"Finally." Said Aidan while brushing his shoulder. "I should be fully recovered by now." He continued as he slowly got up from the stone he sat upon and looked at his surroundings.
"Altough, I was truly fortunate to have food and water nearby. Otherwise, I doubt I'd have survived." Muttered the young boy obviously too mature for his age.
Stretching, the seven-year-old boy made his way to the cave's entrance. The sun shone through the gaps of the forest. "A good day." He muttered to himself, used to talking to his lonesome. Habitually going to the small river next to the shelter, the boy took off his worn-out clothes and jumped into the river for his daily bathing.
He had woken up five days prior, in the cave. His body riddled with injuries and bruises as if he had gotten through a huge battle before being abandoned in the dark cave. Unfortunately, perhaps due to his head injury, he unfortunately didn't have any memories of his past. The little information he had was on the necessary basic skills to live.
Those skills were limited to reading, writing, calculating, cooking and some basic daily life skills. As for the rest? It was limited to four simply pieces of information.
Firstly, the location of the city Orario. From what he udnerstood this city was situated in the very center of the world or something.
The second was more like an order, altough one he wished to fulfil at all cost. The need to grow stronger and stronger until the very limit.
The third information was an introduction to something called the Falna. From what he understood, the falna was separated in 10 separate letters. However, there was an additional hidden rank called EX which could only be reached if all the stats reached 999.
Finally, the last piece of information was about the way to use and control his innate magic, card magic. And from what he had seen, this type of magic was incredible with full of potential. He already had plenty of ideas on how to develop it.
Rushign out of the cold river, the young scarred boy walked back to the cave, naked, drying in the process. He didn't have to be shy. After all, he hadn't seen nor heard of anyone in these woods for the last few days. Besides, he wanted to wear his second set of clothes, the only clean clothes he had before leaving the forest and heading to the adventurer's city, Orario.
While he hadn't been able to make his way to the city due to his injuries, the blood had stopped and some of his bruises were already showing sign of dissapearing. As such, it was now time to head to the city where his future awaited.
Opening his bag, he pulled out the only set of clean clothes he had and wore them immediately. The cave was colder than the outside without any sun to heat it up.
With a simple black t-shirt and black pants, Aidan threw the bag across his shoulder and finally left the cave he had called home for these last few days. With the sun caressing his skin, warming him up, he smiled as he continued to prepare for his trip.
Despite having all of his properties in his bag, preparing some water through a small pouch he had made and some berries to sate him during his journey was necessary.
Storing everything in their right place in the bag, he pulled out his identification papers, which would be necessary to enter the city. Those papers reported the name Aidan which he believed to be his name, since a picture of him was next to it. It was also the way he managed to find his name since he had lost his memories. Along the documents was a pass to enter the city, ten thousand Valis and finally a deck of plain cards. Finally, along with the clothes he currently wore, his only remaining item was a weapon.
The weapon, a black and orange longsword, with a slightly curved crossguard would certainly accompany him for a while. With a wavy orange pattern on its length, the blade was not only sharp but also quite to his taste.
Despite his love for the sword, the blade itself was taller than he was and the hilt only increased its size. He was doubtfull that such a blade was crafted for a child. Instead, he was almost certain that the crafter had crafted this sword for an adult. How did he get it, however, he had no idea.
Despite not knowing where it came from, simply from it's looks and its sharpness, the quality of the weapon was exceptional. A few days back, after he managed to get up for the first time, he had taken out the sword with curiosity from its scabbard as he had been curious to see how it looked. However, when he slashed down, trying the surprisingly light sword, it had cut straight through the cave floor made of stone and only remained visible due to the guard.
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At that time, Aidan was shocked, and after pulling the sword out of the stone, he inserted it back into its sheath. The sword body is entirely black except for the edge of the blade, which is orange. The sheath, on the other hand, is blue. Moreover, after using the sword for the first time, Aidan noticed that it seemed to have some magic on it, which reduced its weight as he wouldn't have been able to use it so effortlessly otherwise.
Leaving the broken bag, which had many holes, with his previous broken and dirty clothes, Aidan left towards Orario. Thankfully, he knew the location of Orario and thus would be able to reach it easily. From what he knew, it would take about five hours of walk.
Leaving behind the small cave which housed him for almost a week, Aidan made his way towards the city. Walking in the forest, he met a monster from time to time. Having the goal of becoming powerful, Aidan didn't shy away from the fights as the silver-haired boy took out his sword and fought the goblins met on the way. Those little green monsters were tough to fight for the current Aidan, but he still could beat them easily thanks to the sword, which cut through the pieces of wood those monsters used as weapons before flashing their necks.
Continuing his way to Orario, Aidan finally arrived as the sun reached its peak in the sky. Walking towards the gate, the boy waited at the end of the line to enter. There were about twenty people in front of him. Half of them were merchants as they had a carriage filled with goods, while the other half had weapons of all kinds with them. The most common weapon was the sword, while others had axes, daggers or staffs. However, what surprised him most was how all of them were male.
Noticing this trait in the line, Aidan found nothing more intriguing as he turned to look at Orario through the gates. From what he could see, the city of Orario seemed prosperous as there were a lot of people walking on the road shopping or merely laughing together.
As he looked at the city, the line gradually disappeared until it was Aidan's turn to talk with the guards.
"Paper, please." Said the guards as he didn't bother to look at Aidan.
He looked through the information on it before lifting his head and looking at Aidan. "Where are your parents, kid?" He asked as he eyed him.
"I don't know, sir." Answered Aidan as he didn't even know who his parents were.
Frowning slightly, the guard nonetheless continued. "You see, to enter and live in the city, you need to pay a certain amount or have a pass; otherwise, I can't let you enter."
"Oh? Are you talking about that, sir?" Aidan asked as he showed the pass he had found with his identification papers.
"Eum? Yeah, that's it. Next time you can go to that line." The guard said while pointing at the other line, which had almost no one. "With the pass, you can enter the city without having to pay or be searched. As such, the other line is faster." Explained the guard gently as he was relieved he didn't have to turn the kid around. It had happened a couple of times, and each time he felt bad about it.
"I see. Thank you, sir." Answered Aidan with a smile as he entered the city through the gates.
The first thing he had to do was find a place where he would stay for the night. Afterwards, from what the little information told him, he would have to go to the guild and find a familia. Now the critical point was what is the guild and a familia?
Frowning at the lack of information he had, he decided to first find a good inn for the night, and he would move from there. While he was thinking about all of this, Aidan walked past various shops and the more he saw, the more he understood what kind of city Orario was.
Continuing his way, he unconsciously walked to the city's tallest building, the weird tower in the center of Orario. As he walked and took in everything around him, he side-stepped as he almost crashed into a woman wearing armour talking to her friend.
As he left the two talking women behind, Aidan finally heard one of the words he had been confusing him. "Have you heard? The Loki familia is going to do a recruitment tomorrow. They are going to recruit a few members to be part of their battle group, but they are mostly going to recruit members as supporters for their older members." Said, one woman.
"Yes, I heard that too. However, I don't plan on being a supporter. Even if it's for a familia such as the Loki familia, after all, if you can't improve, you'll always work as their supporter. It's better to join a weaker familia and at least this way you will be able to fight for yourself and make money. Through their recruitment, they hope to be able to find some talented young people and at the same time replenish their supporters. I heard that they lost some of them during their last expedition in the dungeon." Answered her friend.
"Yeah. After all, as a supporter, you can't always defend yourself, and you must rely on the stronger member of the group. As for finding talented young people, they are not that many since the other familias are also trying to get them as soon as they appear." The woman said as the two of them left the square where they had been standing.
'So, I guess I'll try my luck at the Loki familia. They said that as long as the supporter can improve, they can become members of their fighting group. Moreover, they talked about expeditions. That must mean that their familia must be working on the dungeon where the monster appears. If I go by the little information that I have, going in the dungeon is the best way to become stronger. Alright, I'll find an inn, find the location of their recruitment and join the Loki familia.' Aidan thought to himself as he looked around and searched for an inn.