Chapter 93: By Oneself

A multitude of exploding fireworks beautifully filled Colossia City’s night sky, illuminating the city. Meanwhile, the night sky of Grea City was illuminating too. However, the flashes didn’t come from fireworks but fromflames of malevolence.

The headquarters of the Royal Armament Guild was on fire, dying the night sky blood red.

Montra and Kawin were waiting for Revin in the central square in front of the Royal Armament Guild where no other living beings remained.

“Kawin, how is the progress of the task I assigned you?” Montra asked.

Kawin replied, “I don’t know about Revin. I don’t think he’s concentrating on it. I always see him hunting monsters. As for me, I think I have some clues now.”

“Is that so? In that case, about Revin’s part, I will take care of it myself.”

“Are you sure? You are still undergoing your Dragon Ritual’s quest, aren’t you? Why don’t you ask another guild member to do it?”

Montra shook his head. “I can’t. This task is too important. We have to do it ourselves. As for my Dragon Ritual’s quest, it will be done in the next two months. You don’t have to worry about me. Even if I have to fight, I still have the Dragon Heart skill and the Left Arm of the Sealed One with me.” Montra showed his left arm to Kawin. Montra’s left arm was deep black, from his fingertips to his shoulder. There were ancient characters written on it similar to Sila’s right arm. However, the characters on Montra’s left arm were white.

“That arm always gives me a bad feeling every time I see it. By the way, have you found out where the Sealed One is?”

Montra shook his head again. “Not yet, but that’s fine. It already benefits me greatly as it is.”

Kawin nodded in agreement.

Five years ago in the game, two months before the first war event had started, Montra, Kawin, and Revin had decided to raise their overall combat ability by simultaneously starting their Dragon Ritual’s quests. With Montra’s high confidence, he had chosen one of the two hardest quests in Monster Soul.

Dragon Ritual of the Heavenly Dragon.

Unlike Kawin and Revin’s Dragon Rituals from middle-class dragons, the Dragon Ritual of the Heavenly Dragon was a quest that required time and effort. After Montra had chosen the quest, his stats had been sealed to a tenth of the original for five years. During these five years, all monsters would become aggressive toward Montra. The condition was, if Montra died even once, the quest would fail.

Luckily for Montra, he could still use magic like usual, and his stats would gradually return over time. The quest was seemingly impossible to succeed, but Montra could make the impossible happen with the help of the Left Arm of the Sealed One. When he first got it, the Left Arm of the Sealed One allowed Montra to possess every kind of magic (except secret magic, like Sebastian’s death magic). Then, after Montra accomplished ‘Search for the Lost Magic Kingdom’ quest, the Left Arm of the Sealed One had evolved. It stopped looking like a wrinkly arm of a corpse and became a normal-looking arm with the exception of its black color. The ability Montra gained after it evolved was very fraudulent: Montra could select one magic-type skill and that skill would have no delay nor cooldown time.

Obviously, the skill that Montra had selected was Dragon Heart.

With this, the success of Montra’s Dragon Ritual depended only on a matter of time.

Montra looked silently at his left hand. Soon, a big explosion could be heard echoing and the sound of fighting died down.

Kawin turned his head to look at the building that the fight between Revin and Cross was taking place in. Revin walked out toward the two. His red figure was propping a heavy sword on his shoulder. In his left hand was the S-grade Dragon Killer Sword.

“Ten minutes and thirty seconds,” Kawin said to Revin.

Revin quickly argued, “Oi, you shouldn’t include the time we spent talking. Moreover, that Cross had another trump card, you know? He relied on the item description of the Dragon Killer Sword that it couldn’t be destroyed, and used it as a base weapon for his Killing Psychic Sword. The result was that he could use multiple Dragon Killer Swords in psychic form. He could also order them to explode at any time. If you were in my place, you would have definitely died.” Revin moved his index finger horizontally across his throat.

“Those swords are no match for me,” Kawin replied expressionlessly.

“Okay, okay~ Mister Cool Guy. By the way, Montra, what should we do about this sword? I don’t think I will use it. Do you want me to take it to the guild’s treasure room?” Revin handed the Dragon Killer Sword to Montra.

“No, we better leave it for others to take. The more crowded the place, the better. Hmm, now that I think about it, just leave it in the Kingdom of Qi,” Montra said.

“What? If you don’t want it, why don’t you sell it?” Revin was curious.

Montra explained, “After the Royal Armament Guild perishes, the remaining powerful guilds are only us and the Victorious Wolves Sect. The Victorious Wolves Sect does not have many members. For them to oppose us, they will need to ask for help from guildless players. So, by leaving the sword in their territory, many people in their kingdom will kill each other for the sword, rupturing their unity.”

“Will that really work, Montra?” Revin was still skeptical.

“It will. After all, the surest thing in this world is human greed.”

“Um… Whatever, I’ll do as your wish.”

“As for the task that I asked you to do, you don’t need to do that anymore. I will handle that myself,” Montra said to Revin.

“Really? That’s cool. It’s very boring doing that. It can’t compete with this task that is likely to make people fight.”

“Are you going already, Montra?” Kawin asked.

“Yes, for this task, the sooner the better. You two can just call me if you need me,” Montra replied.

Revin hurriedly asked, “Hey, hey, is it true that we don't have to hide anymore?”

Montra nodded. “After all we did to the Royal Armament Guild, your identities can no longer be hidden. In that case, it’s better to make it grand to spread fear among our enemies.”

“We can do everything we want to?” Revin asked again, to which Montra nodded.

Montra reinforced magic power into his feet and dashed away, disappearing from the scene.

“Hey, Kawin, Montra said we should make a grand opening. How about we start with this?” Revin pointed to the main building of the Royal Armament Guild.

“...” Kawin did not answer. Instead, he raised his left foot then stomped it on the ground. All the buildings belonging to the guild shook and collapsed. As for Revin, he swung his heavy sword over his head and stabbed it into the ground.

All the buildings of the Royal Armament Guild were destroyed by a massive earthquake. The remains of the buildings burned with red fire covering the sky. It was as if a celebration of the destruction of the Royal Armament Guild was taking place.

***

The celebrations in Colossia City were going well. Midnight had already passed. Everyone began to go their separate ways. Sila and Varee pardoned themselves to log out. Bluebird, Noppakorn, and Rattana went their way to do their job as members of an information guild. As for Burapha, he had already gotten over his depression. Once Ginny told him that she would go to sleep and had a plan to try her weapons tomorrow, Burapha quickly included himself in her plans. Even though Ginny was annoyed, she had no actual reason to deny.

Sebastian had already brought Bow back to sleep in the mansion. The remaining people left in the restaurant were only Poluk, Lone Wolf, and Ratri.

“Mister Poluk,” Lone Wolf said with determined eyes.

“What is it, kid?”

“Could you please be my teacher?”

Ratri was shocked. “What did you say?”

“Before I will answer this question, have you come up with the reason why do you want to become stronger yet?” asked Poluk.

Lone Wolf stopped thinking for a moment. “To protect me and the people around me, sir. Even though I am known as the Qi Emperor, out of the Four Emperors, I know that I am only the third strongest. With the power I have now, I can not protect everyone precious to me.”

“You seem to have practiced by yourself without anyone guiding you so far, correct? Why do you suddenly want me to teach you?”

“Yes, sir. I have realized that self-training has a limit. I would like to be guided by others.”

“Let me tell you something first. You might be jealous of Sila who was able to grow stronger in a short time so you want me to teach you. However, Sila is a good mineral. He has good basics and adaptive thinking. He is quick to learn, talented, and more importantly, he loves fighting. In addition, the skill that I imparted to him stems from a slime skill so he could learn it easier than normal people. If you think you can practice it easily, you are deadly wrong.”

“I'm not looking for the skill that Sila used, sir. What I want is just some advice for my fighting style.”

“To protect is more difficult than to destroy, you know that, right?”

“I know, sir. That's why I need to be strong enough to protect others.”

“Aren't you called Lone Wolf? Since you're alone, why do you worry about others?”

Lone Wolf's eyes lingered with a flash of determination. “Before, I was alone. I entered the game to test my ability. However, as time passed, I met so many people who believe in me. It makes me realize that I'm not alone anymore. Everyone trusts me, so I have to reassure myself that I'm able to respond to their trust.”

“Well, yes, I can give you some advice. However, I'm not going to be your teacher.”

Lone Wolf quickly expressed his thanks. He turned his head to Ratri.

“Ratri, please go back to tell Hermit that I will not come back to the sect for a while.”

Ratri frowned. “‘The sect leader has disappeared shortly before the start of the war event.’ Do you expect me to tell Hermit that? He will be very mad because I didn’t stop you from going. Since that's the case, let me go with you.”

“Ratri...”

“Since you are so impatient, follow me now,” Poluk said while dashing out of the window at high speed.

Lone Wolf stared into Ratri's eyes. “I'm sorry, Ratri. About this matter, I will have to do it by myself.” He then quickly jumped following Poluk. Their speed wasn't at a level where Ratri could follow. The best that she could do was continue to look at the back of her lover until he was no longer in sight.

“Sigh... Skipping work again. It's good that I bring Dragon's Blood back to the sect. Hopefully, Hermit's mood will get better.”

***

Sila got out of the life-support capsule and sat on the bed, looking at the many Bruce Lee posters on the wall. He got up, picked up the towel, and walked into the bathroom. After a while, he went out, changed into his new clothes and walked downstairs.

Rashane was eating breakfast with Varee. She seemed to have come down before Sila almost half an hour ago.

“Oh, Sila, come here and eat breakfast together with us. If you prefer to have a heavy meal, try to look for it in the refrigerator.”

“Good morning, Uncle.” Sila walked passed Varee and opened the refrigerator. There were several frozen meals. He picked one of them casually and stood blankly, looking for an oven.

“The oven is next to the refrigerator,” Varee said.

Sila looked at the oven Varee mentioned. He was confused as it was a white box without a single button.

“Put the food inside and close the lid. The oven will automatically scan the food and warm it accordingly,” explained Varee.

Sila put the frozen food inside and closed the lid. A small red light flashed on the oven. Meanwhile, he picked up a coffee mug and looked for a coffee machine or electric kettle.

“Instant coffee is in a brown bag on the counter. It only has espresso and mocha though.” Varee started to annoy Sila.

Sila didn't even know what those were. He only ever drank three-in-one instant coffee powder stirred in hot water.

A brown cube fell into the mug as Sila unwrapped the packaging. He looked for a kettle again.

“Go and sit down already.” Varee rose from her chair, feeling upset. She picked up Sila's mug and went to the refrigerator. She pressed the orange button and the hot water was poured into Sila's mug.

Rashane showed a gentle smile with such sight. “Are you confused, Sila? The high-tech devices are like this. I don’t know what to do with them sometimes.”

Sila nodded. “Yes, sir. In our dojo, we used the outdated ones. The oven will have a temperature setting button. We also cooked food ourselves from time to time.”

“Our home was like that before, but after my wife passed away, no one was able or had time to cook. So, the old kitchen equipment is now being kept in the storage room and was replaced with these automated devices.”

Sila didn't reply to that. Meanwhile, Varee approached him and placed his food and coffee onto the table.

“Thank you,” Sila said, to which Varee just nodded. She sat on her chair and continued eating.

Sila began to eat the stir-fried noodles with black soy sauce. Normally, when he was with his teacher, both of them always had their meal without talking. Thus, he thought it was the same for Rashane's house. Rashane and Varee silently watched Sila ate his food. Once the dish was empty, Sila put down his spoon and fork and turned his head to Rashane.

“Uncle, I have something to tell you.”

Varee didn't say anything as she listened to Sila. She just stopped drinking her coffee.

Rashane put his mug down on the table. “What is it, Sila?”

“I would like to say that, I’m very thankful that you have taken good care of me all this time. But, in order not to disturb you further, I would like to move out and find a place to stay by myself.”

“Where do you plan to stay, Sila?” Rashane asked with care.

“I will try to go back to my dojo to see how much it cost to purchase it back. If I have enough money, I will buy it back. However, if my money is not enough, I'll have to find another place to stay for the time being.”

“Hmm? Where did you get the money from?”

As Rashane asked, Sila began to tell the story of his, from the moment he was in debt to now that he had enough money to spend in real life. Rashane and Varee listened to it quietly.

“Well... Let me tell you something, Sila.”

“Yes, Uncle?”

“Next time, if there is a problem like this, just tell me. Don't think of it as bothering me. Remember that you are like my own son.”

“I’m sorry, Uncle.”

“Well then, Sila has to go to the bank. Bring the card in the brain scanner with you and let an employee make a new card for you since you will not be able to withdraw or transfer the money if it’s my card. Unfortunately, I'm quite busy today. Can you wait until evening?”

“No need for that, Uncle. Both the card and the dojo, I will take care of them by myself.”

“Is that so? Oh, Varee, you don't have any plans for today, do you? Can you go with Sila?” said Rashane.

Sila quickly declined, “That’s unnecessary, Uncle. I can go on my own.”

Varee put down her mug and looked at Sila.

Rashane continued, “In that case, you can use Varee’s car. Can you drive, Sila?”

“I can, Uncle.” There used to be a car at his old dojo. Although it didn't get used often, it had been properly maintained.

The corner of Varee's mouth was lifted up. She didn’t say anything and went up to her room. She brought her car key to give it to Sila.

Sila looked at it with suspicion. Instead of a regular car key, it was a flat card with a cartoon character strapped to it that Sila didn’t recognise.

“What is this?” Sila looked at the card in his hand, feeling puzzled.

“It’s my car key. Oh? Have I not told you that my car is also automated?” A victorious smile emerged on Varee's face. “Can’t you drive it?”

Sila handed the card back to Varee. “Umm... I can’t drive it.”

“I thought so.”