Chapter 45. Cleaning House
Rhys worked through the night, picking up every last scrap of trash from Aquari’s manor and the grounds around it. When that was done, he lugged the trash up higher into the mountain, around the corner and out of sight in a deep ravine that was somewhat hidden from the main upper peak village. There was still plenty of trash on the mountain and around the village, but Rhys wasn’t done; he was just done with the most important part of the upper peak. Done, and in need of a new potion. He lifted the bottle. Empty, completely empty. Not even a drop left.
So it’s time to brew a new one.
The process wasn’t that more complex for the new potion he wanted to brew. It was the same as the previous method, in fact, except for one small detail; the trash pile he used to obtain the impurities was twice as large. That meant twice the impurities… and twice the ash. Looking at the mountain of purified ash he’d made, Rhys snorted. He’d have to go visit Sorden soon, before he generated more ash than he could possibly handle.
Brewing the double-power potion wasn’t particularly difficult. As he purified the ash, he scooped it out of the cauldron and added more impure ash, until he reached twice the original concentration of impurities. It was a technique that would allow him to continue concentrating the potion up until he could no longer fit it into the reinforced vial.
He called the potion into the vial and stood, wiping his brow. Aquari’s manor was cleared of trash, and all the refuse was here, in this ravine. Once he cleared the rest of the upper village, he’d be most of the way done. At that point, he’d just have to keep up his daily trash duties and brew the potions he needed to keep advancing toward the toxic trash pit.
Rhys raised his brows. He’d thought he’d be struggling to complete it within the two weeks, but here he was, on the end of day one, with success already within his grasp. Guess I overestimated things. He shrugged to himself, not dissatisfied. Better to overestimate the task than underestimate. Though… he glanced back at Aquari’s manor. If it wasn’t for Az’s help, there was no way he would have completed clearing out the papers so quickly. He shouldn’t discount Az’s assistance. It probably would have been a two-week task without the cat-man stepping in.
That means I have two weeks to get stronger. Rhys cracked his knuckles, slowly grinning. Two weeks to work toward the toxic trash pit. Two weeks to absorb as many impurities as he could, and reforge his innards and outards until he was unrecognizable as the trash he’d began as.
That was the nice thing about starting as trash. He didn’t hesitate to burn it all down and rebuild, because he started with nothing to lose.
Taking a big sip of the potion, he stretched. Time was a-wasting, and there was still trash to collect.
It took him longer than he expected to finish clearing the upper peak. The trash wasn’t as concentrated as it was in Aquari’s house, but that was exactly the problem. While he’d spent a whole day in Aquari’s house, just lugging garbage out and running back in, he’d been spending that entire time moving garbage. He had his hands on trash the whole time, and was constantly hefting it around, whether that meant bringing it to Az or taking it out to the ravine.
The rest of the upper peak wasn’t half as concentrated. Not even a quarter. But that was exactly the problem. He spent hours chasing little bits of garbage up and down the mountain, and only came back with a single bagful of trash. He wasn’t exactly complaining, since it was also good training for his stamina and legs, and his nascent skill Trash Step, but it did take far longer than he was expecting to collect far less trash.
As he ran around, chasing trash, he scurried over a patch of screed, loose, smooth dry rock that threatened to slip down the mountain and spawn a landslide. To his surprise, his Trash Step skill activated. His steps grew firmer, and the skill guided his feet to the best places to stand, as if he’d spent years scrabbling over gravel. Rhys was so startled that he paused in the middle of the screed, only to quickly scramble back into motion as stopping so suddenly on loose gravel almost sent him to the ground.