Monster Soul Online

Sila had arrived at Beginning Town. He walked toward Quest Building and noticed that the number of people was significantly lower than before. There were only Varee and Miss Host standing there.
 
Sila approached them. He looked around thinking that he had never witness the sight of Beginning Town being this desolated and peaceful before.
 
"Why is it so quiet?" asked Sila.
 
"How can it not be? Players take two hours to revive; it will be long until the first one dying to revive," answered Varee.
 
"Then, can we get a reward now?" asked Sila as he didn"t want to be the center of attention.
 
"No can do, sir. This event is held by the system. We have to promote it for the game"s marketing," said the young female host.
 
Sila watched the time in system window. It would take around two hours until the time come.
 
"Well, I will go practicing then. As for the reward, you can take all of it. I don"t want any," said Sila to Varee.
 
To be honest, Sila thought that the actual combat experience he had gain was more valuable than the reward. Moreover, Varee told him beforehand that she wanted this reward, so he didn"t care of what the reward was.
 
Sila took out the Invitation Card to Bamboo Hut. It made sense that nameless elder was starting to feel annoy as Sila always bother his place to keep practicing without a break. However, Varee grabbed his hand when he was about to activate it, making him slightly blush.
 
"Sila is always practicing yourself. Just take a break sometimes. Now that we have two hours in our hands, I will be your tour guide to sightsee the Beginning Town"s night atmosphere," said Varee, "Miss Host, can we come back here two hours later?"
 
"Of course, please take your time." The female host smiled.
 
"Let"s go, Sila." Varee led the way without releasing Sila hand.
 
With the two of them going away, the smiling host clapped her hands two times. Suddenly, there were rows of floating shining lamps hovering on both side of the street. These were originally prepared for the award ceremony tonight. But she decided to use them beforehand to create a romantic atmosphere for this couple.
 
"Well, well, this couple is very sweet yet so savage," muttered the host as she recognized the fact that these two had killed all the players to experience this peaceful atmosphere.
 
The two might looked like they were holding hands romantically, however, Sila was actually being pulled by her forcefully.
 
 "Hey, hey, you can release my hand now. I won"t leave, okay?"
 
"Nope, we are the Beginning Town"s best couple tonight, remember?"
 
Sila blushed slightly, "about this matter, why didn"t you tell me before that this is an event for couple?" asked Sila.
 
"If I did, you wouldn"t be partic.i.p.ating, am I right?" Varee asked him back.
 
Sila didn"t say anything in return. If she really had told him that fact beforehand, he indeed wouldn"t have partic.i.p.ated. While it was true that they knew each other in real life, they were still just met. Sila felt that they weren"t close enough to attend an event for couple together.
 
"Just let it go and let me show you around Beginning Town instead."
 
Then, Varee brought Sila to visit various places in Beginning Town. They even visited Fortune Telling Shop that Sila wouldn"t even consider entering it by himself.
 
This romantic atmosphere (in normal person perspective except Sila) continued. Regardless, the two of them stopped by the market square. This place is usually crowded with merchants. However, right now there was only one merchant sitting alone. He even seemed to confuse and wonder why he was the only person opening a stall here.
 
Varee brought Sila to visit that merchant"s jewelry stall. She picked up some accessories to inspect while Sila whom wasn"t interested in jewelry started his conversation with the merchant.
 
"Why you are here, being alone?"
 
"Well, there is an event for couple today. Almost all people joined it, but I"m not interested so I decided to set a stall here. However, I didn"t expect people to be all gone like this. If you two haven"t come, I would have readied to close my shop," replied the merchant.
 
Actually, the event "Seeking for Beginning Town"s Best Couple" is one of the top most ridiculous events in the game. Nevertheless, it always gives a big prize so a lot of people always attend. The absurdity of this event lies in the fact that its content changes every round: there was a time when the content was a duo singing contest. Since the only requirement for this event is being a team of man and woman, many people always join the event in case that something easy might come up. That was why most of the partic.i.p.ators are teamed up from mutual benefit instead of being a real couple.
 
Hearing the explanation, Sila understood why many of the players that had surrounding him weren"t look like couples. This made him felt a little less guilty to kill them.
 
"Did you craft these accessories by yourself? They"re beautiful and well-made," said Varee.
 
"Yes, I craft all of them myself," answered the merchant.
 
Sila started to interest in the items. They consisted of necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, and common jewelries that looked quite pretty.
 
Varee picked up many bracelets to try on herself and repeatedly asked Sila for his opinion. Good grief, Sila wasn"t interested into this kind of stuff so he just replied her that they all looked beautiful on her.
 
"How about you, Sila, do you want any?" ask Varee.
 
"No, thank you. I think what I"m wearing is enough."
 
Varee looked at Sila from his head to his toes. No matter how she looked, there was almost no equipment on Sila.
 
"What are you wearing right now?"
 
Sila opened his system window. He thought, "Right Arm of the Sealed One is unusable right now so it doesn"t count. The rest is…"
 
"Well, there is this wuxia cloth," said Sila.
 
"And?" Varee really wanted to know which equipment had Sila put on.
 
"Erm, it"s just that," replied Sila.
 
"That"s all?" Varee frowned. She wondered why. It shouldn"t be the case of lacking money though, since Sila had upgraded his system window to C grade.
 
Even the merchant was also skeptical. With his sharp eyes of a merchant, the cloth that Sila was wearing must be C-graded Wandering Wuxia"s Clothes which 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%, together with the option of being able to clean itself but couldn"t self-repair (as expect of a merchant, it"s completely correct.) This cloth costs around hundred thousand silver coins, so it was impossible for this man to be poor.
 
Sila was rather surprised that everyone seemed wondered. For him, whichever cloth was the same as he didn"t intend to rely on it. He would even still wear Beginner Clothes right now if it wasn"t dirty and ragged.
 
"Well, in this case, you should buy something for yourself," said Varee prior to try many accessories on Sila.
 
Sila felt boring so he started a conversation with the merchant again.
 
"I think all of your products look pretty decent, so, why do you seem not quite proud of them?" Sila noticed the expression of the merchant.
 
The merchant was surprised that Sila could tell what he truly felt.
 
"The reason is, although they look pretty, their ability is not that high. These could sell only in Beginning Town as there are plenty of better accessories in Main Continent." It was Varee who replied in merchant"s place.
 
Sila frowned and looked at Varee with scolding eyes. He felt that Varee"s speech was too mean.
 
"I"m sorry. This woman was quite rude." Sila said to the merchant. This time, it was Varee"s turn to frown. Wasn"t what Sila had just said was considered ruder?
 
But the merchant shook his head, "No problem, bro. What she said was completely correct. These products of mine aren"t be able to sell in Main Continent, I know that myself."
 
"Most of craftsmen in Main Continent were dwarf or plant race. Those two races had a skill to increase the ability of equipment and medicine. From what I saw, I guess you still haven"t changed your race." Varee said to the merchant.
 
"That"s correct. But the race that I want to change into is very rare. I want to choose my own path so I haven"t changed to another race yet."
 
Varee frowned again. She wondered which race was better in craftsmanship than dwarf race.
 
"And what is the race that you want to change into?" Sila thought that if it was a plant race, he would be fine in giving the merchant the Tree Dragon Cards that he didn"t know where to use or spend them on anyway.
 
"It"s a merpeople race, bro."
 
"Merpeople race?/Merpeople race?" Sila and Varee exclaimed together with doubt. However, their doubt was different. Varee was suspicious of how the merpeople race is better than the dwarf"s, while Sila wondered whether it was too coincidental that he just happened to obtain a lot of Merpeople Cards recently.
 
"Although big sister said that the best races suitable for craftsmanship are dwarf or plant race, there"s still more to it. Each of the races has their own apt.i.tude. While it"s true that dwarf race is great in craftsmanship ability, it only specializes in crafting weapon and armor. For the plant race, it specializes in medicine creation. There"s also elf and fairy race that specializes in textile." The merchant explained.
 
"What about the merpeople race?"
 
"Merpeople race specializes in jewelry. The jewel that merpeople polish is far more exquisite than others. However, there is a big problem about merpeople race." The merchant"s expression was saddened.
 
"What is it?" asked Sila.
 
"The problem would be the fact that merpeople monsters are rare to meet. There"re all live in deep underwater. The reason that the event today was to fight them must be partly due to this. The game"s creator might want us to try fighting them for once." Varee answered in merchant"s stead. This was a common knowledge.
 
"Did you two get to fight against merpeople monsters?" asked the merchant. His eyes were sparkle by hope.
 
Sila nodded, while Varee shook her head as she hadn"t killed any merpeople. Her task was to a.s.sa.s.sinate the players.
 
The merchant felt a little puzzled. These two were together but one had fought the merpeople while the other hadn"t. No matter how he looked at it, Varee wasn"t seemed to be the support type.
 
Well, it didn"t important. He quickly spoke to Sila.
 
"Do you have any Merpeople Card to sell to me, bro?" asked the young merchant. He had played this game for a while, but he still hadn"t even seen a single Merpeople Card before. Although merpeople didn"t have high level as dragon, the level of difficulty to obtain its card was considered harder than dragon.
 
"Yes, I have. But, can I ask you something first?" said Sila.
 
A big smile was formed on the young merchant"s face. He nodded to allow Sila to ask any question. Meanwhile, Varee was somehow surprised about the fact that Sila was so lucky to obtain the card. But after reconsidering the fact that Sila had killed many merpeople, it shouldn"t be so weird for him to obtain just one or two card.
 
"How many cards are required?" asked Sila. If a large number of cards as slime race are required, what he had wouldn"t be much helpful.
 
Hearing that, the merchant made a sad face. He perceived that Sila only had one card, which was a common scenario. It was not something that is easy to find.
 
"It"s required 10 cards to change into merpeople race, and more 20 cards are needed to obtain the Invitation Card," he replied softly. If he bought one card from Sila, he would still need more 29 cards to fulfil his goal.
 
Sila nodded, "good, I just feared that it might not be enough." He said before putting out all 74 Merpeople Cards to the merchant.
 
Varee and the merchant were shocked beyond words. The merchant extended his hand to take them and inspect them via his system window. His hand was trembling heavily.
 
"Th-Th-Th-The real deal, this many?" the merchant began to stutter.
 
Varee looked at the card pile with amazement. Although it was true that Sila had killed many merpeople, the number of merpeople that died shouldn"t be exceed 300 as she had witnessed. For the cards to drop this many, there must be something behind it.
 
"Just take them. I already have a race myself," simply replied Sila.
 
"B-B-B-Bro, I don"t want this many. No, I mean, I don"t even have the money to buy all these."
 
"Then just take them for free," Sila gave them easily like they were just a candy in the plate.
 
Varee looked at Sila while thinking that common sense couldn"t be used to measure this man. She thought she had already seen through him, but he still has some actions that she couldn"t comprehend. This man wasn"t interested in external material in the slightest.
 
"F-F-F-For free?" the merchant looked at Sila incredulously.
 
"Sila, you may be unaware of their worth. These Merpeople Cards are even more expensive than dragon"s. They"re an item that people can"t buy even if they have money," warned Varee. She wanted to verify whether Sila wasn"t interested in cards or just didn"t know their value.
 
Sila turned his head to the young merchant, seeing him nodded in agreement of Varee"s statement.
 
"Why do you guys seem to be so shocked? It"s not a big deal. I said I would give them for free so they"re free. I"m going to sell them at the card shop anyway if you haven"t told me all those craftsmanship things." (They could be sold for 2 gold coins each there.)
 
Varee felt surprised but her face didn"t show that expression. She could feel her heart skipping a beat for no reason.
 
Sila thought that, although they were expensive, they were just only in-game thing. Sure, he also needed some in-game currency to spend on. However, he was comfortable with what he currently had. He didn"t have any financial problem.
 
He was unaware that this "just only in-game" of him had ruined many friendships of people from the conflict of interests. Due to Monster Soul being a virtual reality game online, some people take it for real that this place is another world.
"B-B-B-But I really can"t just take them for free, considering how priceless they are," said the merchant as he was calming down.
 
"Then, let"s do it this way." Sila took out Jewel of the Sea. "When you are ready, you will have to use this to your best to craft an accessory to this girl, okay?" Sila"s word made Varee turned her head to look at him again.
 
"This is an graded item, Jewel of the Sea, hmm." As expected of the merchant, he recognized it immediately just by looking at it briefly.
 
"Can you do that?"
 
"How can you trust me? I may just take it away myself."
 
"I believe that I trust the right person," replied Sila. Meanwhile, Varee"s heart beat slightly faster. She felt that this man was different than others.
 
As thing was decided, the merchant spoke up "I"m Burapha."
 
"My name is Sila, and this girl is Varee," Sila introduced themselves.
 
After that, the three of them added friend each other. Burapha promised that he would contact Sila and Varee when the accessory is completed. By the way, Varee finally chose two jewelry pieces which Burapha didn"t mind giving them for free. Although, Sila wanted to pay for them at first, Burapha rejected the offer and said that he had received too much already. Granted, Sila understood and then walked away with Varee. They were still holding hands but Sila was somehow accustomed to it already.
 
The two of them spent their time around the Beginning Town until other players began to appear. They checked the time and realized that it was nearly 10.00 p.m. Thus, they walked back to the Quest Building while many players glaring at them.

Author"s Note: Sila is about to leave Beginning Island soon.T/N: I"m not quite sure whether I should translate author"s notes or not. They are mostly ranting or mini additional explanation though. lol
I just think that translating them might help readers like us familiar ourselves with him. Anyway, please tell me what you guys think : )