Chereads / Am I a Hero in This New World? / Chapter 9 - My Ability

Chapter 9 - My Ability

'I can get used to this.' Mark smirked, however, there was a problem, the height, was well above what Mark could reach. He gazed at the blue body of fur shivering in fear and leaning on the tree for support lest it fall.

"Just how did it get there?" Mark blurted, grabbing his waist on both sides.

Mark was a great climber when he was younger, a marvelous one, he had even wanted to be a gymnast at some point as a kid but it was all a childish dream, his ambitions plummeted and he picked on weight as time passed.

There's a saying that time steals, and Mark's current position is concrete evidence supporting the claim.

He sighed.

The objective was abrupt, he was unsure of the entire mechanics of whatever was buzzing sound into his mind but something pulled him to achieving this one.

'And +2 charisma is no joke, however, it works.'

He stretched his hands forward and cracked his fingers, arched flexing his back muscles, and then he stretched his legs. Once the warm-up was done, he looked ahead and took a deep inhale and exhale.

It's been over 12 years since he last climbed a tree of this caliber.

"Let's see if I still got it."

He got to the foot of the tall tree and saw the mounds that riddled it, it was far from having a fairly smooth surface, and that worked greatly to Mark's advantage.

"+2 Charisma." He repeated in a bid to assure himself that there was something to be gained.

His hands grabbed the little hard protrusions on the tree's surface, and his feet steeply stood on some as well edging and close to slipping away.

Then he climbed and climbed and climbed. Like a lizard on a branch, he got up to his destination, the Ranus was just an arm's length away.

"Come here." He said kindly and stretched his left arm.

The little animal simply looked at him, unmoving from its position.

Mark clicked his tongue, a vein popped and he lunged for the animal, totally disregarding his safety.

He slipped, his limbs free in the wind and it seemed that he would fall when out of reflex and fear, his right arm grabbed the branch on which the ranus was.

He hung there with a strained arm and the pet held by his left flank.

The goblin child below let out a yelp seeing Mark's reckless act.

'Oh fuck.' Mark could feel the weakness in his hand, his fingers beginning to slowly slip.

He looked down at the child.

"I'm going to let your pet go and you'll catch it, do you get me?"

The goblin nodded affirming his statement and went right beneath him with its arms open for the fall.

Mark closed his eyes, and then he opened them and dropped the little beast.

"Yeeee!" It let out as it descended.

Sweat oozed even more from Mark in that moment, his hands tensed and then, the beast fell safely in the hands of its owner.

"Wheww!" He let out in relief, he threw up his other hand and grabbed at the branch, hoisting himself, and after a bit of struggle, he got his left leg on the branch and then he continued to tug along by it till he got to the stem and then found his way back.

As soon as he got to the ground, he fell on his back having fatigue take over him. He took in deep breaths with his chest heaving up and below like it was going to burst at any given second.

In his moment of fatigue, a message came to his mind. He had been expecting it.

Ding*

[You've achieved the objective]

[You've received the reward for completing the objective]

[+2 Charisma]

The messages brought a smile to his face, and he closed his eyes savoring the delight.

He slowly opened them back as he noticed the light above had dimmed, and it was the goblin kid with its pet in hand.

He had forgotten about them.

The little rodent-like creature of wonder hopped from the hands of its owner onto Mark's face, and it gave him a lick, slobbering his face with its sweet-smelling saliva.

It didn't stop there, it continued until the kid took it back.

"I think he likes you, thank you." It said with a smile.

Mark returned the smile with a slobbered face and the goblin child giggled in response and then ran off.

He sat up and let out a sigh. He looked at his fingers which were now reddened and tinged with pain.

"There you are." Meg's voice interrupted his serene environment.

He turned and met the two coming at him.

"You hurt yourself?" She asked.

"Not by a lot, it was for a kid."

The two chose not to talk more about it. There was an awkward silence and then Mark spoke.

"I think it's time I leave and find my way out of this forest."

After seeing the popping messages, there was no way he was going to stay huddled up in a cozy village, and that's if he could.

He had concluded that it didn't seem like others had the popping messages like he did, not the orcs nor the goblins, his conclusion was mainly just on his intuition, but it felt concrete.

He couldn't see into people's minds to see if they received quests like he did, for all he knew, they could just be better at keeping it to themselves than he could, but something had given the unlikeliness of the ability being widespread away.

When Yudar had asked how he could speak their tongue, if he had whatever he believed he had, then Yudar would be aware of the phenomenon of unique skills and come to the conclusion, the fact that he hadn't only meant one thing…

'I'm the only one with this ability.'