Child of Destiny

…

“I know that this may sound rude, your majesty. But can I exchange that reward with a favor instead?”

The moment those words left Shin’s mouth, all of the vampires within the throne room revealed their fangs at him once again.

Boom!

Their powerful auras quickly exploded and surrounded Shin, seemingly trying to crush him. It was as if they had already forgotten that their representatives were swept on the floor just earlier. They even forgot that Vladimir, who could suppress them greatly, was serving Shin as one of the Reaper’s Retainers.

They disregarded all of the dangers that could befall them. As long as someone showed any disrespect to their king, they were fully ready to devour that person regardless of any consequences.

But contrary to their reaction, Dracula was currently wearing a huge smile on his face when he heard those words from Shin. He was somewhat curious about what the interesting guy would ask him.

Swoosh!

With a casual wave of his hand, all the pressures that were assaulting Shin from every direction were instantly suppressed before disappearing the very next moment.

After that, Dracula gestured to Shin, telling the latter to continue. “Let’s hear it. As long as it is within my capabilities, then I will grant whatever flavor you are going to ask.”

Shin sighed with relief when all of the pressures were removed. If it was any later, then he would most likely be suffocated by them.

Taking a deep breath, Shin quickly started talking. “I and my comrades are planning to build a city on the land just outside of the Divine Wall of Ice.”

“We wish to build a good relationship with your kingdom after establishing the city and when your land regains its freedom,” he added after a brief pause.

Right after voicing out his favor, Shin saw Dracula frowning his brow, seemingly unsatisfied with something. And when he saw that reaction, Shin couldn’t help but feel a little anxious. ‘Am I asking too much? But isn’t it just building a good relationship? I don’t think it is hard enough.’

Fortunately, the thing that Dracula was unsatisfied with was not the thing that Shin was thinking about.

“Are you sure it is what you really want?” asked Dracula before frowning even deeper. “It is hardly a favor. Given that you and your friends are basically helping us to regain the freedom of our homeland, it is natural for you and my subjects to have a friendly relationship.”

“Even building an alliance is possible, if you want,” he added, emphasizing his point.

He then quickly continued after pausing for a brief moment. “You can ask for something else. You can take my word about that favor of yours.”

Shin was slightly taken aback by those words before quickly understanding the meaning behind them. He also understood quite a few things from those words from Dracula.

With the blessing from Dracula, the gears inside Shin’s head started working at an insane rate. He could now create a more solid plan for the city that they were planning to build.

Given that this region was full of monsters with a very high level, it would surely be the main hunting ground for most of the players once Shin and the others successfully unlocked it.

The holy lands of different races will still be the main battleground for the leading players and organizations, but based on the available information that the World Gaming Organization had released, many of the players concluded that not everyone could set foot in those regions.

With it, special regions just like the Frozen Kingdom would be the best place for the average players to progress when the right time came.

Frozen City was still going to be the main base of operation when the players reached this place, but since it was isolated from the rest of the world for such a long time, it would still not have any teleportation formation connecting to different cities.

In this case, Saint Heaven Kingdom would be the nearest region. And it would be the first candidate to establish those portals, connecting the Frozen City to the rest. But given the dark history that the two regions had, it was very unlikely to happen.

With that, the city that Shin was planning to build within the Sky Deceiving Valley, a free region, would be the only city that could bridge the Frozen Kingdom to the rest of the world.

Alongside the other arrangements that they had prepared, Shin could already see the money constantly rolling their way.

They could also add more profits if they could possibly get after establishing a trade route and other arrangements with the Frozen City.

Collecting his thoughts, Shin closed his eyes and calmed himself before turning to Dracula. With the main goal being achieved, he could now ask for the thing that he wanted to ask and was more curious about.

“Then I will accept your grace, your majesty,” answered Shin in a very polite manner before adding. “I would like to ask for a good martial manual.”

Hearing that Shin had chosen a reward, Dracula nodded fully satisfied. But he slightly creased his brow almost immediately as he suddenly remembered something.

“A martial manual, you say? I can grant it to you. But from what I have seen, you already have enough in your arsenal. You still want to get an additional one?”

Pausing for a moment, Dracula stared straight at Shin before continuing. “It is not that I am questioning your choice and I understand that having more than cards under our sleeves is always been good. But having too much of it will be more like a poison than a hidden weapon.”

Shin became even more surprised when he heard those words from Dracula. He already knew that the AI of the high-level and powerful monsters and NPCs was pretty high, but he didn’t expect that it would be on this level.

For Dracula to tell him such words, Shin could already put this Vampire Primogenitor as an expert in the real world.

Shin ignored the fact that Dracula had told him about his Martial Arts since he already got an idea that they were being observed by the latter given the information that he had.

But for Dracula to say that he already had a good number of sword and movement techniques as well as identifying them as high-leveled ones, Shin could tell that Dracula was pretty knowledgeable when it came to this area. Or at least the base of artificial intelligence that Dracula had. ｂｅ𝚍𝚗ｏｖｅ𝚕．𝚗𝚎𝚝

Thinking about that, Shin suddenly got an idea. He wanted to see how Dracula would respond if he asked something that couldn’t be easily answered by common artificial intelligence. “Pardon my ignorance, your majesty. Please, enlighten me with your insights.”

Dracula didn’t show any surprised reaction this time as if he was already expecting Shin to say those words. Instead, he directly answered. “You already have quite a number of sword and movement techniques, so you will not need any of them.”

“Your ‘sword’ has a lot of complexity due to the sword techniques that you have learned. You also trained them very well that you are able to fully fuse them into your system. But-… Two of them couldn’t be fused together due to the difference in nature.”

“Adding more to it would only destroy your foundation, so I suggest you continue honing your techniques and sharpening your swords until you find a way to put them together.”

Hearing those words, Shin knew that Dracula was talking about his ‘Yin-Yang Swordsmanship’ and the sword techniques that he somehow gained from the ‘Jade Kirin Scripture’.

Even though Dracula didn’t go deeper at talking about them, Shin knew that the vampire king had a decent understanding of them, or more like their natures such as one being tied to his Martial Arts while the other was to his Mentalism.

At this point, Shin basically got the idea that Dracula was most likely designed based on an expert from the real world. ‘This game is really not as simple as we have thought.’

After that, Dracula continued to give comments. And the next discussion was about his movement techniques and fighting styles.

The more Shin listened to Dracula, the more he became convinced that the game have a different purpose than what was known to the public.

Not only Shin gained some insights from Dracula, but he also received a lot of guidance from the latter that he almost wanted not take any martial manuals.

But how could he refuse such an extra reward? He naturally accepted it wholeheartedly.

After considering it for a few more moments, Shin thought of a new idea. Since he only wanted to confirm something by taking a look at these so-called ‘martial manuals’, it didn’t necessarily have to be a martial art that was meant for him – he could also ask for a martial manual that could be used by the others.

Given that, Shin thought about the members of the Empyrean Talons and tried to think if they needed a martial manual. Since the contract signed by each member of the adventurer team mentioned these benefits, he naturally did not hold back and planned to give it to the others.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t find anyone who necessarily needed a martial manual. Each of them had a unique style and from what he had observed, almost every member of the Empyrean Talon was already practicing a particular discipline. And most of them were at least at the advanced level, so giving them a martial manual from the game might not be beneficial to them.

The only person that Shin could think of was Chaotic Luck. He was the only one who seemed to be not practicing any kind of discipline. And from what he knew, the guy was just an average guy in the real world who loved to play games, so he must belong to that type of player who was a non-martial artist or a non-mentalist.

Chaotic Luck was the most obvious choice. But Shin couldn’t bring himself to finalize it since that guy was such an oddball.

Aside from insane luck that could even affect his battle, Chaotic Luck seemed not to have any other special qualities. At the very least, that guy was very willing to learn and improve himself, which was something that Shin liked about the guy.

Though, even Shin was doubting that Chaotic Luck could practice a martial manual within the game given the current mechanics that he had.

During this train of thought, Diablo suddenly flashed inside Shin’s head. His thought process paused for a moment before multiple plans started forming one after another.

And when he was done with it, he couldn’t help but grin. It was a kind of grin that was so evil that even Arthur and Leonard might smack him with their fists for being creepy.

“Maybe I can use this to lure that guy over and join our side,” he muttered as his grin grew larger and more devious.

……