Child of Destiny



...…

Right after Shin left the inn, he quickly dropped by the branch of the Hand of Midas within the Holy City to resupply his potions and other necessities before heading straight to the Church of the Sun and Moon.

He had already seen the city earlier before he logged out yesterday, but he still could not believe how much it changed up until now.

Even the player-NPC population was very huge. He could see a lot of them walking down the streets, making it look like a very populated city in the real world. There was even some traffic on the road where a lot of carriages of different ranks were lining up.

As he walked, he constantly observed the players that he was passing by and used 'True Sight' to see through their levels. After a few minutes, he could not help but shake his head as he immediately realized the impact when a city was promoted to Capital Rank.

"Whistle~♪. The average level of the players here is between 120-130. No wonder there are a smaller number of players visiting Calderock Town. The mainstream players are already catching up to us," he muttered as he looked around.

When he passed by the Adventurer Guild, he saw a huge crowd of players heading in and coming out of the building.

Naturally, along with the promotion of the Holy City, the rank of this branch of the Adventurer Guild would also rise a notch higher and their office building would also grow larger and higher. But despite how large the front and side doors that it had, it still looked quite small due to the flow of players visiting it.

Shin walked by a couple of well-known organizations while he was heading to the church and saw that almost every NPC organization grew accordingly. Even the churches of the other religions also grew larger and much fancier than what he could remember.

Maybe the only organization that did not follow this trend would be the Thieves Guild since such an organization needed to keep a low profile.

After a few minutes of walking, he finally arrived at his destination. And when he stood in front of the church, he could not help but be a little stunned at the sight that he was seeing.

The church was completely different from what it was inside his memory. The size of the church alone made him suspect that was the main castle of the royal family than a religious building. Even the bell towers looked fancier than before and their height could rival the tallest buildings within the city, if not higher. It looked like a watch tower rather than a bell tower.

When his gaze landed on the gates of the church, he could not help but swallow hard due to how large they were. He could also see the complex engravings that they had along with the huge emblem of the church at the center, which was very similar to the tattoo on his hand.

Then he saw the flow of players and NPCs coming in and out of the church. He was quite confused at first before quickly realized what was going on.

These players became believers of the church during the special event that Archbishop Ronald released. The church gave out a lot of quests related to monster settlements during that time and even some quests that concerned the Corrupted Cult.

Due to the rewards being so generous, a lot of players joined the church and became their believers. Even though most of them did not change their classes into Paladin or Priest of the church, quite a few still converted into one since the buffs and benefits that the church provided were quite worth it.

As for the NPC, Shin could already guess that it was because of the previous calamity that the Saint Heaven Kingdom had suffered due to the sudden invasion of the Corrupted Cult.

From what he could remember, the Church of the Sun and Moon was one of the leading organizations that helped the citizens along with the Church of Light. Because of this, a lot of NPCs became their devotees in the process.

The events made the influence of the church grow larger, resulting in what he was seeing right now. It would not be an overstatement if he said that the Church of the Sun and Moon was one of the most influential NPC organizations within the kingdom.

After reminiscing for a couple of moments, Shin shook his head and started walking toward the church, joining the crowd at entering without attracting any unwanted attention this time.

…

No one dared to block Shin's path as he freely entered the restricted areas of the church. He had already removed his hood when he left the observant eyes of the other players, so the paladins guarding each area were able to see his mask.

None of the members of the church would be able to recognize this mask since it was the symbol of being an envoy of their organization. Such a position was very high within the church, making it impossible to provoke him within it.

Strange enough, Shin was able to walk through the corridors with great familiarity even though the church had changed so much after his last visit. Not only the outside had changed. The inside naturally also changed alongside it, making it hard to navigate his way within it.

But right after Shin stepped inside the church, a string of information quickly entered his mind, informing him about its interior. It seemed like a map was drawn and inserted within his head right after he entered.

He suspected that it was one of the features of the magic formations that he had seen engraved on the doorway of the church. They were not only scanning the players and NPCs passing through them but also identifying whoever entered the church.

The paladins and priests of the church were constantly pausing their steps and bowing to him whenever he came across them. It was not just a simple greeting but also a sign of respect. This made Shin a little uncomfortable which made him slightly nod his head to them as an acknowledgement before quickly walking away with hasted steps.

When he finally arrived in front of the door of Archbishop Ronald's room, he saw one of the high priests of the church waiting for him.

"The Archbishop is already waiting inside, Esteemed Envoy. You may enter anytime," said the high priest while giving a respectful bow.

Shin slightly nodded his head before strengthening his back to fix his posture. He tidied himself up a little in front of the door before lightly knocking on it. After that, he grabbed the knobbed and slowly opened the huge wooden door.

He carefully walked inside before closing the door behind him.

Click!

When the clinking sound of the knob sounded, he suddenly heard the familiar aged voice greeting him. "Don't you think that you are neglecting your duties a little too much recently?"

"I know that you are busy with this adventuring and such. You even solved one of the longest problems that the kingdom has. Yet you can't spare us a little time to drop by even for a moment to see how the church is doing?"

"Sigh, why are all the envoys of our church so free-spirited? Don't you all know that you have the responsibility to protect and serve the church?"

"Why do all of you leave all the work to us, the archbishops? We are not your handler. We also have our own duties to perform. Don't you think this is a little too much?"

The old archbishop continued to voice out his complaints, seemingly venting out all his piled-up frustrations.

Shin could only smile bitterly as he walked over before giving Archbishop Ronald a respectful bow. He waited patiently while keeping his silence.

"Sigh. I know that I am the one who invited you to the church. But that is because of the Mark of Eclipse on your hand. Do you know that I am now starting to regret that time now?"

"If only I could turn back time, then I may come up with a different decision," he said with a sigh as he ended his little 'sermon'.

He then finally turned around and looked at Shin, scrutinizing the young man with his observant eyes. After a few seconds, he finally smiled and repeatedly nodded his head, showing his satisfaction. "You have grown up well at the very least. You also have not disgraced the church with your recent achievements. I can at least your shortcomings slide because of this."

Shin heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that. He was ready to face some consequences due to his neglecting his duties within the church. He was even expecting to work himself hard to run some errands (a.k.a. Religious Quests) that the archbishop might give him.

But from the look of it, he seemed to have barely dodged the bullet.

Or was he?

"I know why you are here. You want to take the test for your next 'awakening', am I right?" said the archbishop, seemingly able to see through his thoughts.

*(NPCs term for Class Promotion Quest)

"Do me some favor first before I give you your quest," said Archbishop Ronald, shattering all of Shin's hope of getting away from this easily.

"So, there are really some errands before I can finally take on my class promotion," mumbled Shin to himself.

His voice was soft and quiet to the point that only he could hear. Unfortunately, the old archbishop was also an old monster within the Atlas World, so the latter's senses were pretty sharp.

"Yeah. You have to run some errands before you can undergo your next awakening," said the archbishop as he added. "Do you honestly believe that I will let you go just like that after not dropping by for a long time?"

"Usually, I will just give you a certain task before leading you to the place where you can undergo your awakening. But since you owe me a little too much, don't you think it is only right for me to ask you to pay your debt while I am at it?"

It was only now that Shin realized that this old archbishop, who seemed to be kind on the surface, could be somewhat petty.

Before Shin could even voice out some complaints, Archbishop Ronald quickly continued. "There are a few problems that the Righteous Churches need to take care of. But since there are a lot of Otherworldly Individuals who are willing to volunteer to do the menial tasks themselves, we are never short in terms of manpower."

"Instead, what we lack right now is competent and trustable individuals that we can rely on when dealing with the more dangerous, much more difficult, and most important jobs such as tracking and hunting down the remnants of the Corrupted Cult that are still causing chaos in the most secluded outskirts of the Kingdom."

"We have already collaborated with the Adventurer Guild and the Royal Court for this, so there will be not much of a problem with that."

Shin was quite confused about those words since all those topics that the archbishop had mentioned indicated that he was needed to do such tasks.

That was when he heard the next part of the concerns of the archbishop.

"But since we are too focused on dealing with the aftermath of the previous invasion and the remnants that the cult has left behind, we somehow overlooked some of the problems that we are supposedly dealing with before everything happened."

The archbishop paused for a moment and threw a stack of papers on the table right in front of Shin before continuing.

"Before everything happened, the church was actually currently in the middle of an internal investigation. We come across some evidence pointing to an unexpected betrayal of one of us. And based on what we have found, we realize that it was someone with a pretty high position within the church."

"We are close to catching this traitor, but before the inquisitors can arrive, the invasion of the Corrupted Cult suddenly occurs, throwing everyone in chaos."

"The funny thing is instead of taking advantage of the chaos to escape and run away, he locks himself inside his quarters as if he is trying to hide from some. Then later that day, we find him dead inside his room."

"Based on how clean the room is, it seems like a perfect assassination. Not a single trace is left behind. He dies before he can even put up a fight."

Hearing that, Shin could not help but remember the time when he first arrived in this church. In that ceremony, he sensed an intense bloodlust directed at him, seemingly hating him to the core.

Hanzo and the rest of the Elemental Spirits that he had that time also sensed it, but they could not pinpoint who it was. But based on what he could remember, it must be someone with similar strength as Archbishop Ronald.

Thinking about this, Shin could not help but feel a little troubled. Based on how the conversation was going, it seemed like he was going to be asked to investigate this incident or even figure out the identity of the assassin.

The problem was his gut feeling was telling him that it was someone that he might not be able to fight with his current strength, especially when that person was able to assassinate an Archbishop Rank NPC without the latter putting up any resistance.

Shin turned at Archbishop Ronald with a little nervousness while waiting for the latter to finally name his task.

He was also praying that it shouldn't be something impossible to accomplish with his current strength.

...…