his first Superior Origin ring in a year at most. In a decade he will be one of the strongest, not bad.'
"Oh, don't worry about that Sir. I don't need these ability crystals and my friend will become an Elementalist, he has no reason to bind the Blood strengthening ability to himself. Furthermore, he already has his second ability.
As for me, I'm not interested in that ability either." Nial politely declined Sam Anderson's proposal, waving off his hand as if the Superior grade ability crystal was of no use to him.
However, Sam Anderson couldn't help but be slightly intrigued about that kind of behavior. He ignored Nial's reply and simply observed his behavior when he changed his approach.
"Blood strengthening ability crystals? They're quite rare. Just sell them then. You will need lots of money to advance to the Prym rank if you create a Superior Origin ring."
Sam Anderson felt the need to repeat himself yet again. He was astonished to see that Nial was still unperturbed despite hearing that he could earn lots of money from the ability crystals.
'Was he not after the money when he wanted to collect the corpses? Did I misunderstand something?'
"But we're not running short of money…." Nial felt helpless. He didn't want to keep denying Sam Anderson's offer, but he felt bad about taking something as valuable as the Superior grade Blood strengthening ability crystal that he had not rightfully earned.
One of them was easily worth more than 10 million dollars, but it was not as if Nial was the rightful owner.
Thus, he could only act stubbornly in front of one of the true powerhouses of mankind.
'What a little rascal!'
**
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