Chapter 43 - A Trip To The Bathhouse

Merlin wandered through town, embraced by the cold morning wind. Although it was early in the morning there were still plenty of people around, and no matter where he went, he always seemed to attract the attention of those nearby. Some looked frightened, others disgusted, some just looked with morbid curiosity and very few seemed to not care.

He ignored them all and quickly made his way to the local bathhouse. He figured that if he went to a store for clothing first that they would be frightened or even kick him out, so he decided to get clean first.

The southern side of town mostly consisted of residential areas for commoners. It also served as the area of business for most kinds of labour work. Although the town seemed well off, it was typical that most commoners did not have their own bathtubs, meaning there was a cheap bathhouse nearby that served commoners, especially those who became dirty from work.

After a few more minutes of searching around he found the local bathhouse. It didn't seem like they had any customers at the moment, which was understandable due to the time of day. He opened his inventory, throwing his equipment inside before making his way inside the building, and as he pushed open the door, a little bell chime rang.

"Welcome--" The young woman standing at the counter began reciting her welcoming script, only to be caught off guard by Merlin's appearance.

Merlin walked towards the counter, fortunately the filth latched onto his body had dried out before entering the town, so he wasn't dropping trails of blood and mud behind him. The receptionist took a step back as he approached, it seemed she realised that a lot of the filth attached to him was mostly blood.

"I'm sorry for surprising you." He awkwardly smiled, trying to seem friendly. He pulled his disgusting looking hair away from his face to show her that he was young. "I just started working as a mercenary. I didn't expect to get this filthy on my first day."

"I apologise, how unprofessional of me." the receptionist regained her composure before reciting her script once more. "Welcome to the Rosewater bathhouse, we charge two copper pieces for entry into the main bath or six copper pieces for a private bath."

"Customers enjoying our private bath may pay an additional two copper pieces for the bath to be filled with our famous rosewater. Bathing in our rosewater will heal your weary and wounded body and help prevent your body from succumbing from sickness." She continued her sales pitch, Merlin was curious if the healing bath would help his current affliction. "As for other services, for four copper we can cast cleanse on both you and your clothing."

"I'll have the rosewater bath and the cleanse spell, please." Merlin opened his inventory and accessed his money.

He selected one silver piece, causing a special menu to appear beside it, one of the options on that menu mentioned conversion. Upon selecting conversion, a selection screen opened asking what he would like to convert his coin to.

There were a few options however most were greyed out, with words such as "requires 10 silver coins" or "requires 100 silver coins" hovering over the icon. However two options were available, one being for a single silver coin, meaning selecting this would cancel the conversion, and the other was for ten copper coins.

Merlin selected the copper coin trade, making the contents of his wallet thirty silver and ten copper. He pulled one silver and two copper pieces from his inventory and placed them on the counter.

"Alright, the bath will be prepared shortly, would you like to receive the cleanse spell now?" The woman asked while signalling to a coworker to get the bath prepared.

"Ah yes, please." Merlin nodded, now waiting for the filth on his body to finally be removed.

The receptionist began chanting, and a few seconds later Merlin was engulfed in a warm light.

He watched as large flakes of filth peeled away from his skin, floating into the air before disappearing, he felt his hair finally loosen up, no longer glued and clumped together with dried blood. The uncomfortable itchy feeling of having blood and mud caked on his skin was now gone, and the horrible scratching sensation he received every time his body rubbed against his filthy clothes had vanished too.

Eventually the spell ended, leaving Merlin finally looking and smelling fresh, although he still didn't feel clean, but at least he didn't feel disgusting either. His appearance now apparently not terrifying, as the receptionist started staring at him more intently, where previously she was startled.

"White hair, pale skin and purple eyes. You don't see that every day." She muttered out loud, only to realise after the fact that she was audible.

Merlin gave her a smile in response, and shortly after he was directed into his private room and left alone to bathe.

As Merlin entered his private room, an intense scent of roses flooded his senses. And various memories came with it, causing his body to suddenly tense up uncomfortably. He didn't realise his fear for the ghost had run that deep, sure it was scary looking, but he was used to fighting giant dragons, grotesque demons and various undead constructs that made his current ghost look adorable in comparison.

Shaking off his fear, he stepped further into the room, locking the door behind him. He stripped down his clothes using the equipment menu for convenience, everything on him vanished one piece at a time until he was standing in his birthday suit.

On one side of the small square room was a large ceiling to floor mirror, and as he walked up to it, his attention was immediately drawn to the purple blight that had grown up to his shoulder, but his gaze slowly shifted over to the various scars that currently covered his pale body.

The players of New Genesis weren't considered humans, often regarded to as travellers or otherworlders by NPCs, they possessed abilities that the human inhabitants of this world typically did not have, such as the ability to heal over time, and especially the ability to regrow limbs. The one downside to this ability was that it left marks and scars on the users body until they received some other healing source, such as magic or potions, or by bathing in a healing spring or medicinal bath.

The bath was roughly the size of a small hot tub, it was embedded into the floor surrounded by large stone tiles, and the bathwater itself had an entire rose worth of petals floating on the water's surface. Merlin lowered himself into the bath, and enjoyed the sensation of hot water embracing his skin. He submerged himself, including his head, so that every part of his body was now soaking in the bathwater. And as he came up for air he found that some rose petals stuck to his face, causing him to get slightly annoyed.

As Merlin soaked in the bath, he began thinking of his future plans, there was a lot he needed to do, especially now that people were going to be hunting him down. One thing he took note of was that he needed to learn some utility magic, such as cleanse, so that he had a method of helping himself in the event he was covered in filth once more. Acquiring the cleanse skill would either require a job soul with the ability, or for him to learn the spell as knowledge.

Knowledge within New Genesis was a strange concept to grasp at first, but it was one of the most important mechanics in the game. There were an infinite amount of abilities within New Genesis, and the list was constantly expanding alongside the world.

Most people believe at first that the best method of acquiring powerful abilities was through souls, and while yes, souls do typically have the strongest selection of skills for their particular task, whether that be a form of combat or a job, they were also rather limited in their application.

If you were in a cave and your last torch died, unless you had a soul that could cast some form of light generating magic, you'd be out of luck. Or if you were in a foreign land and didn't have a soul related to the land's inhabitants, you would most likely be unable to communicate with the locals.

This is where knowledge came in, knowledge gave players the ability to acquire skills and languages outside of souls. Although most knowledge was hard to get, especially the more powerful skills, there was some knowledge that could be easily bought, such as utility magic.

Utility magic was a vague collection of lower tier spells that helped out with everyday life, such as the cleanse spell, as well as methods of summoning light and lighting fires. They were easy spells that could be acquired for cheap and were ultimately worth the purchase due to the convenience.

There was also the rare chance of acquiring a skill through titles, but knowledge and souls were the best intentional methods.

Merlin planned to find a library or store that sold utility skill books after he bought some new gear, there were a couple skills he wanted, but cleanse was the main one.

Eventually he left the bath, as he did, he peeked at the mirror once more, noticing all the scarring on his body was now gone. The blight on his arm seemed to have retreated back down his arm a little, the purple now reaching the centre of his upper arm rather than his shoulder.

He dried himself off with the towel provided and equipped his clothes once more. He now felt clean, there was a big difference between having dirt removed from you with magic and having your body washed. As he left the building, the receptionist gave him a smile as she bid him farewell.

It was still early in the morning, although it felt somewhat warmer now than when he first entered the bathhouse. He began walking back towards the centre of town, where most of the big stores in town were.

Now that he was clean, there was no reason for him to be the centre of attention wherever he went.