Child of Destiny

Chapter 1401: Scroll of Eclipse

......

Shin stared at the scroll in his hands before inspecting it with True Sight.

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[Item Name]: A Scroll of Eclipse

[Item Rank]: Special

[Item Type]: Miscellaneous

Description: A scroll containing the map of the hidden inheritance of the Fifth Envoy of the Church of the Sun and Moon, Altus.

Historical Note: It was said that Altus possessed the [Ring of the Brilliant Sun] and hid it along with his inheritance before he died in the battle against the Fallen Dark Dragon, Kardama.

Note: This is a special instance dungeon scroll (Solo).

Requirements: Level 150, Tier 3 Class, and a high-ranking official of any churches of the righteous faction.

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Shin slightly raised his brows when he read through the description of the item. This scroll was without a doubt an item meant for him, an Envoy of the Church of the Sun and Moon.

Moreover, it was also related to another envoy of the church, which indicated that this should be a racial quest or a class-related dungeon exploration. It might even be a religion-related quest given the basic description.

At the same time, it seemed to be related to another special accessory given the historical note written on the description. Adding the clues that he had gotten from Longinus, it seemed to be a set along with the necklace that Shin was wearing, the [Proof of Eclipse].

Among all the equipment and items that Shin was wearing, his accessories were a little lackluster in comparison.

He was wearing a full set of Black Mithril Rank Equipment, a Sacred Relic as a Cloak that could continuously grow along with the wearer, and a racial-specific weapon, which was also an inheritance item at the peak of Obsidian Rank.

Among his accessories, the necklace was the only noteworthy since it was a Dissonant Wish item that could also grow continuously as long as he had enough similar items that could be sacrificed to it.

As for the other accessories, they had sightly decent stats, but they were quite unsatisfactory for someone like Shin. He just kept them due to the special effects that they had and skills that could be useful even in the latter part of the game.

With this scroll, he would get a decent ring that would be able to match the rest of his equipment.

”If this ring is in set with my [Proof of Eclipse], does that mean there are others as well?” he mumbled as he looked at the equipment panel that showed all his equipped items, particularly the slots meant for accessories.

In this game, players could wear seven accessories at maximum: two for a pair of rings, one for earrings, one for a necklace, one for the badge, one for an energy gem, and one for a combat rune.

The first five were already unlocked, but the latter two were still unavailable to the players, and no one knew what they were and where to put them. But the game experts were thinking that they would be available when the players reached the second continent since they only appeared after the most recent game update.

Setting that aside, Shin was thinking that along with his necklace, there were also the rings and the earring, which would make a set. If that was the case, then he had to make some time looking for the clues about this accessory set.

As for his badge, there was no need to talk about it since what he just received from Longinus was already beyond amazing. The passive skill ʼMaster of Energiesʼ was already way beneficial for Shin, especially with the number of special energies that he controlled.

After considering his next plans, Shin kept the scroll before taking out a return scroll. ”There is no need to use this right away. I should take care of the most urgent matters first.”

He still had to head to the Storm Empire to inform their emperor about the Demon Portal as well as the involvement of their neighboring empire, the Dark Cloud Kingdom, with the Demonic Churches.

But before that, he had to find some evidence that he could present to the emperor and the members of their council. After all, they were talking about the betrayal of an entire kingdom, which could lead to a war between nations, so his position in the Church of the Sun and Moon would not be enough. He had to convince the other side with solid evidence.

This meant that he had to head to the Dark Cloud Kingdom first and record their suspicious actions with a spying stone or something more.

***

As Shin was dealing with his quest, Shiella, who finally found time to relax after the pile after pile of work that she just dealt with, received the compiled information that Shin had gotten from Longinus.

”Does this guy have some sort of alarm that informs him that I am relaxing? Whenever I am trying to rest, he always pops out of nowhere to give me more work,” the corner of Shiellaʼs mouth twitched when she saw the name of the sender.

She even looked around her office while saying. ”Or perhaps he installed a spy camera somewhere here to monitor me?”

She voiced out a series of complaints as he opened the message. But her attitude immediately changed when she read through everything. Her expression instantly turned serious when she read more of the contents of the message.

She then turned silent as organized everything inside her head. The information that Shin had sent her would not only give them a lot of edge over everyone else, but it would also make them the strongest force in the Awakened Continent.

This would not only give them a massive head start over the other guilds and organizations, but it would also make them build a powerful force.

This information also came at the right time since she was already done preparing for the special forces of the guild that they were planning to establish.

Adding the information that Shin had shared with her earlier about how they would find the said Mysterious Instructors, they would be able to establish a decent gap between them and the other major forces within the game.

If they were able to monopolize all the available slots on the God-Slaying Army, or at least snatch most of it, they would be able to build a good foundation before they explore the second continent and the latter updates of the game.

After realizing all the benefits that they would get from this, Shiella immediately called Delusive Smile to make some preparations.

But they also had to be careful of this and only limit the number of people to learn about this matter to the ones that they fully trusted. This could not leak to the outside since it concerned their advantages over the other powerhouses within the game.

***

Meanwhile, Arthur was currently complaining about Shin disappearing somewhere again after his recent challenge against Ashura. He had a lot of things to tell Shin, especially consulting about their deal with the Wingʼs Alliance.

But since his brother went questing after the battle, Arthur could only discuss it with the others while complaining.

He seemed to have completely forgotten that he was also to blame since he got distracted by their sparring matches with the members of Godʼs Paradise. He got too immersed in the duels these past couple of days, particularly Ashura, who issued a challenge against him after their team battles.

Leonard was also swept to it due to the competitiveness of both sides. He seemed to need to remember that he also had some businesses that needed to deal with.

The two adventurer teams were scrimmaging for quite a while, training and testing each other. This was what Cloe and Lia had arranged after discussing with each other.

Moreover, their top members were so competitive that they wanted to constantly challenge one another, especially Kallavan and Susanoo, who lost more than they won.

The only saving grace was Ashura won more, winning back some of their faces. Arthur and Leonard had more defeats than victories against this guy, but all the duels were as intense as the battle that the former had with Shin – some of their losses were also quite close that they almost had won.

There were also quite a few team battles that shocked the members of Godʼs Paradise, particularly Lia, who was keeping an eye on everyone and paying extra attention to their battle videos.

She had discovered that the teamwork of the Empyrean Talons had grown at an astonishing rate, especially Diablo and Alucard, who were showing great progress.

These two were already quite strong as an individual player, rivaling the top members of Godʼs Paradise. But after assimilating with the rest of the Empyrean Talons and battling alongside each other with the scrims that they had, the two show great improvements in their teamwork.

This almost scared Lia. Fortunately, the understanding of their team toward the other party was also growing, learning their other weaknesses and others.

Regardless, Lia had to label these guys as their greatest rival for the upcoming United Cup, especially when she knew that the other side had most likely understood them as much as they understood them.

…

Lia was right about that since Cloe, Leonard, Alucard, and Diablo were thoroughly studying the battle videos that they had with Godʼs Paradise.

”As you can see, we are still lacking in terms of ʼunityʼ when fighting as a team. This is what we greatly lack as a new team. But we can deal with it as long as we work hard and get familiarized with each other,” said Cloe as she looked at the others.

Among all the members of the Empyrean Talons, she was the only one who did not have any problem adjusting to the fighting and combat style of everyone. As a priest and the core support of the team, she had great environmental and situational awareness.

She had a lot of experience in teaming up and working with different people during her time as a freelance player in other games. She also used to work with other top teams like Silent Night and others with similar strengths, so did not have any problem adjusting.

Arthur and Leonard were in a similar situation, so they also were able to assimilate with the rest of the team without any issues.

The only problem that they had was the rest of the team coming together and forming a sense of ʼunityʼ when fighting alongside each other.

”We have quite a few members with decent teamwork like Owen and Ithilien, who were long-time partners, and Archimedes and Daulla. We need to let them get used to working with other team members to build an ʼinstinctʼ of helping each other or something similar.”

”You two are the top experts on our team, so we hope that you can get along with the rest of our team more often. Hunting or doing a quest together should be fine as well,” said Cloe as she was convincing the two to play the game solo less and team up with them.

She knew that these two experts were used to playing alone as they were solo players for quite a while. But since they were now a part of a team, they had to get along with the others so that they could have a sense of trust with the others.

Alucard and Diablo understood this very well, which was why they were trying their best to get along with the rest of the team.

While they were discussing, Arthur, who was listening to the side, suddenly injected. ”You are lecturing them, but the guy, who is one of our key members is currently somewhere doing a quest by himself.”

Hearing that, Cloe knew that Arthur was talking about Shin. She closed her eyes and massaged her temples. ”Donʼt get me started, Arthur. I am already having a headache with all the problems that you are giving, so please donʼt remind me of that troublemaker for the time being.”

It was fine that they were on their own for a while since the other members were still focused on doing their Tier 3 Promotion Quest, but it would be a problem if this continued.

It was essential for a team to run a dungeon, hunt in the fields, explore other maps, and do quests together to build trust and teamwork with one another, especially for a newly established team like theirs.

It was fine to do questing solo from time to time, but their team was currently in a stage where they still had to build teamwork crucially, so they had to play together most of the time actively.

But since everyone was a top expert in the game, they also had to consider their individual growth as well, so she could not blame Shin for that either.

This was the hard part of creating a team with strangers or online friends that they recently met – they had to build almost everything from scratch.

Fortunately, most of their members were also acquainted with each other in the real world, so the challenge of building their teamwork was greatly reduced.

Saving Cloe from Arthur, Leonard immediately chimed in. ”That is fine. After all, we all agreed to do our own thing for the time being until everyone cleared their promotion quests. Then we will proceed to explore the second continent together.”

”It is just bad timing that the United Cup is brought forward, which put us in this predicament,” he added.

Arthur shrugged his shoulders before turning to Cloe. ”So, what is your decision? Who will we send to help the Wingʼs Alliance with their problems.”

”We have agreed to a deal and what they are offering us is quite alluring as well, so it will be a waste to refuse now,” he added.

Cloe swept her gaze to everyone in the room before asking. ”How many people do you think we need?”

Arthur thought for a moment and recalled the experts that the Grand Elder of the Wingʼs Alliance had on his side before replying. ”Not many. Just enough to overpower a bunch of Peak Titled Rankers and lesser Godlike Players.”

”You are not enough?” asked Leonard.

”Tsk! Their Alliance Leader is short of people because they focus on acquiring territory and dealing with a high-ranking quest,” Arthur clicked his tongue before continuing. ”That is also the reason why that sly fox of an elder is taking advantage of the situation.”

”Actually, helping them will not only earn us a decent benefit, but the leader of the Wingʼs Alliance will also owe us a great favor. If you ask me, it is not bad of a deal,” he added.

Hearing his tone, Leonard could not help but click his tongue. ”You are starting to resemble Shin Bro with those words.”

On the side, Cloe looked at the four before crossing her arms. ”How about you four go?”

Hearing those words, Arthur and Leonard simultaneously turned at her before commenting. ”Isnʼt it a little overkill?”

But before she could respond, Diablo suddenly chuckled. ”Interesting. Count me in. I have a feeling that the Pandemonium Descendant has a hand in this matter.”

Alucard, who kept silent up until now, suddenly nodded in agreement. ”Let me join as well. It has been a while since I have a major task like this.”

...…