The Hero System - Chapter 7

“Leo, I’m heading home,” Jonah told Leo as he picked the bag and left. Leo looked like he wanted to say something but refrained.

When Jonah reached home, he put his bag under the table and sat cross-legged. He wanted to look at his new skill and wanted to figure a way to control his spiritual energy.

[Evade. Level 1: Increase agility by 10% when dodging. Level up: 18 intelligence and 18 agility.]

Jonah was dumbstruck. He got this skill because he dodged the bullet? He didn’t know he can create skills!

This Evade was a really useful skill. With this skill-creating function, Jonah can just create skills if he trained! This way, he can probably create a skill to control spiritual energy.

With this, Jonah sat there trying to feel his energy. Only after one hour of focus did he get a good picture of his energy. When Jonah felt the energy leaking out of his body, he understood why the brown-haired youth suspected him.

Jonah was leaking energy all over the place. Before, he thought the skill was an on-off thing, so he just withdrew his energy and ignored it.

After sensing his energy, Jonah started to try to surpass and compress it into his body. However, when he did that, he felt like thousands of needles piercing his skin. Jonah almost screamed and hurriedly stopped.

‘This is more difficult than I imagined How am I supposed to surpass it?’ Jonah was lost. He didn’t understand what this energy was and had no way to control it.

He decided to spread his energy slowly and observe where it comes out from. This way, maybe he can figure out how to guide it back.

After an hour of observation, Jonah finally knew where his spiritual energy comes out from. It came out from 7 different spots. Head, chest, belly button, palms, and feet.

Since Jonah couldn’t control his spiritual energy to divide it, he had to choose only one point and shove everything into it. He decided to use his bellybutton. After shoving only a bit to test it out, Jonah found that it gave off a relaxing feeling.

Thus, Jonah kept shoving energy into it. After three hours of hard work, he finally surpassed his energy.

[Ding! Spirit attribute increased by 1.]

[Ding! A new technique has been created. Basic Spirit Cultivation Technique.]

[Ding! A new technique has been created. Basic Spirit Control Technique.]

Jonah heard the three notifications and couldn’t believe his ears. Did he just gain two techniques plus a spirit point?

‘Wait, I thought I was making skills,’ Jonah was confused. He hurriedly opened the Stats menu to check the changed that happened to him. He found that his Spirit has become 19, but no other changes. He decided to check the skill menu. However, he found that the Skills Menu changed. It was now called Skills and Techniques.

When Jonah saw this, he knew his hypothesis was correct. The system can evolve. The first time he used it, he didn’t know about techniques. The skills can’t be considered the same. Since he knew things like Evade which is simply dodging. So Jonah knew that the system will evolve even more in the future.

[Spiritual Sense. Level 1.]

[Evade. Level 1.]

[Basic Spirit Cultivation Technique. Stage (Beginner).]

[Basic Spirit Control Technique. Stage (Beginner).]

Jonah then tried to focus his gaze on the Spirit Cultivation and Control Techniques. Two panels with information appeared.

[Basic Spirit Cultivation Technique: There are many spiritual energy cultivation techniques under the heaven. However, the most basic one is to fill your spirit points with the spiritual energy around you.]

[Basic Spirit Control Technique: Controlling your spiritual energy by imagining it as a part of your body.]

‘So spirit can actually be cultivated like that? Holy shit I’ve struck gold while looking for silver!’ Jonah was excited.

‘System, what are these stages?’

[The user mastery of the technique. The more mastery, the more the effectiveness. There are five stages. They’re Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Peak, and Perfection.]

‘Then what’s the difference between techniques and skills?’

[Skills are actions that the user gets familiar with. It allows the user to perform actions that he normally couldn’t do. For example, spiritual sense. However, techniques are ways to improve the user’s body and his control over his strength.]

‘Damn, somehow this became more and more game-like So I can increase my spirit with this?’ Jonah was more and more excited.

‘The world has more mysteries than I originally thought’ Jonah felt his fear grow the more he knew. In the two weeks, he almost died twice. And in both cases, this spiritual energy had something to do with it. He wondered if he can keep his peaceful life from now on.

“Jonah, I’m home.” His mother came back from work. Before Jonah realized it, he spent over five hours working on his technique. Still, it was worth it.

When Jonah looked at his mother, even though she looked older, she still had those vigorous eyes. She had a goal in mind. Which is to provide a better life for him. Jonah also felt the same toward her. He decided to grow stronger so that he can protect her from the mysteries of this world.

Jonah had his dinner and went to sleep. The next morning, he woke up at five. Since he had nothing to do, he decided to cultivate. He sat down cross-legged and began to pour the energy into his bellybutton. However, even after two hours of cultivating, his spirit didn’t budge. Even though the process was smoother and his spiritual energy condensed more, he still couldn’t manage to raise his spirit.

‘System? What’s going on?’

[The effectiveness of the technique decreases as user’s spirit advances.]

‘So that how it is’ Jonah now understood why the technique had different mastery levels. It seems faster for him to level up or gain upgrade points.

When he levels up, he gains upgrade points. When he does a heroic act, he gains experience points. He can also use the challenges to gain some experience points.

The system said that the Quests also offers these points. However, he didn’t receive any until now. It seems that Jonah needs to find some ways to do heroic acts or help others.

Jonah made breakfast and woke up his mother before going to school.

On the way, Jonah planned his next course of actions. Frist of all, he needs to understand spiritual energy from Ren. Second, he needs to find ways to increase his strength. Third, he needs to gain money.

‘System, do the rewards include money?’

[No. But the user can sell his items.]

Jonah turned down the idea immediately. The system’s items were unique. He needs them for himself. Plus, they might bring him a disaster. And the system being unable to give money was quite normal. After all, how can the system produce money authorized by the government?

At lunch break, Jonah knocked on the wooden door. This was the office he met Ren in yesterday. Jonah felt like after he walks out of this door, his world would change.

“Come in.” Ren opened the door with a smile.

Jonah walked in and sat in the same place he sat in yesterday.

“You how did you control your energy?” Ren said with a shocked expression. She started to doubt if this youth was someone from the other sects.

“Yesterday, I kept trying to surpass my energy. However, it hurt me when I tried to surpass it through my skin. So I kept trying to figure out how to do it, and I somehow managed.” Jonah said the truth.

Ren looked at Jonah’s eyes and knew he wasn’t lying. He would have died yesterday because of his leaking energy. That’s why he wouldn’t have faked it. That mean this youth learned how to control his energy in one night?

‘Did I actually stumble upon a genius that even our sect hasn’t seen before?’ Ren wondered.

“Good job. Then, I wouldn’t need to teach you anything.” Ren said with a smile. Although she wasn’t obliged to teach him, she couldn’t let him walk around with his energy leaking. But now, she didn’t need to.

“Before we go into details, I think I should give you a brief introduction,” Ren said as she sat down and picked up her cup.

“Okay.” Jonah nodded.

“Tens of thousands of years ago, the world wasn’t like we know it now. At that time, everyone could utilize spiritual energy. There were also many more species, intelligent ones too.” Ren said with a serious expression.

“Intelligent ones? Then what happened?”

“The world deformed. Spatial deformation happened, and the world got separated into two. You can call it a parallel universe you can call it another dimension it’s still the same. We have two different worlds that overlap each other. And we got separated from other beings.”

‘Okay, it seems this girl is crazy?’

“I’m not lying.” Ren smiled helplessly.

“Then, what did you mean ‘overlap’?”

“This overlap caused a certain phenomenon We call it Dimensional Portal.”

“What is that?”

“It’s a spatial tunnel that connects the two worlds. Humans can travel through it, and so can the beings on the other side.”

“This other world really exists?”

“Yes. We call it Terra.”

Hey guys. Changed Gaia to Terra, because Gaia is more like a term for Earth as an organism. Please forgive the inconvenience.