Chapter 82 I Found You!
Leaving the dungeon, Kark and his group returned to their base which was also their home.
As they had purchased a large building for all of them to live comfortably, they stayed together almost all day.
Nial felt that this was quite interesting and good to build team trust, but at the same time, he wondered if he was being a burden to them.
However, this doubt quickly dispersed as nobody questioned if Nial was truly going to stay with them or not.
Even if they were not sure why, they trusted him a lot.
It might have scared them a little bit when he had slaughtered the pitch-black bison horde but they were not worried about that anymore.
Nial had told everyone bits of his past, and that was more than enough to invoke pity in their hearts for them.
Thus, they couldn't even imagine that he could ever harbor ill intentions for them.
With that thought in everyone's mind, they returned to their large house, where they all had a sumptuous and filling lunch.
Afterward, they decided to create strategies to conquer a few more dungeons in order to hopefully procure rare and exotic ability crystals.
Meanwhile, Miriam had requested to stay back with Nial in order to tend to his aching and sore muscles that had been horribly strained.
In the last few weeks, he had strained his muscles way too much, which had caused much more issues than Nial was currently facing.
Thankfully, her ability, and the wand she owned, helped Miriam to figure out someone's condition.
And her discovery had shocked the young woman a lot.
It was much worse than she could have imagined, which was also the reason for her to request to stay behind with Nial.
Her team was okay with that as the others didn't really need her because the dungeons Kark and his group wanted to conquer had mana fluctuations that were at or below the equivalent to an Original at the 5th Origin rank.
The quantity of beasts might differ, but that was not something Kark or anyone in the group had to pay attention to.
Instead, they could easily defeat hordes of such groups all by themselves.
Hence all of them agreed for Miriam to stay behind, tend to Nial's issues, and to help him learn how to properly absorb mana.
There were still many things Nial had to learn, and he was quite happy to have found such a nice group of people that wanted to help him.
Nial knew that they were genuinely kind and not helping him for some ulterior motives, which was rare to find in the Dungeon Era, and he would remember their help!
An interesting observation of his was that all the rooms he was able to visualize were different.
He even found a whole room that was filled with stuffed animals which caused him to smile while eating.
Not being able to see the house, the color of his surroundings, the furniture, and so on had bothered him the most in the past.
However, now Nial felt that having awakened his origin was amongst the most interesting to happen to him as he was able to visualize almost everything.
His brain had the faintest recollection of colors from before the time he had lost his eyesight, or the time he had dreamt of the Goddess who resided in the palace on top of the clouds, Nial knew how it was to see the colored world.
Yet, instead of being all that bothered about not seeing colors, or anything, to be precise, Nial used other means to imagine what people looked like.
Gentle and kind people were the most beautiful in his opinion, and it didn't even bother him a little bit if his mana perception visualized them, and allowed him to see their appearance with every little flaw they had if one could call it as such.
Not a single being was perfect, and this was exactly what was important.
Imperfection made everyone strive for perfection in his opinion, and subtle flaws in other people was what made them humane.
This was at least what Nial believed.
Nevertheless, sometimes he asked himself if it was really what he believed, or if it was just something his mind tried to think in order to make him feel better.
After all, his imperfection was apparent.
But, thinking about it was not exactly helpful, and using all his other senses to imagine what something looked like was far more interesting.
As such, Nial was able to figure out that the large house that belonged to Kark and his group had a total of three floors.
The first floor was used by everyone, while the second floor belonged to the women of the group.
As for the last floor it belonged to the men.
However, after unintentionally infiltrating everyone's privacy in order to perceive his surrounding, Nial figured that the remnants of mana fluctuations in a few rooms were intertwined with each other, while other fluctuations were several days old.
When he tried finding a reason for this, he figured that everything was quite normal.
If one was together with the same people for a very long time, he or she might develops feelings for someone in particular, and it looked like Kark's group had been together for a very long time.
As such, it was not uncommon to be romantically involved with a group member, even if it might create lots of trouble.
With that in mind, Nial attempted not to pay any attention to the things he visualized.
Instead, he was listening to the discussions of the others, feeling extremely comfortable as he relished the meat on his plate.
In the last few days, he had eaten half-cooked things as he was no expert in the kitchen. Hence, it felt nice to taste well-cooked, tender meat again.
But, he was asked to eat lots of meat in order to supply his body with the necessary proteins. If he were to eat so much every day, Nial felt like he would soon turn into a pig.
A smile appeared on his face when he thought that and he was at ease, feeling as if he had found a great place to stay.
After dinner, everyone completed their specific tasks to finish the chores without any conflicts.
Once everything was done, there was only a short break before Kark left with a large number of people in their group, leaving only Miriam and Nial behind.
During lunch they had decided to split up in order to conquer more dungeons as even more had manifested during lunch.
This was the only downside Nial perceived from the happenings in the last few hours.
The initial number of a hundred dungeon portals that manifested seemed to have been a low number, in comparison to what was truly manifesting over the whole day.
In the end, the government reported that roughly 300 dungeons were appearing within the shelter every single day. More than 95% of them were one-time dungeons, meaning that they needed to be conquered only once to make them disappear.
The other 5% were unique dungeons, temporary dungeons, permanent dungeons or those that had to be conquered multiple times before they disappeared.
Nial was still lacking a lot, but common sense told him that something huge was currently happening.
Whether it was a change in the laws of the world, something else that made more dungeons appear in Katu, or something else, he couldn't know.
However, what Nial could be sure of was the fact that he had to become stronger as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to meet his family ever again, let alone survive inside Katu!
With that in mind, he bid the others farewell and a great conquest before Miriam dragged him to the living room.
There, she had already spread out a few origin crystals at the Mid Common quality in order to allow Nial to use them.
"As you should have figured out, it is quite difficult to absorb the mana that permeates the air in Katu.
The same is the case everywhere, except in specific areas with dozens of dungeon portals cramped in a tight space.
That is because the dungeon portals release the mana currents that permeate the air.
As such, the more dungeons appear, the thicker the mana density in Katu becomes. Maybe you will notice the difference soon, but you shouldn't be too worried about that for now.
Focus on cultivating and let the stronger Originals take care of everything!"
Miriam wanted to calm down Nial, but she failed to keep her voice from trembling a little bit.
From the news she had heard during lunch, some were new for her too.
Because of that, Miriam required a few seconds for herself to find her composure.
While Miriam was a little bit worried about the situation mankind was facing, Nial wasn't too affected or nervous.
After all, the denser the surrounding mana the better it was for him as he could use the mana in his surrounding to empower himself directly.
Through this, he might be able to passively expand the range of his mana perception.
However, on the downside, he also realized that more dungeons meant more dangers.
This would, fortunately, be solved by more Originals that would probably awaken their origin due to the presence of a higher mana density in the surroundings.
Yet, when he thought about more Originals and dungeons manifesting, Nial couldn't help but frown. Just like Miriam, he took a few seconds to sort his thoughts.
He was already sitting on the ground, holding an Origin crystal which Miriam had handed over for him to test a few things with.
Nonetheless, he didn't start doing anything because it was simply too weird.
Recalling the Goddess he had seen in his dreams once a month for 15 years, Nial felt the urge to enter deep thoughts again.
It seemed like he was almost figuring out something as Miriam shook him lightly.
"Hey, are you fine? Can I start with my demonstration?"
She had regained her composure and looked at Nial with newfound confidence, believing that people like the blind youth were the solution to the issue of more dungeons.
Thus Miriam wanted to give her utmost efforts to provide the best guidance, even if she was aware of the fact that she wasn't a licensed teacher with exceptional knowledge.
At least, she had some talent, and had been taught by great teachers that had found and brought forth many prodigious talents!
"Oh, I'm sorry, I'm fine. Please go ahead, I'll focus!"
Shaking his head to dispel the thoughts he had in mind, Nial began to focus his entire mana perception and mind on Miriam.
This caused her to flinch for a moment as her entire body was being enveloped by dense mana currents.
Looking straight into Nial's white, and lifeless eyes, she almost felt like he was still seeing her, only that it was a much deeper sight than it was possible with just bare eyes.
In fact, it was almost comparable to him seeing her deepest secrets, along with everything she wanted to hide. But for the current circumstances, the most important was the fact that Nial was able to sense her mana veins and fluctuations.
In the end, Nial had never solely focused on a single individual.
As such, he was astonished by what he was truly able to see without actually seeing someone.
He could visualize every single strand of her hair, her freckles, and even the moles on her skin that were covered by her clothes.
This caused him to divert his full focus once again, and concentrate just on Miriam's mana veins while trying to ignore what he had been able to perceive.
Instead of saying anything, or apologizing, Nial hoped that Miriam didn't notice anything. If he were to say just anything she might be embarrassed.
Thus, after hearing her speak, Nial sighed inwardly, only to focus on her demonstration.
'I really have to pay more attention to what I'm doing…'
Watching the different ways in which Miriam was extracting mana out of the origin crystals, before circulating it through her body, and annexing it moments later, Nial was distracted almost immediately.
Using the different ways that came with their own set of difficulties to absorb and annex mana, he repeated them exactly as described.
The first few ways were quite easy, but Nial still felt the difference inefficiency.
The more complex the way to absorb and annex mana, the more efficient it seemed to be.
As such, Nial didn't give up and continued to repeat whatever Miriam did.
Like this more than half an hour passed, and he was quite satisfied with what he was doing.
Even Miriam couldn't help but feel that his mana control, perception, and circulation of mana were all exceptional, just like his mana vein's grade.
Thus, Nial used his entire focus on getting better and better because he realized that there might be ways in which he was able to enter the 2nd or even 3rd Origin rank in a matter of weeks as long as he gave his utmost efforts.
*Knock*
*Knock* *Knock*
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
Suddenly, Nial was pulled out of his fully focused state by the sound of numerous hurried knocks on the wooden door that resounded through the entire living room.
Miriam was just about to stand up, and complain, knowing that none of her group member was expecting a visitor.
However, just before she could even stand properly, the door was torn out of its frame and blasted into the air as someone familiar entered her sight.
A woman entered the house, and stared straight at Nial as a sly smile appeared on her face as she said,
"I found you, you little bitch!"