Child of Destiny

……

System: Congratulations on completing the Five Penance Training Ground! And as the very first group of players to complete all of the challenges of this place, you will receive a hefty sum of rewards!

System: Calculating the accumulated rewards…

*Ding!*

System: The rewards have been successfully sent to your inventory space!

After reading the notifications, Shin quickly checked his inventory. And right after he opened it, he immediately saw the items that were sent to him by the system.

But unlike what he was expecting, the rewards that he got were not as amazing as he was thinking. It was not like the rewards were trash among the thrash, they were just not appealing to his eyes.

For a person who was already wearing an equipment set that transcended most of the equipment available in the game, the top-notch materials that were sent in his inventory were nothing in comparison.

Not even a skill book was given to him.

Well, that was understandable.

After all, aside from him, the other members learned a new set of skills after everything they went through. Even Cloe learned a skill or two.

It really made him envious of them every time he said that they learned a new skill and added it to their arsenal.

Well, it was not that he didn’t get anything, he was just a little disappointed.

It looked like he already hit a wall.

But at the same time, he was also quite happy about it. It was because this was proof that he was almost reaching the summit within the game. He was starting to see what the other top Godlike Players were seeing.

“What I really need right now is to fully master the skills that I currently have and hone them to their peak. And alongside it, I also need to merge all of my styles in battle into one,” muttered Shin to himself while clenching his fists.

“A bit more. Just a little bit more and I will stand on the peak alongside them,” for each and every word that he said, a strong conviction was accompanying them.

When Arthur first mentioned the game to him, Shin was pretty skeptical about it since he was not familiar with the world that his brother had discovered since young.

During that time, Arthur was the type of person who would immediately get bored of something after he experienced it once. But that immediately changed when he discovered the joy of playing games.

Shin thought that Arthur became addicted to games like what happened to most young men of their age. But after discovering that he was slowly getting stronger as time went by, Shin became a little curious about this world that his brother was living in.

Naturally, he trained even harder to make sure that Arthur would not surpass him in Martial-Arts.

But that was only a fist battle. After all, during that time, he knew that he was no match with Arthur when it came to wielding their respective weapons.

Though, it might not be the case right now.

Putting that aside, Shin only agreed with Arthur to play this game because of his curiosity. But it slowly became a hobby when he learned that he could practice Martial-Arts in this game without restraint.

The Energies inside the game might be different from the real world but the concepts were pretty much the same.

And when he learned that there were a lot of players within the game that were more powerful than him, his curiosity about the game immediately transformed into an urge to test his limits by challenging them.

After a long train of thoughts, Shin proceeded at checking the materials a little more until a particular pair of ores with completely different properties caught his eyes.

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Item Name: Moonfrost Shard

Item Type: Miscellaneous

Item Rank: Lesser Legendary

Details:

A special ore that contains the purest energy of Ice Element.

Legends said that this particular ore came from the surface of the moon that was chucked down and fell to this land after the battle of two legendary beasts.

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Item Name: Sunfire Fragment

Item Type: Miscellaneous

Item Rank: Lesser Legendary

Details:

A special metal that possessed the potent energy of the sun.

This metal ore was said to be found in the peak of the highest mountain of the Atlas World where the sun was said to never set.

After expositing itself to the energy of the sun, this particular metal ore became the only material that had the purest energy of the Fire Element.

————————————

Shin stared blankly at the two materials for quite some time before grinning from ear to ear. “So, I finally got my hands on these, huh?”

After that, he immediately opened his quest information panel to look at a particular quest that he got during his early days within the game.

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Quest Name: Peak Potential of [Yamato]

Quest Type: Special Gathering Quest.

Quest Difficulty: Chaos (Highest Difficulty)

Quest Details: You’ve heard from Grandcraftsman Berlin how to recover the peak form of the [Yamato].

Quest Conditions: Gather all the required items for the upgrade of [Yamato], before going back to Grandcraftsman Berlin.

Quest Progress (90%):

Fruit of Nirvana 0/1

Lunar Essence 0/1

Sunfire Fragment 1/1 𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝙤𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝒎

Moonfrost Shard 1/1

Ancient Void Metal 6/3

Heart of Abyss 7/5

Lava Cores 8/5

Earthen Charcoals 30/10

Quest Reward:

+5 Levels

+20 Skill Points

+10 Legacy Points

[Yamato] Obsidian Rank

????

Quest Penalties:

None

———————-

It has been a while since he last looked on this quest since he really had a hard time looking for the materials listed in it.

Some of the materials listed on it were given to him by the people from Ethereal Hope and Secret Society to fulfill a part of their contract with Shin. It was some sort of tribute given to him alongside a couple of Master Rank Blueprints in exchange for the right to garrison their adventurer team in the Calderock City that he was about to build.

On the other hand, he was a little lucky to stumble upon the other materials during his travels within the game.

At this point in time, it looked like he was finally reaching the end of this quest. He was now only lacking two materials listed on the list. And since based on their names alone, Shin could already tell that it was most likely the hardest materials to obtain.

“Fruit of Nirvana and Lunar Essence, it looks like they are materials that can only be obtained after defeating a particular monster boss,” muttered Shin as he looked at the last two items listed on the quest. “Should I look for some information about them after we are done with this quest?”

Currently, Shin was wearing a full set of equipment in Black Mithril Rank. It was a set of equipment that was on the same level as the top Godlike Players on the list.

Items on that rank were said to be the current peak of the game, especially the personalized ones that were crafted by great blacksmiths and weapons created by forgemasters.

But compared to items that in Obsidian Rank such items were nothing in comparison. Though, no one was able to find such equipment yet due to the restriction of the game.

It might be called restriction but in truth, no one was really able to meet the requirements to unlock those things yet nor acquire the materials needed for such items.

But that was not the cast anymore. After all, a lot of leading players were slowly approaching the milestone where they could earn the rights to challenge their Tier 3 Promotion Quest.

Level 150

There were a lot of powerful players that were slowly reaching this level just like Shin and the other members of the Empyrean Talons, Arthur and Leonard in particular who were both one level away from it.

Remembering that, Shin immediately opened his character status window and looked at his current level. “Level 147, huh? I didn’t expect that I will be almost behind those two when it comes to level. Maybe because they are mostly sparing with each other more than grinding some EXP.”

“There is a rumor that the Sword God Zero already surpassed that milestone. I wonder if he already challenged his promotion quest. After all, he already meets the minimum requirement for it,” he added after remembering his first encounter with Zero.

“That guy is really strong. Though, I am not sure who is stronger between him and the current Arthur,” said Cloe hopped beside Shin.

Shin gave her a sidelong glance before asking. “So, are you saying that Arthur is stronger than Leonard?”

“For now, yes,” said Cloe without any hesitation before quickly supporting her claim. “After all, he is currently ahead of Leonard in their current scores.”

“What is the current tally of their sparring matches?” asked Shin curiously.

Cloe pursed her lips for a moment before answering. “I am also not sure about that, but I heard that Arthur is up by two at least.”

After that, she quickly turned around before dragging Shin towards the others. “Anyway, everyone is already familiarizing themselves with their new set of skills and quite eager to test them out in the battle.”

“So, where are we heading next?” she asked after arriving where the other members of the group were gathered.

Hearing that, Shin opened the quest information panel for a moment before opening a virtual map. He then looked at the others before saying. “Our new destination is already indicated on the map. So, we are heading in that direction next.”

“I am really suspicious about this quest but since it is giving us quite a lot of rewards, we can’t just ignore it, do we?” he added with a smirking tone.

…