Chapter 24 Sound
Hours passed after Nial had lectured Melvin, and his best friend was still sulking because he was not allowed to use his affinity anymore despite his repeated protests!
Instead, Melvin was forced to use bow and arrows as Nial found it to be a safer option!
However, that was exactly what increased their hunting speed by several times as Melvin's archery skills were quite decent.
This made it possible for him to kill every opponent with long-range weapons before they were even able to shoot at them twice.
Afterward, Nial entered close combat, while Melvin covered him, while accurately shooting all dangerous opponents.
This allowed them to defeat and kill numerous groups of beasts that dropped an origin crystal once in a while.
Unfortunately, both Nial and Melvin were still somewhat new to the feeling of killing as well as the distinct utilization of mana.
As such, they wasted lots of mana that could have been employed differently. For example, mana that had once been annexed and stored within the mana core would naturally replenish after it was used up.
It wouldn't even take long and allowed Originals to increase their strength without actively doing it.
The speed would be relatively fast as well if they were to pay more attention to their mana replenishing rate.
Because Nial didn't know this beforehand, he tried to actively replenish the mana he had used up after every fight.
Melvin found this to be odd, but only when they got a breather did he ask why Nial was doing this, before explaining the alternative clearly.
Getting to know more about mana, and the mana core enlarging process, along with tips about how and when to absorb and annex mana made Nila feel exhilarated.
He felt that he was not only improving in terms of combat experience but also in other aspects and broadening his horizons.
More questions popped in his head as he intently listened to Melvin answer him about everything related to mana. Simultaneously, Nial started to absorb and annex mana instead of trying to replenish the used-up mana!
Through this, Nial was able to increase the amount of mana inside his mana core while partially increasing the speed at which his mana replenished owing to the large amount of mana that coursed through his entire body.
In the end, Nial had a superior mana vein that was still growing.
Thus, he had been astonished to know that his strength was increasing so slowly.
However, coming up with excuses by saying that he couldn't absorb the mana from origin crystals or that he didn't have a proper technique to absorb and annex mana had prevented him from finding faults with himself.
Blaming the entire world for one's problems or incapability to achieve something was easier than introspecting and understanding that one was flawed, after all!
Fortunately, Melvin had given him a nudge in the right direction.
Through this, Nial was even able to regain his stamina at a much higher pace, which meant that he didn't slow down their hunting trip anymore.
Melvin wanted to continue experimenting with his Lightning affinity, but he realized that his control or understanding of it was simply too shallow.
Right now, instead of focusing on growing stronger, beyond the past self, their immediate focus should have been on procuring more origin crystals.
Yet, while Melvin was just using a common-grade bow to hunt all kinds of beasts, he noticed that Nial was growing more confident with every fight.
His start had been rough, and even though his first opponents had been the nasty but relatively weak Goblins were opponents, Nial could barely defeat them without being injured.
However, that had been mostly because of the Viper spear that was sharp enough to cut through everything on the first floor of the Miland dungeon.
Nevertheless, over the short course of a few hours, his blind best friend seemed to have adapted himself well to the combat style of all beasts they had encountered.
Using his mana perception and sharp senses, Nial had absorbed everything like a sponge, learning their opponents' attack pattern in every single scenario.
This frightened Melvin a little bit because he had never realized how talented Nial truly was.
Sometimes his best friend seemed like a genius, but on other occasions, he was a fool, yet, his talent to fight was superb, to put it simply.
It was also because of this that Melvin was frustrated about Nial's blindness, possibly even more than Nial himself!
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be a way to help Nial, who had told him about the adverse mutation, which was frustrating.
Because of that, he wanted to release his frustration about his incapability to help both of the Orin siblings, who he liked the most.
Nial was his best friend, and Sabrina...was Sabrina!
As such, Melvin had first started to hunt using his affinity, thinking that the lethal lightning bolts were the best way to earn a huge fortune while releasing his frustration.
Unfortunately, hunting with a bow and arrows was much better, especially while Nial was entering close combat.
It was because of this that they were able to acquire a total of 52 origin crystals of the poorest quality!
This was a great gain, given that it had been their first hunt and not something they could obtain from many dungeons in a matter of a few hours!
At least not with their current expertise, rank, and multiple other factors that were holding them back for now.
Even the permanent slime dungeon had much lower gains than what they had procured because the drop rate of the Slime Boss had decreased significantly after Nial had defeated it for the first time.
In permanent dungeons, the first loot was always the best, and it would already be astonishing if conquering the entire slime dungeon would fetch them a total of more than 15 origin crystals in one go.
The amount of origin crystals they had already procured in comparison to the slime dungeon's loot was large. This made Nial wonder about the exact size the Miland dungeon's first floor.
Not even once had they left the outskirts of the dungeon, and he had no way of telling where exactly they were right now.
The only thing Nial was able to do if he were to be lost was to walk in one particular direction until he encountered a dead end.
Fortunately, with Melvin by his side, getting lost was almost impossible as his best friend would not leave him stranded in an unknown territory.
They had planned to advance together and as such he could see the forest they would have to conquer in order to leave the dungeon, but also to enter the second floor.
After five hours, they were overly exhausted and Nial knew that his mother must be already worrying about him.
Because of that, he felt that it was better to leave the dungeon and call it a day.
Melvin was of the same opinion and turned towards the direction of the forest before he started to approach it.
They were likely to encounter a few more beast groups, but that was fine as long as it wouldn't take several hours to leave the dungeon.
Just as they were walking through the plain, they encountered the female military instructor, and the young Originals, whose faces were ashen pale, and smeared with blood.
Tears and blood had been mixed together and their previously clean clothes were blotched and smeared with sweat and blood. W
When Nial walked past them, he could feel their trembling mana fluctuations that reflected their fear, disgust, and multiple more emotions they had to overcome after killing beasts.
A few of the children were even injured, which astonished Nial because their Instructor was more than strong enough to easily protect all of them.
However, that was not something the Instructor had done. Instead, she had just protected them to a certain extent, and let them tackle the beasts while preventing them from being seriously injured.
Originals had to learn how to kill beasts, whether they were small children, old, or disabled senior citizens.
Mankind's survival relied on Originals, and it was a given that dungeon breakouts were devastating occurrences that should never occur within one of the few shelters that were still standing strong.
In the end, mankind's situation was far from good, and Nina Melion had long since learned about the cruel world that had changed in the worst possible way since the dungeons had appeared out of nowhere.
It was exactly because of this that her teaching methods were cruel, yet extremely efficient.
Because of her mindset, she didn't care who it was, or what family background did one belong to. As long as they were working hard to become stronger, and never backed off in the face of danger, they were worth being nurtured.
Unfortunately, the government didn't have the same opinion because some disabilities were simply too disadvantageous.
These shortcomings were not worth the effort to nurture some Originals as they would restrict them tremendously.
Nevertheless, Nina couldn't help but feel curious when she saw Nial and Melvin.
They were sweating profusely but not a trace of their previous nonchalant attitude which they had showcased before entering the Miland dungeon was visible.
'Oh...they're still alive. Well, I guess they're more serious than I expected...and their mind is steadier than these little brats I have to teach...but I guess that's normal. These two late bloomers are much older, after all.'
With that thought in mind, she averted her attention for a moment, before sensing faint mana fluctuations from Nial's direction that distracted her a little bit.
'The mana fluctuations are...weird…'
In the end, Nial had inserted a little bit of his mana into the [Mana Perception(Poorest)] ability to enlarge the radius at which he could visualize everything around him.
He wanted to visualize the instructor because he had only heard her voice before. Furthermore, she had been staring at him, so Nial wanted to roughly visualize how she looked if he was already being stared at.
Yet, before he was able to do anything like that, his ear twitched, while Nina's mind was distracted as well.
A weapon manifested in her hand, and she was just about to issue a warning as Nial's voice echoed through the surrounding area.
"Attention, attack from below!!"
Nial had faintly heard the earth far below him being pushed away as if something was digging its way up towards them.
And, by averting his entire focus towards the ground, he was able to perceive mana fluctuations that rushed towards them at a fast pace.
Because of that, he had instinctively shouted out that someone was attacking them from below, only to grasp Melvin with his free hand as he pushed him backward.
It was just a moment later that Melvin figured out what was going on while trying to break his fall.
Looking at Nial, who was fully concentrated, he couldn't help but curse his friend.
'Who the hell are you to save me, if you cannot even hold your weapon properly?!' Melvin thought the moment he saw Nial's trembling hand.
Merely a fraction of a second later, the earth next to Nial shook before it crumbled as large pincers pierced out of the ground.
Soon after, the ten-meter-long mud-smeared body of a beast crawled out of the ground.
Just as it was opening its wide and gaping mouth to let out a roar, Nina's voice reached Nial and Melvin.
"Fuck, that's a Sekyr Sound Centipede! Immediately seal your ears with mana!!"