Chapter 28: The 1st day

Finishing water purification and adding records, the 5th squad followed after their captain girl, moving to the north.

The captain had short hair, brown eyes, and was dressed in a water porter's uniform.

It didn't take long for them to reach their destination and stop near the northern edge of their sector when their captain girl turned and looked at them.

"Our squad is responsible for the northern part of the sector. Now, look at your maps that you got from enchanters," explained the captain, waiting for several moments till they took their maps, "There you can see all the structures and buildings where you should deliver water. In order not to miss anything, you will start delivering street after street, and only after finishing delivery, you will move to the next one. So, you just have to do your duty, and would eventually finish your workload."

"By the way, when you finish with your part of the sector, you will get maps of nearby parts of the sector and can start delivering water, earning more merits in the process. We also won't look on how you make it, the main objective is to deliver water," said the captain girl with a slight smile on her lips, "Since I am done with explanation, you may start your duty,"

Theo and his squad comrades didn't need any more reminders, the weight on their backs made it better than anything. So, it didn't take long for them to move out towards the 1st street in their sector.

Passing through many tents and several structures, the squad ended up entering the street with many blacksmiths and other similar structures that were marked on their maps. Without wasting any time, the candidates started entering into those buildings and delivering water one by one.

Entering into the one blacksmith, Theo, Leonardo, Zed, and Felix saw an old man that was hitting the metal, shifting it in the process. The scene was so spectacular that they stopped to watch after the craftsmen.

However, a moment was enough for another man to appear, crying at them.

"Hey, what are you waiting for? The old man almost consumed all the water, quickly put it in there, " said the man in the ordinary clothes, showing towards a certain deep space where they kept water.

Soon, Theo and other candidates poured the water, leaving records to that man, and leaving the blacksmith.

Leaving the blacksmith, it didn't take long for Theo to notice that many candidates in his squad were returning to the carriages to take a new portion of the water.

Theo noted this aspect to himself and decided to return with his friends back to take new leather containers.

So, the candidates started the tedious process again, starting with water purification and finishing with water delivery. This process continued till the evening when just one street was left for them. However, the moment, they reached that street, it didn't take long for them to notice that the 3rd squad, responsible for the east have already delivered more than half of the water to their street.

Of course, many in Theo's squad got angry and wanted to show their dissatisfaction when they saw their captain girl with a smile on her lips.

"I warned you, this is your challenge! Of course, you delivered water, but you made it without a work team while your opponents acted differently. This is a result of your own actions," explained the captain girl, approaching her squad, "You better hurry and deliver as much water as you can, or they will do all the work instead of you,"

Just one reminder, and all the candidates with leather containers behind their backs, moved out and rushed to deliver as much water as they could.

Finishing with his cargo, Theo and his friends decided to stay and watch after the 3rd squad, and how they work. Soon, they quickly noticed that the candidates from the 3rd squad returned much earlier than the candidates from his squad. In short, they delivered water 2 times when his squad comrades returned with new water. So, it didn't take long for candidates to fill the demand for the water and move out to other streets.

Spending the next half an hour checking all the nearby streets, Theo's squad quickly found out that all demand for the water is filled, and it became clear that candidates completed their objective.

Gathering around the carriages, they didn't wait long till the appearance of the captain girl that threw an irritated glance at them.

"Follow me, I will show you your barracks, by the way, take all the water that is left with you," said the girl.

Half an hour later, Theo and others stopped in front of the barracks, dedicated to the 5th squad.

"Here is the place where you will rest, the bathhouse is behind the barracks, use your water in there, the dining room is a big building you saw along our way, just come there every time in the morning and the evening," said the captain girl, leaving her subordinates for themselves.

Entering the barracks, candidates quickly saw around 10-20 wooden beds in each tent without any other things inside. After choosing several beds near each other, Theo and his friends rushed to the bathhouse to wash their sweat away. However, when they approached the bathhouse, they quickly noticed huge rows of other candidates from all squads, standing in front of the bathhouse, and paying to several tall figures in the water porters' uniform.

Just a glance was enough for Theo to raise his hand, stopping his friends.

"What is wrong Theo?"

"Look, it looks like if we want to wash, we will have to pay for those, standing in front of the bathhouse," explained Theo.

Just as Theo finished his speech, Felix noticed one returning candidate, and quickly approached him, blocking his way.

"Hey! Can you tell us what they take for the pass to the bathhouse?" asked Felix with a smile on his lips.

The boy looked immersed in his own thoughts and had a sad smile on his lips, but he quickly returned to his senses and looked at Felix and his friends.

"Nothing much, they take half of the water in your leather container, and make you write a note that you should give 10 merits for them in exchange for using bathhouse," explained the boy.

"Hmm, it seems acceptable," said Leonardo before throwing his attentive glance at the boy, "Hey, it's obvious that you are dissatisfied with such an exchange, tell us what are the hidden stones?"

Just a reminder was enough for the boy to return his dissatisfied expression.

"Those bastards took more than half of my water, made me indebted for 10 merit points to them, and the only thing I got was the possibility to wash with my own water inside that building. Besides, they didn't even provide separate rooms for boys and girls, forcing everyone to wash in the same room," explained the boy with a twitching vein on his forehead, "You know, I would better wash outside than die from embarrassment in there."

The boy sighed before leaving Theo and his friends in the direction of his barracks.

The friends exchanged glances before looking at each other.

"What will we do?" asked Felix.

Theo spent several moments, pondering about the solution while his friends started exchanging ideas.

"Why don't we create our own small bathhouse near our barracks?" suggested Zed.

Leonardo shook his head for such an idea.

"It won't work, the patrol will quickly find out about it, and will demolish it, punishing us with a huge sum of merit points in the process,"

"What if we go to public bathhouses?" suggested Felix.

"It might work for the short term, but it's not a solution for the long term. At first, we would need to spend our money on that. Second, I am sure, candidates, attending the bathhouses will attract huge attention, and those guys will quickly find out about us, and it won't take long until they come after us with a certain problem to make us lose our money."

"What if we just close our eyes at that, 10 merit points aren't much, we earned 50 merit points today," asked Felix, "By the way, the chance to see some girls nude is not such a bad idea,"

The boys totally ignored his suggestion, continuing to talk among each other.

"It looks like they force us," said Leonardo, releasing a sigh, "What about you, Theo?"

Theo raised his head, returning to his senses and looking at his friends with a slight smile on his lips.

"I think I have a carcass of the plan, but we have to visit that bathhouse first and see everything with our own eyes," said Theo, moving towards the row.

The boys exchanged several glances among each other while a delighted smile appeared on his face before following after their friend.

A half an hour later, Theo and his friends finally reached the entrance to the bathhouse where water porters were standing.

"If you want to enter, just give us half of the water in your leather container, and write the note, if you don't have water, just write a note, indebting us 20 merit points," said the tall boy with a monotone, bored voice, "If you want to enter VIP zone, just give us note, indebting 50 merit points,"

"What are the differences?" asked Theo, looking at the 19-years looking, boy.

"Warm water, better conditions, own cabins, and even more if you pay for that of course," said the boy with a lewd smile on his lips.

"I see," said Theo, "Here, take it, I chose 1st option,"

The tall boy quickly poured half of the water from Theo's container before taking a note from him and returning the container.

"Move to the left part of the bathhouse,"

His friends also followed after Theo, and several moments later they entered into the big bathhouse, moving to the left.

They quickly passed through several corridors and ended up in a vast room with many nude people. There were no separated cabins and boys and girls were forced to wash in the same room, using their own water they took with themselves.

Some shy boys and girls blocked certain parts of their bodies, however, it couldn't help to hide everything from the experienced eyes.

Just several moments were enough for Zed, Felix, and Leonardo to redden when they saw several nude, washing girls. Of course, it was natural for their bodies to react, and it also impacted several girls who were looking at them, making them red.

Theo on the other hand threw a glance through the room before moving towards a certain direction without paying attention to the nude bodies around him.

His muscled and tall body quickly attracted attention from both the boys and the girls, but Theo continued to move further before stopping near one of the corners near the window and turning to look at his friends.

A moment later, he quickly chanted several water bullets, filling his leather container to the brim before turning and helping his friends.

Finishing, preparing water, Theo looked at his friends.

"Help me, block the view, it would be better if only a few people notice what we will be doing here," said the, turning and starting making certain preparations.

A moment later, all 3 boys formed a small wall in front of Theo, hiding him from others, and showing their bodies to the several spectators that quickly lost all the interest when they saw them.

At the same time as his friends were helping him, Theo quickly dried the surroundings, using "Firedust" and taking several small planks of wood, and creating a small bonfire with a fireball, a moment later he took a small metallic bucket where he poured his water from the leather container.

Finishing with preparation, Theo stood up, looking at his friends.

"Hey, does anyone know a wind spell?"

Leonardo that was hiding Theo, turned his head to look behind and opened his mouth wide when he saw what Theo created behind them.

"I can create a basic wind spell to gather all the steam and hide it so that others wouldn't notice us,"

"Good, do that then, now I will take your place while you go back and look after the fire," said Theo, taking his friend's place.

Fortunately for them, only a few girls noticed what they were doing before they left the bathhouse, returning to the barracks.

"Theo, it was amazing, where did you get that wood and that bucket from?" asked Zed, falling to his curiosity.

Theo raised his hand and showed it to the small ring on his finger.

"This is space ring, it just happened I kept some wood and iron bucket in there," answered Theo with a smile on his lips.

"That's amazing, it looks like we can wash with warm water while we stay as candidates," said Felix with a wide smile on his lips.

"Don't hurry Felix, it was quite risky, and Theo did it because there were much fewer people inside today, and it happened that there were much fewer people near the windows. I doubt, we would be always that lucky as we were today," said Leonardo, moving his glance at Theo, "Theo, you told us that you had a plan, isn't it the right time to share it with us?"

"Well, I will tell you soon, just have to wait and see," said Theo, moving towards the barracks.