Child of Destiny

…

HeadHunter Guild.

As one of the Powerhouse Guilds of the game, their reputation in the virtual world should be a solid one. But after the repeated defeats that they had suffered recently, their reputation in the Saint Heaven Kingdom hit rock-bottom.

Even in their main base of operation in the Saint Heaven Kingdom, the Forbidden City, most of the players were now looking down at them. And because of that, their influence within the city.

Naturally, the other powerful guilds took advantage of the opportunity to start invading their territory while also trying to approach some of their elite members, convincing them to leave the HeadHunter Guild and head over to their side.

The higherups of the HeadHunter Guild tried their best to prevent losing their members. Unfortunately, they already lost a lot of trust from their members due to their successive defeats, which was why they couldn’t prevent their elite members from leaving.

Due to their continuous decline in the Saint Heaven Kingdom, the Guild Elders from their headquarters decided to abandon their plans in this place.

But the Ruthless God ‘Cruelty’ would not let that happen. After all, the operations on the Saint Heaven Kingdom were now under his supervision. And if he let the Elders pull their players from here, then his reputation within the guild was going to suffer.

Given that both sides were not going to back down, one of the great elders of the guild suggested that if Cruelty managed to prove to them that the situation in the Saint Heaven Kingdom could still be saved, they were going to take back the order to withdraw their forces from this place.

Having no other choice, Cruelty could only nod his head and accept the terms. But regaining their previous reputation within the Kingdom was going to be a tough task. And the only thing that could make them look good in the eyes of everyone once again, was to do something that no one had ever achieved yet.

And at this point in time, the only idea that Cruelty could think of was to explore the so-called forbidden place and unexplored territories of the game, the Borderlands of the different Kingdoms and Empires.

Those places should be rich in resources given that there were very few numbers of people who dared to venture into those places. Moreover, there should be some powerful monsters in these places that could trigger a Regional System Announcement.

King Class Monsters were no longer enough for the current state of the HeadHunter Guild. What they needed right now was a very powerful monster that was at least in Emperor Rank or higher.

And to find monsters with that rank, Cruelty decided to gather the most elite members of his guild and head over the Sky Deceiving Valley, planning to hunt for such monster bosses.

But since the moment they first entered the valley, their team never encountered a single monster. The entire place seemed to be so clean as if someone cleaned it spotlessly.

Though, they were half right about it since a ‘storm’ really went through this place and ‘cleaned’ all of the monsters on its path.

Not long after, the scouts of their group finally discovered the reason for the monsters’ absence. They saw some traces of battles in the deeper parts of the valley, indicating that someone beat them at exploring the place.

“These traces seem to be quite recent. Whoever is ahead of us, they should be not far from our position,” said Mad God ‘Bloody Edge’ after inspecting the traces of battle on their surroundings.

“Should we speed up a little to catch up?” he added while looking at Cruelty. 𝘣𝘦𝘥𝘯𝘰𝑣𝘦𝘭.𝘰𝘳𝘨

But the one who replied to him was Helena who was currently looking at him as if he was an idiot. “Do you really need to ask something so obvious? Can’t you see what’s in front of us? Those guys are definitely going to take everything if we don’t catch up to them.”

“So, of course, we are going to pick up our pace,” she added while looking at Bloody Edge with a skeptical expression on her face.

Bloody Edge was about to refute her when Cruelty suddenly opened his mouth. “What is the meaning of this? I thought that there are no other teams researching this place? Don’t tell me that the information that you gathered is wrong?”

Hearing those words, Bloody Edge immediately froze before staying stutteringly. “O-of course, o-our information is accurate!”

“Then how come there is a group ahead of us?” asked Cruelty while wearing a deep frown.

This time, it was the Savage God ‘Soulless’ who responded to his question. “There can only be two answers for that. It is either this particular team is secretly investigating this place just like us or they are strong enough to slaughter everything in their path blindfolded.”

He then crouched on the group and observed the marks left on it before continuing. “But from what I can see, it is more like the latter.”

“Well, we will see about that once we catch up to them,” said Cruelty after a brief pause. And at the same time, he looked over his shoulder before commanding the others. “Gather up and go back to your positions. We are picking up the pace!”

“Yes, Sir!”

…

As they traveled longer, the experts of the HeadHunter Guild started to see more traces of battles.

“We are almost there! We are slowing down our pace so that they will not notice us,” said Cruelty while raising his hand.

After that, he looked at Soulless and quickly instructed. “Go ahead and ask Bloody Edge to scout our opponents. And tell him not to blindly engage in battle. If your assessment is true, then we need some preparation before facing them.”

Hearing that, Soulless slightly nodded his head before disappearing from his spot as he moved skillfully within the fog. From the look of it, he seemed to be quite familiar with this place.

In the meantime, Cruelty turned his head to the others and also gave them some instructions. “We are going to advance with formation B!”

After receiving his command, the others quickly adjusted their positions with great familiarity while continuing to move forward.

Unknown to their group, someone was actually observing them while hiding behind the thick fog. A skeleton was standing still a few meters from them, watching them silently as they walked past it.

…

Meanwhile, Chaotic Luck immediately passed to Shin what he just saw through the shared vision of his undead. “Three Shamans, two Archers, two Musketeers, two Priests, three Knights, one Berserker, two Swordsmen, one Elementalist, and one Aquamancer.”

“They should also have some thieves among them, but I am not sure how many they are,” he added before shifting his shared vision to another undead.

In the meantime, Shin slightly knitted his eyebrows before saying. “A full party, huh? This is going to be a little tricky.”

After that, he quickly turned to Chaotic Luck before asking. “Are they wearing any emblem from a certain guild or adventurer team?”

Hearing that, Chaotic Luck quickly focused on the chests of each member of the group and saw a crimson skull emblem on it.

“That symbol! Isn’t it the emblem that the HeadHunter Guilds are wearing?” muttered Chaotic Luck to himself after seeing the emblem that the opposing side was wearing.

On the other hand, Shin couldn’t help but turn his head to the side and look over his shoulder before asking. “HeadHunter Guild? Those guys again?”

Chaotic Luck suddenly cut off his shared vision before asking. “You have an old beef with them? Tsk! These guys are in trouble.”

This Solaris Lich seemed to be blinded with Shin’s continuous creation of miracles which was why he no longer believed that this crazy person was going to lose to anyone.

“No wonder they are able to reach this part of the valley. Given their skills and in-game knowledge, hunting in his place is not much of a problem for them,” said Arthur after hearing their conversation.

Shin looked at him with a slight frown before asking. “How come you are here? Go back to your position and help those two!”

Hearing that, Arthur suddenly clicked his tongue before complaining. “Tsk! Are you planning to take everything again? We know that you have an old grudge with them, but at least let us have a share of fun with them.”

“Hey! Hey! Are you guys calling your dibs already? Leave some for me!” said Leonard as he landed bedside Shin.

Seeing that the three of them seemed to be fooling around, Cloe quickly hit their heads with her staff before saying. “What are the three of you doing? We are currently in the middle of raiding a boss, how dare you get distracted?!”

“Why did you hit me too? I am doing my job right!” complained Shin before glaring at the two and signaling them to go back to their positions.

“Tsk! Just don’t leave us behind, alright?” said Arthur before launching himself back to the monster boss.

“Tell us your plan when you are done formulating them, alright?” added Leonard while following behind Arthur.

Shin stared at them for a couple of moments before shaking his head and smiling bitterly. And quickly after that, his mouth suddenly curved into a mysterious grin before muttering to himself. “HeadHunter Guild, huh? It has been a while since I crossed paths with them-…”

“Should I give them a warm greeting?” he added as his eyes suddenly flashed with a glint of golden light.”

……