Child of Destiny

Chapter 124: Qualitative Upgrade (Part 5): Being Scouted

....

Shin fell on a deep thought as he consider what are the pros and cons of upgrading a skill.

”Hmm.... Base on the discussions on the forums, an Epic Tier 1 Skill is almost equivalent to a Basic Tier 2 Skills. And promoting a Tier 1 Skill to Tier 2 Skill cost some Legacy Points instead of ordinary Skill Points.”

”But even of an Epic Tier 1 Skill is strong, it still have a long cooldown, so I canʼt just blindly upgrade a Skill to Epic Rank to prevent myself from running out skills in battle.”

”Wait, I remember reading an article in the online forums stating that there are some Skills that will not get a long cooldown when it is upgraded to Epic Rank.”

”And most of them are movement skills and execution skills. There are also some damaging skills and most of it are Self-Created Skills.”

”That means, all I needed to do is to choose carefully on what Skills am I going to upgrade to Epic Rank.”Then Shin immediately open an online forum and find the article that he had read.

And after some time of careful reading, Shin finally get some idea how to find the skills that can be upgraded to Epic Rank and will not have a high cooldown.He opens his Skill Information Widow to see what skills fall on this category. Then he immediately upgraded them after a slight hesitation.

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Skill Name: Eclipse Pulse

Rank: Epic

Details: Cover yourself with the Power of the Black Sun and the Silver Moon, blocking all kinds of attacks directed at you for 10 seconds.

Maximum barrier endurance: Damages dealt by any Tier 2 Rare Skills and below are ineffective against this barrier.

The barrier will immediately collapse if it receive a damage from any Tier 2 Epic Skill and above, or a Skill with equivalent strength.

Barrier Radius: 3 meters

Mana Cost: 2000

Cooldown: 2 minutes

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Skill Name: Moonlight Steps

Rank: Epic

Details: Enfold yourself with the power of the Silver Moon before dashing on any distance inside the 10 meters range away from you.

You can also pass through units in the process, but some special entities can still block or hit you on this state.

Charges (Maximun): 3

Recharging Time: Restores 1 Charge every 20 seconds.

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Skill Name: Sunlight Movement

Rank: Epic

Details: Enfold your body with the power of the Black Sun, before dashing forwards or retreating backwards within a 15-meter range.

All kind of CC-skills will become ineffective against your body while also becoming immune on all kinds of damage on this state.

But any physical entities can blocked your path as long as their strength is stronger than yours.

Cooldown: 10 sec.

(Upgraded From Sun-Ray Dash)

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Skill Name: Solar Cut

Rank: Epic

Details: Enfold your sword with Solar flame and strike it twice at your opponent, dealing 200% more Physical damage at first strike and 400% more Physical damage at the second strike.

And your enemyʼs defense will receive a -50% debuff for five seconds after getting hit by both of the sword strikes.Cooldown: 20 sec.

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Skill Name: Hell Execution

Rank: Epic

Details: Hit your enemy with a powerful Slash to execute them when their HP falls at the critical state.

5% of the total HP if it is against a Player. (10% Chance of success)

10% of the total HP if it is against a Monster. (5% Chance of success)

The enemy will be killed immediately if the Execution was successful.And this skill will not cause any damage if the Execution failed.

Cooldown: 15 sec.

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Self Created Skill (Personalized)

Skill Name: Triple Slash

Rank: Epic

Details: Execute three consecutive slashes where each slash is stronger that the other.

The first slash deal 200% P.damage while the second deals 400% P.damage and the third will have a 600% P.damage.

Cooldown: 15 sec.

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Skill Name: Sword Rush

Skill Rank: Epic

Details: Enfold your body with Sword Qi before dashing on a straight line while thrusting your sword forward and dealing 300% more Physical Damage on all the enemies that youʼve passed through in the 10-meter range.

After that, you can do another dash on any direction that you desired while swinging your sword powerfully and dealing another 300% more Physical Damage on all the enemies on your path.

Cooldown: 15 sec.

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Other than the ʼSword Rushʼ Skill, Shin canʼt upgrade his other Extra Skills to Epic Rank since their cooldowns are going to become affected.

But Shin still choose to upgrade the ʼFlame Burstʼ Skill to complement his ʼHalf-Moon Slashʼ Skill since his magical skills are going to be automatically upgraded with one rank due to the bonus effect of the [Dawn Blade].

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Skill Name: Flame Burst

Rank: Epic

Details: Swing your Sword Horizontally and release a ʼFlaming Sword Waveʼ dealing 600% more Physical Damage and extending up to 10 meters in front of you.

Extra Effect: Deal extra burning damage(5% of your Total P.Damage) for 5 Seconds.

Consume 2000 MP

Cooldown: 1 minute

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Skill Name: Half-Moon Slash

Rank: Epic

Details: Release a 150° horizontal crescent shape Sword Qi in 10 meters in front of you, and dealing 800% more Magical Damage on all the enemies that have been hit.

Consume 2000 MP

Cooldown: 1 minute

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Skill Name: Crescent Cleave

Rank: Epic

Details: Release 5 Vertical Sword Qiʼs in a cone shape of 90° in front, and Extending 15 meters away from you as it deals 500% more Magical Damage each.

Consume 5000 MP

Cooldown: 3 minutes

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Shin nodded his head repeatedly as he smilingly look at the skill details in front of his eyes.

After that, he decided to walk outside the Divine Colosseum and go to his Big Sisʼ Trading Firm to get his other set from Black Hammer.

But the moment he walk out the Colosseum, he was immediately greeted by a large crowd not far from the front of the entrance.

The corner of Shinʼs mouth suddenly twitch when he saw that. ”Oh~♪ Come on~♪. Please, Not this time.”

Good thing that there are also a lot of players coming in and out of the Divine Colosseum.

Shin look left and right before walking towards a group of players walking out from the Colosseum and joined them sneakily.

Of course he can use a stealth skills to go outside, but he can also see a bunch of Master Archers in the crowd while activating their ocular skills.

So he choose to do the more efficient and much safer way to get out, and that is to mix with others to hide himself from the scouts of the other side. It is also to avoid being suspicious in their eyes.

At first, everything is going smoothly. But the next moment, Shin bumped into three person that knows him a little.

”Oh! So here you are. Why are you sneakily walking out from the Colosseum? Afraid of getting notice by us? Come! Letʼs get back inside and have a rematch.

I want to know how strong are you if we fight one-on-one. I havenʼt use my Class Fighting Style after all.” said by a WolfKin Master Berserker in front of Shin.

Beside the WolfKin stood a Blood Elf with a long spear and a Fallen Human (Sub-Race of Undead) wearing a black cloak.

The WolfKinʼs voice is quite loud and it was immediately noticed by the scouts looking for Shin. The scouts look at their direction for a moment before they started walking towards them together with each of their respective groups.

Shin glared at the WolfKin as he donʼt know if this guy did that on purpose or if he is just a plain idi*t.

The Blood Elf beside the WolfKin do a facepalm while the Fallen Human stayed silent and look calmly at th groups that are walking towards them.

The first group that arrived at Shin and the others are players that have an emblem of a golden sun with eight rays on the right side of their chests.

The leader of the group is a Dark Elf Master Archer. He look at Shin and others while saying laughingly. ”Hey, Hey, Hey. Look at what we have here. It is quite rare to see rivals talking and laughing together.”

Bryanʼs eyes suddenly turned cold and said. ”Hey, who the hell are you? Did you see us laughing together? And why are you interrupting us?”

The Dark Elf Master Archer raise one of his brows and want to say something. But before he managed to open his mouth, another group arrived at the scene and immediately butted in.

”Haha.... He is right about that my friend, you shouldnʼt have interrupted them.” said by the leader of the new group. He is a Naga Master Aquamancer, and wearing an emblem of a letter ʼMʼ on the right side of his chest.

Then another group arrived and immediately joined in.

”It looks you guys are having fun, mid if we join in?” said by a FoxKin Master Shaman of the new group. And the emblem that these guys are wearing on the right side of their chest is a black cloud symbol.

Meanwhile, the other weaker groups from the other Guilds that wanted to invite Shin and others give up that idea when they saw these three groups walked forward.

But these Guilds didnʼt leave immediately to observe a little more. Who knows that they might become lucky and manage to hook an expert if something goes wrong.

And that was immediately noticed by Shin. He take a quick glace at their Guild Emblems and muttered to himself. ”Golden Dawn, Miracle and Skyline. So they are some big names, Huh?”

...

Meanwhile, S.Tigris and his group stayed at the crowd and didnʼt join in. They are just there to observe.

”Tsk, these guys are quite fast at making their moves. Unfortunately, their target this time is quite tough.” said by S.Tigris while looked at the scene.

”Are you sure that we are not going to join the fun, Captʼn?” asked Raven.

”Why would we? If we want to recruit a new player then we need befriend them first before inviting them to join us. And befriending them need some timing, alright? That is the basics.” said by Ara as if it is an obvious question.

”Then how about those guy?” asked Raven once again while pointing at the other groups in front of Shin and the others.

Ringgo release a helpless sigh before replying at that question. ”Those guys are just arrogant people that thinks all people wants to join their Guild since they are powerful.”

”And the leaders of those scouting groups are quite new on the circle, so they might not aware of some unwritten rules.” added by Black Hand.

”About what?” asked Raven instinctively.

”About the pride of the real experts of course.” said by Black Hand.

.....

Going back to the other side, Bryan swept his gaze at the groups in front of them before saying sarcastically. ”Oh~♪ Looks like we were scouted, Huh?”

”We are just here make some friends.” said by the Dark Elf Master Archer smilingly.

”Then you can just make friends with each other, so donʼt bother us.” said Bryan out of instincts.

The Dark Elf Master Archer squinted his eyes and said. ”I know that you are a quite famous player in «Sword and Magic», but you are playing «Destinyʼs Fate» now, ʼSaber Demonʼ Bryan.”

Bryan raise one of his brows before replying. ”At least I have some reputation in the industry, but what about you? I donʼt even know your name. So to me, you are just an insignificant player that got lucky on becoming a High Ranker. And let me tell you an advice, stay away from me or else Iʼm going to make you a human mop.”

The face of the Dark Elf Master Archer suddenly become solemn as he heard Bryanʼs verbal attacks.

But before a fight broke out, Exheart immediately put his right hand at Bryanʼs left shoulder before cutting in the conversation. ”Alright, thatʼs enough for the show.”

Exheart pause for a moment to look at the leaders of the three groups, before continuing what he wants to say while pointing at the other groups watching at the crowd. ”You guys must be new at scouting players, right? If you want to recruit us, then you guys should play with the unwritten rules and compete with others first.”

Then the leaders of the three groups followed the direction that Exheart were pointing with their sights, and saw more groups standing along the crowd.

Shin also turn his head to take a look and saw 5 more groups. And each leader of those groups are emitting some aura that is more stronger that the three leaders on his front.

Shin squinted his eyes to take a look at their emblems to see which Guilds did they belong.

A winged dragon emblem for people from ʼDragon Pavilionʼ, a coiling serpent emblem for ʼHydra Guildʼ people, a rising fist emblem for ʼTitan Guildʼ, a golden coin emblem for ʼCredit Republicʼ and a six-wing emblem for ʼWingʼs Allianceʼ.

”Tsk! A lot of powerful Guilds representative on a single place? Now that was quite something.” muttered Shin to himself before leaning his head a little towards HellBan before asking with a low voice. ”What is the unwritten rules that Exheart is talking about?”

HellBan look at Shin with a weird look before replying with astounded tone. ”You donʼt about it? Then you must be new on the gaming industry.”

Bryan overheard their conversation and said to Shin with a surprise expression on his face. ”What!? You are a new player? How many games did you play before joining this one?”

”This is the first VR game that I played. What about it?” said Shin with a confused look at his face.

The corner of Bryan and HellBanʼs mouth suddenly twitch after hearing that. Then they look at each other with a face as if saying ʼWe were defeat by a player that just joined the Virtual Gaming Industry?ʼ

ʼWhat a monster.ʼ thought HellBan while sighing helplessly. After that, he look at Shin before replying at his previous question. ”There a lot of unwritten rules in the game, and one of them are for scouting players.”

”To avoid getting much conflict with other guilds, the powerful guilds have gotten in an agreement that when scouting some talented players they need to have some contest with each other first.”

”And whoever won will be the first one who can try recruiting the player that they want to invite. If they fail, then the next one will present their offer and so on and so forth.”

Shin knitted his brows and asked. ”What the heck was that? Canʼt we decide it for ourselves?”

”Haha.... Didnʼt I said that they can only try recruiting. The decision is still yours.” said HellBan.

”So can I go now? I donʼt plan joining any Guild or Organization anyway as I prefer having my freedom and not being bound by rules.” said Shin.

HellBan shrugged his shoulders and said. ”Go! It is still up to you after all. But you should expect these guys being offended since you refuse to give them some face. Especially those arrogant and unreasonable idi*ts who think that they are above everyone else.”

Shin also shrugged his shoulders and said. ”Why would I care giving them face? I donʼt even know them in the first place. If they want to come at me then go! Iʼm not afraid of trouble after all.”

After that, Shin disappeared at his spot as he use the ʼVanishing Stepʼ combat technique followed by the ʼUndercoverʼ skill attached on his cloak.

Some of the Guildʼs Master Archers tried to locate Shin but they failed to do so, since he is quite clever for mixing in the crowd.

”He really escape. What a person, he is always doing anything he wants without thinking about the consequences.” said HellBan when he saw that scene.

”Tsk! I donʼt even gotten a change to have a rematch. I still havenʼt used my Class Fighting Style earlier.” said by Bryan with annoyed expression.

HellBan smirks at him and said. ”What about it? Did you saw him using his Class Fighting Style too?”

”Eh!? Now that I think about it, you are right. So he is still holding back while fighting us?” said Bryan when he come in realization.

This time Exheart butted in. ”But arenʼt we the same? A real expert doesnʼt reveal his/her aces unless it is absolutely necessary.”

Then Exheart added. ”It has been awhile since we have a one-on-one match, so how about we have a spar? We are already on the Colosseum after all.”

”That was a good idea. How about you HellBan, wanna join?” said Bryan with some excitement.

”Nah, I still need to get a Battle Physique, so Iʼm going to enter another Battle Royale Arena.” said HellBan before walking towards the Divine Colosseum once again.

At the same time, Bryan and Exheart shrugged their shoulders before walking back to the Colosseum too. From the looks of it, they forgot about the scout from the leading Guilds.

And those guildʼs scouts donʼt know how to respond at that. They canʼt afford to offend those three yet. They want to recruit them after all. All they can do is watch helplessly at their backs as those three walk towards the Divine Colosseum.

And because of that, their attention was directed to Shin who just escape from their grasp. So the leaders of each group give an order to find Shin as soon as possible.

....