Child of Destiny

...

The next day, Shin and the others did their usual routine as nothing special happened. And after doing their morning exercise and eating their breakfast, Arthur persistently urged Shin to log in back in the game so that they could finally start his quest.

Since Shin didn't have anything to do for today, he decided to agree with him and went back to the game. He also couldn't refuse Arthur when the guy offered him some Meteorite that he was looking for.

But before proceeding to do Arthur's quest, Shin went to the Hand of Midas Trading Firm first to take care of the other things that he kept on delaying up until now.

First, he went to his mail to get the Meteorites that Arthur had sent him before heading to the Hand of Midas Trading Firm to finally take care of the things that he kept on delaying up until now. And in there, he first met Black Hammer to ask the blacksmith to finally upgrade his equipment.

Shin handed over all of the equipment set that he got as a reward for winning the Shadow Ranking Cup alongside the other rewards that he got from the quests that he had done so far. He also gave all of the materials that he could give from his inventory space.

Seeing all of the equipment and materials in front of him, Black Hammer couldn't help but stare blankly at Shin, especially that all of them were in the highest quality that they could be.

"This should be enough to complete my [Apocalypse Equipment Set] and main weapon, am I right?" said Shin while crossing his arms in front of him.

Hearing that, Black Hammer shifted his gaze between Shin and the other small mountain of materials and equipment in front of him before slightly nodding his head. "These things are more than enough. Way more than enough! I can even upgrade the entire set into the peak of Mithril Rank which is comparable to the Equipment Set that young master Arthur is wearing."

He then paused for a moment and looked at Shin's current equipment set which was the [Dusk and Dawn Equipment Set] before adding. "In fact, I can also upgrade that set of yours too."

"It may be a little inferior to the upgraded version of the [Apocalypse Equipment Set], but it should be at least in the lower class of the Mithril Rank," he clarified.

"Is that so? Then take them too!" said Shin as he unequipped his current equipment and handed them over to Black Hammer without showing any hint of hesitation.

Seeing that, the blacksmith slightly nodded his head while accepting the equipment set and staring blankly at Shin who was now wearing a set of beginner's clothes.

While Black Hammer was busy collecting everything to his own inventory, Shin suddenly remembered something and suddenly asked. "How long is it going to take?"

The blacksmith thought for a few moments before quickly replying. "It will take a whole day at the very least, of course, it is in-game time."

"Is that so?" muttered Shin to himself before falling in deep thought and asking. "Can I watch you reforge them? I'm quite interested in forging right now, so I am hoping to learn a thing or two from the best Blacksmith of the game."

Black Hammer was slightly taken aback by those words and stared at Shin with a blank face before nodding his head unconsciously.

In the meantime, Shin couldn't help but have a triumph pose inside his head the moment he heard that Black Hammer agreed to him.

Given that, Shin informed Arthur that he needed to take care of a few things first before they could start working on the latter's quests.

Even though Arthur was quite disappointed with that, he couldn't do anything about it, especially when he heard that Shin asked Black Hammer to upgrade his equipment.

After all, he was completely aware that this brother of his was going to be more threatening for most of the high-ranking experts of the game once his equipment got upgraded to the highest quality possible.

Even Arthur couldn't help but feel a little excited for Shin once the guy officially caught up with him and Leonard, and stood on the peak of the gaming world alongside them.

"Catching up on us in both skills and equipment, huh? I wonder how the others are going to react with that," muttered Arthur to himself as he thought about Shin's future prospects inside the game.

He then turned his head towards Leonard who was currently rolling his shoulders a few meters away from him before asking. "What do you think? Shin will officially catch up to us once he gets that equipment set from Black Hammer."

"Then that is more reason for us not to slack off," said Leonard while taking out a pair of battle-axes from his inventory while signaling Arthur to start preparing.

"Heh! Quite eager to get your butt kicked, huh? Don't cry on me later, okay?" said Arthur sneeringly before placing his left foot forward while positioning his shield right in front of him and resting his spear on his right shoulder.

"Hah! We still don't know who is going to cry later!" refuted Leonard with the same sneering tone.

He then took a battle stance of his own before engaging in a staredown with Arthur while releasing their respective partial 'Battle Spirits'.

Bang! Bang!

A few moments later, the two of them simultaneously stomped their feet on the group before launching themselves at each other.

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Boom!

And with all of that, these two gods clashed with each other once again.

...…

Aside from those two, the other members of the newly established Empyrean Talons Adventurer Team were also busy sparring with each other.

One of the benefits that they got from joining the team was the free pass for the Battle Arena within Calderock Town. Moreover, it was not an ordinary pass but a VIP pass for each of them.

Given that, the group took advantage of that chance to grab a training room with the best environment to spar with each other. They all heard that they were going to do a pretty tough quest later, so they were planning to tune up their engines before carrying out that quest.

******

In the meantime, while everyone in the group was currently busy with their respective tasks, a group of hooded players suddenly arrived in the Teleportation Hall of the Holy City. And when they appeared, the air within the place seemed to turn heavy and made everyone present in the hall turn their heads towards the group.

But despite the hostile looks that they were getting from everyone, the mysterious group seemed to be unfazed by their hostilities and calmly walked out of the Teleportation Hall.

Seeing that, the players within the vicinity couldn't help but feel insulted for being ignored by that group. But even if they were feeling that way, no one dared to confront those hooded players because of the pressuring aura that each of them was emitting.

Moreover, no one knew the identity of these people. And given that there were a total of thirteen people in their group and all of their members had the air of an expert surrounding them, the players within the Teleportation Hall could only watch their backs as the party exited the hall haughtily.

"Tsk! Cowards!" said one of the hooded players who was also the tallest one among the group.

Hearing that, another member of the group suddenly turned his head at him before saying. "What's your mouth, Jugo. The captain is in a pretty bad mood right now, so you better not attract any unwanted attention."

"But I'm not sure that the captain didn't want that either," said a female member of the group as she turned her head towards the leading person of their party before quickly adding. "From what I can see, he is more eager to fight someone so that he could vent out his pent-up anger."

The two quickly turned their heads to their leader before nodding their heads in agreement. Based on the very scary aura that was being emitted by their captain, it was clear to them that he was about to explode at any given moment.

"If that is the case, then how about we start rampaging now?" said Jugo while excitedly cracking his knuckles.

Unfortunately, the guy beside him shook his head when he heard those words before saying smirkingly. "If you really wanted to reduce your level back to zero, then I dare you to give it a try."

Jugo was about to say something when the player at the forefront of the group suddenly opened his mouth and silenced them by saying. "If the two of you can't shut your mouths, then how about I help you cut your tongues?"

Hearing that, the two quickly closed their mouths and refused to open them again, afraid that their captain might have really pulled out their tongues and cut them. It was as if they forgot that they were currently in the virtual world.

When that finally happened, the captain suddenly turned his head to the side and asked one of the members of the group. "How is it, Hannah? Did she respond to your messages yet?"

When Hannah heard that, she quickly shook her head before replying. "Not yet, Captain. She hasn't replied to any of my messages so far."

The captain suddenly frowned his eyebrows quite deeply when he heard that before saying. "I guess I don't have any other choice but to fetch her personally."

...