Chapter 315 Yggdrasil’s Will
Nial took a deep breath before he activated [Mana Sense] to check for the changes in his own body.
The golden lines were visualized in his mind. They covered Nial's ordinary veins and his mana veins were shrouded by the golden lines. He was full of vigor, his mind worked much more efficiently than usual, and mana entered all of his open pores on its own.
'The Symbol of Life? How is that related to Yggdrasil?' Nial frowned deeply when he noticed that the Ankh was the link between himself and Yggdrasil.
He knew that the Ankh was closely related to Life but he would have never expected that it could even influence the ginormous tree to such an extent.
The tree was sacred to the Elves and only some of them were able to connect to Yggdrasil like Nial did. In the few books he had read since arriving in the Elven Empire, he got to know a few bits of information that were closely related to Yggdrasil and the Elves.
The Empress was able to connect to Yggdrasil and to use the accumulated vigor and energy of the Sacred tree when it was necessary to protect her race and her territory.
There were a few other emergency situations when the Empress or some of the other blessed Elves would try accessing Yggdrasil but the sentience of the tree would block them if it was not a dire emergency such as a matter between the existence and extinction of the Elven race.
"Why am I connected to you, big boy?" Nial mumbled as he slapped lightly against the wall next to him. The cold and rough wood seemed to warm up under his touch but Nial turned his head in oblivion.
He walked through the small paths that spread through the entire lower area of Yggdrasil and searched for a way upward.
Something within Nial screamed to him, it pulled Nial in a certain direction but he didn't feel that it would be a good idea to keep advancing ahead and following this weird feeling.
His gut, his heart, and his head were each of a completely different opinion of what he was supposed to do. The Odyssey seed didn't seem to do anything, which was a good sign, but the Symbol of Life was the exact opposite.
It reacted strongly to Yggdrasil and the direction he was subconsciously being pulled towards.
Nial used all his willpower to fight against the pulling force and he ended up near the stairways, which led upward. Yet, just when he was about to take them the stairs began to tremble as roots of various sizes grew out of the walls, the ground, and the ceiling.
The roots blocked the stairs and Nial's only way was to get up.
"Are you serious right now, Yggdrasil? If you have something to tell me, fucking speak to me…." Nial liked teasing others but it irked him when someone forced him to do something he didn't want to do and caged him like a canary.
Usually, he would never do something he didn't like because it ended up pulling him in more trouble. However, it was quite difficult to get out of this situation without following whatever the Sacred tree wanted him to do.
Nial tried to pull the roots apart but he understood almost instantaneously that not even a Prometheus Elf would be able to destroy these roots. There was no other way outside Yggdrasil, which was why Nial ended up walking in the direction he was being pulled.
His range of perception lost stability the closer he came to the area he was pulled in and it was only a matter of time before his range of perception was blurred.
'That never happened before…' Nial bit his lip when he sensed that not even activating [Mana Sense] allowed him to perceive his surroundings anymore.
For almost three years, Nial was able to perceive his surroundings and visualize the things he was not able to see due to his special condition. It didn't replace his sight accurately but it was pretty close to that as he could visualize every single thing in a close range as long as he used enough mana.
However, for the first time, this had changed!
Nial tried to use more mana to activate [Mana Sense] but it didn't work. He could tell that his Innate ability was activated and that it worked perfectly fine because the range in which he could feel that mana existed around him enlarged the more mana he used. But it was impossible for him to connect the mana that belonged to the same objects, masses, and beings as before!
Something blocked his mana sensory ability, crippling Nial and he was forced to rely on his other senses.
Nial had never really relied solely on his ordinary senses since he awoke his Origin because his range of perception was always present, supporting his senses, or the other way around.
Now that his range of perception and [Mana Sense] didn't seem to work, his heart seemed to constrict. He nibbled on his lower lip and stretched out both of his arms in an attempt to touch Yggdrasil's walls simultaneously.
A sigh of relief escaped Nial as his right hand felt the cold and rough wood which he approached like a good old friend.
Nial loosened the restrictions which he always put on his senses that were more than 30 times more sensitive than an ordinary Original at the 2nd Superior Mirae rank.
He released the restrictions slowly over time and the first thing Nial noticed was the fragrant woody scent that swirled around his nostrils. Nial took a deep breath of the warm, and earthy scent, and his stiff body responded by loosening up a bit.
His fingers came in touch with the thick resin, and the rough bark of the Sacred tree. Yggdrasil was covered with bark not just on the outside but also the inside. Nial was not sure why this was the case but some might even say that Yggdrasil was a tree in a tree.
Somehow he got that feeling as well, especially since he was connected to Yggdrasil directly. The cold and mushy moss wet his fingers, it washed off the resin that was sticking to them and it left behind some residue and faint imprints.
Nial was not able to see or to perceive anything but if he could do one or another, he would be able to tell that the fingers of his right hand had begun to glow.
The golden lines that covered the veins on the back of his fingers glowed brighter the longer Nial touched the walls of Yggdrasil. Intricate designs that morphed into blueish glowing runic constellations emerged wherever Nial's hand touched.
The runic constellations spread out and covered the entire small path he had entered not too long ago.
As he was unable to perceive anything with his Mana sense, Nial's focus was on the things he touched, the vibrations he felt, the noises around him, and the smell aka his ordinary senses. It allowed him to perceive so much more than before, whether it was the vibrations and sounds that the tiny insects all around him created, the faintest details he could feel about the walls he touched gently, or the change in the fragrance around him.
A stale and sulfuric smell entered his nose while the humidity increased drastically. Nial's hair stood up on its end and he began to shudder.
"What the hell am I smelling?" He quietly mumbled, tilting his head as he kept walking. Despite the sudden feeling that the Grim Reaper held its razor-sharp scythe against his neck, Nial continued to walk.
He felt a piercing gaze digging into the back of his skull but he was not able to hear anything except the insects around him. Their vibrations were also the only other thing he perceived, which indicated that there was nothing to be worried about.
However, it didn't take long before he sensed something weird. The narrow path ended up in a large hall, where Nial had no wall to lean against if necessary.
He knew that he would get lost in an unknown room where he was not able to use his range of perception.
Thus, he stretched out his left hand, where the Dragonflame spear manifested. He put the spear aside, and accessed his spatial ring a few more times before he found what he had been searching for; an enclosed lamp and a candle in his hand.
He put it down at the entrance he came from, summoned a small flame using the Dragonflame spear, and ignited the candle that released a strong fragrance.
After he put it inside the lamp, Nial placed the lamp in the center of the entrance he came from while taking a sniff.
"Better than nothing," Nial concluded when the strong fragrance swirled around him. The lamp was closed and there were only small slits to let some airflow in and out of it but that was more than enough for Nial to smell it.
*Splash*
When Nial's senses were overwhelmed by something new his head immediately flicked in the direction of the noise. Nial sniffed once while using his other senses to provide enough evidence for his next conclusion.
"An underwater lake inside Yggdrasil?" Nial grew certain that he was correct because he heard several more splashes the more time passed. The vibrations he felt came from astray droplets of water that hit the ground while the rest belonged to waves that swept through the center of the hall he had entered.
By focusing on the vibrations, Nial could conclude that the hall was extremely huge. This didn't worry him because there were other things to pay attention to.
"Hello there, my name is Nial Orin and I'm very sorry for entering your…abode, I am not sure how I reached here but I somehow ended up here," Nial tried to convey that he meant no harm and after he thought about something for a moment, he chose to add a few more bits of information, "I'm blind so I sense everything with my mana, so please don't worry that I'm prying on you…"
Nial felt weird talking like this because he was basically revealing that he was currently unguarded. He would never reveal this information if it was not for him still being in Yggdrasil, where he knew that it was safe.
'Please don't be a dumb brick head like Jilas…' Nial prayed, knowing that there was someone or something in the hall. As long as it was not Jilas or someone like that High Elf youngling, there was still some hope for him!
"How did you end up here, human?" A cold voice reached Nial all of a sudden. He flinched and involuntarily stepped back as the cold voice swirled around him. The voice seemed to come from all directions and Nial had to give up finding the actual direction where the voice came from.
His heart leaped up when he realized that there was truly someone in the huge hall, and Nial quickly explained the situation.
He didn't want to offend someone, whose strength and personality were unknown to him.
Nial summarized everything quickly, without leaving out any important information. The voice turned quiet and it didn't make another sound for several minutes.
"Your name was Nial Orin?" The voice asked in a different tone than before. It sounded like a completely different speaking to him but Nial could sense that it was the same being that slightly altered its voice.
"Exactly…Sir…Madame…?" Nial was not sure how to address the stranger. He accidentally said 'Sir' but that felt wrong, which was why he felt forced to add Madame as well.
Right now he looked like a complete fool and Nial was fully aware of this. It was frustrating.
"It doesn't matter whether you call me Sir or Madame. Both are correct, but also faulty…" the voice said calmly and the sound of something emerging from the lake reverberated through Nial's ear only a moment later.
Water dripped to the ground as the being the voice belonged to stepped out of the lake.
"It has been a while since someone entered my abode. Yggdrasil must feel something within you," the owner of the voice appeared behind him all of a sudden.
Nial wanted to turn his head but before he could do so, something corporeal touched his head, forcing him to go stiff as a statue.
"Let me take a look at it, little human," the voice said as a painful throbbing spread through Nial's head, along his neck, and down his body.
"If you don't fight against it, it won't hurt…that much…hehehe."