The Hero System - Chapter 28

“Uh at some point, I didn’t need them anymore. Anyway, where have you been?! Do you know how much you’ve missed?!”

“Missed? Isn’t it just hunting?” Jonah couldn’t understand what Leo was talking about.

“Hunting? Bro, you take The Spirit Organization too lightly!” Leo was speechless.

Leo then explained everything to Jonah. Jonah realized that Spirit Trainee, those at Rank E-1, need to take obligatory lectures followed by an assessment!

Jonah found it quite reasonable since some people can slack off and just hunt from the Trainee Forest. However, the assessment was the day after tomorrow! That means he needs to take the lectures tomorrow and then prepare.

“You’re really not taking this seriously!” Leo scolded.

Jonah was speechless. Not take it seriously? He didn’t know how many times he almost died for the past week! Lia’s misunderstanding, imprisonment, the one-eyed being, the trial, and Daniel’s attempt to kill him! If Leo knew, he wouldn’t say that!

However, Jonah didn’t tell him. He knew he’d be scolded again by his worried friend. He changed the topic.

“Where are the rest?” Jonah looked around.

“They’re out hunting. They said we can accompany them after we finished with the assessment. Are you taking it?”

“Do I have another choice?”

“You do. You can take it next month, but we need to go back to school”

“Forget, let’s just get this over with!” Jonah shook his head.

The two then made dinner and ate. Afterward, Jonah went to his room. He took out the item he requested from the elves and placed it on the table.

“Wind Shadow Cultivation Technique. Although it’s not like the Void Technique, it’s still better than most other techniques!”

Jonah wanted to give his friend a cultivation technique since they were rather expensive. The techniques also had a ranking. S-Rank being the highest and F-Rank being the lowest. Jonah browsed their prices and found that F-Rank techniques would cost at least 1000 credit points. However, he wouldn’t let his friend cultivate that.

That’s why he asked for a powerful cultivation technique from the king. With how grateful the king was, Jonah knew this technique was quite valuable.

Jonah took out his bracelet and surfed through the Life Store. Soon, he found this cultivation technique. It was an AAA-Rank! Jonah held his breath when he saw its price. 95000000 credit points!

He realized that he might have asked too much from the king. This is probably a precious treasure of the royal family. However, he didn’t dwell on it. After all, they surely have other copies.

However, Jonah still felt bad that it’s not an S rank. He wanted his friend’s future to be smooth sailing, at least in the cultivation aspect.

Unfortunately, his hands were tied. He had no other way so he started his work translating the technique since it was in Elves’ language.

…

Next day at 5 pm, Jonah woke up. He washed his face and started his spear training. After going through the trials, Jonah felt that he needed to get stronger if he wanted to truly help others. At least, he needs to be strong enough to protect the people around him.

Even though he didn’t know if he leveled up or not since the system isn’t working, he felt that there was slight progress. He took a shower afterward and headed downward.

The rest were still asleep since it was just 7 am. However, Jonah had to rush early to catch up to the morning lectures that was at 8 am. This was the last day he can attend them.

After having breakfast, Jonah called a Spirit Vehicle and headed toward The Spirit Organization. This would be the first time that Jonah visited the organization in Zoras. He had to earn upgrade points on the first day and save Kiwi on the second. Then he was at the Elves’ kingdom for the rest of the week.

Soon after, Jonah reached the highest building other than Portal. The building was modern-style built but the statues around it gave it an ancient feeling. Jonah estimated that there were about 7 floors and each floor was about 2000 square meters.

After asking for the place where the lectures were held, Jonah headed toward a classroom with many benches. There were still a few people since it was only 7:40 am so Jonah got seated and waited.

After a while, the classroom got crowded. Then a middle-aged man walked in and started explaining.

The first lecture was about The Spirit Organization goal and duties. The man explained that they need to protect the commoners from the monsters of this world. At the end of the lecture, the man started to criticize those who abuse the use of their powers.

Jonah didn’t think anything of it until he noticed that many of the people around had a look of disdain. Jonah frowned but he didn’t figure out what was the real reason.

The man then left and the classroom went noisy. When Jonah heard the discussions around, he knew what cultivators thought about commoners.

“Protect the commoners? Haha, this place sure has a sense of humor!” Jonah was walking out when he heard this. He couldn’t help but turn around. He saw a black-haired youth with amber eyes talking to another brown-haired youth with amber eyes. The black-haired youth, who spoke earlier, wore a black sleeveless shirt and gray jeans while the other had a simple green shirt and black jeans.

“That’s true, they always spread these ideas, but no one actually listens!” The brown-haired youth laughed along.

“Why should we? After all, we have no obligation to protect those trash!” The black haired youth laughed sarcastically.

“You were also a commoner before you awakened.” Jonah couldn’t help but blurt out. He felt uncomfortable listing them talk about normal people like that, especially that his mother was one of them.

“Hmm? It seems we have a righteous guy here, haha! I bet you were also a commoner not so long ago.” The black haired youth looked at Jonah and laughed with disdain.

“I have. And?” Jonah wasn’t ashamed of it.

“I wasn’t wrong, trash will naturally like trash!”

“Look, the only trash person here is the one looking down on others because of his inferiority complex,” Jonah smirked. After he got he passed the first trial, he was calmer when dealing with this kind of people.

“You” The black haired youth was furious. He was about to step toward Jonah when the other youth held him back. It was obvious that they can’t fight here.

“What? The cat got your tongue? Me, a trash like you said, can speak while you can’t? Are you perhaps more useless than trash? I bet you are.” Jonah said and walked away.

The two were speechless as they looked at the leaving Jonah. Even though Jonah was quite good-natured, he didn’t like bullies. Since he was young, he and Leo were bullied by others. Now it was the same with cultivators, it seems that some of them abuse their powers against commoners or look down on them.

That’s why Jonah rebuked the two. He couldn’t stand people who hurt others just for their satisfaction. His mood was ruined by the fact that there are some cultivators like that. He then went into the next lecture.

The classroom was somewhere else. The Spirit Organization (TSO) assigned each classroom for a certain lecture. This way, they can host lectures more efficiently by having different groups study simultaneously.

After taking a seat for five minutes, the lecture started. Jonah also saw the two youths from earlier glaring at him but he ignored them.

This lecture wasn’t general like earlier, it was more specific. That was Deviant Cultivators. These are people who use their power to hurt the public. The lecture explained that each person who passes the assessment would have a spiritual barrier function installed into their bracelet. This way, they can take down these cultivators without hurting the public area around them.

Jonah was once mistaken for a deviant cultivator. The reason was simply that Jonah’s spiritual energy was more profound than a person just awakening. This is also why Leo didn’t reach 20 points first in spirit even though he awakened before Jonah.

The reason for that was obviously the system. He raised his spirit to help him study, but he ended up being targeted because of it. Jonah was sure now that studying kills, literally.

However, he didn’t understand why he’d be targeted just because he had a more profound spiritual energy. That didn’t make sense since he was almost killed. However, he learned why at the end of the lecture. It appears that TSO has assigned rewards for capturing these cultivators if possible, and kill them if not.

Jonah didn’t need anyone to tell him that this reward system had turned into a witch hunt. Cultivators would probably race against each other to take down these cultivators for the rewards. Like bounty hunters, this system was placed to encourage cultivators to protect the public by using these rewards.

However, Jonah personally experienced the down-side of this system. Even though he was partially responsible, Oden Hervey was too rash. Even though Jonah didn’t want to kill him, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t teach him a lesson if he got stronger.

Even though the lecturer didn’t go into details, he made sure to convey that the rewards were quite generous. The reason for this was that not only Deviants would harm people directly, but also indirectly. When people are exposed to a lot of Spiritual Energy and they’re not cultivators, soul damage is highly expected.

The third lecturer was about the hunting zones. Basically, there were seven hunting zones. S-Zone to F-Zone. There were some special zones, but most of these were decided based on the danger level they imposed.

F-Zones were safe zones, they’d at most have a Second Level Energy Condensing Stage. E-Zone would have at most one or two Energy Materialization Stage monsters. D-Zone would have at most one or two Soul Core Formation monsters. C-Zone would have at most one or two Soul Possession monsters. B-Zone would have at most one or two Spirit Kings. A-Zone would have at most one Spirit Emperor. S-Zone would have at most one Spirit God.

However, the higher the danger, the scarcer they are. Jonah didn’t know if there was even someone or monster that reach Spirit God. He also didn’t know if this was the highest realm. This kind of information would be given in a Spirit Trainee lecture.

The fourth lecture was about the cities. Zoras city was D-Rank city. There were five ranks from A to E. The lecturer then began to talk about the different cities and Terra’s geography. Even though Jonah was paying attention, he got bored. He would rather visit these cities than hearing about them.

Finally, the lectures were over. Jonah was finally able to go home at 10 am. After he got off the Spirit Vehicle, he met the rest.

“Jonah? Is that you? My lost cousin! Where have you been? We thought you were dead! Your mother kept crying when she learned that you went missing!” Norlan exaggerated their reunion so much that all of them couldn’t help but laugh. What made them laugh the hardest was that Norlan gestured toward Yan when he talked about the mother.

“Mom? I’m sorry!” Jonah tagged along and looked at Yan with a shocked expression as he said. The group burst out laughing when they saw this. Even Yan couldn’t help but laugh.

“Where have you been? Even though no one cried, as far as I know, we were certainly worried!” Sana asked after the group calmed down.

“I went on a hunting spree as a training I camped in the forest and kept on hunting.” Jonah cooked a white lie. Even though the group knew that wasn’t the whole truth, they accepted it since Jonah didn’t wish to tell.

“Well, don’t push it! We’re going to have lunch now, how about you join us?” Gorilla spoke this time.

Jonah agreed. Even though he needs to train, getting close to his team was also a must. Since Leo was also accompanying them, he had no reason to refuse.

The group then headed toward a restaurant where they dug in. Like always, the food was quite delicious and they enjoyed their meal. This time, Jonah was the one who treated them, since he made them worry. Luckily, he had 181 credit points from killing the Third Level Energy Condensing Stage monster.

After returning home, Jonah thought about giving Leo the technique. However, he heard the system’s notification.

[Ding! Upgrade completed. Please check the new functions.]

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