Child of Destiny

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The state of the game was currently very chaotic due to multiple events that were happening simultaneously. There were huge forces that kept clashing against each other to fight for the resources of their respective regions, kingdoms, or empires.

The Powerhouse Guilds and other organizations were starting to get more active after their top experts started to clear their respective promotion quests.

Multiple Godlike Players and a few peak Titled Rankers were starting to get promoted to the third tier of their respective classes. This also started to show the gap between the real experts and the average players.

Some of the top experts were lucky enough to get an Ascended Class, propelling their strengths to another level. A few of them were even able to successfully change their races into an Ascended Race in a single try, after passing all the tests that the Mysterious Instructions had given them, and even passing them with flying colors.

These players got their names listed in the special ranking list of the Hall of Fame. Both their classes and races were written right beside their in-game ID, which attracted quite a lot of attention from the top guilds and organizations within the game.

Some of these players were familiar names since they were well-known experts in the virtual world and top players in the previous games.

What the top powers wanted to keep an eye on were the new names that they had not seen before. There was a huge investigation launched by these groups, looking for independent players to invite them.

But these players were just the start. It was because more experts started to appear in the Hall of Fame one after another.

What surprised the top powers of the game were the players that were able to reach tier 3 of their respective classes despite only having the standard class and race.

These players just proved that the advantage of the Transcendent and Ascended Classes and Races was nothing but a slight edge. Having the regular and standard classes and races did not mean that they would not be able to clear their promotion quests.

However, some also admitted that the challenges that these players faced during their promotion quests were easier than the Transcendent and Ascended ones. In a sense, their quests were much easier in comparison.

But that did not mean that their promotion quest was a walk in the park. They also suffered great setbacks and difficult challenges during the process, reflecting their respective skills and strengths.

As a reward for these players, who faced all the challenges fearlessly and went through them with full perseverance, the system gave them a dedicated panel in the Hall of Fame just form them.

There were twenty such players and all their names were posted and listed on the official website of the game.

Right now, the Hall of Fame consists of four panels; one for overall ranking, for which Shin stood at the very top due to all the accumulated achievements that he had, while the other three panels were meant for Transcendent, Ascended, and Champions, who either cleared their promotion quests or passed the tests of the Mysterious Instructors with the highest score possible.

These three panels consisted of all the top players under their respective banners. The players with special races that did not belong to these such as half-elves and others fell in the Ascended category since they had more advantages than the standard races.

Right now, all the top guilds and organizations were keeping their eyes on all the names listed on the Hall of Fame since they knew that these players would be leading the current stage of the game.

However, they were also aware that the list was not final as more players would appear on it and overtake the others.

The hidden experts and other Godlike Players had yet to tackle their promotion quests due to certain reasons.

Due to the successive appearances of the names on the Hall of Fame, the players, who were originally complaining about the promotion quests being unbeatable, stopped and focused on finding the solution instead.

Most of the independent players were still clueless about how those players in the Hall of Fame had done it, but the top organizations and guilds had already gotten their answers.

They started spreading their information network and looked for the Mysterious Instructions scattered across the entire Aurora Continent. They had also developed some strategies that they could use to clear the promotion quests much easier based on the information that they had gotten from the ones, who already cleared theirs.

As for the rest of their forces, aside from trying to expand their influence, they were looking for a way to own a territory for themselves while some focused on finding a way to leave the first continent and reach the second one.

But after their investigation, these guilds realized that clearing the tier 3 promotion quests and passing the tests of the Mysterious Instructors were just the bare minimum for meeting all the requirements to leave the continent.

There were still those things called recommendations or invitations to the Second Continent, which no one knew where to get.

Well, aside from Shin, who had gotten a few from Archbishop Ronald.

Aside from those, there was also the problem of how they were going to the Second Continent exactly. Everyone was too focused on the promotion quests and the opening of the Awakened Continent, which was why no one noticed that the official website did not mention how to get in there.

The players only realized this fact when there were already a lot of players listed in the Hall of Fame.

Everyone was looking for the answer to this when a certain player discovered a hidden city that was not letting any player enter, saying that they had yet to meet all the conditions to enter.

It was a city deep in a neutral region, which had yet to be discovered by a lot of players.

The said player, who stumbled upon it due to an accident, could only take a couple of photos and video clips in the distance.

From what he had collected, the city was much more advanced than the current cities available to everyone. This city had more buildings that were much taller than most and higher than the others that they had seen in the NPC cities.

The size of the city was also much larger than the Capital Cities that any players had seen. The Capital City was already the current highest rank of the cities within the game, yet this particular city was much larger and more advanced than any city of that rank.

Recalling the recent news that the players had gotten, along with the regional and world announcements that the system had made, the players came up with a conclusion that this city must be at least a Royal City, the rank next to the Capital City.

What surprised everyone was when they saw a huge airship ducking itself into one of the skyscrapers of the city. It was much larger than airplanes that could be seen in the real world and resembled the descriptions of those airships from fantasy stories.

Amazed, the players started commenting and demanding the said player to share the coordinates of that city as they also wanted to see it for themselves.

That player did not keep the information to himself, and shared it with everyone, making a lot of players head over there. Even if it was in the middle of a high-level map and located in a dangerous part of a neutral region, the players, who did not have anything better to do, could not be stopped.

Some of the players even form expedition teams just to reach that place.

In the meantime, some of the quick-witted ones and the other experts from well-known guilds expanded their information network a little more.

They sent some of their professional scouts to explore unknown neutral regions near their respective kingdoms and empires. That was when everyone realized that there were more of this city, which was clearly on the same rank.

There were a few distinctive differences between the said cities, but their ranks and such were practically the same. Even the airships that could be found in these cities had different designs and features, but all of them were used for long-distance transportation.

The airships that could be found in the human regions looked like wooden ships that were usually used during medieval times, but they had larger sails and there were a pair of huge wings on each of their sides.

There was a huge crystal situated at the center of the airship, which seemed to be its power source.

The airships that could be found in elven regions, on the other hand, had a similar design, but it was very noticeable that the materials used to produce this airship had magical properties. The magic crystals that were supporting the airship were much smaller compared to the former, but they had much denser energies and possessed wind elemental mana.

As for the airships that were found in the cities under the dwarven regions, the players noticed that they were made from metal and magical ores. It was clear that the design of these airships was meant for mechanical movements.

In a sense, these airships were much closer to the aircraft that could be found in the real world. But they had less efficient machines in comparison. However, they also had more advanced technology in certain areas.

The more interesting part was the airships from the undead region. Their airship seemed to be a combination of human technology and elven magic. But instead of using magic crystals as a power source, they were using flying undead monsters. However, their defenses seemed to be much tougher than the previous two.

As these cities became known to the public, the top guilds and other organizations started putting more focus on finding how they would be able to enter.

Everyone was confident that they would be able to find the right answer to these cities.

***

As everyone was currently busy with these events, there was a certain someone, who was currently meditating inside a certain room within the World Tree.

It was Shin, who was in the middle of a trial within his Sea of Consciousness.

He forgot how long it was, but he had yet to find the answer to the test that was given to him by the core. All he knew was that he had been here for a very long time already.

He was standing in the middle of a graveyard, which used different swords instead of tombstones.

Shin had used everything he could, but he still could not find any difference between all these swords. He observed each of them closely while walking around earlier, yet he had not noticed anything aside from their rusty appearances.

He had gone quite far, but it seemed like the sword graveyard was endless, which was why he decided to stop for a moment.

He then tried to grab the swords, but he was unable to touch any of them, which had given him the idea of what he needed to do. But he still goes back to the original problem, which was how he would find the sword that he was looking for.

Caught in a difficult situation, Shin decided to take a different approach. Instead of actively looking for the said sword, he would try to let it look for him.

He was not sure if this was going to work, but he did not have a choice, so could only continue.

Unsheathing the sword hanging on his waist since his appearance in this place, Shin started swinging, practicing each of the sword techniques that he knew. Starting with the fundamentals of swordsmanship up to the most advanced techniques in his arsenal.

As more time went by, he had gotten more immersed in his training and forgot his real purpose in coming here.

And unknown to him, in a most ironic way, the surroundings seemed to have responded to his actions and showed some signs of change.

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