Child of Destiny

…

Leonard led the group to a certain place in the Deceiving Forest.

The place was quite deserted with a lot of aspen trees around which was also making the place quite spooky. Especially with the eerie sounds that could be heard from time to time. And due to that, Cloe unconsciously moved beside Shin while grabbing on his cloak.

“Huh?” Shin suddenly knitted his eyebrows when he noticed that before starting to tease her a little. “Why? Still afraid of those supernatural things?”

“And whose fault is that?” refuted Cloe with glaring eyes.

Meanwhile, Leonard suddenly turned his head to the side, looking over his shoulders. “Will you please stop acting like a pair of love birds for now and focus on following me? It is easy to get lost in this place due to its natural barrier.”

He then took a brief pause before adding. “The trees in this forest are pretty much identical with each other which easily confuses all of the players who were trying to enter this place. So, you better not get distracted before you lose your way.”

“So, how are you able to navigate in this place and make sure that we are on the right path?” asked Arthur who was feeling a little skeptical at Leonard’s words.

Hearing that, Leonard pointed at his nose before replying instantly. “By using my sense of smell.”

Pfft!

Arthur almost burst out laughing when he heard that replying before saying. “What are you? A dog?” while trying his best to suppress his laughter.

“What?” asked Leonard threateningly as if he was inviting Arthur for a little spar.

Seeing that the situation was starting to escalate into another matter, Shin decided to jump in the middle of the two, trying to calm these two monsters down before they could even wreak some havoc in this place.

With that, the group resumed their walking until they arrived in front of a strange wooden house.

“Mister Jiang’s Workshop? Why would someone build a workshop in the middle of a forest? Much less in a maze-like place like this,” said Arthur right after reading the words written on a signboard in front of the wooden house.

“Stop yapping already and come inside,” said Leonard while walking towards the door of the house.

But before he opened the door, he suddenly turned his body towards the group before explaining a little. “My personal informant is staying here. And he is the only person who can help us in this situation. So, hurry up and get in!”

……

Inside the workshop, a young boy who seemed to be thirteen years old was currently cleaning all of the weapons displayed on the racks one by one when the door of his workshop suddenly opened followed by a familiar voice immediately after.

“Hey! Crazy Jiang! I come here for a visit!” said Leonard as he entered.

Hearing that voice, the man who was addressed as Crazy Jiang by Leonard, immediately stopped what he was doing before turning around and running towards Leonard without any hint of hesitation. “Big Brother! You are finally back! I really missed you!”

But he suddenly stopped his tracks when he saw that Leonard was not alone. “Eh!? You brought some visitors with you?”

He then swept his gaze at the group for a moment before saying with a surprised tone. “And each of them is strong!”

Meanwhile, Arthur was currently looking at the young boy with skeptical eyes. “A brat? Are you telling us this brat is your personal informant?” 𝐛𝗲𝗱𝐧𝗼𝐯𝗲𝗹．𝐧𝐞𝘁

“Heh! Brat you say? You are only years older than him,” sneered Leonard while crossing his arms in front of him.

After that, he turned his head toward Crazy Jiang before saying. “These guys are my friends that I’m talking about.”

“Oh! I see. Now I know why I’m getting the same level of threat coming from them,” replied Crazy Jiang noddingly.

After that, he invited the group to have a seat on the wooden chairs inside his workshop. “Please have a seat. Though, I would like to ask your forgiveness about my shabby workshop.”

And when Shin and the others sat down, Crazy Jiang immediately said to them. “Since Big Brother Simba is only coming here for business, then I will not waste your time for chit-chatting and immediately go straight to the topic.”

He then looked at Leonard and asked. “Do you guys come here to ask for the location of the Sky Island?”

“Precisely!” answered Leonard noddingly.

“Then that is going to be easy!” said Crazy Jiang before running towards a certain cabinet inside the workshop before taking a small bag from it and immediately throwing it towards Leonard. “Catch!”

“And this is?” asked Leonard right after catching the small bag.

“Don’t tell it is some sort of bean that can grow into a massive vine that could pierce through the clouds?” added Arthur sarcastically.

“Of course not! That story is way too old to be used by developers of the game for such an informant quest,” replied Crazy Jiang chucklingly.

But contrary to what he had said, Leonard and Arthur saw a heap of strange beans inside the small back when they took a look at it.

Being able to understand what they were thinking, Crazy Jiang immediately explained. “As for those, they were some sort of special items that you will need to initiate the quest that will lead you to the Sky Island.”

“So, you indeed knew where we could find the entrance towards that place?” asked Leonard.

Hearing that, Crazy Jiang suddenly felt proud of himself before crossing his arms in front of him smugly. “You are talking as if you don’t know me? There is no place or quest in this Kingdom that I’m unaware of.”

After that, he immediately opened a three-dimensional map in front of him, showing the whole Primal Kingdom.

“There are quite a few new regions discovered in the Primal Kingdom since the time you left,” said Crazy Jiang while sending a copy of the 3D map to Leonard.

He then made a few taps on the virtual map in front of him, zooming towards a certain region. It was a rocky mountain with a lot of stone formations, stiff peaks, and sharp peaks.

“This is one of those newly discovered maps, the Crystalline Peak,” said Crazy Jiang while pointing his chin at the virtual map in front of him.

Hearing that, the group focused their attention on the virtual map before listening closely to Crazy Jiang’s next words.

“There are a lot of puzzles in this mountain and each puzzle will give you a different set of quests. And one of them is going to help you find the way towards the Sky Island,” said Crazy Jiang.

“It sounds a little troublesome, but since we have this smart-ass here, it shouldn’t be a problem,” said Arthur while looking at Shin meaningfully.

“But how are we going to identify which puzzle is related to the Sky Island?” asked Shin, ignoring what Arthur had said.

But those words only made Arthur feel prouder at what he just said and quickly added. “Heh! See? He is already asking about the most important things.”

Pak!

And that was when he received another strong smack on his head from Cloe. “Can you stop fooling around for a second? We are discussing some important matters here!”

“I’m just making the atmosphere a little livelier alright? You guys are too tense,” said Arthur while rubbing his head. ‘I should put my helmet on so that this violent girl can’t hit me whenever she wants.’

Meanwhile, Crazy Jiang immediately answered Shin’s question. “About that, you should find a Special NPC in the Crystalline Peak and get a quest from him.”

“As long as you are going to correctly answer all of the puzzles in the quest that he is going to give correctly, then you will reach the Sky Island along the way,” he added after a brief moment of pause.

“And we are going to find him with the help of those beans?” asked Shin while pointing at the small cloth bag on Leonard’s hands.

Hearing that, Crazy Jiang nodded his head repeatedly, implying that Shin got it right.

“Is that all we need to know?” asked Shin to make sure that they were not going to miss anything.

“Well, that’s all. At least from what I know,” answered Crazy Jiang immediately after hearing it. He then took a quick pause as he suddenly remembered something. “Ah! Yeah! There is another thing!”

“If you are going there with just a few of you, then make sure that you guys are ready for war. Because there are a lot of strong players, powerful organizations, and powerhouse guilds heading in that place.”

“After all, I’m not the only person who knows about this,” added Crazy Jiang.

“Tsk! So much for acting all-knowing earlier. He talks as if he is the only person who knows about this so-called secret quest,” commented Arthur from the side.

This time, the group chose to ignore him and chose to listen to Crazy Jiang instead.

On the other hand, the young man cleared his throat a little before continuing. “And if you want to get the maximum benefits from that place, then it is better if you pull those ‘two’ to your side.”

“Though, it is not going to be easy,” he added with a mystifying tone.

Hearing that remark, the group couldn’t help but feel a little curious. And when Crazy Jiang saw that, he started grinning from ear to ear before asking. “Want some information?”

“Well, that is a confidential one, so I can’t give it to you for free. But I will give some information about them if you pay me handsomely,” he added while rubbing his thumb and middle finger.

……