Child of Destiny

...

Owen watched Felicia gracefully return to their side, looking as though nothing significant had happened during the match.

He then turned toward Felix, who was standing beside him, and commented, "Your sister is pretty scary, huh?"

Felix chuckled upon hearing this. "Scary? She’s more like a demoness back in our sect."

Shin, meanwhile, casually swept his gaze across the surroundings before turning toward Owen. "Alright. Since everything is practically settled, I’ll leave the rest to you."

Hearing this, Owen immediately had a bad feeling.

"Wait, Brother Swordsman!" He reached out and grabbed Shin’s arm.

"You’re not planning to leave us with all the troublesome work again, are you?" he pleaded, already far too familiar with Shin’s antics.

Shin glanced at him. "What’s left for me to do? Diablo and Alucard are already organizing the fortress alongside the Deicide and Hand of Midas members."

He then gestured toward the opposing side. "We’ve also settled our deal with those guys. All that’s left is to collect the items they wagered and obtain the information regarding that special quest they mentioned."

He shrugged casually. "There’s nothing particularly complicated left for us to handle here."

Owen clearly wasn’t buying it. He immediately asked, "Then what about our surprise attack against those guys from the Pandemonium Descendants?"

Shin shook his head. "That will have to wait. We need to stabilize everything here first and make sure everything is in order before proceeding with that plan."

He paused to check the time before continuing. "Besides, I still have plenty of things to take care of."

Shin pointed toward Felix, and then to Felicia, who had just returned to their side. "I also have an ongoing quest with these twins. I need to check whether the quest items we require have already been prepared."

Hearing this, Owen’s grip loosened slightly as he considered the matter. "That’s true, but—"

"Since you’re already here, you might as well help coordinate the remaining arrangements," Shin interrupted smoothly.

Before Owen could respond, Shin swiftly escaped from his grasp before releasing his wings and rose into the air.

"I’m counting on you!" said Shin while hovering in the air, as though entrusting him with an important responsibility rather than dumping another pile of work on him.

Only at this moment did Owen finally realize what was happening. "Wait a minute! Brother Swordsman! You haven’t even—"

Swoosh!

But Shin was already flying away.

"I’ll have Simba coordinate with you since he’s directly involved in the quest those guys mentioned."

Shin’s parting words echoed through the canyon as his figure rapidly disappeared beyond the horizon.

Owen could only stare blankly after him.

A few seconds later, he clenched his fists and punched the air. "DAMN IT! HE RAN AWAY AGAIN!"

He just realized that he had once again been left to deal with the cleanup task, suffering the same fate as Alucard and Diablo.

Watching this, Felix couldn’t help but chuckle. He found Shin’s behavior rather amusing.

After all, Felicia had also left most of the troublesome administrative work to him when they were managing their previous guild. However, unlike Shin, she had never tried to escape her responsibilities as though they were some kind of plague.

He could only shake his head before patting Owen on the shoulder sympathetically.

...

While Owen was busy throwing a tantrum, Shin was already heading deeper into the Sandspine Waste.

It was true that he needed to check on the items Saint Blacksmith Berlin was preparing for their quest, but there was still plenty of time before the promised deadline.

In reality, Shin had simply used it as an excuse to escape the most troublesome tasks, as he usually did.

As for his current destination, he was heading toward the high-level neutral region bordering the Sandspine Waste—the Raja Desert.

It was a region on the same level as the Frozen Kingdom, so Shin had naturally been curious about it for quite some time.

However, he had no intention of exploring the entire Raja Desert. After all, the region was far too vast for him to thoroughly explore on his own, especially with the limited time he had available.

So, why was he heading there?

It was because he had just received a message from Khavin informing him that something major had happened in the region.

A Semi-World Boss had appeared!

"I was planning to head to the Saint Heaven Kingdom as soon as everything here was settled, but who would’ve thought something this interesting would happen?" Shin muttered as he skimmed through the information Khavin had sent him.

A Semi-World Boss was far more than an ordinary Emperor-Rank Monster with exceptionally high Stats.

It was a monster that had reached the absolute peak of Emperor Rank and had begun breaking through the boundary separating it from the realm beyond.

Although it had yet to complete that transformation, it had already begun to transcend the limits of its current rank, allowing it to wield power far beyond what ordinary Emperor-Rank Monsters could achieve.

In other words, a Semi-World Boss was an existence standing on the threshold of a higher realm, possessing a glimpse of the power that awaited it beyond that boundary.

It was a monster that had begun approaching the pinnacle of the Lower Plane itself.

"I wonder just how powerful a monster of that caliber is..." Shin couldn’t help but feel curious, especially since this would be his first time encountering one.

He had fought Emperor-Rank Monsters native to the Aurora Continent before, alongside his friends, and he knew just how terrifyingly powerful such creatures could be.

If this Semi-World Boss was a high-level boss monster, it would most likely be even more formidable than Fortress Master Donato, whom Shin and the others had just defeated.

"If it has a special bloodline as well, then this is going to be even more interesting," Shin muttered as he examined the additional information Khavin had sent him.

"It looks like things are already quite lively over there, huh?" He raised his brows slightly after discovering that a considerable number of players had gathered at the location where the Semi-World Boss had appeared.

Judging from the information he had received, quite a few famous figures had already arrived, including some of the most renowned experts and influential figures within the Green Marbly Kingdom.

"Let’s see if this turns into a proper ’festival,’" Shin said with a smirk.

With that, he flapped his wings and accelerated, flying toward the Raja Desert at an even greater speed.

BOOM!

...

When Shin arrived at his destination, he found a massive crowd of players gathered throughout the area, all maintaining a cautious distance from the said Semi-World Boss.

The players had spread out into multiple groups, while those who preferred to operate alone stood apart from the others.

The surrounding terrain was relatively open, as the gathering took place in the middle of the desert. This made it easy to identify some of the notable figures among the crowd.

With only a brief sweep of his gaze, Shin had already spotted several famous experts—some of whom were even more renowned than Heartless Dream and Crimson Soul.

After surveying the surroundings for a while, he finally spotted Khavin and the elite members of the Desert Bandits.

Keeping himself concealed beneath his stealth, Shin approached their group without making a sound.

"How did you end up here when I specifically assigned you to keep the area around the Sandspine Waste clear?"

The moment Shin spoke, every member of the Desert Bandits nearly jumped out of their skin. Several of them instinctively prepared to defend themselves.

However, when they realized who had appeared among them, they collectively heaved a sigh of relief and lowered their guards.

Even so, lingering fear remained on their faces.

Shin had managed to infiltrate their formation without anyone noticing. The thought alone was enough to send a chill down their spines.

If he had been their enemy and intended to eliminate them, they might not even have had the opportunity to resist before he slaughtered them all.

Khavin quickly recovered his composure and put on a smile. "Serv is already handling that assignment, Sir Battle God."

He paused briefly before continuing. "We’ve already cleared the area after driving away the members of the Desert Sun Coalition stationed nearby, so our people have some free time."

"And while we were regrouping, we received intelligence from our contacts about the appearance of this Semi-World Boss."

Shin gave Khavin a skeptical look, causing the mercenary leader to immediately fall silent.

Khavin might not have been able to see the expression hidden beneath Shin’s mask, but he could tell that the Battle God wasn’t particularly pleased with his decision to venture here without informing him first.

Khavin understood that Shin had no intention of letting his people wander off and pursue their own interests while the commission was still underway.

Shin, however, could already see through the thoughts running through Khavin’s mind.

Despite recognizing the mercenary leader’s intentions, he chose not to call him out.

After all, Shin could sympathize with Khavin’s ambition. The opportunity to witness—and perhaps even participate in—a battle against a Semi-World Boss was difficult to come by. For someone striving to establish himself among the top experts of the virtual world, passing up such an opportunity would be far from easy.

Shin eventually turned his attention toward the distant horizon.

A massive silhouette loomed in the distance, so enormous that it resembled a towering hill rising from the middle of the desert.

Shin narrowed his eyes as he examined the colossal figure.

"What exactly is that thing?" he muttered.

......