Tainted Sewages - 5

I exactly wake up more 5 hours later, checking the clock I obviously am late for more than an hour. Feeling guilty for my tardiness I hurriedly finish my daily needs I put on the headgear and diving in.

Opening my eyes again I appear at the last place I've been log-out from, the entrance of the sewage. The sky is still dark with a little drizzle filling in between. The water condition and level still looks normal with no traces of overflown.

Apparently no one here yet. Opening the menu I look at my friend list and found Rudy is online. I text him and ask his current position.

"Hey, where are you? I slept in sorry for that."

"No worries bro we are currently cleaning with our spell…" Looks like I'm late indeed.

Receiving his long replies without checking the unnecessary words I walked inside and surprisingly found the path wasn't slippery like before rather it feels pretty clean on my feet. I look at the dark narrow tunnel; at the far end, I can see a glowing light probably Rudy and his friend.

After approximately twenty meter strides, I can see them. Rudy is on the left side of the path with a wooden puppet scrubbing the floor with a cleaning tool or some kind, I can't see it clearly, while on the right side is a woman with a short hair holding a wand and a silhouette of the wooden puppet standing in front of her.

"Sorry, I'm late."

I greeted them with an apology.

"No worries bro, and this is Ross. Ace's sister."

"Hi, I'm going with the name of Ross in this game."

She smiled with confidence and sincerity.

"Oh, hi, nice to meet you, Ross."

I smiled back at her with my most good-rated smile that I could think of. I probably don't look scary because I let the robe covering my head and my face masks off.

"And looks like it will rain again; even though the water wasn't rising previously, we won't know for sure if that is 100% the case so we still may need to consider if the water level will rise."

I've been walking inside the sewage for a good minute and pretty far from the entrance and I still didn't get any negative status.

"How long have you two been here?"

"Around an hour I guess? I'm not sure."

I look at Ross and she nodded her head in agreement with fatty. Now, I'm not only late but chronically late. My image on Ross must be as someone undisciplined with time. I hate to say this, but in my long career of hard labor, I only late once because of an accident.

"Then how many times did you get infected by the status ailment? And what about the mobs? Did they attack or at least try to? And can you explain to me what you guys currently doing?"

"No. It feels weird that they don't even try to attack me when I'm walking alone with my puppets before Ross arrival. We're cleaning the path with Ross spell called 'Bubble Wash' and then my puppet will start to brush the place where the bubble land. After that, I clean the residue with purification. In just one hour of work, we already clear 7% of the total instance. It would be nice if all we need is cleaning this place up to get the handsome reward of one platinum coin."

Now that Rudy brought the conversation about money I think we may need to get this clear before carrying on any further.

"Now that you brought the talk about money we need to get a clear deal about the share of money for each of us. Ross, how much did fatty promise you? 20 Gold? Okay then, we'll make a contract between the three of us."

"Ahh! Okay, I'm fine with that. To be honest I'm in need of money right now."

"What about you Rudy? Speak when it's important not just nodding your head. Now go back here. I'll make a contract right now."

Did he get nervous all of sudden? Why is he getting all quiet when I mention contract?

It needs to be written in black and white for us to gain a little of her trust. She won't be able to act to her full potential if she's too wary with us and who knows maybe she will put 150% of her effort.

"Erm… We don't need to create a contract brother."

"What do you mean?"

I can feel his anxiety not only through his voice but his actions as well.

"Sigh~' hearing a sigh I look at the source, Ross, she had a sad face and disappoint at the same time. I can relate to how she feels. I experience it so many times until I get fed up with it, but I can't quit nor can I stop eating. Most people always take advantages of the weak.

"Um… it-it's li-like this-"

"Don't stutter!"

I involuntary raise my voice because of his stuttering. I felt a hand touching my shoulder. Ross shook her head and speak.

"Take a deep breath. Its okay no one's gonna hurt you. It's okay… it's okay if you speak slowly, we will listen to what you will say."

Ross walked close to Rudy and put her hands on his shoulder. Taking a step back I look at them silently. After a few minutes of inhale and exhale exercise, he finally looks calm enough to continue talking. I don't urge him this time and wait for him to slowly open his mouth and talk.

"I'm not good with contracts. I've been had a few times by those people using contracts. One time I unknowingly and suddenly had a ten-million credit debt. The second time I've been made into a scapegoat by some organization. The third time…"

One word. WOW! You shouldn't trust a stranger that easily and not only you get scammed once but multiple times. Even someone you thought were close to you would betray you if given the right price or condition.

Wait! Ain't he got his 'future sight'? Can't he checks if the contract will be a demerit for him or just read the contract carefully? And he can be considered one of the Supers so he should be protected by the government, right? I seriously need to ask him about this some other time.

"So I have a suggestion, how about we just make an oath? It works the same with the written contract except it's voiced orally by the one who takes the oath. The Main A.I. System will record it for legal use. If needed. And, there are no hidden clauses."

"How did I do it?"

Rudy teaches me the step and necessary action for it to works. Following his teaching, I began to start the oath making. But, before I start we discuss what we would put in. Finalizing our discussion I start first simply because I'm the party leader, said, Rudy.

"I'm Vain with this OATH I'll pledge my life on the line to thee. O Goddess Gaia hears me out and be my witness. I, Vain the party leader of Cleaning Service pledge; I will act just and like our prior agreement as follow…"

The two of them stared at me when I said 'Cleaning Service'. Well, what do you expect? That's the first thing popped out of my mind.

And then the two of them follow it as well.

"I'm King Glory with this OATH I'll pledge my life on the line to thee. O Goddess Gaia hears me out and be my witness. I, King Glory the member of Cleaning Service party pledge; I will act just and like our prior agreement as follow…"

"I'm Ross with this OATH I'll pledge my life on the line to thee. O Goddess Gaia hears me out and be my witness. I, Ross the member of Cleaning Service party pledge; I will act just and like our prior agreement as follows…"

Scrolls appear in front of us with an identical appearance to each other.

"""WE HEAR AND OBEY!"""

I don't know why the agreement sentence needs to be that. There are so many cool sentences out there to be used in a fantasy setting you know. While contemplating of unnecessary stuff the scrolls turn into a spectrum of lights, becoming smaller and smaller until it's gone into a particle of light.

Our deal has been made; I'll get 40%, Rudy 30%, and 25% for Ross, while the other 5% is for miscellaneous items. At first, I want to add an extra clause for Ross so she won't tell this to other people. However, I changed it into each of us to keep the secret of the quest information.

"Now it is done, we need to think of a way to aggro the mobs to us one by one. Or I'll go further inside alone to incite them to attack. From what we know at the moment the monster would only attack lone individual while they will stay a distance away if we're in a group. Still, I may be able to pull their agro with a stone or something similar."

The puppet has stopped for a while now because they can't execute their program with Ross not providing them Bubble mark on the floor for them to swipe.

"Well, you two can continue your job I'll get some stone outside and practice my throw for a bit."

…An hour later I'm back within the sewage tunnel.

They already went pretty far with their cleaning works. Doesn't look like they'll slow down soon. I wonder if Ross energy is enough for them to works continuously. Unlike Rudy who can recover his energy fast with little to no effort, she needs to have a similar effect skill or better than Rudy. Or maybe they take a precisely control break so they can still work simultaneously.

"How's the condition?"

"Still the same. No change. They backed off deeper into the tunnel when we're cleaning the path. I'm afraid that they'll ambush us at some point or they wait for us with the instance boss. I guess the only thing left was for you to hunt them alone Vain."

"Yeah, I'm the lowest level here so I can just go explore the tunnel deeper and if corner I'll just die once with a bang. Rudy, did you buy the torchlight I ask you to buy before?"

He jumped from the other side and smile at me.

"I'm glad you ask bro. here, I bought this one on the market for 8 copper long time ago. It can light the surrounding up to 5 meters in diameter."

I receive the item that looks like a transparent rock and as big as a baby fist.

Bright Stone (Common • Poor • T1)

A stone with a light element made by a clumsy trainee alchemist to light up the dark place. Channel mana into the stone to light up the surrounding (5 meters). Each point of mana can last for 2 minutes. The maximum mana it can hold is 23. The stone will instantly emit light after filled with mana.

Durability: 18/20

(PS: It's brittle and can be easily destroyed by accident.)

As I looked at the description of the item he gave me. I furrow my brows at the words mana which means I can't refill the energy it needs.

"Oy this thing use mana as its fuel. You know I don't use mana of force type."

"Well, the vendor offered me a convertor stick for 11 silver so I denied him instantly. That was too expensive me or Ross can refill the energy for you."

I sigh and answer him.

"It may be convenient but even with its full energy, it can only last for 46 minutes. Does it mean it effectively can be used for 46 minutes? No! We need to measure the distance and time it will take for me to go back and meet up with you. Even if you had more than one of these stone I can't store it. At most I can only explore and fight under twenty minute and go back here to make you refill the stone with more energy."

He scratches his head not knowing what to say.

"Well, we still need to go deeper whatever is the situation we can only depend on what we currently have on hand. Right! Can you contact Ace and ask him to buy us a torch or something."

"Excuse me, Ace is offline if I'm online."

I question my own hearing, did I mishear it. What did she mean by that?

"What do you mean by that?"

"The lowest headgear for personal use can register up to two people in one headgear and bound after that. While the lowest grade for commercial use can hold up to ten people and the bind can be removed later by the admin or by the owner."

I don't know you can let other people use your headgear as well. This option must be made so the siblings can try it and then the kids will urge their parent to buy them a new one for their own personal use. What a scheme.

"Oh, so you alternately…"

After finished chatting with Ross I stare at fatty whose face is currently on thinking mode. I pulled him down out to land on reality and ask him to fill the stone with mana and set off.