Monster Soul Online

It was 8 o"clock in the morning when Sila got out of life-supporting capsule. He got up and walked slowly around the room. He could walk normally now but he could also feel that his stamina was significantly lower than before.
 
Sila warmed up and began to try a light workout. He performed push-ups. However, his body really wasn"t in good shape; just 20 times and he could hardly do anymore push-ups. Usually, he could perform three sets of push-ups, 100 times per set.
 
His body was soaked in sweat when the door of his room opened. Doctor Panhathai went into the room.
 
"Wait! What are you doing, Sila?" exclaimed the doctor.
 
"I"m working out," naively replied Sila.
 
"You can"t perform serious workout like this." The doctor scolded.
 
"I usually perform much more serious workouts than this though."
 
"That"s when you are in good condition. But now your body needs recovering. Please refrain yourself from heavy activities."
 
"But I didn"t want to just lie down on bed." Sila argued.
 
The doctor sighed. It seemed Rashine"s plan worked a little too well. Sila who had no spirit in doing anything before, now pushing himself too much.
 
"Then I will give you a workout program later. You need to follow my instruction strictly if you want to recover soon."
 
"Thank you."
 
"I will write it now. You should go and take a bath." The doctor said while walking to the couch.
 
Sila went into the shower. Cold water poured onto his head, making his mind to feel refresh. He was thinking about the game.
 
"Now, the important thing is finding Montra. But what will I do once I meet him?"
 
Before he had started playing, he thought he could easily find Montra since that guy seems to be famous. Once he met Montra, he would ask him about his teacher and the reason why Montra had to cheat. He would also ask for a revenge duel. However, it wasn"t that simple once he entered the game.
 
Firstly, Montra was very difficult to find. Not only he had to travel to Main Continent, but he also had to encounter Heaven Dragon"s guild-members that seem to be everywhere.
 
Secondly, Sila hadn"t played any game before. He didn"t know that his avatar will be weak once he enters into the game. He previously had thought that since it was a virtual reality game, it would be just like him entering into another dimension with his current body. However, based on NPC"s explanation, he was aware that he wasn"t a match for Montra in a game. If it was about a fighting ability in real life, he perceived that he would be just slightly inferior than Montra. But, when it came to in-game fight, there would be no way for him to win.
 
Thus, Sila thought he needed to change his courses of action. Since the flow of time inside the game is 5-times slower than in real life, he would have time to train himself more than normal. He had wasted his time in hospital for one month already; he could wait for another month.
 
"Well, next, I should go to Underwater Palace to look for "Qi of Little Turtle" and get rid of "Bomb Lurking Psychic." Then, I"ll train myself hard while finding clues about Montra."
 
Once he had settled on what he would do next, he calmed down. Of course he still felt revengeful toward Montra. But Sila wasn"t a stupid person. He was fully aware that he was weaker than Montra in all aspects, be it a power or an influence. Although his original teacher taught him that the most important aspect of the fight is the mind, a certain level of fighting ability is also needed.
 
Sila"s teacher always taught him to be as calm as water, being good at control his own emotion. If Sila could do that, he would be more skillful than this, he said. The funny thing is, Sila could just do that once his teacher was gone. Before, he was a fighter type that focused only on offensive. But once he was lost to Montra, he could be able to calm his mind in the battle. Although he couldn"t do that all the times, it was still a good start for him.
 
Sila just hoped for his teacher to appear and see his current ability.
 
Humans are strange creatures. They usually don"t appreciate things around them. They only realize the value once those things are gone. The teachings from teacher that Sila hadn"t cared about much before, he now started to understand how important they are.
 
"Be as calm as water." Sila used his hands to handle the water from a shower. He smiled. He really wasn"t very good at interpreting words. It seemed he would have to push himself forward to experience it himself.
 
Sila turned off the shower and sighed. His journey would be long and he still didn"t know his destination. He didn"t know what he wanted and what he will do once he beats Montra. Will he feel satisfy? He didn"t know. He just had to try it.
 
Sila wiped his body and wore new clothes that the nurse provided. He returned to bedroom zone. Well, he was staying at private patient room that has a bathroom within a bedroom. When he thought about it, he realized he still hadn"t returned Rashane"s favor yet. The hospital fees were charged to Rashane.
 
There were three more persons in patient room. One was Rashane that now having a conversation with the doctor. One was a nurse who was preparing some equipment. The last one was Varee who was sitting on a couch.
 
"Hi, Sila. Good timing. We"re talking about you," greeted Rashane.
 
"What"s matter, uncle?"
 
"About you getting out of hospital, of course."
 
"When can I go out?" happily asked Sila.
 
"Your body has to be examined again. If there isn"t something wrong, you will be able to leave the hospital in 2 or 3 days," said the doctor. "Please come here. Let me examine your body."
 
Sila went to the bed, and then the nurse took some kind of tool to inspect his body. She told him to move his hands and feet around. Sila was looking at Varee. She was smiling and seemed to have something to say. However, her mobile phone was interrupting.
 
Varee picked up her call and walked outside to talk.
 
"Good, no problem at all. It will take only some more days for you to leave the hospital," said the doctor.
 
"That"s good to hear. By the way, where are you planning to live once you leave the hospital, Sila?" asked Rashane.
 
Sila was stunned. He had been raised in the dojo. Nevertheless, after the incident, his dojo was closed down and he heard that it was seized by a bank"s agent. Although he felt that there was something sinister behind, he couldn"t do anything to prevent it.
 
"I don"t know, uncle. Maybe I"ll find some job and rent some place."
 
"I"ll help you, then."
 
"Is that okay?" Sila felt bad as he was bothering Rashane in many ways already, including the hospital fees.
 
"Come on. I know a lot of people. It should be easy."
 
"In that case, thank you very much, uncle." Sila wasn"t stubborn. He was aware that he would have a hard time finding a job in his condition.
 
"Then, I"ll come and pick you up in three days later. During the time, you shouldn"t think or workout too hard. You are almost recovered; it will be bad if your wound opens."
 
"Okay. I"ll keep staying online for three days then," said Sila.
 
Rashane smiled. At least Sila was learned to rest. He agreed with Sila"s suggestion.
 
Sila picked up six of nutrient pills and threw them into his mouth. "Let"s meet again in three days, uncle."
 
"Wait. It seems Varee has something to tell you," said Rashane.
 
Sila frowned. Does this girl even have to bother him both in game and in real life?
 
"Don"t mind it, uncle. If she has something to say, she can easily contact me in the game anyway."
 
"Is that so? Well, let"s meet again in three days."
 
Sila put his palms together and said goodbye to both Rashane and doctor. The life-supporting capsule closed down to cover Sila"s body and made him sleep.
 
Meanwhile, Varee entered the room. She was shocked to see that Sila had already logged in.
 
"Dad, why don"t you tell him that I have something to say?" panicky said Varee.
 
Rashane was confused to see Varee being this startle. "Sila told me you can just contact him once you are in the game."
 
Varee"s face went pale. "Dad, we need to go back home immediately, or else it will be too late."
 
***
 
Sila woke up in cross-legged position. The pain was coursing through his body immediately as he opened his eyes.
 
"Argh!" Sila spitted out blood and instantly circulated "Recovering Qi."
 
After 15 minutes pa.s.sed, Sila felt better. He switched his power into "Intermediate Qi" and "Unblemished Aqua." He checked his own body and discovered that the core of "Bomb Lurking Psychic" was bigger than before.
 
"It seems I need to hurry."
 
He spent his time in the room circulating his qi and playing with Lookhin. Then, the naval announced that the ship will arrive to Main Continent in 15 minutes. Sila went outside.
 
The sea wind breezed pa.s.s him. Sila released Lookhin to fly around. He noticed that many players were looking at him and began to whisper. But he didn"t care. These people must had saw him fought against Shueria.
 
The ship docked on the quay slowly. Although this place is called a city port, it isn"t really a city. It is like a port at Beginning Island that the port is separated from the town. Well, there were many merchants setting a stall to sell items to newcomers so this place became crowd. It is a big market place people nicknamed it as city port.
 
Sila was ready to leave the ship. Strangely, no one had stepped out of the ship yet. They were all open a path for Sila to leave. Sila frowned. These people sure were weird. He just displayed some fighting skill and now they were this scared of him?
 
Sila walked through players slowly. However, even after Sila had stepped off the ship, no one still moved. Sila looked around and felt that something wasn"t right.
 
There were no merchants or stalls here at all. Instead, there were a group of players in armor and group of players wearing magic robe. They spread around the port. Their number was exceeded 1,000.
 
One man stepped forward. He wore light gorgeous armor. His hair was black and short. His body was full of muscles but his body wasn"t too big. In conclusion, he had a good shape and looked manly.
 
"You must be Sila," said that man.
 
"And who might you be?" asked Sila while he was looking around.
 
"I"m Cross, Shueria"s guild master. Everyone called me Sword Emperor."
 
At the end of that speech, Sila had to look closely at this man. This man was very skilled. Sila could grasp this fact just by looking at his stance that was ready to attack at any time.
 
Immediately, Sila focused his thought into a way to escape from this place. He finally knew the reason why everyone in the ship kept whispering. They must know about Sword Emperor being here. No, maybe everyone in the game had known this.
 
Even in his best condition, he wouldn"t think that he could beat Sword Emperor. Needless to say about his current condition that he had to keep using "Unblemished Aqua" all the time. The plan inside Sila"s head was to use "Light of Forest" to blind everyone here and focus all his qi into "Qi of Little Bird" to flee.
 
"Don"t you dare think about running away though. Just for you, I even went out of my way to invite a special guest to come here," said Cross.
 
Sila really wanted to know more than ever whether psychic-type player be able to read people"s mind.
 
"You mean Varee?" wondered Sila as his only acquaintance in Main Continent was Varee. She also had mentioned that she had something to tell him. Is it about her deciding to join Royal Armament guild?
 
Meanwhile, Cross felt furious inwardly. He wasn"t sure whether Sila had just making fun of him by mentioning Varee, knowing that he is in love with her, or not.
 
"It"s not Varee. But it"s a person you"ll surely be happy to meet."
 
Then, the area that full of players in magic robe was opened. One man was walking through them slowly.
 
This man was handsome. His skin was white, same as his slightly curly hair. His shape was perfect, not too fat and not too thin. He wore an elegant-looking tight magic robe. His mouth was smirking mockingly.
 
"It"s been a long time, Sila. It must be since you admitted to the hospital, mustn"t it?" said that man.
 
Sila"s face was contorted with rage. It was a given that he remembered this guy. Even if this man was crushed to dust Sila would still remember this man. Since this man was a sole reason for Sila to play this game.
 
"Montra!!!" Sila shouted out angrily.
 
It was ironic that once Sila decided to change his plan not to find Montra for the time being, Montra instead appeared in front of him.

T/N: This chapter marks the end of volume#1: "First Step into the New World"