Child of Destiny

Chapter 2274: Power Structure of the Green Marbly Kingdom

...

Shin stood before the group, staring at them for quite a while, especially the trio who had been enjoying themselves moments earlier.

He eventually sighed and decided not to scold them. After all, he was also the kind of person who would indulge himself first whenever he visited a foreign region.

Seeing that Shin wasn’t going to scold them, Owen immediately stepped forward, wrapped an arm around his shoulders, and grinned. "Come on~, Brother Swordsman! We earned quite a lot from those contests."

Even though Owen had been part of the Empyrean Talons for quite a while now, he was still used to calling Shin by the pseudonym the latter had used when they first met.

To him, Shin was still the Nameless Swordsman—the Angel of Death—of the Saint Heaven Kingdom.

Shin waved his hand. "I just didn’t expect you to be able to convince those two."

Both Diablo and Alucard were usually serious when it came to official matters, so it was quite surprising to see them joining Owen in such festivities.

The Demonic Duo merely exchanged glances before shrugging their shoulders.

After a while, Shin finally noticed that Felix and Felicia were with the group as well. "So, you two came as well."

Felix chuckled. "We didn’t have anything better to do anyway, so we decided to join this raid."

Felicia nodded. "Since we still have to wait for two days in-game, it’s better to explore places beyond the Lesser Kingdom of Juron."

Shin then looked around, particularly at the climate of the Green Marbly Kingdom, before speaking. "I hope the environment here won’t affect you too much."

Given the races the two possessed, such a humid environment could greatly hinder their overall combat prowess.

After their brief exchange, Shin turned toward Samael, who had remained quiet until now. "Brat, it seems like you’ve gotten a little stronger again."

Samael was a Paladin of the Church of the Sun and Moon, allowing Shin to quickly gauge the rookie Paladin’s strength at a glance.

As the Envoy of the Church of the Sun and Moon, Shin could instantly perceive the subtle changes in the aura surrounding Samael.

"I heard that you’ve also converted your class into a unique one..." Shin paused for a moment as he tried to recall its name before continuing. "...the Eclipse Judiciar."

"How is it? Is it a good class?" he asked.

Samael nodded enthusiastically. "It fits my style perfectly! It doesn’t just give me and the team a lot of buffs, but it can also turn me into a proper bruiser during battles!"

"I can become the team’s secondary tank now!" he added excitedly.

Shin looked Samael up and down, finally noticing the heavy armor the latter was wearing.

"You may have become a bit tankier, but it’ll greatly slow down your movement," he commented before quickly adding, "Though, it shouldn’t hurt your playstyle too much. It’s not like you can move around that much anyway."

The group chatted for a little longer before finally deciding to proceed with the main business.

Just as they were about to leave, Diablo could no longer hold back his curiosity. "Anyway, Vice Commander. Who is this guy with you?"

Hearing those words, the group finally turned their gazes toward the person standing right beside Shin, who had been acting like a meek mouse this entire time.

After being subjected to the gazes of multiple powerhouse experts, Garnet immediately felt as though he were being scrutinized by a pack of hungry desert beasts.

His back was already drenched in cold sweat, and he was terrified by their gazes.

Shin finally acknowledged Garnet’s presence and asked, "Who are you again?"

"I-... I..." Garnet stuttered under Shin’s overwhelming presence before finally managing to introduce himself. "I... am Garnet from the Desert Bandits."

"That’s what he says." Shin nodded toward the group before asking, "Anyway, why are you following me?"

"I... I..." Garnet didn’t know how to respond.

He wanted to cry, but no tears came out.

He wanted to leave as well, but he was too afraid that Shin might misunderstand his earlier words. Thus, he could only stay by Shin’s side and act like a servant.

"I want to act as your guide. I may not be the strongest person around here, but I am at least very familiar with all the regions of the Green Marbly Kingdom."

In the end, this was the only excuse he could come up with.

"Oh~! A guide! Then he’ll be useful!" Owen commented before clicking his tongue. "And here I thought he was some fan of ours looking for an autograph."

"I don’t think you’re that famous, though." Alucard delivered a blow that instantly ’killed’ him.

"But Brother Swordsman is!" Owen immediately refuted.

Shin ignored their antics and began leading the group. "We’ll talk as we walk."

He then turned his attention back to Garnet. "Since you’re a local, you must be quite familiar with the local powers as well."

Garnet swallowed hard, seemingly thankful that he had just narrowly escaped whatever disaster might have befallen him.

He quickly organized the necessary information in his head before continuing. "There are quite a lot of local powerhouses within the kingdom. I wonder which ones Sir Battle God wishes to know about."

Shin felt slightly awkward hearing the title, but he chose to ignore it. "Just give us a rough briefing of the power structure here."

Garnet thought for a moment.

He mentally removed all the ’less important’ powers that wouldn’t matter in the eyes of the monsters accompanying him and focused only on those that wielded significant influence throughout the kingdom.

"There are quite a lot of First-Rate Guilds within the kingdom, but none of them should be able to interest Sir Battle God," Garnet started before quickly adding, "However, Sir will surely be interested in the Super Guilds, Ultra Guilds, and Hyper Guilds ruling this region."

"Super Guilds? Ultra Guilds? Hyper Guilds?" Samael, the youngest among the group, repeated with confusion.

He was quite a gamer and had played a couple of games before, but he wasn’t nearly as experienced as the others around him.

As the virtual world progressed, the terminology used to classify guilds had also become increasingly detailed and complicated.

These were concepts he had never really heard of before.

Owen, who was standing right beside him, took it upon himself to explain. "You should be aware of the Powerhouse Guilds within the game, right?"

"Of course!" Samael nodded confidently. "The Hand of Midas is one. It’s the number one Trading Firm and lifestyle guild. There’s also the Assassin Union, the number one assassin organization with a powerful intelligence network. Then there’s the Hydra Guild, which is currently the number one guild recognized by everyone."

He paused for a moment before listing the other powers he knew. "The Titan Guild, Central Order, Dragon Pavilion, Mythical Guild, and..."

Owen chuckled when he saw the rookie Paladin showing off his knowledge before cutting him off. "Alright, alright. You really know about them."

"However, that’s the old way of distinguishing these Powerhouse Guilds. It’s not accurate enough to describe their true purposes or the businesses they usually operate."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "Right now, there are three major categories for the Powerhouse Guilds in the game."

He raised three fingers. "The Super Guilds, the Ultra Guilds, and the Hyper Guilds."

He then lowered two fingers before continuing. "The Super Guilds are basically the tier above the First-Rate Guilds. That’s where most of the powerhouse guilds you just mentioned fall."

"The Ultra Guilds, on the other hand, are guilds backed by multiple financial groups, huge conglomerates, and other corporations from the real world that have begun investing in the game following the most recent patches."

"As for the Hyper Guilds, they’re coalitions of multiple First-Rate Guilds, along with a few Second- and Third-Rate Guilds mixed in. They’ve combined their forces to match the might of the first two categories."

"Oh~!" Samael exclaimed in understanding.

In the meantime, Garnet continued with his ’report.’ "There are currently five of the largest guilds competing for dominance within the kingdom."

"There is only one Super Guild—the Blood Murder Guild," he added.

At this moment, Diablo couldn’t help but chime in. "Oh! It’s those guys."

The others turned toward him, seemingly curious about what he knew.

"You know them?" Alucard asked.

Diablo simply shrugged. "I know a bit about them. Their overall size isn’t that large, barely having fifteen to twenty thousand members in total. But every one of their members is decently skilled."

"When I was still working with my previous organization, these people gave us quite a bit of trouble," he chuckled before adding. "They’re a bunch of lunatics who don’t care about anything aside from fighting."

"If you ask me, they’re oddly similar to the heretics of the Demonic Church of Terror," he continued, giving Shin and Alucard a knowing look.

"Oh~!" Alucard nodded in understanding.

Shin nodded as well.

After all, they had just experienced a battle against those crazy people during the most recent ’activity’ in the Lesser Kingdom of Juron.

Shin was particularly reminded of Malzareth—the Demonic Oni he had personally fought and acknowledged.

Moreover, Diablo had also mentioned his previous organization, which was the Pandemonium Descendants.

If this guild had given those people some trouble, then their abilities should have a high ceiling.

Garnet then added, "They’re really a bunch of lunatics. No one wants to provoke them."

"However, due to their limited numbers, they’re only able to occupy a few hunting regions and leveling maps within the kingdom."

He paused and looked at Shin and the others before continuing. "The other three are Ultra Guilds—"

"One of them is the Azure Black Guild, which is backed by the Green Life Group from the real world."

Hearing this, Samael couldn’t help but exclaim. "Ah! The creators of the Elixir of Life!"

"Oh~! You know them?" Owen asked.

"Of course, I know them!" Samael nodded. "They’re the number one company from our country and extremely wealthy! They’re even universally recognized as a hegemonic corporation."

"Eh?" Owen slightly tilted his head. "Where did you come from, anyway?"

"I’m from the Deep Blue Continent," Samael replied innocently.

"Oh~!"

His answer earned him a collective reaction from the rest of the group.

Garnet continued. "The other two Ultra Guilds are the Mirage Soul Guild and the Illusion Dream Guild, both of which are backed by Dream Entertainment."

"Their individual scale isn’t as large as Blood Murder or Azure Black, but when they join forces, even those two guilds would be reluctant to clash with them head-on."

"Of course, Blood Murder doesn’t fear them. It’s just that their territories are too far apart from each other. Blood Murder rules the north, while the two Ultra Guilds are situated in the southern part of the kingdom. That’s why there are barely any clashes between them."

"As for Azure Black, they’re situated in the west, so they aren’t too concerned about competition either."

Hearing about the two Ultra Guilds, Shin and the others couldn’t help but become slightly more interested.

"Dream Entertainment, huh? Isn’t that the commercial titan of the Sun-Moon Continent?" Owen mumbled.

"Tsk! Tsk! I also heard that they’re the largest entertainment company in the entire world," Alucard added.

Even someone involved in the military like him had heard of their reputation.

’I think I heard from Alice that they’re the ones who organized our band’s previous concert during our last special operation.’ Shin couldn’t help but recall the connection.

Garnet then named the final local powerhouse. "The fifth is the Hyper Guild called the Desert Sun Coalition. It’s composed of almost all the First-Rate Guilds stationed in the eastern part of the kingdom."

Unfortunately, Shin and the others weren’t particularly interested in this group.

It might be enormous because of its overwhelming number of members.

But in their eyes, the people from a Hyper Guild were nothing more than a massive number of players gathered together.

...