Chapter 25 [Shockwave Barrage]
Just as Nina's shrill voice warned everyone of the incoming attack, a thunderous roar shook the entire surrounding, making the ground below them violently tremble as a shockwave radiated from the Centipede's entire body.
Nial, who had noticed that something was off from the beginning, didn't even hesitate a quarter of a second.
He used the entire mana left within his core to tightly seal his ears, only to realize that he was way too weak.
Piercing through the layer of mana, the shockwave reached Nial's ears that felt as if a hundred gongs rang at a time creating a horrifyingly high pitched noise that would make his ears bleed.
Just a moment later, he was unable to hear anything as his eardrums began to ring, almost bursting them open.
Without being able to see and hear, Nial's situation was extremely dangerous because even his mana perception seemed to grow shaky through the ear-piercing sound.
Yet, just as he wanted to enter a defensive stance to protect himself as well as possible, blood splattered over his face.
This confused him because he was not injured at all, and it took him a few moments before his perception realized something that shook him to the core.
A crescent blade manifested out of pure and compressed mana had pierced through the Sekyr Sound Centipede's body, killing it immediately!
Following the flow of mana, Nial realized that the Female Instructor had manifested this crescent blade of pure mana.
This astonished him, but now he was wondering why she didn't attack the Centipede even before it could issue the shockwave.
However, it was just then that Nial perceived a thick membrane of mana enveloping everyone around the young female instructor.
Her priority had been to protect the children she taught before doing anything else.
Meanwhile, Nial was not quite sure how long it would take him to hear something again.
For now, he felt as if his hearing senses had either gone numb or left him for good.
This was extremely bad, even more for someone who couldn't even see.
As such, he was currently forced to solely rely on his touch and taste senses, with the most focus on his Mana Perception.
Because of that, he didn't even realise the commotion that was going on, and the only thing he felt was that his ears were bleeding.
Touching his ear, Nial couldn't help but grimace while he sensed that Melvin was rushing towards him.
A moment later Melvin grasped his shoulder, shaking him wildly, but Nial was unable to hear even a single word uttered by his friend.
Thus, Nial told him the same in an extremely loud noise as he was unable to hear that he was almost shouting.
His loud voice attracted the attention of Nina and her small group that was perfectly fine and unharmed.
"Ms. Melion, is he now also deaf??" One of the younger girls asked, shocked to see his ears bleed because she had heard him shouting a warning earlier.
It was due to this that she felt the situation was unfair, only to feel her instructor's hand ruffling through her hair.
"He will be fine, don't worry too much, little troublemaker!"
Looking up, the little girl saw her instructor's serious expression as she approached the corpse of the Sekyr Sound Centipede that disintegrated into countless particles, turning into a small crystal.
Picking up the crystal, Nina couldn't help but feel that her luck was quite good, yet, she stashed it away and averted her attention to Nial and Melvin.
Melvin seemed extremely worried, and extremely anxious, thinking that his friend had just lost his hearing sense permanently.
Meanwhile, Nial was quite calm despite being unable to hear, and see, which was the worst combination.
This made it clear that Nial was fully aware of what had happened to his body, and the fact that he had only temporarily lost his hearing sense.
Instinctively turning his body to face Nina, the moment she approached them, even Melvin followed suit.
Bowing deeply, Melvin thanked her for defeating the Sekyr Sound Centipede.
Afterward, he lifted his head once again, only to see that the woman was holding out a vial and a crystal.
"Give the vial to your friend. It will help him recuperate much faster. He should be able to hear shortly after taking it. As for the crystal, give it to your friend.
Consider it as a thank you note for warning me to save these little troublemakers behind me!"
Melvin was confused, but after he got the hang of the situation, he quickly thanked her before taking the vial and the crystal.
Yet, even before examining the contents, he almost shoved the vial into Nial's mouth, overwhelming the young man, who could barely grasp the situation through his mana perception.
Forced to gulp down the sweet liquid, Nial could feel an effect kicking in just a moment later.
The mana rich serum within the vial invigorated his body, while simultaneously boosting his cells to work faster.
This allowed him to recuperate from his exhaustion, and his mana recuperation accelerated tremendously too!
After his mana core was filled to the same extent he had annexed mana before, he felt that the healing property of the serum was slowly circulating through his entire body, soothing the pain and repairing his damaged ear veins.
In the end, he was perfectly fine, if one were to exclude his ears, and the dull high pitched ringing voice that made him feel dizzy as it reverberated through his mind over and over again.
Fortunately, this noise began to die down, a few minutes after Nial had gulped down the sweet serum.
Only shortly after that, he was finally able to hear once again as he sighed in relief.
"The female instructor just left, right?" Nial suddenly asked, dragging Melvin out of his train of thoughts.
Hearing that Nial wasn't shouting anymore, Melvin hoped that his friend could hear once again.
Thus, he answered with a slight trace of joy in his voice.
"Yes, she handed me the vial of healing serum and the ability crystal that dropped from the Sekyr Sound Centipede and left with her group immediately after!"
Nial was astonished to hear that the Centipede had dropped an ability, but even more shocking had been the Military instructor's strength.
"I wonder how strong she truly is… she didn't sound old either, probably around our age...Melvin, do you know if everyone in the Military is as strong as she is?!"
Somehow it was odd. Melvin thought that Nial would ask about the ability crystal's grading, but he was more interested in the Military's instructor.
However, after thinking about it for a moment, it was understandable. The young woman had been around their age, but much more powerful, and had easily obliterated the Sekyr Sound Centipede with one smooth flick of her wrist.
But that was not all, because Melvin could faintly sense Nial's desire to find out more about the Military.
That was something Melvin had noticed earlier, but it made him rather sad to think about it because Nial would never be accepted into the Military, not even the mandatory service!
Upon entering the military, one would receive tremendous benefits as an Original from the government, and one's background or social status wouldn't matter either.
As such, only strength would determine how many resources one would receive, in addition to the rights to enter the majority of the government's dungeons!
The advantages of being recruited into the military were many more, and the few benefits Melvin had named in his mind were just the tip of the iceberg.
Noticing Nial's expression, Melvin knew that he had to distract his friend, which he started to do by stating simple things.
"Do you even understand how lucky we were? The Sekyr Sound Centipede is a Rare Boss! They're even stronger than the Boss on the same Floor!!"
Afterward, he looked at Nial's expression that seemed slightly interested, before Melvin continued to share excitedly.
"Well, that is probably the reason it dropped an ability crystal, to begin with. Rare Bosses are stronger but have a higher chance of dropping more origin crystals, other unique drops, or an ability crystal.
Still, we were quite lucky, even more so that she handed us, or rather you, the ability crystal!"
It was only now that Nial truly realised that they had survived the attack of a Rare Boss, and that it had dropped an ability crystal.
Because of that, he couldn't help but ask curiously.
"What kind of ability did it drop? The shockwave or is it something else?"
The rarer an ability the greater would be its selling price. As such, it was obvious why Nial became so interested in the ability crystal.
Melvin knew the price of rare ability crystals, but he had misunderstood his friend's excitement.
'Does he want to know if it's the Shockwave ability, so that he can bind it? That cannot happen!' Melvin thought as he answered Nial.
"The ability crystal is called [Shockwave barrage] and it is a Low quality Common grade ability. That means its quality is above the norms of the Low Rookie Miland dungeon.
At least if we were to only take the first three floors into consideration. I think the ability is strong, but I wouldn't recommend you to bind it!"
Melvin didn't want to lie to his friend, which was also the reason for him to honestly review the ability.
If Nial were someone he didn't know, the ability might have been useful to him, but not only was Nial his best friend, whose best interests were always on his mind, but he was also blind, which was a terrifying disadvantage that Nial had to compensate first.
Thus, the first ability had to be something that could balance out his disadvantage completely!
What Melvin didn't know was that Nial had already learned an ability that would achieve this.
However, it would take some time for the [Mana Perception(Poorest)] ability that was bound to the Odyssey seed to grow and become stronger.
Despite that, Nial wanted something different to become the one and only ability he could bind at the Origin rank.
"Oh, don't worry, I just wanted to know if we can sell the ability crystal for more because this [Shockwave Barrage] seemed to be extremely powerful! I don't want to bind it to my mana core!"
Nial's nonchalant rejection of the ability caused Melvin to stare at his friend in doubt, wondering what had made him change so much.
Not only did he not hold back in doing anything anymore, including violence, but Nial's entire demeanor and mindset seemed to have undergone a big change.
'Just what happened to you when I was away?'