Child of Destiny

Faker rushed towards the place where the group was waiting for him. And right after regrouping with them, he quickly reported what he just discovered to everyone.

“The wolves immediately respawned right after we killed the first group of scouts and main hunters?” muttered Arthur after hearing Faker.

“Based on the timing alone, it is most likely the case,” said Faker to confirm the information once again.

“Then it means that we need to kill the other wolves in that place altogether,” commented Shin as he wore a deep frown.

“This is going to be a long battle if we persist in getting through them,” said Lawless as he tried to say that they needed to consider going around the wolf pack.

Shin didn’t reply to him immediately and just turned to Faker who was tasked to scout the area. And when the latter saw that, he instantly understood the meaning of that look.

“It is pretty impossible to go around the wolves since there is an invisible barrier blocking the other paths that we can take,” said Faker in response.

The other members of the group knitted their eyebrows as they immediately understood what it meant.

“Then the main quest is really forcing us to take care of the wolf pack first before we can advance to the next area,” said Leonard.

“This is really going to be a long fight and we don’t know if the supplies that we have will last until we clear all of the wolves,” said Black Hand to voice out the main issue that they would have.

Before they came to this place, they made sure that they would have enough health and mana potions since they knew that they were going to spend quite a long time on this particular expedition.

They also brought quite a lot of special potions for different kinds of scenarios. Just like the climate of this place.

But if they really fought the wolf pack head-on, then they needed to spend quite a lot of potions in the process. And if things continued to be this way, then the supplies that they brought would not be enough.

Moreover, they just discovered that it was impossible to lure out the wolves and decrease their numbers little by little since those wolves would only respawn even if the group managed to wipe them out.

Shin fell into deep thought when he heard those words. He then swept his gaze on their surroundings while continuing what he was thinking.

A few moments later, he suddenly opened the quest information panel, seemingly trying to see if they missed something.

After reading the quest details once again, Shin finally found the clue that he was looking for. But before he could even voice it out, he saw that a few of them were able to figure out how they were going to get out of this situation.

“There is no time limit for this quest unlike the other expedition quest that the big guilds are getting,” said Lawless to point out the thing that they had discovered.

“That means, we can stay in here for as long as we want,” he added as he swept his gaze at the surroundings.

Zero nodded his head and added. “Since the system gave us this kind of setting, it is most likely telling us to use this place to the fullest.”

“Raw materials and everything else?” commented Arthur to join the conversation.

Seeing that everyone was on the same page, Shin immediately turned to the others and asked. “What are the sub-classes that we have.”

Hearing that, each member of the group started to answer one after another. Then they discovered that they had almost all of the professions that they needed were present within the group.

They have enough alchemists for creating potions, tailors for cloth armors, and blacksmiths that could repair their metal-related equipment. And aside from those two sub-classes, they also had a couple of special production classes such as poison master that Faker had and pathfinder for Alucard.

After that, Shin started assigning another task for each member of the group. Faker was assigned to scout the whole place alongside Ara and Alucard. On the other hand, Arthur and Leonard were assigned to be the lookout for the wolves to make sure that they were not going to get ambushed.

Given the high AI of the alpha wolf, it was not impossible for it to do such a sly move while they were busy exploring the area. And because of that reason, they need to station two of their strongest cards to be their scouts.

In the meantime, the remaining members were tasked to look for a good place that could be their temporary shelter. And since there were quite a few craftsmen in their group, they were able to build a good hideout in a cave. ．

And as per Shin’s suggestion, the group choose a cave up in the cliff wall for extra safety. If they were on high ground, they would be able to see the incoming wolf pack much easier. It was also going to be hard for the wolves to climb the cliff which gave them a new way of attacking. They could injure the wolves gravely or kill them on the spot before they engaged in battle.

The three mages were all alchemists so they quickly set up a simple alchemy table for the concoction of potions.

The blacksmiths, on the other hand, only needed an anvil and a furnace. And fortunately, players that had this sub-class always brought a portable type of those two so that they could repair their items anywhere.

In the meantime, Shin was also exploring the other places on the map to see if there were something that they could take note of.

But just like what Faker had reported earlier, there was a special barrier that was preventing them from going anywhere. It was a misty fog with a very cold temperature and anything that tried to go through it would instantly get frozen.

After setting up everything they needed and scouting the whole area that they could explore, the group immediately gathered together to discuss the next part of their plan. And after careful deliberation, they decided to log out of the game for the time being to recharge their energy and focus.

A lot of events happened consecutively, so it was natural for them to be exhausted. Moreover, it was already about time for them to log out since morning was already approaching. They also need to do their daily routines before they could have their rest.

…

Tsss~!

The sound of the gaming cabin could be heard inside Shin’s room as it was too quiet inside it.

Shin stayed inside the cabin while trying to relax his mind. And when he was about to stand up and get out of it, he suddenly felt intense dizziness that almost made him stumble forward.

Fortunately, he was able to grab onto the cabin’s edge to support himself. He frowned his eyebrows very deeply as he felt like his word was turning upside-down. His senses seemed to become dull since he couldn’t tell which direction was east or west.

At first, he was quite confused about why it was happening. But not long after, he immediately figured out the reason why he was feeling this way. His body and mind were currently out of sync.

He was now feeling the side-effects of reaching the state of being one with the sword inside the game. And since he was already aware of the main problem, he now had an idea of how he was going to solve it.

He went back to the gaming cabin once again and closed his eyes before entering a deep meditation state. He needed to adjust himself to the new state of his mind and it took him quite some time to barely able to get used to it.

He even skipped his morning training due to that as well as the preparation for their breakfast. It was unusual for him not to follow his daily schedule, so Arthur couldn’t help but go to his room to see what he was doing.

“Hey, Shin! Are you still sleeping? I thought you have something to do today? Don’t you think that you are running late?” said Arthur as he entered his brother’s room.

The moment Arthur opened the door, he immediately saw Shin struggling to stand up from the ground.

“Oi! What happened?” asked Arthur as he quickly appeared beside Shin and supported him.

Shin smiled bitterly when he saw that and honestly replied. “It is nothing serious. It’s just my body is trying to adjust with my mind.”

“Huh?” Arthur was confused at first since he was not aware of what Shin had achieved inside the game. All he knew was that Shin suddenly improved tremendously after his little duel with Zero.

Understanding his confusion, Shin forced yet another bitter smile before saying. “I reached the state of being one with the sword.”

Arthur didn’t pay attention to it at first as he was too focused on helping Shin. But it didn’t long for Shin’s words to sink inside his head.

“What did you just say?” he asked while looking at Shin with an astounded gaze.

……