Chapter 29: Sila’s Chamber of Secrets

Soon after they left the pet shop, Varee was contacted by someone through her system window. Sila didn’t know who it was since he didn’t see nor hear anything from Varee’s system window. On top of that, he kept his manners by walking away from Varee’s conversation.

After her conversation ended, Varee walked towards Sila.

“My friend told me that there’s some unusual movement in the Main Continent. I will have to look after it so we will have to depart now. Don’t forget to board the ship tomorrow and log out around eight o’clock in real time, okay?” said Varee

“It’s okay. Don’t worry about me and feel free to go meet your friend.” Sila said with a smile on his face. He was truly glad. It was even shown on his expression, “by the way, how are you going to the Main Continent? The ship boards tomorrow, doesn’t it?”

Varee took out a crystal cube. A soft white light shone around it.

“This is Crystal of Connecting, it’s quite expensive though. One set of it comprises of two pieces. My friend and I have one each of the same set. Upon using, the player can teleport to another piece’s holder, which in my case, is my friend,” answered Varee.

She then took out a similar crystal cube and handed it to Sila.

“If anything happens, you can use it to come to me too. Actually, you can just use it to follow me to the Main Continent right now.

Sila shook his head, “Oh, no, thanks. I would like to stay here for a little while. I also want to try riding on a ship once.”

Hearing Varee’s explanation, Sila perceived that if he had that crystal, Varee could also come to him at any time too. So, he didn’t want to take it.

Varee frowned. This was the first time since she was born that a guy had shown an expression of not wanting to be with her this much. Normally, it would be her that was annoyed by the fact that guys always flocked around her. Crystal of Connecting that connected to Varee was an item that guys would fight to the death for.

Nevertheless, Varee decided not to mind him for now. It was not too late to pay him back later.

“Then, goodbye Sila, and Lookhin too,” said Varee before she teleported away.

After Varee disappeared, Sila turned his head right and left to make sure that she had really gone and wouldn’t come back again. Finally, he grinned and walked away, doing what he wanted to.

Firstly, Sila went to the Bounty Hunters Association to claim his reward from wanted players that he had killed. However, he received only 23,000 silver. That was not unexpected though since those players were kind of unskilled.

The more surprising news for him was that; the clerk told Sila that his bounty had been increased.

[Sila’s Bounty]

[From Heavenly Dragon Guild: 300 gold.]

[From Royal Armament Guild: 1,000 gold.]

[From groups of general players: 540,000 silver.]

Sila was shocked. He didn’t know about Royal Armament Guild at all. But it had put a bounty on his head higher than Heavenly Dragon Guild. Maybe it was a guild of someone he had killed. If that was the case, he would need to gather the guild’s information for himself. Anyways, there was bad news for him.

“Mister Sila, there are thirty days remaining for you to claim these bounty rewards yourself if you aren’t killed by then,” said the clerk.

“Hmm? There are still thirty days left? That’s the same as the last time I checked.” Sila asked. He personally didn’t want the rewards. He was just curious.

“Well, when other players put more bounty rewards for your head, the time remaining will be recounted again.”

Sila left the Bounty Hunter Association and went to Lucy at the Beginner Building to ask some questions. He was completely ignoring his own bounty that he wouldn’t be able to receive the reward. In fact, he felt strange at first when he had heard the rule about Wanted Players receiving their own bounty reward. It should be easy to get since all they need to do was hide for thirty days. Now he knew the truth. In reality, when the time was almost due, their enemies would just increase the amount to reset the time count. (Of course, there is the minimum amount to increase the bounty to prevent player keep doing this easily.)

Sila asked Lucy how to turn off the system sound that always rang during the fight and how to block the function of the Couple Ring of Commitment.

Lucy was surprised that Sila had gotten this ring and couldn’t help but laugh when she was told the story.

“Mister Sila, you have Unseal, haven’t you?” asked Lucy.

“Yes, I have. But I rarely use it.”

“Then there’s a way.”

Sila was glad. He excitedly asked her how to, which made Lucy giggled before answering.

“When you arrive at the Main Continent, you should go to the Quest Building and enter the Psychic Room. There should be a quest to obtain the Seal skill. You can take that quest since one of the methods requires for players to possess Unseal first.”

“So, with that skill, I can take this ring off, right?” asked Sila.

However, Lucy shook her head, “No, sir. But with the skill, Mister Sila can seal the ring. Even without taking it off, its abilities will not work. Then, you can Unseal it again when you want to use its abilities again.”

Sila grinned. Finally, there was a way to keep Varee out of his personal life.

“Actually, Mister Sila didn’t have to come all the way just to ask me like this, you know? You can just contact me,” said Lucy.

“Contact? But aren’t you an NPC?” wondered Sila.

“NPCs controlled by real people can be contacted like normal players. You just have to add me into your NPC list similar to a friend list. But this function is only available when you have upgraded your system window to C grade or above.”

Sila opened his system window and he really found it. Thus, he added Lucy in his NPC list to help him ask her future question without having to visit the Beginner Building again.

Afterward, Sila and Lookhin left the Beginner Building. By the way, Lucy suggested Sila check Lookhin’s stat before they left. He agreed to her suggestion as he sensed that there must be something mysterious about it. Thus, he checked Lookhin’s stats while walking towards the Bank. However, except for the weird skill it had, everything seemed normal and weak as he had expected.

Finally, he entered the Bank, ignoring the stare of many players that looked at him with malice.

[Pet Status: Lookhin]

[Level: 1]

[Race: Brown Sparrow]

[Rank: Squire]

[Health Points: 20 / 20]

[Magic Points: 0 / 0]

[Qi Points: 0 / 0]

[Psychic Points: 0 / 0]

[Satiety: 98 / 100]

[Affection Level: 12%]

[*Brown Sparrow cannot accumulate experience points.]

Active Skill:

[(S) Star Swallow]

[You can feed B-graded or higher-graded card to Brown Sparrow as an alternative to normal pet food.]

“It only has one skill. But it’s S-graded. Its price must be high because of this skill.”

Sila wasn’t shocked to know that his bird possessed an S-graded skill since he had known from Lucy that the grade of skills or items in this game wasn’t indicated by its strength but rather its rareness. Good grief, the skill to allow a pet to be fed by card was indeed weird and supposed to be rare.

Upon Sila entering the Bank, the banker immediately greeted him. Obviously, there were many other players and guilds that deposited much more money than Sila. However, based on the banker’s analysis; Sila was a new player who was able to make money very fast on Beginning Island. He knew that this person would surely become a big customer very profitable to the bank so he began to greet Sila with VIP treatment.

“Welcome, Mister Sila. How may I help you today, sir?”

Sila was a little surprised that his name was remembered while he had never asked the name of the bank’s employee before. He felt like he was lacking etiquette here.

“I just wanted to ask a question. Sorry, but can I ask you your name please?”

The banker didn’t feel regret that Sila couldn’t remember him. Instead, he felt glad that he had a chance to introduce himself to Sila.

“My name is Christopher, sir. You can call me Chris too. I’m one of the bankers here,” replied the banker.

“Yes, Mister Chris. I just wanted to ask about this thing,” said Sila while he was showing the Couple Ring of Commitment on his finger.

“This must be Couple Ring of Commitment. Would you like to open an account for couples, sir?” asked Chris.

“No, no, I just want to know that do my… erm… another player can access my item storage here?” Sila was about to refer Varee as his girlfriend or his lover, but he was embarrassed. So he referred Varee as another player instead.

“Of course she can, sir,” Chris replied with confidence.

Sila sighed and asked, “That’s bad. Is there some way to prevent it?”

Christopher's eyes shone brightly. He whispered slyly to Sila, “We better come to talk this way, sir. There are so many people here.”

Based on Christopher's reaction, Sila guessed that there was a way for him. But it seemed to be a secret method that he shouldn’t tell anyone else. Anyway, Sila followed him to sit at a table in the area that had fewer people.

“We also have some customers with the same problem as Mister Sila’s, sir. They’re young men who want to live to their fullest independently. They all want to have a private space that no one can disturb them,” said Christopher.

Despite Sila not being sure about ‘young men who want to live to their fullest independently’ statement, the statement ‘want to have a private space that no one can disturb them’ was indeed true for him. Thus, he nodded in agreement hesitantly.

Christopher smiled, “So, let me offer this product to you as a solution.” He then put down a black card in front of Sila.

Sila picked it up. It was a card with complete black color whether its surface or its back. He also couldn’t read any of its descriptions.

“This is Invitation Card to the Chamber of Secrets, sir. By the way, Chamber of Secrets is a special dimension. At first, it’s an empty small room which you can use it to store items. However, you can upgrade it later,” said Christopher, “And obviously, no one can enter this place unless you give your permission.”

“So, it’s like owning a house?” asked Sila.

“No, sir. It’s different from a house. The Chamber of Secrets will not be shown in your status window. Nevertheless, whatever you do in the room, no one can know it.” Christopher smiled slyly.

Sila felt that this proposal of Christopher was off a little. Anyway, it would be nice for him to have a place where he could avoid Varee, since Varee could enter the bamboo hut now and his teacher seemed to chase him more often. Thus, the Chamber of Secrets seemed like a good option for him.

“How much does it cost?” asked Sila.

“10,000 gold for registering, and there’ll be a monthly fee of 5 gold for the next upcoming months, sir.”

Sila was sad. “I don’t have that much money.”

“Do not mind, sir. Although Mister Sila doesn’t have that much money right now, we have already evaluated your current items possession and your ability to obtain money. I’m pleased to inform you that we’re fine to give you a credit. You can just pay your payment in monthly basis with no interest being charged,” Christopher replied.

The reason Sila had a good credit was because his speed of progression to obtain money and high-grade items. He even possessed a very expensive item like a Dragon Card. He would be able to pay the full amount if he just sold it.

Sila accepted the deal and added Christopher in his NPC list as his private banker (his service fee was already included in the 5 gold coins per month.) Then, he signed some documents and got the black card. Christopher said that his Chamber of Secrets can connect to every bank, so Sila could just call Christopher and perform a business transaction there without having to go to the bank ever again. This was an additional service in case the card owner didn’t want to be seen.

Afterward, Sila’s name was engraved on the black card. Sila inspected it and found that it turned out to be a premium credit card with no additional charge. Christopher said that it had the same ability as a normal credit card. It just had a secret option to teleport user to his Chamber of Secrets.

“All of your items have been transferred to your personal room already, sir,” said Christopher.

Sila nodded before activating its ability. Finally, the white light covered him and teleported him away. Other people would recognize this as someone using Returning Scroll. They just wondered why someone had used it in the bank like this.

Sila appeared in a small black room. In one corner, there were items that he once had deposited at the bank. He sat down in the room and started circulating his qi. Now was nighttime so he decided to wait here until morning before he got out.

Eventually, he started to play with Lookhin. He played with it for a while until he remembered its Star Swallow. Since Sila possessed many cards himself, he thought that it would be fine to feed some to Lookhin.

Sila opened his system window and took B-graded Blue-Scaled Merman King Card out. He handed it out to Lookhin.

“Lookhin, try using Star Swallow, okay?”

Lookhin opened its beak and pecked at the card lightly. Soon, the card shone and disappeared. Sila looked at the result for some time but he couldn’t spot any change.

“Strange, but never mind, it’s just only one card.”

However, he noticed later that Lookhin seemed to be more obedient. Although Sila didn’t give any order, he just thought about something like wanting it to fly around, it would be flying around without him having to say anything. Sila also knew that it was hungry. Lookhin didn’t send any signal to Sila but Sila knew that it was hungry. He just knew it.

“So Star Swallow can cause it to be more obedient? Well, that should be it.”

Sila tried to search for more high-grade cards. However, except for the Great Millennium Ape Card that he was using himself, the only card left was the Earth Dragon Card. He didn’t plan to use it anyway. He also didn’t want to sell it as he learned his lesson from Varee and Burapha about the Merpeople Card that he didn’t know about market value at all.

In the end, the situation that NPC at the pet shop had thought that it was very unlike to happen was finally happened for real. It was less than three hours that Sila had bought Brown Sparrow as a pet.

Sila handed A-graded Earth Dragon Card to Lookhin before saying, “Lookhin, uses Star Swallow.”

The card emitted the light and disappeared again. Lookhin flew around happily. Sila smiled at its cuteness without interest in Lookhin’s current basic stats.