I stood there in a daze, staring at the machines and workers in front of me.
It wasn't surprising to see a sewage treatment plant. I had seen enough of them on Earth, either with my own eyes or through videos.
So that part wasn't new.
What was new was how they did it.
On Earth, we needed long processes and huge facilities. Here, they did it all in a single chamber.
It didn't look as efficient as the systems on Earth since a lot of the labor was still done manually. And then there was the heat and the stench.
But the process itself seemed faster.
Simpler.
A plain filter to stop the piles of dirt and shit. And a machine to clean the water. That was all they had. And still the water came out clear. As if it had been drawn from some lonely mountain spring.
That part baffled me the most.
I had often thought about the level of technology in this world.
What era are they even in?
I had never cared about things like that back at the estate.
I was a child then. And what child tried to understand how the whole world worked?
Later, I had been too occupied with swordsmanship.
It struck me again then.
How little I actually knew about this world beyond the basic information Lucien had taught me.
But seeing a modern sewage treatment plant confirmed something for me.
This world…
It couldn't be compared to Earth.
Their starting points were simply too different.
Earth had physics, electricity, and fuel.
Terros had mana.
A surreal force that couldn't be compared to anything on Earth. Its applications and uses were still a mystery to me.
I knew how to use it to enhance my body.
That was all.
And yet here, right in front of me, stood a machine that looked familiar to something on Earth while feeling entirely foreign at the same time.
I had sensed it the moment I laid eyes on it.
A faint ripple of mana from inside the machine. That translucent glow confirmed it.
It was powered by mana.
How?
I didn't know.
I couldn't even begin to grasp its principles.
But there was one thing I understood.
I shouldn't underestimate this world.
Just because they ran around with swords didn't mean their technology had stagnated as well. Right here in front of me was proof that this world could very well stand shoulder to shoulder with Earth's advanced technology.
"Hey!"
A voice broke through, snapping me out of it before I could sink any deeper into my thoughts.
One of the workers had left his post and walked toward me.
"Who are you?"
The man was about the same height as me, which was rather small for an adult. He wore no shirt, and dirt and grime covered most of his skin. Heavy bags hung beneath his exhausted eyes.
Looking at me again, he repeated himself.
"Who are you?"
Having looked enough, I answered with what the guard had told me to say.
"I was sent from above and ordered to help here until tomorrow morning."
The man's face brightened slightly at my words.
Clap.
He even clapped his hands.
"Finally they send us some extra hands. I've been begging for months."
But just as quickly, his expression darkened.
"Tsk. But they only send one boy. And only until tomorrow."
After grumbling enough, he stepped closer and patted my shoulder with his filthy hand.
"Great. Boy, down here you don't have to worry about appearances. There are no guards. It's just us men here! Hahah."
The stench from the grime and shit on his body made my stomach turn while he smeared some of it even onto my shoulder.
Not caring in the slightest, he continued.
"Since it's your first time, I'll let you choose. Want to take care of the beasts or shit?"
I frowned at his question before taking a moment to decide.
Then I answered.
"Beasts."
There was no sane person who would choose shit.
Tap.
Smearing even more grime across my shoulder, he chuckled.
"You choose your own fate, boy."
His words made me feel like I had just walked into a trap, and I parted my lips to respond.
"Baldy!"
But he shouted before I could speak.
At his call, another person came, jogging over.
It was hard to tell his age since his face was blackened by dirt and grime, but he looked like a young adult. And the moment I saw him up close, I understood why the man had called him Baldy.
He had no hair at all. His scalp was completely bare and smeared with dirt.
Stopping in front of us, Baldy looked between me and the old man.
The other man finally removed his hand from my shoulder and addressed him.
"Baldy, you have to fill in on beast duty today."
Baldy's expression crumbled immediately.
"Again? Why me?"
The older man patted his shoulder, smearing grime across it as well.
"Big Mouth hurt himself yesterday. Just fill in today. I'll even give you some extra hands."
Chuckling, he tilted his head toward me. Baldy followed the gesture and looked up and down before his eyes widened slightly.
"Oh. Did we get a new one?"
Clicking his tongue, the man grumbled,
"Nah. Those greedy bastards only sent him to help until tomorrow. Tsk."
Tap.
Patting Baldy's shoulder again, he shoved him lightly forward.
"Don't argue anymore and just go. They need helpers. As a reward, I'll put you on shit duty for a whole week afterward."
Baldy's expression brightened instantly.
"Shit duty for a whole week!"
Grabbing my arm with his dirty fingers, he pulled me along before shouting over his shoulder.
"No take-backs, Old Man!"
The old man only laughed and shouted after us.
"Right, boy! Welcome to the Hell under Hell!"
'Hell under Hell?'
Step.
Baldy kept pulling me by the arm as we headed toward the side of the chamber.
Ahead of us stood a small metal door.
Unlike the old and rotten appearance of the rest of the chamber, this one looked pristine and heavily reinforced.
Only when we stood before it did Baldy finally let go of my arm and reached for the lock.
Click.
He opened the door, stepped inside, then held it for me.
"Hold it open for a moment."
Placing my hand against the metal, I held it while looking ahead.
The room beyond was completely dark, illuminated only faintly by the light from the chamber behind us.
Baldy walked farther in, allowing me to see more.
It wasn't a room.
It was a corridor.
It stretched left and right far into the darkness, with only a single door visible opposite the one I was holding.
Click.
Baldy unlocked that second door and held it open, gesturing for me to follow.
Step.
Letting go of the first door, I walked inside.
Thud.
It shut behind me with a heavy sound. The echo traveled down both sides of the corridor and came back again, making me realize just how big this underground structure was.
Step.
I walked through the dark corridor and stepped through the other door.
Thud.
He shut it behind me.
And another chamber stretched out in front of me.
The first thing I noticed was the smell.
It didn't reek as much as the other chamber. There was still the stench of grime and human waste clinging to the workers but it wasnt as bad as before.
The lightstones set into the walls were stronger here and illuminated most of the chamber. Looking farther ahead, I saw that the chamber was divided into numerous compartments separated by stone walls.
A line of people moved before me.
Their appearance wasn't much different from the workers in the other chamber.
Torn clothes, dirt-smeared skin, exhausted expressions.
But their hands carried crates.
Two workers at a time carried one crate from a room toward the far end of the chamber.
Baldy stopped near a stack of crates, and I halted beside him, waiting for instructions.
Gesturing toward the towering pile neatly stacked along the wall, he said.
"Help me carry these over. For now, that's all we can do."
Nodding, I grabbed the other side of the crate.
"Ready. One, two."
On his count, we lifted it and followed the line of workers.
The crate wasn't heavy. I didn't even need to use mana and enhance my muscles.
As we carried it toward the far side of the chamber, I glanced into the other compartments separated by stone walls.
Each one held different things.
One contained racks filled with swords, spears, and axes. Another was filled with broken pieces of equipment and armor. The next room was filled with clothes—black ones like the kind I wore and white ones. Another held cleaning utensils and various other tools.
Like that, we walked through the chamber passing one room after another. And the farther we went, the more I smelled something else beside the stench of dirt and grime.
A good smell even.
One I hadn't smelled in a long time.
Fresh food.
Seeing me glance around and wrinkle my nose, Baldy spoke up.
"It's bread, boy. These crates are filled with flour. We're bringing them to the bakers."
My eyes widened.
"Bakers? Here?"
Chuckling, Baldy answered,
"Boy, just look ahead."
The moment I turned my gaze forward, I saw it.
People in aprons were working busily inside the rooms ahead of us, tending to huge ovens and baking bread.
The smell was delicious.
I hadn't had fresh bread for so long that even smelling it made me feel better.
Thud.
We set the crate down at the far end near the bakers and turned around, heading back while weaving around the other workers.
Not wanting to wait any longer, I asked the question that had been bothering me the most.
"Baldy… wasn't it said that we would be taking care of the beasts?"