Chapter 59: Clearing the Old Debt

It was four in the afternoon. A system sound alerted Sila, reminding him to log out in the next twenty four hours. The brain scanner had an alarm function that Sila hadn’t turned on the first time he played.

“Are you going to log out, Sila?” Bluebird asked.

“Yeah. The sound just now was alerting me to log out within a day. I have to log out before noon tomorrow.”

“I will log out tomorrow morning too,” Burapha said.

“In that case, have you guys finished taking a break yet? I would like to visit a bank before nighttime.”

“Five more minutes please.” Bluebird lay down. “By the way, what are you going to do at the bank? Deposit money? I suggest we go to a restaurant instead. I will treat you guys to a meal to celebrate successfully raiding a dragon.”

“I am going to clear my debt. I currently owe 10,000 gold to the bank. I better clear it now that I have the money.”

“10,000 gold!!!” Burapha shouted. “What have you spent that much on?”

Sila scratched his head. He didn’t dare to tell them that he had spent that much so he could hide from Varee.

“I spent it on a storage space.”

“A storage worth 10,000 gold? Isn’t that too expensive?”

“Th-there are a lot of items. They’re very safe in there.” Sila tried to avoid the question.

“Didn’t you only start playing recently? Isn’t the normal storage sufficient?” Bluebird raise his suspicion.

Sila shut his mouth. He couldn’t answer anymore. He wasn’t a good liar.

Bluebird noticed that Sila didn’t want to answer, so he said, “You don’t need to explain if you don’t want too. Anyway, may we visit there?”

“I want to see a storage worth 10,000 gold too,” Burapha added.

For Sila, his storage was only a place to avoid Varee. Hence, he didn’t mind if the two of them came to visit. He even planned to invite Burapha to appraise the value of the items he had from the start.

“Yes, you can. Wait a moment.” Sila took out a black card.

“Chamber of Secrets?” Bluebird said.

“Hmm? You know about it?”

“The information about it is available in our guild. I suspected this was the case since I heard you say the storage was worth 10,000 gold.”

“What is a Chamber of Secrets? Tell me more,” Burapha asked.

“You’ll see it in a moment. I haven’t seen one either.”

Sila allowed Burapha and Bluebird to come in to his Chamber of Secrets. Two black cards the size of movie tickets appeared in the air, each of them engraved with the name of a visitor. Sila handed them over to Burapha and Bluebird.

“Hold it and say Go to the Chamber of Secrets…” Sila’s body was gone despite him having yet to finish his sentence.

“Hm? Where did Big Brother Sila go?” Burapha turned left and right.

“He was saying something. ‘Go to the Chamber of Secrets’...” Bluebird’s body disappeared too.

Witnessing Bluebird’s disappearance, Burapha finally understood.

“Go to the Chamber of Secrets,” said Burapha. He disappeared just like the other two did, leaving an ice field behind.

***

Sila’s body reappeared in his Chamber of Secrets. The black card reacted too fast to his order so he was sent here immediately after he finished the phrase ‘Go to the Chamber of Secrets.’ Bluebird and Burapha soon followed after.

Both of them looked around and said simultaneously: “So narrow.”

Sila ignored both of them for the time being. He put the short knives that he wouldn’t be needing for a while back into his item window.

‘Once I finish clearing the debt, I should call teacher to ask about Shapeless Qi,’ thought Sila.

Burapha just noticed that there was a pile of items in the corner of the room that Sila was now standing at. His eyes bulged out upon witnessing a particular stone.

“O… O… O…” Burapha was stuttering.

“What happened? Oh what?” Bluebird said.

“Orichalcum!!!” Burapha shouted while pointing his finger at the stone next to Sila’s feet.

Bluebird’s eyes followed Burapha’s finger. Sila noticed that they were looking at the stone so he kicked the stone up with his feet and caught it.

“Wahhh! What are you doing? What if that scratches it?” Burapha rushed over to Sila.

Sila handed the stone to Burapha, who gently held it.

Bluebird walked over. He had heard about Orichalcum before even though the information of the item was not within his field of expertise. Actually, it was rare to meet someone who hadn’t heard its name. Orichalcum was very well known, a legendary mineral.

“If it’s genuine Orichalcum, just kicking it shouldn’t scratch it though,” Bluebird said.

“Oh right. I forgot,” Burapha replied while still holding it gently. He took out a pair of glasses to wear. Sila guessed that it must be the equipment merchants use for appraising items. “It’s genuine.”

“Is this stone that valuable?” Sila asked.

“Stone? How can you call Orichalcum a mere stone? It is a legendary mineral, you know? As of now, except for this one, only two others have ever shown up. Big Brother Sila should have already seen both weapons that are made by them,” Burapha said.

“Have I?” Sila wondered. How could Burapha be so sure that he had seen them? Even he himself didn’t know.

“I’m certain. The first one is Big Sister Varee’s Shadow Moon Sword and the other one is Montra’s Dragon Head Staff,” Burapha explained.

Bluebird was quick to add, “Orichalcum possesses a soul. A weapon made by this mineral can obtain experience points to upgrade itself. It’s an S-grade item without penalty and it’s also almost unbreakable. Its market price is unimaginable.”

It reminded Sila of Varee’s form-changing katana. He remembered Varee also had mentioned about it being able to accumulate experience points, but he didn’t know that it was made of Orichalcum.

“But Varee told me she got her katana from joining a race of magical beings though? She didn’t mention Orichalcum at all,” Sila said.

Bluebird stared at Sila, hesitating to continue.

“About that, I can say for sure that it wasn’t true. Simply joining a race of magical beings surely won’t give you this mineral. Although there are not many players joining this race, I’m acquainted with a few. The prominent point of the magical beings is their superior ability to utilize items.” Bluebird stopped for a while. “I guess there is some complex circumstance, or else she lied to you.”

“The origin of Big Sister Varee’s katana is even more mysterious than Montra’s mage staff. Everyone in the game knows that Montra obtained Orichalcum as a reward for winning in the previous war event. But for Big Sister Varee, one day she just had it despite her being an individual player. The reason behind her high bounty reward is mainly because of her katana. Players would like to know how she got it,” Burapha added.

Sila fell silent. Of course, he also had something he didn’t tell Varee. But not telling and lying are different. If she really had complex circumstances, she could just choose to not explain. Instead, she lied to him. Or is it like his Greed Card that came with a condition?

Burapha noticed that Sila felt down. He interpreted that Sila was sad to know that Varee had lied. Burapha still wasn’t aware that these two weren’t a real couple.

“I guess Big Sister Varee must have her reasons. Don’t think about it too much, Big Brother Sila.”

Sila waved his hand in denial. “I don’t care about such a thing. I’m just thinking about requesting you to appraise my items. Maybe I’ll sell some of them.”

“Sure, I’ll help. Where are your items?”

Sila pointed his finger at a pile of items behind him. Burapha’s eyes followed there.

“Wah!! Why do you leave Dragon’s Roots on the floor? What’s more? These many Tree Dragon Cards? Earth Ores?” Burapha categorized the items into several groups.

While waiting, Sila called for Christopher. Not over a minute was needed before the banker arrive in front of Sila and Bluebird.

“Hello, Mister Sila. How can I help you today, sir?”

“Hello, Mister Chris. I called you here to pay off my debt.”

“Do you already have 10,000 gold?” Chris wondered. A month had not passed yet. This was too fast.

“Yes. Is there a problem? Could it be that the due date has passed? Is there interest?” Sila asked. If there really was interest, he would be in a tight spot. He only possessed around 10,000 gold.

“No, sir. I’m just surprised.”

Sila handed his black card to Chris. Chris took it and looked around the room.

“The room seems rather narrow with more people, doesn’t it? May I ask whether you would like to upgrade the room, sir?” Chris proposed.

“Oh? It can be upgraded? What will it become after being upgraded?”

“Please take a look, sir.” Chris opened his own system window and pushed it toward Sila and Bluebird. The window was displaying ‘Upgrades Catalog of Chamber of Secret.’

“You have it, sir. I have already added the upgrade function into your system window.”

Upon reading the catalog, Sila could see that increasing the room size was not expensive. Only a hundred gold was required. Sila also checked the training equipment being sold.

“I would like to have this one, this one, and this one,” Sila told his request to Chris.

“Do you confirm these marked transactions, sir?”

“Confirm.” At the end of Sila’s sentence, the room suddenly become wider. There was also a punching bag in the corner of the room.

“Ah? And here I was wondering what kind of room it would become. You’re very tasteless in decoration, you know? What will you do when you feel tired? Sleep on the floor?” Bluebird said.

Sila was well aware that he wasn’t good at room decoration. His teacher had once teased him that his room was like a jail. There was only a bed, a wardrobe, a table, a chair and nothing else.

“I forgot. At the very least, I should have a bed,” Sila said.

“Rest assured. You’re depending on the right person. Resting is one of the most important parts in human growth. A good training schedule must be accompanied with good rest. I’m the expert of resting(?) so just leave it to me.” Afterward, Bluebird pulled the catalog toward himself and began to select several things.

“What are you two doing?” Burapha walked toward Sila once he was done categorizing Sila’s items.

“We’re upgrading this room. By the way, how about the items?”

“About that, you should be able to sell them for at least 30,000 gold.”

“That much?” Sila pondered. Are the items that valuable?

“Yes, for the record, this amount is excluding Orichalcum. I think you’re better off keeping it for crafting a decent weapon that you can use. As for the rest, I know their market prices so I’m able to sell them at around this price. If you were to sell them yourself, you would gain 3,000 gold at best.”

“The different is as high as 27,000 gold?”

“Yes. For example, these Dragon’s Roots. You didn’t keep them properly so some of them are rotten. They must be sold to alchemist players. For Earth Ores, they must be sold to weapon makers, especially near lightning-element monsters’ habitats. As for the Tree Dragon Cards, selling them at the black market should yield highest price,” Burapha explained.

“Black market?”

“Yes. It’s a special dimension where players can freely buy and sell any item, but the products sold there are hard to discern. If Big Brother Sila wants to visit there, you better come with me. I will help you.”

Sila nodded.

As Burapha noticed that Bluebird still hadn’t finished selecting upgrades, he suggested, “Big Brother Sila, as you plan to upgrade this place anyway, I would like to recommend that you add an item storage room, a mineral storage room and the likes. Paying for these rooms is worth the investment. Big Brother Sila tends to neglect taking care of items. Like this time, the rotten Dragon’s Roots means you have lost the equivalent of 1,000 gold. In addition, I guess you had better invest in a supporting AI. Later, you only have to place items in this room and the AI will automatically take care of them by arranging them in the correct rooms. That will make things easier for you. You will also find your items easier this way.”

As expected of a merchant, Sila easily agreed to those reasons and decided to comply with Burapha’s suggestion. He told Bluebird about this request.

Bluebird nodded before clicking on several items on the catalog.

“Mister Sila. Please come and confirm your transactions, sir,” said Chris.

Sila didn’t bother to recheck. He confirmed it without reading the list. “Confirm.”

Once the confirmation was completed, the tasteless black room was suddenly transformed into mid-sized mansion. Its size was expanded several times and became quite spacious. Next to the mansion was a pool with a mini waterfall. There were also gardens and more things that Sila couldn’t name. This wasn’t even including the things that he had yet to see within the mansion.

“Mister Sila. Your outstanding debt balance is currently 1,500,000 gold, sir. You have good credit so we can give you this much of a loan. However, you need to pay us at least 500,000 gold within 30 days, sir,” Chris said.

Sila was dumbstruck. He had just cleared his debt and now he owed money again. This new debt was even many times more than his previous one. Not to mention the 1,500,000 gold, he couldn’t even find a way to gain 500,000 gold in a short time.

Bluebird was shocked too. He didn’t know that the total sum was this expensive. He was too immersed in shopping with someone else’s money so he completely disregarded the price.

Bluebird transformed himself into a blue tailorbird and flew to land himself on Sila’s shoulder. His eyes were clear. Tilting his head, trying his best to be cute, he said,

“At least you can choose wallpaper for free, pal. You even get a discount for the next purchase.” Bluebird tried to talk about the good points.

Sila was lost in thought. It seemed that next time, he would need more time to consider making someone his friend.