Child of Destiny

...…

Uno had been stalking the nobles of the Dark Cloud Kingdom that he had seen earlier for an entire day (in-game time). He had yet to find crucial evidence that would link them to the Demonic Churches, but he had found some conspiracy after following them.

However, he was not interested in those since his main interest was to find a link between them and the Demonic Churches.

From what he had seen, these people were too careful of their movements due to the rumors of him and his achievements. After he had slaughtered quite a few key units from the army along with the special forces meant for important operations, the officials of the Dark Cloud Kingdom were taking necessary precautions.

They had set up quite a few traps for him, but he did not bite any of them since they were not worth the trouble.

He might look like a crazy slaughter, who would kill everyone on his face, after what he had done. But he was very patient when stalking his prey.

He did not show any unnecessary actions when he was following the nobles, making the NPC Officials and players who were looking for him quite confused.

He did not make a move for quite a while, making those people waiting for him to take action think that he had already retreated.

Regardless, none of them were willing to let their guards down and continued to observe the situation.

This lasted for a few more days, making these people think that Uno had left.

Well, in a sense, they were right. Uno had left the game a couple of times to eat and train outside the game, satiating his hunger and stretching his body.

Even if he could stay inside the gaming cabin for quite longer due to the special serums, he chose to log out from time to time to not miss a single training routine.

He did not encounter Arthur, Leonard, or Cloe during the entire time as they were still attending the funeral of Bernard and supporting Arthur, who was quite devastated after his father's passing.

This funeral would last for a couple of days as they were trying to wait for Shiella to come back from the exploration of the tomb.

Uno did not attend as he was not Shin. Moreover, it could cause some unnecessary conflict or misunderstanding if he went there. That was why he chose not to attend and decided to do his own thing.

After doing what he needed in the outside world, he would log back inside the game and continue stalking the nobles and other officials that he had found.

After days of patience, his efforts finally paid off as those people from the Demonic Churches could no longer delay their progress.

Since he had not shown any signs of movement after these past few days, these people finally decided to continue their operations.

That was when they showed Uno what he wanted.

The nobles and high officials of the Dark Cloud Kingdom had shown their contact with the Demonic Churches and even did some rituals as believers of those churches. They even showed him how they converted some of them into demons after sacrificing some innocent people.

All of these were recorded on the spying stones that Uno had prepared, catching every moment from different angles.

But he was still not satisfied with this evidence as he was not sure if there were spies at the Storm Kingdom that could turn this against him. Even if he would be getting Commander Taiga's support, he wanted to make sure that everything would be going smoothly.

He was preparing to capture these nobles and high officials.

But he also did not want to capture just any one of them. His targets were some people high up in the position and social status that would make an irrefutable link between the Dark Cloud Kingdom and the Demonic Churches.

If possible, he would want to capture their king. But he was aware that it would be impossible given his current strength.

He had to settle with the other nobles and high officials for now.

As he was stalking these people, he suddenly heard something from their conversations.

"The Elder has told us to gather everyone so that they can finally state the ritual. It seems like they want us to hasten the opening of the portal before they wage war with the Storm Kingdom."

"I see. Then let's call everyone to gather at the ceremony hall."

"The King will be leading the ritual, so we have to make sure to set up heavy security to prevent any rats from infiltrating us. Quite a few people are getting in our way recently after all."

"Alright, we will be heading to the ceremony hall while you summon the others."

"What about our people at the Storm Kingdom?"

"Let them do their job. Their roles over there are also important. But you must send a messenger that will inform them about our activities so that they can match our movements."

"Then I will send our messenger birds."

As Uno listened to their conversation, he could not help but grin as a new plan was formulated inside his head.

He then summoned Hanzo and Blackie and instructed them. "You two, follow that guy to the place that they are talking about and find a way to infiltrate it. The sooner we get there the better since that is when their security will be the weakest."

Hanzo slightly frowned his brows but did not say anything and just disappeared from his position through 'Void Steps'.

Blackie also did not say anything and just stepped into the shadows of the night and melded with them.

As for Uno, he would be following the other noble, who would be sending a message to the spies of the Storm Kingdom as he was planning something else.

…

A few moments later, he arrived at a secret residence after following the said noble. It was a luxurious mansion in the middle of the forest with quite a lot of guards patrolling its perimeter.

But since Uno had arrived at the same time as the noble, he was able to sneak inside through his stealth as the latter 'distracted' the guards for him.

He then continued to stalk the noble inside the mansion while using all his enhancing skills for his stealth, and the passive abilities of the Phantom Swordsman Class were showing their worth.

Along with the carelessness of the noble for being too confident as he was inside his mansion, Uno was able to infiltrate the place without encountering any problems.

He continued to follow the noble as they entered a secret room.

The noble did not waste any time and looked for a sheet of paper laid it on the table and was about to write on it.

But before the plume could even touch the paper, the noble suddenly halted his actions. His eyes also turned blank as if they had lost their focus.

That was when Uno walked out of the shadows along with Grimrace, who was stretching his right hand and his palm facing the noble.

From the look of it, he was releasing his psychic powers to control the noble through special means.

Uno stared at the noble a couple of times and commented. "This mind control sure is handy. It must be derived from Mentalism Techniques meant for illusion in the real world."

He observed the noble with great interest before turning to Grimrace. "Can you control him to write something that I wanted and send it to those spies at the Storm Empire?"

"Heh! That is a piece of cake," said Grimrace as he added. "If it is someone with the stronger mental strength to resist my 'Mind Domination', then it will be impossible to easily control them."

"But he is not just weak but trash as well – such a thing is not that challenging," he continued before proceeding to what Uno wanted him to do. "So, what do you want me to have to write?"

Uno grinned. "Make him write – that all the spies of the Storm Kingdom must gather to their 'usual' place. As for when-… let's settle with two days from now. We must finish our business in this place first after all."

Grimrace started grinning as he could read what Uno was planning to do. "Hitting two birds with one stone? I like it."

He could tell that Uno wanted to sweep through everyone in a single move. Moreover, he was quite ruthless, which was why Grimrace liked him more than Shin.

After controlling the noble, Uno then instructed. "Put him to sleep for now as we search the room. Who knows if we can find something interesting before meeting with the old man."

This secret room was not only filled with books as the section adjacent to it was a room full of treasures.

"Should we rob this treasury and not leave anything behind?" suggested Grimrace as he saw the overflowing amount of gold within the treasure room and the artifacts and other things filling the room.

Uno frowned as he said. "With such an amount of treasure, I don't think it will fit into my inventory. It will be different if the old man is here."

With Hanzo's manipulation of space, he could create a pocket dimension where they could put such treasures.

"I put it inside my Shadow Realm," suggested Grimrace.

Hearing that, Uno could not help but look at the elemental spirit suspiciously before saying. "You have never taken the initiative to help Shin. What are you plotting?"

"Tsk!" Grimrace clicked his tongue as he replied. "Let's just say that I like you more than the other."

"That ruthlessness of yours when slaughtering those trash is satisfying," he added as he recalled how Uno cold-heartedly killed someone within blinking an eye.

Uno eyed Grimrace suspiciously before pointing to the noble. "Taking these treasures as it will create some trouble. Can you manipulate that guy's memories and let him forget about them for the time being or something?"

Grimrace frowned a little before replying. "That shouldn't be a problem. But given my current strength, such technique will easily be dispelled by someone slightly stronger than me."

Uno nodded and instructed. "That shouldn't be a problem. He has never seen us anyway, so it will be fine."

"Moreover, we only need him to forget about his treasures for a few days. At least until we finish our business here," he added.

Grimrace felt somewhat disappointed that Uno was not planning to stay here and continue slaughtering more people.

Regardless, he still followed the instructions given to him. He first manipulated the memories of the noble before heading to the treasure room and enveloping everything with a mantel of shadow.

Swoosh!

Not long after, everything disappeared as Grimrace kept them inside his shadow.

After that, the two walked around the rooms to make sure that they had not missed anything important before leaving the place.

…

They then headed to where Hanzo and Blackie were located as Uno was planning to hide there until the so-called ritual led by the king of the Dark Cloud Kingdom would take place.

He would not be planning to capture everyone gathered since it was an impossible task. All he needed was to capture everything with spying stones before capturing a couple of important officials and nobles once everything was over.

He had already formulated the plan inside his head, and all they needed was to execute them properly.

But not everything could go according to his plan as there were a couple of variables that appeared along the way.

…

After meeting with Hanzo and Blackie, the two elemental spirits led him inside a cave that was hidden deep within the territory of the capital of the kingdom.

The entire place was concealed by a huge formation, which made it impossible to notice from the outside. Moreover, it was also heavily guarded by powerful NPCs, making it hard to infiltrate.

Fortunately, he had sent Hanzo and Blackie ahead of time to follow the other noble earlier, who had led them inside.

Now that Hanzo had some access inside, he was able to create little gaps from the formation without being noticed. However, they also immediately repaired it right after Uno joined them.

Uno paused for a moment right after entering before turning to Hanzo. "Do you think you can create an emergency escape route that we can use if some accidents happen later?"

"That shouldn't be a problem, but it will require us some time. And I also need the Fallen Goddess' help with it," answered Hanzo.

"That's fine. We have more than enough time before they start. Let's make sure to take necessary precautions before heading inside," nodded Uno before turning to the deeper parts of the cave while squinting his eyes. "I have a bad feeling about this place."

As he shared a vessel with Shin, he also possessed the 'premonition' ability that the latter had.

These instincts were telling him that there was something terrible waiting for them inside, so it was necessary to take some precautions before continuing.

He might be confident about his abilities, but he was not foolish enough to be overconfident. He knew when to advance and retreat, so he would not be jumping in that place unless he was fully prepared.

...