Monster Soul Online

A bluish light flashed at the edge of the forest near the harbor. Sila’s body emerged from that light. There was nobody here. Sila walked toward the port where the battle between the Four Emperors had occurred.

The current city port was suitable to be called such. There were many merchants selling their products in the stalls. Sila approached one of the merchants to ask about his current location.

The map that Sila had obtained from the Slime King wasn’t like the typical map used by other players. It was just a piece of leather with eight colorful dots. There were no symbols or words indicating where he was. It just told him about the dragon’s locations.

Sila could tell where the Beginning Island was based on the crossed-away brown dot, but he couldn’t say for sure where he was using the map.

After he had conversed with the merchant, Sila walked away.

He tried to open his map again. Now he knew where he was. The dot closest to him was the cyan dot. But there was a big problem. That dot was located in the middle of an ocean.

‘Do I have to swim there?’ Sila tensed.

Sila was currently going in the direction he had asked for. He was searching for a clue to obtain Qi of Little Turtle.

Lockheart City was a relatively large city port compared to Beginning Town. Although it wasn’t as big as the three main cities, it was very economically important. That was because all the players stepping onto the Main Continent had to visit this place first.

The economic state of this city was always booming. The city was titled as “A Gateway to the Main Continent.”

Sila was surprised by the embellishment of the city. While Beginning Town had a Chinese-like atmosphere, this city was giving off an Ancient Greek vibe.

Sila looked at the buildings. He was astonished. The details engraved in each building were realistic and even surreal. He was sometimes lost in thought and forgot for a while that this place was a virtual reality.

The first place Sila visited was the Item Shop. He spent 150,000 silver coins and 15 gold coins to purchase miscellaneous things. The gold coins were spent on the best map he could find. Sila thought he should have it since it was his duty to search for the dragons scattered around the continent.

100,000 silver coins were used to buy a B-grade tent that allowed a single player to rest inside. He decided to buy it as he was currently unable to circulate qi to release his fatigue.

Then, Sila opened his system window and turned on the navigation function available for C-grade system windows or above. Sila selected his destination as the Lockheart City branch of the Blue Pigeon information guild.

A small arrow appeared in front of him. It pointed him in the right direction while also showing him the remaining distance he had to walk.

Sila followed the arrow until he reached his destination and then watched as the arrow disappeared. The building had a Greek-themed appearance, similar to the surrounding buildings. A noticeable difference, however, was that there was a symbol of a blue pigeon hiding behind the white cloud on the signpost located at the entrance. Sila walked inside.

Inside the building, it was similar to a simple pub. There was no one inside except one long-haired male bartender who was sleeping soundly. His face fell down on the counter bar.

Sila furrowed his brows. He had imagined that the information guild should be livelier than this. He re-confirmed that he was in the right place. Then, he walked toward the chair in front of the sleeping bartender.

“Excuse me?” Sila muttered while poking at him.

The bartender woke up with a fright. “Whoa. I wasn’t sleeping, Boss! I’m just resting my eyes for a while.”

Once he realized that the person in the opposite of him wasn’t his boss, he sighed in relief.

“Hello, sir. What business do you have with our Blue Pigeon information guild?” He greeted Sila, completely disregarding the previous situation like it had nothing to do with him.

Sila also wasn’t interested whether this bartender was sleeping or just resting his eyes. He immediately got into the topic. “I want news about the Underwater Palace.”

The bartender lookedSila straight in the eyes. He was estimating whether the man in front of him possessed enough money for such information. It was due to the Beggar’s Cloak Sila was wearing.

The bartender opened his system window and clicked several buttons. He later informed Sila: “300 gold coins for that information, sir.”

Sila was slightly surprised by how expensive it was. However, he had no other choice. He took out a black credit card and handed it to the bartender.

The bartender widened his eyes. This kind of credit card was only possessed by tycoons or vice-leader level figures. He didn’t expect to see it from this man. Nevertheless, he took it and scanned the card before returning it to Sila.

“May I ask whether your system window is D-grade or above?” The bartender asked, which Sila nodded.

The bartender nodded back. Having this level of a credit card, it was not weird for this man to possess a high-grade system window.

“In that case, I will send the information directly to your inbox. You can find it in the news window, sir.”

The mail icon appeared in front of Sila briefly before disappearing. Sila opened his system window and found that there were three unusual messages in his inbox.

From Burapha 1/3

Big Brother Sila, I have something to tell you. Please contact me as soon as possible.

From Varee 2/3

Why can’t I contact you? Did your avatar die? Please contact me when you have revived.

From Varee 3/3

It has been too many days already. Are you facing any problems? Why can’t I contact you at all even with the ring?

Sila ignored the messages. He guessed Burapha must have finished the accessory and already contacted Varee. It was five days since he had gotten the last message. He believed those two must have already met and that Varee should have obtained the jewelry already.

About the inability to contact, it must be due to him being in the Slime Kingdom. Although the ring has the ability to contact the other wearer unconditionally, its ability was clashing with the Slime Kingdom’s setting that didn’t allow outside contact. It seemed the restriction of the Slime Kingdom’s setting was more powerful.

The Ring of Commitment wasn’t as invincible as Sila had previously thought. It didn’t allow the couple to contact and follow each other to everywhere. The special places in Monster Soul usually have a unique restriction. For example, the Slime Kingdom that only allows a slime-race creature to enter, or Sila’s Chamber of Secrets that only allows people that Sila has given Invitation Cards to.

Sila read the information regarding the Underwater Palace.

Underwater Palace

The Underwater Palace is one of the four mysterious places that the players can only access once per year. On the night of the full moon in the fifth month, the Underwater Palace floats up and allows the players to enter. The place is protected by the Great Millennium Turtle, which has a low chance of dropping a scroll of Qi of Little Turtle upon being defeated.

*Note: Qi of Little Turtle is one of the four Qi of Little Divine Beings.

*Note: The four mysterious places consisted of the Underwater Palace, the Labyrinthine Forest Cathedral, the Cloudy City, and the Transworld Lake. More details about them can be purchased at any branch of Blue Pigeon information guild.

There was a mini-map attached at the end of the message. Sila furrowed his brows. He didn’t think this information was worth the money he had spent.

The bartender seemed to know what was Sila thinking as he was quick to explain. “Little Brother, you may think that it’s not worth your money. But this is the information relating to Qi of Little Divine Beings that the Qi Emperor himself is using, you know? It is bound to be expensive.”

Sila didn’t reply. He was concerned about the fact that there were several months left until the Underwater Palace floated up and allowed entry. He had to come up with an alternative method.

“Is there another way to go there besides waiting for it to float up?” Sila asked.

“Don’t be rash. Okay. Since you have already purchased the information, I will give you this additional tip for free. Actually, for those four mysterious places, you don’t have to wait for the specific time. But that’s up to your ability.”

“What do you mean?” Sila asked. He was hopeful.

“Just go directly. But it’ll obviously be harder. For instance, you have to dive into the bottom of the ocean to fight Great Millennium Turtle underwater instead of waiting for it to come up. As for the Labyrinthine Forest Cathedral, you have to pass through its maze-like structure instead of waiting for it to appear. For the Cloudy City, you have to fight in the sky instead of waiting for it to descend. As for the Transworld Lake, there is a method but I don’t know what it is.”

Sila tried to think of a way for him to reach the bottom of the ocean. Moreover, he would have to fight the Great Millennium Turtle underwater. It was indeed too hard, especially when he wasn’t able to circulate qi like this.

“Is there a way for me to stay underwater for a long time?” Sila asked.

“There is. I will give this information for free. But I think it won’t be helpful to you,” The bartender said.

“Yes? What is it?” Sila was glad to hear that there was a way.

“You have to become a merperson or have a friend who is one. I have heard that this race can breathe underwater and also possesses an ability that allows an ally to breathe underwater for a while.”

“Merperson?” Sila repeated the word.

“Yes. From our Blue Pigeon information guild’s research, there is only one player who is playing as a merperson. To search for one particular player in the entirety of Monster Soul, even our Blue Pigeon information guild is not confident. There is no information at all regarding this player. We currently believe that he or she must be a new player or a fameless player.”

Sila smiled. Coincidentally, he was an acquaintance of that particular player. That player must be Burapha. It seemed that there was a need for Sila to contact Burapha.

Sila opened his friends window to contact Burapha but he found that the opposite party was currently offline. He had no choice but to leave Burapha a message.

The bartender saw Sila contacting someone immediately so his reporter’s instinct kicked in.

“Little Brother, surely you don’t know the identity of the player who plays as a merperson?”

“I know who he is, but he is offline. I just left him a message for now,” Sila honestly replied.

The bartender was shocked. Was this a chance for him to show his guild some results? If things go well, he might be forgiven for the mistake he had made. The guild master would quit punishing him by forcing him to work in this boring position.

The information regarding the identity of the sole merperson player was very valuable. The merpeople were rumored to be masters of high-class jewelry craftsmanship. Its demand exceeded the dwarfs’ craftsmanship.

“Little Brother, can you please tell me who he is?” the bartender asked slowly.

Sila frowned. “Why do you want to know?”

“Information regarding the merpeople race is in high demand right now. If the news about your friend goes out, your friend would become well-known. His jewelry would be able to sell well. He will be super rich!”

Sila furrowed his brows. He didn’t know whether Burapha wanted to become well-known or not. But he, for sure, shouldn’t decide in Burapha’s place.

“I can’t decide that for my friend. If he wanted to be famous, he would handle the news himself,” Sila replied.

The bartender turned his head left and right to double-check that there was no one else here.

“If it’s about money, I’ll give you lots of it.”

“I’m not lacking in money,” Sila said.

The bartender just realized that this man possessed the black credit card. It was a stupid move for him to try to use money to bribe Sila.

“If there’s nothing else, I will take my leave,” Sila stood up from his chair.

“Wait! How about information? The information that our Blue Pigeon information guild possesses is top class with high accuracy. Some information is even worth more than a thousand gold coins. Such information is usually only available for insiders to purchase, but today I will make an exception. I will gladly trade it for your information.”

Sila started to feel interested. Of course, he still wouldn’t decide for Burapha’s place. But he was interested in finding out what kind of information was expensive among players. It would cost him nothing to hear the deal before he left.

“Are you interested now?” The bartender asked.

Sila nodded. “What kind of information?”

“The first one is my recommendation. You’re playing qi type, right?”

Sila nodded.

“I have a recipe for refining Emperor Qi Pellet. It is the highest grade of medicine for qi-type players. It allows you to promote your rank unconditionally and tremendously increase your qi points. The recipe is top-secret known only by Hermit, the strategist of the Victorious Wolves Sect.”

Sila was interested as this pallet was related to Lone Wolf. Sila felt he was currently indebted to this man.

The bartender could see that Sila was drawn to this information. He started to explain more.

“The rumor said this pellet is golden in color and gives off an aura of powerful qi. Once consumed, you will feel warm inside. It will detoxify any poison in the body and increase your maximum qi points tremendously.”

Actually, this was a sly move of the bartender.

Previously, Hermit had personally come and sold this information to the information guild for a high price. But once the information was obtained, the Blue Pigeon information guild’s members realized that they had been tricked by Hermit. Although the recipe is real, the only person who could perform the process of refining the pills was Hermit. Thus, this information became useless and no one would want to purchase it.

Once Sila had listened to the pellet’s characteristics, he became aware that it must be the same pellets Lone Wolf had given him. He also realized that he had forgotten to return the bottle of these pellets to Lone Wolf.

Sila opened his item window and took the bottle out.

“Are these the pellets you just mentioned?” Sila asked.

The bartender had his eyeballs on the verge of popping out. This man actually possessed Emperor Qi Pellets himself? It seemed that he just had carried coal to Newcastle.

T/N: “Carried coal to Newcastle” is a proverb. It means ‘giving ​advice to someone regarding a ​subject that they already ​know more about than you do.’

Sila kept the bottle inside his item window. There was one more thing he had to do, adding to his list. If these pellets were that valuable, he needed to quickly return them to Lone Wolf.

“Now, is there really any interesting information?” Sila asked. He was quite bored already.

The bartender felt like he was being humiliated. Hence, he chose to declare the most interesting news.

“My mistake. The next one is really big news.”

Sila was keeping his silence. The bartender felt ashamed that the other party didn’t take the initiative to ask. He opened his mouth nevertheless.

“It’s news about Shadow Emperor Zero and Qi Emperor Lone Wolf.”

“News about Mister Zero and Mister Lone Wolf?” Sila exclaimed. This was intriguing.

The bartender smiled. It seemed the other party got hooked by his information.

“Yes. Two weeks ago, the battle between the Four Emperors occurred. The current hottest topics among all players are about Lone Wolf’s card and Zero’s magical qi.”

Sila sighed in relief. He had thought something bad had happened to those two. He was relieved that it was just about their card and skill.

“We have gotten clues about Lone Wolf’s card and Zero’s method for using two energy types.”

“Clues?” Sila wondered. Why did the bartender use such word?

“Little Bro, you might think that they’re just mere clues. But our Blue Pigeon information guild is infamous regarding having the most accurate, in-depth, and worldwide information in all of Monster Soul. Although they’re only clues, I daresay using my head as the insurance that no one has yet to obtain such clues.”

“What kind of clues do you mean?” Sila asked.

The bartender was looking left and right again (there was still no one else there except for the two of them) prior to whispering to Sila.

“Keep it down and don’t tell anybody. My source said that Lone Wolf had gotten the card from the place called Mansion of Seven Deadly Sins. No one has yet to find out how to go there though. As for Zero, he has gotten his magical qi from Madmen’s Valley. But no one has found out the specific condition.”

The bartender was waiting for Sila to be shocked beyond words.

However, Sila was expressionless.

“Little bro, are you not shocked at all?” The bartender frowned.

Sila shook his head. “No, I already knew about those. I even know more than you.”

“Know more than this!?” The bartender exclaimed.

Sila nodded. “I’ve heard enough. I should go. Your information isn’t interesting for me at all.”

Sila got up from his seat again and was about to leave. But the bartender stopped him one more time.

“Wait! I have one more piece of news! This time for sure, you will be surprised.”

Sila turned his head back. “Better be so. I will listen to it one last time.”

“Sure. If you're not surprised by this news, I won’t stop you again.”

“Deal. Now, feel free to tell me,” Sila said.

The bartender sighed. He decided to declare the most popular topic nowadays. About this information, even the Blue Pigeon information guild was unaware. It was the information that he himself had obtained painstakingly. He had to travel back to Beginning Island and interview all the NPCs living there. He had to spend more than a week to obtain such precious information. He was sure that if what he had researched was made known to his superiors, his current punishment would be canceled.

“Have you heard about a player named Sila? I have exclusive news about him. It’s information that only I know,” He said.

Sila was very interested. He couldn’t imagine that there was news about him.

“What kind of news?” Sila asked quickly.

The bartender smiled. ‘Finally… finally… he is hooked!’

“The public information about player Sila is very well-known among many players. He is a lover of the Goddess of Purified Water. He seems to have some grudge against the Magic Emperor and that must be the reason that brought him into this game. His arrival itself has caused Monster Soul to experience some changes. Before, it was a cold war between three guilds: Heaven Dragon, Royal Armament, and Victorious Wolves. But now Montra and Cross have joined forces while Lone Wolf and Zero also did so. The situation has changed into a confrontation. A battle could start at any time. The battle at the port was one of the situations created by this fact. That’s why the news about Player Sila is in high demand right now.”

“What is the exclusive information that only you know?” Sila asked.

“About this information, if it was heard by anyone, they would feel shocked beyond imagination. Player Sila is a new star who is considered very skilled. No one has yet to find out the race he is playing as. But based on my personal research that I have spent more than a week to develop, I finally know that Player Sila is playing as…”

“…a slime,” Sila added the last words of the bartender’s sentence. He was very disappointed. He thought it was important information.

“Little Bro, you already knew?” The bartender's eyes were widening. His expression was as if he was witnessing a ghost.

“Yes. I’ve known for a while,” Sila answered.

“Looking at you, you seem to be a new player. May I ask how long have you been playing this game for? And when did you obtain this information?” The bartender asked slowly.

Sila calculated the time in his mind. He had selected slime as his race on the first day. Hence, his answer was:

“I started playing around two months ago based on in-game time. As for that information, I have known it since the first day.”

The bartender was agape, looking at Sila. He couldn’t shut his eyes at all.

“If you have nothing else to do with me, I would like to take my leave.” Sila left, leaving a soulless bartender behind.

Once Sila had left, the bartender took out some paper. He wrote a message on it and put the paper down on the counter. It said:

Dear Boss,

Today, I have finally realized my own stupidity. I have believed I’m an all-knowing person. But in reality, I am even worse than a new player. I would like to be suspended from the guild’s job to search for the answer for myself. I would like to re-discover why I wanted to be a newshawk in the first place. Please forgive this stupid vice-leader of yours.

From a-frog-in-the-well, who believed a well is the entire world without witnessing an ocean,

Bluebird

P.S. Don’t look for me.

Later on, the Blue Pigeon’s guild master stumbled upon this message and was speechless.

“Is my punishment for Bluebird too severe?”