Now that he has good equipment, all he needs is a house. After all, a base of operations in Ironmountain, an area where he could access many resources would be a great thing to have.
Chrysos went to the residence hall to buy a house. Chrysos was already a citizen in Ironmountain, it was just that he chose to live in the forests instead of the city.
Chrysos couldn't remember why his old self did that, because his deeper memories are very hard to read. He couldn't remember anything from them even if he tried.
He entered the building and saw many people going in and out. It was probably to settle some legal stuff. It didn't have anything to do with him, so he continued.
There was a short line for those who are going to buy a house, so it didn't take long for him to reach the front.
"Hello, I would like to buy a small house please." Chrysos spoke to the man in front of him wearing glasses without lenses.
The middle aged man behind the glass looked at him and said, "Here's the locations of the available houses. Please take a look." The man gave him a map drawn on white paper. This meant that they would be wealthy if they could use white paper in this day and age where technology isn't advanced.
Chrysos took the map and picked a spot that was a bit far away from the populated neighborhoods. "Do you have houses in this area in Ironmountain?" Chrysos asked. He liked that specific area because it was quiet, peaceful and enough to accommodate him and his alchemical projects.
"Alright, there are six available houses in this area. And the houses look like this." The man pressed a button to activate a Divinious illusion array that worked like a hologram.
The first house was a simple one but it had a lot of empty land around it.
Chrysos examined the house and it wasn't that bad. "Alright I'll take it, how much?" He already picked it before checking the other options.
"Are you sure? You can still check the other options.." The man tried making Chrysos think his decision through.
Chrysos knew of the man's intentions and shook his hand at them. "No need. Just tell me the price."
It's worth one gold and fifty silver coins sir." The man checked the house's information and price. Since Chrysos wasn't interested in the other houses, he did not push the options any further.
"Is the land around the house also included?" Chrysos asked. He liked the professional attitude the man was giving him. It makes him wonder how the humans in this world developed.
"Yes, the small plot of land and the house is your property." The man reassured him.
"Okay then." Chrysos gave him coins worth of 150 silver since 1 gold is equal to 100 silver.
The man took the coins and asked, "Sir, do you have a citizenship here in Ironmountain?"
"Yes, my name is… Aurum Laniar. If I remember correctly, I already have citizenship, right?" Chrysos said after some 'diving' in his memories. It seems that Chrysos was already hiding his identity way before he reincarnated into him.
"Hmm... Aurum Laniar.." The man used his Divinious on a strange apparatus powered by Divinious energy. It's a machine containing a mind element crystal that is modified by multiple complicated runes and magic arrays to work as a basic computer of some sort.
"A genius invention." Thought Chrysos.
The man saw the necessary information from the core mind crystal and said, "Yes, you do have citizenship.. Please wait a moment." The man pressed a button and a document with Chrysos' name written on it was printed.
The man stamped the document and gave it to Chrysos. "Here's the document that proves your ownership of the property. Have a good day sir." The man also called someone before sending him away.
"Thank you." Chrysos left the building and went to check out his new house.
As he left, he facepalmed.
"Since I already had a fake identity, why did I use my name as Gerald in the adventurer's guild? What if they find something strange about it? My goodness, I am stupid. Stupid!" Chrysos wanted to punch himself for being so dumb.
"And why does Nadt know his name of he wanted to remain secretive?" Chrysos recalled Nadt and thought once again.
"Nevermind, that guy can't even crush an ant even if he was instructed to do so."
…
His house is located seventy blocks southeast from the Arlangier's Manor. The Arlangier is the one who takes care of Ironmountain and its affairs.
He walked for a long while until he finally saw it.
When he saw the house, he didn't feel that he was cheated. In fact, the house has better quality than his cabin in the forest, so he can't really complain about it.
A man was waiting for him and gave him the keys to the house. He had the Ironmountain Hall Badge, so he's probably sent here by them.
"Sir Aurum, here's your keys for the house." The man placed his left hand on his chest facing up. He gave a courteous bow before leaving.
Checking the house once more, Chrysos looked around and saw that it was even better viewing it in person.
Chrysos went inside and unpacked his stuff. He placed the jars of alchemy ingredients, the tools and utensils, the vials, his cauldron, his water dispenser and all his other stuff all around the house's pre-built shelves.
Chrysos' new house had four rooms. The bedroom, the restroom, the kitchen and the living room. It was still pretty empty, but he didn't feel bad.
He went to the bedroom and took a wool blanket from his backpack. Laying it on the bed, he sat on the bed for a second before laying down.
"*sigh* This feels great for some reason." Chrysos chuckled to himself. Everything he's currently enjoying is from his own work and efforts. He felt great knowing that he's sustaining his own life. It felt like he had freedom.
"Now I have a house and I have a job, well... kind of? So now, what I need to do is probably find out who betrayed me before.." Chrysos couldn't shake the weird feeling that his old self probably hid himself because his life was in danger. And from what he knew, soul corruption isn't a sickness that is naturally occurring, but an attack inflicted by someone else.
There's someone who threatened his life before. And the worst part is that he knew nothing about them. But they probably know more about him and his past. He was left in the dark while they were watching him as he grazed on the light.
Chrysos' plan is to explore Supremia Aliqierta to find more about his past.
But right now, he needs money so that he could keep providing himself with alchemy ingredients. The current situation is much more important.
He was still a low ranked adventurer. He wasn't like those high ranked adventurers who are well known and of course, they are powerful.
Speaking of ranking, humans have their own way of ranking the strength of heroes and corrupted ones. Initium Rank is the weakest and lowest rank of them all. The Divinious in human bodies are still in a seed-like state in the Initium Rank. Allowing them to use minimal amounts of their magical abilities.
Pragius Rank is the second rank and this is when Divinium is still in development to become fully activated.
Iretior Rank is the third rank and this is when the unique abilities awaken in their most basic forms. In Iretior Rank, one can use their magic fully to do complex things like summoning fire, and healing.
Provectis Rank is the fourth rank, and people on this rank can use Divinium with more complexity and their unique abilities have either evolved or upgraded at this rank.
Unique abilities strengthen over time and while anyone can learn abilities and spells, one must learn the correct structure and symbols needed for the Divinium circle to work.
For example, Chrysos could simulate fire Divinium, but without learning a fire spell to properly create a magic circle, the fire Divinium would not be used. It's not going to affect anything if there's no outlet to release it.
The Divinious is the energy, the magic circle is the machine making use of that energy to achieve a certain task is a way to further simplify the concept.
Unique abilities are unique because you would learn how to structure your ability from birth. It's a natural talent that you don't have to spend time learning.
Also, Unique abilities are path exclusive, so an alchemist will not have the unique abilities of an assassin and vice versa. And an awakened one is limited to only one Divine Path. A dual path is impossible and in the 7 eras of the Divine Lands, such a thing never happened.
Moving on, the fifth rank is more focused on the evolution of abilities. The fifth rank called the Elitius Rank gives abilities greater force and power. Meaning, a powerful spell that costs a huge amount of Divinious would be easily casted by an Elitius Rank. However, anything above from Mythical spells are impossible for them to activate.
The World Rank is the sixth rank. Anyone with a world rank can get the ability called "Temporary Ascension" to send their consciousness to the Divine Realm. Not much is known about the Divine Realm, except that it has the power to bring someone to godhood.
Anything higher than the world rank is still unachieved by any being in the Divine Lands. Obviously, godhood is something that isn't easily achieved even though so many years have passed.
Chrysos' rank was still at Iretior Rank. If he fought anything, or anyone above that, he wouldn't stand a chance. Unless there are special circumstances.
He needed to grow stronger to defend himself better. And that's what he's planning to work on for now.
"I should try finishing a quest.." Chrysos thought to himself.
"..." His body was already too comfortable in his bed.
"Yeah, I definitely should." Chrysos got up from his bed anyway.
Chrysos wore his armor and brought his sword. He also brewed some potions for himself just in case anything goes wrong.
…
Once he was outside, he went to the adventurer's guild and looked for any available quests.
The adventurer's guild is as lively as ever. Adventurers browsed through the quests and accepted those that they felt that they could finish.
The way quests are browsed is by using illusion imagery that works like a holographic system where you can select quests that you wish to take. And once you take that quest, it won't be available for other adventurers to take.
Made from the ingenious minds of craftsmen and runesmiths, the simple looking circular plate in the quest browsing section was created. To use it, you need to step on the circular plate and a bunch of holographic screens will surround you. The buttons in these screens can be influenced and interacted by the adventurer currently stepping on the plate.
Chrysos browsed using the buttons and thought to himself, "It's better to pick a quest that's not too hard because I still need to test my equipment first." Chrysos continued browsing for a suitable quest.
He saw many tasks like collecting rare plants, killing an entire beast den, killing invasive species, catching wild beasts or animals, and many more. They are all pretty standard quests given to adventurers.
Seeing that nothing is suitable for him, Chrysos stopped searching at the easy difficulty quests section and moved on to intermediate quests. In easy quests, it was rare for adventurers to get killed. But on intermediate quests, the death rate is around 10-15% Next to intermediate quests is the Advanced quests. The death rate is at least 30-50% which is pretty high. Most adventurers avoid these quests even though the reward is attractive. Only stronger adventurers are willing to take these quests.
A higher difficulty than Advanced quests is the Expert Quests. Expert quests provide very generous rewards and a staggering 60-80% death rate. Unless one is forced under certain circumstances, even veteran adventurers do not take on Expert Quests.
Then there's the feared Master Quests with a death rate of 90-98% You have to be crazy, strong, or crazy strong if you plan on taking these types of quests.
And finally, the Grandmaster Quests. At this point, only those in Provectis rank or higher are probably the only ones who's ever going to attempt quests at this difficulty. Because the death rate is 99%
Of course, Chrysos does not intend to deal with the higher leveled quests. He's already satisfied with the intermediate quests with his current strength. Any higher than that and he's digging his own grave.
He saw an intermediate quest on Aviflora Village about wild beasts attacking the village every night. Many villagers were afraid and some of them considered moving away. Of course the village leader does not want to see that.
The reward is five gold coins. But even with the decently high reward, Chrysos only saw this as a reason to be even more careful.
If the village leader is willing to pay five gold coins, then the wild beasts aren't as simple as they made it seem to be.
Nevertheless, Chrysos took the quest.
...
Aviflora Village,
A Blueheadfeather Sparrow carrying a letter approached a young man. When he saw the bird's conspicuous blue feather on its head, he let it perch on his shoulder and grabbed the note on its claw.
The moment he opened the note, he became very happy.
"Father! Someone is willing to help us kill the beasts!" A young man rushed inside a big house while holding the letter.
"Hm? Really?" An old man who was drinking tea looked at him with surprise.
"Yes, the letter came from the City of Ironmountain." The young man gave the letter to his father.
The village leader took the letter and was just as happy as his son when he saw that someone was willing to help them. "Hahaha! This is great! The Eternal Sword God hadn't given up on us yet." The old man almost shed a tear. The news was just too great.
"Father, he'll be here in a few minutes. Should I wait for him outside?" The young man asked.
"Go ahead Ceron.. Make sure to greet him nicely to leave a good impression. We don't want to send him away after all." The old man laughed.
Ceron nodded. "Don't worry father, I'll be nice to him." Ceron rushed out and waited for the adventurer in the stone roads.
The old man, Eloro sighed. "Oh Eternal Sword God, I beg you to help our village with this crisis.." Eloro prayed.
This god was who the village placed their faith to.
...
Chrysos immediately left after taking the quest and is currently on his way to the village.
Chrysos checked the map given to him by the guild and looked around. "Aviflora should be around here according to the map.." He turned right and continued walking.
And soon enough, he saw a stone road and a sign in Aliqiertan letters saying "Aviflora Village"
"Ah, there it is." Chrysos walked towards the village and saw a young man waiting for him. The young man in iron armor saw him as well. He took the initiative to speak and introduced himself, "I'm the adventurer sent by the guild. Is the village leader there?" Chrysos asked.
"Ah, yes my father's the village leader. My name is Ceron." Ceron bowed politely.
"In that case, where is he?" Chrysos put away his map and asked Ceron.
"He's in our house. Please follow me." Ceron walked towards Aviflora.
Chrysos followed the young man named Ceron and saw a house that looked bigger than the other houses found in the village.
"This must be it.." Chrysos muttered to himself.
The other villagers saw him and talked amongst themselves. But Chrysos didn't pay it any mind.
Ceron entered the house and opened the door for Chrysos. Chrysos saw an old man sitting at his desk, busy with the village's matters. When the old man saw him, he put away his work and greeted him. "I didn't expect that an Alchemist out of all people would help us." The old man laughed. "Come, take a seat."
"Thank you." Chrysos sat on the chair.
"*sigh* The Adventurers normally avoided this quest for months now.. I am really thankful that you chose to help us." The old man expressed his appreciation for Chrysos' help.
"Don't worry, I'll get the job done." Chrysos assured him. "So, what are the beasts sir... um?"
"The name's Eloro. You can call me just by my name." Eloro responded.
"So sir Eloro, what are the beasts exactly?" Chrysos took out a piece of brown paper and gave it to Eloro. "Why didn't you write a good description of the beasts in the quest? For example, their habits and what kind of creature they are."
"To be honest, I don't know if we could properly describe them.." Eloro sighed.
"That's right, my father and I saw those beasts many times. They have missing parts of their bodies and some of them could still move even with an arrow on their heads. They have eerie purple eyes that glow in the dark and they seem to be more intelligent than what we thought." Ceron explained it to the best of his ability.
"And the worst part is that when they kill our villagers, they also get infected by that purple stuff. Every night, we can see our own villagers attacking with the beasts in perfect coordination." Eloro clenched his fist after recalling those haunting memories.
Chrysos immediately put the clues together..
He was facing a necromancer...
The villagers here doesn't seem to have a detailed list of the Divine Paths, so they obviously wouldn't know things about this. But Chrysos knew what he was going to be against.
"Interesting... To think that my first quest is to fight a necromancer." Chrysos smiled with expectation.
Fighting spirit brimmed from his heart.