4 Chapter 4

The very same as the day before, with a resounding bang the heavy steel door to Cleaner 1's room swung open. Only this time he wasn't hit. As Cleaner 1 groggily sat himself up, rubbing his eyes, he once again felt something slam against his stomach, which he immediately recognized as a broom.

"Get up Cleaner 1, you need to clean the weapons room today."

The soldier's voice was filled with the same haughty tone as yesterday. But despite this Cleaner 1 didn't pay it any mind. This was because, for whatever reason, this single soldier was the only person who even recognized his existence. Not even the soldier who flew into Cleaner 1 paid him any mind.

As the soldier walked off Cleaner 1 got up off his empty floor and was still disappointed from the night before. He was hoping he had some kind of advantage, but he was stuck with something stupid like broom mastery. How useless.

Cleaner 1 didn't even know where the weapons room was. Finding the deck yesterday was magnitudes easier. After all, he only had to go up, and would most likely reach the deck, which he eventually did, not without minor struggle.

But for the location of the weapons room, he had no idea. He had no choice but to wander the ship until he could find a room full of weapons. Cleaner 1 didn't know if there was more than one weapon room, but if there was, then he would simply say "You never told me which one to clean." to try and avoid punishment.

Wandering through the corridors of the ship was no easy task. It was especially cold in the corridors which was odd because this was a fire national ship, it being warm would make more sense. Cleaner 1 would shiver now and then while searching through the ship. 

This searching turned out to be beneficial for him as a small while before finding the weapons room, he caught sight of the kitchen. This sight instantly reminded him that he hadn't eaten a single thing since he had got here causing a loud rumble to come from his stomach like his body had forgotten too.

Cleaner 1 stopped in front of the door to the kitchen. He discreetly looked around, searching for anyone who could spot him. And slowly edged the door open, trying not to alert any possible chefs that could be there.

Luckily for him, the kitchen was empty. But Cleaner 1 didn't want to take any chances and immediately went towards a row of barrels opposite him opening the one he got to first he found loaves of bread filling it almost to the brim.

At the sight of the bread his hands instantly reached towards them and grabbed a loaf. He couldn't stop himself from eating rapidly and within less than a minute he had eaten a whole loaf of bread. 

Taking time to look around the kitchen, Cleaner 1 left with a small bag full of dry crackers. And resumed his search for the weapons room which he quickly found.

The moment he opened the door to the weapons room, he was ambushed by a wave of dust hitting his face and creating a thin layer on his clothes. This agitated Cleaner 1. His face was like that of someone who had just been slapped by their superior. He didn't know why the sight of so much dust angered him, it didn't the day before. But now he just wanted to clean it all. The feeling welled up inside Cleaner 1 as he felt the urge to clean the inside of him become stronger than ever before.

After a little over two hours his previous mood was long gone. Cleaner 1 had been earnestly sweeping away every surface in this room. The weapons were no exception. All of the spears and swords were covered in layers and layers of dust due to never being used, but thanks to Cleaner 1 they felt as if they were given a new life.

After taking one last look around the weapons room and nodding in satisfaction, Cleaner 1 finally stopped sweeping and sat against the wall. His previous fervour had now left and Cleaner 1 was sat wondering why he cleaned with such vigor. 

He was certainly not like this yesterday, so the only thing he could think of that would explain this phenomenon was the broom mastery skill he had received. As a result of thinking this, a translucent window appeared before Cleaner 1. It read :

[Broom mastery (1) - 43%]

This sight made Cleaner 1 come to some sort of understanding. Either cleaning or just using a broom would make his skill increase. This also made him think about what else a broom could be used for if not cleaning, and to test this theory Cleaner 1 swung his broom as if it were a sword.

[Broom mastery (1) - 44.5%]

Cleaner 1 was full of joy. Although he thought that broom mastery would be useless, using the broom like it was a weapon increased the skill experience, giving him hope that it could be a blessing.

Although deep down Cleaner 1 was also happy that using the broom like this was increasing his skill experience, as he now had something that would fill in the long amounts of time he would normally be doing nothing in his room. He didn't know when they would arrive at the southern water tribe, only that they were close, which made his discovery even more valuable to him as he wouldn't die of boredom before he got there.

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Authors Note:

I can feel myself getting into writing this. I hope that this momentum keeps going.

Thank you for reading.