Child of Destiny

……

Shin and the others stared blankly at Jillian for a couple of moments when they heard her words. Then they turned their gaze at Molton, who was keeping his head led and feeling completely shy at the current situation.

He was a player too. Even though he did not consider himself a top-notched expert, he was confident that his skills were a notch higher than most of the players of the game. ｂｅ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟𝚎ｌ.𝚌𝚘ｍ

And as someone who liked to read the forum a lot and be updated on all kinds of news, he regularly stumbled upon the news about the Empyrean Talons. It was an adventurer team founded by Godlike Players, who stood at the top of everyone else.

After following the news about them and learning about the amazing feats that they had achieved, he immediately became drawn to them. He also became their fan starting at that time.

Who would have thought that he already met his idols? And even went to do important missions together before and went through life-and-death situations together. He also became their classmate too.

This was truly an exhilarating and inexplainable feeling for him.

He did not expect that his idols were by his side all this time. But when he thought more about it, he felt that it was understandable that he did not recognize them. It was because their respective in-game persona was like a celebrity, which is why they need to put on some disguise to hide their identities.

Arthur, for example – as the Dragon God Siegfried, was always wearing his full set of armor that was covering his entire being. His helm was always hiding his appearance, making it impossible for the players to recognize him when he was not wearing it.

Well, Arthur did it purposely so that he could have a mysterious and enigmatic vibe whenever he was fighting. In short, it was one of his ways to make his presence on any battlefield more appealing.

Leonard was in a similar case. He was always wearing his signature lion’s helm, which hid his face in every battle. Even though most of the players could tell that he was young based on his body structure, they still had no way of knowing his real appearance.

In the eyes of many, he was just a young beast and a crazy berserker, who slaughter anyone trying to block his path. He was a demon and a beast – he was the War God Simba.

Cloe, on the other hand, was a celebrity too. She was the number healer in the game and was famous for being one of the beauties ranked at the Beauty Ranking List of the virtual world. It was natural for players to be able to know about her.

The Gentle Goddess Arielle.

Because of this, she was used to wearing a cloak that almost hid her entire being, especially with the hood that was always hanging over her head to hide her appearance. And due to her doing it for a long time, not many people were able to recognize her with a single glance.

Alice was in a slightly different yet also similar situation. She was a celebrity in the real, so people would immediately recognize her face even within the game. It was because of it that she had to always wear a veil to hide her face or a mantle to cover her appearance.

In any case, she was also hiding her identity within the game, where she was known as the Elemental Goddess Charlotte.

Shin was no different to any of them. His persona as the Angel of Death, the Nameless Swordsman, was famous and he was wearing his signature mask, so most of the people did not know about his real appearance.

It was until he revealed that he was also the Emperor of the Night Sickarius gave the players an idea of what he really looked like.

But since he was also wearing the Nightwalker’s Cloak when he was fighting as Sickarius, not many people were able to clearly remember his face.

And because of how brilliant and famous his persona with the Nephilim’s Mask was, most of the players almost forgot what he looked like. They remembered him as someone with that mask than his real appearance.

It was the reason why even Molton did not immediately recognize Shin as the now Battle God Sickarius.

Molton slowly raised his head when he noticed that the others seemed to be waiting for him to say something. And when he did, he saw that everyone was looking at him with the same gaze that they had since the time they met.

There was no difference. It was as if what his twin sister had said earlier was nothing. Aside from the slight shock that they had, there was nothing else.

As usual, Arthur was the one who broke the silence. “So, you are also playing the game. What level are you? What is class? What is your race? Are they special ones or ordinary ones?”

In front of the barrage of questions that Arthur was asking him, Molton could not immediately respond and only stare at his so-called senior brother blankly.

It took him quite some time before he managed to snap out of his daze before replying. “I am a level 148 Mechanic. My race is originally a human, but when the Dwarven Race is unlocked, I choose to convert my race into a dwarf. And after a series of quests, I became a Divine Hammer Dwarf, one of the noblest dwarves of the game.”

The group could not help but be a little surprised when they heard his words. They had various reasons for it. One was his level, for someone to reach that level, almost reaching the milestone for the next class, it was clear that he was not an ordinary player – he might be a top expert even.

Next was his class was too unusual. Not many people were familiar with it. It was similar to the Engineer Lifestyle class, but instead of a craft-focused profession, it was a more battle-oriented class.

Then there was his race. They knew about the dwarven race since when it was unlocked, the Empyrean Talons were currently fighting the Corrupted Cult to stop their plot. They did not have the time to check on that class because of that clash against such a large operation of the opposing faction.

Their reaction made Molton think that they were not familiar with his class, so he felt obligated to share what it was. “The Mechanic Class focused on using advanced and scientific tools during a battle. They could use, energy guns, plasma swords, and other devices when they are fighting.”

“My main weapon is an Energy Converter. It is a weapon that I personally design and crafted. It is inspired by the magic orb and grimoire that mages and sorcerers used,” he said with a proud tone before quickly adding. “Its main ability is to absorb the mana from the surroundings and covert into an energy that suited my needs.”

“My fighting style is similar to a Mage and an Elementalist. But with more advanced and futuristic weapons,” he added more, feeling satisfied.

He rarely showed off anything because of his introverted personality, but right now, he felt that he could boast a little in front of his senior brother and idols. As a fan, he also wanted to be recognized by their group.

Arthur found his class and race interesting and enthusiastically said commented. “That sounds cool. We can meet later in the game when the servers are up once again.”

Then a suddenly struck his head as he smiled gently at Molton while asking. “Given your level and rare class, I think that you are somewhat skilled. You can even be a top expert in the game.”

“How about this? Do you want to join our team?” he added in a slow and patient manner. The look on his face was clearly reflecting the plot that he was cooking. He resembled an old kidnapper trying to trick a little to come with him.

When Shin and the rest saw that, they could not help but roll their eyes at him. From a single glance, they could instantly tell what this guy was trying to do. He was clearly trying to poach Molton over so that he could pull Jillian to join them.

They might not be too familiar with the twin because they had only seen them a couple of times, but they could at least tell that Jillian treasured her brother a lot. Whenever he went, she was there to support him despite her unwillingness.

If Arthur was successful with his plan at trying to recruit Molton, then Jillian would most likely join them too. Such a scheme was pretty clear in their eyes, which made them look at Arthur with contempt.

The group was expecting that Jillian would immediately reject the idea when Arthur tried to invite Molton. It was clear that she found the guy annoying, especially with his advances when trying to get close to her, so it was natural for her to object to the invitation.

But to their surprise, she remained quiet. She did not say anything while waiting for Molton to reply. And because of her actions, the group could not help but turn to Molton and also waited.

Arthur was confident that Molton would agree to his invitation. After all, this junior brother of his seemed to like and trust him a lot, so accepting his invitation would be something to be expected.

But to his surprise, a dejected, unwilling, yet stubborn look appeared on Molton’s face. And it was at that moment that he heard the unexpected rejection. “I am sorry, senior brother. I really want to join you in doing adventures together. But I still have a promise to make. Until I prove to them that they are wrong, I will not be able to join you.”

He then lowered his head and apologized once again. “I am really sorry.”

Arthur was taken aback at the sudden rejection as well as the expression that Molton was making. He then quickly waved his hand and forced a laugh while saying. “It is fine. It is fine. You don’t have to feel sorry. There is no need to feel sorry.”

He purposely did not ask ‘why’ since he knew that it was stepping out of the line. Based on the expression that Molton had, he could tell that it was a serious and sensitive matter. Especially when he saw that Jillian did not give him a look of contempt after being rejected.

He then turned to Shin and the others and went back to the original topic that they were talking about earlier, purposely changing the subject to break the awkward atmosphere. “So, let’s talk about the creation of the club. Are you really sure that you don’t want to make one?”

“It sounds like a lot of fun. Challenging and fighting the already established clubs at the upcoming exhibition,” he added with a stiff smile.

…