Monster Soul Online Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Event - Seeking for Beginning Town's Best Couple
 

Journey of Sila and the team went on very safely. At their side were Tree Dragons that didn't attack players first. What was shocking was their ability to resp.a.w.n from their death last night. This fact alone caused Sila to feel even stupider. His lack of information resulted in him wasting all the time he had last night.
 
The real benefit of the previous night's fight was the increase in his curiosity. The more he fought, the more he doubted his own fighting ability, which made him want to reach his limits, especially about the ability of slime race.
 
While everyone seemed to know all the characteristic and the efficacy of their race, he was the only one who didn't seem to know anything about his own race. Thus, Sila promised to himself that he would seek for more information about slime race, and would visit the Slime Kingdom as soon as he arrived at the Main Continent.
 
Three hours pa.s.sed and they finally arrived at the edge of Illusion Forest which was a habitat of an elf-raced monster. For now, Tiger's group needed to rest before preparing the plan.
 
"From now on, let's do as we planned: I will act as a tanker while Aek and Tod support my defense, Alice attacks from behind, and Jundtrathep casts the supporting spells in the rear," concluded Tiger before turning his head to Sila, "as for Sila, you can just attack whenever you feel like it's the right time. We haven't practiced together so we can't execute a more detailed plan."
 
"That's fine by me. However, I would like to criticize your plan a little."
 
"Is there something wrong?" Tiger wondered, as that was the plan that they had always worked on.
 
"Um, your plan is not suited to Jund's ability, that's it," replied Sila, which made everyone look at Jundtrathep in unison.
 
"Doesn't suit her ability?" Tiger repeated what Sila said. But when he wanted to ask for an explanation, Sila's System Window opened in front of Sila.
 
Player Sila is being contacted by Player Varee.
 
Everybody stopped their conversation and gazed at Sila's System Window. In the screen, there was a figure of a long black haired lady in a white kimono with a blue sea pattern.
 
"Sila, where are you?" asked Varee.
 
"At Illusion Forest," answered Sila while wondering why Varee contacted him.
 
"You have to return to town immediately."
 
"Why do I?"
 
"You promised to do as I say without questioning, didn't you?" said Varee with a smile at the corner of her mouth.
 
"I will have to ask what you want me to do once I arrive there anyways."
 
"About that, there will be a special event held by the system tonight. It needs two persons to partic.i.p.ate so I want you to help me out. The reward from this event is something I want to get at all cost," answered Varee.
 
"Is that all?" Sila suspected.
 
"That's all. Oh, by the way, my dad has already read your note and he wants me to tell you that three days is too long. The doctor wants to examine your body before you leave the hospital so please log out earlier," said Varee.
 
Sila's original schedule was to spend two weeks in the game. The s.h.i.+p would depart in three days and he would spend the remaining time on Main Continent. Nevertheless, if the doctor ordered him to log out earlier, he would have no choice but to comply.
 
"When does the event start?" asked Sila.
 
"It's 6 o'clock in the afternoon."
 
"Then let's meet in another four hours, that's 5 o'clock, at the restaurant."
 
"The restaurant is out of question, it's too crowded. Let's meet at the hotel instead, in the same room that we used before," replied Varee.
 
Sila remembered that the restaurant was indeed crowded as she said. Varee seemed to be considerably famous so it would be dangerous and annoying if they were spotted.
 
"Alright, see you then."
 
"See you."
 
The communication was cut off at the end of Varee's sentence.
 
Tiger's party could hear all of Sila's conversation but they kept their manners and didn't interfere during the call. By the way, actually, the C-grade System Window could conceal the voice and image of the person on the other side of the screen from people around the user. However, Sila had just upgraded his System Window so he had yet to know about such function.
 
"Who is she, big brother Sila? She's so beautiful," asked Aek.
 
"It's someone I happened to know," replied Sila in uninterested manner.
 
"Is Sila an acquaintance of G.o.ddess of Purified Water?" Tiger asked, he could recognize Varee's face the moment he saw her.
 
"I just happen to know Varee in the real world," answered Sila, "by the way, it seems that I can't go with you guys anymore. Please pardon me. I have to return to the town before the time gets dark."
 
"Big brother Sila, are you okay? I overheard that you're in the hospital," asked Jundtrathep with concern.
 
"I just have some minor injuries. Only a few more days and I will be able to get out of the hospital. Don't worry, the doctor wants to examine my body just to be sure," Sila smiled at her.
 
Tiger could sense that Sila was the type of person who kept his problems to himself. For people with this trait, even if he was to have a big problem, he wouldn't tell anyone. As such, Tiger guessed that what caused Sila to admit into a hospital wouldn't just be minor injuries as he had said.
 
"Oh, about my criticism earlier; just let Jund fight alone for a while and you'll see what I mean. Now, I really have to take my leave."
 
In the real world, Sila was the a.s.sistant to his teacher who owned a martial arts dojo, so he knew that everyone had their own suitable style to motivate oneself. For some people, you might need to give them a compliment to get them stronger; while for others, you might need to insult them to push them to their limits (Sila is in this category. If there is something someone tells him it is impossible to be done, he will try even harder to achieve it.) Meanwhile, somebody might need clear guidance, while others might just need confidence in oneself.
 
Jundtrathep was in the last category. She lacked confidence in her own ability so she always felt that she was weak. For someone like this, just letting her gain self-confidence would be enough for her to reach a whole new level.
 
Sila added everyone as friends and told them to contact him once they came to the Main Continent. He gave everyone a goodbye before activating the Invitation Card to Bamboo Hut and disappeared.
 
Upon Sila being gone, the others began to talk again.
 
"Just now, big brother Sila said he was going to attend tonight's event at Beginning Town, right?" Aek asked while skimming through the game forum in his System Window.
 
"It seems so, what about it?" Tod asked Aek.
 
"Look at this," Aek expanded the Window showing details of an event for everyone to read. Upon reading, everybody was shocked, especially Jundtrathep who showed a slightly sad expression.
 
Event - Seeking for Beginning Town's Best Couple
Starting Location: Beginning Town, Quest Building
The number of partic.i.p.ant: Unlimited
Recommended level: Knight 1 and above
Limitation: Never won an event held by the system before
Detail of the event: Secret (But it'll not be the same as the previous ones.)
Winner's Rewards: 3,000 gold coins and 1 S-graded paired item for two persons.
 
***
 
Upon returning to little bamboo hut, Sila immediately went to ask his teacher about the thing he wondered; which, the nameless old man smiled at Sila's question and simply explained:
 
"The principle of 8 elements is only applied to magic types. For qi type, we have only 2 elements. Those 2 elements are hot element (yang) and cold element (yin). If I have to compare these elements to something in magic type, I would say they're close to light and dark element.
 
"In short, hot element are a.s.sembled with the property of light, fire, lighting and wind; while cold element has the property of dark, water, ice and earth."
 
"Hmm, then, how strong are they against opposing elements, sir?"
 
Although the old man's answer sounded simple, it still caused Sila to feel deeper doubt.
 
"They're mutually exclusive; both win and lose against each other. You can just pick whatever element you like to train without worries. As for the question why your "Freezing Soul" was more effective than "Flame of Torturing," it's simply because you're more of an unjust side than a righteous one."
 
"An unjust side? Me?" Sila felt like he was a villain here.
 
"It's just something people named. It doesn't matter you're in an unjust side or a righteous one, it's your actions that counts."
 
"But why am I better at using unjust qi over a righteous one, sir?"
 
"It's due to what is pus.h.i.+ng you. The positive mental and emotion are the source of "Flame of Torturing's" power, while negative mental and emotion are the source of "Freezing Soul's" power. Currently, the thing that pushes you into action is the negative thought, so it's no wonder you are better at using "Freezing Soul.""
 
Sila finally understood. What drove him now was his vengeance toward Montra. He kept thinking that he needed to be much stronger than currently to get revenge against Montra. The freezing soul was in fact his own soul - a dark and vengeful one.
 
The old man didn't say anything much. He just simply gave Sila some advice. "You may think that you are strong, but I will say here that there are many people far stronger than you in this world. Although you're very lucky to possess the chance to develop yourself faster than others, that doesn't mean you're better than everyone else. Mark my words: power doesn't mean strong, strong doesn't mean you will always win, and winning doesn't mean you're great. I hope that someday you'll be able to understand what I'm saying."
 
Sila said goodbye to his teacher and left to town to do miscellaneous things. At first, he planned to sell some items and identify the card. However, he realized that he didn't have time to categorize the items; so, he visited the bank, planning to deposit all of the items instead.
 
Due to the fact that it was the first time he had entered the bank, he was skillfully forced to listen to various benefits of the bank - which Sila hadn't been interested in at all. His mind was full of the lecturing that his teacher had spoken to him when they parted.
 
Upon finished listening, Sila deposited all of his miscellaneous items and gold coins there.
 
It was nearly the appointed time when Sila walked out of the bank. He headed straight to the hotel.
 
In front of the hotel, he found that Varee had been already there, waiting for him.
 
Seeing him, Varee was quick to drag Sila to the Quest Building.
 
"Wait, why are you in a hurry for? It's not 6 p.m. yet," said Sila.
 
"The event starts sooner than I expected. Luckily, I have already signed your name in. Let's hurry up and go to Quest Building."
 
"Eh? What about the plan? What will I have to do?"
 
"Just be flexible, that should do," Varee negligently answered.
 
They didn't have a chance to talk much since the Quest Building was near. Now there was a large crowd in front of the building. The number of players was so high that the event's organizer had to announce the detail of the event outside, in front of the building.
 
A young woman who seemed to be the host of the event was standing on a wooden platform. Despite the lack of shouting, her voice resounded well in all directions.
 
"... and that's the content of this event. Since this time the restriction of a partic.i.p.ant's qualification is close to nothing, there seemed to be many people partic.i.p.ating. Anyway, in order not to waste any more of your time, I hereby announce that now the event has begun."
 
With the end of her speech, everyone was immediately rushed to the south of the town. The previously large crowd completely disappeared in 5 minutes and the players left here were only Sila and Varee. The host spotted them and came down to talk to them.
 
"Won't you hurry to compete with others?" asked the host.
 
"We're late so we don't know the details of the event," replied Sila.
 
The host nodded before explained concisely, "in short, you two must go to the special dimension called Merpeople Village that opened only during this event period at the south of the town. In that place, there will be a gem called Ocean Heart Aquamarine. The person who obtains that gem and brings it to me first will be the victor of this event."
 
"Just like that?"
 
"Yes, but there will be two special rules applied, though. The first is, if one obtains Ocean Heart Aquamarine, there will be the heart symbol shown on one's and partner's head, and if anyone of the two is killed, the Ocean Heart Aquamarine will be transferred to the nearest player."
 
'So the person who gets it will become a target of public in an instant, huh," figured Sila.
 
"What is another rule?" asked Sila.
 
"The other rule is; both you and your partner will have to share the damage being received. For example, if you are hit by something worth 100 attack points, you will suffer for 50 points while your partner will take another half. If one of you dies, your partner will die too. By the way, we, the host of this event will not be responsible for the loss of any player partic.i.p.ating in this event. No matter it's a dropping of item, lose in experience point, or demotion in rank," said the woman, "do you have any more question, sir?"
 
Sila was about to ask, 'what event is this, why is it so troublesome?' but Varee interrupted him before he could do that.
 
"We have none. Let's get going, Sila."
 
"Thank you," said Sila to the host prior to go after Varee.
 
Sila and Varee rapidly headed to the south. The shadow of two of them were gradually fading from the town together with the sun being set, leaving only the moon floating in the night sky.