The Hero System - Chapter 56

The next day, Jonah woke up early for the big day. He had a lot of things to do since he got a new function. After waking up, he had breakfast with Edward and headed out. While he was on the way, he also informed Gorilla that he won’t be hunting with them for a while.

Hanging up, Jonah suddenly remembered that his mother still hasn’t answered his message. Opening his bracelet, he sent her another one asking about her well-being. These bracelets were connected to a station in Zuras, which in turn was connected to Earth.

Clicking send, Jonah waited a bit before closing the interference panel. Although it took a while for the message to reach Earth, he was still worried since his mother didn’t answer his previous message. He wondered if something went wrong with the reception.

Even though it was still early in the market, people were still going to and fro the different shops. Being a cultivator granted these people stronger and healthier bodies so you’d rarely find a lazy one.

Jonah’s goal was simple. To gather the necessary materials for the Spirit Arrow talisman! Since he unlocked his new function, he was eager to invest in it. Thus, he decided to complete his mastery over this grade 9 talisman as soon as possible.

Although he had an agreement with Edward about the materials… He couldn’t risk people finding out about this. After all, he still didn’t fully trust Edward. What he was about to do would defy common sense and the natural order of things… This would obviously cause a sensation across the city. Furthermore, he didn’t want to show Edward too much of his skills.

Currently, he had 9120 credit points. That was equivalent to 912000 dollars! He was rich overnight! However, that was judged by the common standards. He still needs to buy many cultivation related items that are equally expensive. However, he wouldn’t need to worry about the basic comfort of daily life from now on.

However, while he was walking, Jonah encountered a crowd gathering around a building. Can’t suppress his curiosity, he walked over.

“Big brother, what are you gathered around?” Jonah asked one of the male bystanders.

“It’s The Owls! They’ve struck again!” The young man answered while shaking his head.

“The Owls…?” Jonah’s puzzlement was written all over his face. Seeing this, the young man figured that Jonah wasn’t rather familiar with the cultivation world. Thus, he continued.

“They’re an organization of self-proclaimed righteous people! However, they are condemned by the whole spirit cultivation world. They have killed many influential people of the Spirit society… Some people think they’re heroes in the dark, while some say they’re a bunch of murderers! It’s a widespread controversial subject! However, this time’s incident is quite brutal.” The young man pointed toward the building ahead. Jonah followed his gaze but his vision was obstructed with the crowd.

“Thank you, big brother!” Jonah made his way through the crowd to get a better look. Squeezing himself through, he was finally able to get a clear view.

Drawing a sharp breath, Jonah’s eyes lost focus as his body slightly trembled. A middle-aged man wearing robes was pinned against the wall by three swords. One was penetrating his heart while the other two through his arms. His blood hasn’t dried and it was still dripping. Lifting his gaze up, he saw an eye drawn by blood. It looked like that of an owl.

[Ding! New side-quest received: Find the murder! Difficulty: Hard. Duration: Two days. Reward: Rare item.]

Breaking his daze, a system notification sounded in his head. Jonah was brought out of his daze and his breath quickened. It was his first time seeing a corpse after all.

However, he was still a cultivator and he went through life and death situations before. Thus, he was able to compose himself. Furthermore, his newly determined heart cannot be shaken that easily. After all, his path was bound to be a bloody one.

Without hesitation, he quickly activated his Spirit Tracking. After reaching level two, its duration increased to two hours.

Judging by the not-yet dried blood, the murder was bound to happen within two hours’ time. Since it was early in the morning, the district must be empty two hours ago. Looking at the corpse, Jonah could see that there were two faint spiritual energies remains around. He was sure that these two had something to do with the murder since the crowd didn’t step forward and waited for the authorities.

Following the trail, Jonah realized that the two spiritual energies were heading in the same direction. Without drawing too much attention to himself, he slipped away from the crowd before finding a hidden alley.

Jonah darted through the alley as he activated his Spider Steps skill. Following the trail of the two energy remains, he noticed he was getting closer and closer to the edge of the city. There were more and more trails showing up along the way further increasing his assurance.

After following the trail for an hour, Jonah finally left the city and entered the forest. The trails seemed to be mixed up and entangled. From this, Jonah concluded the two figures had some clashes and one was on the pursuit of another.

Suddenly, Jonah saw a blood stain on one of the trees. With this, Jonah knew he was close by. Taking out his spear, Jonah was ready for battle. His needles were also ready to launch at any moment.

Cling! Cling!

After another five minutes, Jonah heard a couple of metal collision sounds that made him halt his steps. However, he didn’t dare to use his Spiritual Sense. Instead, he tried to conclude their location from the trails and started to move accordingly.

Hiding behind a tree, Jonah was finally able to see two hooded figures clashing against each other. One of them wore azure while the other one wore grey. The grey hooded figure was bleeding from a wound at the waist and was at a disadvantage.

“Damn Owl! Your whole damn family will regret ever standing in my way!” The grey hooded figure howled in a deep husky voice that was filled with endless rage. However, the azure hooded figure was still unfazed as he sent another sword beam toward his opponent.

‘Owl?’ Jonah’s eyes squinted. He didn’t know what was going on so he didn’t make a rash decision. Thus, he used the best system functionality he had for this kind of situation.

‘Hero-Mode, activate!’ As he tried to peer into the azure hooded figure, Jonah’s mind was suddenly filled memories.

“Mama, no!”

The sudden voice was filled with fear and the image of a young woman appeared in Jonah’s mind. The woman had a black, burnt-like skin and a third eye in the middle of her forehead. Jonah’s heart shook as he recognized that unsightly eye. He knew it far too well.

‘System, show me the memories from the last two hours!’

In the split second that Jonah tried to understand the situation in, the battle situation suddenly changed. Giving a deep howl, the spray of black blood came out of the grey hood and suddenly spread around filling the air with a foul stench.

Suddenly, the blood started boiling and increasing in size till it turned into a river that circulated the two figures. Luckily, Jonah was far away from the circle and wasn’t caught inside. However, the azure hooded figure wasn’t as lucky.

Whooosh! Whooosh! Whooosh!

Hundreds of snakes started appearing from within the river and attacked the azure hooded figure from all directions.

“Dammit!” A clear crisp voice sounded as the azure hooded figure flicked his wrist and a wall of azure flames enveloped it. However, the snakes were still multiplying and increasing in number as the moment passed.

On the other side, the grey hooded figure grinned under the hood as sweat rolled down his face. His face was quickly losing color as he looked under tremendous stress.

However, at that moment, something that no one expected happened!