Chapter 14:

Jung was whistling a tuneless whistle as he cut through the forested mountains on his way home. He’d been trying to upgrade the “whistling” skill for a while now, ever since he unlocked it two months ago. It leveled up once, but then his improvement stalled. So he’d been practicing ever since.

He was still whistling when something tumbled on his head, bounced off his shoulder and only his quick reflexes made him catch the thing that plopped in his hands.

A woozy little bird shook its cartoonishly big head in bewilderment before looking balefully at Jung. The boy blinked in a mixture of surprise and amazement as he recognized the golden-brown feathers of the same bird he rescued days ago.

"What the hell are you doing back here?" Jung asked incredulously. His eidetic memory made him remember that this was the exact place he found the bird last time and his nest is way up the tree he just passed.

He returned his gaze at the bird then back at the tree and then back to the bird. The bird looked back at him with solemn eyes. Jung narrowed his own eyes. "Did you just practice flying when you saw me because you know I'm going to put you back in your nest?"

"Coo!" the bird said.

"Well, I'm not bringing you back up there, stupid bird!" Jung said angrily. "What am I? your servant? Go back there on your own!"

"Coo!"

Jung snarled and spat and jumped up and down the lonely forest as the bird watched him. But in the end, he already knew what he was going to do. Jung knew that the bird would die if he-- Jung thought about that for a moment and then flipped the bird upside down in a quick motion and then returned her back, - Well, SHE will die if she is not returned to her nest in the tree. It was as simple as that.

Jung muttered to himself before taking a step back preparing to jump the tree.

"Coo!"

Jung hesitated. "What now?"

The bird pointed its beak in the ground. Confused, Jung stared at his feet, then back at the bird. "What are you-" he began.

A new popup broke his train of thought.

Ding!

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Congratulations! You have unlocked the specialist skill, "Animal Whisperer,"

Current level: 0

Needed skill points to upgrade to the next level: 1

Remaining Skill Points: 9

Jung fixed his stony gaze at the bird. "I'm not going to spend my precious skill point on your sorry ass just so I can understand you."

The bird bobbed her head again, almost pecking at Jung's palm. Then she stared back at him. Jung couldn’t help noticing that the bird could see now and her eyes were enormous.

And expressive as hell.

With a groan, Jung reopened his status screen and went to his newest skill. Jung gritted his teeth as he spent the necessary points to activate “Animal Whisperer.”

Congratulations,

You have activated the specialist skill, "Animal Whisperer."

-You have an innate talent to understand animals. The level of understanding is based on the size and order of complexity of the targeted animal's brain capacity.

-The higher the level of the skill gives you the higher the chance of influencing specific animals and giving them basic commands.

Current level: 1

Needed skill points to upgrade to the next level: 2

Remaining Skill Points: 8

Jung finally comprehended what the foolish bird was trying to express. It wasn't a message at all. It's more like an impression, a somewhat stronger emotion that popped to the bird's mind's surface. He got down on his knees and began brushing the ground's covered leaves, realizing that the dirt was filled with tiny living forms, including insects... as well as earthworms. Jung turned to the bird who looked back at him.

Food, the bird projected once more.

Jung sighed. He placed the bird on the ground and it proceeded to happily tap the ground with its beak. She started gulping down a particularly fat earthworm, then looked at Jung for a moment. A sense of gratitude flashes by in her mind, followed quickly by a disappointment that her minion is so dumb and slow. The bird’s mind shrugs, there will be time enough to train the idiot to become better, and then she continues downing a few more tasty morsels in the dirt.

When she is just scratching the ground with her clawed feet like a freaking chicken, Jung knew she had enough and then he carried her back again. Fully secured in his pocket, Jung took a step back and then ran the length of the tree, caught a strong branch, and with a single arm, used the momentum to vault further upward. The arduous climb is still hard for the little boy, but somehow, Jung finds the entire ordeal far more bearable than the last time. He still needed to exert a lot of effort but he can feel the enormous energy and will that he invested last time was remarkably absent today. It was as if his entire body had adapted to climbing and was now doing something familiar to it and making sure it did not spend the excess energy he wasted the last time. It took some time but he finally reached the nest. Once he is in the nest, Jung brought the twitting bird back to her home.

"Now stay there!" Jung said before harrumphing. He made sure the cute little bird did just that and actually watched the bird for a while before he stomped out of the forest himself.

Not even the unexpected and simultaneous upgrade to his jumping and climbing skill assuages his annoyance.

He also received another unlocked skill:

Congratulations!

You have unlocked the specialist skill, “Parkour.”

Requirements: Endurance 1, skill “Jumping,” lvl 1, and “Climbing” lvl 2.

Current level: 0

Needed skill points to upgrade to the next level: 1

Remaining Skill Points: 8

Jung didn’t bother to upgrade that skill. For now.

“I’ll never do this again!” the young boy shouted into the forest. He continued muttering about the lost time he could have used to get home as he started walking away from the nest. He didn’t notice when the bird followed his movement with her hearing as Jung muttered all the way home, before flopping back to her nest with a satisfied "Coo!"

Little did Jung know back then that it would become a daily routine for him to feed the bird every time he came back this path on his way home and he would be forced to upgrade the parkour skill with his limited points.