"I think I'm going to puke."

"You're not even in the pit you wimp."

I turned to look at the old man in charge of managing those who takes the [Assist in Latrine Cleanup] [quest]. He was getting on it in years and all the manual labor in his past was not the best for his body as it looked worn but he still had that defined muscles under the wrinkles. He was wearing an well used pair of overalls with filth backed onto it while having an apparent grump expression on his face. Probably having to do with dealing with me.

Pushing a shovel into my hands, he says, "If you don't not want to get yourself all dirty, just quit now and go back to the guild to retract the [quest]. I have no patience for playing games. Either do your job and shovel the shit over there," He points to the latrine to his right. "or leave and pay the fee for quitting the [quest]."

"Ugh, fine. I'll do it."

"Good."

As he walked towards the other latrine pits, I ask, "But do I really have to get in there?"

"How else do you expect you'll be able clean it, willing the shovel to do the work without you? Hah." He replied without even stopping his pace.

I wouldn't be surprised that there is a [class] that actually do that.

The stench from the pit was strong a couple feet away but was overwhelming once I got to the edge. The whole thing was inside a wooden and stone box with a hole on the ceiling where people would shit and piss through and the bottom was filled with it. There was a sickly looking sludge covering every surface with the majority of it pooled at the bottom with some spots more solid than others and small puddles of liquid I don't want to know.

This is so disgusting

I began a gagging fit doing my best to keep everything down.

I'm starting to rethink this, how am I going to do this? The idea of having even a drop of that stuff touching me sends me fill of dread. Its not like I can just bend all of it out...

Wait, maybe I can. Isn't this just a form of mud, a really disgusting mud. I bent mud before so I can do this. Ok, Mark, lets get this over with. Just think of it as mud and nothing else.

I pulled my hands up and then the mud responded. At first it was just a bulge on the surface and then separated into a clumpy brown ball. It was difficult to maintain its form but mostly it was completely revolting using my powers on it. I know I'm not touching it but it felt like metaphorically and technically spiritually speaking I was touching it.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Its just mud, its just mud, its just mud...

I repeated this mantra as I flowed the mud into the wagon off to the side.

One done, many, many to go. Ugh

Continuing this multiple times over time I began to notice two things. The first thing was the most obvious was the smell. It was bad at first but became more and more worse over time. It seems like stirring it kicked up increased the pungent scent. The second was that this process was somewhat slower than what it would be if I was down there anyways.

Meh, I would rather be doing this than being quick at shoveling literal shit. Wait, not shit, muuuud.

After time, I was brought out of my own thoughts when I pulled up the next water ball. This was different but I don't know how. I can't put my finger on it. It was much easier to maintain it spherical shape but overall much harder to control. Like I was not fully under control of the water.

Keeping it up in the air, I brought it slightly closer to get a better look. The surface was very smooth and looked more solid like gelatin. While focusing on it, the surface wiggled by its own without my input and this sent a shiver down my magical senses. This shocked me greatly causing me to accidently to cross my arms. Then the most expected thing happened, instead of the water collapsing and fall to the ground this ball popped. It popped. This filth ball exploded sending chunks everywhere including on me.

Fuck, what was that. Ew, ew, ew.

"Hey, don't be killing those slimes, they may be annoying but they are the ones eating this shit preventing it from fermenting into something worse like diseases." I heard coming from one of the other latrines.

"Sorry, it was by accident. Won't happen again."

Immediately i took a short break to use some water from my waterskin to clean myself trying my best to get this stuff off my clothes before I went back to work. This time, paying attention and trying my best to look for the difference between the slimes and the muck and then bend the filth out. It is actually hard to differentiate them apart as the slimes perfectly blends in but there are subtle difference that I can make out, especially feel out with [hydrokinesis].

Finally after more than an hour, the pit was mostly empty and my job was done. When I turned around, the grumpy old man was already waiting for me by the shit wagon.

"So you're finally done huh, took you long enough."

This aggravated me, first I had to deal with literal shit and now I had to take his.

"Well, I did it at least. The [quest] said nothing about how I did it or how fast I had to do it."

He chuckled, "You're right about that. Usually people quite at the beginning and most don't last even halfway through. Plus that little magic trick you did was quite neat."

"Its not a magic trick its-"

"That what they all say. Anyways you completed the [quest]. You can go now."

Completed Quest: [Assist Latrine Clean Up]

Rewarded: 10 copper and 1 ticket for local bathhouse

*Must collect Reward(s) directly at the [Adventurers'] Guild*

"Gee thanks, see you never I guess."

As I turned around to head back to the guild I heard him says on last thing before I left.

"I have a feeling you're be coming back again soon!" He yelled.