Chromie's Day (Part 2)

Near noon,

Chromie finished her morning studies.

Tonatiuh Academy had been established for less than half a year, and the number of students and teachers, as well as their schedules, was still unstable.

Besides learning cultural knowledge, the students also had to train their bodies and sharpen their combat skills. Besides teaching classes, the teachers had other work outside the academy.

For example, the old witch doctor Zangar, besides teaching the future official spoken and written language of Zutona as decreed by the chief—[Sacred Language]—also had to oversee the daily administrative affairs of the entire city and tribe.

Chromie did not need to return to the academy until the afternoon. In truth, she learned very quickly. In all of Zutona, only that seemingly ordinary chief, whom she could never see through, might surpass her in [Sacred Language].

Chromie needed to lie low. She did not want to expose herself. If she became a genius among the trolls, too many eyes would be fixed on her.

Precisely because she learned so quickly, Chromie understood all the more clearly how powerful and frightening this script and language were.

But that was a matter for later.

Chromie left the academy and headed north of town. She was going to collect her benefits—this month's new benefit.

The chief had decreed that every troll above the age of five could, starting this month, collect two sets of special clothing from the newly established Zutona Weaving Bureau every three months.

Why special clothing?

Chromie was curious too. She was on her way to collect it now.

"Hey! Aunt Valaka! I'm here!! How are my clothes coming along?!" Chromie, known among the trolls as Romi, skipped up to a bustling building. After waiting in line for a while, she smiled at a female troll.

"They're ready, Romi."

The female troll smiled and handed her a garment. Under the warm magical light, invisible magical radiance shimmered over the fabric.

Chromie accepted it with a smile.

Where the female troll shopkeeper could not see, her pupils contracted slightly. It really is clothing made from magical materials... This is far too extravagant! Even without its magical properties, this fabric feels so comfortable and soft!

As a true master mage, Chromie immediately saw through the magical properties attached to the garment: [Constant Temperature], [Automatic Cleaning], [Faint Glow], [Minor Disease Resistance], [Minor Poison Resistance].

"Thank you! Aunt Wakara, I'm off!" After collecting her clothes, Chromie waved to the female troll and left with a smile.

"Try them on! If they don't fit, bring them back and I'll alter them for you!" Wakara called out with a laugh.

"Thank you!"

As she walked, Chromie examined the clothes in her hands. It was a dress tailored according to her current "age" and figure. The style was ordinary and common, but the material felt wonderfully comfortable—soft, delicate, and smooth.

Its raw material was a fabric called "cotton cloth," made from a special material known as "cotton," then tailored into finished clothing.

This raw material came from something inside the fruit of the Bloodpetals, intelligent native creatures of Zutona with their own communities.

The Bloodpetal communities and the Stone Guardians had originally been the masters of this land. Yet after the Sandblood Trolls arrived, no conflict broke out between them. After the chief negotiated with them alone for an entire night, the Bloodpetals of the whole Evolving Garden and elemental creatures such as the Stone Guardians miraculously and strangely became Zutona's residents and protectors.

The Stone Guardians had once wandered this land alone. Now, they had been gathered and stationed throughout the area around Zutona, attacking any being that dared approach without permission—they had become Zutona's de facto guards.

No troll knew why this had happened.

Only the chief who had signed a contract with them knew. This was an enormous blessing for the trolls. With these powerful guardians, they no longer had to fear waking in the middle of the night to find a pack of Devilsaurs charging into their homes. A single powerful Stone Guardian could fight a small group of dinosaurs. It was simply that these elemental creatures had once loved peace, and would not fight if communication was possible.

The Bloodpetal communities were the same. Those enormous Bloodpetals with terrifying combat power, like the Stone Guardians, planted the special organs that could serve as both feet and roots around Zutona, becoming the city walls and guards alongside the stone creatures. The medium-sized Bloodpetals simply moved into Zutona, taking root along both sides of the roads and blooming into flowers, serving as both guards and city cleaners. Only the young Bloodpetals, lively as children, were allowed to roam freely, running about the town as pets for the trolls and playmates for young troll children.

The magical-material clothing that the chief decreed could be collected once every three months, provided the old sets were returned, came from a byproduct of an organ that had mutated after the Bloodpetals moved into Zutona. Once this organ, about the size of a troll's head, matured and opened, it contained a pile of soft, white magical material.

The chief called it cotton, and the fabric made from it cotton cloth, so everyone called it that as well.

Tens of thousands of mutated Bloodpetals lived around Zutona. Aside from the young Bloodpetals, more than half could produce this "cotton." Chromie knew their output was astonishing, but using such fine magical materials to make clothes and give them to the entire tribe was truly too extravagant. Even the Night Elf Empire of old had never been so lavish, and not even the high elf civilization now flourishing at its peak was this wealthy!

Chromie sighed inwardly.

It was different from the old days in the desert. Back then, the trolls of the Sandblood Tribe wore little more than a few scraps of cloth, perhaps with some animal hides added on. They often wore the same clothes for years, with no replacements even when they tore. After coming to Un'Goro Crater, although there had been no fabric before "cotton" and "cotton cloth" appeared due to the location, there was no shortage of clothes made from animal hides and dinosaur skin. No troll had to worry about owning only one set of clothing and wearing it for years with no chance to replace it.

Moreover, the chief seemed somewhat obsessive about bathing and clothing. He had even issued a rule: trolls in the city had to change clothes at least once a day and bathe at least twice a day. They were also forbidden from relieving themselves anywhere they pleased. Any troll who failed to comply and was caught by the city enforcement team would be punished—their supply of Devilsaur meat for that month would be deducted, they would be paraded through the streets for three days, and they would be forbidden from praying at Loa Square for one month!

Most trolls did not care about being paraded through the streets. At worst, everyone would tease them a little; it was not like they would lose a piece of flesh. But being denied delicious Devilsaur meat and unable to pray at Loa Square was worse than death.

So from then on,

Zutona's trolls suddenly became the most hygiene-conscious troll population in the history of Azeroth, even cleaner than the highly civilized Zandalar. The city had many public bathhouses, which became some of the most popular public places.

A large number of public latrines and prearranged pipes discharged the town's wastewater into several specially selected swamp lakes in the great marsh. The city was cleaner than many elven cities.

As a result, the notorious stench of the troll race was finally eliminated, and Zutona became the least smelly troll city in history.

Not having to live in a city full of stench and strange odors, Chromie wholeheartedly approved.

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