Using Water Like Water

Water.

An element also called the source of life.

In fact, most living bodies are made of water.

Life is born from water, and moisture is the first to leave a dead body.

Something that has no shortage in explaining the truth of circulation.

It was an unchanging truth.

“Hu, aang…! Huk, what do I do…!”

The girl licking the broken pottery pieces burst into sorrowful crying.

She was crying so sadly that she didn’t even notice her finger was cut on the broken piece and bleeding.

“Because I wasted water like life… I’ll be severely scolded by my parents and the elders…! Being called in one by one…”

It was a bit ambiguous why the girl was crying.

Just because she wasted water that’s as precious as life in the desert?

Or because of the militant temperament of this combat tribe of assassins?

The answer roughly appeared to be both.

[I don’t understand because I don’t feel thirst.]

“Oh, really? Is it because of the White Sovereign’s worm constitution? That’s amazing…”

[Are you envious?]

“Yes, I’m really envious. Actually, I’m thirsty right now too. If only I could drink one cup of cool, clear, cold water…”

Nadia with profound eyes closed them, and slightly smacked her lips.

As a Korean, I truly couldn’t understand the situation.

Because I was from an environment far from deserts.

[Is water such an important issue in the desert…]

“The desert is an extremely dry and hot environment, so you sweat a lot, and sand storms and dust whirl around, making your throat always dry and parched. The lifetime asceticism of enduring thirst and dehydration symptoms is a fate that beings living in the desert must bear entirely.”

In fact, I haven’t felt thirst even once since my reincarnation.

The worms, including me, have no problem with water supply in normal times.

Because at night we sleep on the cooled ground surface, absorbing all the moisture that settles into the sand heated during the day through our full-body pores.

From the water drunk all night, unnecessary sand is expelled like a morning wake-up fart and that’s it.

If I really want to drink, I can directly find water anytime.

Finding an oasis is a piece of cake for worms with sensitive senses who have the desert as their home.

Or like desert beetles, we can moisten our throats by tilting our heads and drinking the dew collected lengthwise on our backs during dawn as we wake up.

It was an unexpected benefit of reincarnating as a vicious monster in the desert.

[If you learn water attribute magic, wouldn’t that solve it? In a world where magic exists to make miracles possible, why such inconvenience…]

“…There are quite complicated circumstances intertwined.”

The explanation from Nadia was unexpected.

In fact, this issue surprisingly needed to approach a different aspect.

It was a conflict surrounding the pursuit of basic survival rights of desert people and the interests of the privileged.

The Shahar Great Desert where clean and clear water is used as currency.

In the Arubian West Continent, a hydrokinetist is practically treated like a walking mansion.

They live extravagantly, securing key positions in decent religious states or khanates.

Being so expensive, their employment costs are also astronomically high.

To top it off, the law of scarcity applies here as well.

Although magic developed with a unique system different from the central continent, it shares similar forms.

Here, the only attribute with limited access to knowledge perusal and learning opportunities is water.

At the national level, water magic is controlled and blocked to prevent easy learning.

If teachings and formulas are widely released to the public, the water merchant guilds creating a powerful commercial cartel throughout the great desert would all starve to death.

Naturally, the power holders receive huge tributes from water merchant guilds.

All kinds of conflicts and discord are entangled between empire states, religious states, and khanates.

However, regarding this alone, they formed a common understanding.

Just like monopoly contracts aren’t loosely released in the Earth of my previous life.

[…Can’t the sand tribe Rashka learn water magic? They’re a recognized combat group, right?]

“No, our Rashka tribe ultimately cannot learn the water attribute.”

[Cannot learn the water attribute?]

That was based on a contract made between the desert god Karayan and the ancestors of the Rashka in the distant ancient times.

Karayan, who descended to the land of Arubia, ruled the land for 100 days and expounded understanding of the natural principles of the desert where sand and sun cross.

And at the point of the scheduled 100 days, he chose 100 people with the highest understanding of his teachings and divided his unique divine power.

This became the Rashka, a superhuman group that later converted to genetic features like transcendent motor nerves and mana affinity constitution.

If married within the same tribe, the constitution is 100% inherited, and if married to a commoner, there’s a 50% inheritance probability with atavism manifestation.

To spread the blessed trait chosen by the desert god as widely as possible, the early Rashka tribe practiced unrestrained polygamy and polyandry, even buying slaves.

The tribe, which was initially 100 people, grew over thousands of years to as many as 10 clans with 100,000 people at its peak.

They were an intense group that spread to live throughout the Shahar Great Desert.

The ancestors and descendants of the Rashka followed the characteristics of the desert god Karayan.

With an innate mana affinity constitution, they have affinity with earth and wind attributes.

However, with water attribute, which is the weakness and antithesis of sand, a rejection reaction occurs.

There was no class using water attribute arcane arts in the other tribes either.

Various factors overlapped, forcing a march of hardship.

Living in such an environment itself makes one strong.

Water was, indeed, a surprisingly important element.

[Do things get dirty everywhere when politicians and merchants get involved…]

“I generally express agreement. However, we are neutral, not entangled in worldly interests. Because we have various benefits like tax exemption and so on.”

[Why not just assassinate the sultans or maliks or amirs? Telling them not to monopolize pettily? That’s what they were teaching in the theory class?]

“…Reality is harsh, and the violence of numbers can never be withstood. Even for our Rashka tribe.”

The reason why the Rashka can’t realize justice was also largely political.

In the end, this is the cause that made the western continent settle as a barren land.

That it’s a land where water, the source of life, is extremely scarce.

The central continent, a typical medieval fantasy world, is rich in grasslands, dense forests, rivers and lakes with clear and clean water flowing, but the western continent is not.

From the perspective of central continent people, there’s no reason to cross over to the western continent, which is treated as a place of exile and barren land unless there’s some purpose.

Because to central continent people, the western continent is a living hell with an image of desert and vipers teeming.

While western continent people like Nadia have strange fantasies about the central continent, central continent people have nothing like that about the western continent.

That’s why you can hardly see traits of typical central continent people like white skin with blonde hair.

To central continent people, the western continent is perceived as a thoroughly non-human magical realm.

Naturally, magicians from magic towers existing in the central continent have no reason to come west.

Although research materials would be abundant in an environment full of mana, the climate itself is too harsh.

Research can’t be properly done amidst continuous life threats and even checks from indigenous forces.

[…A total crisis situation.]

As a result, various situations combined like this.

Along with the knowledge I acquired, and combined with the explanation of locals, a somewhat solid understanding was established.

“Huk, huhuk…!”

The sobbing of the girl named Mersha was gradually subsiding.

Nadia added with eyes immersed in melancholy.

“Really… Sometimes I also feel like leaving for somewhere else. Like the central continent Allos with abundant grasslands and water. What would life be like in other continents?”

…But the strange thing is, there was an unexpected element.

So if they can’t use water properly, are they all dirty and messy like homeless people?

That’s not the case, so the Rashka necessarily learn the cleansing magic Cleanse from a very young age.

Incanting it several times in daily life, they become fluffy from head to toe, as if having just showered and dried their clothes and entire body.

Because it’s basic for assassins who get covered in blood during missions or hunting, or get dirty in sandstorms while constantly honing combat techniques.

They say that an assassin who is always getting dirty should always keep their body clean as a precept and quality.

In the desert’s dry and hot environment, getting drenched in sweat in an instant is daily.

Come to think of it, the appearance of the assassins was strangely neat.

It somehow reminds me of people from the Joseon era who had dirty bodies but kept their visible white clothes clean.

These people are constantly implementing cleanliness not only for clothes but also for the body.

Anyway, it was truly unexpected in various aspects.

On the other hand, ordinary commoners, well…

“Hmm, poor Mersha… I wonder if I should secretly bring out a water jar from our house.”

Nadia, perhaps also bored, yawned while slightly activating Cleanse on herself.

White light bloomed like flowering throughout her body, then scattered into white crystals.

Her appearance appeared spotless, without a speck of dust.

“I might get scolded by Father and Mother for being soft… but seeing a child cry really hurts my heart.”

Her scent is caught by my sense of smell, developed through the worm’s unique skin integration principle.

Far from any unwashed smell, there was a rich sweet fragrance and flesh scent unique to young women.

Looking again, she’s a tremendous beauty with amazing looks and an explosive figure.

She’s unparalleled to the point where it’s hard to believe she’s a murderous assassin.

…If I were human, I might have been attracted to her.

[The policy has been decided.]

“Huh? What?”

Should I give a gift to that girl who broke the water jar?

Not as a gesture of goodwill, but just as a pure whim.

I just couldn’t understand crying over just a jar of water.

Unfortunately, I don’t have hands and feet so delicate things are impossible.

But what’s needed in the current situation is possible.

Hwaryuk-

I raised mana power.

Blue mana shimmer arose on my 50-meter massive body.

Nadia, who was nearby, reflexively looked up at me and asked.

“Ah…? What are you trying to…”

I focused on the air in front of Mersha at her eye level as she knelt.

I began to gradually concretize the inner mental image.

Lightly, as if drawing on a canvas with a brush of the mind.

Seureureuk…

Then, manifested by my will, water compression begins.

Suddenly, a lump of water drops is created in the air.

Moisture in the air gathers drop by drop.

The size was gradually growing.

“Huk…! Hiing… Uh?”

At the phenomenon manifesting in front of her, Mersha, who was holding her eyeballs and crying, abruptly stopped sobbing.

The water drop, gathering moisture and increasing in size, finally constructed its form.

A water drop sphere created with mana was formed.

Chulleong-

About 50cm in diameter, a transparently rippling water sphere.

A lump of extremely clean and clear water was created, with 1st rank water magic Water overlapped with purification technique Purify.

Mersha’s large brown eyes widened in surprise.

“Ah, aaa…!?”

“My goodness…!”

The astonished Nadia also covered her mouth with both hands.

The gift for the girl doesn’t end with just this.

A person isn’t an animal and can’t drink water with bare hands.

Wuddeuk…

My additional will manifestation activates materialization.

In front of Mersha’s kneeling knee, air compressed and hardened.

Kuddeuk-

I even made a glass cup by solidifying oxygen.

I roughly shaped it, but the rim is somewhat awkward.

The original owner of this ability was an old-fashioned elderly Sword Master.

Because Tolga focused only on manifesting weapon techniques centered on swords, the shape of temporarily manifested living tools was inevitably awkward.

Mersha, who was staring intently at the water sphere in front of her, lowered her gaze to below her.

“Ah…! Gl, glass cup?”

Mersha picked up the cup with a careful touch and examined it here and there.

Just like a child’s craft, awkward from modeling to finishing.

But if it can perform the role of a cup, that’s enough.

I believed it would gradually be mastered through repeated training.

Come to think of it, is glass also precious in medieval times?

[Use that cup to receive and drink.]

“Vo, voice…?”

[It’s me. Don’t worry and put the cup to the water sphere and drink.]

I reassured Mersha, who was confused due to telepathy.

Mersha carefully brought the cup held in both hands to the water sphere.

I exerted the mental image of squeezing the water drop sphere just like that.

Juruuuuk…

Like a water purifier pouring water, a stream flowed from the sphere.

Jjoreuuuuk-

The water stream entered the glass cup that Mersha held out.

Mersha just stared blankly with surprised eyes.

Eventually, the water rose from the bottom.

“Co, cold and refreshing…!”

Mersha marveled at the glass cup filled with water held in her hands.

The combination of hydrokinesis and manifestation unfolds supremely.

Nadia exclaimed in a voice of disbelief.

“Wa, water magic… You knew how to use it…? All along?”

Water is actually very easy to make.

Because there is always moisture in the atmosphere.

Whether science or magic or any principle, if there’s a way to gather and extract moisture, the worry about water for drinking and washing completely disappears.

“Uh, umm…”

Mersha, who carefully lifted the cup, tilted her head back.

She begins to drink, her small Adam’s apple bobbing.

Mersha’s eyes widened as she gulped.

“Keu, ah-!”

Mersha downed the water in one shot.

She let out an exclamation as if drinking refreshing beer.

“I, I’ve never had such cool… and delicious water…!”

Mersha looked alternately at the water sphere and the cup with trembling eyes.

I casually offered to Nadia as well.

[Nadia, you drink a cup too.]

“Huh…? Me too?”

So the same invitation to Nadia as well.

It’s not a society that encourages drinking alcohol, but one that encourages drinking water.

Jjoreu-

Immediately, a water sphere created in front of her also spits a water stream.

I repeated the same process for her as well.

“Ah! Wa, wait!”

Nadia, who unfolded her arms, was startled and grabbed the air glass cup that appeared in front of her.

Then she received the water stream poured by the water sphere.

After she also drank a cup…

“Heok!”

Nadia’s blue eyes also widened in surprise just the same.

“Really! It’s insanely cool and delicious! Kyaaak~!”

Nadia shouted in exclamation and burst into a truly intense and enthusiastic reaction.

“Cool water! Waater! Waateer~!”

Cheombeong, cheombeong-!

Without even being told, she keeps jabbing her glass cup into the water sphere.

Then she kept guzzling water.

She was literally like a hippo drinking water.

“To drink such tasty and cool cold water even in broad daylight! It’s like a dream! Kuah~!”

Nadia exclaimed with a dazed expression, shooting starlight from her eyes.

Her pose with the cup held high looks exactly like someone making a toast.

It may look simple, but it’s not just the principle of compressing moisture in the air.

It’s strictly first-grade water purified through filtering called mana.

Super-premium water quality that even parasites cling to.

In fact, it’s cleaner than bottled water from my previous life.

“Uh, amazing-!”

Mersha, who instantly recovered her vigor, ran straight into the village.

In her hand was also a glass cup filled with water from the water sphere.

“Mom! The White Sovereign made water for me!”

“What! What are you saying!? Mersha!?”

“Did you take hallucinatory grass! You shouldn’t be intoxicated with drugs when you’re not warriors who go on major missions yet!”

“Just look at this!”

Instantly, a commotion arose centered around her.

Assassins who were training stopped one by one.

I slightly activated my hearing.

“What!? The White Sovereign created and bestowed water!?”

“Wa, water magic? Are you talking about water magic?”

“Is that really true! Mersha!”

Eventually, a noisy commotion arose from various places in the village.

It was instant that an enormous movement was detected.

Warrrrr-

The Akran villagers all burst out to the entrance.

A group hungry not for human flesh, but for water.

A zombie horde comes rushing out.

“Heok…! They all came out!”

Nadia covered her mouth in shock.

From tiny children to elderly people on their deathbeds.

The diverse aspects of otherworld desert people gathered.

They were holding all kinds of vessels including jars in their hands and arms.

The Akran residents raised all the vessels they brought out to me.

“Water! Water! Water! Water!”

“Waaaateer~!”

“It’s water-!”

A truly vast crowd gathered, pushing each other.

They looked just like begging beggars or a refugee group.

Are these really the assassins who were training intensely until just now?

“Please! Bestow water upon us as well!”

“Please give us some cool, clean water!”

“Ugh! Don’t push!”

The Akran villagers reacting as enthusiastically as if welcoming a messiah.

Unlike initially, their expressions looking at me had completely changed.

It was funny how they did a Udyr-level stance change just for water.

[Pfft.]

Assassins who can send the person next to them to the grave in an instant.

The gap moe that really doesn’t seem to fit…

I spoke to Nadia in a voice trying to hold back laughter.

[I’ve found something to do.]

However, since I don’t have facial muscles, I couldn’t smile.

Instead, I laughed inwardly.

“What… are you trying to do?”

To Nadia’s question, I answered.

[From now on, I’m initiating a major renovation of the village.]