Chapter 115 Disbelief
After turning in the direction of the voice, Bella, Mathias, and the other Originals sighted Instructor Junades.
He was standing in front of the huge crevice, wearing comfortable clothes, while holding a cigarette in one hand.
It looked like he was truly astonished to see so many Originals lying in front of the basement's exit.
Yet, upon seeing the corpse of the Lesser Titan youngling and realizing that the youths were not simply passed out but some appeared to be dead his complexion changed.
'How the hell did they die? Why didn't the Guardians intervene?!'
He frowned deeply, but even without rushing to the dead Originals, Junades could clearly tell that they were beyond saving.
His frown only deepened at this before he cursed in a low voice.
"Fuck…"
But, instead of allowing anyone to understand his confusion, Junades put on a poker face before he pointed at the beast he presumed to be an Armored Giant.
"Was this little fella defeated by you guys?"
In the reports provided by the government's scouts, there hadn't been any information of an Armored Giant.
But even then, a new dungeon portal could have manifested, meaning that it was not abnormal for such a mighty beast to emerge on the nameless island.
However, under normal circumstances, the Guardians should have killed such beasts already in order to protect the participants of the Teradan military camp from being forced to face the danger.
The fact that he didn't sense the presence of the Guardians in the surrounding area, made it clear that they might be oblivious to the Lesser Titan youngling's arrival.
'There is not even a trace of their mana fluctuations around…are they too occupied with protecting the others?... No, they would have reported back to us in that case…'
Junades couldn't help but feel worried, not only about the fact that too many Originals died right at the back of the military camps' backside but also about the possibility that something might have gone wrong.
This thought made it impossible for him to keep a straight face as he scanned through the present Originals once again.
The Originals in front of him must have defeated the beast that exceeded the limitations of the Origin rank!
It might not make up for the fact that a few of them had died in the process of killing the beast, but it gave Junades a trace of hope, something he hadn't felt in years.
"We…didn't defeat it together… it was just the three of them…" A young woman voiced out in a defeated tone.
Her voice barely reached Junades, causing him to look over at her.
She had shoulder long brown hair, a beautiful face, and quite an ordinary physique.
If one were to ask Juandes, he would label her as just another girl.
However, his beauty standards were much higher than that of others, so he presumed that she must be revered for being quite pretty.
But given the situation, her appearance didn't matter.
It was more important what the trembling young woman told him while pointing towards the group of three in the back.
She was barely able to stand on her feet let alone stop her arm from trembling while pointing at the person who killed the Lesser Titan youngling.
Yet, the moment his eyes fell on Nial after his gaze followed her pointed finger, he looked at her in disbelief.
Nial's arms appeared to be slightly deformed, while the other members of his group were frazzled. Upon realizing what she was suggesting, he couldn't help but make a grimace.
'Is she nuts? Maybe she is too shaken to think properly?!'
It was already unexpected that anyone would be honest enough to not take the credit for someone's hard work and reveal that they hadn't killed the gigantic beast.
After all, by telling their Instructor that only Nial, Bella, and Mathias were enough to kill it, the young woman also revealed that her group and the others had been massacred, just like pigs in the slaughterhouse.
However, Junades refrained from commenting and approached her quietly.
He raised her hand and touched her forehead, making the young woman flinch before she sensed a calming and soothing sensation spreading out from his hand.
"Congratulations, you reached the basement!"
Junades knew that he was not supposed to let Originals enter the Teradan military camp's basement before they reached one of the entrances.
But the current situation and the condition of the participants were harrowing, to say the least, and there were too many uncertain factors.
''The priority is ensuring humanity's survival!'' Junades mumbled to himself before walking from one traumatized Original to the next one.
Repeating the process of touching their foreheads, he sent some of his mana through their body, which eased their tension before he subtly made use of his ability.
This allowed them to distract themselves from the events that had just happened.
Only when he stood in front of the group of three that had defeated the Lesser Titan youngling did he halt in his tracks.
"Good job, guys!"
If what the young Original said was true, the group of three had exceeded his expectations.
However, Junades didn't want to praise them a lot as he knew that the young blood would easily get influenced and start thinking too highly of themselves.
This would lead to more problems, and possibly make the three youths recklessly overestimate themselves, and die in a battle they should have avoided by all means.
As such, Junades was glad when the three youths couldn't even smile despite his words of praise.
Mathias' gaze wandered towards the dead Originals, and he looked at them with pity in his eyes, while Bella was fully aware of the fact that she would have been lying amongst them if she had fought the Lesser Titan youngling all by herself!
Meanwhile, Nial turned around towards the corpse of the Titan and stored the corpse in the spatial ring to keep it safe from rotting away.
The corpse should be worth a small fortune, and even after sharing the spoils amongst their group, it should allow them to gain some wealth.
'Maybe I should purchase some Origin crystals to fill my Mana core?' He wondered, only to scrap this thought a short while later.
Right now, Nial was not even sure what was going on with his body.
This made him feel as if he should give himself some time to reflect on himself, and regain the strong will he was known for.
His mind was a mess and his self-esteem which he had built up during the last few weeks was in tatters.
As such, Nial couldn't help but sulk as he heard Junades' voice once again,
"The three of you seem quite calm. That's also good.
I would appreciate it if either of you could provide a short summary of what happened. Also if you noticed something weird since your arrival on the nameless island, report it as well!"
Given the fact that Instructor Junades wanted to know if something was weird, he seemed to sense that something was off.
This included that they had no idea what was going on, which was what their small group of three had concluded as well.
As such, as if they had decided on doing this beforehand, the three took off the runic armaments they had been wearing in unison before holding them in front of Junades.
"We fought groups of Goblins, including Warriors, Elite Goblins, and even a Lesser Goblin Shaman. However, the worst were the Goblin Wolfriders!
Each Goblin is in possession of a marked pendant that allows them to control weak-willed beasts.
As for the other accessories you can see, they're runic armaments that allow the Goblins to speak in the human language, to summon fireballs, icicles, and to attack one's mind directly."
Bella summarized everything they had wanted to say about the Goblins in just four sentences.
However, the information she provided had everything important for Master Junades to hear.
She had only left out the theories they had come up with because they were mere assumptions and they had no credible evidence to support them.
But even then, what Junades heard caused him to be stunned.
He had hoped that they would say nothing out of the ordinary happened.
Yet, seeing the runic armaments followed by Bella's comment clearly showed that they had gone through a lot more than the first task had expected them to overcome.
'For real, what the hell are these idiots doing outside? And they call themselves Guardians…Is that some kind of joke?!'
While starting to curse the Guardians in his mind profusely, he took one of each runic armament in his hand.
He began studying the armaments intently while thinking about what Bella had meant with the things she said.
Ignoring the restless Originals behind him, Junades focused on the runic armaments for a few minutes.
Meanwhile, Nial had calmed down due to the presence of his friends by his side.
The changes within his body had been extreme, including the fact that his heart had been strengthened, giving him a subtle control over his blood flow, a faster healing process, and much more.
Adding his enlarged mana core led to an enhancement in his physical strength, followed by the enlarging of his Odyssey seed, there were too many things his body had yet to get accustomed to.
Because of all of these changes, Nial thought that it was best for Bella to take charge of explaining what all they had faced, including the summary of how they had defeated the Lesser Titan youngling.
There was a risk of letting her take charge as she could have simply revealed everything she had witnessed, including the dark energy currents he released.
This wouldn't be a problem as she had no idea what exactly this was.
If he were to be forced to explain what it was, Nial could always say that it had to do with his Innate ability.
Saying this wouldn't even be considered a lie as the Odyssey seed was comparable to an Innate ability holder, just that it was more extreme, and likely to be far more dangerous as well!
And this danger which he sensed from the Odyssey seed was what caused the most disruption to his mind!
His mentality was far more shaken than his body had been changed.
It would be a lie if he were to say that he was not afraid of what the future held for him.
In fact, he was thinking about the future, and what the Odyssey seed was causing to him, ever since he regained his senses.
The thoughts in his mind were so distressing and filled with worry that he even reconsidered choosing a suitable ability to prevent others from possessing him as the second ability to bind to his mana core.
From what he had heard, every new rank created the necessary space to bind one more ability.
Thus, existences like Junades were likely to have bound two or more abilities to their mana core.
However, there were other theories that believed that the mana core was just a human being's connection to the soul.
This meant that binding an ability to the mana core was comparable to engraving the said ability on his soul.
And only with a big enough soul was enough space generated to bind another ability.
For now, all of this was too far-fetched for Nial to know more about.
But even then, he knew that he should carefully reconsider what kind of second ability he was willing to bind to his mana core.
'If an ability that allows me to never worry about being possessed exists…should I really bind it? Will that allow me to feel more at ease?...'
**
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