Child of Destiny

...…

Atlas World, Saint Heaven Kingdom, Calderock Village

As usual, Shin was currently 'caging' himself inside his room at Mayor's Residence. At the same time, Arthur was still lazing in the room as if he didn't have anything important that he needed to do.

"D*mn! This kind of life is boring. There is nothing much that I can do currently," muttered Arthur as he was sitting lazily at the sofa.

Then he suddenly looked at Shin who was currently busy at watching a battle on the virtual screen. "Hey! You are still not done studying your next opponent? Come on! Let's do something productive."

"Tsk! How about 'you' do something productive? There was only an hour for my next match, so I need to maximize my time at studying my potential opponents. You, on the other hand, have much time on your hand so how about you go do your own thing right now?" said Shin almost instantly without turning his head at him.

Hearing that, Arthur suddenly clicked his tongue and refuted. "Tsk! Didn't I already say that I don't have to do it unless you and Leonard help me at my pending quest."

Then he leaned back at the sofa and put both of his hands at the back of his head before saying. "This game may be the best of all of the VR games that I have played so far, but it is also annoying at some times; especially when you reached our current levels."

He pursed his mouth a little before continuing. "The game runs with a strange rule. Just like what I said before, Field Monsters are for the items and materials while Quest are for the Levels. And since I already have the current best items that I can get, I don't have much to do unless I finish my pending quest."

"Then how about you do something productive in the real world then?" asked Shin immediately after hearing that.

Arthur maintained his pursing lips before replying. "Tsk! I will if I am allowed to. Uncle Nathan told me to have a cooldown for my Martial-Art training. He said that too much training is just going to stagnate my progress instead of improving it further."

"Then how about hanging out for a bit like what you usually do?" asked Shin who was still watching the battle clip on the virtual screen right in front of him.

Arthur couldn't help but clicked his tongue the moment he heard that. "Tsk! If only I can then I am more than happy to do so. Unfortunately, a certain someone did a huge mess just recently, making me to be grounded from stepping out of the house."

Shin was suddenly taken aback when he heard what Arthur had said before asking. "Huh!? You got grounded? Now, that is something. I don't remember them forbidding me from going outside these last few days."

Hearing that, Arthur rolled his eyes at him before saying. "How can you know about that if you are always staying inside your room? And of course, there is no need for them to tell you about that since you are doing nothing but to only play all day round while doing your scheduled training routine from time to time."

This time, Shin refused to reply to him and just stared at the virtual screen in front of him. The corner of Arthur's mouth suddenly twitched the moment he saw that. 'Look at how heartless and selfish this guy.'

And since he didn't have anything to do, he chose to open a virtual screen in front of him with the intention of browsing on the online forums.

After quite some time of waiting, Shin finally stood up from his spot before stretching out his waist left and right. Then he took a quick look at the game clock before muttering to himself. "Alright, it is almost time for the next round."

And right after saying those words, the system notification that he was waiting for suddenly popped up on his virtual screen. Then he couldn't help but for a huge grin with his lips before saying. "Speaking of the devil. Here comes our next challenge. I hope that this is going to be much more entertaining this time."

Before accepting, Shin took a quick look at Arthur while saying. "I am going for now. Just make yourself comfortable here."

Then he paused for a moment before adding immediately after. "Though, I don't really have to say it since you are already doing, actually."

After that, he immediately hit the accept button of the invitation with a confident expression in his face. From the looks of it, he was thinking that he was not going to lose battle either.

...

A moment later, Shin was teleported to the battle arena for the next round of his battle. And right after seeing the place that he was currently in, he couldn't help frown his eyebrows while muttering to himself. "Looks like this is going to be a tough battle."

After finding himself in the middle of the forest, where a lot of trees and bushes were growing around, he immediately took a look at his current opponent who was currently looking back at him. And the moment their eyes met midair, a heavy tension suddenly loomed around the whole place.

After a few moments of stare down, Shin suddenly started grinning widely while muttering to himself. "Interesting~! At least this guy looks a little more decent opponent compared to the others."

While Shin was thinking about that, his opponent seemed to be thinking the same. And without removing his eyes away from Shin, he suddenly started talking. "You look quite strong in those battle videos that I've watched from, but you look even stronger now that I am standing in the same stage as you."

After saying that, Akialu started summoning his monster pets one by one. And unlike his previous matches where he was only summoning one or two monsters, he now summoned three monster pets all at ones.

The moment Shin saw that his opponent was summoning his pets with any hesitation, he couldn't help but nod his head and complement his actions. "And at least, this guy is much more clever than those guys from before, who are only good at talking."

Since the summoning-focus classes such as Hunters (Beastmen), Summoners (Humans), and Necromancers (Undead) needed some time to summon their monsters, the system would give them some time to prepare themselves for the battle so that they would not have too much disadvantage on these kinds of straightforward battles.

And since Shin could see that his opponent was taking advantage of that rule to immediately set up a battle formation to deal with him, it was natural for Shin to commend his craftiness. 

After that, he started taking a look at his opponents summons. And from the looks of it, these three monsters that he had summoned were entirely different from the monster pets that he had summoned in his previous battles.

One of them was a giant bear with a huge scar on its left eye. This bear looked so strong given its huge size and the ferocity that it was currently. And from the black and iron-like furs that this bear had, Shin seemed to be quite familiar with it.

And after a quick thinking, Shin finally remembered what kind of monster it was; that bear was a similar bear that sold to Revier before, the 'Black Iron Dusk Bear'.

"Now that is some troublesome pet monster. I really put in a lot of effort when I battled that bear before. And from the looks of it this one is much a stronger version of that bear," muttered Shin to himself the moment he saw that giant bear.

After that he immediately turned his attention to the other two monster pets of Akailu. And the moment he saw them, the frown that he had with his eyebrows was starting to turn higher and higher.

One of the latter two was a giant wolf who had a mix of blue and white shades of furs. There seemed to be antenna-like furs on its head. Two of them were extending from its eyebrows towards the back of his head while the other one was extending from the top of its nose straight to the back of its head too.

From the icy aura that this wolf was releasing, Shin could tell that this wolf possessed an ice elemental power.

On the other hand, the other monster pet was another gigantic beast. Its appearance was similar to a regular tiger, but the only difference that it had was the flaming paws and tail that it had. There was also a burning crown on top of this tiger's head, making it to have both majestic and furious appearance.

"Now, now. Looks Like we finally found a really good opponent this time, huh?" said Shin while having a huge grin on his face.

Then immediately added after a brief pause. "Fortunately I also have some numbers on my side."

...