Child of Destiny

Chapter 711: The Training Grounds of the Five Penances

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Excalibur, one of the legendary swords within the «Destinyʼs Fate». The lore about it inside the game was almost no different from the legends that Shin had read in the real world. The only difference that they had was the historical note about this particular artifact. The game developers fitted its description in the main lore of the game.

This legendary artifact was the holy sword that the leader of the legendary knights of the round table, King Arthur Pendragon, had used in the past.

During the Repelling Era, one of the forces that led the human race to their victory was the Knights of the Round Table. And with King Arthurʼs lead, the knights killed countless demons during the war against the invading races from Hell.

But after a particular incident within their group, a rift was formed between the best knights of the round table and made them walk their own path after the war against the Demonic Races.

There was no more information about this particular event on the official site of the game since it was meant to be discovered by the players of the game. And at this point in time, it seemed like the scattered pieces of the broken Excalibur were one of the clues that were needed to uncover the secrets of the past.

”Tsk! Too bad, I only have a couple of the broken pieces. I canʼt learn more about this particular event. I am pretty sure that this will be a major hidden quest,” muttered Shin after reading the lore about the holy sword Excalibur.

”It looks like the owner of the largest piece of the Excalibur has the most clue about this matter. I wonder if he also inherited the Legacy of the Knights of the Round Table. It looks like a very strong Legacy,” he added after remembering the notification that he received from the system.

The group already cleared all of the other training grounds that they needed to investigate while looking for more clues about the missing knights of the Righteous Church.

But unlike what they were expecting, each of the training grounds did not train the main five senses of a living being. Instead, it was meant to train the other senses that most of the players had neglected inside the game.

At first, Shin and the others thought that Five Penance Training Ground was meant to train their senses, especially when they saw the sub-name of the first training ground – eyesight.

But after experiencing the second training ground, they immediately realized that the original thought that they had was actually wrong.

The word ʼeyesightʼ in the first training ground actually stood for ʼthe first light that a warrior would seeʼ. It was a famous phrase that everyone would hear after deciding to learn about Martial-Arts and Mentalism.

It meant that just like an infant, who was opening their eyes for the very first time, a person needed a light first before they could see a whole new world.

In the real world, this phrase was not taken literally. Instead, it meant that a person needed to learn about the world first before living in it.

In the first training ground of the Five Penance, the Penance of Eyesight, Shin and the others needed to close their eyes to know more about the ʼworldʼ inside the game. And by closing their eyes, the game was telling them that they were currently living inside a magical world where Mana, Elements, and other types of energies existed.

Next was the training ground for oneself, or more likely called the Penance of Oneself, Shin needed to learn more about their own battle style.

Just like in the real world, an individual needed to know more about themselves before being able to fit in the world that they were living in.

Some people might think that they donʼt need to fit into society to live their lives. But the truth was their choice of not socializing with the others was actually a way of fitting in the world.

Moreover, a simple action such as buying in a convenience store, paying for their internet connections, and walking in the street was actually also a way of fitting into society. Itʼs just that their way of living was different from the other people.

On the other hand, in the training ground of the Penance of Oneself, Shin and the others needed to learn more about themselves to improve their battle styles. And since it was meant to identify their respective strengths and weaknesses, this particular training ground needed to be cleared by each member of the ground by themselves.

They needed to go through the test of the training ground for them to progress further. Or to be more precise, each of them needed to face a copy of themselves during their time within this place.

Out of the five training grounds, this one was the most beneficial for Shin since it was exactly what he currently needed.

Since he had multiple Legacies, his current battle style was pretty messy. Even though the complexity of his style and irregular rhythm were benefiting him during his battles, the fact that he hadnʼt fully mastered any of the styles that he had still remained.

He might achieve some enlightenment during his battle against the Demon God Justin, but he still knew that it was not enough if he really wanted to compete against his brothers on an equal footing. After all, those two had full control over their respective Elemental Possession.

And on top of that, they were also familiar with the creation of ʼSecret Fusion Skillsʼ which were the combination of Elemental Possession and Class Fighting Style.

After fighting his doppelganger, Shin became even more familiar with his own styles and learned a couple of their weaknesses. He might not be able to fully cover them in a short amount of time, but he was still able to become aware of how his opponents were going to counter him in his future battles.

What came after that was the Penance of Adversary. And as the name implied, this training ground tested Shin and the others on how they were going to defeat the enemies that were unfamiliar with them.

The training method on this place was as simple as battling a different set of monsters in an enclosed arena. The monsters that the party encountered in this test were actually not recorded in the official bestiary of the game where the monsters that the players had discovered during their adventures were documented.

This could only mean that these monsters havenʼt appeared in the current stage of the game. Due to this, Shin and the others needed to study these monsters carefully to find their weaknesses.

After they went through all of the monsters in the arena, they suddenly got a special bestial that was unique to them. And the monsters that they just defeated were recorded in that virtual book instead of the universal bestiary on the official website of the game.

After that training ground was the Penance of the Battlefield. And with its name alone, Shin could already tell that these three training grounds of Oneself, Adversary, and Battlefield were based on the art of war written by a famous general and strategist in the real world.

The famous phrase ”Know yourself, know your enemy, and know the terrain,” was a simple yet effective method to win a lot of wars and battles.

So, just like what was indicated in the book, the training ground for the Penance of the Battlefield tested Shin and the othersʼ flexibility when facing their enemies in an unfamiliar environment and complex terrain.

The training ground had a special function where it could change and mimic a particular place that looked like a habitat of the monster that they were facing. It changed from a dense forest to a hot desert to a snowy mountain and many more.

Shin found it quite amusing since they were able to experience different kinds of environments in this particular training ground. And this was also the reason why he was very excited when they finished all of the tests. He even checked the blueprints that they got as one of the special rewards for clearing the training ground.

And the last training ground was the Penance of Unity, a training ground where Shin and the others tested their teamwork.

On top of that, this particular training ground also tested what they all learned from the previous training grounds. Not only did they fight some groups of monsters, but they also encountered a couple of military platoons that were generated by the training ground.

Since humans had a more systematic method in battle, fighting them was much harder than mindless beasts that were only fighting based on their instincts.

The party fought a couple of battles and struggled at them before they were able to clear this particular training ground.

And after going through all of that, Shin and others finally ʼgraduatedʼ from all of the training grounds which granted them a couple of amazing rewards aside from the growth that they got after experiencing all of the so-called ʼpenanceʼ of this place.

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