Child of Destiny

Shin and the others organized the information they had gathered about the power structure of the player forces situated within the Green Marbly Kingdom.

Then Shin suddenly asked, ”Which direction are the high-level neutral regions?”

Garnet immediately replied, ”The Desolate Land is located in the northwest of the kingdom.”

He paused for a moment before continuing. ”Its borders are mostly dominated by demonic players. All of them are elites and incredibly skilled, making it difficult for other players to enter the Desolate Land.”

”They aren’t expanding into the kingdom, but they are turning away anyone who attempts to enter the Desolate Land.”

”They seem to be planning to monopolize that entry point for themselves, preventing anyone else from entering.”

”It’s because of this that Blood Murder and Azure Black are constantly clashing with them,” he added.

Owen, who had been listening intently, couldn’t help but comment. ”Those guys must be from the Pandemonium Descendants.”

”Obviously,” Alucard nodded. ”After all, those guys have dominated the Desolate Land.”

”Despite being a high-level neutral region, the Desolate Land doesn’t have that many benefits, right?” Owen asked.

”Given its environmental conditions, it’s only natural for powerful monsters to emerge there, making it a perfect hunting ground,” Alucard answered before adding, ”But I heard that they’ve found quite a few valuable minerals there.”

”That’s right,” Diablo immediately interjected. ”The heart of that place, the Desolate Wasteland, possesses special minerals unique to the region.”

”According to the intelligence reports I’ve received, their main effect is to increase the success rate of forging weapons and armor. They can also amplify the initial properties of other materials during production.”

”What’s more, I heard that they could increase the chance of producing an item one rank higher than the initial product.”

Hearing this, Alucard couldn’t help but click his tongue. ”Tsk! No wonder those guys targeted that place first out of all the high-level neutral regions.”

”They’re focusing on increasing the might of their army,” he added, fully understanding the plan of those from the Pandemonium Descendants.

Owen then turned toward Shin. ”Are we going to pay them a ’visit’?”

The rest of the group immediately turned toward Shin, clearly eager to cause trouble for their old enemies.

After all, those guys were the ones who were constantly causing trouble for other players.

According to Diablo, the Pandemonium Descendants were closely associated with the Demonic Churches, particularly the Demonic Church of the Seven Sins and the Nine Demonic Churches of Chaos.

This made them even more dangerous.

The operations led by the Pandemonium Descendants had always caused countless headaches for players associated with the Righteous Churches.

One such operation was the opening of the demonic portal in the Dark Cloud Kingdom, which became the largest threat they had ever created.

Then there was their most recent operation, which nearly resulted in the destruction of the Lesser Kingdom of Juron.

Much of it had been orchestrated by Immortal, who had manipulated everyone involved from behind the scenes.

However, the immediate cause of that disaster was still the joint operation between the Demonic Church of Envy and the Demonic Church of Terror.

Now, they finally had a chance to cause those people some trouble. They were more than eager to pay them back and let them have a taste of their own medicine.

Even Felicia and Felix, who had remained quiet until now, couldn’t help but look forward to it.

After all, it was because of those demonic players that they had ended up in their current predicament and had been unable to make further progress with their Empire Quests.

They had even been forced to disband the guild they had established in the Lesser Kingdom of Juron because of that incident, losing all the time and effort they had invested in building it.

Without Shin’s assistance, they had no idea how they would have continued their progress.

They hated Immortal, but they equally hated the people from the Demonic Churches.

To them, there was little difference between the two. Immortal had orchestrated the entire situation from behind the scenes, but it was the Demonic Churches who had directly carried out the destructive operations that had caused them so much trouble.

Under their expectant gazes, Shin thought for a moment before answering. ”Let’s think about that later.”

”We have to deal with the remnants of the Silver Knives first.” He paused before nodding toward everyone. ”If we still have plenty of time afterward, then we can make them suffer some damage.”

Shin then turned his attention back to Garnet. ”And the other neutral region?”

”Ah!” Garnet finally snapped out of his daze upon hearing Shin’s question.

He still couldn’t believe that these people were actually considering fighting those troublesome demonic players—people who could give even Blood Murder and Azure Black, two of the Powerhouse Guilds in the kingdom, plenty of headaches.

However, he immediately accepted the possibility after remembering who these people were.

They were the Empyrean Talons!

An Adventurer Team filled with monsters!

After collecting himself, Garnet immediately continued. ”The Endless Raja Desert is located in the southeast of the kingdom.”

”Unlike the border shared by the Green Marbly Kingdom and the Desolate Land, the entry points to the Raja Desert aren’t dominated by any particular faction.”

”Anyone is free to head there whenever they want.”

He paused for a moment, organizing the information in his head before continuing. ”However, the regions surrounding the desert are still divided between the Desert Sun Coalition and the allied forces of the Mirage Soul and Illusion Dream Guilds.”

”They aren’t tyrannical enough to intimidate or bar anyone who attempts to enter the Raja Desert.”

”However, most of the hunting maps in the surrounding area are controlled by them, and those maps also serve as the safest routes to the desert’s entry points.”

”Players are therefore forced to pay them a tribute if they want to enter the region without having to force their way through the more dangerous routes.”

Everyone in the group fell silent, taking a moment to digest all the information they had received.

After a while, Owen suddenly asked, ”Are we going to the Raja Desert?”

Shin shook his head, then nodded. ”Not quite, but close.”

He paused for a moment before continuing. ”According to the intelligence report we received, the remnants of the Silver Knives are based near the border between the Raja Desert and the Green Marbly Kingdom.”

”Are we going to be enough?” Diablo asked, sounding slightly concerned about whether their manpower would be sufficient for this raid.

At first, he had assumed that Shin would bring a few elites from Deicide to assist them. However, he couldn’t see anyone else around.

That made him wonder if Shin had actually come alone.

Shin answered calmly, ”We should be enough to deal with them.”

He thought for a moment, considering the possible conditions on the battlefield, before continuing. ”So long as the final boss doesn’t get involved in the battle too early, we can deal with the majority of their forces before the final battle.”

Diablo merely shrugged, fully trusting Shin’s judgment.

Shin had indeed brought a few elites from Deicide with him, but their numbers were barely enough to have any significant impact on the entire operation.

For now, he had simply ordered them to scout the area while he decided whether they would be needed during the raid.

After walking for a while, a sudden thought flashed across Shin’s eyes.

He turned toward Garnet, who had been silently following them all this time. ”Hey... what group did you say you came from again?”

Garnet was scared out of his wits before carefully answering. ”The... the Desert Bandits.”

”Tsk! Tsk!” Shin clicked his tongue. ”From the name alone, I can already tell you’re not good people.”

Owen couldn’t help but nod. ”They must be a notorious group around here.”

”Should we ask someone about them?” he suggested, further terrifying the poor guy.

”I... I...” Garnet began stuttering the moment he heard that, unable to organize his thoughts properly.

Shin casually waved his hand, stopping Owen from grabbing some random player before continuing. ”Which of the five Powerhouse Guilds is your group associated with?”

”We...” Garnet hesitated before answering. ”We don’t specifically belong to any of them.”

”We’re a mercenary company that accepts commissions from anyone willing to hire us,” he added.

Owen nodded from the side. ”You guys must like plundering other players too.”

The others couldn’t help but suppress their laughter after seeing Owen bully the poor guy. Even Diablo and Alucard, who were usually the most serious among the group, couldn’t help but smirk.

Shin then continued asking questions. ”How big is your company? How many experts do you have?”

Garnet swallowed hard, already having a bad feeling about where this was going, before carefully replying. ”We have three thousand people in total, of which one thousand are elites.”

”We also have a hundred-man unit composed entirely of Official and Unofficial Rankers.”

”There are also the five captains. They’re either Titled Rankers or Maverick Rankers, and each of them leads a twenty-man squad within the unit.”

He paused for a moment, hesitating once more before continuing. ”Our Big Boss is ’Black Saber’ Khavin, a Peak Titled Ranker. It’s said that his strength is already close to the threshold of becoming a Godlike Player.”

”His right-hand man, Serv, is a well-known Peak Maverick Ranker within the kingdom, known as the ’Spear Bandit.’”

Garnet felt as though he had sold out his entire group by revealing all of their experts, but he had no choice.

Under the pressure he felt simply by standing beside Shin, he couldn’t help but spill everything, whether he wanted to or not.

Shin, however, didn’t care about what Garnet was thinking.

He pondered for a moment before asking, ”What is your rank?”

”I... I’m a lieutenant serving under one of the five captains,” Garnet replied almost instantly.

Shin looked him up and down before nodding. ”Passable.”

He then gestured toward Garnet. ”Go contact your superiors. And tell them I have a commission that may interest them.”

...