Child of Destiny

...

Somewhere in the Saint Heaven Kingdom, a group of players were currently gathered, seemingly having a serious meeting about something.

This group of players was currently residing in a small village at the edge of the kingdom, right beside the Sky Deceiving Valley. They had been staying here for quite a while already as they were waiting for the boundary to open.

"Why are we still staying here? Until when are we waiting for that stupid boundary to disappear?" asked one of the players full of impatience.

One of the players, who was sitting comfortably on a chair, responded in a lazy tone. "We can't do anything about it. This is the nearest route that we can take to reach the location of the sea monster that we are chasing."

Another player nodded his head in agreement. "That is right. We can't go around two kingdoms, sail through the Sea of Death, travel around the Mysterious Archipelago, and to the Sea of Death once again."

"That is too troublesome. We can't afford to invest too much in it, especially when we are not that skilled at fighting on the sea. We can lose our lives multiple times fighting the sea monsters before we even reach and find our target," he added with a sigh.

The first player, who talked earlier, took off his hood and leaned his back on the chair as he complained. "But we have been waiting here for quite a long time already. Isn't the time needed to travel through that route somewhat the same?"

"But it will waste our efforts on staying here," refuted the other player before adding. "We are just unlucky that the border is suddenly closed before we even get through it."

"Why do you think it suddenly closed?" asked the one relaxing in a corner.

He then paused and turned to the fourth person, who was lying on the bed, seemingly unconcerned about the topic that they had. "What do you think Captain? Don't you also find it suspicious?"

"The timing is a little too coincidental, don't you think? The border is closed for a few days when the opening of a high-level neutral kingdom has opened. I smell something fishy," he added while squinting his eyes.

Surprisingly, the 'sleeping' captain suddenly responded. "How many times do I have to tell you not to address me as such? I am not the captain of this team. Heck! It is not even a team."

"We just gather here because of the mission issued by the Supreme Temple. I don't understand why we have to group just to do such a simple tracking quest. It is not like we are tasked to fight the said monster," he added in an exhausted tone.

"I agree with, Phantom. Why are we gathered here when he is only supposed to track down a monster?" said one of the members, who kept silent the entire time.

The entire group simultaneously turned to this player, putting the person in an awkward situation.

"I don't think that our muse can talk," said the first person.

"I thought she was mute or too introverted to have a conversation with us," said the second player.

The third player also nodded as he commented. "This is a surprise – really a surprise."

Phantom, the guy that was addressed as the captain, shook his head. "Stop teasing her. You are scaring the lady."

That female player had her face turned red after hearing Phantom defended him. Fortunately, the hood over her head was covering her expression when she lowered her head.

Phantom did not see her expression and turned to the guy, who complained waiting for her the most. "Valdez, if you are too bored, then how about you do some scouting outside instead?"

Valdez rolled his eyes before turning to the other two. "That is your job, Wolf. Go outside and scout. Claude, you come with your brother."

The pair of brothers rolled their eyes at him before completely ignoring what Valdez had said.

Claude then turned to Phantom and said. "Do you have any information about the progress of the Martial Alliance? We are supposed to compete with them in this quest, aren't we?"

Phantom became a little uninterested and turned around. "If you are concerned about the Gods' Paradise, then you can rest assured. Those guys will not be joining the hunt since I heard that they are too busy with the archipelago quest."

"However, I am also not sure about their progress, so we can't be sure too," he added as he recalled the information that he brought from the Assassin Union.

"What about Zero? Do we have any news of his movement?" asked Wolf almost instantly.

Phantom sighed when he heard that. "You guys better not concern yourselves on those guys. It is not like this quest is too important. If it is, they will only issue it to selected elites of our faction and not let everyone participate."

"Zero is one of the 'Swords' of the Supreme Temple, a true member. He is unlike us, who are just a nominal member. He will not accept such a quest, where many people will be involved," he added.

He then paused before continuing. "I also heard that he is already rushing to clear his promotion quest, so I don't expect that he will have the time to idle around and do these kinds of errands."

"Does that make us some sort of beggar or something? It sounds like we are trying to find some scraps from the trash bin," commented Valdez as he heard those words.

"We are also quite famous ourselves even though we are only Maverick Gods," he added before turning to Phantom and the female player before correcting himself. "Oh! I almost forgot that you two have recently gained your first official titles in the last Hegemon Cup."

"My bad," he was apologizing to the two, but it was clear that he did not mean it given the tone full of sarcasm.

These people might not be as famous as the other Godlike Players and Maverick Gods, but they still had decent fame themselves.

However, that was not the root of their confidence. The real reason why they were confident of themselves was the fact that they were of the same generation as the Monster Class Players from the «True Era» Online.

They were once the rivals of the top experts from that game. They just chose to keep a low profile like most of those top players hiding in the dark.

They remained playing solo aside from the pair of brothers in their group. Most of them were operating individually and independently, but they happened to join the same NPC organization, which led them to their current situation.

They were tasked to track a certain sea monster while using the tracking device that the Supreme Temple had given them.

Their faction was quite wealthy despite having very few members. It was also very generous when handling a quest, especially when the players needed a few special devices meant for those quests.

The temple was generous enough to provide them with the tools when doing the quest despite most of the members being nothing but nominal disciples.

Aside from the Church of Light, Merchant Organizations, and the Imperial Court, it was said that the Supreme Temple was one of the wealthiest organizations within the game. However, it was not well-known because most of their operations were highly secretive.

These five were the players with the highest contribution points among the nominal disciples, which was why the Supreme Temple had given them extra attention.

They were also the frontrunners for being promoted into official members, which was why they happened to bump into each other when they were receiving special instructions when they were accepting this quest.

They then decided to group up when they heard that God's Paradise happened to receive the quest as a special quest.

Given the fame of that adventurer team and the current strength that they possessed, it would most likely be challenging to compete against them with this quest alone. That was why they were currently together.

The problem was their progress was suddenly halted when the group was about to reach their destination, which gave God's Paradise a decent amount of time to catch up to this group if they wanted to.

While the group was currently chatting with each other, trying to kill some time, they suddenly received a notification from the system.

*Ding*

They jolted due to the sudden notification when they were doing nothing.

But what surprised them the most was the fact that they all received a notification at the same time. Given that they had simultaneously received the message, they somewhat had gotten an idea of what was going on.

They simultaneously opened their respective system log while having similar thoughts.

"Have someone cleared the quest before us?"

"That can't be! We are way ahead of the others from the Supreme Temple!"

"Then could it be the Martial Alliance?"

"But I heard that the members of God's Paradise are still in the middle of their archipelago quest!"

Unfortunately, their guesses were way off the mark.

System: You have failed to clear your quest 'Track the Sea Monster'!

System: Penalty will be delayed due to certain circumstances.

*Ding*

System: Quest Conditions have been changed.

Quest Update: Someone has stolen the Sea Soul! Capture the Player, who has stolen the sacred treasure, and bring him to the Temple.

…

The group stared blankly at the notification in front of them, unable to completely understand what was going on.

They were not sure what happened, especially when the monster that they were supposed to track was supposedly unbeatable with the current abilities of the players – Tier 3 Class Players included.

"How the heck does this guy have done it?"

"Which monster player has done it?"

They were still confused when another string of notifications followed.

*Ding*

System: The Sea Soul has been lost and no longer be tracked, but its aura still lingers in the body of the new possessor until it is completely absorbed.

System: Coordinate of the 'thief' will be displayed every two hours as a guide.

Note: This will last until the aura of the Sea Soul is completely erased.

Estimated time: 6 days (Timer will be paused when the said player logs out of the game).

System: The Player can't hide in a sealed-border or an independent world.

System: The sealing border will automatically collapse if they fail to leave the said area within the designated time, and they will be sent out of the independent world if they stay there for an extended period.

*Ding*

Faction System Announcement: All members of the Supreme Temple are tasked to track down a thief for 2 days (In-game Time).

Note 1: Killing the said Player will not generate any reward.

Note 2: Capture the Player with the Prison Prism and bring them to the Supreme Temple.

System: Players can go to any branch of the Supreme Temple to receive the required tools for the task.

System: Rewards will be calculated based on the contribution of the members.

…

The group, once again, stared blankly at their respective system log floating in front of them. They were not sure what was going on, but it seemed like it was a piece of good news for them.

They exchanged glances with each other and went silent before Phantom opened his mouth. "Since we have already agreed to this together, we should see it until the end as one."

He then turned to Valdez and asked. "You are not going to back out and say that it is no longer the chase, aren't you?"

Valdez clicked his tongue when he heard that as Phantom read him like a book. He then shook his head. "Don't worry. I may look like it, but I am not the type to betray the people I am working with."

Phantom nodded his head before saying. "Then let's prepare before heading out."

He then glanced at the virtual screen that was projecting a virtual map before saying. "It seemed like we are quite close to our target."

***

They were not the only ones to receive the Faction System Announcement as the players of the Martial Alliance also received the same task.

Ashura skimmed through the string of notifications that he suddenly received before logging out. "This is interesting. It looks like I must look on it while killing time, and not miss the fun."

...