Chapter 149 Much To Learn
Their small group reached the third floor of the tower in no time.
From then on, the number of beasts they encountered decreased drastically, but on the downside, their strength increased manifold.
Nearly every beast they encountered was comparable to an Original at the 9th or 10th Origin rank.
Thus, Nial and the others had to work together in order to defeat all of them.
But that was not a problem as their small team's teamwork had significantly improved.
This allowed them to inflict several injuries to their opponents before ending their lives without even getting scratched.
Several hours had passed since they entered the tower, and it looked like some other groups of Originals had found a tower to loot as well.
It was not difficult to find their tower, but it was quite annoying that some selfish and cunning Originals were looking forward to reaping the benefits that belonged to Nial, Bella and Mathias.
They had killed all opponents outside and inside the tower and were now returning to the third floor.
The third floor hadn't been looted yet. Nial was able to sense quite a few runic armaments, and other objects that were intertwined with mana on it.
Of course, there were also untouched traps, which was why the Goblins had been unable to get their hands on the treasures.
Under normal circumstances, the traps would have been rather dangerous, but owing to the condition of the derelict tower, the mana traps had long since deteriorated from their peak condition.
Following that, Nial and the others were ready to face the dangers of the traps as they reached the door that was the closest to the stairways leading to the second floor.
Instead of opening the door immediately, Nial waited for a few seconds, while his lifeless eyes stared down the stairways.
"If you guys don't want to die, how about you step out? I know that you are inside, a group of five to be exact!"
Nial had already told Mathias and Bella that a team of Originals had entered the tower.
As such, they knew almost immediately what was going on.
But when the door stayed firmly shut, Nial just raised his hand before Mathias manifested a huge ball of earth.
It had a radius of one meter and was big enough to roll down the stairways.
Without wasting their time any further, Mathias gave the earth ball a light push before it hurtled down the stairs towards the second floor.
However, the moment it rolled around the corner after hitting the wall in front of it, several voices of exclamation could be heard.
"What the hell!?"
"Do they want to kill us????"
"Arghhh!!"
Only moments after the astonishing exclamations stopped abruptly, a frustrating grunt followed.
"I should really beat up some humans for a change!!"
When the hoarse voice said this, an ear-piercing noise resounded through the tower.
The earth ball had been shattered into several thousand pieces that were flung through the surrounding, which allowed Mathias to see the speed at which it bashed on the wall.
This caused him and Bella to lift their right eyebrow in sync before their heads turned towards Nial.
"He is just an 8th Origin rank with gauntlets, don't worry."
Nial was the only one who could use his range of perception to the extent that he was able to figure out even the most hidden information.
Even if the gauntlets worn by the man with the hoarse voice were not something Nial could perceive directly, the fact that his Mana sense visualized everything made it possible for him to conclude quite a bit from the provided intel!
That made it possible for Nial to figure out more about his opponents before he could decide ways of tackling them.
And according to the mana fluctuations he sensed, Nial could tell that the man with the hoarse voice wanted to shed blood; their blood to be specific.
Though that didn't scare him.
In a matter of a single second, black miasma radiated from Nial, followed by the dark energy that merged with it.
Spreading most of his mana at once, he filled the entire stairway that connected the tower's second and third floor with each other through dark miasma.
The stairways were tightly sealed within a second, just for Nial to take a step downward.
"Give me 30 seconds, and I'll be back!" He shouted before he disappeared in the dark miasma.
While being enveloped by the cloud of the dark miasma, every living being's control over mana deteriorated, while their senses were weakened drastically.
These minor negative effects would worsen over time, only to be accompanied by more inconveniences.
However, that was not something the five Originals would be able to witness as Nial manifested several dozen balls of darkness.
As he didn't want to kill the Originals, he had to hold back which was why he conjured only a dozen attacks around the group of Originals before releasing his attacks without hesitation.
Nial kept walking down the stairs, and when he reached the first opponent in the group, the only thing he encountered was a badly beaten up Original.
He wasn't familiar with the five Originals, but that was not necessary to tell him that his strength had increased quite a lot.
Even if he didn't fight physically, it was possible for him to defeat opponents much stronger than him through his ability and traits.
Only the Original at the 8th Origin rank was able to evade most attacks of the darkness balls.
However, the moment Nial thrust out with the blunt end of the Viper spear, the fight ended faster than expected.
The blunt end of the Viper spear was coated in his dark energy that entered the man's body the moment it made contact with his skin.
This was only possible because the man didn't protect his body with mana.
But that was not even possible as his control over mana had been deteriorating from the beginning.
'That's why you should always have a faint membrane of mana around you as a protective layer while exploring a dungeon…idiots!'
There were certain basics that Originals with a great background should have learned and implemented.
Considering that the burly man's gauntlets were mythical weapons, Nial could tell that he had either received the wrong lessons or that he was simply oblivious to the dangers he would encounter in the ancient ruins dungeon.
Either way, Nial was able to defeat the nuisances, which was everything that mattered.
He retracted the dark miasma within his body. This allowed Nial to regain some of the mana he had used up.
The sealed stairways were cleared once again. Nial ensured that the Originals were merely knocked out and that they wouldn't face any serious issues.
Afterward, he returned to his friends, who had been waiting for him.
"Your dark energy is really weird…did you just merge it with your black miasma to overlap their effects?" Mathias was baffled.
In response to Mathias' question, Nial just nodded his head, without saying anything further.
He wanted to take a look at the rooms to see how many treasures they would be able to procure. As such, discussing right now would just waste his time.
But, on the other hand, Mathias couldn't help but feel that Nial had advanced a lot more than he had expected in the last few days.
Nial had not even spent five days in the trials, but there were a lot many changes in his strength and demeanor.
Of course, this was advantageous in multiple ways.
However, Mathias felt a little bit burdened as he felt that only he was stagnating.
This was unacceptable!!
'I should improve as well…Right now, my proficiency with the earth affinity should increase rapidly. But even that wouldn't allow me to fight on par with Nial…not anymore!
Maybe I should focus on enlarging my mana core, before creating an Advanced Origin ring…I need to find an ability that complements my Innate ability and the Earth elemental affinity!'
Mathias was aware that his combat prowess was very low. He was not good at close combat, and there were only a few ways to use the earth affinity to launch long-range attacks.
That meant he had to change his fighting style and start close combat as well, or that he had to improve fast enough to bind a second affinity to his mana core.
The moment he owned two affinities, it should be possible for him to merge both elemental affinities to create a third affinity out of it.
His father had told him that this should be possible. As such, Mathias would try it out.
If it was even remotely as powerful as the merged product of Nial's curse and Innate ability, it would be a great means of attack in the long run.
With all these thoughts ravaging his mind, Mathias barely noticed that Nial had entered the first room on the third floor.
He triggered a trap and nearly fell down, just to halt in his tracks early enough.
"There are some traps I cannot sense…weird!"
Even though Nial was able to sense even the slightest mana fluctuation, the trap he had just triggered was something he couldn't sense, at all.
This was quite weird, which was why he kept blocking the door to the first room on the tower's first floor.
"Have you never encountered runes or artifacts that can block off or isolate mana fluctuations?" Bella asked all of a sudden.
She could clearly see a bunch of runes at the corner of the trap that had been activated.
It was a rather simple pit into which one was supposed to fall.
And while looking down the pit, one could see that one would end up in the first room on the second floor.
But a careful look would make one notice the spiked metal pipes that protruded out of the ground of the second floor.
They were coated with preserved poison, which was something Bella looked at with squinted eyes.
'Blocking off or isolating mana fluctuations...?'
Nial only knew that the Originals association in Katu had something similar in order to test one's potential with more accuracy.
However, its use could only be made in an enclosed space such as a room, and with the use of a huge gate.
That meant the runes used to achieve an even better effect had to be extremely valuable and rare.
But that was not something Nial could waste pondering over further right now. He had almost died owing to his reckless behavior.
There was a reason for him to have bound the Curse [Hodur's Heir] to his mana core.
And this reason was certainly not to allow him to control the black miasma!
Instead, it was for the enhancement of all of his senses, except the eyesight that was further cursed, if that was even possible, to begin with.
As long as his focus was on ALL of his senses, and not just on his Innate ability [Mana Sense], it was near impossible for him to die in the face of traps.
After all, he could clearly hear, smell, and sense every single motion that happened around him.
It was just that Nial tried to suppress the sensitivity of most of his senses because they burdened him the further he progressed.
This was truly the only disadvantage of [Hodur's Heir]! The enhancements of his senses were simply too powerful.
However, even if that were to be the case, Nial understood that he should be more careful, and learn to cope with the inconvenience.
He should turn it to his advantage, not restrict it if that meant he could save himself from dangers.
Nial clearly understood this once again, which led him to sigh deeply.
'Looks like I still have a lot to learn!'
**
[A/N: If you like the novel support me with your golden tickets and your powerstones. Join my Discord as well. The link is in the description.]