The Hero System - Chapter 17

‘Receive.’

[New skill obtained. Spider Steps Level 1: Using light steps embedded with spirit energy. Increase agility by 10% while running. Rank: Uncommon.]

Even though the skill was only uncommon rank, it was still better than nothing. Jonah noticed that the skill didn’t have attributes requirements. That means he probably needs to practice it.

Jonah walked over and checked the elf child. He looked like a normal kid with long ears. Jonah decided to rest for a while since the cave is safe now and the child is only unconscious

Jonah took out his first aid kit and treated himself. He hoped that he’d get a healing Spirit Skill soon. He then started to cultivate. To increase his stats, and wait for the child to wake up.

After three hours of cultivation, Jonah heard the child waking up. He ceased his cultivation and saw the child struggling to open his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Jonah asked. He knew that the Elf Language skill he got was passive. Thus, he can communicate without trying to activate it.

“Where am I? Who are you?” The elf child was scared and retreated.

“I won’t do you harm. I saw that you were captured by the spider so I helped you.” Jonah said as he pointed toward the spider.

The child scared expression eased up when he heard this. Now that Jonah looked at him, it appears that he’s only 6 years old at most. He was short with long ears, blonde hair, and blue eyes. A typical elf.

“Thank you for saving me, mister!” The elf child said.

“No need. What’s your name?” Jonah asked.

“Kiwi!”

“Nice to meet you, Kiwi. My name is Jonah. Do you know the way to your home?”

“Un!” Kiwi nodded.

“I’ll take you there.”

“Mister, there’s no need”

“It’s alright. I want to see your home too!”

It was quite difficult to be a hero without getting people suspicious. Kiwi was actually suspicious but he knew Jonah wouldn’t need to trick him if he wanted to hurt him. And his home’s location was no secret. Thus, he agreed.

Jonah and Kiwi left the cave. Jonah was dragging the corpse to the nearest checkpoint to sell it. After selling the corpse for 120 credit points, he bought some clothes for Kiwi and dried rations for the trip.

Jonah sent Leo a message telling him that he’d return in a week. Then, he and Kiwi started sprinting by the riverside.

Kiwi got tired after one hour of running. Jonah had to carry him and keep running. Thankfully, with his physiques and Kiwi’s light-weight, he managed to carry him with ease.

And Jonah could feel the difference when he used Spider Steps. His steps were light and fast as he stomped on the ground repeatedly. Even though there weren’t much power behind each step, they depended on agility to make up with the number.

Kiwi said that this river went through his home. This way, they can go there if they followed it. With the system’s map, they were able to avoid monsters. However, not all monster could be avoided without altering their route. Thus, Jonah had to fight more than once.

After killing a bunch of monsters of the First and Second level, Jonah finally leveled up!

[Name: Jonah Regon]

[Age: 16]

[Level: 4]

[Cultivation: Energy Condensing (Second Stage)]

[Spirit Points: 20/20]

[Experience points: 03/80]

[Upgrade Points: 24]

[Vitality: 26]

[Stamina: 26]

[Strength: 26]

[Agility: 29]

[Resistance: 26]

[Intelligence: 28]

[Charm: 15]

[Spirit: 52]

Jonah was satisfied with his progress. With these points, he might be able to finish the main quest he got. He then opened his Quest Menu to check his current skills.

[Ultimate Quest: Save The World. Reward: Access Denied. Due: Access Denied. Difficulty: Hell.]

[Main-Quest: Reach Level 99 Before The Disaster. Reward: Legendary Level Skill. Legendary Level Item. Due: July 12, 2023. Difficulty: Extreme]

[Main-Quest: reach Energy Materialization stage in 6 months. Reward: Void Energy Materialization Technique. Due: Mid-August. Difficulty: Hard]

[Side-Quest: Reach Third Level Energy Condensing Stage in a month. Reward: Uncommon Skill. Due: 29 days left. Difficulty: Normal.]

[Side-Quest: Reach Third Level Energy Condensing Stage in half a month. Reward: Rare level skill. Due: 14 days left. Difficulty: Medium.]

Jonah received the last two quests after he broke through. With these points, Jonah can probably fulfill the quest to get another rare level skill.

However, he didn’t think it’d be easy afterward. Because his level is way ahead of his cultivation. Even though he leveled up, he can only kill Second and First Level Energy Condensing Stage monsters. This way, leveling up would be harder as the experience points required would be more.

“Kiwi, why are you so far away from home?” Jonah asked as he handed over some dried meat.

They were resting after traveling for 8 hours. It was getting dark so Jonah decided to camp inside a cave not far away. He found it with his map function. They hid the cave using some bushes so that monsters wouldn’t come in. Jonah had a rope with him so he made to small towers with rocks and tied them. This way, he’d know if a monster came in.

Because of their 8 hours traveling, Spider Steps leveled up to Level 2. It now increases his agility by 20% when he runs.

Kiwi said that they’d need at least another half a day to reach there. That’s why Jonah wondered why a child would be so far away from home.

“I ran away!” Kiwi said as he bit his meat.

“You ran? Why? What about your family?” Jonah wanted to understand the whole situation.

“I ran because of my family! They wouldn’t let me out no matter what!”

“Then why are you going back now?”

“Because I’m too weak,” Kiwi said while pouting.

“It’s okay. You can get stronger then travel.” Jonah patted his head and smiled. Kiwi nodded.

After they finished eating, the two went to sleep. Jonah had his spiritual energy spread all over the cave to detect anything approaching. Even though he was using his skill, he can still sleep. He just felt that he was aware of everything around him.

The next morning, the two woke up and ate breakfast. They resumed their journey like yesterday. Jonah still had to help Kiwi. Even though Jonah was also tired, he can manage to recover using his spiritual energy.

After three hours of running, Jonah saw a city not far away.

“That’s my home!” Kiwi said as he pointed.

Jonah expected the city to be made of only wooden huts. However, he can even see some tall building from where he was!

“Kiwi, are humans welcomed in your city?”

“Big brother, you’re a human?!” Kiwi had a dumbfounded look on his face.

“Can’t you tell?” Jonah was speechless.

“I thought you were slightly different, but I thought you must be an elf since you can speak our language!” Kiwi was shocked. He only read about humans but never met one. He only knew that humans didn’t know their language. However, Jonah was fluent!

“I learned it when I was young.” Jonah lied.

“I see. Most elves hate humans. But there isn’t a law forbidding it.” Kiwi said.

Jonah was in a tough spot now. The quest hasn’t been completed so he probably needs to send Kiwi home, not just the city gates.

Jonah decided to go in. However, he’d go through the gates! He took out his mask and put on his hood. With this, he’ll pretend to be an elf!

“Big brother, your mask is so cool!”

“Hehe, I know. Let’s go.”

The two then walked over to the city gates. There were a few people going in and out, and all of them were elves.

Jonah saw many different looking elves. Brown hair, blonde, black, and even grey! Some of them were white, some were brown, and some were black! Jonah didn’t think there would be such a diversity.

“What’s your purpose here?” The guard asked the two.

“I’ve found this child lost. So I decided to bring him home.” Jonah had no reason to lie.

“I see. Please leave it to us. We can find his parents quicker.” The guard nodded. Even though the mask was suspicious, he felt a strange trust in this man.

“There’s no need. He knows the way and I’ll just take him.” Jonah said. The guard hesitated but then nodded.

“Where’s your home?” Jonah asked Kiwi as they walked in.

“There!” Kiwi pointed at the castle in the distance.

“Where?” Jonah was confused.

“There! The big building!” Kiwi said.

“Okay, let’s go.” Jonah thought that maybe Kiwi was the son of someone worked in the castle. He did think that he might be royalty. But kiwi didn’t really have the vibe of one.

The two walked through the streets and Jonah was amazed at every corner. He couldn’t help but admire a different civilization. The elves were quite different from humans in how they treated each other.

For instance, they didn’t use carriages. They used a basket that was carried by a flying beast. Even the food was quite different. Jonah wished he had some elves’ currency to buy some.

Vote to get more chapters!

There will be some changes in how the skills are introduced. I’ll be showing more details, nothing new. I usually show what matters, like how to level it up, or rank, or description, but I’ll be showing everything from now on.