Child of Destiny

Chapter 1396: Meeting the Head Mysterious Instructor (Part 3)

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Bang!

After a long struggle, Shin finally was able to defeat the Savage Bear. He was not expecting that he would go through a lot of difficulties just to take down a single ʼregularʼ monster.

During the entire battle, he had used everything he had aside from his strongest trump cards such as summoning the Eclipse Dragon, using the racial berserk skills like Descent of the Fallen God, and that ultimate elemental skill Ragnarök.

Shin even had to use his domain skills like the Monochrome Field and Rulerʼs Authority just to suppress the bear and its abilities.

Most of his problems aside from dealing with the bear was the environment himself. He did not notice it at first since he thought he had already adjusted himself to it earlier, but he later realized that his skills were slightly disturbed during the battle.

During his training, he was able to execute most of them properly, but he realized that he was still having some trouble using them when he was in an actual battle.

While he was adjusting to the new environment, Shin had to deal with a powerful monster in front of him, which was unexpectedly putting a heavy burden on his mind.

Fortunately, he was able to persevere until the end and was able to emerge victorious.

But not all of it was a bad thing. Due to this event, Shin was able to get a whole new understanding of his skills and techniques. He was able to reevaluate everything due to the circumstances that he was in, making him look back at his beginning.

Adding his Battle Genius Talent, he was able to constantly evolve during the battle and became more skilled compared to his previous self.

Regardless of the sufferings and troubles that he had encountered, he still greatly benefited in the end, which improved his mode greatly.

Huff! Huff!

Shin was catching his breath as he stood in front of the corpse of the Savage Bear. One of his feet was stepping over the head of the monster while the other was in between its brows.

The [Yamato] was stuck on top of the head of the monster, piercing through its skull and crushing its brain.

There were also multiple wounds on different parts of the bear, signifying that it went through a tough battle with Shin. Some of these wounds were scorched black due to the Eternal Flame, others were sharply cut by the penetration abilities of the Void Powers, and the rest were wounds burnt by the Primordial Lightning.

There were also some internal wounds caused by the crushing force of the Earthly Metal and Metallic Earth energies. Some of them even shattered the bones of the bear.

Shin had spent quite a lot of effort dealing with this Savage Bear, which showed why he was too exhausted right now. Physically, he did not have the problem since his race and battle physique provided him an unlimited stamina. But he was quite exhausted mentally, especially when he just went through a couple of battles earlier – particularly that battle against Ashura.

The sad part about his situation was he did not get anything from the monster. It did not provide him any good drops, particularly materials, since its furs and other gatherable parts were badly damaged in the battle.

He also did not get any experience from the battle, which was also quite disappointing.

Since Shin had reached level 150 and was promoted to Tier 3 Class, he discovered that leveling up had become much harder.

He was currently 10% of before reaching level 152, which was quite slow given the recent events that occurred. Even if he did not focus on grinding his level, the events that he went through involved quite a lot of hunting powerful monsters, yet the experience that they provided was very pitiful.

Even Larva of the Bug Tribe, the young Grand Centipedeus, did not give him that many experience points. Moreover, he had to split it with Leonard and Diablo.

He had also hunted quite a lot of monsters during the sudden invasion of the Sea Monsters led by the Sea King. Despite killing such a large number of monsters at that time along with his Elemental Spirit Companions, his experience bar barely moved, signifying how hard it was to level at this current stage.

He wondered if grinding at the Awakened Continent would be better.

When Shin was thinking about this, a sudden thought flashed through his mind. ”Eh? Mysterious Instructors and Qualifications-…”

These thoughts lingered for a moment before he turned to the corpse of the Savage Bear. He then smiled bitterly as a ridiculous conclusion lingered in his mind. ”Donʼt tell me-…?”

He was barely able to catch his breath when heard a slithering sound coming from the distance. Raising his head, he saw a huge black snake making its way toward him while constantly releasing a hissing sound.

Seeing the armor-like scales of this giant snake, Shin felt like this was going to be another troublesome battle.

Activating his True Sight at this new monster, Shin investigated its details.

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[Monster Name]: Black Mamba

[Rank Classification]: Normal

[Monster Type]: Beast

[Life Rating]: None

Level: 160

HP: 2,000,000

Skills:

…

…

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Seeing the oddly similar description of the monster, Shin could not help but wear a bitter smile. He became sure that this was some sort of a trial from the Head of the Mysterious Instructors, but the difficulty was stupidly high.

If it was any other layer, then they would most likely fail when dealing with the Savage Bear alone.

Aside from apex experts like Shin or those with similar levels of skill, no player would be able to pass this kind of test.

This made Shin wonder how the trials of the regular mysterious instructors were, or whether they have a similar trail such as this one.

”Tsk! At least let me catch my breath!” he clicked his tongue after seeing the Black Mamba glaring at him.

Seeing that complaining would not do anything, Shin prepared for another battle and took his stance. He then glared back at the Black Mamba while taunting it. ”Come! Letʼs see what you got!”

Bang!

Swoosh!

Shin and the giant snake then charged at each other without any hesitation.

…

After spending an entire day battling (in-game time), Shin became so exhausted that he was barely able to move. He was so tired that he lay on the ground, unwilling to move.

Even if his virtual avatar could still move, his mind could no longer take it and in the verge of collapse. He would be forced by the system to log out of the game if he tried to continue.

During the battles, he had fought quite a lot of ʼregularʼ monsters, which were as strong as the Savage Bear and the Black Mamba.

These monsters varied from different species. They span from bears, snakes, wolves, boars, birds, and others. There were also a few special and hybrid monsters such as goblins, kobolds, trolls, and orcs, which gave him a lot of trouble, particularly those undead types like vengeful spirits, dark revenants, and shadow wraiths.

All these monsters had similar strengths, but those humanoid ones were more troublesome to deal with since they had a variety of skills that resembled ta unique discipline from the real world.

This surprised Shin greatly, especially when he suspected that this would be the level of monsters in Awakened Continent.

This made him more interested in the said continent. If a normal monster from that place was this strong, then how much stronger were those at the higher rank?

A single regular monster was already as strong as a King Class Monster on the same level, so Shin was suspecting that the Elites were comparable to Emperor Rank, which was already the most powerful monster in the Aurora Continent.

Then how strong were the Special Elites and Chieftain Rank monsters? What about the Lords and Overlords? How about the King Class and Emperor Class Monsters?

Shin could not imagine how strong they were. He was not confident in that he would be able to fight the Special Elites by himself given his experiences with the ʼregularʼ ones.

Then what would happen to the regular players if they encounter these monsters?

Shin now realized why the system was ʼfilteringʼ the players that could go that continent. Only the real experts were qualified to set their foot there.

…

While resting, Shin glanced at the clock in the corner of his eyes and saw that it was now time to log out of the game.

Sweeping his gaze at the surroundings, he realized that no monster had spawned for the next round. ”It looks like this Mysterious Instructor still has some conscience.”

After making sure that the place was safe, Shin found a corner to log out.

He did not do anything special for the day as he just did his usual daily routine. He did his daily morning exercise, shower, and breakfast, then went to the Magic Ace Academy for his training.

He then went straight back home right after.

The training might be quick, but it was fruitful. He was able to learn more sword principles. The more he became familiar with the more sword principles he ʼacquiredʼ, the easier to learn the rest.

There was also a more surprising discovery about this. He realized that his swordsmanship was becoming more mature and refined as he learned more sword principles.

He felt like he would be able to use more variety of attacks and combinations with these new sword principles that he just learned.

After arriving at his room, Shin quickly took a quick shower to freshen himself before going to the gaming cabin to log back in the game.

…

Swoosh!

When logged in to the game, he found himself back at the place where he left. He heaved a sigh of relief when he saw that, silently thanking the Mysterious Head Instructor for not sending him back to the entrance of Saint Heaven Mountain.

But that feeling did not last that long when he saw the next monster that appeared.

Bang!

A huge monster that seemed to have fallen from the sky landed a dozen meters away from him. It was a humanoid monster standing on a pair of monster legs and hooves. Its upper body was similar to the buff body of a bodybuilder with bulging but well-refined muscles while its head was of an oxʼs.

Moo!

It was a minotaur!

Swoosh!

The minotaur released a powerful roar that sent a strong gust of wind that swept toward Shin.

Shin planted his foot firmly on the ground, not letting himself get swept by the powerful gust. He held his stance while inspecting the monster with his True Sight Skill.

And what he had seen made his face contorted.

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[Monster Name]: Minotaur

[Rank Classification]: Elite

[Monster Type]: Humanoid Beast

[Life Rating]: None

Level: 160

HP: 5,000,000

Skills:

…

…

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His fear seemed to have come true.

Based on this minotaurʼs aura, he could instantly tell that it was as strong as an Emperor-Class Monster of the same rank.

It was of the same level as the regular monsters that he had faced all day, yet the difference between power was so huge despite only having a single rank difference.

Seeing the minotaur, particularly the huge war axe that it was holding.

”Tsk! This brings back memories,” mumbled Shin before turning to the speck of light revolving around him, representing Hanzo. ”Donʼt you think, old man?”

Hanzo did not respond even though he knew what Shin was talking about. It was the time when they first met each other.

”Since we both have some history with a ʼfamily memberʼ of this guy, you will be the centerpiece once again,” he said as he prepared for the battle.

”Since this Head Mysterious Instructor is testing my limits, I better give my all,” he added while calling out for Hanzo. ”Void Reaper!”

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