As an orange hue graced the infirmary, a realization struck Cisse as he turned to Arthur. "I just realized that you haven't taken a bath yet … and it's been weeks since you got here."
"Oh right," realized Arthur as he sniffed his arms. "Oddly enough, I don't smell."
"You got to thank mother for that. She is actually a Celest. Though I don't know exactly what her ability is, I know that it centers around healing. It also comes with the interesting trait of being able to be transferred to anyone temporarily. Currently, father has it since he is currently on the frontlines. But though mother's transferred her ability, she still has some ability of very minor healing and restorations—quite convenient for taking care of bedridden patients."
"Wait, I thought members of the clan couldn't Awaken a Path other than the Ichorest Path, courtesy of the clan's ritual?"
"That would be the case if the effects of the ritual weren't dissolved with the loss of the Ghana Clan's chief's Bloodline Seed Essense. With his loss came the breaking of the ritual's effects."
Eyebrows raised in interest, Arthur asked. "Does that mean when you Awaken, you will have an equal chance of embarking on any of the Paths?"
Grabbing his chin and looking up, Cisse slowly shook his head. "No. More than likely, I will Awaken as an Ichorest just like father, his father, and his father's father. Lineage Bloodlines are weird like that."
"That's actually kinda cool; that way, the bloodline always gets carried on to the next generation."
"Eh," shrugged Cisse as he hopped of Arthur's bed. "Anyways, let's get going; we don't wanna miss tonight's chat."
"Chat?"
"Yep."
…
Built-in a circular manner, the Asante Tribe was separated into four large sections or pies. One pie was dedicated to the military, another to agriculture, another to residential, and another for a market. While the chief's manor was built on a raised platform in the middle. This layout made for easy access and easy management. And as for where the infirmary Arthur was staying in was, it was located in the military sector, which was bordered by both the agriculture and residential sectors.
And as for where the community bath was located, it was built in the middle of the residential zone.
After walking for a while and receiving quite a few curious stares, Arthur was finally led to a large stone structure.
Standing 7-meters tall, a smoothly carved yellowish stone was held up by several similar stone columns. Which in turn rested firmly on a large slab of similarly yellowish stone. Walking up three steps would lead one into a foyer that led to two different areas – males and females.
According to Cisse, the bath was rebuilt a long time ago by a previous chief who vehemently believed that a community bath symbolized community members' bond with one another. Thus he made it his mission to create a bath that symbolized how beautiful the bond between the tribe members was and should be. As for why the utilized stones were yellowish? Cisse explained that it was a type of stone called a sunstone. Sunstones carried with them the unique quality of absorbing the sun's heat during the day and dispersion it in the night – it makes the baths warm.
Nevertheless, walking into the male changing rooms and garbing their lower halves in towels. Arthur and Cisse both made their way into the male central bath.
Much to Arthur's pleasant surprise, the bath was much larger than what the external structure led him to believe. However, unlike the bath's external structure, the bath's sunstone was significantly much more yellow, denoting a greater ability to retain absorbed heat.
The bath itself was a large pool, surrounded by unique stools placed intermittently of one another, along with respective buckets for when anyone was ready to scrub themselves.
Surveying the bath, Arthur was fascinated to learn that everyone in the bath had similar white markings decorating their bodies similar to Cisse. Even more, interestingly, each marking was unique to each person.
Nevertheless, as Arthur surveyed, he likewise was also being surveyed.
The once noisy bath had become eerily silent as each party took in each other.
PAH…PAH….PAH-PAH-PAH-WHEWOO!
After a moment, the silence was immediately filled with the sounds of clapping and whistling.
"Aha, stinking brat," laughed Ajax as he swung an arm over Arthur's shoulders. "When you said you wanted to help out, I thought you meant passing out supplies and whatnot, but you really dived headfirst into the tide."
"And look what I got, "complained Mensa from afar as he pointed to his forehead.
Seeing the darker small circular between Mensa's brows, Arthur turned to Ajax and noticed that he too, had a similar bruise. 'Looks like she got to them too.'
"My bad." Apologized Arthur.
"Aha," laughed Mensa. "All is forgiven. I heard you should be the one the boys and I thank for getting us out of the infirmary early. Heaven knows how long it would have been before we got out."
It should know that the reason that Mensa and the other's injuries weren't completely healed had to do with a policy chief of the tribe – Dinga. Since Dinga currently possessed Ayfia's ability, it wouldn't have been difficult to heal them all of their injuries. However, according to Dinga's policy '3-Strikes', after two injuries on a battlefield, you will be healed of any vital injuries and sent home. While other injuries will be intentionally kept to naturally heal. The idea of his soldier charging headfirst into battle, thinking no matter what happens, they will be healed, left a bad taste in Dinga's mouth. Thus, this policy was implemented. Not to mention, healing itself was quite energy-consuming.
"You can leave the lad alone now Ajax, you are scaring him. Your little one is dancing around a bit much…wait, are you turning to a new branch?"
"Bah, screw you, Mensa, can't I be friendly? And what's wrong with turning to a new branch? Unlike you, I still won't need the help of toys to please anyone."
"Gee, I wonder why, Mr. One Pump and Done?" Scoffed Mensa. "You are already tuckered out before the idea of trying new things even crosses your mind…."
"Damn you, Mensa. Once, it only happened ONCE…" roared Ajax as he lunged towards Mensa.
SPLASH!
Immediately the bath burst into a roar of laughter.
Watching the two men wrestle in the bath, Arthur turned to Cisse, who simply shrugged as he prepared to get in himself.
"Don't mind them, lad. They are always like this." Rose a well built and endowed dark skin man with black locks bound in a ponytail. Noticeably, his white markings were reminiscent of that of a hammer, and perhaps it was because of the steam in the bath, but Arthur could swear he saw the markings slightly glow.
"The name is Kwame (Kwa-mey), current captain of the tribe's guard."
"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, "smiled Arthur as he shook Kwame's hand with a firm grip.
"Pleasure's all mine." Kwame chuckled. "Thanks for your help during the tide. It saved us a lot of trouble. Even got a new fire burning in the squads as they watched you and little Cisse here."
"Glad I could help," replied Arthur as his eyes shifted to a small dark circle between Kwame's brows. "She got to you too?"
"Yea," nodded Kwame with a laugh. "Something about negligence and how a captain shouldn't be eating snacks during an emergency."
Hearing this, Arthur let out a laugh.
It should be known that F-Rank beasts aren't much in the eyes of the inhabitants of the realm. Without even awakening, as long as someone possessed a decent level of combat skills, they could be taken down relatively easily – assuming the beast's bloodline grade was basic and not higher.
"Little?" Twitched Cisse, who was already in the bath with his towel resting on top of his head, his mind still focused on Kwame's earlier words.
Putting his towel on his head, Arthur walked beside Kwame as he sat down next to Cisse with a laugh. "Told ya."
"Hmpf, just wait till I Awaken."