Child of Destiny

……

Beast Glade Kingdom, Glory Mountain Range

This map was the place that Shin chose to be their ravenous point. And when he arrived at that place, the entire gang was already waiting for him.

“Here comes Mr. Important. You finally arrive!” said Arthur the moment he saw Shin walking towards them.

Hearing that, the others also turned their heads at him.

Archimedes, who was currently sitting on a tree branch, slightly nodded his head at him as a form of greeting before closing his eyes and going back to his nap. Daulla, on the other hand, bowed at Shin before turning her attention back to the virtual screen in front of her.

Meanwhile, Leonard walked over to Shin and put his arm around the latter’s shoulder before saying. “Hey! Why do you always leave us behind whenever you are going to an exciting place? What kind of brother are you? At least, share the fun with us.”

Shin sighed helplessly when he heard that before replying. “It is not like I can always be with you guys when I am using my dual identity. I am using the ‘Nameless Swordsman’ earlier, so I chose not to ask any assistance from you guys since it will arouse a lot of suspicions.”

He was currently using his other identity right now, the Emperor of the Night Sickarius.

“Tsk! Tsk! Alright, you win,” said Leonard while taking off his arms at Shin.

But right after he did that, Cloe immediately took over and quickly clung her arms on Shin’s arms before pouting her lips. “How dare you leave me behind? And I heard you are questing with a girl, are you cheating on me?”

‘This girl sure is bold,’ thought Shin to himself after hearing those words. Then he looked at her before replying. “Do I have to tell you where I need to go? It is not like you are my mom or something.”

“What?” Cloe was suddenly taken aback by those words and stared blankly at Shin for a couple of seconds before muttering with a dejected tone. “So, it is indeed a girl. Tsk! Dating someone behind my back, huh? Are you cheating on me!”

Hearing that, Shin slightly leaned over her which made Cloe’s face turn rosy, especially that his face was close to hers. Then he flicked her forehead before saying. “Idiot! As if I have time to doing something like that. And don’t make it sound as if we are going out together.”

After that, he freed his arm from her before walking over to Arthur and Leonard to brief them a little about their quest.

In the meantime, Cloe was left standing on her spot while watching Shin walk away while rubbing her forehead. She totally forgot about her plan to act upset so that she could strike another ‘deal’ with him. “Tsk! I think I am the one that got tricked instead!”

…

“So, you are telling me that even the Racial Unlocking Quest happening in the Dwarf Kingdom is one of their schemes,” asked Arthur as he knitted his brow.

“Well, it is too suspicious of all three kingdoms to have 3 regional quests all at once,” said Shin while shrugging his shoulders.

Then he suddenly turned to Leonard before saying. “Anyway, things work out well for us since Leo’s quest is somehow connected with our current problem.”

“Tsk! Tsk! Temple of the War God sure is busy fighting the Corrupted Cults and Demonic Churches,” commented Arthur from the side in a sarcastic manner. Then he turned his head at Cloe before continuing. “The same for the Church of Light. You got the same quest, aren’t you?”

“You have the same quest?” asked Shin, chiming in.

“Come on! Share it with us so that we can see if we can get more clues by having all three quests together,” he added, urging Cloe to hurry up.

“Hmph! You only remember whenever you need something!” said Cloe as she pouted her lips.

And to add more oil to the fire, both Arthur and Leonard suddenly injected some comments.

“Yeah, that is what kind of guy he is.”

“Tsk! Tsk! How can you ignore her? Such a heartless guy.”

Shin gave them a snarling look when he heard their comments before turning his head back to Cloe. “Our dear Cloe, you know that we don’t have much time, am I right? How about we stop this play for now and set aside it for later?”

“Hmph! If you remove the word ‘our’ then I may reconsider it,” said Cloe, trying to ‘test’ the water a little more.

Unfortunately, Shin didn’t respond as she wanted and immediately turned around. “If you don’t want to, then I will not force you. All you have to say is no, so why bother prolonging it?”

Cloe was taken aback by the sudden turn of events and quickly chased after Shin. “Eh!? Wait, Shin! You know that we are just joking, right? Why are you taking it too seriously? Hey!”

…

Not long after, Owen and the others finally arrived and walked over to the group. But when they finally got near and had a clear look at Shin and the others, their bodies suddenly turned stiff and refused to budge.

Alucard and Akailu were already expecting that whatever team Owen had joined, it would surely be a formidable group. But never in their dreams that it was ‘this’ formidable.

In fact, it was already an understatement to address them that way. This kind of lineup was already comparable to the top Adventurer Teams of the game alongside the main forces of Powerhouse Guilds.

Three Gods who stood at the peak of their respective classes, these three alone were more than enough to scare anyone that would encounter them.

Aside from them, there was also a Titled Ranker who was a champion of an official tournament that was almost comparable to Shadow Ranking Cup. And alongside him was the Electro-Mage who came from the same kingdom as him. Moreover, she was also a Maverick Ranker with an unofficial title of her own.

After that, there was a player who started gaining some fame just recently. He might not be as famous as the others but his special class and strange undead summonses piqued the interest of some powerful guilds. And after the recent incident in the Primal Kingdom, this player also got his own unofficial title.

Then, in the middle of this group, was a player who was ‘rumored’ to be comparable to the Nameless swordsman who was the champion of the Shadow Ranking Cup and had the title of Angel of Death.

Alucard, Akailu, and Ithilien were all experts so it was natural for them to be updated about the recent news regarding the game. So, they naturally heard about the rumor that the Dragon God Siegfried and War God Simba were creating an adventurer team of their own. But they never did expect that they would stand in front of this rumored team, much less imagine that this was the team that Owen had joined.

Looking at Shin and the others, the three finally understood the meaning behind the Nameless Swordsman’s words. They were really thankful to him now that they learned who they were working with this time.

Then they simultaneously turned their heads to Owen and gave him a sharp and questioning look as if they were demanding some explanation.

Little did they know, this was also the first time Owen had seen his team. And since Shin indeed invited him to join an adventurer team, he kind of expected this to happen. After all, Shin didn’t bother to hide his real IGN when they were adding each other as friends.

And adding the fact that he read what happened in Blind Abyss Empire and the Primal Kingdom online, it was quite easy for him to guess who his teammates going to be by putting two and two together.

But knowing about it and seeing for himself were two different matters. So, he also couldn’t help but stare blankly in front of him when he finally saw his team in person. Especially when he could sense the scary aura radiating from their bodies.

Compared to them, Charlotte was acting rather composed. She indeed read a few things within Shin’s mind earlier, so there was no reason for her to be surprised.

Seeing that the other group was refusing to move, Shin decided to take the initiative at greeting them. He stood up from the boulder that he was sitting on and walked over to Owen and the others before extending his hand. “It has been a while, how are you doing?”

Seeing that, the others couldn’t help look at Owen once again while sending yet another questioning look. – “You know each other?” –

Being able to read what was the meaning of those looks, Owen suddenly rolled his eyes at them as if he was saying. – “What kind of stupid question is that? Of course, we know each other! How can I join their team if we don’t?” –

He then turned his attention back to Shin and shook the latter’s hand. “I’m fine. And don’t worry, I’m already done with everything on my side so I can formally join now.”

“But before that, how about the favor that I asked about?” he added while looking straight into Shin’s eyes. 𝒃𝒆𝙙𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝙡．𝙤𝒓𝙜

Hearing that, Shin slightly leaned his head to the side to look behind Owen where Ithilien stood. “I already told you, it is not for me to decide. We still need the approval from the others.”

He then paused for a moment to let go of the shake before adding. “But since we are going to work with each other now, this can be a perfect time for us to have a good look at her skills.”

The two had a little vague topic, so the others were not sure what they were talking about. But after reading between the lines, they immediately understood what they meant.

Ithilien was taken aback while Alucard and Akialu couldn’t help but shift their gaze between her and the members of the ‘Empyrean Talons’ before whispering to each other.

“Should we also give it a try?”

“My thoughts exactly!”

……