Chapter 8: 8. A bird monster
"System store?" Kai muttered. His little hands kept moving, touching the system screen in front of him.
Since Keith was gone, Kai wanted to have a picnic outside, under the willow tree and the wisteria tree, which were in full bloom with vibrant purple flowers.
Those two large trees were absolutely beautiful, standing by the lake. They made Kaileon want to have a picnic there.
He spread out a mat and brought a wicker basket filled with snacks and drinks he’d bought from the supermarket system.
While relaxing and watching the swans play, he checked his supermarket system and found a new menu there: the system store.
After opening that menu, he saw it contained various skills he could purchase. However, he didn’t buy them with money, but by completing specific missions.
For example, to obtain a Level B cooking skill, Kaileon had to feed animals or other creatures in need ten times.
"That seems easy—there are plenty of swans. Should I feed them? By the way, where did these swans come from?" Kai muttered.
He bought some swan feed from the supermarket system, then approached the swans.
After placing the food container and pouring in the feed, the swans flocked over to him and began eating.
"Hold on, everyone, I’ve got plenty! Hahaha!"
Kai found the swans incredibly cute as they begged him for food.
Besides the geese, several other animals also approached him. Like squirrels, birds...
What surprised Kai was that the animals were very polite to him. Even though they knew Kai was picnicking with food, none of them approached him beforehand or snatched food from him.
They seemed to let Kai picnic in peace. They also knew when Kai said he was done feeding them. So they all went back.
The boy sat back down on his mat, then checked his system screen to see if he’d successfully obtained the cooking skill—oh! Success.
[You have fed thirty living creatures, so you are entitled to an A-rank cooking skill!]
[Complete other missions and receive exciting rewards from the system!]
A wide smile lit up the boy’s face. He immediately began sorting through which skills he wanted to acquire.
"Elemental magic skill? What’s that?" Kaileon muttered.
[The Elemental Magic Skill allows you to learn elemental magic]
[Elemental magic itself comes in various types, such as earth, water, air, fire, light, and darkness]
[Once you obtain an elemental magic skill, the system will determine which element suits you best]
After learning about elemental magic skills, Kai decided to tackle his mission.
That is, to fight a single monster.
A monster?
[There’s a monster nearby—do you want to—]
"No! I’ll wait for Keith to handle that mission. Period!"
[But there are children being attacked by monsters. Don’t you want to help them?]
Kai closed his eyes, gathered his thoughts, and tried to ignore the system’s prompt. Helping others is good, but if he’s forced to help others when he himself needs help more... Kaileon wouldn’t do that. Let Kaiden be the one to do that back then, but not now.
However, even though he tried hard to ignore it, if the situation insisted on involving him, what could he do?
Suddenly, two children were running toward Kai.
The two boys were still children, just like Kaileon, and Kaileon thought they were around the same age.
Of course, Kai was startled at that moment; he was already preparing to climb a willow or wisteria tree when he saw a large bird chasing after the two boys.
But he failed to climb as the two boys instead approached him, calling out to him.
"Big brother! Big brother, help me!"
Big brother, did they say?
Could it be that the boy in the blue shirt is the Duchess’s son...
Kai didn’t have time to respond as the bird got closer. Not knowing what to do, Kai threw a piece of bread from his basket at the bird.
It worked! The bird stopped and chose to eat the bread.
Since the bird was distracted, Kai quickly grabbed a rock and threw it at the bird.
Luckily, Kai still knew how to aim accurately.
The rock hit the bird squarely on the head, and it collapsed.
The two boys immediately cheered at the sight of the large bird falling.
[Congratulations! This is your first hunt! Slaughter the bird right away, and you’ll gain an elemental magic skill!]
Kaileon’s pale face broke into a wide smile.
"I just need to slaughter it..."
"Big brother! Please forgive us!"
Kai snapped out of his daze when the two boys in front of him suddenly knelt before him, gazing up at him with incredibly adorable expressions.
Kai cleared his throat briefly, then asked, "I’m fine with it, but... what’s your name again? I forgot."
Hearing that question from Kaileon, the blue-clad child’s eyes welled up with tears, but he quickly answered.
"I’m Justine! Your only younger brother! Why did you forget me? I’m the one who usually comes here to bring you food!" After saying that, Justine burst into loud sobs.
Paying no mind to Justine’s dramatic outburst, the other boy stood up and shook Kaileon’s hand.
"I’m Luca! Luca Maustrine, your cousin, or the second son of Marquis Maustrine... this is our first meeting, nice to meet you! Justine and I came here to bring you some fruit. I brought rambutan and bananas from my region to share with you, but I’m sorry... the birds ate the fruit!" Luca, who had been acting all tough, suddenly burst into tears, crying along with Justine.
Kaileon, who saw all of this, laughed. Even though they were similar in height, it was clear that the two kids were still just kids.
Kaileon then approached his basket and took out two bottles of cold banana-flavored milk.
"Stop crying and drink this. Wait here while I kill that bird, and sit quietly."
The two kids fell silent after receiving the milk bottles. They were confused by the bottles until Kai opened them for them and gave them straws to drink from.
The two kids then sat quietly on the carpet.
Meanwhile, Kaileon approached the bird while holding a sharp knife.
Holding a knife like that reminded him of his old job: killing people.
Well, not all of them were done with a knife, but still.
That sense of guilt was still there.
However, what Kai was facing at that moment was a monster, not a human.
"Keith said the bird monster is edible," he muttered.
Kai then slaughtered it and drained its blood. It wasn’t easy because the bird was enormous. His clothes even got stained with the bird’s blood.
Luckily, he had experience slaughtering chickens and goats before.
But it was all worth it when he heard the system’s announcement.
[You have successfully completed the mission; you are entitled to an elemental magic skill!]
[The system will soon determine which element suits you]
[This process will take at least one day]
"Goodness, young master!"
Kai turned around upon hearing Keith’s voice. At first, he smiled and couldn’t wait to tell Keith that he had just defeated the bird monster, but his smile faded when he saw his father was there too.
"Dad!" Justine ran to hug her father.
