Child of Destiny

...

Shin and the group proceed deeper into the Frozen Kingdom to look for the final army that they needed to face before they could continue with their quest.

They already reached the 150 Level cap ages ago. They needed to take the next promotion quest before they could break this limit.

Fortunately, the experience points that they were getting right now did not go to waste. They were being converted to special reputation points that they could use later when they arrived in their selected major region.

They could exchange them for special items later or even for experience tomes that would refund their accumulated experience points. Though, the group was leaning more toward the former since their concern at that time was not their levels but upgrading their combat prowess.

Based on the patch notes that they had read previously, even the most basic classes could stand against the hidden and transcendent classes to a certain degree after they cleared their respective promotion quests.

This feature put all of the classes on an equal footing, making the competition of the game more interesting. Though, the top players suspected that clearing those promotion quests was easier to say than done.

After all, the developers were not going to let the Transcendent Classes lose their advantages that easily.

According to the lore of those ascended classes, the powers that the players would receive were the legacy of the first batch of heroes, who managed to break free from their mortal limitations.

Anyone knew that they managed to rise in ranks and stood toe to toe with the Transcendent Races.

To be able to qualify for taking those promotion quests, the players first needed to get their hands on certain proofs. These things were like entry tickets for taking those tests.

And right now, three of those tickets were currently in the hands of a single person.

Shin was looking at the tree beads that they got after defeating the three armies earlier. The beads had the colors blue, black, and white while each of them had a figure of a wolf, a ghost, and a griffin respectively.

These were one of the spoils that they had gotten earlier alongside the special blueprints and army-formation certificates. The rest were just a bunch of special materials and top-class equipment.

After deliberation, the group decided how to divide their loot. S.Tigris chose to get the special materials and some of the equipment. They felt that they didn't do much in the previous battles which was why they didn't ask too much from the group.

This left Shin and the rest with the best loot that they could have. And these three beads gave them an important clue about the future classes that the players could possibly have.

...

Shin was playing with the beads while they were resting before continuing with their quests. He was rolling the beads on top of his palms and controlling them with his fingers.

He took another look at their details while thinking deeply about what they were going to do with them later.

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Item Name: Blue Wolf Bead (Proof of Strength and Courage)

Item Rank: Special

Details: One of the required items to take the Peak Class Promotion Quest.

Class Qualifications: Berserker, Shield Warrior, Guardian, and Swordmaster.

Possible Class Advancements: Warlord, Royal Guard, and Sword Immortal.

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Item Name: Black Ghost Bead (Proof of Agility and Death)

Item Rank: Special

Details: One of the required items to take the Peak Class Promotion Quest.

Class Qualifications: Assassin, Twilight, Hunter, and Thief.

Possible Class Advancements: Executioner, Sentinel, Predator, and Guillotine.

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Item Name: Black Ghost Bead (Proof of Vitality and Vigor)

Item Rank: Special

Details: One of the required items to take the Peak Class Promotion Quest.

Class Qualifications: Shield Warrior, Guardian, Paladin, and Priest

Possible Class Advancements: Lord Knight, Templar, and Cardinal

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Shin looked that the possible class advancements that the players could have after the respective promotions and couldn't help but feel amazed by them.

He still didn't what kind of abilities could these classes could have since there was no information about them on the official website of the game.

But looking at their amazing names alone and using their experiences in the previous battles as a base, Shin could already picture how strong these classes were.

The one that caught his interest the most was the classes under the assassin-related classes. Not only did they have cool names, but the battle that gave Shin the most impressive was when they were facing the King Ghost Army.

That battle might not be as hard as their battle against the Great Blue Wolf Army. But the flexibility of each member of that particular army was the best even compared to the ones under the nimble wolf general from Lupus' Army.

Shin and the rest of the Empyrean Talons might not need these beads since most of them already have their special and transcendent races as well as classes, which were already the best among the rest.

They only needed to meet the respective instructors or organizations designated for their classes to take their special promotion quests.

But it would not hurt to save these proofs of qualifications for the time being. Who knew if they might come in handy in the future?

After that, Shin proceeded to the Master-Rank Blueprints that they got. These blueprints would definitely help him later when negotiating with his Big Sister. He now had another bargaining chip that he could use to have an advantage on the deal.

He might change a couple of his plans later because of these blueprints.

Then there were the army-formation certificates. As the name implied, these pieces of paper could grant the players the qualification of growing their own army. Not just ordinary guards, but a real army that could be used for wars and city defenses.

These certificates might be useless to ordinary players since there were some requirements before they could use them. They needed to first have a city and possessed a territory that they owned.

On top of that, they also needed to have a massive amount of funds since they were hiring a large number of NPCs to form an army. They also needed to equip those NPCs with the best set of armor and weapons and have a decent training ground to properly groom their strength.

The independent and casual players might not be interested in these certificates but the top guilds and leading organizations would go crazy just to get these pieces of paper.

They would definitely dominate their desired territory if they had their own army.

So far, the game only permitted them to high a limited number of NPCs as Patrol Guards or City Guards for the security of their respective territories.

They couldn't mobilize a larger number of NPCs than the designated limit since their respective regions would take it as provoking the Kingdom or Empire's authority. Then it would brand their actions as a sign of rebellion.

No one would want that to happen.

Unless they were a part of the Corrupted Cult.

But even the player organizations working with the cult could not build their NPC armies since no one would be willing to join them in the first place. And most of the dark NPCs were already part of the Corrupted Cult anyway, so it was practically pointless for them to do such things.

Shin currently had three certificates and he already had plans on what he was going to use for the two of them.

He was planning to build a city on top of the mountain located in the Sky Deceiving Valley, and he already prepared the funds for it.

He was planning to use one of the certificates for this city since he could practically own the whole region if he had an army that could defend the place and even patrol the area regularly.

He was no longer planning to relocate the Calderock Town in that place after its promotion since he already possessed everything that he needed to build a city from scratch. Instead, he was going to relocate that town to another place where it could grow further.

This was also where he was going to use the second Army Formation certificate. With it, no one would dare to bother it.

Yet again, Shin gained another card that he could use against Shiella. The exploration of this place was really bountiful for him. Not only he improved himself and was able to catch up with the top gods of the game officially, but he also gained a lot of things that were beneficial for the growth of the cities that he was planning to build.

With such a large asset within the game, it was not strange for him to call himself a local tycoon despite his very young age.

It might still be not enough to contend with the Hand of Midas Trading Firm in terms of wealth, but there was no doubt that he was one of the wealthiest players in the game.

As of now, he was thinking of what he was going to do with the third army-formation certificate. He might let Shiella deal with it later when they were done with this Empire Quest.

Maybe selling it to an allied force was not a bad choice.

After organizing his thoughts and taking such a good rest, Shin turned to the group who were now getting ready for the next battle that was about to come.

He stood up and walked closer to the edge of the cliff where they were staying. Then he looked ahead and observed the majestic army in the distance.

This was their next opponent, a whole army of knights donning a full set of dragon-pattered armor.

Shin was thinking about what kind of curse was cast upon the Dragon Knight Army. And right now, he saw that army became fallen humans, standing in a very organized formation.

Looking at them, he could instantly guess that the next battle was not going to be easy. This was the reason why he wanted the entire team to be in their best form before proceeding.

At the very least, the said Glacial Dragon was not present, or at least that was what they believed since they couldn't see it and Arthur couldn't sense it either.

But it didn't change the fact that this particular army was still the strongest one among the four armies, especially when the group could clearly spot the Grand Marshal sitting on top of a boulder.

His fierce and glorious aura was too overwhelming to the point where the group could even sense it even if they were standing miles away from the army.

Shin closed his eyes and took a deep breath before staring at the Grand Marshal once again. "Let's hope that we are strong enough to face him with our current strengths."

...