Child of Destiny



...…

"So, you want me to look for this case that even the Inquisitors of the Church are having trouble with?" asked Shin, going straight to the point.

The archbishop smiled and said. "You still have that temper of yours. It is still the same as the first that we have met."

The old archbishop paused and inclined his head to the side. "Or has it gotten worse?"

Shin gave the archbishop an apologetic smile before replying. "Ah! I am sorry about that, your eminence. Please excuse my rude behavior. But can we cut the case and tell me what my task is? As you can see, we, Otherworldly Individuals, are preparing to head to the Awakened Continent, so I don't have much time."

Archbishop Ronald suddenly laughed when he heard those words as he recalled something. "Ah! Right! I also heard about that. It is also because of that reason that we are currently in a hurry to solve this case since I need to focus more on the issues on that side."

"I may not have the time to focus on this vessel for the time being," he added with a quiet voice that only he could hear.

Shin knew that that the archbishop said a few more words but he could not hear it since the latter suppressed his voice pretty well. Even with Shin's current senses, he still could not pick up to those even if he tried his best.

Then the old archbishop continued. "But you are right. I want to investigate this case but without any knowledge of the church. You have to tell anyone about your discovery other than myself."

Shin was suddenly confused when he heard those words. He was about to open his mouth and voice out his confusion when Archbishop Ronald continued. "There are a lot of people eyeing this case. It grew much larger than we have expected, and it even reached the ears of the Pope of our church in the Divine Empire."

"He wants me to handle this case with utmost care since he also discovers some anomalies within the Council of Righteous Churches. The Pope suspects that this case may be related to what he discovers."

He paused for a moment and picked up another stack of papers before handing it over to Shin. "The problem is we can't be sure who to trust within the church at the moment, especially when everyone is suspecting anyone."

"The Pope is afraid that this may cause the downfall of our religion and may even affect the other churches when it suddenly spirals out of control."

"The Pope is suspecting that this may be a scheme of the Corrupted Cult or the Demonic Churches to break the alliance of the Righteous Churches."

While listening, Shin curiously looked at the papers handed to him and skimmed through them. From what he could get from them, it seemed like these were the investigation reports of the Inquisitors who were on the case.

Then, when his eyes landed on a certain part of the paper, his mind seemed to go blank. It was because he could not believe what he was reading.

It was at that moment that he heard the next words of the archbishop. "From what we have gathered so far, all the evidence is pointing to a certain organization under the Demonic Churches."

"During the previous invasion of the Corrupted Cult, it seems like the Demonic Churches send some of their people with the rank of 'Demonic Messengers' to sneak into the kingdom."

"We don't know if the two work together but we are sure that these Messengers infiltrated our ranks and assassinated the traitorous archbishop of our church."

Pausing for another moment, Archbishop Ronald cleared his throat for a moment before explaining. "We have paid a huge price just to invite a famous and powerful Time Mage, also known as a Chronomancer, from the Divine Empire to peek at the events that happen during the time the assassination is conducted."

"That is when we confirmed that the assassin is from the Demonic Church. And based on what we have seen, this person seemed to be using a special tool that can disrupt the power of such a strong mage from peeking into the past."

"We are expecting that it is a powerful individual – a much more powerful person than an Archbishop of our church. But to our surprise, the Chronomancer tells us that the culprit is an Otherworldly Individual."

Hearing the confirmation, Shin was suddenly struck dumb. His mind was only circulating around a certain thought – "A player killed an NPC as powerful as Archbishop Ronald, who possesses an unreachable strength even for someone on Shin's level." –

Shin did not know if there were some underhand tricks involved. But regardless of what happened, or the reason, a player still managed to assassinate such a strong NPC. Even Shin himself was not confident with that.

He could not imagine that there was someone out there who could achieve such an impossible feat.

Archbishop Ronald did not know what was running inside Shin's head, so he continued. "This is why we are asking you to deal with this case. It is an Otherworldly Individual such as yourself, so we are sure that you are more familiar with them."

"Moreover, you are the only Otherworldly Individual that we can fully trust, so we are entrusting this case to you."

"And as an Envoy of our Church, it is only natural for you to take care of this matter, am I right?" repeated the archbishop while giving Shin a mysterious smile.

While Shin was contemplating what to say, he suddenly heard the following words of Archbishop Ronald. "You don't have to worry. We have already figured out their whereabouts. They are still in the kingdom since they are banned from using the teleportation halls of any city or town."

"At most, they will travel by foot to cross the borders, which will take quite a long time," he paused for a moment before taking out an item that looked like a compass and continuing. "Here, take this compass with you. It will point you to the location of those people, particularly the one who infiltrated the church and assassinated my fellow archbishop."

"Normally, I want to personally hunt them down or at least send my own people. Unfortunately, there are too many eyes watching the church right now."

"From what we have learned, it seems like they are targeting me next since I have full control over all the branches within the Saint Heaven Kingdom. And if I suddenly die, everything will be thrown into chaos once again."

"We don't like that to happen since the kingdom just recovered not too long ago. We can't afford to suffer another setback."

"I don't care if this body dies since we can always send a replacement. But it will take quite some time before it arrives, and a lot of things can happen during my absence, so it will be better to send someone that we can trust and who can also understand the culprits that we are chasing."

"There is no better candidate than you, so you don't have much of a choice."

"Deal with this matter as soon as possible if you are in a hurry. Once you are done, then I can let you undergo your next awakening," he added before resting his back on the chair.

Even though there were some parts that he found weird from the words of the archbishop, Shin could not correctly comprehend them since it was a lot to take in. There were a few strange parts, but he could not dwell too much on them since the notification from the system finally arrived.

*Ding*

System: Religion Quest has been triggered!

System: Hidden Reputation Quest has been triggered!

*Ding*

System: Two connected quests were triggered at the same time, initiating quest merging!

System: Personal Class Quest has been triggered!

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[Quest Name]: Assassination's Culprit

[Quest Type]: Investigation and Pursuit Quest

[Quest Difficulty]: SSS (Hell)

Description:

  The Church of the Sun and Moon found out that there was a traitor within the ranks. But before they could even capture them, they suddenly died.

Upon investigation, the church discovered that it was the work of the Demonic Churches to cut off their tail before they were captured.

As a response, the Messenger sent by the Demonic Churches was marked by the church through a curse. They would not be able to hide for at least an entire week (in-game time) before the mark was dispelled.

[Quest Condition]:

Chase after the culprit and capture them before they can even dispel the mark and escape.

[Quest Reward]:

- Qualification to take the Tier 3 Promotion Class for Nephilim's Race.

- Racial- and class-specific equipment for Nephilim. – [Daydreamer' Mantle]

- Special Recommendation Letter for the 'Inquisitor' and 'Templar' Class Promotion Quests (2)

- Recommendation Letter for the entry to the Awakened Continent (20)

[Quest Failure Penalty]:

- Losing your qualification to take your Tier 3 Promotion Class for 3 months (in-game time)

- Death of Archbishop Ronald (1)

- Huge decrease of your reputation within the Church of the Sun and Moon

- Being sent to Prison Island for 3 months (in-game time)

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Shin was somewhat upset since he had to do such an errand first before he could take on his Tier 3 Promotion Quest. This was no different from having a 'Proof of Qualification' before he could try taking the quest.

However, he could only blame himself for that since he had been overlooking his duties within the church for such a long time. He reaped what he sowed.

Shin skimmed through the quest details before having a look of interest.

He could overlook the basic quest information since he had already heard most of it, if not more, from Archbishop Ronald himself. What made him interested in it were the rewards and penalties.

This quest's rewards and penalties were very specific compared to the ones that he had before. Even the equipment that he would be receiving was indicated in it. However, he could not read its details.

There were also recommendation letters. The first one was obviously a 'Proof of Qualification' meant for a Tier 3 Class Promotion.

It was similar to the ones that they had gotten from the Empire Quest that they did recently, but the forms were just a little different. One was in the form of a marble with miniature sculptures inside while the other was in the form of a letter.

One was already good enough, but having two was obviously better. Even though he did not have much use for them, he could at least give them to his friends or even sell them for a good price. After all, their average price from the market was still skyrocketing up until now.

The second recommendation letter seemed to be a free entry to the Awakened Continent or at least a ticket to head over to that place after being promoted to Tier 3 Class.

From the information that the game company had released, it seemed like the players needed to meet a few prerequisites before they could enter the Awakened Continent, and reaching Tier 3 of the respective classes was just one of them.

This letter seemed to be used to bypass one or two of them if he was not wrong.

As for the penalties, there was only a single thing that Shin was interested in.

The thing about the so-called Prison Island sounded somewhat intriguing, but it was not enough to make him fully interested in it. From what he could guess, it might be similar to the one that he and the rest of his class went to during their entrance examination.

It was just a huge prison.

What really piqued his interest was the phrase regarding Archbishop Ronald. He could guess that the old man would die as well as the cause of death once he failed this mission.

The thing that puzzled him about that was the numerical number (1) beside it. He was not sure what it meant but he could at least make some guesses. But since he did not have any proof for it, he could not come up with the correct answer.

He could only look at the old archbishop with an inquiring look. Unfortunately, the latter ignored his gaze and closed his eyes.

Seeing that, Shin could only shrug his shoulders before turning picking up the things that he needed before turning around to leave.

...…