Monster Soul Online Chapter 12

Chapter 12: What Did I Do Wrong?
 
Sila appeared back on the bed inside hotel room and somehow felt hungry although he just had finished eating in real life.
 
However, he couldn't cook, so he opened his bento instead. His bento contained a strange dish that might be some kind of seafood. It looked like a menu made of squid, but Sila wasn't sure. He had brought it from Mansion of Seven Deadly Sins. There had been two of them inside the refrigerator. Back then, the man in Wuxia's clothes had suggested Sila to eat it, and since he'd found that it's very delicious, he took another one inside his Item Window, since Sebastian said in the first place that he could take everything back with him.
 
But Sila soon realized that there should be a food inside a refrigerator in this hotel's room too. So, he kept his bento away as he was the type of person who loves to save the most delicious food to eat last. He then opened this room's refrigerator.
 
Inside a refrigerator, there were two sets of steak. He took one out and found that it was hot and sent off a savory aroma. At first, Sila was amazed how in the world that the food coming out of refrigerator could be hot. But then he realized that this was a matter within a game. He just curious that if the food is ready to eat like this, what is the point of a kitchen in this room?
 
Sila ate it until he satisfied. Then, he took a bath in bathroom and later wore back his original Beginner Clothes. He noticed that it's old and slightly ragged, so he decided to go to Clothes Shop first. But then again, he realized that he was quite poor.
 
'Oh! I remember. There is a bounty reward that I haven't claimed yet.'
 
During a fight in a restaurant, system sound had alerted so often that Sila hadn't bothered listening to them anymore. Well, he could vaguely remember that some of the thieves had a bounty, while some hadn't. Hopefully, the total amount should cover the value of his future clothes.
 
Thus, he decided to change his first visit to Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation.
 
Sila went down and approached employee at reception to pay for hotel bill. However, the staff said that Miss Varee already paid it all. Sila was curious and asked about the fee.
 
"Small honeymoon suite, amounting 100,000 silver coins per night, sir."
 
Sila was surprised that it was a honeymoon suite, and also surprised at high price. Well, he couldn't do anything anymore so he headed to Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation as he had planned.
 
***
 
The sign of Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation looked just like a pirate flag; it's a symbol of skull of monster with two swords crossing behind it. Sila went in and found that there were many people. Luckily, the number of staff was high as well. He didn't have to wait long until one staff greeted him.
 
"Welcome to Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation, sir. Would you like to claim the reward or put a bounty on others?"
 
"Claim the reward," answered Sila.
 
The staff nodded before gesturing to office desk, "please sit down first, sir."
 
Sila sat down in a chair while the staff was checking some data. Afterward, the window screen was floating in front of Sila.
 
"You will obtain the reward of 28 people's bounty, totaling 550,000 silver coins, sir. Please check the detail whether it's correct."
 
The staff pushed the screen toward Sila. The screen displayed a list of 28 players, including the bounty of each.
 
Well, although the staff told him to check, Sila couldn't remember whom he had killed. So he pushed the screen back to the staff after looking at it for only a short while.
 
"Mister Sila also becomes a Wanted Player too, you know?" said the staff when he got the screen back.
 
"Huh? Am I?"
 
'Someone put a bounty on me?'
 
"Yeah, 200 gold coins from Heaven Dragon guild and 100,000 silver coins from a group of players. This is effective from today onward. When you online for a month and haven't been killed, you will receive half of these money."
 
"I see. Thank you for telling me," Sila said goodbye to the staff and left, heading to Clothes Shop which was his main objective.
 
***
 
Clothes Shop was looked very normal. Many types of clothes and fabrics were displayed there and there for customers to look around.
 
When Sila stated his demand, the shop owner asked him what kind of clothes he's looking for.
 
Since Sila used Qi as his primary combat method, he demanded for a type of clothes that commonly used by Wuxia. Then, the shop owner brought him a brown Wuxia's clothes embroidered with gold thread. It made of decent quality fabric.
 
After listening to the shop owner explanation about this clothes' usefulness for a brief moment, Sila felt tired and didn't want to waste any more time just to choose only one set of clothes, so he paid 100,000 silver coins without bargaining.
 
(C) Wandering Wuxia's Clothes
Increases both physical and magical defenses by 300 points.
Increases attack by 5%, increase qi point by 5%, increase qi circulation's speed by 10%, and increase agility by 5%.
*Could clean itself but couldn't self-repair.
 
Sila then paid more 200,000 silver coins to increase his System Window by 2 Grades (upgrading F Grade to E Grade required 50,000 silver coins, while upgrading E Grade to D Grade required 150,000 silver coins) because Lucy's recommendation. She'd told Sila that he should upgrade it quickly since the first 2 upgrades didn't cost much and it would allow him to have more 100 s.p.a.ces in Item Window for each increment in Grade, to inspect the player whom had lower Grade's System Window, and to access more in-depth information of skills and items.
 
Next, Sila went to buy miscellaneous things which were: Medium Health Potion 50 EAs, Large Health Potion 20 EAs, Medium Magic Potion 30 EAs, Liquid Bottle (2 liter capacity) 5 EAs, and Large Bento 5 EAs. All of them cost him 55,000 silver coins.
 
Before accidentally wasting more money than this, Sila quickly fled many shop owners whom proofed themselves enough to be praiseworthy salespersons and went to Quest Building as Lucy, once again, had suggested.
 
***
 
There were few people inside Quest Building. Sila went in and found 3 doors which labeled each as Qi - Psychic - Magic respectively.
 
After confusing for a while, a man came to him.
 
"h.e.l.lo. May I help you?"
 
"Oh, h.e.l.lo. I'm a new player here," politely replied Sila.
 
"New player?" the man looked at Sila with a strange feeling. That's because Sila was wearing one of the most expensive clothes in the city, "umm ... you should have known some fundamental knowledge of qi, psychic, and magic from Beginner Building already, Am I correct?"
 
"Yes, there are three types of energy in this game which are qi, psychic, and magic. Qi focuses on inner force, psychic focuses on balance of power, and magic borrows force from outside."
 
Sila recited what Lucy had told him word by word. Well, he knew only just this much. Lucy had suggested him to inquire more about energy types from Quest Building directly, as the staff there was more specialized.
 
"Yes, when player enter this place for the first time, they have to select their main energy type. Player can choose only one type, and other unselected energy types will only act as supplements for player.
 
"By the way, qi type energy is focusing on drawing the power from within. The more player practices, the higher of player's basic stat and ability. The disadvantage of qi type is that there are fewer skills to learn comparing to other types, resulting in less variety of player's skill pool. Player will have to utilize your possessed skills to its fullest instead. Despite this type has a difficult start, if one can be proficient at it, one will be very strong.
 
"For psychic type, it is focusing on relations.h.i.+p between player and object or monster. The stronger of player's mind will result in deeper relations.h.i.+p. Player selecting this type will become better at using weapon and item than other types. This type has more skills than qi type. But their disadvantages are the low basic stat and the need to rely on equipment or pet.
 
"Lastly, magic type is the most popular type right now. It's easy to train; just simply using a magic book, you can learn a spell. As a bonus, magic point is clearly shown in player's System Window from the start, unlike qi point and psychic point which will only be shown when player's System Window is at least C Grade. The skills of magic-typed player are so various and the numbers of skills are so many that you couldn't possibly count them. Also, magic attack has its benefit that it's unavoidable except opponents using some skills or items that allow them to be able to dodge. The disadvantages of this type are that there's the casting time for spells and each spell has its own characteristic, making your opponent to easily predict it.
 
"Well, judging for your clothes, you would select qi type, right?"
 
Sila didn't answer but he nodded instead. In his opinion, he wanted to depend on himself as much as possible, even if it's difficult to do so. For him, depending on pet or chanting spells were contrary to his style. Moreover, he already had trained his qi to a certain extent.
 
"Player would like to select qi type as main energy type. Please confirm this."
 
"Confirm," answered Sila.
 
The system sound alerted.
 
Player Sila has selected qi type as your main energy type.
 
"Now it's finished. If you have anything to ask about qi type, please inquire the NPC of each energy type behind the door," the staff gestured Sila to walk toward the door with 'Qi' sign.
 
***
 
As soon as Sila walked though the door, he found himself in another dimension. There're bamboo forests on either sides, and in the middle, there's a pathway leading to a little bamboo hut. Around the hut, there was small fence for feeding chickens on the yard. And on the porch, there was old man who had long white beard and dressed in cheap voile clothes sitting and weaving a basket out of bamboo.
 
When Sila arrived at the hut, the old man beckoned him to sit together on the porch. Then, the old man continued weaving a basket, completely ignoring Sila.
 
Sila somehow started to respect the old man. The atmosphere around this old man was very similar to that around his currently missing real-life teacher, except for the fact that Mora's age wasn't this old. Hence, Sila waited obediently until the old man finished weaving a basket, and started turning his head toward Sila.
 
"Greeting, erm ... elder," said Sila after considering about what he should call this old man for a while.
 
"I'm Wu Ming (Anonymous,)" said the old man with a strong voice. If judged by his voice alone, one would misunderstand and say that the speaker must be quite young.
 
"Oh, I see, Elder Wu Ming, then."
 
"Just call me elder. I don't really have a name."
 
"Yes, elder," replied Sila.
 
"Then, what do you want from me, young lad?"
 
"I want to get a quest for qi-type player, sir."
 
The old man frowned a bit, like he's thinking about something. Then, he quickly showed Sila a smile.
 
"Fufu. A quest for qi-type player, you said? Usually you would get a scroll of "Basic Qi," but you've possessed this skill already, haven't you? Besides, you even have two of the "Qi of Little Divine Beings.""
 
Sila was a little surprise that the old man knew he had trained qi before. It must be an ability of the NPC.
 
"Qi of Little Divine Beings?" Sila wondered at this word.
 
"They're advanced qi's series that consist of four types of qi. You now have "Qi of Little Tiger" and "Qi of Little Fish." What you lack are "Qi of Little Bird" and "Qi of Little Turtle.""
 
"Oh, so you meant those qi. I just know that there are four of them in the series. Could you please tell me what's the difference between having all of them and not, sir?"
 
"Well, based on the current you, you must lack the ability to attack multiple enemies and the ability to protect yourself against magic. If you possess all "Qi of Little Divine Beings," these weaknesses would be gone."
 
Sila recalled a fight in a restaurant and agreed with the old man's statement, "then, can I ask you to teach me those qi instead, sir?"
 
"Fufufu. No can do, young lad. These qi are high-tier skills so you will have to search for them on your own. Well, right now, there is only one player named Lone Wolf who possesses all of them, so you can ask about these qi from him if you want. As for me, I could give you only some basic skills."
 
Sila recalled the person who had transmitted qi to him. If Lone Wolf was the only player who possessed all these qi, then, the probability of the man in Wuxia's clothes he'd met in Mansion of Seven Deadly Sins being Lone Wolf, Qi Emperor, was quite high.
 
Sila felt depressed a bit when he heard that the old man could only give him basic skills, but he didn't care much. He thought he was considered luckier than other players already, judging by the skills he currently had.
 
Then, another one of his weaknesses came to his mind.
 
"Do you have a skill that can attack an enemy in distance, sir?"
 
"Well, I do. Let me see ... yizhichan is a high-tier skill so I can't give it to you. But if it's hidden weapon skill or single-handed mechanical bow skill, then it should be okay. Which one do you prefer?"
 
[T/N: Yizhichan is an art of using inner force through fingers; usually was referred in traditional Chinese novel regarding martial art. This art is commonly used in order to damage qi's channel, attack internal organ, or strike in mid-range.]
 
"How are they different, sir?"
 
"For mechanical bow, you just have to buy a good bow and high grade arrows, dipping them with poison a bit, and then you are good to go. It's easy and you could clearly see the result. As for hidden weapon, its advantage is that you can use anything as a hidden weapon; it can be a needle, a knife, or even a rock. Nevertheless, you have to enhance them with your qi for the attack to be more effective. Even though it's an F-graded skill, it's hard to master as though it's an S-graded skill. Not many people learn this skill. It's hard to learn, and it's even harder to use in an actual combat."
 
Sila thought about it. Since he had decided to rely on himself rather than external material, he thought that he should stick with this mindset until the very end.
 
"I choose hidden weapon, sir," replied Sila without hesitation.
 
"Fufu. I can't expect less from a young people like you. Well, just don't regret your decision later."
 
System sound alarmed.
 
Player Sila has learned an active skill: Hidden Weapon Firing - Level 1.
Player Sila has learned a pa.s.sive skill: Hidden Weapon Mastery - Level 1.
 
The old man smiled slyly before handing a small bamboo knife to Sila, saying, "try using it."
 
Sila took a bamboo knife. Then, he tried to show off his ability by concentrating "Qi of Little Fish" into his wrist that holding the knife, before flicking it swiftly.
 
"Hidden Weapon Firing!"
 
At the end of his word, a bamboo knife was being thrown out of Sila's hand. Although it's not very fast. The knife pinned precisely at the middle of a bamboo tree.
 
Sila smiled by the successfulness of his first attempt, while the old man was laughing his a.s.s off.
 
Sila confused and didn't understand why the old man was laughing. Okay, it might be slow, but it's his first attempt. So it should be acceptable, right?
 
"What did I do wrong just now, sir?" Sila tried to ask for his mistake.
 
The old man looked at Sila as if Sila was some alien and started his non-stop laugher again.
 
"You really have no clue, huh? Hahahaha!"
 
Sila still bewildered. He recalled his action and had no idea what he had done wrong.
 
Well, it seemed that he had to wait for the elder to stop laughing and explain him the reason...