Child of Destiny



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The Stoneback Gorilla ignored the rest and started charging at Shin with at full speed. Contrary to its huge and heavy body, it was moving with a speed that would not lose to either Whitie or Solus.

It took only a few seconds to reach Shin, who was already getting ready for the exchange.

Shin squatted his hips and held the sheathed sword with his left hand while putting the other on its hilt. The space elemental mana in the surroundings was gathered around him as he guided them toward the sheathed [Yamato].

He waited for the final moment before he moved his feet. He executed one of his movement techniques and disappeared from his spot, dodging the descending fist of the gorilla, before appearing in multiple places while also creating illusionary figures of himself at the same time.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

'Epic Movement Technique: Ghost Evanescent'

A moment later, those illusionary figures moved as one before launching themselves toward the gorilla all at the same time while simultaneously unsheathing their swords and swinging them forward.

Swoosh!

Click!

'Jade Kirin Scripture: Quick Draw – World Splitter'

Shing!

Multiple lines that were intersecting with one another filled the air as they moved toward the huge body of the target monster at the center.

Cling! Cling! Cling! Cling!

Unfortunately, despite how powerful each strike was, they were still unable to break through the defense of the gorilla. Aside from affecting the glowing aura that was covering its body, which slightly dimmed after receiving the attacks, nothing else had happened.

"Tsk!" Shin clicked his tongue before quickly moving his feet in retreat.

Bang!

The spot where he previously stood suddenly exploded as the Stoneback Gorilla leaped on it and smashed its fists down once again.

It was about to give chase when Astaroth finally arrived and blocked its path in a timely fashion. He then swung his greatsword at the gorilla, which forced it to halt its steps and blocked the incoming strike.

Bang!

The Stoneback Gorilla was still able to block the sudden attack by placing its arm in front of its face, blocking the greatsword with the thick furs and the glowing aura that was layered above it.

The clash of the two sides caused an eruption of powers that spread in every direction. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, the monster still did not suffer any damage despite how serious the collision was.

Seeing that, Shin could not help but frown deeply as he found the current situation a little troublesome. "Is this guy invulnerable in his current state?"

Then he saw Whitie suddenly jump from behind the gorilla and swung his glowing fist forward. He sent a strong beam of light with that punch that flew straight to the head of the monster.

Bang!

The explosion that it caused was also quite strong, but the result was the same. The gorilla remained undamaged and unscratched.

Even the pillar of flame that Solus had sent in the next instant did not cause any damage to the monster. Aside from leaving some burned marks on its furs, the gorilla remained unaffected.

The group continued to gang up at the Stoneback Gorilla, but they still could not leave even a scratch on its body.

This was putting a lot of pressure on Shin as he was running out of ideas on how to escape this situation. And since it was already like this, he would choose to retreat if he really did not come up with any solution to this.

Taking down this monster would be the best as he was now sure that this gorilla would have a Beast Core. But he had already spent quite a lot of time here already and wasting more time would only hinder his progress.

He still had to gather the Meteorites that he needed for upgrading his sword before proceeding to take his Tier 3 Promotion Quest after. His schedule was quite tight right now and had a limited amount of time to play the game due to his studies, so he had to make use of his time right.

He was about to give up when his eyes caught the current appearance of the Health Bar of the Stoneback Gorilla floating above its head.

Earlier, when he first saw the monster gorilla enter its transformation, he also saw that its HP Bar glowed brightly. He first thought that it was because of the special effects that were added into the game since most of the monsters that he encountered earlier outside the cave also had glowing Health Bars whenever they entered their berserk states, albeit in crimson color.

That was the reason why he thought that it was just a new effect that the monsters had whenever they entered a special state.

But now that he got a closer look at it, he noticed that the glow that it had seemed to be much dimmer than the first time he saw it. And when he paid attention to it, he discovered that the more attack that it endured from them, the dimmer the glow became.

"Does this signify that it is losing its powers the more attack it endured," he muttered as he paused for a moment and watched the gorilla try to withstand the continuous assault that the three elemental spirits were throwing at it.

"So, it is not an invulnerable state, but an overpowered barrier that lasted for a certain period. Or something that can only endure a certain extent of attacks," he continued as he curled his lips. "The more damage it endures, the weaker that barrier becomes."

"Given how dim it is now, it can only mean that it can only withstand a few more attacks before dissipating completely," he added before giving more instructions to confirm his hypothesis.

"Threw a few of your strongest attacks. I want to test something," right after he said those words, the three elemental spirits quickly exploded with a series of attacks that assaulted the gorilla from every direction.

Shin did not join this time as he wanted to see if he was right. And soon enough, the answer presented itself in front of him.

"So, that is the case, huh," he nodded before complaining a little. "But d*mn! How can the developers create something as unreasonable as this? Isn't a monster like this a little too overpowered? I bet even a strong expedition team will not be able to defeat this guy unless they are all in Tier 3 of their respective classes."

Shin now realized that he was a crazy player who would pick a fight against such a monster. He realized that he belonged to the group of players who have such guts.

Smiling bitterly, he quickly moved and joined the assault and attack the Stoneback Gorilla with a series of skills. He executed a skill one after another under the state of Reality Manifestation, dealing unbelievable damage to the barrier that was protecting the monster.

It did not take long before the aura protecting the Stoneback Gorilla finally collapsed. And with that, the monster had no choice but to receive the combined forces of everyone, making it suffer large damages that chunked out a huge part of its Health Bar.

After suffering their continuous assault, the Stoneback Gorilla put up its final struggle and exploded with another unbelievable boost in strength. It entered a berserk state that give Shin a headache.

Fortunately, it no longer had another phase where it could summon that unreasonable aura barrier that coated its body.

If it really did, then Shin would rather retreat for the time being rather than expending more time fighting such an overpowered monster that entered both berserk and invulnerable states.

In those states, where it had powerful attacks, extreme speed, and a strong body on top of its impenetrable defense, then their group would most likely end up being annihilated.

Shin was thankful that the game developers were sane enough not to design the Stoneback Gorilla that way. Or else, Shin might as well hunt them down and fight them instead in real life.

Roar!

The Stoneback Gorilla released another roar, albeit a painful one, before it collapsed on the ground lifelessly.

Shin did not let his guard down despite seeing that, but he too almost collapsed when all the adrenaline disappeared and the accumulated fatigue kicked in.

But before everything else, he chose to receive their rightful rewards first and walked toward the huge corpse of the monster.

He looked at it for a few moments before exhaling deeply and ordering the others to look out for possible enemies. Then he started working on the corpse and gathered all the materials that he could get from it.

Naturally, the most valuable material that he could think of was the thick furs on its arms and the stone armor on its back. At the same time, its bones were also good materials that could be used for weapons while the rest of the skill were perfect for a set of armor.

As for the meat from its body, he also kept them as he read from the forums that these were good ingredients for cooking alongside the innards and other organs that it had. They could also use for making medicines and concocting potions, so he was sure that they were all valuable.

While he was gathering everything, he finally saw the Beast Core that he was looking for. It was a spherical object that was as large as Shin's entire upper body.

It had a bright yellow color and a golden-brown aura surrounding it. It also carried a hint of suppression that could affect its surroundings.

A single look at it was more than enough for Shin to realize that it was a huge ball of energy. It was completely different from the other cores that they had collected. Its size alone was enough proof for that.

Shin looked at Astaroth and noticed that the elemental spirit was showing some reaction to the Beast Core. He could clearly see that Astaroth wanted to absorb it as soon as possible. But since Shin had not given him any orders, he did not dare to make a move.

Shin smiled before sighing. He still hadn't let Astaroth absorb any Elemental Core or Beast Core yet because he was afraid that the guy would immediately enter hibernation just like what happened to Vladimir.

After all, it would be a little troublesome if his sole support in this place would disappear just like that.

He wanted to collect the necessary number of cores first before letting Astaroth absorb them all at once.

He thought for a moment before keeping the huge Beast Core. "As I said, I will let you absorb all of them later, so I ask you to be patient and wait until it is time."

Astaroth quickly bowed and answered. "I understand, my lord!"

After that, he nodded his head and looked around, and made sure that he did not miss anything. He had already gathered everything here, so it was time to finally head to the innermost part of the cave to get the Meteorites.

This time, he was not planning to fight any Overlord Rank Monster along the way. He would not be too greedy since he only had a limited time playing. He had to wait until tomorrow (real-world time) before he could continue hunting.

He needed to finish his business first before thinking about everything else. Though, he must admit that he was quite excited about this. He had a good feeling about what was going to happen tomorrow.

"After gathering the meteorites, I should go make a few rounds in the cave channels and see if I can find another Overlord Rank Monster tomorrow. I feel that I will find something that will be beneficial to Astaroth."

"After that, I can go outside and hunt a few members of Black Market and deal serious damage to their forces before leaving this place."

He nodded repeatedly after listing out the tasks that he had to finish.

Little did he know, he was already making the game developers crazy in the real world. It was just the first day since the game had been re-launched, yet here he was, giving them a new set of problems one after another.

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