5 The first Job 2
The sewers were like a maze made of stone under the cathedral. It was large too large actually, and I have no idea why are doing this, but it seems they have some sort of agenda.
We began to scrub and rub the stone floors cleaning away the dirt and scum pushing it aside while some of us began gathering the stinky stuff into a three-wheeled container that was possible to push around although it screeched loudly every time it was moved.
"The hell man…it stinks, and it is disgusting," said Haru who clearly looked repulsed by this.
I mean you got to understand him. Every one of these guys comes from a wealthy family where they never had to do manual work. So getting pissed off is the least they could do. But it seems the death threat they all received earlier made them shut their yaps and just deal with the situation at hand.
To be honest, I would not want to argue with a guy holding a real sword.
"You don't need to tell me Haru. I already know this…we just have to suck it up for the time being…" I said
"But common Daiki…We were supposed to be in a different world fighting monsters and beast and rescuing damsels in distress…not fucking sweeping the damn floor" said Haru angrily
To which the Old man heard him and got closer to us.
"Fat Boy." Said the old man and surprisingly the guy can speak. "The thing with killing monsters and saving people is for heroes and those that are powerful. You lot are the invalids, deal with it. You are useless and unnecessary for the higher-ups, and your only value is the work you can offer. So do your job, or I will make sure to feed you to the fucking rats. I think that they would find you to be tasty and would probably stop running through our grain savings… Now keep sweeping!" ordered the old man and then walked away.
Ah, shit this is going to be annoying…
After a few more hours, I received a notification…
After a repeating the same action for a prolonged period of time you received:
+1 Strength
Another one soon followed
You have gained a skill:
Sweeping
I snorted at the idiocy of this thing then decided to click it for further details.
Skill Name Cost Effect
Sweeping
Active-Level 1/10 1 Mana per sweep You can now sweep the floor faster and easier with the aid of this skill
This is too depressing I actually laughed…
I willed the window to disappear then continued with my job.
The Old man looked at me weirdly for a moment, but then he decided to ignore me.
The sweeping actually became easier, and I only needed to think of activating the skill for it to work.
My hands glowed with a faint blue light that only I was able to see it seems that no one was reacting to my glowing hands.
With every sweep, I saw there was a difference. The floor looked cleaner than before. It seems that there are various skills obtainable by repeating an act…then can't I, for example, gain a martial technique or skill like this? This is something I need to think of later.
After few more hours of sweeping and cleaning the sewers and removing the scum. It looked a bit cleaner…just a bit.
The old man then said
"Get your asses out of here and put the brooms and everything back in the storage room. We will be doing something else tomorrow so get a good rest you bunch of useless twats."
Way to pump in some enthusiasm…
Under the dissatisfied grumbling of the guys with us, we moved up and away from the sewers…it seems that no one has the guts to talk back to the old man nor did anyone want to. The best way to handle this was just to curse him under your breath and hope it might relieve some pent-up frustration…it didn't, believe me, I tried…
Once we got out, we were surprised to see the sun already down, and it was night time…
I actually just noticed how much time we spent without anything to eat or drink and suddenly I was hit with a wave of hunger and thirst…
"Where can we get something to eat?" I asked the old man.
"You need to wash your stinky ass first if you want to dine."
I looked at my state and actually thought that the man had a point. I stink and look disgusting.
"And where can we do that?" I asked
"There is a well near the wall." Said the old man and then left.
I turned to look at the well he pointed at and found it to be a hole in the ground with a bucket linked to a rope near it.
A few meters near the well was a tank made of some sort of alloy that I decided to use.
I was the first to move as I, unlike the guys that went directly to the well, began to look for twigs and sticks. After having enough, I took a torch from a nearby wall and lit the sticks with fire after surrounding it with some stones.
I grabbed the tank and placed it under the fire and began filling it with water.
After a moment the water began to heat up.
The guys that already washed themselves up with cold water actually looked a bit envious and probably thinking that they should have done this. –Surprisingly there were no girls in our invalid group of nine-
I removed my clothes and went into the tank.
It felt good…
I took my time washing before I got out of the tank, the guys who were here actually left earlier than me leaving me alone. I then grabbed my clothes and decided against wearing the dirty ones…
I just washed for god sake.
I placed all my dirty clothes into the tank dirtying the water further.
There was a knight nearby that I walked toward in all my naked glory (I had nothing to be ashamed of actually that part was the only thing that was not 'average' with me…)
Feeling flustered the knight asked me what do I want.
"Clothes. Anything to put on I really don't want to barge in on the guys like this. I might break some hearts…" as I said the words the knight actually laughed and said.
"I suppose you are not like the idiots that wore the same dirty clothes they had on. Alright follow me." said the Knight.
I then followed the knight into a small cabinet that was near the clearing where we sparred with the knight this morning.
He entered, and I waited. Although it was cold, I was not willing to enter there with another man while I was naked.
He got out and was carrying some leather pants with matching boots and a brown wool made a tunic and a loincloth…I believe the loincloth was his way of joking…I could have done with normal underwear…
I still thanked the man for the gifts and began to wear them.
They looked just about right. The pants were a bit large, but it didn't matter.
Thanking the knight once again, I entered the cathedral.
What I saw was heart-wrenching. The room was voided from people, and the worst thing was that there was barely any food left…
A huge table in the middle of the hall had nothing but empty plates were left with some weird looking vegetable rolls that I would rather starve than to eat.
Cursing my luck, I still tried to see if there might be some piece of meat left…nothing.
I sighed and decided to go upstairs where I heard some noise and hoped that there might be someone to ask about food…
Once I got up the stairs, I walked near a room with an opened door.
I hear someone speak and instantly knew it was the cardinal.
Once I peeked inside, I saw him piously speaking to Yuji as if giving him divine enlightenment.
However, the Cardinal instantly noticed me, and the door smack close on my face.
Yuji, however, had not moved his gaze from the cardinal for even a second…it seems 'faith' does some weird things to people…
I still kept on moving and ignored what happened. It seems that the cardinal had something to say to the presumable leader…so why should I even bother?
My stomach was grumbling now, and this only made me refocus on my earlier task. I need to eat.
I heard some noise near the end of the corridor I was walking on and discovered that it was a kitchen.
My lucky day!
Once I got inside, I managed to see the reason behind the noise.
It was our class representative who had a piece of meat shoved into her mouth while both her hands had a chicken leg in each…
The girl looked stunned at seeing me, but I actually hadn't the gal to say anything to her…
I was too hungry to speak, so I went inside, grabbed a piece of chicken breast, and began eating without saying a word.
She looked at me for a moment and resumed her eating…she can be a messy eater I never even thought that the cool and dignified looking girl would have such habits but who am I to say anything.
Moments later the girl spoke
"Promise me you won't tell anyone!" she said blushing.
"What are you talking about?" I asked.
"You know! Don't tell them…about how I was eating…they might get the wrong idea…"
"And what the right idea supposed to be?" I said
"I was hungry, and everyone thinks that I am a vegetarian where I am not and could barely even eat those disgusting vegetable rolls…"
I smiled a bit then said
"My lips are sealed…got any more of those chicken legs?" I said
To which the girl smiled and handed over another piece.
Munching on the meat, I asked
"What did you guys do today?"
She who too was munching on another piece said
"We were sparring with the captain and his knights to get our skills to a better level. I even gained a sword mastery skill."
"Oh really, I also gained a skill…" I said then instantly regretted saying the words.
"What skill?!" she asked
…
"Sweeping," I said almost in a whisper.
"What? I didn't hear you" she said
"Sweeping, alright…it is a skill that makes you sweep the floor better…" after saying the words I could see a suppressed smile on her face…
This is so humiliating…
"Anyway. I think I will have to go now I believe that I should find where we are supposed to be spending the night. Due to me staying alone I got separated from my group and have no idea where I should be."
Although she looks like a nice person, I really didn't find it in me to remain with her. Especially after feeling embarrassed like this, for god sake a sweeping skill…really.
"Daiki! Wait" she said
She knows my name?
"Yes? What is it?" I said
"Thank you…for keeping this a secret. I will make sure to honor your silence…"
What is up with this girl?
"Yeah, okay," I said and left the kitchen.
Right before I reached the other end of the corridor where the room where the cardinal was, I was met with the old man that was responsible for our group.
"You little shit made me look everywhere for you!" said the man while smacking me on the head.
-1 Hp
Really…
"What was that for!?" I said
"You need to be asleep by now! You will need to wake up early tomorrow you have more things to do…
The man signaled for me to follow.
I got transported to another world, and on the first day, I got forced into manual labor, cleaning stinky sewer floors and even got a sweeping skill…for fuck sake what kind of fantasy world is this?
