I Stumbled

'Ugh... this stinks!'

While pinching his nose the boy darted away..

A few hours ago, the town mayor asked some people to collect the trash throughout the town. Due to the heavy rain for the past few days the people couldn't throw their garbage on the nearby hill. As it was the beginning of the town festival, most of the residents were busy with their own preparations. Business places such as restaurants, inns, night pavilions and others were getting troubled by the heavy amount of trash on their respective places, as it may cause problems to tourists. Thus, they asked the mayor for help, and in reply the mayor picked some people to get the job done.

As most of the sectors at the town were busy, the mayor picked the common folks located at the far end of the town. Among them was a middle-aged man named Arthur, a common folk. Status was something that could change the fate of an individual in this world, there are different ranks of status in each country. Common folks are ordinary citizens, you could see them almost everywhere compared to those with much higher status individuals. Well, the good thing is, even if they are ordinary individuals they have at least their own rights, as long as they don't offend someone from a powerful family or with high status.

They are usually seen as the lowest rank or status in society, of course there are slaves as well. However, slavery is not a common thing. Slaves are usually sold at auction halls due to their rarity, besides those slaves have certain status within their own country. The procurement of slaves was naturally from wars.

Arthur is a blacksmith from the Land of Ruan, It's a continent near Blueriver Continent, in which the town he currently lives in was located at. His father was a martial arts practitioner back in the days. But, fate brought an unexpected event in his life. He could not sense the spiritual energy.

Spiritual energy or spirit energy is a source of life to all living beings. Animals, humans, trees, plants and other organisms need this particular energy in order to live. It could also be called the Life Force. Inside a mother's womb, a child who is in the process of growing has already been imbued with spirit energy, which grows alongside the child. As the spirit energy stops accumulating (by the time someone grows into an adult) little by little it slowly starts to disperse. This is also the reason why living things have their own Lifespan.

The process of becoming a martial practitioner consists of developing the body to suit the spirit energy. As such, martial practitioners need the talent to perceive the natural spirit energy of the world in order to forge their bodies.

By the time a child reaches 5 years old, they are tested if it's possible for them to sense the spirit energy. Arthur failed in this test, despite the fact that his father was a martial practitioner in the past. Because of that he decided that he will live his life as a normal individual to avoid complications.

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Arthur and the other common citizens were gathered by the mayor to explain the situation. And if they were to comply, the mayor would pay them. The enlistment for the Collector's group named by the mayor started. The mayor walked afterwards. All in all, 24 individuals both young and old participated, as the pay was enticing, consisting of 10 Silver coins.

The currency are usually separated to 100 Copper coins = 1 Silver coin, 1000 Silver coins = 1 Gold coin

After the enlisted individuals parted to start their job, a little boy who was peeking from a window in a nearby house started to run outside. The guards left by the mayor after the enlistment started to tidy up to depart.

'Wait!' A childish voice echoed out.

The guards who were about to leave suddenly stopped. They looked back to see where the voice came from, what they saw was a little child running to them.

"Si.. sir.. sirs!" with a flushed face he called out to them.

"What do you want, kid?" the guard who was responsible for the enlistment asked.

"Can.. Can I join as well?" while calming his breath the boy looked into the guard with his charming puppy eyes.

"Err.." Some of the guards were at a loss for words as they didn't think that a child would want to join the Collector's group. Since they wanted to leave already they decided to accept the child, but they warned him that he could only join if he stuck with the other members, to avoid accidents.

"Your name?" the guard asked as he took out the list of the Collector's group.

"Quinn.. Quinn Einar!" he replied back as he kept staring at the guard.

The guard hurriedly listed his name and didn't ask other questions, he just told him to be careful and not implicate the other members. After everything's said and done, he left a few words "when you finish the job, go look for me at the mayor's place."

Little Quinn smiled and nodded, afterwards he dashed and started to collect the trash throughout the town.

Later he met with the group and told them that he's part of them. As most of the member's weren't surprised, after all, there were at least a few young ones in the group. Arthur was surprised, seeing the little child smiling while walking towards him.

"Father!" with a wide smile on his face Quinn approached his father.

"You little...!" scratching his head with resignation, Arthur helplessly gawked, he knows that this little twerp has always been like this. Doing what he wants, as long as he finds it interesting.

Soon he sighs as he was left with helplessness, he suddenly thought "not teaching him restraint leads to this huh.." since he could no longer prevent Quinn from joining them, he just stroked the little lad's head and told him to always stay near him.

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Back to the present time..

Cleaning out the town's trash would take some time with just their members, but it isn't impossible. Almost half of the town's trash were already collected and now all they needed to do was throw them in the nearby hill. Wooden carts were lined up in the town's eastern gate, you'll even wonder if some huge number of merchants arrived in town. Still, once you walked near it, a disturbing smell would come rampaging in your nose.

The town of Morin is a small town located at the eastern part of the Blueriver Continent. Four gates were situated at the four parts of the town. Its main activity is trading, since its location was also near the Land of Ruan better known as 'Ruan'.

The town's main entrance is located at the northern gates, merchants, traders and others could be normally seen here. While the eastern gate is the place where common folks are. The western gates, most of the rich and people with higher status are living there. The southern gate is commonly known as the Soldier's Fort, you'll know by how it sounds. And at the central part of the town, The mayor's manor is located at, among all of the places, the central manor was the heavily guarded place.

Outside the eastern gate, there's a hill that people would often throw their trash at, known as Endless Hill. There was a legend or rather rumor that goes around town. Some say that it's a portal or door to another world, the burial place of a huge beast, a palace of demons and such. Although those stories are floating around, the people don't know what actually is inside the Endless Hill. As far as they can remember, The hill was used as the town's garbage dumpsite. Because of how deep it was, the people didn't care what was on its end. Instead, they use it as a dumping site, besides, no one would care and there's no owner of the place.

Collecting the town's trash, Quinn found it interesting, some of the trash was composed of metals, broken chairs and tables, food and other materials. He even found some copper coins, which he kept in his pocket.

Maybe due to a child's restless nature, while picking up the trash, he asked various questions to the adults and his father. 'Where does this come from? Is this expensive? Why would they throw this away?' are some of his questions that the adults answered diligently.

Seeing his son looking left and right, asking questions, Arthur felt that his son was craving for knowledge. Since Quinn was born, he was always at the house looking outside beside the window. He always asked him "father! can I go outside?", but as his kid was still too young, he refrained from going outside. But now that Quinn turned 5 years old, he gave him his approval of going out. Since then, Quinn would go out and explore the town everyday, asking people of things he didn't know.

Arthur told him that when you want to know something, ask people politely and don't hesitate to speak what's on your mind. Quinn grew up listening to his father's words. That's why people know him as someone who knows no restraint if he found something that picked his interest.

Aside from showing no restraint, Quinn also grew up listening to tales of martial practitioners. Among the tales that he liked were the tale of his grandfather. Destroying boulders by a punch, or even bending metal, who wouldn't want to be one? Because of his father's story, the first question that popped into his head when he was permitted to go out was "Can I become a martial practitioner too?"

Through asking various individuals in the town, he found it possible as long as he can sense spirit energy. And he has the capital or resources to support himself.

However, his father told him that it's better to be an ordinary individual as the road of becoming a martial practitioner is full of danger. While becoming a martial practitioner is a good thing, what he lacks is someone who could teach him. Due to that he set aside his road of becoming one.

Focusing on his task, Quinn felt that living an ordinary life isn't so bad. Going to the Endless Hill is just a short trip, after dumping the trash to the hill, they descended down and headed to the mayor's manor right away.

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Lining up to the guard, each and everyone was given 10 Silver coins as payment for today's clean-up. Among them was the father and son duo, receiving his money for a job for the first time, Quinn's eye shone with brightness. Rubbing his palm together, you wouldn't think that he was a 5 years old child. As each and everyone were given their money, Quinn bid farewell to his father after he gave 9 Silver coins to him. He said that he will go to the town's archive, to read some books.

While he was walking towards the archive, "what should I do to become like grandpa? I don't mind staying the way I am now, but.. punching walls, bending steel and even becoming rich? ha! I can't just give up like this!" his mind races as different thoughts concerning martial practitioners float in his mind.

"First I need to go to the archive! And see what I can do with these few Copper coins and a Silver coin!" While smiling ear to ear, Quinn ran excitedly towards the town's archive.