The Hero System - Chapter 42

Although drawing was only the first step toward making a Talisman, it was a necessary one. Like building a house, drawing was the foundation of Talisman making. The markings were ancient and complicated. Even the slightest mistake would cause a blockage of spiritual energy, leading to an explosion. Luckily, humans made the practice Talisman’s ink so that apprentices wouldn’t get hurt.

“Okay, for now, just try imitating the letters. We’ll talk afterward.” Edward said before going out.

Jonah sighed. It seems being a Talisman master was harder than he expected. Thankfully, he had the system to rely on!

‘System, how can I turn this into a skill?’

[The user needs to perform the act for a number of times depending on its difficulty of the action.]

‘Oh? What about Talisman’s making?’

[If the user wants to gain the profession Talisman master, host needs to draw 5 talismans successfully for a hundred times.]

‘Profession?’ Jonah frowned. Every time he wanted to get a skill, he’d end up getting something else. Previous time was the technique, and this time was the profession.

‘Is it different from skills?’

[Access denied.]

It seems that he can’t learn anything further if he didn’t gain the profession. Since it was like that, he needs to pick up the pace!

“Dammit! This line is too narrow! And this one is too close to the other one! How can I measure that?” Jonah threw his hands up angrily as he looked at the several tens of used yellow paper sheets.

He had been practicing for two hours but no avail. He just can’t draw the lines like the illustrations. Even though the Talisman’s were two dimensional, they were actually three! He also needs to take regard of how much ink to use, and how much time to place the brush for. Without talent and practice, finishing one of these would be extremely difficult, not mention a hundred!

Jonah sighed and leaned on the table. He kept thinking of other ways to get this profession. Trying to figure out how the system works, he opened his skills menu.

‘System, can’t I level up Spiritual Sense anymore?’ Jonah suddenly thought of something as he looked at this skill.

[Common skills can’t evolve.]

‘Oh? What about other ranks?’

[Uncommon can evolve once, Rare twice, and Ultra-Rare thrice.]

‘Does that include the wind’s blessings?’

[Yes. However, evolving requires certain factors that would differ for each skill.]

Jonah went into deep thought as he gazed at his Spiritual Sense skill. He has totally forgotten about it earlier and didn’t consider using it. However, he didn’t only have five sense he had six!

Still, even though he can use it, he can’t let others notice after all, he didn’t want to court trouble by offending a powerful person. Thus, Jonah had a different plan in mind.

Jonah slowly released his spiritual energy. He didn’t spread it for a whole 50 meters, but focused it on only one meter radius!

Trying to control it, Jonah took five minutes to spread all of his energy around it. He noticed that his perception of the things in a one meter radius around him was truly god-like!

He can clearly feel the ants moving around and the dust one the table. He can feel every wind breeze passing by! Jonah entered a state where he felt that his body became a sphere of a one meter radius!

Picking up his brush, Jonah started to draw. This time, he got the distance and the thickness between the lines perfectly!

However, the Talisman still didn’t glow It seemed that the ink’s depth was unbalanced. Jonah frowned again and wanted to curse. He went into deep thought but quickly came out with a solution! Since he used Spiritual Sense for the dimensions, he can just use his Foresight skill for the timing!

Even though Foresight description was only against his opponents, that wasn’t its onlyuse! After all, the description was just a way for Jonah to know the skill’s effect.

Jonah activated his Foresight skill and started drawing the Talisman again. As he expected, his foresight allowed him to timely move his brush before the ink was too deep. This time, Jonah only took five minutes to finish the Talisman!

When he raised his brush, the talisman glowed with a white light with a buzzing sound for a brief moment. Jonah was stunned before standing up.

“I did it! Hahaha! I’m a genius!” Jonah couldn’t hide his excitement with his achievement.

He sat back in his chair and started doing the second one. Five minutes later, the Talisman glowed again. Jonah kept practicing for six hours until Edward walked snapping him back to reality.

“What the” Edward looked at the over a hundred made talismans and was stunned for a moment. He then grabbed some that were on the table and started inspecting them.

‘Holy Even if they aren’t drawn perfectly, these are above average! He achieved this in less than eight hours?’

Edward drew a sharp breath and held it in. He then looked at Jonah again like he was looking at a monster.

Jonah, feeling his astonishment, didn’t try to hide pride. “Master, aren’t I great? Aren’t I awesome?!” Jonah had a smug face which made Edward speechless. However, he couldn’t deny it.

“This is only the beginning! Come, let’s have dinner and then start studying!” Seeing Jonah’s ability, Edward was enthusiastic beyond words. His dreams, might just turn into a reality because of this youth.

After ordering some food and eating, Edward led Jonah to the study room again. It was about 6 pm now and they had a lot of time before Jonah goes to sleep. Thus, Edward took his time explaining.

“Talisman is a way to induce phenomena by using the Ancient Language at communicates with the world. When spiritual energy passes through the letters of the Talisman, the phenomena take place around the talisman. Modern science was only able to explain a part of their mechanism. Basically, like physics laws, there are spirit laws. These laws shape the world the way it is. As you know, everything has spiritual energy. So these laws are the characteristics of spiritual energy, and what define everything. Using the ancient language, we manipulate these laws” Edward’s explanations were good as he only highlighted the crux of the subject. Even Jonah, who hated studying, was quite interested.

The lecture continued for two hours and Edward was able to cover the basics. Jonah, however, had his questions.

“What is the Ancient Language?” Jonah furrowed his brows.

“Before the world divided, it was the language of the higher beings. These beings ruled the world but we don’t know what happened.” Edward shook his head.

At 9, the lecture was finally over. Of course, Jonah wouldn’t use all of his time on talismans. Learning from his failure in the previous quest, he decided to train his Spirit Arts.

[Ding! Spear Arts are now level 6: Increase the attack strength by 20%.]

After two hours, Jonah was finally able to raise his Spear Arts level. However, he noticed that leveling up is becoming harder and harder. His earlier training and the assessment only raised his level by one.

Jonah washed up and went to bed. At 6 pm the next morning, he woke up and washed his face before heading out. Of course, he didn’t’ forget to take his weapons and food bag. He still doesn’t has an armor since he doesn’t need it. However, he’d have to buy one eventually.

Riding a Spirit Vehicle, Jonah headed toward the city’s east gate. This time, they were going to hunt in an E-Zone that was 300 km to the east of Zoras city. Its name was the Gog Swamp!

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