Child of Destiny

...…

Inside and inn, Shin was sitting across from Samael and Huahua and contemplating what they just said.

He now understood the overall situation.

From what Samael had said, he had accepted a unique quest from the Church of the Sun and Moon which earned him the current equipment set that he was wearing, a unique full-body armor that could only be granted to a single person. It was a special armor that represented the knight's order of the church, which also indirectly made him an elite member of the order.

With his new title and rank, he could now accept more difficult and special quests, which in turn would raise his reputation within the church and increase his rank accordingly.

But during the completion of his most recent quest, the church had released a summoning order for the members of the church's knight's order. This summoning somewhat concerned the events here in the Sacred Light Kingdom.

The church wanted to lend a hand to this falling kingdom save as many lives as possible and eradicate more corrupted creatures.

The Church of the Sun and Moon also had a branch here since they also have some loyal elven believers. The branch might be relatively small compared to the others, but it still had a solid foundation.

The main task that the church had given out was to save their believers and escort them into a much safer place. It would be better if they even escorted them out of the kingdom if the situation became worse than they had expected.

Samael had brought his younger sister with him since he could bring another person with him during the mission.

They just finished the main task just recently when Huahua stumbled upon a hidden quest. She had gotten the quest when they successfully finished escorting a batch of believers to out of the kingdom.

The quest itself was not that special and quite easy to complete, so this pair of siblings went back to the Sacred Light Kingdom to complete it.

But when they cleared the quest successfully and got their hands on the reward, it created a commotion that attracted the group from the Golden Dawn.

Samael wanted to avoid the group since he did not want any trouble coming their way, so he brought his younger sister to the city intending to use the teleportation hall to return to the Holy City.

He could not carelessly use their return scroll since he was afraid of these people attacking them when they were channeling the teleportation. Instead, he chose the much safer choice and used the formations of the Teleportation Hall.

Unfortunately, the people from the Golden Dawn were quite persistent and started harassing them, wanting to force them to hand over the item that they had gotten from the quest completion, which led them to the earlier situation.

Samael wanted to fight back at first, but knowing his sister and understanding that he was facing the members of a powerful guild, he could not help but hesitate.

Shin did not dwell too much on the situation nor ask for any more details about their quests. After all, that was their business and not his concern.

He just wanted to help these two due to his interest in Samael.

But after knowing that these two were being targeted by some other people, he could not help but feel more interested in them. 'Those people observing them from the dark earlier are not that bad either. If not for my sharp senses, then it is impossible to notice them.'

'They are experts in scouting, and possess high stealth abilities,' he could not shake off the feeling that there was something more in this situation than he could see from the surface.

He then turned to the two while having a deep thought. 'Should I help them more? Or just leave a warning?'

It was at that moment when Huahua suddenly opened her mouth. "Big Brother. I think we should ask for some advice from him. Since he is-… what you call a God Expert, then I think-… I think he can help us solve the riddle that we have gotten along with that strange item."

Samael turned to his younger sister before falling into a deep thought.

Even though he was confident that Shin would not snatch the item from them, he still could not help but hesitate.

He did not have any problem sharing the information that he had said earlier since it concerned the same faction as Shin. He and Shin were members of the same church. Heck! He even heard from the bishops and templars that the guy was an Evoy of the church, so in a sense, he was a subordinate of Shin.

This was the reason why he shared the earlier quests and his progress in the church.

But it was a different matter when it came to the quest of his younger sister. It was her property, so there was no need to share it with other people.

This was common knowledge or common sense even for the players standing at the peak of the game.

Unless it was someone that they fully trusted or people of the same Adventurer Team, close friends in the guild, or other organizations, there was no need to share it with them.

While Samael was hesitating, Huahua suddenly reassured him. "You don't have to think too much about it, big brother. The quest doesn't seem to be that important anyway."

Samael shook his head when he heard that. He felt that his little sister was more naïve than he thought. If this was just a simple quest, then the earlier events would not create such a commotion that would attract the members of the Golden Dawn.

He had already cleared enough quests under Church of the Sun and Moon, and he knew that some quests would be able to affect some of the questlines from the main scenario. Most of them even started with these kinds of strange phenomena or commotion whenever a certain quest was cleared.

He already had some suspicions earlier, but he was still unsure of it due to those members of the Golden Dawn.

But things would not escalate to this degree once they reached the city. Usually, these people from big groups would back off and let them leave peacefully once they arrived in a safe area.

But those people from Golden Dawn were quite persistent to the point that they followed them inside the city and even harassed them more aggressively. It was as if they were quite anxious to get whatever Huahua had gotten from her previous quests.

Shin remained silent on the side as he watched the pair of siblings discuss this matter. He was quite interested in Samael since he could see some potential in him. He was also quite intrigued by the real intention of the Golden Dawm given that they had sent some lackeys to harass the two when they were supposed to be laying low.

At first, he thought that it was just that those guys were a bunch of idiots who had nothing to do. But after noticing that this pair was being monitored by expert scouts, he could not help but have some suspicions.

When he thought about this, Shin started recalling the recent events here in the Sacred Light Kingdom. He also re-evaluated each event and tried to see if he could find anything.

Based on the information that he had heard from Ithilien and Owen, the three big guilds were looking for a few items that would make them turn the situation around before the withering fully spread in the entire kingdom.

Unfortunately, they had failed, and the situation turned out to be like this before they could have the chance.

Then they learned that Ithilien and Owen had already cleared the main scenario quest, which was why they were not in control of the whole Maze Forest. It seemed like the two seemed to be missing a single piece of the puzzle before their jobs here were completed.

Thinking about that, Shin immediately contacted Ithilien.

Sickarius: Ithilien, what are the other things that you need to deal with?

It took Ithilien some time to reply as she seemed to be thinking why Shin was asking about it now. Regardless, she still replied.

Ithilien: We are tasked to find some ancient relics that are scattered within the whole kingdom, Vice Commander. They can be used to purify the withering once all of them have been collected.

Ithilien: Owen and I have brought two of them, the branch of the World Tree and the water from the spring of life. We brought it here earlier when we were doing the main scenario quest.

Ithilien: Then we found the third one just recently when the Withering Event broke out – the Seed of the Tree of Life.

There was a brief pause before she continued.

Ithilien: Right now, we are only lacking two relics from the list. One of them is the Crown of a Ruler, which was supposedly the crown of the king of the Sacred Light Kingdom.

We suspect that it is in the hands of the Evil Faction since they have assassinated the king.

Ithilien: As for the final relic – it is called the Moonlight Chalice of Purity. We still don't have any solid clues of its whereabouts, but we have a rough idea of the general location.

It was at this moment that she remembered the question that she had earlier and finally asked.

Ithilien: Why do you want to know about it, Vice Commander?

Shin did not immediately respond to it as he suddenly turned to the pair of siblings and asked. "Can I know if that item that you have in your possession is a chalice?"

"Eh!?"

"Huh!?"

The pair of brother and sister quickly stopped what they were doing and turned to Shin with wide-opened eyes. They were looking at him with surprised expressions along with a little caution.

Samael might be confident about his judgment about Shin, but he still could not help but be a little wary of the latter after hearing that question. He felt that Shin might have approached him just for this reason, especially when the quest item that they had was indeed a chalice.

Huahua was also feeling the same. She felt that Shin had a hidden agenda for approaching them. She could not help but feel a little afraid, especially when she knew how powerful Shin was. If he wanted to rob that item from them, then the two of them would not be able to fight back in the slightest.

Seeing the reaction on their face, Shin immediately realized that they had misunderstood his question. He then quickly cleared his throat and explained himself. "It is not what you are thinking-…"

He then explained the current situation of the Sacred Light Kingdom to the two and even told them about the involvement of powerful guilds and organizations in it.

He was not afraid to share this information with the siblings since it was somewhat of an open secret anyway. Players who joined the event had a rough idea of what was happening and even chose which side they were going to work with.

Naturally, most of the players arriving here were siding with Ithilien and Owen since they were the current major contributors to the current event while the so-called 'Big Three' were far behind them.

Shin also explained to the pair that the item that they were holding was one of the ancient relics that everyone was looking for, which also explained why the members of the Golden Dawn were harassing them very aggressively.

"So, what do you think about how we are going to deal with this quest, God Expert?" Samael had regained his confidence in Shin and immediately asked for his opinion.

Huahua also nodded her head repeatedly, waiting for Shin to arrange a plan for them.

Shin thought for a moment before continuing. "This is your quest, so I will not ask you to share it with me or anything. But I must ask you to side with my friends who are the main contributors to this event."

"That goes without question, God Expert," answered Samael instantaneously.

"I will escort you to the Maze Forest and make sure that the is no one who will snatch it from you. I am going there too anyway," said Shin before warning the pair with a serious tone. "There are other forces that are monitoring you since earlier, so I must ask you to be extra careful."

"We don't know if the Evil Faction have set their eyes on you too since they also want to have their hands on that quest item."

"I will be asking my friends to send some assistance to make sure that we can avoid as many accidents as possible."

He waited for the brother-sister duo to understand the gravity of their situation before adding. "If you are ready, then we will be heading out as soon as possible."

"We have to move as fast as we can so that the other side will not be able to respond."

...…