Chapter 142: Eternal Onyx
Master Viola spent ten minutes explaining what happened to Sila.
Usually, the Slime King wouldn't be able to contact the Slime Guardians whenever he wished, only when it was related to Bow's condition. It was an agreement that he made with the game creator. Thus, knowing that Bow was located in Beginning Town, the Slime King had contacted Viola who was nearby.
"In conclusion, Bow's condition seems to have gotten better and her brain waves have stabilised. There is a chance she will wake up from her coma. But, for that to happen, we need Bow to log out. His Majesty has already contacted the system admin, and it is set that releasing her will be equivalent to her logging out."
"But..." Bow seemed to want to say something.
"This is for your own good, Bow," strictly said Viola.
Sila was aware that this was necessary. Bow's condition should take priority over everything else. However, it was too sudden. He felt like he still didn't get to know Bow enough. When Poluk told him the truth about Bow, he had thought that this moment would come much later.
"Well, there seems to be a problem. I heard your system window is malfunctioning?"
"Actually, it is being upgraded. What really happened was..."
Listening to Sila's story, Viola came to understand the reason Sila didn't have a system window with him.
"I see. So we will have to wait until your system window is returned. In that case, just stay here until the upgrade is finished."
"I don't know when it will be finished though."
"Please let Bow go out one last time. Please, please."
Viola hesitated for a while before giving permission. "Okay. Fine. But please promise me that you will log out immediately when Sila gets his system window back. We don't know for sure that your brain waves will be steady like this forever. If we miss this chance, maybe we won't get another one. More importantly, Sila. Don't let Bow encounter any danger. This is a must."
Sila and Bow nodded simultaneously.
"Our communication is one-way only, so I will have to go back to personally inform His Majesty. Come find me in the Slime Kingdom if you need anything else."
"What about these slimes?" Sila looked at the hundreds of slimes hopping around Stone Forest.
"They will live here. No need to worry. Every time a seal is broken, they become stronger. Now that more than half of the seals have been broken, they won't die easily."
Viola called the slimes over and ordered them to give Sila the dropped dragon cards and a Return Scroll. She also took the Invitation Card to the Slime Kingdom out and used it, leaving them all behind. With the restriction of the seals, she wouldn't be able to get out again until all eight seals were broken.
"Another three to go," Sila recalled all the hardships he had overcome to break each seal. In the beginning, he had thought that there would be no way for him to complete this quest, but now, he had passed the halfway milestone.
All of the slimes stood in a single row and saluted him by bowing their heads down, to which Sila bowed back in return. Then, he used the Return Scroll to return to Beginning Town.
Once his body reappeared in Beginning Town, it was almost impossible for him to tell that this place was the Beginning Town he knew. The entire town seemed to be damaged from a big hurricane, leaving only a handful of buildings untouched. It was due to the fact that a few important buildings had been programmed to be reconstructed faster than ordinary buildings.
The atmosphere in the town was similar to the one in the lawless Grea City. There were many battles breaking out all over the place. Some players were fighting while some were fleeing from the chaos. It was truly a sight of pandemonium.
"What is happening?" muttered Sila.
"A human's greed, I'd say." A feminine voice came from behind him, which caused Sila to immediately turn his head. Although it was true that he wasn't keeping his guard up, the fact that this woman could approach him without him noticing clearly showed that her ability was high.
"Hello." Not knowing what to do, Sila politely greeted her while circulating his qi.
In front of him was a woman. Her white, curly hair reached her back, covering part of her sky blue long-sleeved coat. Even though she was obviously standing right in front of him, Sila couldn't feel her presence nor her power at all. It was as if she didn't really exist.
"Just a moment ago, there were dragon cards raining down from the sky. Dragon cards are very rare, so many players are killing each other to obtain them."
Sila finally realized that the problem was, in fact, his fault. He himself had once collected slime cards lying on the ground, so he was aware that there would be no way to prove that those dragon cards belonged to him. Considering this, he decided to shut his mouth.
Though, the difference between slime cards and dragon cards were like the difference between heaven and earth. The monsters of the dragon race were powerful, hard to encounter, and hard to kill, so players were blinded by greed and wanted to obtain the cards despite having to kill their friends.
"Thank you for the information. I just arrived so I'm very clueless about what's happening."
A faint smile played across her lips. "Recently, people tend to come to this place using Crystals of Connecting. However, you appeared in the middle of the town, which means you used a Return Scroll. If I were to guess, you must have come back from Stone Forest, right?"
"Ah... Yes... I-I died. That's why I came back to life at this spot." Sila decided to lie, though deception wasn't something he excelled at.
She slowly shook her head. "That would be too soon. The Wind Dragons appeared just twenty-three minutes ago and the ones that were killed by it wouldn't have revived yet. Considering that you're lying, you must know something you don't want others to know."
Indeed, Sila was a complete amateur when it came to lying. He just planned to quickly meet up with Mister Bronze to unseal the ring and go back.
"Next time, please put more thought into your lies." As soon as she finished speaking, she turned her back to him and walked away.
"Eh? Wait." Sila was surprised that she suddenly departed, and started to feel that she didn't have bad intentions.
"What is it?"
"Do you have business with me?"
"No. Just think of me as a stranger who coincidentally met you."
Sila was clueless about this mysterious woman's identity and real motives. "Who are you?"
She tapped on the ground to jump up to a roof and disappeared in the blink of an eye. Still, her voice entered his ears as if she was whispering to him.
"I hope we will meet again, Mister Sila."
Trying to detect his surroundings using qi, Sila still couldn't find her. Since he didn't know anything about her, he decided to leave her alone.
He then headed toward the weapon shop, taking a detour to avoid the routes where players gathered, and arrived after twenty minutes.
After confirming that there was no one around, Sila jumped down from the roof and landed at the front door of the weapon shop. Currently, the weapon shop was devoid of customers. All players were busy searching and hunting for cards in town, or roaming outside of town looking for any that were missed. As for those who didn't dare take part in the search, they were all taking shelter within the hotel.
Fortunately, the weapon shop was still open. Sila pushed the door open and saw a familiar man, Bronze, inside. The man still had the same appearance as before; a muscular man wearing only jeans. He was sitting in front of a furnace, staring at the melting steel in his hand. He greeted the entering customer with his hoarse voice without looking back.
"Welcome. What do you want to buy?" Even the greeting was the same.
"Hello, Mister Bronze," greeted Sila, which caused Bronze to look away from the steel in his hand.
"Ah, Sila. You finally realised, didn't you? I thought it would take you longer."
Sila frowned. "Realised what?"
"Hm? Didn't you come to find me about the right arm?" Bronze gave Sila a puzzled expression. "Didn't you figure it out?"
Sila shook his head. "I'm here for another matter, sir." As he finished the sentence, he took out the envelope he received from Orpheus and handed it to Bronze.
Bronze tore open the envelope and read the letter inside with a frown. It took him a moment before he tossed the letter and the empty envelope into the furnace.
He approached Sila and opened his palm. "Let me see your ring."
"Do I have to release Lookhin first?"
"Do you mean your pet? No, you don't. Just unequip it and hand it to me."
Sila removed the ring from his finger and handed it to Bronze, who took it and placed it on the top counter. His hand emitted a brilliant light before touching the ring. Then, the ring started to give off a faint light in response.
"It takes some time... Well, it might be due to coincidence, but you managed to visit this place for the second time. With this, I'm obliged to upgrade your right arm."
Sila was still confused, so Bronze continued the explanation.
"Um... the thing is, I'm the Unsealer who can upgrade the Right Arm of the Sealed One once. Visiting this place twice is the condition for me to do that."
Bronze's hand emitted a light again and he placed it on Sila's right hand. However, nothing happened.
"There really is a problem. Malfunctioned, repaired, and modified. Orpheus's doing, right? I can't upgrade it this way. Your right arm has turned into something that isn't registered in the game database. How weird."
"Is that so? That's fine, sir. I never planned to rely on it." As long as he could still move his right arm like normal, Sila didn't care that much about it being unable to be upgraded.
"Don't worry. Even though I can't upgrade it for you, I can tell you another method."
"Is that okay? Won't it be breaking the rules?"
Bronze waved his hand. "It won't be. You have completed the sub-quest but your right arm isn't upgraded, so revealing the method to upgrade is just a subpar reward compared to that. Well, I can only tell you the method to upgrade it to the fourth stage. I still can't tell you anything regarding the Sealed One."
"That's fine, sir."
"Let me check... Um... Killing one Emperor Rank monster. Quite a difficult task, indeed."
Sila gaped. Emperor Rank monster meant someone like Orpheus or the Slime King. There was no way for him to kill one of those people.
"No need to panic. Who said you have to solo-kill it? You can bring ten thousand players with you and you might stand a chance."
"Yes, sir." Sila decided to stop thinking about it. For something like this, it would be lucky if he could do it, but being unable to do it wouldn't affect him. So, he should just let it be.
The door opened and three players entered the shop. All of them were people Sila was familiar with.
"Oh? Big Brother Sila? What a coincidence?" Tod, one of the twins, greeted him.
"It's not that strange. A lot of players have come to Beginning Town lately," said Aek.
"It's been a while, Sila," Tiger politely greeted him.
"Oh? Aek, Tod, Tiger? Long time no see. How are you all?" Sila returned their greetings.
Tiger pardoned himself and brought out equipment that he then asked Bronze to unseal. Meanwhile, Aek and Tod approached Sila and started talking.
"It's good to see you again, Big Brother. I will show you how strong we have become," Aek bragged.
"Based on how you walk, I'm confident that you have indeed grown stronger. By the way, are you guys still on Beginning Island?"
Tod said, "Yes, Big Brother. We haven't exited Beginning Island yet. I'm so bored. I want to go to the Main Continent already."
"It's been a long time. Why haven't you left yet?"
"In our team, there are two members whose levels are lacking so we are helping them grind." Aek lowered his voice down. "In addition, Big Brother Tiger has come up with a lot of hand signals for our team and told us that we need to practice our teamwork by using them. He said the Main Continent is not a safe place so we need to possess sufficient strength to at least protect ourselves."
Sila frowned as he believed that the ability of Tiger's Team wasn't that bad. On the Main Continent, he had even met numerous players whose abilities were inferior to their party. He didn't think there was a need for Tiger to be so strict with his teammates.
In fact, Tiger was farsighted and prudent. He was aware of how special Jundtrathep's abilities were. On Beginning Island, they managed to keep her abilities a secret, but things might not be the same on the Main Continent. With how special her skills were, many guilds would want her to join their guild. As a result, if their team was too weak, they might end up becoming Jundtrathep's weakness.
Sila wasn't aware of Tiger's thought process and didn't continue asking. It was at that time that Tiger had finished his business and approached him.
"The matters regarding the slime rock and the Wind Dragon seem to have come to an end. If Sila is free, how about visiting Elven Village with us? That place is very pretty and the rest of the team is waiting for us there. They will surely be glad if Sila comes."
Sila was about to decline as he wanted to leave this place as soon as possible. However, a whispering voice could be heard from inside his clothing. "Big Brother Sila... I want to go to Elven Village..."
Hearing Bow's request, he decided to pamper her, as he didn't know how much longer she could stay in Monster Soul.
"That sounds good. Well, I still have something to do with Mister Bronze. Could you please wait for me outside?"
The three men obediently exited the weapon shop while Sila walked back to Bronze, who handed him a familiar ring with a slight change. Its color was still black but the gem part was removed. Bronze also handed Sila the Eternal Onyx that was shining a mysterious black light with a red shade mixed in.
"It's done... By the way, are you really planning to go to Elven Village?" Bronze couldn't help but be curious.
"Yes, sir. I happened to meet some friends who I haven't seen for a long time, so I want to talk to them. Please pardon me." Sila expressed his thanks and made an exit.
The door closed and Bronzed muttered to himself. "Didn't Orpheus warn him to leave this place immediately? That's weird. That guy shouldn't have forgotten the ability of Eternal Onyx after it is unsealed."
Thinking about it for a while, Bronze concluded that it wasn't his own problem so he no longer cared. Then, he entered the inner room, brought out a vending machine, and set it at the front of his shop. It was an automated vending machine that Orpheus had once given to him a long time ago. He didn't have a chance to use it at all as players tended to purchase weapons from merchants or save their money for the markets on the Main Continent.
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Automated Vending Machine for selling weapons and potions. Just place your hand on the silver plate, click the items you want, and the machine will automatically deduct your money.
***The price of all items is 40% higher than usual.
***Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
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Witnessing the sign, players began to laugh. They pitied the weapon shop's owner's efforts to lure in customers with a nonsensical vending machine. Not only were the items being sold ordinary, but their prices were also higher. Who would be dumb enough to use it?
Some fights still broke out in the town. People were all busy surviving, snatching items, betraying their friends, planning, and fighting. However, it was questionable whether any one of them noticed the change in the sky above. The gentle, pale moon that was hanging in the night sky was slowly turning red. The light of the stars slowly disappeared, creating a darkness that seemed eternal.