The Mechanical Era

WARNING: This chapter might gross out a few people. This chapter depicts an aspect of life that many people will find disgusting.

...

From all over the city, through the dark stone tunnels built underneath the city, gallons of wastewater mixed in with solid waste gather at the bottom of a stone pool, unable to move further down to the next tunnel because of a mechanical lid, blocking any flow. The workers were bribed to work inside a stone building reeking of vomit, dirt, urine, and shit.

The workers were all uniformed in leather attire, from top to bottom, to prevent any wastewater from even touching their smooth skin. The uniform consisted of boots, pants, a belt, a long-sleeved top, gloves, and even a hoodie and a mask.

Recently, there have been some announcements. Thanks to the industrialization program, large amounts of money went into expanding the existing facilities, to be able to handle more waste. Using the power of cement, they were to build larger pools, smoother mechanisms, and more efficient ways of transportation.

As soon as the workers arrive inside the building, many immediately vomited upon picking up the foul stench that roams across the halls. No wonder nobody bothers to build in these areas. The smell brings the value of any property down in an instant.

They were utterly shocked when they saw the normal workers going about their day in this condition. It was almost as if they have developed a tolerance for working in this kind of place. It was necessary to make the job bearable.

Regardless, the men all got to work, upgrading one facility at a time. A few tunnels have been closed, to allow smooth construction. While some facilities are under construction, others had visitors coming over.

Retired knights were deemed not strong or loyal enough to be left in the army. Instead of wearing their usual uniform or suits of armor, they came in wearing modest hemp clothes and calf-skin boots, to save up some money.

Like the construction workers, the retired knights were not able to handle the smell. Many however managed to hold their vomit till a bucket arrived, where they call collectively puked up in there. Once all the food they had digested came out the front end, they were given a tour of the place.

"Man, this place stinks. Why do you all bother to work here?" one of them asked. The worker, while continuing to walk, spoke.

"The pay is good. Besides, my job and work are what keeps the city from smelling like this. A few of us suffer for the benefit of the common good, so to speak."

They continued to walk down till the guide stops. He then pointed out what the people around were doing. He first pointed at a man behind a glass window, with a few levers to operate, and then points to a stone pool, being filled up with waste."

"An operator, after determining whether a stone square pool is filled up, pulls a lever. This activates a complicated mechanical system, closing one of the tunnels shut with a lid, cutting any more flow of wastewater to the pool. It was when workers jump down to collect any unwanted garbage using shovels and nets and dumped them into buckets.

Specifically, they look out for any collected solid waste such as feces, unused yarn, unused fabric, wooden planks, and so on. Anything that is solid, and won't pass through the purification process of the wastewater.

Once a bucket is filled up, a person comes by, lifts it and places it on a rollable platform, and takes it to a different section of the building." The guide then continued to walk down the bridge, where the others followed.

They arrived at a room, one with tables of buckets, with people in gloves, touching and placing the solid waste in different sections.

"Here, the solid waste is differentiated into the correct category and placed into different wooden buckets. These new buckets are carried over to another section of the room. This solid waste is then destroyed with the help of magic, and magical tools used to empower the magical workers working there.

Tools such as a runic gauntlet fitted with mana stones, increase your magical abilities significantly. Although the equipment is very expensive, especially when fitting them onto hundreds of people, the palace considers it a good use of money."

The guide then leads them down the stairs, to a floor where the pool of wastewater resides. There were more tunnels with glass to the side and some strange equipment. The workers themselves had some runic gauntlets.

"Once a pool is cleared out, the operator rings the bell, alerting the workers down below, and then rings the bell again to inform them that the wastewater is coming. Then he pulls the second lever, opening up a tunnel underneath the pool.

The dirty wastewater starts to travel through a tunnel, soon to pass one of the only surviving mana-tech in existence. A sort of large ring encompassing the walls that activate once magical workers supply it with mana."

The ring itself was made using primary mana stones and manacite. The interior of the ring is made up of a giant ring-like mana stone, carefully cut out of a large mana stone chunk. Runic writing is added to it, giving it the instructions to perform the spell when activated. It is covered in a layer of manacite metal, to cover the letters and allow the device to function, and power it.

To activate the ring, the workers with the gauntlets simply grab the handle and flow mana through the ring. To make sure that the rings last as long as they could, they are instructed to power it once they hear the bell."

The knights were in awe, surprised that such a device exists. Many start to ask questions, which the guide happily answered.

"The ring is invented by a genius long ago. It works like any runic weapon would. You have codes of instructions cut inside the mana stone ring, and power it up. The only downside is that it is very hard to build. Although..."

"Although what?"

"...It wasn't always like this. Back then, millennia ago, humans had managed to create rings for only a fraction of the price. However, as time went on, it became ever more expensive to do so.

The current theory suggests that humans back in the day had a larger variety of magical spells they could have used, as the ancient instructions indicate. However, over time, people lost the ability to cast rare types of magic.

Nobody knows why humanity can no longer cast these ancient spells. They are still written in old books, kept preserved by many historians and librarians, and left for anyone to read and try to learn these powerful spells, but nothing! It was one of the greatest mysteries of all time plaguing humanity." the guide added, wanting to tell anyone that piece of information he had recently learned.

"Anyways, the ring projects a form of barrier, where the water that passes through it becomes fresh and clean. These are then flown out a clean tunnel, into the Pixie river, where no harm is done, and the river remains unpolluted, kept clean and beautiful."

The former knights, who had disregard for anyone whose occupation wasn't but a magical fighter, gained a lot of respect for the workers once they heard saw how much waste they were getting rid of.

Once the tour was done, they headed over to the office of the manager, to discuss payment. The manager, who was rather a stiff boss, working inside a sealed room in order to not take the stench, explained.

"A magical purifier worker's starting pay was around 4 silver coins and 150 copper coins a month, or about 1 gold coin annually." the retired knights, not sure if that is high or low relative to others, decided to give a comparison.

"A comparison? Well, if you want that, compared to a normal worker, who cannot wield magic, you all would make 44% more than their salary, and those men are able to afford basic luxuries. You all should be good to go."

"How long do we have to work?" another asked.

"Well, you will all be working 12 hours a day, from sunrise to sunset. Some of you might be appointed to work the night shift, which would be from sunset to sunrise."

"Is there a separate room so we can eat our food? I can imagine eating while the stench is present." asked another. The others nodded in agreement. They all were relieved one of them asked.

"Yes. We do have a room like that. There is even a bathhouse, where you all must take a short shower before you can enter and start eating your food. It is part of our work culture at this point. Happened because some moron dumped toxic potions into the drain."

"How long will the shower last?"

"About 5 minutes. It is on a timer. You just get in, use a light amount of soap, and get out."

"Where does the water come from?"

"The treated water. Some of them are filled up with buckets so that the workers can shower." A few more questions were asked around and given acceptable replies. After all, was said and done, the retired knights agreed to work there.