Child of Destiny

...

Later that night, Shin did not go to bed and instead got inside his gaming cabin. The scheduled maintenance of the game had already ended last night, so it was reopened once again.

Shin knew that the gaming company was doing this random and scheduled maintenance every month or week to make sure that the players would not suffer from VRD (Virtual Reality Disorder), where they confused the game with reality.

The consequences of this mental disorder were heavy since it could even cause someone to commit serious crimes. Theft was one of the mildest among cases, but it could become more serious such as assault. Worse, it could even lead to murder.

This was the reason why the gaming company implemented this rule of having such maintenance aside from the huge updates and required patches.

This was what he thought at first. But after learning from Professor Henry, Shin felt that there was something more to it. It was as if there were other reasons for the gaming company to implement these maintenances. It was for them to check the system or to look for something.

Shin was not sure what it was, but he could at least tell that it might be something important that even some organizations in the real world were involved.

He knew that that game had some connections with reality, but he still had not discovered what it was since it was being hidden from them.

Reaching the Peak of the Grandmaster Realm was the bare minimum for Mentalist while breaking through the Ethereal Opening Stage for Martial Artists.

"I have to reach those realms if I want to get involved, huh?" mumbled Shin as he lay inside the gaming cabin and closed its door.

"It is not that far now," he continued to murmur while adjusting himself.

He could already see the path in front of him and what was left right now was to walk through it and reach the end. He now had a clear path in front of him, so there was no need to blindly look in the dark.

He would reach those realms and uncover the secrets that the game was hiding.

Sigh~!

Taking a deep breath and adjusting his mind, Shin closed his eyes and said. "Initiate Game Login!"

Swoosh!

[Establishing Virtual Connection]

…

[Initiating Virtual Login]

…

…

[Retrieving In-game Data]

…

…

…

*Ding*

"Welcome Back, Player Sickarius!"

...

Swoosh!

When Shin was back in the game, he appeared at the strange ancient ruins where he met Kentas for his Tier 3 Class Promotion Quest.

Looking around, he saw nothing but darkness and a ruined place. The sky was clear and full of stars, creating a stunning and amazing scene.

Shin stared at the sky for a couple of moments before lowering his head and casting his gaze in the distance.

Looking at the darkness, he could feel that there were things hidden behind it. This was a strange and isolated map within the Atlas World. Even though he knew that he was still within the main world, he could still feel that he was in a place that was not part of the main continent.

Or at least an isolated map that was forgotten by the rest of the world just like the Forgotten Kingdom.

Shin was confused about this since he still could not find which part of the Atlas World this place was. He also did not get any notification that was informing him that he had stepped upon a special region or something similar; not even a notification that said that he was the first player who discovered this place.

Confused, he could not explore the place and look for answers.

He was not in a hurry to finish his promotion quest since he knew better than anyone that he was still not strong enough to clear it – at least not in his current state.

If he wanted to clear it, then he must conquer more elements and unlock his full potential within the game. Or at least gain absolute control over three elements – the Fire, Metal, and Earth Elements.

He already had a way to awaken the other two elements. After all, Astaroth was a master of this element. As long as he got some access in the rebirthing place of the said Elemental Spirit, then he would be fine.

He could study the elements in that place without worrying about time and resources. The moment he set foot in that place, then he was confident that he would be able to awaken the said elements.

Then the awakening of his innate attributes would follow.

Right now, what Shin had to do was to focus on training the two special techniques that Professor Herny had given him, the 'Golden Immortality Technique' and the 'Great Dominator Technique'.

If he managed to reach the same level of mastery as his Solar Breathing Technique with these two, then he would be able to establish the ideal balance that he was looking for.

And when it happened, he would gain the confidence to win against those clones inside the Trail Grounds.

For now, he had to find a good sparring partner that he could use to practice his techniques. He believed that there must be some monster around here that would fit his criteria.

He originally wanted to go back to where he came from and look for materials that he needed to create the 'dimension key or token' that Hanzo was talking about before asking Berlin to make it for him.

But given that this place might be something special, he refused to go back for the time being and investigated the place first.

Walking around the ruins, he found that this place was huge. The ruins alone were as large as the Holy City.

This gave Shin an idea that this place must be a city before it became like this.

When he reached its borders, he finally saw how tall the trees surrounding the ruins were. He first thought that it might be ordinary trees similar to the ones that he could find anywhere on the First Continent, but he immediately realized that he was wrong when he was standing in front of them.

Each three was as stall as skyscrapers that he could see in the real world, dwarfing anything that stood next to it. Their trunks were so large and wide that even if three huge buses lined up together, they would only be barely enough to cover the distance; that was one of the sides of the tree alone and not its entire circumference.

"D*mn! They are so huge! Don't tell me there are giants living in this place," mumbled Shin as he stared at the tree in front of him. He could not believe that such a tree existed, and there was an entire forest of them.

It was until now that he realized that this rune could not even reach the standard of being a city in this place. It might only be a manor or something.

After observing the three for a moment, Shin detoured around him and entered the gigantic forest. Then he realized that this place might really be related to giants or at least gigantic creatures.

Not only the trees were huge, but it was also the same for the bushes and other plants.

After walking for an unknown time, Shin found that there was something strange. He had been walking for a couple of hours from his estimate, but he still had not encountered any living being or undead monster around. Even an insect was not present.

Moreover, the forest was very quiet. It was eerie quiet that it was no longer normal anymore.

Based on his previous experiences, this kind of silence could only mean two things.

First, there was an overwhelmingly strong monster residing in this place, which was why no creatures dared to step on it. If it was the territory of such a powerful being, then it explained why he did not encounter any monster along the way.

The second case was because of an unknown phenomenon. There must be a disease, epidemic, or mysterious phenomenon happening in this place. It could cause any living creature that steps in it to die or sort. But if that was the case, then it would be strange that Shin did not encounter any remains along the way.

Given the current circumstances, Shin was leaning more toward the first case. There must be a powerful monster or mysterious creature living in this place.

Having that thought in mind, Shin put up his guard more and sharpened his senses. If there was really a monster with such strength, then he must be very careful when advancing forward.

This situation lasted for a few more hours without the slightest bit of chance, which made Shin suspicious and more cautious.

Looking back, he had already traveled quite a distance, yet he had not met a single soul along the way.

"Am I wrong? Maybe this is just a special region where nothing could live or something like that?" Shin started to doubt his first theories and thought deeply.

But he later shook his head and rejected the idea. He was still not convinced about it and believed that there must be a reason why the place was so devoid and quiet.

Swoosh!

Then something happened!

While he was deep in his thoughts, a powerful aura suddenly swept through the entire forest and went past his body.

Shin shivered as he could feel that the aura that passed through him was similar to the Divine Sense that only top experts in the real world could do – at least Martial Artists in the Domain Realm or Mentalists in the Exalted Realm.

Shin quickly put his guard up and turned toward the direction where the sweeping aura came from. He was afraid that he would be detected by the other party through it.

But after standing on his spot for a few more minutes without anything happening, he started to doubt himself and thought that it might be his Imagination.

But after some consideration, he decided to investigate it and see if it was really nothing. He started walking toward the direction that he suspected to be the source of the aura.

Not long after, he suddenly saw something that sent shivers down his spine.

His body shook as he was completely taken aback. Then his mind won over the instincts that telling him not to move. He forced his body to move and hide behind the nearby tree.

"What was that?" he mumbled to himself as he started sweating bullets. He was grasping and leaning on the tree while recalling what he had seen.

But after he could not recall what it was, he decided to take another look. He then calmed himself and relaxed his body before swallowing hard and bracing himself.

He slowly turned around and peeked from the side of the three.

Then he saw it!

There were a bunch of black-feathered birds, which looked like a hybrid of a crow and a vulture, pecking at the huge corpse of an unknown creature.

Due to how deformed and scattered the innards of the dead creature, Shin could not tell what exactly it was. But from what he could see, it must be some sort of furred creature like a bear or something similar.

He was taken aback earlier due to how gruesome the sight was. Moreover, the skull of the dead creature, which was half-finished from being eaten, was facing his direction, so it made him think that it was looking straight at him.

After observing the humongous birds feast on the corpse of the unknown monster, Shin activated his ocular skill, the 'True Sight', to peek at the basic information that they had.

Then he could not help but swallow hard once again when he saw the level of these birds.

All of them were at least level 300!

He could only curse under his breath after realizing that this place was really not something he could explore with his current strength.

He then turned around and planned to go back to where he came from.

But right after he did, he was immediately greeted by something that he did not expect.

...…