Chapter 352 Hating Himself

"And what is your problem then?!" Sabrina asked with worry in her eyes but sadly didn't receive an answer from Nial at that time.

Her enthusiasm died down the moment she realized that her brother got injured because of her reckless behavior.

Sabrina had been overjoyed to have some fun with her brother. However, that didn't mean she had wanted him to get injured.

It had been more than a decade since they had been able to play with each other, and they had hardly seen each other in the last three years.

In fact, when they met shortly before her Legacy trial began, Sabrina had been too baffled to do anything. She had hardly been able to understand that her weak elder brother had been able to overthrow the Heaven's Gates organization, kidnap their parents, and force them to meet up with her.

Sabrina knew how powerful the Heaven's Gates organization was and that it was not easy for anyone to order them around as Nial had done.

She had worked hard in the Legacy trial to pass it with all her might in order to make her brother proud.

Yet, when Sabrina emerged from the Legacy portal, she heard that Nial had left the planet. This came as a severe blow to the young, 19-year-old woman.

After spending two weeks with her parents, Sabrina is finally reunited with her brother. She had desired to show off her strength and to demonstrate that Nial was not the strongest one in their group. In a way, her reckless behavior had stemmed from her childhood memories to goof around with him just like old times though now she repented her actions.

Unfortunately, she had been defeated in their spar because of a minor mistake on her part though Sabrina's pride wasn't hurt through this.

Instead, she was astounded to notice how powerful Nial had become all by himself. She started to look at her brother as a role model, and someone she wanted to get acknowledged.

Nial was well-known all over the eight shelters, the Forest of Life, and the newly built shelter. He was liked by the Elves, was powerful, had the necessary talent to become a powerful Runicier and he didn't abuse his powers.

Sabrina wanted her brother to see that she was also powerful and that there was no need for him to worry about her.

However, in the end, she ended up making Nial worry and injure himself.

This was something that hounded her for several days.

Meanwhile, Nial let go of her mischief and spent his time with his precious family and friends. Mathias and his father, who had moved to the new shelter recently, were temporarily living with his family as well. Hana had moved in with Sabrina two weeks before to make sure that they would spar with each other every now and then.

They studied together, which made things a lot easier for both girls, who never really had a great childhood. While battling a terminal illness that worsened with the progression of their age, it was hardly possible for the girls to have a fun childhood.

Thus, it was great when both Kirlia and Kristine Maverick allowed them to stay in the Orin household as long as they progressed quickly.

The sisters would continue to teach their disciples and as long as their progression wasn't getting hampered, they were given more freedom.

This was a great motivational factor, which the Maverick sisters had realized in astonishment.

Meanwhile, Miranda stayed over for a few days as well. She was very interested in everything that had happened in Yggdrasil and on Ximatra. His family and friends were very curious about everything he had experienced and Nial often spent hours reciting the tales without leaving out a lot.

It was impossible to avoid mentioning the mysterious murders that happened during the U21 Runicier Tournament. Everyone was worried when they heard about it and they looked at the pale and weak-looking Nial in concern.

Nial's condition had nothing to do with the mysterious murders, which was something he explained quite simply when he was asked about his condition by everyone in his circle of friends.

"To put it simply, I face a condition of Mana and Life force deprivation. I have no idea if there is a specific term for this but the Life force and both mana density and purity on the unawakened Jundra is probably one hundredth, or possibly much less than it had been in Yggdrasil," Nial had said at that time.

His parents didn't understand what that meant but everyone else understood his point to some extent.

They were not sure what he meant by lifeforce because that was not something they could sense. And even if they could sense the lifeforce it wouldn't affect them.

In Nial's case, the Ankh was constantly protesting, demanding more lifeforce than the Forest of Life provided.

If that were to be the only issue, Nial would have still been fine. Unfortunately, his high mana affinity noticed the lack of mana in and around the Forest of Life as well.

An unawakened planet was simply not comparable to Yggdrasil's enormous high mana density and purity, whether there was the Forest of Life or not.

In the end, the deprivation of Lifeforce and high mana density and purity Nial faced was like snatching away a drug addict's drugs all of a sudden.

Nial thought it was ridiculous to feel this way but he knew that he had to go through it and then everything would be fine.

Everyone was bound to face an even worse situation than Nial the moment Jundra would awaken its mana.

The sudden increase in the surrounding mana would lure and addict many humans, while numerous people would awaken their origin.

Feeling power for the first time in their life, many would either cause trouble, or start venturing in dungeons, where they would either wreak havoc, die, or ascend as powerful beings.

It was only a matter of time before many power-addicted humans would appear. They would do everything in their might to become stronger and cause trouble if not controlled properly.

Nial wanted to make use of this opportunity but that would require quite some preparatory work and lots of funds.

He was ready to work hard to achieve what he wanted to achieve. However, before that, it was necessary for him to get back to his peak condition.

Several days had already passed since he returned home and his condition was slowly improving. A few more days and he would be back to his peak.

By then, he could finally bind the second ability to his mana core. It was time for this to happen and he was excited about it.

Meanwhile, Mathias was still working hard in the workshop. He was trying to work on both becoming a better Runicier and creating more Origin rings to advance in the ranks.

Since Nial had given him the [Fire affinity (Comprehension)] crystal, Mathias was working even harder. Not only had Nial supported him with the fire affinity crystal but it was also Nial, who had helped Mathias to get his hands on the Water affinity crystal when the Gier auction had been held before.

It was only obvious that Mathias wanted to be helpful to his friend in return. Unfortunately, this was not easy. Nial was like a bullet train, while Mathias could only look at the trail of dust he left behind.

Nial was way too fast for Mathias to compete with. This was frustrating, even more so since Mathias had always thought he would be somewhat special.

He was someone who had reincarnated. His reincarnation ought to have some reason, and Mathias had always thought that it was to protect the human race from extinction. He always saw himself as the beacon of hope for humanity.

However, Nial seemed to be able to do that all by himself. His actions were more than enough to reassure that mankind would continue to exist, and that they would never get annihilated.

Mathias was jealous of his friend; the very friend who always helped him whenever he could. This feeling made Mathias sick of himself. He knew that he shouldn't feel like this, that he was being ungrateful and jealous, making him the worst friend one could possibly be.

But even then, it was not as if he could change how he felt, and that was what he truly despised about himself.

'I need to become stronger, whether it is to be of use for Nial, or to become stronger than him…' Mathias thought in determination.

His conviction had changed a bit but his fire had ignited and he had gotten more motivated.

Meanwhile, as Mathias was trying his best to become better in various ways, his father was trying to build up a merchandise empire.

Because he couldn't keep his Cursed Crystal Shop open as it would conflict with his desire to build a business relationship with the Elves, Mathias' father had changed his profession slightly.

He began to trade materials, runic armaments, and other ability crystals.

His 'empire' was still small but he was working hard to earn more and to support his son as well as possible.

He could tell that his son had found good friends and that they were striving to become the strongest humans on Jundra. This was not an easy feat but Mathias' father was certain that his son and his friends were capable of it.

Without much delay, he made several deals with Miranda and various teams of Originals. The Elves were also more favorable to him because he was directly connected to Mathias, Miranda, and Nial in some ways.

Nial gladly allowed Mathias' father to use his name as long as it was not for something bad.

There were many things he wanted to focus on once he recuperated from his weakened state, but the most important seemed to be to find out something in particular.

"Why are there so many different Elven races all of a sudden?" Nial wondered aloud when he returned to the Forest of Life.

He wanted to speak to Master Crevian about something but ended up feeling flabbergasted.

If Nial hadn't been able to perceive the shock of the other ordinary Elves, he would have thought that everything was planned and that the Royal Princess was hiding something from him. But that was not the case!

It was quite obvious how shocked the Elves were to see Nightshadow Elves, Dark Elves, Glacier Elves, Vulca Elves, and many other Elves amidst them.

They had used the last remnants of energy from the Harvest of Life event to enter Jundra and the Forest of Life.

Their mana core rank was quite high as well. Most of the Elves were at the Prometheus rank by now, and they didn't seem that old.

But this was quite obvious, after all, Elves would usually reach the Prometheus rank before the age of 16. This was usually not a problem for them and Nial could understand this very well.

Yggdrasil and various other places provided more than enough mana to allow anyone with the necessary determination and talent to become extremely powerful at a rapid pace!

However, that was not of any importance right now.

It was far more important to figure out why the hell other Elves appeared from the Empress' portal all of a sudden, especially Elves that were not supposed to be connected to the main race anymore!