Jung stomped into the barn next to their house and glared at the giant owl on their ceiling.

Then he showed the bird a dead rat in his hand. "Do you see this?" he said to the bird, who just hooted at him in a bored way. "It's a rat! The whole barn is infested with the damn thing! What good are you if you can’t even control the rat population in your own territory?" Jung said to his pet in an exasperated voice. "I think I spoil you too much, and you’re now too fat to hunt for yourself!"

The owl squawk in an annoyed protest and flapped its wings. "Oh? You wanna go? I'm ready for you! Come on!" Jung said raising his little fist and punching the air a few times. Jung could swear the owl just rolled its eyes at him.

"Yeah! That's what I thought. Do your job, bird!"

Jung turned in satisfied huffed as he put the stupid bird in his place before marching back to the house and continuing his general cleaning. The bird just sighed behind his back and hooted once more when the tranquility of the barn returned to her.

*****

Jung stared absently outside, still muttering to himself, and with his superior vision, he can clearly see the colorful plant near the edge of his garden and the space he had set aside for the seedlings.

Jung spent an entire month researching the plant and conducting safe but informative tests on it. Only after he was comfortable with the flower's characteristics did he begin tampering with it in order to grow more of it. It wasn’t easy. For an entire year, the plant almost died several times. Its petals and flower drooped a few times. There were also occasions when some of its petals simply fell off without reason. The worst came when the entire flower itself dried up and then fell from the plant. Jung was sure the plant was dead, but after 2 weeks, a new bud popped out, and Jung did everything in his power to keep it alive.

Jung was finally able to extract seeds from the plant, which he carefully cared for in the nursery claypot. He believes he will be able to replant them in the field he provided using specialized top soil he carefully prepared within several months or so, and with that he hopes to complete the special quest.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Meanwhile, he is scrubbing the cobwebs in one corner of the main room of the house. He put it off because at 11, he is still small and his mother did not want him climbing the shelves and possibly hurting himself. But now that his mother is in town, he thought he might as well clean it while he was alone.

His climbing and acrobatic skills are helping him a lot in this task, and he had a smile on his face when, after he finished his chore, the system awarded him with another level up in his climbing skills. Instantly, he could feel the new knowledge burned into his mind, and he felt he could climb almost anything. Those rickety cabinets are nothing compared to the slippery branches of the trees he climbed to feed the damn bird. Also, the system subtlety changes certain aspects of his body, like making him leaner and causing calluses in his hand’s inner skin.

He was about to cook when he realized that they didn’t have any pepper left. Also, they needed chili, garlic and a few other ingredients. He grabbed an old, worn-out basket and jogged outside to his garden again. The basket wasn’t much, but it was his mother’s favorite, and Jung used it lovingly. Jung didn’t calculate it, but the garden saved them untold expenses throughout the years that would otherwise dip into their expenses that his family could not afford. Jung plucked the necessary ingredients as he whistled a tune.

Once the food he is cooking is already simmering, Jung went outside to grab more water from the nearby river. At the age of eleven, Jung’s slight body might not look like it, since he is still struggling from mild malnutrition and he is still physically small, but it does not show the underlying engine inside of him. His daily trip in the mountains to go to school made his body tight and strong. The trek was originally 2 hours by walking, but with his skill in walking, which is already level 6, cut the time down considerably to 65 minutes by normal walk and 40 minutes if he is in a hurry. If he ran all the way from home to school, Jung substantially cut the time to barely 20 minutes if he ran at his top speed.

Of course, his running skill is not the only thing that helps him here. Deep inside of him, he just knew that the combinations of skills that he accumulated throughout the years are working in perfect harmony to help him save time.

He can feel his acrobatics, his parkour, and his balance skills are all injecting something in himself to smoothen his ride. Also in a much more minor way, his skills in seeing, feeling, listening, and, of course, breathing are helping him out so much that when he does arrive in town, he is barely winded.

Jung filled his two plastic jugs with cool water and then jogged back home. He then had to boil the water before placing it in the clay water container in the kitchen. Later, he will need to grab more water to be used outside for bathing and washing.

He is setting the jjigae (a korean stew) in the table when he heard Bongcha hooting in the barn. Jung looked outside, and he saw his mother a few miles away, walking slowly towards the house. Jung finished fixing the table and ran outside to meet his mother.

Jung frowned when he met her. His mother is getting frailer every day and her trek obviously took a lot out of her. Jung didn't take no for an answer when he grabbed the bought goods his mother is carrying. Then he led her back home.