Child of Destiny

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Oath City was the capital of the Lesser Kingdom of Juron, which was not even at the level of a Capital City. It was only a Major City, indicating that the kingdom was not as wealthy as the other kingdoms.

There were only two major cities within the kingdom, while the rest were either Minor Cities or Advanced Cities. Then the rest of the territories were divided between villages that were either at intermediate or advanced ranks.

This could tell everyone how poor this kingdom was when compared to the rest of the Aurora Continent. The rest of the kingdoms and empires were rapidly growing due to the recent updates of the game, particularly when the experts of the Void Manifestation Stage, Ruler’s Realm, and Swordmasters started joining the game.

The rapid growth of the cities was directly related to the population of the players, who were doing a series of quests for the progress of their respective cities.

Quite a few Kingdoms and Empires had already gained one or two Royal Cities in their ranks. Adding the other Royal Cities that could be found in the neutral lands, which were still not fully opened to most players.

Aside from those who were fully acknowledged by the Mysterious Instructors or had gotten some special pass from those cities themselves.

There were also huge differences between these natural Royal Cities in the neutral lands and the ones that had been promoted from Capital Rank Cities, specifically the magic facilities and training grounds.

Compared to these cities, the Oath City of the Lesser Kingdom of Juron was greatly lacking despite being counted as its capital city.

It was the same for most of the outskirt kingdoms throughout the Aurora Continent.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

At this moment, the Teleportation Hall of the Oath City was currently bursting with liveliness. A few teleportation formations within the hall kept flashing with light due to the flood of players that were coming in batches.

There was even a traffic on the hall, which made it quite hard to get past everyone.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

A pair of hooded players suddenly appeared on the fanciest teleportation formation of the hall, which was only accessible to those with enough wealth.

“Tsk! Tsk! What a rip-off! Don’t you think that the teleportation fee is a bit too much for such an outskirt city?” asked Alucard right after emerging from the Teleportation Circle.

“It is exactly because of this place being an outskirt city that the fee is quite absurd,” replied Diablo calmly.

Looking around, he could not help but frown after seeing how packed the place was.

“It is quite lively, huh?” commented Alucard after looking around. “I guess the hype behind another realm is not a joke, huh?”

Diablo ignored the comment and opened his message panel, seemingly looking for a certain mail, before closing it again.

“Our contact is already waiting for us at the meeting point. Let’s go,” he added before disappearing from his spot.

Seeing this, Alucard could not help but shake his head and mumble. “As cold as always. No wonder he is not that popular.”

Not long after, he went along with the flow of players who were walking out of the Teleportation Hall.

Right after leaving the hall, Alucard could not help but raise his brows after seeing what was before him.

This was supposed to be a small city at the outskirts of the Aurora Continent, yet the streets were bursting with people and liveliness. There were even a lot of stalls scattered in the plaza, making it look like the capital city of one of the main kingdoms or empires that players loved to visit.

“I guess it will not be long before this place turns into a real ‘capital’,” he mumbled after seeing how lively these streets had become compared to their initial intelligence.

“This makes me wonder if they have only released those ‘rumors’ on purpose to attract more people into their kingdom,” he added while walking down the streets and looking around.

However, he immediately rejected the idea after considering all the pros and cons of doing such a feat. “But it will have more drawbacks than gains if that is the case.”

“After all, they will lose their firm control over the kingdom, which is something that they would not want to happen. Who will be an idiot to hand over their territory to someone else, despite it not being that profitable?”

“Then it can only be some sort of plot that wants to harm the local overlord of this place. It is either a traitor within the guild that wants to get rid of their current leader by subordinating themselves under a larger power or a rival guild wanting to do something similar after getting some inside information from their spies.”

“Either way, the guild leader of the Rise Guild is most probably being plotted on by his trusted aides or enemies,” he listed out the possible scenarios inside his head before turning to the side. “What do you think?”

It was at this moment that Diablo suddenly manifested beside him like a ghost.

“My guess is only as good as yours,” responded Diablo before adding. “Either way, our job is just to observe and join the prey once the situation calls for it.”

Alucard then nodded before turning his attention to their surroundings. He was starting to see quite a few people with decent levels of strength walking the streets, blending into the crowd without arousing any suspicion.

“There are quite a few powerhouses around. Some of them are even from the top guilds like Miracle Guild, Totem Kings, and Divine Swords. Quite a lot of them are subordinate guilds of the Powerhouse Guilds and top organizations within the game.”

“I can even spot quite a few acquaintances from top adventurer teams and mercenary guilds,” he added, along with an amused look on his face. “This can be much more interesting than we originally thought.”

“Not only that,” said Diablo while his eyes turned sharp. “The security around this area is quite lacking, so quite a few Red Name Players from the Dark Guilds and Demonic Players have managed to sneak in.”

“Oh~!” Alucard could not help but feel a bit more interested in this topic.

Given his background, he was quite familiar with the circle of independent experts, who remained solo due to their confidence in their skills, as well as quite a few top-ranking adventurers from teams or mercenary groups.

He had more experience dealing with this kind of people compared to Diablo, which was why he managed to spot quite a lot of them mixed in the crowd.

On the other hand, Diablo was more familiar with these Dark Guilds that were made by Red Name Players, who were famous for hunting other people in the wild to kill and rob them for their treasures.

He was also quite experienced at dealing with Demonic Players due to his background as a commander within the ranks of the Pandemonium Descendants.

“Are there any troublesome ones among them?” asked Alucard, quite itching to bump into the Troupe Members of the Pandemonium Descendants.

Diablo shook his head slightly. “I have yet to spot any of them so far. Just a few random mobs that want to stir some trouble in the already troubled waters.”

“Then, it is quite a pity,” Alucard was quite disappointed, but quickly recovered himself. “But it should still be fine. It is still quite early for the big fish to make their move. There will always be more chances later.”

The two then continued to chat idly, walking toward the meeting point with their contact.

Of course, they were also aware of quite a few people eyeing them from the dark. After all, they had purposely made their presence known to everyone to see if they could attract any of those big fish hiding in the dark.

However, given their powerful stealth techniques, they were still able to hide their auras that prevent those spying eyes from truly seeing through their strength, much less uncover their identities.

“There are quite a lot of them, huh?” mumbled Alucard after sensing those hostile eyes directed at them, not even bothering to hide their ill intentions.

“But they are still small fries, far from those people we are targeting,” he added after realizing that they were not as powerful as they had expected.

A few moments later, both of them could not help but pause their tracks, turning toward a certain direction.

“Eh!? Now this is what I am talking about. Quite a big pair of fish we have here,” commented Alucard while slightly raising his head and looking at a certain widow on the second floor of the restaurant across them.

“Demonic Players, huh?” he added along with a smirk.

Diablo, on the other hand, slightly squinted his eyes before saying. “Not True Demons yet, but they should have quite a potent demonic blood in them. They are problem scouts from the Demonic Churches.”

“Are we going to make our move against them? High Demons should get us quite a lot of merits given the current situation at the Dark Cloud Continent,” asked Alucard. “Moreover, no one will bother with us since they are Demonic Players anyway.”

Diablo slightly shook his head before resuming his steps. “There is no point in moving against them now. They are still small fries in front of their superiors anyway.”

“However, given that they are already here, there must be a high-ranking official hiding around,” he added as a dangerous glint flashed in his eyes. “That is how they operate after all. If we are lucky, then a True Demon may be among them.”

……