Monster Soul Online Chapter 6

Chapter 6: The Return of Lone Wolf

At the main branch of Victorious Wolves Foundation, the core members of the foundation consisting of 6 people had been being confused by the mysterious disappearance of their leader during the conference. They were now sitting and discussing many things stressfully. Then, the black shadow suddenly emerged on the floor in the meeting room, on the chair of the guild head.
 
All people in the room panicked with the incident at sight. They each drew their weapon and clutched it tightly, waiting for the upcoming event that might be a sudden invasion of enemy's guilds.
 
Soon, the body of a young man dressed in an elite Wuxia's clothes appeared. When ones saw the resembling figure, they disarmed.
 
"Leader!" shouted everyone with the tone that expressing relief.
 
"Hmm? Everybody is still here? Do we have a meeting that last long a week now? I'm just not here for a while, but our meeting had become more intense, huh?" said the man jokingly.
 
"It's not funny! Where had you been? Everyone was looking for you. We couldn't even get in touch with you."
 
A young woman with graceful looks complained. She had long braided-hair over her shoulder and was wearing a male Wuxia's outfit.
 
"I went to do a hidden quest. It's a special area so we couldn't contact each other. Are you worrying about me that much, Ratri?"
 
The lady's cheeks turned slightly pink.
 
"Who are!? I just worry about the guild. The guild that its leader suddenly disappeared for a week!"
 
"I am truly sorry. It's a quest that I was forced to do. When the quest condition was met, it instantly teleported me there."
 
Then, the old man with white moustache stepped forward.
 
"Easy, easy, it's a good thing that the leader has come back safely. By the way, could you please tell us that quest's detail?"
 
"Oh, Hermit. It's a duo quest that I almost forgot about it. It's the first quest I ever received though. Nevertheless, I can't tell you much detail, otherwise my reward will be confiscated." answered the man.
 
Hermit understandingly nodded, "then, could you at least tell us what the reward is?"
 
Hermit knew well that most of the hidden quests' rewards are good. With even the restriction that forbade the quest holder to share information to anyone else, the reward should be at least B Grade item.
 
"It's a card."
 
"A card? Just one?" said Ratri. Everyone in the room also wondered what kind of quest would give only a single card while taking one week to finish it, "show us."
 
The man opened the System Window.
 
"It cannot be removed from my Window so I will read it out loud for you guys."
 
In this game, player cannot look into other player's System Window. Except the player is equipping a Peek Card which it's C-Grade card that dropped from One-Eyed Bat.
 
(S) Pride Card - Level 1
All basic stats increase by 50% when player isn't in a party.
Player will earn only 10% of all experience point from now on.
 
The whole room suddenly full of shocked and delighted expressions. People shocked how good this card was, and delighted that with this card; their leader's strength would be increased by half. And a half of his strength was considered very significant.
 
Afterward, it's Hermit, the guild's strategist, who broke the silence of the room.
 
"Formerly, if I didn't hear wrongly, leader said that it's a duo quest. May I ask whether another person also get the same reward?"
 
"No, it seemed like he got another card. But the usefulness of his card shouldn't be much different from mine."
 
"Then who is that person? Is he an ally or an enemy?"
 
Everyone wanted to ask this exact question as well. Being a friend or foe, the result would be very different. If that person was an ally, then their alliance would get stronger; but if that person was an enemy, it would mean more dangerous opponent had shown up.
 
"I don't know too."
 
The room quieted down again, and it's Hermit again who spoke up, "you were doing a one week long quest together, why don't you know?"
 
"I really can't explain the detail since it's related to the quest. But I can say that he may be neither an ally nor an enemy."
 
"Do you mean an Individual Player?" asked Ratri.
 
Individual Player means player that isn't affiliated to any guild. In this game, there were many kind of people who wanted to seek for something they couldn't find in real life. Some sought for authority, some sought for money, some sought for strength, but some were just here to relax. Many people didn't interest in quest, leveling, and in-game authority; they came here for their personal reason. These kinds of people were called Individual Player.
 
"It maybe so, since I saw him in Beginner Clothes."
 
All the members were glad. If that guy was still a new player, then the chance he still wasn't in any guilds was high. If they could invite him into their guild, he would be a good asset.
 
"Well, I know what everyone's thought are. It's fine to invite him, but please don't importune him so much. You all are forbidden to use violence against him as well. That's our foundation's policy. Maybe he just wants to enjoy the game."
 
"We know that, leader. Now, could you please tell us about that person's identity?" hurriedly asked Hermit.
 
"Well ... his right arm looked weird; it's kind of like an arm of a golem. His location is now likely to be in Beginning Island. But judging by his potentials, it won't take long until he arrives to Main Continent."
 
"Is he that good?"
 
"Not much. But he could fight against fifty level 80's wolves in Squire Rank at the same time."
 
Everyone in the room was shocked of the fact that 'not much' of their leader meant the new player being able to fight against fifty wolves that in Squire Rank, level 80.
 
"You're exaggerating, right!? How could a new player do that?" argued Ratri.
 
"He could. He is able to use "Qi of Little Tiger," "Qi of Little Fish," "Bone Restructuring Qi," "Basic Qi," and maybe "Recovering Qi" too."
 
"What!? New player could use qi? And He even possesses two of "Qi of Little Divine Beings," on top of that! How is that possible?" shouted Ratri.
 
"It's possible, I myself am the one who transmitted him those qi... except for "Recovering Qi" though, since he already had it from the start."
 
Everyone in the room glanced at their leader speechlessly.
 
"Hmm? What about it?"
 
The man played dumb.
 
"Don't play dumb. Other qi aside, how dare you transmit "Qi of Little Tiger" and "Qi of Little Fish" to an outsider? More importantly, didn't you once tell us you couldn't transmit those?" said Ratri.
 
"It's because that place is special, it's has five times recovery rate than normal and I could see that he had a potential for growth," answered the man, "calm down, it doesn't like I lose anything by transmitting qi to other, so it's fine. I just had to stabilize my qi for a moment back then."
 
Basically, "Qi of Little Tiger" and "Qi of Little Fish" were two of "Qi of Little Divine Beings" including "Qi of Little Tiger," "Qi of Little Fish," "Qi of Little Bird," and "Qi of Little Turtle."
 
Normally, nobody could transmit these qi to another person since it's required an enormous amount of qi points to perform such task. By the way, qi point was a secret stat that wasn't shown in Status Window (if it isn't upgraded.) The maximum qi point of this man was insufficient to transmit any "Qi of Little Divine Beings." But in the mansion, he'd found that even qi point's recovery rate were five times higher than normal. He then had tried to convey some qi to Sila.
 
The very long time that he'd had to take to stabilize his qi after transmitting qi to Sila, even with five times recovery rate of the mansion, had been concreted evidence that transmitting the "Qi of Little Divine Beings" really required a lot of qi points.
 
Sila had been lucky too. Usually, when "Qi of Little Divine Beings" entered one's body, one's health point would be decreased constantly until one died or was able to control it. But with the mansion's health point's recovery rate that surpassed health point's declining rate, Sila could somehow survive, though it took a lot of time and he felt very painful.
 
These two problems had always prevented this man to transmit the "Qi of Little Divine Beings" to his guildmates even though he would love to. However, all of them had been solved simultaneously by the existence of Mansion of Seven Deadly Sins.
 
Later, the leader got many complaints from Ratri. Everyone somehow smiled in mildly manner with that sight. They all knew that the leader and Ratri were actually a couple in real life that had decided to play game together. However, except for core members presented here, all other guildmates only knew Ratri as a vice leader. In fact, the leader wasn't care if everyone knew about Ratri being his girlfriend. But it's Hermit who told him that he should keep this a secret to reflect a good foundation's governance.
 
"Well, let the meeting ends now. My ears are going numb."
 
Then everyone dispersed and announced the reappearance of their leader to other guild members. They said that the leader just had left to practice, and now he was back, with the strength that increased tremendously.
 
When all people went out of the room, the man went outside to the terrace and circulated "Qi of Little Bird." Then, he soared like a majestic bird onto the door facade.
 
The praises could be heard from the audiences below, admiring their leader's skill.
 
The man gestured his hand for everyone to silence then everyone was quiet down in unison.
 
"Now I have completed my intense training. Sorry to make everyone worried. With my current strength, I guarantee that our foundation will be the one who win this year's war event!!"
 
This was the action Hermit begged him to do some work: at least motivating the guildmates' moral.
 
"Then, please excuse me."
 
"Leader? Where are you going? We should celebrate for you completing your training."
 
One member shouted, and everyone seemed to agree with him.
 
"Let's get it ready in another 7 days, then. I am going to hunt Silver Griffin and will surely bring its meat to feed everyone. There's a rumor that its meat is very tasty, we will know soon whether it is true or not."
 
He declared and then soared, disappearing from everyone's sight.
 
The guildmates suddenly buzzed because they all knew that Silver Griffin was a magical beast that nobody in the game had solo-killed it yet; this fact alone was enough to indicate its fearsome abilities. Still, their leader planned to hunt it alone! With the goal of getting its meat, the fight would get much harder since he have to tear it off alive; because in Monster Soul, when monster died, it became a shatter light in three seconds.
 
"If he can get the meat, we will surely win the war event this year." said one member with admiration.
 
Silver Griffin, Marquis Rank, Level 600. Swift and flying-type magical beast, together with high physical and magic endurance, and it could even use magic spells.
 
The yell got louder to the versatility of their leader. Everyone was proud to be a member of this guild.
 
Ratri felt glad as she saw these incidents. Her love one was truly majestic. She still remembered the day back then when their guild only consisted of mere seven persons.
 
While Ratri smiled lovingly, Hermit's voice cried out.
 
"Leader! I told you to incite them, not to go outside! Your last week's assignments still unfinished, yet you are going to leave for another week!? Do you have any idea who will have to clear your work instead!? Leader! Come back!"
 
Everybody turned their heads to Hermit and thought:
 
'Leader skips his work again...'
 
Ratri giggled. She took a glance at the wooden sign in front of the foundation, which was the first guild sign that her lover had wrote.
 
'Victorious Wolves Foundation, a home of all Wuxia,' with the signature: 'Lone Wolf.'
 
***
 
Meanwhile, Sila appeared in some strange place. It's a sweet pink room with colorful flowers pattern. He was confident that he hadn't known of anywhere like here.
 
While he's still confused, he could spot the young lady fallen asleep in sitting pose on the chair, putting her face down on the table in the middle of the room.
 
This woman was considered very pretty. She was wearing a pink dress with lace. Her skin's also smooth white.
 
Sila looked around the room. Soon he realized that since he had been teleported from Beginner Building, this room must be within Beginner Building. The time had passed for seven days; Mister Crow would have gone back, so this girl must be Lucy, Crow's niece.
 
With the thought that he didn't want to disturb Lucy's sleep, Sila walked toward the door, but it didn't open.
 
'I have to find a red button,' thought Sila as he remembered that Crow once tried pressing a red button.
 
However, Sila couldn't find any button.
 
While he didn't know what to do, his System Window alarmed.
 
Player Sila has received 1 message.
 
Sila read the message, and then frowned.
 
"Come meet me at the second floor of Beginning Town's restaurant after you get this message. Be fast."
 
'There isn't any sender name on the message, so who is the sender? I haven't been acquainted with any player yet, have I?'
 
Sila tried to wake Lucy up, but her sleep was a very deep one. No matter how many times Sila had poked, called out, or slightly shook her body; she's still sound asleep. Since she was a lady he wasn't close to, Sila was afraid of offending her too much. So, he stopped trying to wake her in the end.
 
Afterward, Sila decided to circulate his qi while waiting Lucy to wake up herself. He then entered the meditation state.

Chapter end