Looking at the map I tried to associate it with landmarks readily visible from my position, it was close to a rather luxurious hotel that I could see from my position called the 'Lilac House', so about 4 kilometers away from here.
On my way there, I saw many people on the sidewalk who were dressed in academy uniforms. The one-week break period applied to senior students as well and due to the sheer number of students living in this city, it was hard to go anywhere without spotting students.
For a moment I thought about what would have happened if I was let into the academy, I had never really gone to a school in my previous life either so I was more than a little curious as to what it would be like.
'What the fuck am I doing?'
Why was I fantasizing about a life I couldn't have? I thought I had gotten over this habit, but it looks like I still had childish and stupid dreams. What mattered was survival, if I could live even a marginally better life here than on Earth than that would be a miracle and I was fantasizing about some cushy academy life I didn't deserve and could never have.
I focused again on the white flower emblem on the hotel, walking towards it while ignoring the blazer wearing students on every street I went. Soon I reached the foot of the massive hotel, the building and the ones surrounding it all looked incredibly expensive, and I felt out of place, but I started to go left from there and eventually reached a modest looking office building that was titled "Mercenary Organization Headquarters."
Walking inside I saw a bustling area filled with mercenaries and clients. Some people emitted a feeling of power that naturally made me wary of them and the fact that most of them were wearing a mix of modern clothing with medieval armor didn't help.
To be fair, most of them didn't compare to the mana that Adam emitted once he had regained his strength, but I had gotten accustomed to his presence. Walking up to the front desk there was a man with black hair that was turning grey steel rimmed spectacles and was typing away on his laptop with eyes of disinterest.
"Excuse me?" I said trying to grab his attention.
"Yeah?" He spoke without looking up from his laptop screen.
"I'd like to register as a member of the mercenary organization."
"Sure, thing pal. Hand me your awakened ID." He spoke with his eyes still on the laptop screen.
Taking out the box from my bag and placing it on his desk, he took it and scanned it with a device next to his laptop, all without looking up but as a notification sound was played, he looked up with shocked eyes.
"16!?"
I simply nodded awkwardly, expecting this to happen.
"Look kid, I know that we have a reputation of accepting most awakened, but I don't think we're even allowed to do this... like legally." He said before continuing.
"Besides shouldn't you be starting your first year in the academy?"
"I wasn't allowed to attend." I replied evenly.
"Ha! If anybody has a worse reputation than us in terms of accepting literally any awakened it's them."
I just stood there unsure of how to reply.
"Wait for real? What did you murder somebody?" He asked.
"No."
He sighed before saying "Alright hand over the rest of your documentation, I gotta check something."
I took out all other documentation which he all scanned and imported onto his laptop before searching for something with furrowed brows for some time.
"Ok, no criminal record but no records of anything else either, it's like you materialized from thin air." He said confused before saying.
"Well whatever, also legally we can hire you, but it doesn't look great on us morally and we are literally mercenaries."
I thought he was going to reject me but then he took out a form and passed it over to me.
"So, just don't become too famous or die and we should be fine." He shrugged.
I guess the line in the novel saying mercenaries would hire literally any awakened was taken quite seriously in this world, but I understood why, there weren't many awakened to begin with and most became heroes, although that would change in a few months.
The form asked for my basic details, some of which were already filled in using my other documents but also asked me to write my specific rank in each stat and also a signature that was basically a death warrant, stating the mercenary association was not responsible for injuries or death.
It wasn't much of a choice, but I signed anyway before giving it back to him. He read for a moment before whistling in admiration.
"You one of those quick types huh? We could always use more of those. Wait here."
He took the form and some of my identification to the back and came back after just 10 minutes with a brand-new Mercenary ID and handed it to me with the rest of what he had took.
"Alright congratulations kid, you're a mercenary now, which means you get this cool card and legally I have to explain to you every benefit that comes with this, so get ready."
He cleared his throat and picked up a piece of paper before he began reading.
"First, you can use this to get free public transport, bus, train and even those fancy mana trains they're working on."
"Second, you can use an Awakened Training Center or an ATC for short, ours is attached to the one the academy uses so it's pretty fancy. You can use it to work on your strength stat but if you ask me focus on agility, inherent stat differences matter a lot."
"Third, you can be let into dangerous mana beast zones for missions or training corresponding to your rank, right now you can enter zones ranked G- to F-."
"Last one isn't really official but if you show off the card, a few restaurants and stores give you a discount. It's half the reason I still work here."
"Oh, and you must clear at least 4 missions of your rank in a year, else your card will be suspended, do you understand?"
"Yes." I replied.
"Alright! Welcome to the team kid! Now if you don't mind-"
"That'll be 100 Credits."