Child of Destiny

…

Shin headed to the mission hall of the church right after he left the office of Archbishop Ronald. He was going to look if there were any quests that could pique his interest.

It was not like he was going to take them right away. He just wanted to see if he could take a few of them later once he was done with everything he had or if he failed to clear his Class Promotion Quest just like the others.

It was not like he was being too overconfident with himself. But he was sure that his success rate for his class promotion would be much higher than the others since he already had a key to clearing them. However, he was not too conceited about it since it was clear that the promotion quest was pretty much an important milestone given the current circumstances of every player and the clues that the developers had released. .

Based on what he could see, it seemed like Tier 3 and Tier 6 would be the huge milestones in the classes.

In Tier 3 Players with ordinary races could have the chance to rival the Transcendent Races through completing the evolution of their respected Ascended Classes and the peak of every regular class.

As for Tier 6, Shin thought that it was related to gods and the higher plane mentioned by Dracula before. Tier 4 was meant for Enlightened Classes while Tier 5 was the peak of the lower plane which was most likely a Sovereign Being just like Dracula, or Draco and Lycan at their peak.

Following that pattern, Shin suspected that his thoughts were most likely the case.

Shin walked through the corridor of the church, completely unhindered, while thinking about those things.

When he finally arrived at the mission hall, he immediately saw that it was filled with a lot of players. Some were affiliated with the Church of the Sun and Moon while the others were their friends, who came with them.

He looked at the hall for a couple of moments before entering. He ignored all the quests of low difficulty and walked past the counters meant for low-ranking members.

Instead, he went straight to the counter where the most important and most difficult quest could be taken from. When he arrived there, there were only a handful of players looking at the bulletin board and looking for quests with the highest level of difficulty.

Shin swept his gaze at these players, looking at them with interest. The fact that they were here could only mean two things. First, they had accumulated enough merit points to take on these quests and gained a certain level of status within the church.

The second was their strength. They should be quite skilled to have the guts to take on these quests, which clearly reflected how strong they were.

He wanted to know that they were a decent seeding. He might find some interesting guys that he could potentially recruit or befriend with.

But after a few moments, he shook his head as he could not find anyone who could pique his interest. They all seemed to be pretty ordinary in his eyes even though they were already a subject of worship for any other players.

After shaking his head in disappointment, he walked over to the bulletin board and looked for a quest that could interest him. But after looking through everything, none of the quests posted were not of interest.

The quests themselves were not that interesting and the rewards for completing them were not that worth of his time. Even the most difficult quest did not provide any rewards that could interest him.

With that, Shin shook his head and turned around to live. He first needed to know more about his ongoing quest before proceeding with the pursuit.

When he was about to turn, he was suddenly caught off guard by a person walking past him from his side. He did not expect the appearance of that person.

But with his quick reaction speed, he quickly halted his spin and slightly kicked the ground to stride back, avoiding the collision with the other party.

Swoosh!

After that, he raised his head and looked at that person with scrutinizing eyes. It was true that he was slightly lost in thought at that time and somewhat distracted, but it did not mean that he could not sense his surroundings.

The fact that this person was able to approach him that close without him knowing, proved that they were not someone ordinary. And when his gaze landed on that person, he could instantly recognize their strength. It was clear that they were somewhat giving off a threatening feeling given the strong yet invisible aura enveloping their body.

However, it could not affect Shin given the current strength that he had.

Regardless, it was still a sign of their strength. It was obvious that they were a pretty skilled player and a very strong ranker at that.

While Shin was observing the latter, the other player was also doing the same. He was looking at Shin with a surprised look on his face and even very tense nerves.

The reason why he almost collided with Shin earlier was because he could not feel the presence of the latter. He was walking leisurely earlier before he did not feel any person in front of him. It was as if Shin had never been there in the very first place.

He did not even see Shin due to the negligible presence that he had. In other words, Shin seemed to be a part of the surroundings. This made him hide his presence from most of the players.

He only noticed Shin when it was already too late. He instinctively halted his steps due to the ‘sudden’ appearance of the latter and swiftly stepped back with a quick spin, distancing himself from that person and preventing the collision.

When he got a closer look at this mysterious person, he could not help but shudder due to the immense threat that he was getting. It was as if the death itself was looking at him, especially when his eyes collided against Shin’s midair.

He felt a suffocating feeling that almost choked him to death. “Who is this guy? He is so strong.”

He knew that every player who went to this section of the hall was all strong player. They were the best even among the high and titled rankers. But from what he was seeing, everyone else was insignificant right in front of this person.

His instincts were telling him not to provoke this person, or else he would suffer greatly before he knew it. “He is so damn strong!”

Shin, on the other hand, was also giving this player a surprised expression behind his mask and under the shade of his cloak. “Interesting. This person seemed to be not that bad. Not bad at all.”

Looking at the other player, Shin could guess that this person seemed to be a paladin. His set of equipment was filled with light to medium-weighted steel armor. He was also donned with the cape that was unique to the high paladins without the Church of the Sun and Moon.

That cape had a color with a mix of red and blue color. There was also golden embroidery at its edges along with the huge emblem of the church, which was very similar to the mark of eclipse that Shin had on his hand, designed at the center of that cape.

Shin only got a glimpse of it, but he was sure that the cape was the one that was specially given to paladins who contributed a lot to the church.

Casting his gaze toward the sword hanging on the waist of this person, Shin could also spot the same emblem engraved at the bottom of its hilt. He also somewhat recognized this sword as it was something rewarded to the players who reached a certain rank within the church.

This person possessed two of the unique equipment rewarded by the Church of the Sun and Moon, which indicated that they were closely affiliated with the church.

Shin was not sure whether they possessed more unique items, but he was sure that this person should have a pretty decent skill to back up his rank and contributions.

He could not see the face of this player due to the helmet that they were wearing. But that was not important. What interested Shin was the strength that they had.

He walked forward and stopped a meter away from that person before extending his hand. “Sorry about that. I did not sense that you were walking by.”

The other person looked at Shin with a mixture of confused and threatened gaze. But what surprised him even more was the fact that the immense threat that he had felt earlier suddenly disappeared right after Shin stopped in front of him.

It was as if everything that he just experienced was nothing but an illusion. Even the feeling of escaping the clutch of death was the same.

‘Just who is this person?’ he thought before finally snapping out of his thoughts and accepting the handshake that Shin was offering. “Ah! It is nothing. It is also my fault since I am not paying attention to my surroundings. I don’t notice you at all.”

Awkwardly rubbing the back of his head, the unknown player shook Shin’s hand while repeatedly apologizing.

Shin looked at the other party with great interest before nodding his head and bidding his farewell. “You seem to be a pretty good fighter given that reflex of yours. I hope that we meet again some other time.”

Taking advantage of that handshake, Shin sent a friend request before walking away. He did not care whether this person would accept it or not. But it would not hurt to give it a try.

Behind him, that player stared at Shin’s back and watched him disappear at the entrance of the hall while tilting his head. He then looked at the system notification that he just received. “What? A friend request?”

He then opened it out of curiosity. He was sure that this request came from that person whom he just met. He wanted to see who that monster in human skin that he just encountered. “Sickarius? Huh? Why is his name somewhat familiar? I feel like I have heard of it before?”

“Strange? Why do I feel like-…?” He was in the middle of looking deep inside his memory when something flashed through his mind.

He stopped his thoughts while a sudden electricity ran through his entire body. He was suddenly paralyzed because of that.

It was at that moment that he finally remembered where he heard that name before. “Sickarius? That Battle God Sickarius?”

“No way? Did I just meet that legendary figure?”

“That guy from the Empyrean Talons?”

“The one who defeated both Lich God Immortal and Devil God Justin consecutively in his Godly Challenges? That Battle God Sickarius?”

“Am I dreaming right now?”

A series of questions suddenly flooded his head as he could not believe what was happening. Not only did he meet one of the most famous players in the game, but he also received a friend request from such a legendary existence.

“D*mn! I can finally brag something to my classmates! I want to see their faces once they learn I am friends with a Godlike Player; someone with the personal title at that!”

“I want to see them call me an unknown player, who has nothing but high level, now!” he muttered as he accepted the friend request right in front of him, afraid that he would press the ignore button by accident.

He was almost jumping in joy because of this. He now become more motivated to do a much more difficult quest this time.

“With such a rare and important event, I must do something that is more special. Let’s do that strangely difficult quest this time for celebration!”

…

In the meantime, Shin, who just received the notification about his friend request being accepted, glanced at it before muttering. “Samael? What an odd name for a paladin.”

He then looked at the level of this new friend of his, which surprised him. The guy’s level was already in the early 140s, which clearly indicated that he was no ordinary player. Even among the leading players, this level was already high.

He started laughing to himself as he found the guy more and more interesting. This made the players around him look at him weirdly. “This guy is really something. I hope I will see him again next time.”

After that, he continued walking along the players in the street before disappearing among the crowd.

……