Monster Soul Online Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Sila's Chamber of Secret

Soon after both of them left the pet shop, Varee was contacted by someone through system window. Sila didn't know who it was since he didn't saw nor heard anything from Varee's system window. On top of that, he kept his manner by walking away from Varee's conversation.
 
After her conversation had ended, Varee walked toward Sila.
 
"My friend told me that there's some usual movement in Main Continent. I have to look after it so we will have to depart now. Don't forget to aboard the ship tomorrow and logout around eight o'clock in real time, okay?" said Varee
 
"It's okay. Don't worry about me and feel free to go meet your friend." Sila said with a smile on his face. He was truly glad. It was even shown on his expression, "by the way, how are you going to Main Continent? The ship aboards tomorrow, doesn't it?"
 
Varee took out a crystal cube. A soft white light was shining around it.
 
"This is Crystal of Connecting. It's quite expensive. One set of it comprises of two pieces. My friend and I have one each of the same set. Upon using it, the player can teleport to another piece's holder, which in my case, is my friend," answered Varee.
 
She then took out a similar crystal cube and handed it to Sila.
 
"If anything happens, you can use it to come to me too. Actually, you can just use it to follow me to Main Continent right now."
 
Sila shook his head to deny, "oh, no, thanks. I would like to stay here for a little while longer. I also want to try riding on a ship once."
 
Hearing Varee's explaination, Sila could perceive that if he had that crystal, Varee could also come to him at any time too. So, he didn't want to take it.
 
Varee frowned. This was the first time since she was born that a guy had showed her an expression of not wanting to be with her this much. Normally, it should be her who got annoyed by the fact that guys always flock around her. Crystal of Connecting that connected to Varee is an item that guys would fight for it.
 
Nevertheless, Varee decided not to mind him for now. It would be always not too late to pay him back later.
 
"Then, goodbye Sila, and Lookhin too," said Varee before she teleported away.
 
After Varee had disappeared, Sila turned his head right and left to make sure that Varee had really gone and wouldn't come back again. Finally, he grinned and walked away, doing what he wanted to.
 
Firstly, Sila went to Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation to claim his reward from wanted player that he had killed during the event. However, he received only 23,000 silver coins. That was not unexpected though, since those players were kind of unskilled.
 
The more surprising news for him was that; the clerk told Sila that his bounty had been increased.
 
Sila's Bounty
From Heaven Dragon Guild: 300 gold coins
From Royal Armament Guild: 1,000 gold coins
From groups of general players: 540,000 silver coins
 
Sila was shocked. He didn't know about Royal Armament Guild at all. But it had put a bounty for his head even higher than Heaven Dragon Guild. Maybe it was a guild of someone he had killed. If that was the case, he would need to gather about this guild's information for himself. Anyway, there was another bad news for him.
 
"Mister Sila, there're 30 days remaining for you to claim these bounty rewards yourself if you still aren't being killed by then," said the clerk.
 
"Hmm? Why there're still 30 days left? That's the same as last time I've checked." Sila asked. He personally didn't want these rewards. He was just curious.
 
"Well, when other players put more bounty reward on your head, the time remaining will be recounted again."
 
Sila left Bounty Hunter a.s.sociation and went to Lucy at Beginner Building to ask some question. He was completely ignoring about his own bounty that he wouldn't be able to receive the reward. In fact, he felt strange at first when he had heard the rule about wanted players receiving their own bounty reward. It should be easy to get it since all they need to do is hiding for 30 days. Now he knew the truth. In reality, when the time is almost due, their enemy will just increase the amount to reset the time count. (Of course, there is the minimum amount to increase the bounty to prevent player keep doing this easily.)
 
Sila asked Lucy how to turn off the system sound that always rings during the fight and how to block the function of Couple Ring of Commitment.
 
Lucy was surprised that Sila had gotten this ring and couldn't help but laughed when she was told the story.
 
"Mister Sila, you have "Unseal" skill, haven't you?" asked Lucy.
 
"Yes, I have. But I rarely use it."
 
"Then there's a way."
 
Sila was glad. He excitingly asked her how to, which made Lucy giggled before answering.
 
"When you have arrived at Main Continent, you should go to Quest Building and enter the Psychic Room. There should be a quest to obtain "Seal" skill. You can take that quest since one of the methods of requirement is for player to possess "Unseal" skill first."
 
"So, with that skill, I can take this ring off, right?" asked Sila.
 
However, Lucy shook her head, "no, sir. But with that skill, Mister Sila can make that ring to be in sealed state. Even without taking it off, its abilities will not working. Then, you can unseal it again when you want to use its abilities."
 
Sila grinned. Finally, there was a way to keep Varee out of his personal life.
 
"Actually, Mister Sila didn't have to come all the way just to ask me like this, you know? You can just contact me," said Lucy.
 
"Contact? But aren't you a NPC?" wondered Sila.
 
"NPC that controlled by real people can be contacted like normal player, sir. You just have to add me into your NPC list similar to friend list. But this function is only available when you have upgraded system window to C grade or above."
 
Sila opened his system window and he really found it. Thus, he added Lucy in NPC list to help him asking her future question without having to visit Beginner Building again.
 
Afterward, Sila and Lookhin left Beginner Building. By the way, Lucy suggested Sila to check Lookhin's status before they left. He agreed to her suggestion as he sensed that there must be something mysterious about it. Thus, he checked Lookhin's status while walking toward the Bank. However, except for the weird skill it had, everything seemed normal and weak like he had expected.
 
Finally, he entered the Bank, ignoring the stares of many players that looked at him with malice.
 
Pet Status: Lookhin   Level: 1
Race: Brown Sparrow            Rank: Squire
Health Point: 20 / 20 Magic Point: 0 / 0      Qi Point: 0 / 0 Psychic Point: 0 / 0
Satiety: 98 / 100         Love Degree: 12%
*Brown Sparrow cannot acc.u.mulate experience point.
 
Active Skill:
(S) Star Swallow
Player can feed B-grade or higher-grade card to Brown Sparrow as an alternative to normal pet food.
 
"It only has one skill. But it's S-graded. Its price must be high because of this skill."
 
Sila wasn't shocked to know that this bird possessed S-grade skill since he had known from Lucy that grade of skill or item in this game isn't indicating by its strength but rather its rareness. Good grief, the skill to allow a pet to be fed by card was indeed weird and supposed to be rare.
 
Upon Sila entering the Bank, the banker immediately greeted him. Obviously, there were many other players and guilds that deposited much more money than Sila. But based on the banker's a.n.a.lysis; Sila was a new player who was able to make money very fast on Beginning Island. He knew that this person would surely become a big customer who is very profitable to bank so he began to greet Sila with VIP treatment.
 
"Welcome, Mister Sila. How may I help you today, sir?"
 
Sila was little surprised that his name was remembered while he had never asked the name of the bank's employee before. He felt like he was lacking etiquette here.
 
"I just want to ask some question. Sorry, but can I ask you your name?"
 
The banker didn't feel a slight regret that Sila couldn't remember him. In fact, he felt glad that he had a chance to introduce himself to Sila.
 
"My name is Christopher, sir. You can call me Chris too. I'm one of the bankers here," replied the banker.
 
"Yes, Mister Chris. I just wanted to ask about this thing," said Sila while he was showing Couple Ring of Commitment on his finger.
 
"This must be Couple Ring of Commitment. Would you like to open an account for couple, sir?" asked Chris.
 
"No, no, I just want to know that do my… erm… another player can access to my item storage here?" Sila was about to refer Varee as his girlfriend or his lover, but he was too embarra.s.sed to do so. Hence, he referred Varee as another player instead.
 
"Of course she can, sir." Chris replied with confident.
 
Sila sighed and asked, "that's bad. Is there some way to prevent it?"
 
Christopher's eyes shone brightly. He whispered slyly to Sila, "we better come to talk this way, sir. There are so many people here."
 
Based on Christopher's reaction, Sila guessed that there was a way for him. But it seemed to be a secret method that he shouldn't tell anyone else. Anyway, Sila followed him to sit at a table in the area that had less people.
 
"We also have some customers with the same problem as Mister Sila, sir. They're young men who want to live to their fullest independently. They all want to have a private s.p.a.ce that no one can disturb them," said Christopher.
 
Despite Sila still wasn't sure about 'young men who want to live to their fullest independently' statement, the statement 'want to have a private s.p.a.ce that no one can disturb them' was indeed true for him. Thus, he hesitantly nodded in agreement.
 
Christopher smiled, "so, let's me offer this product to you as a solution." He then put down a black card in front of Sila.
 
Sila picked it up. It was a card with complete black color whether its surface or its back. He also couldn't read any of its description.
 
"This is Invitation Card to Chamber of Secret, sir. By the way, Chamber of Secret is a special dimension. At first, it's an empty small room which you can use it to store items. However, you can upgrade it later," said Christopher, "and obviously, no one can enter this place unless you give your permission."
 
"So, it's like owning a house?" asked Sila.
 
"No sir. It's different from a house. Chamber of Secret will not be shown in your status window. Nevertheless, whatever you do in the room, no one can know it." Christopher smiled slyly.
 
Sila felt that this proposal of Christopher was a little off topic. Anyway, it would be nice for him to have a place where he could avoid Varee, since Varee could enter the bamboo hut now and his teacher seemed to chase him more often. Thus, Chamber of Secret seemed like a good option for him.
 
"How much does it cost?" asked Sila.
 
"10,000 gold coins for registering, and there'll be monthly fee of 5 gold coins for the next upcoming months, sir."
 
Sila was sad. "I don't have that much money."
 
"Do not mind, sir. Although Mister Sila doesn't have that much money right now, we have already evaluated your current items possession and your ability to obtain money. I'm pleased to inform you that we're fine to give you a credit, sir. You can just pay your payment in monthly basis with no interest being charged." Christopher replied.
 
The reason Sila had a good credit was because his speed of progression to obtain money and high-graded items. He even possessed a very expensive item like Dragon Card. He would be able to pay the full amount if he just sold it.
 
Sila accepted the deal and added Christopher in his NPC list as his private banker (his service fee was already included in 5 gold coins per month.) Then, he signed some doc.u.ments and got the black card. Christopher said that his Chamber of Secret can connect to every bank, so Sila could just call Christopher and perform a business transaction there without having to go to the bank ever again. This is an additional service in case that the card owner didn't want to be seen.
 
Afterward, Sila's name was engraved in the black card. Sila inspected it and found that it turned out to be a premium credit card with no additional charge. Christopher said that it had the same ability as normal credit card. It just had a secret option to teleport user to his Chamber of Secret.
 
"All of your items have been transferred to your personal room already, sir," said Christopher.
 
Sila nodded before activating its ability. Finally, the white light covered him and teleported him away. Other people would recognize this as someone using Returning Scroll. They just wondered why someone had used it in the bank like this.
 
Sila appeared in a small black room. In one corner, there were items that he once had deposited to the bank. He sat down in the room and started cultivating. Now was a nighttime so he decided to wait here until morning before he get out.
 
Afterward, he started to play with Lookhin. He played with it for a while until he remembered about its "Star Swallow" skill. Since Sila had possessed many cards himself, he thought that it would be fine to feed some to Lookhin.
 
Sila opened his System Window and took B-grade Blue-Scaled King Merman Card out. He handed it out to Lookhin.
 
"Lookhin, try using "Star Swallow" skill, okay?"
 
Lookhin opened its beak and pecked at the card lightly. Soon, the card shone and disappeared. Sila looked at the result for some time but he couldn't spot any change.
 
"Strange, but never mind, it's just only one card."
 
However, he noticed later that Lookhin seemed to be more obedient. Although Sila didn't give any order, if he just thought about something like wanting it to fly around, it would be flying around without him having to say anything. Sila also knew that it was hungry. Lookhin didn't send any signal to Sila but Sila knew that it was hungry. He just awared of it.
 
"So the "Star Swallow" skill can cause it to be more obedient? Well, that should be it."
 
Sila tried to search for more high-grade cards. However, except from Great Millennium Ape Card that he was using himself, the only card left was Earth Dragon Card. He didn't plan to use it anyway. He also didn't want to sell it as he learnt his lesson from Varee and Burapha about Merpeople Card that he didn't know about market value at all.
 
In the end, the situation that NPC at the pet shop had thought that it was very unlike to happen was finally happened for real. It was less than three hours since Sila had bought Brown Sparrow as a pet.
 
Sila handed grade Earth Dragon Card to Lookhin before saying, "Lookhin, uses "Star Swallow.""
 
The card emitted the light and disappeared again. Lookhin flew around happily. Sila smiled at its cuteness without interesting in checking Lookhin's current basic stats.

[Author's Note: A hidden ability of Star Swallow skill shall be revealed in the next chapter.]