Chapter 2: A New Start

  "Please fill out this form"

It has been half a year since Roderick died on the battlefield. I tried to leave the army but the general didn't let me. Instead, I was given the offer of retirement in exchange for doing one last job.

That was about three months ago. I joined the army at 15 and left it ten years later. I wouldn't say I regretted joining the army. I met many people like Roderick. I learnt many things.

"Sir?" The short black haired lady brought me back to reality with her words as she stretched out his hands with a piece of paper.

As I took it, I started to read it first. Name, age, class and some other things. I don't know who gave me my name. I was taken in by an orphanage when I was a newborn. The priest who took care of me, told me my name was written on a piece of paper that I was holding in my hand back then.

Nevertheless I didn't want to use that name anymore. I just wanted to leave the life I had. I wanted to start anew. I handed back the paper to the receptionist lady after I filled out the paper with necessary information while changing things here and there.

"Sir William, a swordsman, is that right? Here is your identification card, drop your blood on it and don't lose it."

The lady then gave me a piece of copper that had basically nothing written or engraved on it. Even after seeing that I made a small cut on my index finger with my thumb's nail and dropped some blood in it.

Only after that I understood why a piece of copper was so precious. Just as the blood dropped on the copper, some runic symbols appeared on them.

The second regiment was mostly in charge of reconnaissance and investigation. As a result of going through countless research and books, I picked up some knowledge about runic symbols.

Those symbols on the copper token represented my identity.

"You are now registered as a copper rank adventurer." 

"Copper?"

"Sir William," she began, "in the adventurers' guild, we have several ranks that signify your experience and capabilities. Let me briefly explain them to you."

"First, we have Copper rank, which is where you currently stand. It's the starting point for all new adventurers. As you take on missions and gain experience, you'll have the opportunity to advance to higher ranks. As you gain more achievement and experience, you will be eligible to go to iron rank, silver rank, gold rank, platinum rank, diamond rank accordingly."

"So how do I take on these missions?"

"You can go to the notice board and choose one that fits your rank"

I proceeded towards the notice board as I left the counter.

Thud!

Suddenly someone bumped into my body from behind. Looking down, I found that it was a pink haired woman with leather armor messaging her head. Beside her was a broken vial of potion. Judging from the color, it was probably a healing potion of some sorts.

Her hair was short, her eyes were glaring at me like she could eat me at any moment.

"Where the hell were you looking at?"

It was clearly her fault yet no one around me tried to refute her words. Looking closely, I understood why. She had a silver tag hanging around from her neck with runic symbols like mine. Until now, I have seen only copper and iron tokens in this building. 

As the woman stood up I found out she was quite tall. Her height was a bit lower than mine. "You broke my healing potion !!? DId you know how much I paid for those???"

She started shouting as she kept poking my chest. "What are you? A copper rank?" She looked at the token I was holding in my left hand. "Can a copper like you even afford something like that??"

"Miss Bell, he just joined today, he didn't mean to do that" The receptionist tried to cover for me as people kept staring at us. 

Sigh. Just when I didn't want any attention. I took out a potion from my subspace pocket that was fitted under my black trench coat that I was wearing.

As I stretched my hand with the potion in it as the woman called Bell kept staring at me with a fiery look. "You can have mine"

She snatched the potions from my hand at an incredible speed and held it close to her face to inspect it. "The colors are different"

While her potion was yellow in color, mine was more like blue.

"Well," I began, "the colors differ due to the unique ingredients used in the brewing process. But I'm sure you can sense a substantial amount of mana within it, can't you?"

Her eyes narrowed at my words. "If this turns out to be a scam I will find you and kill you, Be aware"

Soon she went to the counter and handed over a pouch to the receptionist. I then made my way to the mission board. 

The board mostly contained copper and iron rank quests. Given the location of this place I guess that was to be expected. 

Vasura, one of my soldiers, always boasted about his time as an adventurer before he enrolled in the army. He said he was a gold rank adventurer before. I used to hear stories from him from time to time. 

After I officially left the army, I had no idea what to do. So, taking Vasura's advice I came here, the town of Barbaros. It is said that most of the adventurers' lives begin here as this town was the gathering of lower rank adventurers.

Most of the quests on the board were about either monster subjugation or collecting herbs. As for the monsters to be subjugated, it was mostly goblins.

I looked at each of them carefully. I decided to avoid the monster subjugation quest and pick the herb collecting one. 'I should try something new' was what I thought. I picked the notice from the board and submitted it to the counter. The receptionist took my token and did some magic on it. 

Then I left the town. Vasura said that no quests should be taken lightly no matter how simple it seemed. As for my adventure gear, I had a black trench coat with light armor inside. As for leggings, I went with light pants with protection for my knees and shins. I also had a big long boot for better movement. 

As for my weapon, I decided to not use my twin swords but a single curved single edged blade. I kept it on my left side tied with my pants belt.

As for my hands, I covered it with bandages all the way up to my elbows. I used to get my hands swollen and cut a lot when I first entered the army. My habit from them still stuck with me.

I set foot outside the city gate after showing the guards my identification. The herb I am looking for is the Moonflower. It's supposed to grow near a water source. Since there are no rivers around this town I should go to the pond I heard of from the receptionist. 

I decided to slowly make my way there. It was to the west of the city gate inside a forest. Instead of following the path, I decided to cut through the forest directly. The forest was more dense than I expected. As I went through the forest I realized there were trees and birds I didn't see before. Maybe because I have spent most of my life on the battlefield, I was quite detached from nature. 

As I kept walking in the forest, an incredibly sweet smell caught my attention. If I am not mistaken, the description of the Moonflower said it was blue in color, often seen near water sources and had a sweet smell.

I decided to trust my nose and change my direction to 45 degrees right. As I kept going it started to smell sweeter. 

'There are many animals with heightened senses, shouldn't there be many animals fighting for this sweet smell?' A question came across my mind. It was soon answered later.

The answer came soon enough. When I reached the pond, I could feel a powerful surge of mana coming from under the water. That explained why other animals from coming here.

So, what should I do? Just pluck the herbs and get out or satisfy my curiosity?

Before I could make the decision, without realizing I already jumped into the water. Well, just a peek should be fine. Only when I dived in the water did I realize how deep this pond was. This depth was quite unusual for a pond. The deeper I dived the colder the water became.

As the source of the mana came into my sight I could see a bright light radiating from it. The temperature was so cold yet the water around it didn't freeze. My blood circulation has already started to get considerably slower. It was thanks to how trained my heart was that I was still conscious.

As I had a clear view of what it exactly was, I remembered it. The thousand year frozen flower.