Child of Destiny

...

Shin felt a little excited after having his suspicion. If it turned out to be true, then he might be able to properly use the fighting style of the Elemental Clone in his promotion quest.

From what he had seen up until now, that style was centered around the two Legacy Skills that he had, Mondi's Style and Regan's Method. The in-game skills were used and fused together with the rest of the in-game skills from his arsenal.

Between the two Legacy Skills, Shin was more familiar with Mondi's Style since he had been utilizing the flexibility of this skill since he had gotten it despite the complexity that it had.

He had tried using Regan's Method before and took advantage of its multiple elemental attacks to confuse his opponents and catch them off guard. But it did not take long for him to realize that the skill was not fit for his overall fighting style. This was the reason why he had neglected it most of the time.

But after seeing how the Elemental Clone utilized it and even fused the skill with Mondi's Style, he realized that the potential of Regan's Method was much greater than what he had expected.

If he was thinking was right, and the secret laboratory of Regan was really on this island, then he might be reaping a lot of benefits in this place.

"Aside from the secret laboratory potentially being here, I also have to figure out the connection between the Winter Revenant and Regan," mumbled Shin with suspicion. "I know that it can be a coincidence, but I keep having a feeling that it is not the case."

"There must be a certain connection," he added before turning his head back in front.

He then saw that everything went back to the original state of the forest. The snowfield and ice pillars were no longer there, and the thick branches of the trees and their huge leaves above were covering what was beneath them once again.

He could no longer see the sky for another time due to them.

After collecting his thoughts and calming his mind, Shin continued exploring the island. He then picked a random direction, following his instincts, before moving ahead

…

Just like what happened previously, Shin spent quite a lot of time walking without encountering a single soul. Not even an insect was present to sing. There were no cicadas, crickets, or katydids to make the symphonic sound of the night.

It was eerily quiet. And this quietness could give a certain unease in the heart, making an individual tense and uncomfortable.

Adding the darkness of the night, Shin felt a confining feeling in his chest. There was a heavy and restricting feeling that was weighing on him, which also made him halt his advance.

He could not explain it, but he felt that his mindset and concentration were being affected by this eerily quiet atmosphere. It was at this moment that he realized that this Phantom Island was not as simple as it seemed to be.

He was starting to understand that his region was one of the high-level maps of the game despite not having any monsters around.

He was then reminded of one of the notifications that he had received earlier. It said that he would not be getting any Fame or Reputation Points for being the first person to discover this island due to certain circumstances.

Now that he thought about it, he felt that Kentas might have done something. However, Shin still thought that it did not necessarily mean that this eerie silence of the forest had anything do to with this NPC.

Crack!

While he was lost in his thoughts, he suddenly heard the sound of dry branches being shattered after being stepped upon.

Being in this place filled with nothing but an eerie silence, this little sound was like a clap of thunder exploding in the sky.

He quickly turned toward the source of the sound while putting up his guard. He stood in his spot for a second when he remembered something. In this forest, where the threes were as huge as skyscrapers and had branches as thick as the trunks of regular trees, something that could step on it and shatter such large branches with a step could only mean a single thing – the monster should be humongous and heavy.

Realizing that he might be putting himself in danger, Shin quickly activated one of his stealth skills and ran behind the nearby trees to hide. He also controlled his breathing as silently as possible and suppressed his presence as little as he could.

But after waiting for a few more minutes without anything happening, he could not help but frown deeply before peeking from behind the tree.

When he realized that there was nothing there, he was reminded of what happened earlier, when he encountered the Winter Revenant 'Edur.'

Thinking that the same thing might be happening, he quickly walked out from behind the three before deciding to head over to where the sound came from.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

He moved very fast, but he was able to minimize the sound as much as he could through special technique. He also made sure to keep his stealth skills active to avoid being seen by anyone.

After traveling for quite some time, he felt that there was something wrong. He had already covered quite a distance, yet he still had not seen the 'branch' that he had heard being shattered earlier.

And given the 'regular' size of this place, there should be some footprints left on the ground, but he still had not seen one.

While he was lost in his thoughts, a very loud explosion suddenly interrupted him.

Boom!

With how loud the explosion was, Shin was able to instantly pinpoint where it was coming from. Raising his head toward that direction, he quickly kicked the ground and headed straight to it.

Swoosh!

It took him quite some time before he arrived at his destination. To his surprise, he arrived edge of the forest where a barren land was waiting for him.

It was a land filled with dry and uneven ground. There were no trees nor any kind of plantations. There were a couple of dry branches and tree trunks scattered in different places, but most of them were buried and on the verge of being completely corroded.

Shin swept his gaze at this barren land for a couple of moments as he sensed the immediate change in the temperature.

If inside the forest was cold and chilly, then it was very hot in this barren land. The heat that was surrounding this place was more than enough for Shin to become uncomfortable. He even felt that it was comparable to the temperature within the volcano where Berlin had set up his personal workshop.

What was surprising was when Shin took a step back, entering the forest once again, the temperature instantly changed and suddenly became cold and chilly once again.

"Interesting," muttered Shin as he stepped between the forest and the barren land. He could feel that his body was submerged between the two opposing temperatures.

The sky was still dark, indicating that it was still night.

BOOM!

It was at this moment that another explosion could be heard. And this time, it was much louder than the previous one. It might be due to Shin being slightly closer to it than earlier.

Turning his head toward the direction where the explosion came from, Shin could not see anything despite activating his 'True Sight' Skill.

He frowned deeply in confusion. With how loud that explosion was, he was supposed to see at least a little commotion despite the darkness of the night or even if he was quite far from it.

He suppressed those thoughts before heading toward where the explosion came from.

Swoosh!

And when he arrived at the center of the earlier explosion, he was immediately greeted by another stunning sight.

Upfront, he saw a huge monster that seemed to be a hybrid between a turtle and a bear. Its body was as mighty and solid as a bear – broad shoulders, slim yet firm waist, powerful arms, and strong legs. On its back, there seemed to be a turtle shell that was able to block all attacks that were coming from behind.

Its size was as huge as the frost dragon that Shin and the others in their group had encountered during the Empire Quest.

And given the pressure that Shin was feeling from this monster, he could feel that it was at least not weaker than Draco or Lycan.

Using his 'True Sight' Skill, he could see that the monster was really quite powerful. It was a level 480 monster called the Great Land Dominator.

What was surprising was that someone seemed to be fighting against this monster alone.

Shin was not able to spot the opponent of the Land Dominator right away due to its speed. If not for his sensitive senses and sharp eyes, then he would not be able to see the moving silhouette circling around the huge monster.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The Land Dominator slammed its paws on the ground repeatedly, making the ground shake with each strike. The surrounding rock formations and dry hills collapsed due to the shockwave produced by each strike.

Fortunately, Shin was standing on the peak of a small mountain away from the battle, giving him a good vantage point, where he could see the entirety of the battle without being at any kind of risk.

Thick dusk and rock fragments flew in the air, blocking the line of vision of the monster. It moved its head left and right, seemingly looking for its prey.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Not long after, a pair of spinning objects suddenly flew out of the thick dust from below. It hit the chin of the Land Dominator, pushing its head to bounce up and stumble back.

Bang!

Swoosh! Swoosh!

While the Land Dominator was trying to regain its footing, the pair of objects flew back down and cleared the cloud of dust on their path.

It was at that moment that Shin finally saw who was fighting this humongous monster.

Just like before, it seemed to be an armored knight. However, instead of being a slim knight, this one had a larger and rounder physique. If it was not a spiritual being under that armor, then Shin would think that it was a fat person.

Setting that aside, Shin observed the humanoid monster. The set of armor that it was wearing seemed to be made of rare ores instead of metallic materials. It did not give any kind of metallic luster but had an earthen and rough texture instead.

Just like the Winter Revenant, Shin could see some light leaking out from the gaps of the armor, clearly indicating that this was another spiritual being. But this time, this humanoid monster was wearing a helmet that was covering its entire head and hiding its face.

Looking a little closer, Shin could see that its head had a pair of horns that looked like the antlers of a fully grown deer. But these horns were made of Mana instead of any physical materials.

Then Shin's eyes were attracted to the pair of axes on the hands of this humanoid monster. It was at that moment that he realized what were the spinning objects that hit the chin of the Land Dominator earlier.

Activating his ocular skills to inspect this monster, the information panel was presented in front of Shin once again.

------------------

Monster Name: Earth Phantasm 'Lur'

Title: Guardian of the Barren Land

Monster Type: Humanoid Monster

Race: Spiritual Being

Bloodline: Monarch

Monster Rank: Emperor (World Boss)

Level: 450

Hit Points: ???

Details: ???

------------------

After Shin confirmed his suspicion, he quickly fixed his gaze on the Earth Phantasm as he knew that this situation would be similar to what happened with the Winter Revenant earlier.

At that moment, he saw the Earth Phantasm put its axes together. Or to be more precise, it combined the huge blades of the axes together and formed a large shield.

Raising that shield, the Earth Phantasm blocked the incoming strike from the Land Dominator.

Bang!

The ground shook as the two sides collided.

Then something unexpected happened.

The Land Dominator was suddenly thrown in the air right after the collision. Its huge body was thrown high up in the sky by a repulsive force that came from the ground. It seemed like gravity had gone reverse and sent it upward instead of pulling it down.

The gigantic Land Dominator paused in the air momentarily when it reached the apex before started falling toward the ground.

Then Shin saw the Earth Phantasm slam the bottom of its shield toward the ground before expanding its chest and shouting toward the sky.

Roar!

Accompanying its roar, the ground suddenly shook violently as if an earthquake at the highest intensity assaulted it.

Then Shin saw huge spears made of dense earth elemental mana sprouting out from the ground and shot toward the sky like modern rockets.

During the flight, they gathered around and fused with one another, forming a much larger spear. Then this gigantic spear spun with great speed, drilling in the air and forming a raging spiral storm.

The gigantic spear flew straight to the sky while piecing the humongous body of the Great Land Dominator, dragging it toward a higher altitude.

The huge monster roared at the top of its lungs, trying to fight back, but its power collapsed in front of the mighty spear while its body was shredded into pieces.

Watching the scene with full attention while also activating the 'Duplicator's Eyes' in the process, Shin heard the familiar notification sound of the system.

*Ding*

...