The Hero of Prophecy [1]

"Why did you agree to his demands?"

Jonathan questioned his father. But Richard didn't reply and quietly picked up the cup and sipped the tea.

"Did you see when he fought Miller? He is crazy!"

When Nathan was beating Miller, the only reason Jonathan hadn't jumped in between was Richard, who was stopping him.

If not for his father, Jonathan would have fought Nathan then and there for hurting his brother.

"Do you really think he can help Miller all by himself!?"

-Clinck!

Richard finally placed the cup back on the table.

"Don't let anger cloud your mind, John. Tell me, did that youngling seem normal to you?"

Jonathan agreed that Nathan wasn't lying about his family not knowing about Miller. There was no need for Nathan to hide it.

But Jonathan didn't think that a child could plan all this by himself.

Ignoring Jonathan, who didn't seem convinced, Richard sighed.

"Those eyes of his when he was negotiating with us."

"What about it?"

"He was bored. He already knew that we won't refuse his arrangement. No, he made sure we can't refuse."

-Ding!

Jonathan was about to speak when his device rang. As his face scrunched up, Richard smiled.

"Let me guess. He lost our tails?"

Jonathan gave a defeated sigh and slumped on the couch next to his father.

"Yes. He used common portals to go all over the Island until our men couldn't keep track of him."

Richard stood up and walked over to the window. As he looked over the hustle and bustle of people, he recalled what the youngling had said before leaving.

"Lay low until I come back."

Why did the youngling tell them to lay low in between a gang war?

If Richard did as he was asked, they would suffer serious consequences. Yet Richard was smiling.

"Is he a genius, or he is simply crazy?"

Richard decided to bet on Nathan and see what the future would entail.

Whether he wanted it or not, the times were changing. They also needed to change if they didn't want to be left behind.

***

"hiss…"

I sucked in a sharp breath as I sat on my bed.

Looking at the two objects in my hand, I smiled. I finally got a VIP membership and the herb that will help me to make a breakthrough.

"Were they trying to scam me?"

That old sly geezer. Did he think I wouldn't know that he was purposely delaying it?

A gang, no matter how small, was still a proper organization. They should have some herbs and other essentials stored.

For the VIP membership card, they could just give me their own one.

Underworld's VIP membership doesn't have anything to identify its owner. This was done to protect the privacy of people.

With this, even if someone finds your membership, you can simply deny the ownership.

The authorities won't have any proof against you.

"This is going to leave a scar."

My back stung whenever I touched it. The attack done by the swordsman still hadn't healed completely.

When Jonathan entered, I was so into role-play at that time that I forgot to drink a healing potion before wearing the mask.

It was a normal wooden mask without anything special.

It would've been super awkward if I removed the mask again to drink the potion.

So keeping my all-knowing, mysterious heir image, I acted as if the wound didn't hurt.

But it hurt like hell!

"Hiss.."

Again I sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.

The wound was slowly closing thanks to the low-tier healing potion I drank while I was traveling from one portal to another. I did this to lose any tail that Richard had left behind me.

The island was too large, with portals going almost everywhere. A mid-size gang like them wouldn't have enough resources to keep track of my location throughout the island.

"Why does it taste like an apple?"

I opened another potion so that my injury healed faster, but I closed it again.

I seriously hate apples.

Before going to Downtown I had traveled to North to buy basic necessities. These included poison resistance potion, healing potion, and a few Common-grade weapons.

I had prepared for anything that could happen in Downtown.

Thankfully, the negotiations ended peacefully.

"With this, I changed a major thing in the future."

In the novel, Round Table was the world's first organization that Aegis declared as a Dark Guild.

To give a comparison, Aegis never recognized Illis, the villain organization on Earth, as an actual organization. This was to show that Illis wasn't any threat to humanity, despite it being very much so.

This showed how much of a threat Round Table, an organization solely consisting of 12 members, was seen as.

But I didn't regret my decision to change the future. Rather, this was just the beginning.

The Dungeon of trials had opened my eyes. I already knew that my actions would inevitably cause butterfly effects, but not even once did I imagine that it would become something that dangerous.

If the future was going to change, no matter how careful I was, then I might as well splurge with open arms.

For now, my current goal was to create a guild or a mercenary group with the people I was going to collect.

Along the way, I was planning to weaken the Round Table by collecting as many of its future members as I could.

Of course, I didn't know about half of their current location. But this also meant that I knew the location of another half.

Round Table was one of the major reasons why humanity was weakened even before the war started. It would be better to destroy them before they even formed.

Destroying Round Table was a gamble. I didn't know how it was going to affect the future.

But things would only change for the worse if I kept sticking to the storyline while shamelessly changing a few things saying that it was inevitable.

I wasn't going to wait for the problem to come and then survive it.

I had decided.

I will destroy anything that may become a threat to me before it has a chance to grow.

Wasn't this the main point of knowing the future? If I knew the future, then I should use it for my benefit.

"Next would be Peter and Tristan."

Both of them weren't members of the Round Table. But they were very vital to the story, especially Peter.

Tristan's role in the novel could be done by any random person, but Peter was different.

Of course, this didn't mean Tristan was useless. If he was I wouldn't have thought about collecting him.

"I hope they search for him."

I had asked Richard to search for Peter. If it was according to how it was shown in the novel, Richard wouldn't be able to find Peter. Ryan would have made sure that all his siblings were hiding properly.

The only reason I asked Richard was to know where I won't find Peter. Though I already had an idea where he was.

"I should focus on ranking up."

I shook my head and stood up.

It would take a few months at the least to get even a few members. Right now, I should focus on gaining strength.

"When would she reopen her shop?"

I muttered while preparing things to start the breakthrough.

Maybe it was because of the shock of Dungeon of Trials the future Alchemist King wasn't taking any orders.

It didn't matter, though. At this point in the story, her level of alchemy skills will only be average.

The reason I was searching for her shop online was to create connections with her before she became famous.

Right now, she should be under difficult circumstances because of her family.

It was for the best to help her and make her owe me before the 2nd year started, and she earnestly focused on alchemy rather than her support magic.

Meow-

"Wua!"

I dropped the herb in my hand because of the sudden noise.

Glancing around, I found a black cat sticking to the window of my room.

My lips twitched.

"Did you already smell it?"

Zrrr-

I spoke while sliding the window open. Before I set foot on the balcony, it jumped inside my room and sat on the bed.

Meow~

Then it leisurely lay on my bed and meowed again, seemingly asking for food.

"Pffft"

What was with its haughty attitude?

"Cats really think of themselves as the center of the world, don't they?"

I laughed again, and a can appeared in my hand.

"Ta-da. Eat this."

When I was outside, I had come across a pet shop. This was something I brought from there.

I hadn't realized but I had begun looking forward to meeting with it. For some reason, whenever it was near me, I felt calm.

I opened the can and placed it in front of it. Despite it being canned tuna the smell wasn't very strong.

Meow

"What's with that lackluster response? Maybe I should have bought the spicy one?"

I muttered the next sentence under my breath. I had bought plain tuna instead of a spicy one on the advice of the shopkeeper.

The cat looked at me and then at the can and slowly began eating. Was it me, or did it look reluctant to eat it?

Did it hate it that much?

I noted to myself to bring something better next time.

Watching the cat for a few more minutes, I stood up. It was time I began.

"Huu.."

Sitting cross-legged on the ground, I breathed slowly.

I was nervous yet excited. This was the first time I was going to go through something like this.

"Gulp.."

I placed the yellow mushroom-like herb in my mouth and swallowed it in one go.

Even before it reached my stomach, warm currents of energy started spreading throughout my body.

Immediately I started circulating Ether according to the manual.