Chapter 23:

Jung's tongue was showing on one side of his lips as he carefully wraps the sticks together with long grass. Slowly, his little open cage for his pet owl took shape as he sat there with the scattered materials he scavenged in the forest.

Eventually, The nine years and 9 months old boy finished the small wooden box house for his pet and he smiled in triumph. He proudly showed the small shelter to the owl perched in a nearby window. The owl looked at it for a moment. The owl looked haughtily unimpressed.

But Jung didn't mind. He still feels a sense of accomplishment from his crude work, simply because he received a message from the system because of it.

Congratulations! You have unlocked the specialist skill “Wood Sculpting.” The skill gives you the necessary understanding of wood and how to use it to make something else.

Requirements: Strength 1 Perception 1, Wisdom 1 (All requirements met)

Current level: 0

Needed skill points to upgrade to the next level: 1

Remaining Skill Points: 1

Jung barely read it as he swiped the info away from his face and continued his work. He placed the small caged in a nearby tree using nails and metal wire and then urged the bird to try out her new home.

Jung could swear the owl sighed in exasperation before flying towards her new apartment. Jung lovingly placed a few shrubs inside the birdcage to form a makeshift nest but didn't go overboard since he felt the owl would rather like to decorate her own home.

This is the 3rd home Jung made for the bird. Bongcha simply grew very fast and Jung simply didn t feel that she will be comfortable with her previous home, so he build her a bigger one every time.

The owl landed in the small opening. She tapped the nest with her beak and walked around the nest in a circle several times like a dog before settling right in the middle of the nest.

Jung smiled when the owl judged his work adequate. Before he could say something else, the owl dismissed him and proceeded to prim itself. Sighing, Jung left his pet alone.

It took Jung more than a year before he figured out that his pet was in fact an owl. And the only reason why he knows this is because he stumbled upon it in a bird classification book back in the school library.

More specifically, the owl is classified as a Korean Eagle-owl. It is unique from other birds because of its huge eyes and is distinctive from other owls because of its ear-like appendage. But to Jung, what differentiates the damn thing from other birds is its haughtiness and self-entitlement. Despite the bird’s behavior, Jung and his pet sort off made an arrangement and although it didn't satisfy both parties, it is something they can both live with.

Bongcha grew up into a bird twice the size of her contemporaries mainly because, despite all of Jung's griping, the bird was well fed and cared for. Also, his unusual skill called "Animal whisperer" plus his animal husbandry skill have a positive effect on the animal Jung cared for by making them more resistant to the weather, diseases, and even other animals and insects that are not good for the owl. So the bird grew to its full potential and is now a massive and beautiful example of her kind.

With no danger around it since the humans protected her from bigger animal hunters, the owl became the apex predator in her little domain. The occasional rats and little birds wandering in her territory became prey and something she snacked on. Bongcha is intelligent enough however to understand that the chickens are under the human's protection and therefore are not prey. It matters not, since Bongcha is normally sated because of the effort of her servant boy and she has enough other prey to play with to hone her hunting skills.

*****

Walking out of the barn, Jung was just in time to see one of the co-op’s beat up pickup truck driving towards him, following the muddy dirt road towards their isolated home. The truck parked next to their house and Jung hurried over.

His father waved to him from the passenger seat. Jung happily waved back, realizing that today was the day they would receive their four sacks of rice from the government as their share for his father's harvest that year. His father receives four sacks as the nominal leader of the farming cooperative, while the majority of the members receive two sacks each.

Jung greeted the driver, one of the younger farmers, as the truck arrived. His name is Young-Ho, an 18 years old lad that graduated from Jung’s school several years earlier. Since he didn’t have any connection and his grades are just average, everyone knew, including the young lad, that he is destined to become a farmer like his father and his father before him. Like every new member of the co-op, Jung took it upon himself to welcome the new guy to the organization and gave him a slight tour of the place despite Young-ho being familiar with everything already. Jung is not the only child born in the farm life of Korea. Jung’s happy optimism and great demeanor at least lessened the lad’s miserable depression towards his fate.

After consulting with his father, Jung pinpointed their rice and began carrying it inside the house. Jung is been doing this for three years now, and despite being nine years old, Jung was used to carrying heavy sacks on his back without complaint.

Nonetheless, his father's guilt-filled gaze followed him all the way to the kitchen. Hyusil ignored Young-Ho’s widening eyes of amazement when the little kid carried the sack almost as big as him inside without any help. Hyusil wishes he didn't have to rely on his far too young son for physical labor, but his back is deteriorating with each passing winter.

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Jung didn't notice the concerned look from his father, and if he did, he wouldn't resent it. Just last month, Jung added a strength attribute to his stats and the weight of the sack barely bothered him anymore at this point. Furthermore, it is still a good source of XP, which gave Jung a hint, and he began carrying a lot of heavy things around the house just to get more experience points.

When the last sack is out of the truck, Jung wasn’t even winded. Jung’s father didn’t bother to go inside. He and the young driver had to go again since they are delivering the sacks of rice to every farmers of the cooperative. Hyusil messed Jung’s hair affectionately and told him he is going to be late and to tell his mother not to worry herself too much. Jung waved at the departing truck and then he was alone again in the house.

Jung grunted as he lifted the sack of rice on one shoulder and slowly marched himself towards the back kitchen where they store their grain. The last one is sent to the rice bin they held in the “dining room” part of the house.

The slight increase in bubble experience points that floats on top of his head is always welcome but by now, it was nothing new to Jung. When he shoved the last sack inside the small corner of the kitchen, his task was finally done. He stretched his back to one side and then the other while hearing the satisfying pop of his bones.

Now that it is his rest day from school, he has some time to wash his daily clothes and generally help out in the house. Jung is worried at his mother's increasingly strained face every time she works and he decided to take more and more of her burden.

But Jung has to do it with subtlety or his mother will resist. His mother didn’t like feeling helpless so Jung needed to be creative when he grabbed the work from his mom. It is a delicate balance of charm and stubborn insistence.

Jung began cleaning the wooden floor of the house using the husk of a coconut called coir by manually scrubbing the dried fiber back and forth using only his foot. It was a lot of work but it kept the wood shiny, at least for a while, and protected from the elements. When he finished cleaning the floor, he decided to do some laundry outside.

Jung was bringing out the dirty clothes when something caught his peripheral vision. Jung frowned at this.

Every now and then, a new window popped out in front of him to give him little “quests.” There are two kinds of quests. One is a daily quest that requested some form of basic mental or physical challenge. It is a boring series of repetittive missions but Jung did them nevertheless.

His stubbornness forced him to do the task 100% percent of the time and he received additional XP points as his reward. The XP gave him anywhere from 50 to 200 XP points a day. It wasn’t much but it didn’t deter Jung from accomplishing them every time now that he can read. He still remember the bite of electrical discharge that he receive as punishment for not doing the quest.

The second kind of quest is more personal and usually asked him to do a variety of tasks the system considered important at the time. How or why the system generates them, Jung has no idea. The tasks are anywhere from fixing his bed to eating his vegetables.

But he already finished his quests for the day and yet here is another quest for him to finish. Based on his experiences with the system, this is something unusual.

This time the color of the screen panel was green and Jung immediately knew the quest was unique. A rare quest.

Chain Quest: Forest bounty 1

Find the mysterious object within the designated area before the end of the day.

Reward:

-10,000 XP points

-10 Skill points

The announcement made Jung's eyes blink a few times. This is the first time he saw a reward this generous from the system. Too generous, Jung thought suspiciously. Whatever it is, the system wants him to take the quest and deal with it badly enough that it is offering something good.

Jung thoughtfully accepted the quest, then, he closed his status screen.

Not far away into the woods was a highlighted circular area with a radius of probably about 20 meters. Jung gulped. That was a lot of areas to cover. Even so, he didn’t hesitate and started looking. What he was looking for he didn’t know but he was sure that when he sees it, he will know.

He climbed a few sturdy trees that are within the area, and even go as far as start digging a few inches in the ground just to check. He checked a bird’s nest and even a known squirrel’s hiding spot but there was nothing out of the ordinary. But Jung wasn’t discouraged. He knew that with his systematic search grid, he will eventually find it sooner or later. He wasn’t sure if he is 7 or 8 years old, but during that time, he unlocked a specialist skill called “Tracking,” and although it is still in level 1, it is already very useful to him. He is a bit concerned about the laundry he left behind though and he wanted to hurry. In his second hour of search, he finally found what he was looking for.

Behind some thick bushes was a plant that the system highlighted in his vision in a colorful gold and blue hue, when he gets nearer. He leaned down to the ground level, brushed the shrubs away and inspected it with his naked eyes.

Congratulations! You have found a mystery plant!

You received 10000 XP points!

You received 10 skill points!

Chain Quest: Forest Bounty 2

Try and grow more plants of this same species. Do not let the plant die until you can reproduce it for another ten times.

Duration: 5 years.

Reward:

-45,000 XP points

-100 Skill points

-5 Attribute points

-1 Evolution point

Jung stared at the message incredulously. Five freaking years?! 45 thousand XP points? 100 freaking Skill points?! What the hell is this?!

He reread the message to ensure he hasn't misunderstood it, but it was as simple as it said. Keep this particular flower specie alive and thriving. Don’t let its kind die out. Hopefully, his gardening skills will suffice. But damn, 100 skill points?! Not to mention the attribute and evolution points. He couldn't stop grinning to himself because he's already thinking about where he'll put all of his points. He then let out a deep sigh. He had no idea if there would be a future stumbling block to the mission. This can't be that easy. In any case, he must do his best to keep the flower alive one day at a time. Only after he is comfortable with the plant's characteristics will he attempt to seed it. Shaking his head, he made a mental note of the quest and then dismissed it.

He continue reading the next prompt he received.

Congratulations! You leveled up!

Current level: 9

-You received 5 Skill Points (SP)

Current XP: 46,768

Total XP needed for the next level up: 57,715

Jung nodded to himself. With this, he just received 15 skill points in one go. Not bad for a day’s work. I wonder what skills I should upgrade with this? He shook his head and concentrated, I should day dream in my own time. For now, I should focus. My task is not yet over. I should lay down the ground work for the next quest since the next quest is even bigger. Maybe he should do his best and make sure he complete that as well.

Jung plucked all the surrounding weeds around the plant before carefully hiding it back again from the bushes. He resolved to uproot the plant tomorrow and placed it somewhere safer with more sunlight and better ground. He couldn’t do it now since the sun is retiring for the day and the light is getting dimmer. Meanwhile, he placed several dead branches in a tripod formation around the plant to keep it relatively safe and protected. Then he rearranges the bushes once more to both hide and give it a bit more of sunlight. He also uprooted the bigger vines, weeds and bushes of plants around the unique plant to give it less competition for the minerals of the soil.

Jung hee stretched his aching muscles and double-checked his work, giving it a thorough once-over. He nodded satisfied, after cleaning his hands behind his pants. He then walked back to his house. He was just hoping the chickens didn't ruin the clothes in the laundry basket or he'd get an earful from his mother later.

“Time to do the laundry!” he said as he hurried back to his house.