Child of Destiny

...

Atlas World, Phantom Island.

Shin was currently sitting cross-legged in the middle of the black desert, meditating. He was practicing the special breathing techniques that Professor Henry had given him, particularly the 'Golden Immortality Technique' while studying the properties of the Mental Element.

He might not be successful at creating a higher form of Mana despite spending great effort and a lot of time in studying the elements, but he still had made some great progress.

His mastery over the 'Golden Immortality Technique' had reached a satisfactory level even though it was still not enough for the standards that Professor Henry had sent. At the very least, he would not have to encounter any problems when using the technique and able to use it properly.

This was not all as he also went to the peak of the frozen mountain whenever he was done with meditation. After studying the element, he would head there to practice his swordsmanship in both Martial Arts and Mentalism. However, he was focusing more on the swordsmanship that concerned the latter.

Both the quick-draw techniques and thirteen sword movements under the Jade Kirin Scripture were advancing in great degree along with the other sword techniques that Grandmaster Benn and Shin had created for the Four Symbol Scripture.

With the cold environment at the peak of the frozen mountain, Shin seemed to be able to polish his swordsmanship to a great degree, especially when he was reminded of the scene of the Sword Wraith displaying such amazing swordsmanship against that huge white plant creature.

Out of all the strange regions within the island, Shin neglected the volcano and lava river since his familiarity with the Fire Element was already at the level that he wanted.

As for why he picked the black desert and the frozen mountain, it was already obvious. The former was for understanding the element of metal while the former was for wanting to experience the same atmosphere as that Sword Wraith and get inspiration for his swordsmanship.

Everything was going according to the plan, but Shin still felt that there was something missing. While trying to figure out what was the missing piece this time around, he suddenly turned to his skill panel and looked at the Legacy Skill Section.

Starting at the 'Regan's Method' Legacy Skill, Shin could not shake off the feeling that he must explore the Phantom Island thoroughly just to be sure that the secret laboratory was not in this place.

But given the fact those Spiritual Beings appeared in this place, and they somehow affected the evolution path of his legacy skill, Shin felt that there must be some connection between the two.

That was what he believed at the very least, especially that Kentas had chosen to be in this place.

While he was thinking about it, his eyes were suddenly attracted to the virtual map that he had drawn earlier during his initial exploration. It was a pretty detailed map of the regions that he had already visited within the Phantom Island.

The traveling paths that he had taken, which also connected each region were drawn in a skillful manner, signifying how skilled he was when it came to this matter. His training with the Springfield Family and his talent in arts clearly reflected in this virtual map.

But that was not the reason why he was staring intensely at the map. It was because, upon closer inspection, he had noticed something that he had overlooked earlier.

He had yet to fully explore the entire Phantom Island, but he had already visited quite a lot of places on it, particularly the six strange regions that he had seen.

When he looked at the positions of the strange regions, he noticed that they seemed to be forming a strange diagram once they were connected to each other.

Shin quickly noticed that he was currently staring at an incomplete diagram once he connected the strange regions with one another. There seemed to be a couple of missing parts that needed to be filled in to get the complete diagram.

Seeing that Shin quickly decided to visit the places he suspected to be part of the diagram. If his guess was right, then in those places lay another strange region that was waiting to be discovered.

Shin did not immediately head over to those unexplored regions as he thought about something. Instead, he sat on the ground and opened a virtual screen before opening a file that Professor Henry had sent him earlier.

It was a file that contained the ancient knowledge and religious teachings of the past.

After learning the secret about the Four Symbol Scriptures, Shin became interested in these topics so that he could have in-depth knowledge about them. He needed to learn more about these ancient teachings to understand more about the Mentalism Path that he was taking.

When he opened the file, Shin went straight to one of the folders which was named the Elemental Cycle.

This folder contained the different cycles of the elements, particularly the two major cycles of Creation and Destruction.

There, Shin first read through the Creation Cycle.

"Wood feeds fire, fire creates earth, earth bears metal, metal collects water, water nourishes wood."

Reading through this, Shin seemed to have become more enlightened. He thoroughly read through everything before proceeding to the Destruction Cycle.

"Wood parts earth, earth absorbs water, water extinguishes fire, fire melts metal, metal chops wood."

Shin quickly fell into deep thought after reading the details of the two cycles. Then he was quickly reminded of the strange encounters that he had recently.

But he quickly became puzzled after comparing them with one another.

Aside from his encounters in the black desert filled with iron sand where he met Flame Ghost 'Su' and the Iron Sand Demon, and the one in the frozen mountain where Sword Wraith 'Zilar' cut the White Tree Demon, the rest of the encounters were not related to these cycles of elements.

The encounter with the Flame Ghost represented the 'fire melts metal' while the one with the Sword Wraith stood for 'metal chops wood'.

As for the rest, they all seemed to become a lot stranger, the more he thought about them.

It was at this moment when Shin realized something. "There must be more encounters waiting for me around this island. What I have seen up until now is merely a glimpse of the whole picture. I am still missing the pieces that will connect them with one another."

Shin became more confident about his findings and decided to investigate further.

But before he could make his move, he suddenly thought of another important matter. He could not spend all his time finding these 'encounters' as he still needed to study more about his elements.

Aside from that, he also needed to find Berlin and ask the Saint Blacksmith a favor for making him the dimensional key that would lead him to the independent world where the rebirthing places of his Elemental Spirits were located.

Of course, he could also ask Kentas about it since that guy was the one who first sent him to that place during his Second Awakening. Unfortunately, that NPC had already disappeared somewhere and was nowhere to be found, so he could only think of a temporary solution.

If Shin was able to explore the entire island and found a teleportation gate somewhere that he could use, then he would be able to find this place again in the future since his log would record the coordinates of this place.

The other matter was about his Tier 3 Promotion Quest.

Even though he was confident that the other players were still having a hard time trying to clear their respective portion quest, Shin was still not sure if the other top Godlike Players would not be able to clear theirs.

He did not know about their circumstances, but he was sure that they were also making progress no matter how big or small it was.

Feeling the pressure of time, Shin decided to give himself a deadline. If he still had not found the places that he was looker for or at least uncovered the secret of this place within the next week (in-game time), then he would leave straightaway and deal with the other matters instead.

He just hoped that he would be able to come back here again in the future after he left.

*********

While Shin and the rest of the Empyrean Talons were busy with their respective quests and other business, the pair of Owen and Ithilien went back to their home kingdom to clear their unfinished quest there.

Before Owen and Ithilien had decided to join Shin in the creation of the Empyrean Talons, the two had mentioned that there were some enemies that they had to deal with, and those enemies were quite powerful.

Owen even told Shin that they would need their help in the future when they needed to face their old friends who betrayed them.

But after interacting with the rest of the Empyrean Talons and doing adventures with them, the two had grown much stronger and became more confident in themselves. Due to that, Owen did not mention their problems with Shin again as he felt that they would be able to deal with it by themselves with their current strength.

This was why Owen had never mentioned that matter again to Shin. Moreover, they also did not want the others to be distracted by this, especially when everyone was busy with their respective problems and focusing on their promotion quests.

When they were back at the Sacred Light Kingdom, a neutral kingdom at the center of the boundless forest, Owen and Ithilien felt a little nostalgic. This was the very kingdom that they were situated in when they first entered the game.

Of course, they had already traveled quite a lot of places and went through quite a number of kingdoms due to the nature of Ithilien's race and class.

Her rase was a White Elf but she had unlocked the hidden talents of the race that could let her evolve even further.

She also built quite a solid connection with the noble elves which was why she was regularly traveling between kingdoms under the rule of the Elven Race; she was some sort of a messenger of the Elven Nobles between different kingdoms. This was also how they had encountered Shin and Charlotte in the Elven Kingdom.

The pair arrived at Whitestone City, one of the capital cities within the Sacred Light Kingdom.

Owen looked around the plaza right after stepping out of the teleportation hall. "It has been a while since we last visited this place. A lot of things have a chance."

Just like the transformation of the Holy City when it was successfully promoted into a Capital City, the current Whitestone City has advanced greatly.

Its progress was not inferior to the former, however, the technology in this city was slightly different from the Holy City.

Since this place was heavily influenced by elves despite being a neutral land, the technology that they were using was from the elves, which centered around nature and elemental magic.

They did not have any mechanical carriages for transport, but instead, they used levitating boats made of special woods and other plant-type materials. These were the types of 'vehicles' filling the roads of the city.

The buildings were also not made of concrete or metals but made of wooden materials. Some were even made from tough leaves and vines patched up together.

There were also some houses built on tall and huge trees, which gave the city a primitive and ancient feeling.

After observing the city, Owen turned back to Ithilien to his side and smiled. "Let's go. Let's get this over with and leave as soon as possible. We can't let ourselves get entangled with those 'friends' of yours."

Hearing that, Ithilien glared at Owen sharply. "Don't make things complicated. We don't want to attract the attention of the Powerhouse Guild that they have joined."

Owen suddenly clicked his tongue when he heard that. "Those traitors. Siding with those strangers just to gain some favor from the 'powerful' people."

He then shook his head before a dangerous glint suddenly flashed in his eyes. "I will show them who they have provoked."

Ithilien smiled bitterly as she saw him getting angry at her. She then patted his shoulder. "Let's go. I need to clear this overdue quest before moving to the next task that we have."

...…