Child of Destiny

……

“Let us deal with these birds first,” said Shin while walking forward.

Surrounding them was a large group of Wingmen, both the tribe members and keepers. Those two groups were supposedly fighting against each other, but at this point in time, they seemed to have a silent agreement to fight together against a common enemy.

“These guys are supposed to be mortal enemies of the Black Nagas, right?” muttered Cloe from the back before looking at Arthur with a smile.

“What!?” asked Arthur, slightly confused. But he also had an idea of what she was implying to.

And to confirm it for him, Leonard nodded his head from his side while quickly adding. “Snakes are relatives of lizards, and dragons can be considered as reptiles… So~?…”

But before they could even complete his words, Arthur immediately reacted and shut him up. “My Dragon is not a god*mn lizard!”

The group started laughing out loud when they saw his reaction, feeling amused.

Well, aside from Shin who was busily sweeping his gaze at the surrounding Wingmen, hovering in the air.

“They are quite strong, but since the tribe leaders are already gone, dealing with them is going to be much easier,” muttered Shin as he took a sword-drawing stance. And with him taking the lead, the others behind him also assumed a battle position, getting ready to fight.

On the other hand, the Wingmen surrounding them in the air immediately looked at the group aggressively before raising their weapons to retaliate.

But before the respective sides made their moves, Archimedes suddenly flew in the air and put himself in the middle of the groups before shouting. “Wait!”

“Eh!?” Shin and the others were quite surprised by his actions but they immediately understood what he was planning when they remembered that he was supposedly Garuda’s Descendant.

And just like what she was thinking, the keepers immediately became at ease and quickly separated themselves from the other Wingmen Tribes. Though, they were still on guard against Shin and the others.

“These guys are my guests, take care of the rebels,” said Archimedes, to which the keeper immediately responded and quickly resumed their battle against the other Wingmen in the air.

“Whoa~! He really can order those guys,” said Arthur with a whistle.

On the other hand, Leonard and Cloe slightly shook their heads before the former commented sneeringly. “You are talking as if we don’t have the same level of authority when it comes to our respective Organizations.”

Meanwhile, Shin also lowered his battle stance and said to the two in front of them. “We’re sorry for intruding but we really don’t have a choice.”

“So, can we now ask why are you guys here?” asked Daulla with a slightly annoyed tone.

But instead of immediately answering her question, Shin put up a smile and asked in return. “Well, we have no problem telling you our reason for coming here. But first, are you guys sure it is fine to talk about it here?”

“How about we find a more quiet place where we can discuss something so important?” he added while pointing at the Wingmen in the sky, who were currently in the middle of intense battle once again.

“Eh!? Ahm-…” Daulla wanted to say something but her words were immediately cut off by Archimedes. “Follow me.”

Hearing that, Daulla invited the group to enter the castle while chasing after Archimedes. And when they left the place, a pair of strong-looking keepers suddenly positioned themselves at the entrance of the castle, guarding it.

……

Archimedes led the group to a conference room inside the castle where Shin and the others narrated everything that they discovered so far, starting from the time they first arrived at the Primal Kingdom. And that included the quest that Arthur and Leonard received from the Head Keeper that they encountered during their test to enter the Sky Island.

In return, Archimedes and Daulla were asked to tell them honestly their main purpose in coming to this place. Naturally, Daulla had some objections with that since she felt that they were at a disadvantage on this information exchange.

Unfortunately, she couldn’t say anything when Archimedes accepted Shin’s suggestion without any hesitation. He was even quite generous to give Shin and others some information regarding the Three-Headed Snake.

After exchanging that information that each side had, the entire room suddenly turned as both sides fell in deep thought, trying to figure out what they were going to do next.

A few moments later, Shin raised his head once again and looked at Archimedes before asking. “So, what is your next plan? From the information that we have, I’m pretty sure that you also figured out what’s really going on, right?”

Hearing that, Archimedes suddenly knitted his brow as he couldn’t believe what he just discovered. But at the same time, he was also not fully convinced with it; especially that he was doubting that this kind of quest was going to deceive the players.

Seeing the expression that Archimedes was making, Shin was able to read what was currently running inside his mind, so he immediately said. “It is not impossible – those kinds of quests really existed.”

“I even experienced some of them personally,” he quickly added after remembering the quests that the fake king of Saint Heaven Kingdom had given him.

Hearing that, Archimedes looked at Shin and asked. “But how can we just believe you?”

“Yeah! It is already ridiculous to say that a Named NPC with such status gives us a fake quest to deceive us, but also saying that it is meant to take the body of a player is even more unbelievable!” added Daulla while slamming the table.

Shin started chuckling when he heard her reaction and tapped his finger on the table while saying. “Believe it or not, it is really possible. After all, this game is not your ordinary game from what we can see so far.”

He then paused for a moment to open a virtual screen showing the details of Arthur and Leonard’s quest. “And we already have the evidence that we need here.”

————————–

<strong>Quest Name:</strong> War of Wingmen and Black Nagas 𝑏𝑒𝘥𝑛𝘰𝑣𝑒𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

<strong>Quest Type:</strong> Hidden-Investigative Quest

<strong>Quest Difficulty:</strong> Hell-Master (V-)

<strong>Quest Detail:</strong>

The never-ending war between the Wingmen Race and spawns of the Wicked Snake Kings had lasted for more than a century already.

Due to this, the land of the ‘Glowing Feathers’ had never experienced true peace.

<strong>Quest Condition:</strong>

-Stop the war between the Wingmen Race and the spawns of the Wicked Snake Kings and bring peace to Sky Island.

<strong>Quest Reward/s:</strong>

+5 Levels

+200 Fame Points

+20,000 Reputation Points

+15 LP (Legacy Points)

-Unlocked the Wingmen Race

-Unlocking one of the sub-races of Naga Race, the Dire Nagas

Note: The current Naga race will be distinguished as ‘Ocean Nagas’ if the quest is successful

<strong>Extra Reward (</strong>Depending on your achievements during the quest)

-Epic Tier 2 Skill Books (Class Specific)

<strong>Quest Penalties:</strong>

-10 Levels

-4000 Fame Points

-40,000 Reputation Points

=Forever disappearance of the Sky Island.

=Being branded as the mortal enemy of the Wingmen Race

————————–

“At first, I thought that we just needed to kill the Three-Headed Snake to complete this. After all, it was practically obvious that it is the so-called ‘Wicked Snake Kings’ mentioned in our quest. And probably the ‘antagonist’ in this story.” said Shin.

And after a brief moment of pause, he quickly added. “But after taking a closer look at its details, I discovered that it is not the case. In order to stop this so-called war between the Wingmen Race and the Black Nagas, both Garuda and the Three-Headed Snake need to be killed at the same time.”

“And how can you come up with that conclusion?” asked Daulla, not buying what Shin had said.

Hearing that, Shin smirked a little and opened another panel on his virtual screen where the murals that they had seen before were being shown.

But despite seeing those, Daulla was still not convinced and immediately said. “Those murals are only telling you about the legend of Garuda and the history of Sky Island, nothing else. What’s more, how can we be sure that your own quest is not the fake one and not ours?”

“So, impatient,” muttered Shin with a bitter smile before opening more panels that had different sets of murals in them. But despite the difference, all of those murals had one thing in common; all of them were about the Wingmen Race and Black Nagas.

“It is because of these, I guess,” he answered after.

Daulla still wanted to say something when she saw those murals. But she immediately stopped herself from talking when she took a closer look at each of them. “Wait-… are those-…?”

On the other hand, Arthur and the others were also quite surprised when they saw those murals since they had no idea that Shin had them.

“Hey! Where did you get those?” asked Arthur confusedly since he couldn’t remember any of those murals aside from the first set that they saw in the cave.

“Some of them are from that guy Kayne that we captured earlier while the rest are from Crazy Jiang – I ask him to look for similar murals when I discover that the murals that we have are not the only ones out there. Fortunately, he is quite fast at gathering them,” said Shin in a nonchalant manner.

“And after putting all of them together, I finally discovered the real reason why these birds and serpents are fighting with each other,” he added with a smile.

“You already know all about this but didn’t tell us anything about it? Tsk!” said Arthur who seemed to be sulking.

Seeing that, Shin was unable to help himself but chuckle at Arthur’s expression before saying. “Even if I want to tell you about that, you will not be interested in it anyway.”

“Moreover, I just completed the puzzle earlier when we were on our way here,” he added while patting Arthur’s shoulder.

Meanwhile, Cloe seemed to have a sigh of relief while muttering to herself. “So, that is why he is in a dazed state from time to time. Here I thought-…”

“You are thinking of what?” asked Shin, cutting off her words.

Hearing that, Cloe suddenly raised her head and looked at Shin for a moment before dodging his gaze with her burning ears. “Nothing!”

On the other hand, Daulla finally turned quiet and sat on her seat in silence, too ashamed to say anything more.

Seeing that, Archimedes, who was not saying much since they came in here finally opened his mouth and asked. “So, how about summarizing everything for us?”

Seeing that they were finally willing to listen, Shin immediately nodded his head before muttering. “So~… where should I start?”

…