Child of Destiny

...

Just like what Shin had suspected, he had encountered a few more spiritual knights as he explored the Phantom Island.

After encountering the Earth Phantasm earlier, Shin had received another set of notifications from the system, which informed him about the 'insights' that he had gotten from watching such an advanced elemental skill as well as the new evolutionary paths of the 'Legacy Skill: Regan's Method'.

At that time, Shin had gotten the final form called 'Final Judgement'.

He did not dwell too much on reading the description of the skill since he would not reach that path any time soon. At the very least, he would need to upgrade the legacy skill to level 5 before he could unlock that form just like the 'Frost Burial'.

Following the clues that he had, Shin went to explore the other places on the island.

Shin had already expected that this map would be huge, but he did not expect that it would be this huge. Aside from the previous two regions that he had seen, he had discovered five more regions when he was exploring.

The third region was a scorching desert filled with black sand. Or to be more precise, the sand was from powdered metal and ores.

Shin found this desert strange and thought that the black sand was real sand with a different color. But Astaroth suddenly told him that the sand was from powdered metal, which surprised him greatly.

He ventured into this desert while advancing with full caution. Despite knowing that he would most likely not encounter any danger along the way, Shin chose to put his guard up all the time.

This continued until he reached the center of the black desert.

There, he witnessed another battle. It was between another Spiritual Being wearing a set of full-body knight's armor. And this time, it was holding a banner on its left hand and a sword on its right.

Using his 'True Sight' Skill, Shin found out that the Spiritual Being was called Flame Ghost 'Su', the Wrath of the Forsaken Land.

After an intense battle against a huge monster with a body that seemed to have merged with the desert itself, this Spiritual Being suddenly stabbed the bottom of its banner on the ground while pointing its sword toward the sky.

Then Shin saw a rain of blazing fireballs. They filled the entire sky and dyed it red with their fiery light before descending toward the desert as if it were the end of the world.

When they got closer to the ground, Shin finally saw that they were actually huge meteors that bombarded the entire desert land.

In this encounter, Regan's Method created an evolutionary path with the final form called 'Meteor Shower'.

The next region where Shin arrived was a frozen mountain.

There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary when Shin first saw the mountain. In fact, he felt that it must be slightly taller than the forest filled with giant trees.

But when Shin set foot on it, he immediately realized that he was completely wrong. Not only this mountain was much more dangerous than the previous three regions, but it was also the one that could kill him without fighting.

The coldness of this frozen mountain was out of his Imagination. It almost turned him into an ice statue and froze him to death the moment he stepped on it.

Fortunately, he was fast enough to respond and used the power of the Brilliant Sun to protect himself. He melted the deadly ice and prevented himself from being frozen once again.

He then maintained a special state where his body was blazing intensely while keeping the Solar Breathing Technique active. With his current strength, he could maintain this state for an extended period of time while exploring the frozen mountain.

Following the pattern, Shin climbed the mountain and reached its peak in the fastest and most efficient way. He used the Nephilim's Wings and flew straight to the peak without pause.

When he reached the peak of the mountain, he was immediately greeted by yet another sight. Just like the previous encounters, he had met another scene where an armored Spiritual Being was fighting against a huge and powerful monster.

This time, the Spiritual Being was called Sword Wraith 'Zilar', the Keeper of the Sword Graveyard.

From the set of armor that it was wearing and the way that it fought, it was clear that it was a swordsman. And the swordsmanship that it was using seemed to be quite exquisite but possessed a very solid foundation.

Comparing it with the swordsmen that Shin had seen in the real world, this Sword Ghost should be a Swordmaster with the highest level of sword mastery. A swordsman, who controlled his own sword field and was a step below a Sword Saint.

An expert was comparable to the Domain Realm Martial Artist and Venerable Realm Mentalist.

Its opponent was a creature that seemed to be a plant-type monster. It had a snow-white trunk and branches that could stretch thousands of meters in length.

The monster whipped its branches at the Sword Wraith like crazy, covering all retreat paths and any possible maneuvering spaces. But despite that being the case, the latter was still able to not avoid all branches without a problem.

At the same time, the Sword Wraith was also swinging its sword occasionally to cut everything that would most likely catch it.

Looking closely at the battle, Shin quickly realized that the element that the Sword Wraith represented was the element of metal.

A few moments later, the Sword Wraith finally showed the ultimate skill that it was supposed to 'show' to Shin.

First, it jumped in the air while swinging its sword multiple times, sending a series of sword waves that cut and shredded the white branches that were trying to wrap themselves around it.

Then, the Sword Wraith suddenly pointed its sword toward the sky before shifting its grip into revers and swinging the sword down.

Then Shin saw the clouds in the sky suddenly parted and revealed a blinding light behind it. Following it was the appearance of the gigantic double-edged sword. It was descending rapidly with its tip crushing towards the peak of the frozen mountain.

Shin thought that he would die at that time, especially when a powerful explosion swept through him when the giant sword in the sky landed.

But when he opened his eyes and his vision came back, he found himself standing alone at the peak of the frozen mountain.

It took him quite some time before he was finally able to regain his composure and process everything inside his head.

Looking at the notification window, Shin saw that the evolution path that Regan's Method had created for Metal Element had the final form called 'Divine Punishment'.

Shin did not immediately climb down the frozen mountain after that. Instead, he walked toward the edge and looked at the horizon, appreciating the view before looking for his next destination.

The next place that he found was a lake. An ordinary-looking lake with a very calm surface.

This lake was near the frozen mountain, so Shin could easily reach it by gliding down from the peak of the mountain.

He first thought that there was nothing eventful to see in that lake. But right after reaching a certain altitude from the surface of the water, two explosions suddenly erupted right below him.

Bang! Bang!

The curtain of water slightly blocked his line of vision, but he could already see a pair of huge silhouettes behind it.

When everything settled down, Shin first saw a huge sea serpent with smooth and white scales. This sea serpent had sharp fins running on its back and a thick mane around its neck.

Turning his head toward the other side, Shin saw another serpent. But instead of a living creature, what he saw was a huge wooden construct.

Sitting calmly at the head of that wooden construct was another armored Spiritual Being with a pair of glowing green eyes.

Looking at it with his 'True Sight' Skill, Shin quickly got the name of the Spiritual Being. It was called Wood Spirit 'Zur', the Protector of the Divine Forest.

It did not take long for the staredown to end as the two huge monsters quickly entangled against each other and coiled their bodies to try crushing one another.

Shin watched in the air with his wings spread wide behind him.

After letting the sea serpent wrestle with the wooden construct that had the form of another serpent, the Wood Spirit finally made its move. It spread its arms wide and floated toward the sky while watching its construct be crushed by the opposing side.

It then put its hands together before forming a series of seals in quick succession.

A few moments later, the lake suddenly became chaotic as if something underneath was making its way up to the surface.

Then, at the very next instant, Shin saw a huge tree suddenly shot from the lake and headed straight to the sky. Its thick roots were as large as the body of the sea serpent while the branches were full of giant leaves that seemed to be able to cover the sky.

A moment later, the roots of the giant tree wrapped themselves in the body of the sea serpent, completely restraining it. Then the tip of the branches suddenly turned sharp before stabbing the poor serpent from every direction.

Every time the pointed branches pierced through the body of the sea serpent, the latter cried in pain and agony while its blood dyed the lake completely red.

Looking at the notification widow, Shin found another evolutionary path added to Regan's Method as expected. It was a Wood Elemental Evolutionary Path with the final form called 'Flora Emergence'.

The next two strange regions that Shin found were an erupting volcano and a huge river of flowing lava.

When Shin reached those two regions, he thought that he would have another strange encounter. But to his surprise, nothing happened when he passed through the two regions.

Aside from the raging lava flowing out of the mountain of the volcano and the blazing river, he found nothing but disappointment.

But when he put more thought into it, he realized that these Spiritual Beings were most likely representing the five elements of the world just like what his 'Perfected Four Symbol Scripture' had.

When he thought about this, he became even more determined to look for the secret laboratory of Regan. He felt that it would be the key for him to properly use his perfect mentalism inside the game.

Unfortunately, after properly exploring different regions and thoroughly combing through every place that he went through, he still could not find the place he was looking for.

This made him think that his guess might be wrong and that the secret laboratory might not be in this place.

But despite that thought crossing his mind, he still could not give it up. He was still stubbornly hoping that Regan's laboratory would be here.

He had spent two days (in-game time) looking for this laboratory and he did not know whether it really hidden in this place or not.

During his free time, when he was resting, he was also studying the evolutionary paths that the Legacy Skill, Regard's Method, had.

He was also experimenting with it to see if he could really use it to mimic the Mentalism Techniques that he had in the real world.

Surprisingly, he produced a positive result. The Regan's Method really helped him a lot when exploring the five elements, particularly the Fire, Earth, and Metal Elements. He was making huge progress with these three elements due to the special techniques that he was practicing complementing them.

Obviously, Fire Element was way ahead compared to the others since he already had awakened it in the real world and even had an advanced Mana that perfectly matched the Mentalism Method within the game.

"If only I can train the other elements within a special environment where I can awaken another-…" his words trailed in the air for a while as completed it. "…-elements."

A sudden thought flashed through his mind. And when it fully sank in his head, he could not help but slap his forehead for his slow-wittedness.

"Aren't I in a perfect place for that? It may not be as good as the rebirthing place of an Elemental Spirit, but they are still good enough nevertheless," he mumbled while shaking his head with a bitter smile.

He then stood up and stretched his waist. This time, he would explore the Phantom Island, but with a different purpose.

He would be staying in different regions a little longer and meditating.

...…