Child of Destiny

...

Right after Shin returned to the Saint Heaven Kingdom and appeared at the Teleportation Hall of the Holy City, he immediately went back to standing at the teleportation circle and teleported to Calderock Town.

He would first drop by the Mayor's Residence and tell Ribbit to start the preparations and inform him about the adjustments to their plans.

The operation of the Calderock Town was the same as always. It was stable, but it no longer had any potential. Sooner or later, it would lose its current popularity and would be forgotten by everyone. They had to make sure that the relocation would be successful.

Ribbit was pouring everything he had into this project that they had and even recruiting more NPCs to be their soldiers and investing in training them. Shin even instructed to equip everyone with the best weapons that they could have according to their respective strengths.

Even though ten thousand soldiers were a lot, Shin knew that it was far from what they needed if he wanted to protect the Twin Cities that they were planning to build, much less the entirety of the Sky Deceiving Valley.

If they wanted to have everything under control, then they had to invest more in their military prowess so that they could maintain the security of their land.

However recruiting more NPCs would be challenging, so Shin and Ribbit planned to compensate for their lack of numbers with the quality of their soldiers.

This project had already been in motion since Ribbit had proposed the promotion of the town, so they had already made great progress. After visiting the military barracks stationed outside the town, Shin had saw that the training NPCs already reached a satisfactory level.

Each soldier was at least 175 Elite while the rest were slightly better. The Captains and the Knights that Ribbit had previously recruited also reached the rank of Commanders and had an average level of 180.

*(NPC Commanders were comparable to Lords at the current stage of the game).

It was just a little disappointing that the first batch of Named NPC soldiers that Shin had recruited when he was starting to build the town had died during an unfortunate incident. They had died during the invasion of the Corrupted Cult.

David had protected the Town during that time, but some assassins still had managed to sneak from the other side of the main battlefield, making these named NPCs face them and die in the process.

But their sacrifices were not for naught since their subordinates had shown tremendous growth after the incident.

Shin was not sure if it was a system setup, but he felt that when a named NPC with an important role died, their loyal subordinates grew a little faster than the normal pace and became much stronger.

It was similar to what happened to Dracula when he died. Those vampires that were under him had reached a much higher level after he died sacrificing himself for his kingdom.

Shin had seen Bellion reach a higher rank and almost reach the stage that Draco had reached during his peak. Even though the General of Dracula still hadn't reached the rank of Sovereign Being, he was still not too far from it.

Shin hoped that he would be able to find such a powerful General NPC when they relocated to the Sky Deceiving Valley. Even though he knew that it was just wishful thinking, he was still a little hopeful.

Shin was quite in a hurry since he still had a lot of things lined up, waiting to be dealt with. He had to complete everything as soon as possible. He felt a sudden urgency from what he had heard from Kentas.

The game was rapidly moving. Its state of affairs seemed to be heading in a certain direction, sweeping everyone with a strong force.

The sudden opening of the Major Regions of different races, the active movements of the Corrupted Cult and Demonic Churches, the sudden discovery of the Ascended and Enlightened Races, and the distress of the Righteous Churches – all of these seemed to be pointing to something.

And Shin could feel that it was both a disaster and an opportunity.

If they did not make haste, then they might be swept away and get swallowed by the wave, unable to fight back.

They had to be ready when that time came and ride the wave naturally as if they were the kings of the sea. They had to be in control instead of being led by it senselessly.

…

Unfortunately, not everything could go according to one's plans. At times, there were some unavoidable circumstances and certain variables that could affect the flow of everything.

And right now, Shin was about to face one.

Due to his taking proper action and a lot of preparations, the quest that he had somewhat forgotten due to the successive events that happened recently and the certain peace that Ribbit was currently experiencing had suddenly become 'active'.

 His plans and actions, especially when they were now at the most crucial stages, had triggered the final key to set the quest in motion.

The system now had judged that it was the right time to proceed with everything it had prepared for this quest.

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Quest Name: Ribbit's Ambitions - I

Quest Type: Hidden Supportive Quest

Quest Difficulty: Default

Quest Details:

 Ribbit felt indebted to you because you saved his life before. And due to that reason Ribbit, the merchant, wanted to return the favor and decided to manage the Calderock Village in your place. But when the puny village is suddenly promoted into a decent town, Ribbit suddenly feels that his worth will end, but you suddenly offer him the position of the Town's Manager.

Ribbit became moved and promised to make Calderock the most prestigious city in the Saint Heaven Kingdom.

Quest Condition:

Now that you have presented the topic, Ribbit wanted you to prepare some things to promote Calderock Town into a Basic City.

Quest Progress (205%):

-Town Relocation Order

-Master Class Blueprints of the following:

--Inn

--Restaurants

--Potion Shop

--Blacksmith Shop

--Battle Arena

-Form an official alliance with a Guild that has an over 500,000 Guild Reputation or Adventurer Team with the same reputation.

Quest Reward:

-Ribbit being promoted to Grand Merchant (Next Rank of Master)

+2 000 000 bonus City Reputation when the Calderock Village was successfully promoted into a Basic City

Quest Penalty (Ineffective unless Ribbit dies):

- (???)

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Shin was suddenly reminded of this quest when he arrived at the Mayor's Office and saw Ribbit in a terrible state. The NPC's face was completely pale, and his lips were somewhat dry and turning white.

Shin frowned deeply when he saw this and swept his gaze inside the office. It was at that moment that he saw two NPC guards standing inside, seemingly guarding Ribbit fully alert.

He then used 'True Sight' to look at the information of the two guards. He only glanced at it briefly, but he could not help but frown deeper when he saw that they were both level 180 Captain Rank NPCs.

Shin then realized the gravity of the situation, making him take this seriously.

Seeing that the Town's Mayor entered the office, Ribbit immediately stood up and greeted him along with the two NPC Guards.

"I am sorry, Mayor. As you can see, I am not in good condition, so I can't greet you on your arrival," said Ribbit apologetically.

"It is fine. It is not even a big deal," Shin shook his head before directly asking. "But what happened?"

Ribbit smiled bitterly before adding. "It is just a minor issue, Mayor. You don't have to worry too much about it. I can handle this."

Shin frowned even deeper when he heard that before saying. "I don't think that it is a minor issue."

Seeing that Shin was not pleased with his reply, Ribbit could only smile even more bitterly before reporting the entire matter.

…

As it turned out, Ribbit had almost been assassinated inside the Mayor's Office by an unknown assailant.

Fortunately, the guards patrolling at that time saw what happened and quickly saved him in time. They managed to prevent the disaster, but the assassin still managed to escape, making them uneasy. Due to this, the head of the NPC guards assigned these two guards, who were the best among the guards, to stay at the side of the city manager at all times and protect him.

Now that he thought about it, he also noticed that the NPC guards roaming the streets of Calderock Town seemed to be somewhat agitated.

At the same time, he also saw that the security of the Mayor's Residence was very tight, which was most likely the result of the previous assassination attempt.

Having a rough understanding of the situation, Shin could only nod his head before falling in a deep thought. – "Why was someone wanted to assassinate Ribbit?" –

It was at this moment that his eyes suddenly attracted to the bottommost part of the quest that he had gotten from Ribbit.

Quest Penalty (Ineffective unless Ribbit dies):

- (???)

Shin thought that it was nothing special at first, but as it turned out, it was not the case. This seemed to be much more serious than he thought it could be.

Moreover, he also noticed that the quest was not completed despite him collecting all the required items for the promotion of the Town. It was completely strange.

"Why is it not completed yet?" he muttered to himself while thinking deeply. It was until an idea flashed through his mind. "…-it is a series of quests?"

"No. It is a series of quests," he corrected himself as he gazed at the name of the quest. That 'I' was indicating that this was just the first part of the quest.

He just did not notice it immediately since he had neglected this particular quest up until now.

Right now, Shin only needed to trigger something to proceed to the next part of the quest. He then turned to Ribbit and asked the most crucial question. "Why does someone want you dead? And do you have any idea of who they are?"

"This-…" Ribbit paused for a moment, clearly showing that he was somewhat hesitant to answer.

This reaction alone was more than enough for Shin to have a rough idea of what was going on. He also realized that this Named NPC that he had 'picked' up before was not as ordinary as it seemed.

He then took a deep breath and suddenly added to his previous questions. "Ribbit-… Who exactly are you?"

Right after these words left his mouth, a system notification suddenly rang in his ears.

*Ding*

It was clear that the quest had been updated.

'I knew it!' he did not even turn to the notification as he had somewhat expected it. He just continued staring at Ribbit, waiting for the NPC to answer patiently.

"I-…" Ribbit hesitated for another time, not sure how and where to start. But after contemplating it for a moment, he gritted his teeth and steeled his resolve.

It was only at that moment that he was finally able to force a few words from his mouth. "…-I'm originally a part of a secret organization."

Hearing those words, Shin immediately understood a couple of things and quickly got a rough idea of the current situation. "So, the real reason why you want to work under him at that time is not because of gratitude, but it is because you want to lay low and hide from the eyes of your previous organization."

Hearing those words, Ribbit suddenly panicked. He felt that Shin would be disappointed because of this.

He even started to stutter as he tried to defend himself and prove that he was now loyal to Shin. "That-… that is-… only at first, Mayor. I-… I-…"

Seeing that Ribbit was panicking, Shin shook his head and smiled before saying. "I understand. You don't have to worry. I have seen your sincerity when working under me. You even take care of the Town during my absence."

"If you have any hidden agenda, then you have already pulled some strings now."

"I trust you, Ribbit," said Shin, making the NPC almost cry in gratitude.

But before Ribbit could even get on his knees and worship him, Shin quickly asked. "How about you tell me your story so that I can understand your situation?"

...…