Child of Destiny

Clank! Clank!

Bang!

Right after Shin had chosen the difficulty that he wanted to challenge, the metal doors of the tower finally opened, seemingly inviting him inside.

Shrugging his shoulders a little, Shin suddenly stepped into the tower.

Swoosh!

Right after entering, the surroundings immediately changed. It turned into a desert-like environment.

Shin immediately sensed that the surrounding atmosphere had turned humid. The warm temperature and steamy atmosphere made him feel a bit sticky and uncomfortable.

Looking around and seeing the dunes, Shin could not help but raise his brows a little.

He was not sure what kind of enemy he would be facing, but he could tell that it must be related to the surrounding environment.

After all, this tower would not summon such a terrain for the trial without any reason.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

Not long after, Shin felt some movements coming from behind, making him face that direction.

Right after turning around, he immediately saw a cluster of sand gathering at a single point before slowly merging into a humanoid figure.

It took a while for the process to complete, especially when the humanoid figure transformed into a sand soldier wearing extremely complex, majestic armor made of sand itself.

Shin pursed his lips a little before mumbling. “Such a sleek set of armor suits Arthur’s taste.”

This sand soldier seemed to be a great general of ancient times, capable of leading hundreds of thousands of soldiers on the battlefield and wielding incredibly strong martial arts.

Shin could somewhat feel an extremely strong pressure coming from the opposing side, making him somewhat wary of it.

Moreover, he could not help but raise his brows when he realized that he could not get any information coming from the opposing side despite using his True Sight Ocular Skill on it.

“Strange,” he mumbled, feeling that there was something strange about this sand general.

The pressure it generated was quite overwhelming, but its overall strength seemed average at best, perhaps a bit higher, but never more than that.

Shin could even feel that he could defeat this sand general with ease. It was as if the pressure that it was releasing was nothing, but a false bravado meant to scare those who would dare to challenge it.

*Ding*

While he was lost in thought, the system suddenly interrupted him and gave him the additional rules for his current attempt to challenge the tower.

System: You have entered the Tower of Inheritance! All kinds of external powers and auxiliary abilities will be rendered useless!

*Ding*

System: The Challenger has been identified as a Transcendent Being!

System: Readjusting the Trials’ Method!

*Ding*

System: Multiple contracted Elemental Spirit Companions have been detected!

System: Temporarily severing the ties with the identified Elemental Spirits and banning all kinds of elemental abilities that they provide!

*Ding*

System: Multiple Legacies are detected!

System: Readjusting the challenger’s assessed abilities!

*Ding*

System: As per the rules set by the Great Emperor of the Immortal Empire, a challenger could only use one of the Legacies that they wielded.

System: For a more accurate assessment, the challenger is also encouraged to limit their strength to a specific area that they want to improve.

System: Available paths to choose from: Swordsmanship (Omni-Style), Elemental Magic (Multi-Element), Assassination (Mirage), Dragon Tamer/Master (Eclipse).

…

Shin was already used to these kinds of notifications, where most of his abilities were restricted by the system due to the conditions set by the dungeon or a certain trial.

There were also instances where he could not use anything at all aside from his martial prowess alone.

He first thought that it might be the same, especially after seeing the first few notifications projected before him.

However, he immediately paused and could not help but wear a deep frown after seeing the last few panels presented by the system.

He immediately understood what kind of trail tower he was in, especially when he reached the latter parts of it.

That Great Emperor of the fallen Immortal Empire, or something, wanted to not only test the strengths and talents of the future generations, but also to help them tap into their hidden potentials.

Shin could not help but stare intently at the final set of notifications, especially after seeing two unfamiliar choices that he had not seen before.

His unique swordsmanship was tightly related to ‘Mondi’s Style’, particularly the multiple sword styles and principles that he had mastered, while his Elemental Magic was greatly connected to ‘Regan’s Method’ and the abilities under it.

He usually used them together, especially under the state of Reality Manifestation and along with his Elemental Spirit Possessions.

This had become his signature style and the main cards that he used in all his battles.

Whenever he entered a restricted map or a special dungeon, all of the restrictions placed on Shin or special buffs were mostly related to these abilities.

This might be the first time that Shin had seen these extra choices aside from the first 2.

“Assassination and Mirage, then Dragon Taming?” he mumbled while falling into deep thought.

The former was most likely related to his Secondary Combat Class, which was the Phantom Swordsman Class.

This was not the first time that this class had gotten involved in these kinds of trials. The most significant one was during his Tier 3 Class Promotion, where the clones were highly related to his Phantom Swordsman Class.

He had been thinking about this secondary combat class and wanted to explore more about it, especially when he discovered that his ‘Phantom Apparition’ possessed more skills that were never in his arsenal.

He wanted to do some research about this, especially when the clone he created through this cloning skill became more independent and intelligent whenever he summoned it.

It was as if it were getting stronger every time it was summoned.

Shin wanted to explore more about this mystery, but he never had the time to do it. He also did not have any lead on where to start since the Phantom Swordsman Class did not give him any clue how to proceed with it.

He did not know where to find Kentas, despite the latter having a deep connection with the Phantom Island.

Cardinal Ronald was quite busy as well, making it hard for Shin to meet him. Because of this, he could not inquire about the old cardinal in this area.

Left without any leads, Shin was forced to set this matter aside and wait until the right opportunity came.

Who would have thought that this opportunity would come today?

Shin did not have to think about the Dragon Taming choice, which sounded quite tempting as well. After all, it was most likely related to his Eclipse Dragon or even to Sylvana, who had the royal bloodline of a green dragon.

Even though it was quite a good path to choose, Shin felt that it could wait for the time being.

After all, it was quite rare for him to get such an opportunity.

Moreover, Arthur would surely throw a tantrum if he learned about it later. It was better to avoid getting annoyed by that guy.

He could now invite the rest of the Empyrean Talons to this place later as well, since he had finally found a way to leave. They would no longer be trapped in this place, just like he was extremely concerned about.

They could now invite some of the forces under them without worrying about that issue.

Setting those issues aside, Shin chose to take the Assassination Training rather than the Dragon Taming.

Beep!

“Let’s see what you have prepared for me this time,” he mumbled while waiting for the next system notification.

He did not have to wait that long since the system immediately gave him the response.

*Ding*

System: Training Mode has been set!

*Ding*

System: All other skills are temporarily banned throughout the trial, aside from the skills under the Phantom Swordsman Class and other basic skills of the Slayer and Grim Reaper Classes, which were required during the state of Reality Manifestation.

*Ding*

System: As the inheritor of the Phantom Mirage Legacy, you are required to perfect the Phantom Mirage Technique on the designated floor.

…

Seeing this, Shin could not help but slightly raise his brows. “This is getting more and more interesting.”

After that, he saw the sand general suddenly move, summoning a bunch of sand soldiers behind it.

Shin pursed his lips a little when he saw this before glancing at his skill slot.

Seeing that most of his skills were currently greyed out, only leaving the ones under his secondary combat class and a few extras.

He then raised his brows further when he saw that the cooldown time for all these skills was nonexistent. All of them were set to zero.

“I guess I now know why this tower was created,” he mumbled, seemingly realizing something. “So, it is truly meant to train the future generations, huh?”

“Is it to consider the bigger picture? Or is it because they want to prepare us for something even bigger?” he mumbled, recalling the said incident that almost erased the Immortal Empire from the world.

…