Chapter 235: The Weight of the Mission

Sila looked at the many people leaving the scene. He was considering his next course of action when he noticed Bluebird flying in a different direction.

In addition to his team, only Fallun and White were still there. White seemed to be particularly interested in Sila"s team and tried to probe for information.

"Nice to meet you, everyone. Welcome to Belacia City. My name is White. May I ask your name?" White greeted them with a smile. Her eyes didn"t smile with her though.

"I thought I had no right to announce my name," Burapha replied dryly.

"Oh, that only applies to Ryou. Please don"t think that all of us are savage people like him."

"In that case, my name is Burapha. This person is Asura, and she is Lookhin. As for Big Brother Sila, you must have heard his name a moment ago."

White nodded. "It turns out that you"re Burapha who is currently being hunted because of the Dragon Killer Sword, and you"re the new star of this era: Weapon Subduing Fist Sila, also known as the Monster Emperor."

Burapha and Sila looked at each other. White simply smiled at them before ascending to a roof.

"There are those who read the news in this city, just so you know," she said, "No matter what your objective for visiting this place is, please try not to cause trouble. Otherwise, we will not yield even if the one coming at us is the Magic Emperor Montra."

Finally, White left, and only Fallun remained by their side. The man approached Sila. "How about you guys? Wanna go with me?"

Sila looked at Burapha who nodded at him in return. Seeing strong people made Burapha want to see them in action, so he decided he would follow them.

"In that case, let"s go, Burapha," said Sila.

Fallun shook his head. "Are you a babysitter, Sila? Listen to me, Little Brother Burapha. If you want to go somewhere, you have to go using your own two legs. If you keep following other people, there is no way you can grow up. Or... could it be that you didn"t realize Sila slowed his pace in order to wait for you?"

In fact, Burapha was well aware of that. He knew that Sila"s top speed was clearly faster than he had shown previously. Fallun"s statement made Burapha stop and think. It wasn"t like Sila could always be with him. He needed to rely on himself more.

"Mn. Big Brother Sila, please go ahead. You don"t have to wait for me," Burapha said with a determined expression. Seeing him like this, Sila didn"t oppose his decision even though he had grasped how dangerous this city was.

Sila, Asura, Lookhin, and Fallun jumped onto a roof. Sila looked at Burapha one last time and opened his mouth.

"Burapha... Qi is born from tempering a body, so repeatedly practicing is necessary for qi-types to become stronger. However, psychic power is different, as it is directly related to your nature. To develop it, understanding is required, not repet.i.tion. It is the easiest, yet most difficult type to train. If you just find a training method suitable for your nature, your psychic power will grow by leaps and bounds within a short period of time."

Sila finished his explanation. He could clearly describe the pros and cons of each energy type, especially psychic type as he had received direct guidance from Divine. It was the main reason behind the ma.s.sive growth of his psychic power.

While he still had Burapha"s full attention, Sila continued.

"Divine, who taught me about psychic power, once told me that there is no fixed way to polish it. The only way to master it is to understand its nature. In my case, it"s about me acknowledging my own flaws. As for yours, if I have to guess, I think a different description will be more fitting."

Sila"s psychic power was wild, fierce, and destructive, so he needed to handle it gently. The more he acknowledged it, the more power he could bring out without harming his own body.

"And what is that, Big Brother?" asked Burapha.

"Slower will be faster..."

Sila, Fallun, Lookhin, and Asura left, using their highest speed. Soon, Fallun spoke to Sila.

"You are quite kind, aren"t you? Giving him that much of a hint."

"I"m kind of like a trainer"s a.s.sistant in real life. Seeing someone striving to become stronger, I can"t help but cheer them on."

"Are you sure what you did is consider helping?"

"You raise a good point, Mister Fallun. You"re also kind. What you said was right. Burapha will become stronger if I leave him alone. Psychic power will develop the most in dire situations. I have always been too worried about him and thought he needed to get the basics down first. As it turned out, I was the one who held him back."

Fallun didn"t change his expression. "I"m not kind. I just found it annoying. He is a man, not a baby. Seeing you raising him with care irritated me."

"I wasn"t. I just didn"t want him to overdo it."

"How can a person grow without pushing themselves to their limits? If he can survive in Belacia City for two weeks, I guarantee you will see a new Burapha."

As they didn"t slow down to wait for Burapha, they didn"t take very long to reach their destination since Belacia City was quite small. They witnessed a brawl in front of a belltower at the North.

The invading monsters were vampires, though their appearances were far from n.o.ble, unlike the Count Dracula one could see in films. They were, in a sense, human-sized bats with sharp fangs and long nails. Their blood-red eyes gleamed with malice as a hundred of them were flying around in the sky. All of them were Marquis Rank monsters. Additionally, there were lesser minions, Knight Rank Blood-Sucking Bats, acting as vanguards. From Sila"s perspective, the horde of monsters was like a black cloud with several illuminating red eyes.

"It"s a lot more than usual. This is going to be troublesome," Fallun said, though he didn"t seem to be worried at all.

Sila continued to observe the fight and understood Fallun"s meaning. His idea of "troublesome" meant the fight would simply take more time to settle. The thirty players engaging in the fight could handle the horde of Marquis Rank monsters without significant problems despite the numerical disadvantage. Moreover, they could calmly reduce the number of monsters one by one. The most noteworthy part about this was the fact that no one had died yet.

Sila had seen a similar situation in the Town of Beginnings. At that time, with the Eternal Onyx"s power, a horde of Werewolves came into a city. Even though there were tons of skilled fighters in the town, they were dying like tree leaves falling in autumn. None of the groups present at the time could fight without suffering casualties.

Another similar instance was a small war in Grea City. Cross could mobilize a smaller number of people to oppose the Heavenly Dragon Guild"s members. Regardless, a clear difference was the fighting methods. Cross and Montra commanded their armies as if they were their chess pieces. Both of them relied on strategies and formations to gain victory from battles. On the other hand, the people in Belacia City had a totally different fighting style.

Each player possessed the strength to protect themselves without requiring any a.s.sistance. Everyone could fight individually, yet they could lessen each other"s burden in a brawl without hindering the others even though they hadn"t trained together. Several sparks of energy, be it qi, magic, or psychic power, flew around crazily. However, the people here thought of them as mere background visual effects. They could evade them easily and didn"t need the casters to shout out warnings. Even if the number of enemies was larger or they were stronger, the fight would simply be extended troublesomely without a raise in difficulty level.

Sila always fought alone. He had been finding that team play was painful and quite pointless as the combined ability of players wasn"t frightening at all. However, today, he was aware that he had been a frog in a well. He just got a chance to witness a group battle consisting of truly skilled players. If Lomyok was here, he would describe the group battle in front of him as the most elegant brawl.

Having reminded himself of Lomyok, Sila swept his gaze around to search for the troublemaker who ought to be the cause of this situation, but he couldn"t find him.

"Mister Fallun, do you happen to know the reason why these vampires invaded the city?"

Fallun stared at the battlefield as he replied, "Everyone knows. Someone must have entered the Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Castle. Because of the game"s story setting, these vampires can only exit their castle after being invited to the city by humans. However, if anyone enters their castle first, they will make an excuse that since a human can be inside their residence, they should be able to enter a human"s city too. With this kind of excuse, they often caught the invaded player without killing them in order to rampage outside."

"Hm? How can we get inside the Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Castle without risking them going outside, then?"

"We will have to wait for the right time. There will come a time when the tip of the castle is shining, though we don"t know when specifically. Based on our estimations, it will happen two days from now." Fallun pointed to the north, where an old castle stood in the distance.

"Mn. Considering the distance, if Lomyok rushed there as soon as he left us, he would have arrived there around this time. Didn"t he want to stop by the city first?"

"Vampires usually don"t keep their prey alive for long. Therefore, if the person in the castle dies, these monsters will automatically retreat. That"s why some people decided not to take any actions yet."

Fallun took a glance at three people who didn"t engage in the fight. Two of them were floating in the sky; one was sitting on air, yawning, while the other one stood on his flying Chinese sword. These two were the ones Sila had met before. As for the last person, he was a plain-looking man with two metal armguards.

"Who are they?"

"Hm? Are you curious? That sleepyhead is Tsunji, the Sky G.o.d. Don"t underestimate him just because of his looks. He will become a different person when he fights. His race is the eagle. With his racial qi, he can travel freely in the sky and accurately aim at his enemy"s vital spots. Together with his ice-attributed psychic power, his claws are quick and icy. He is a tough one to beat, that"s for sure.

"The man on the flying Chinese sword is Skyless, the Chinese Sword G.o.d. He is tough as well. His weapons are dual Chinese swords. Under his feet is the Sky-Breaking Chinese Sword and the other one he hasn"t shown yet is the Vibrating Lightning Chinese Sword. His speed is unfathomable, not to mention his reach. Don"t blindly think that he is a melee fighter just because he uses Chinese swords as his weapons. He once a.s.sa.s.sinated someone from half a kilometer away. His object-controlling art is even more fearful than his weapons.

"For the last one, I don"t know him either. He is a newcomer just like you. He arrived three or four days ago and has yet to show his strength."

Sila found the third man familiar. He even thought the man was Kawin at first glance, though the face was different.

The man looked back at Sila. He didn"t show any noteworthy reaction. Looking closely, Sila found that the man"s face had a blank expression as if wearing a plain mask. Strangely enough, Fallun didn"t seem to notice it.

Sila felt Dark Self knew the man"s ident.i.ty. In fact, it could be said that it was because of Dark Self"s awareness that he noticed the man was strange. Nevertheless, Dark Self possessed the same information he had. The fact that Dark Self knew the man"s ident.i.ty meant Sila should know it too if he tried.

If Sila just activated Moon Reflecting Mirror and asked, he would get an answer. However, he wanted to unravel the mystery himself in order to hone his thinking ability.

"The first impression is important. Maybe this man is really Kawin.  But why? Why would Kawin be here? Why is his face not the same?"

Sila wondered. He still couldn"t come up with answers. It was then that he took a look at the brawl in front of him. Suddenly, all the answers came to him.

Like the Wicked Union, Montra also targeted this city!

Honestly speaking, witnessing the strengths of people living in this city, it would be more strange if he chose to neglect them.

In that instant, Sila was aware of the weight of his current mission.

These people could become either strong allies or formidable foes.

As for the change in the man"s face and appearance, it wasn"t that difficult to solve. Kawin was a magic type player. In fact, his specialty was earth magic. Using a spell to disguise himself should be child"s play for him, especially when his face wasn"t vastly recognized by the ma.s.ses.

Sila could tell Kawin apart only thanks to the fact that he had met him before. Metal armguards were too unique as a weapon. Moreover, with Moon Reflecting Mirror, he could see through illusions and notice that Kawin"s face was, in fact, a mask.

The next problem was: Did Kawin come alone?

Sila didn"t have much time to think. That was because the system notification interrupted him and Fallun, along with a tremendous amount of magic power that could be sensed from the direction ahead of them.

Monster Ballock, the Vampire Earl, Level 600 Lord Rank, has appeared. Within the Vampire Earl"s territory, the recovery speed of all vampires and bats will be increased by a factor of ten.

Those who are killed by the Vampire Earl will suffer from a Bleeding Curse for seven days after reviving.

There appeared a large n.o.bleman behind the previous group of vampires. He had pale, corpse-like skin and a large physique that put him at three meters tall. He was looking down at the players with his vicious gaze.

"Ten times faster recovery rate despite vampires having a relatively high one from the beginning? The magic type players will have a difficult time, then. They will have to focus more on attacking their vital spots."

Fallun calmly a.n.a.lyzed as if it wasn"t a big problem. On the other hand, if this situation were to occur anywhere else, players would already be cursing at the game creator.

"Mn. The good news is that Ballock doesn"t deliver a death penalty regarding level and rank though," said Sila.

"Kuku. In any case, Belacia City"s first rule of survival is to not die. If you can"t fight, then flee."

Sila noticed some players chose to retreat immediately upon hearing the system notification, though they still lingered nearby. Meanwhile, the sound of a bell ringing twice could be heard from somewhere. Many people frowned.

"I guess today must be a cursed day. Our city isn"t always this busy, you know. At the very least, alerts aren"t normally rung on the same day," explained Fallun.

"Do you want to see what happens that way?" asked Sila.

"Nah. Twice means people are fighting each other. This spot is more interesting."

"What about you, Lookhin and Mister Asura?"

Lookhin said nothing. She made a bored expression while simply floating around slowly.

Meanwhile, Asura took his sweet time to take his long-awaited rest.

"I"m undecided. I will just observe for now."

Fallun circulated qi throughout his body and said to Sila, "I already saw your speed. Next, allow me to see your strength."

Sila turned to check up on Kawin, but the man had already left. He turned his head back and nodded. "Sure, sir."

"Well, let"s hurry up before our prey is s.n.a.t.c.hed away, especially that big guy."

Sila and Fallun dashed toward the battlefield. Likewise, Tsunji and Skyless, who didn"t take action before, also started to move.