Chapter 13: Nameless Elder's Main Disciple
After laughing for a long time, the old man finally wiped a teardrop of joy on his eyes before turning his head toward Sila whom was now standing dumbfounded.
"Have you not yet understood? The thing you did just now was called a 'knife throwing', not a 'hidden weapon firing,' " said the old man.
"A knife throwing?" Sila still didn't fully understand.
"Umm ... I'll show you, then," the old man still giggled, "the correct way to use hidden weapon."
The old man opened a palm of his right hand; there was a bamboo knife on it.
Sila was intently staring at that knife for a long time. But nothing happened. He then raised his head to speak with the old man.
"Nothing happened, sir?" Sila confused.
"Just look closely."
And when Sila lowering his head to look at the old man's palm again, the knife was gone.
"Huh? Where is it now?"
The old man said nothing but pointed at Sila's chest. Sila's eyes followed that and found a bamboo knife floating in front of his chest, only a millimeter away from his heart position.
"W-Whoa! How can this be?" Sila panicked. Nevertheless, in a blink of an eye, the knife was disappeared again.
The old man once again opened his palm, showing the same bamboo knife.
"You've made three mistakes when you attempted to fire a hidden weapon previously," the old man started to explain.
Sila now got a glimpse of his mistakes, so he stood silently and listen carefully to the old man's word.
"First, you circulated "Qi of Little Fish" to support your attack. This was considered too soon. You just start learning; you should practice it without using advanced qi first.
"Second, you flicked your wrist. It's as if you wanted your opponents to know that you would attack them with hidden weapon. That was very nonsense. Hidden weapon wouldn't be called hidden anymore if your opponents know where it's coming.
"Third, which was the funniest one; which hidden weapon holder in the world would shout 'I will throw hidden weapon at you now!' before firing it? Hahaha. This one made me laugh so hard."
Sila's face turned red by shamefulness. Every word from the old man was totally right. What he had previously done was really embarrassing.
"Don't be too serious, young lad. I'll teach you about it, but..." paused the old man.
"Yes?"
"But I have two conditions. First, you must call me 'teacher.'"
"I'm learning a skill from you so I'm planning to call you my teacher anyway, sir," said Sila respectfully, "then, what's the second condition, sir?"
"Second, you need to do a quest for me. Place it as your top priority. You also need to complete it within seven days because this is very urgent."
Sila quickly calculated his online-able time. He had taken only one nutrient pill so he had two to three days in game. However, he thought he could manage extending his play time to seven days since he had done that before.
The problem was, if he accepted this quest from the old man, he would have no time to look for news about Montra. But after thinking about it for a while, he decided that practicing the use of hidden weapon would be beneficial to him more than confronting against Montra when he's still a noob in Monster Soul.
"I accept your condition, elder ... I mean, teacher."
Sila knelt down and began to kowtow, mimicking what he had seen in Chinese movie.
"Fufu. Aren't you a bit overdramatic? This is a game; you didn't have to go that far, actually."
The old man pulled Sila back to sitting posture.
Sila was a bit embarrassed. Nevertheless, a system sound could be heard by him.
Player Sila has been given a title status: Nameless Elder's Main Disciple.
"Using hidden weapon is an art that the more you practice it, the harder it get. Even if it's a low grade skill, no one really wants to use it and turn their interest to learn mechanical bow instead, since that skill is much easier to use.
"The first step for mastering an art of hidden weapon is quietness. You have to fire a hidden weapon without having to spell out a skill's name. To do that, you need to possess high-tier qi-type skill named "Soundless."
"The second step is secrecy. You have to fire a hidden weapon with inner force, not by flicking your wrist. Well, there's a problem with that; when you use your inner force to fire a hidden weapon, there will be a light glowing effect around it. This problem can be solved by possessing another high-tier qi-type skill: "Qi Concealment." With that skill, you could freely use your qi without displaying any special effect.
"Third, you have to be cruel. Firing a hidden weapon should always be fast and accurate. Opponents shouldn't understand what their cause of death is and die stupidly without consent. This is easier said than done, since firing it fast and accurate require tactfulness and expertise. In an actual combat, you wouldn't have time to aim at your target; as soon as you think you want to fire your hidden weapon, it should hit your target already."
Sila stood still speechlessly. Now he fully understood why nobody wanted to learn this skill: Even though it's an F-graded skill, it required two high-tiered skills to be able to use it in an actual combat.
"Hey, don't be vacant. My lecture is not over yet," said the old man.
'There's even more?'
Seeing Sila's dumbfounded face, the old man smiled playfully before continuing, "those are merely basics of using hidden weapon. They would be enough for piercing a tree, but still hard to pierce a skilled opponent; that's why I said the more you practice it, the harder it get.
"Next, you need to learn how to fire hidden weapon without making a noise of an air friction. You also have to learn how to enhance your qi into your hidden weapon too. Moreover, you have to be able to fire it in curve trajectory and learn how to fire many hidden weapons simultaneously to hit multiple targets. Mastering an art of hidden weapon means being mastering in all of these techniques.
"Then, the more advanced step is to be able to collect a used hidden weapon via pulling it back by inner force. This will make hidden weapon truly be hidden from the sight of others. Moreover, with a power to pull it back, it can be used as an attack from opposite direction of yourself too."
Now, even Sila was starting to want to buy a mechanical bow instead. It might be expensive, but at least it wouldn't be as troublesome as what he had just heard.
"Well, actually, I can give "Soundless" and "Qi Concealment" skill to you right here and now."
Sila smiled. If he had those skills, he would just need to increase his hidden weapon firing speed to pass the basic stage of using hidden weapon.
"But..." continued the old man.
"But...?"
"But, just as I said before, you have to do a quest for me in return. You are not the type of person who only waits for others to feed you everything, right?"
It reminded Sila of the time when Varee told him he was only skilled because he'd obtained ability from others. So, he was more determining to do a quest now.
"What do you want me to do, teacher?"
"You have to find an item for me. It's called Millennium Peach."
"Teacher, one item trading for two skills seems unfair to you. Please let me do something else for you, sir."
"Fufu. I can ensure that it's quite fair. Millennium Peach is being protected by Great Millennium Ape and its subordinates. You will have to both bring Millennium Peach to me and take down Great Millennium Ape, totaling two conditions."
"Then, excuse me, sir. I will do it now and get back soon," Sila stood and turned away.
The old man didn't stop Sila. But he laughed and said, "haha. Such an impatient lad you are. Do you know where to find the item and the apes yet?"
Sila embarrassed himself again, "oh, sorry, it seems that I'm too hurried."
"Come here," the old man beckoned Sila to sit next to him, which Sila then obediently did so. Afterward, the old man put his hand against Sila's back, and the system sound rung out.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. The skill Basic Qi - Level 100 has been promoted to skill Intermediate Qi - Level 1.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. The skill Qi Circulation - Level 75 has been promoted to skill Qi Circulation (Intermediate) - Level 1.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. The skill Recovering Qi - Level 57 has been promoted to skill Recovering Qi (Intermediate) - Level 1.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. The skill Bone Restructuring Qi - Level 33 has been promoted to skill Bone Restructuring Qi (Intermediate) - Level 1.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. The skill Qi of Little Fish - Level 24 has been promoted to skill Qi of Little Fish (Intermediate) - Level 1.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. The skill Qi of Little Tiger - Level 24 has been promoted to skill Qi of Little Tiger (Intermediate) - Level 1.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. Player has learned a special skill: Soundless.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. Player has learned a special skill: Qi Concealment.
Player Sila has inherited qi from your teacher. Avatar's level has been increased to 500.
Player Sila has gotten Invitation Card to Bamboo Hut. It's a personal item which cannot be sold or transferred.
Sila was very surprised by the sound that had rung continuously. His skills had been promoted, and his avatar level had also been increased. Most importantly, he even learned two special skills that his teacher had promised to give him after finishing the quest, not now.
Sila stared at his teacher. His eyes were filled with questions.
"You'll know the reason when you confront Great Millennium Ape. Just be sure to give it your all. To tell you the truth, the current you are no match for it. You'll need to use your wit."
The old man said that and changed his posture to sit on his haunches.
"My last advice, now, circulate you newly promoted qi until you are getting used to them; focus on "Intermediate Qi" and "Recovering Qi" first, and then the rest. Once your "Qi Circulation" skill level reaches 100, start practicing firing bamboo knives for a day. All of these processes should take around three days for you to complete. So, use the remaining four days to do your task. Your destination is 'Stone Forest' located on the west of the town. That's all. Now, I have to rest for seven days straight. My inner force should fully be regenerated again by the time you return."
After that, the old man shut his eyes and started his meditation.
"Teacher?" called Sila, but his teacher didn't response at all. An insane amount of inner force must be required for his teacher to transmit all those qi to Sila. Realizing this, Sila didn't want to bother the old man anymore and started to follow the instructions of his teacher strictly.
***
Sila went out of Quest Building after four days had passed. He had spent one more day than the time his teacher had anticipated.
Since the time was running out, Sila quickly visited Weapon Shop to buy 100 EAs of Small Throwing Daggers. Now he understood more the reason why people didn't use hidden weapon; as each throwing dagger required one slot of his Item Window's space (each of them wasn't counted as item, but weapon.) Well, if it's a needle, it would be counted as miscellaneous item. But as he had never practiced using needle before, using dagger he'd been familiar with should be better. And since he had to fight against a herd of apes, he didn't think he would have time to collect his used dagger nor he could perform a pulling technique like his teacher did; so, he bought as many daggers as he could carry.
Then, Sila purchased steamed buns to fill every food box of him, refilled fresh water in his liquid bottles, and rushed to buy fire-making kit. At first, he'd thought he would need a sleeping bag, but he'd previously found out that circulating "Intermediate Qi" for three hours made his fatigue completely gone, aka had the same effect as sleeping. Thus, he decided not to sleep during his journey to speed things up and also increase skill's proficiency at the same time.
Finally, he was ready for his journey. It was then that he received a call from Varee. But since he had upgraded his System Window to D Grade, he could set it to block the call.
Of course, Sila was fully aware that Varee was a decent high level player whom could be his good companion to finish his quest. But he had decided to do this quest alone without relying on others' help. Therefore, he set his System Window to block a call of every person (well, actually, Varee was the only person in Sila's friend list) before running to the west side of the town.