Child of Destiny

...

As Arthur entered the game, he was immediately greeted by a message notification that came right at the same time. Looking at it, he saw it came from Uno, who asked him to meet.

Arthur was quite confused, but still agreed to meet. He was not sure what this guy was thinking, but since Uno had somewhat helped him earlier this morning, he felt that he needed to at least hear the other party out.

In the place that Uno had sent him, Arthur found that Uno was still hunting the armies of Dark Cloud Kingdom after seeing the sea of corpses of the NPC soldiers and demonic monsters.

Sensing his presence, Uno turned around and said. "I need to ask for something."

Arthur slightly tilted his head to the said before asking. "What is it?"

"The thing called United Cup is around the corner, doesn't it? Are your team getting ready for it?" asked Uno, going straight to the point.

Arthur frowned when he heard that, thinking what Uno was planning. But he immediately realized something after a brief moment. "Are you planning to join?"

Uno thought for a moment before nodding. "I find it interesting, so yes. Moreover, Shin will not like it if I leave you just like that."

Arthur stared at Uno for quite a while before responding. "You don't have to worry about us. We can handle ourselves. We are already training to build our coordination these last few days to prepare for the tournament."

"And I don't think we will be able to build a decent teamwork with you," he added.

Uno shrugged his shoulders. "I don't need to be in the team battle. Just being a representative for the one-versus-one battle or the last-man-standing group battle should be enough."

"At least you can secure an easy point that way," he added before pausing for a moment. He then continued after a brief thinking. "Moreover, I can also help you train."

Arthur thought for quite a while before nodding. "I can help you ask for it. But I can't promise you that they will accept you that easily, especially Cloe. She seems to hate you and is quite scared of you at the same time."

"Anyway, we still have plenty of time before the real tournament starts. Given our strength and the reputation of every member of our team, it will be expected for us to be invited as a seeded team, so we will have to wait until the group stage starts."

"The rounds that will start next week will be for a bunch of upstart teams and casual gamers, who want to join for fun. There are a few decent teams there, who will breeze their way to the play-in stage, but it will not be enough to interest us."

He then paused for a moment before asking. "But if you want to join us, then come meet me tomorrow. I will introduce you to others once they have agreed to your 'application'."

"If that is all, then I will be leaving. I still have quite a lot of things that I need to take care of," said Arthur as he prepared to leave.

"Wait," but before Arthur could even turn around, Uno called him out and tossed a bundle of envelopes.

Arthur was quiet to respond and caught the bundle before looking at it. Based on the information that he had gotten through his Dragon Eyes, it seemed to be a stack of recommendation letters.

"What are these for?" he asked curiously.

"They are recommendation letters to enter those Royal Cities. Shin has already gotten it for quite a while. It seems like he has lost the opportunity to distribute it to everyone due to the recent events," answered Uno.

Those recommendation letters were from Archbishop Ronald – or rather Cardinal Ronald now since he had recently been promoted – after Shin had captured Haowin and a couple of Demonic Players, who played quite a role in the assassination of the spy within the Church of the Sun and Moon.

Arthur stared at those letters for quite a while before realizing what Uno meant. "Eh!? Are you telling me that-…"

But before he could complete his words, Uno had cut him off. "Yes. It is the recommendation letter to enter those Royal Cities that will lead you to the Second Continent."

"But that is only one of the requirements. You also need to be at least at Tier 3 Class and the recommendation letter from your Mysterious Instructors before you can enter," he added as he also prepared to leave.

"I am planning to wait for Shin to fully wake up before handing these to you. But since he plans to stay 'asleep' for a while longer, I decided to give it to you otherwise."

"Since you said that you still have plenty of time before the real United Cup starts, then you can use this opportunity to train yourselves and your coordination while exploring the Second Continent."

"You should have used the information that Shin has given you to unlock some hidden requirements when meeting the Mysterious Instructors, so I can only expect that you have an idea of how dangerous that place can be."

"The atmosphere there is filled with the densest and purest mana, so even moving will be quite challenging. But it will also be a perfect opportunity to train your bodies."

"Moreover, the monsters over there are much more powerful than the ones that could be found in this continent. Even the weakest monster there can be as strong as a King Class Monster of the same level from here. Don't you think that it is a perfect place to train yourselves and hone your skills?"

Arthur fell in silence after hearing those words as he understood what Uno was trying to say. He then turned to the latter and nodded his head. "I understand."

"You can also distribute the rest of the letters to your and Shin's friends. Among the list that Shin has – there are your big sister, our senior brother, and the group led by those guys named Lawless and Faker."
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"Help me hand some of those to them," he added as he turned to leave. "Contact me once you are done talking with the others."

Arthur stared at Uno's back for quite a while as he was lost in his thoughts, distracted.

Before Shin's back was usually what he was pursuing in the past. They were quite rivals, but their strengths were quite close to each other.

But this time, had another back that he would be chasing, who also quite gapped him in every other area. He could also see that this very back would be the one that would be chased after in the future.

He wanted to gain strength and become powerful, but he could not set an example as Nathan and the rest of his elders were too big of a goal. That was why he had chosen to challenge Uno to see how strong he was after hearing what David had about him.

Since David had also mentioned that this very back was also what Shin was chasing after in the past, Arthur felt that he would want to do the same.

"It looks like we will have the same goal for now," he mumbled to himself.

After that, he crushed a return scroll as he wanted to quickly inform the rest.

***

Somewhat in the other place of the Aurora Continent, Immortal was currently heading toward a cave as he led three of his people – they were Daven, Kazin, and Rust.

"This should be the place," said Immortal after observing the cave for quite a while.

"Boss, are you sure that that scary Skeleton Skipper will bring us to the second continent once we bring him the item inside this cave?" Rust could not help but ask as she still had some suspicion.

"The information shouldn't be wrong," responded Immortal briefly as he took the lead in entering the cave.

"It has taken us quite a long time to find this place. Fortunately, the others are too busy with the Faction War, so there shouldn't be anyone to be ahead of us at exploring the next continent," commented Kazin.

"Being the first to set foot on the Awakened Continent should give us the pioneering rights and a special title. I wonder what it is," nodded Rust as they followed their leader.

They had purposely leaked the information to Shin so that the Faction War could be brought forward.

While everyone was too distracted with the war, they would be the first explorers of the next major continent.

But at the same time, Daven somewhat felt uneasy. He felt that they had overlooked something. "Don't you feel that we have forgotten something?"

Kazin just shrugged his shoulders as he did not care.

Meanwhile, Rust also thought something before shaking her head. "Let it be forgotten. It shouldn't be that important since we have forgotten about it anyway."

Daven was still somewhat uneasy. But since he could not recall what it was, he could only nod his head and agree with Rust.

He then turned around and looked at the cave entrance before continuing to follow Immortal along with the two.

...