Roughly a day has passed since I began studying the elderly rats, just out of their sight. Observing them has been fascinating. Simply watching them interact with one another like a tiny community is incredible. Nay, they are not starting fires or building houses or anything like that, but they are helping each other by moving bricks or joining together to enlarge one of the holes. They have gathered and squeaked at one another as if talking and meeting together to share food. Just from observing them for around half a day now, I would say they are at least as intelligent as a toddler.

Recalling all the activities I have observed, a blue wall appears.

+1 Orenda

+1 Perception

14 Stat Points Remaining

‘Oh? Orenda and Perception? I believe I know what Perception is, but what is Orenda?’

While pondering this, the box disappears, and a new one takes its place.

You Have Shown Enough Ability for an Interim Skill

Please Select One Below

[Naturalist]

A skill for those that are interested in plants, animals, and their complicated relationships. Typically for those that tend toward observational learning.

[Ecologist]

Similar to the Naturalist skill, except more for the academic who is interested in the environment down to the bacterial level.

[Zoologist]

A more specialized skill for those interested in animals or beasts, particularly—skewed toward their anatomy and behaviors.

‘Oh! A new skill thing, how exhilarating!’ I read through the three choices. ‘It seems this is because of my interest in the elderly rats! I assume I must have impressed the ‘Cosmic System’ in some way. If that is how this works… I am not actually certain. Anyway, I believe I shall choose the “Naturalist” skill. That seems more for someone such as myself.’

I make my choice.

Congratulations!

You have earned the “Naturalist” skill.

As an Interim skill, it must be trained to the novice rank within 7-days to obtain permanently.

‘How would I go about advancing this?’

However, before I can explore those thoughts further, what I have been anticipating finally occurs. The five elderly rats gather together, squeak a few words, and then begin wobbling down the tunnel together.

‘Prithee! Bring me to a forest, little elderly rats! I wish to see something green.’

As far back as I can manage, I float over the water. ‘I was concerned about my violet eyes and flame, giving my presence away, but it does not seem like the rats really notice it from this distance.‘

They splash through the water, ignoring its filth until they come across a fork in the tunnels. The five walk up to a hole that is obviously too small for them, and I could swear they sigh as if upset by their own growth. So they pick a path and continue onward. I count around a thousand steps before they come across another hole that is big enough for their bodies.

Together they squeeze through, and when I am certain they cannot spot me, I approach and follow behind. For my haze body, it is a simple matter, but my kiln barely fits. When I arrive on the other side, I find a brick wall and turn to see the five elderly rats crawling through another hole. Again, once they all squeeze through, I follow closely behind until I seem to arrive in some sort of eerie flooded ruins.

There is only one single sign hanging near the door that reads, “Fallout Shelter.”

Unsure of the words or their meaning, I ignore them. Gliding over the water of the flooded room, I manage to see the five rats, one at a time, leap several feet into the air and through a hole in the ceiling.

‘So high! That is not fair! How can they leap!?’

Fruitlessly, I try to float or find something to climb, but I soon realize I have been neglecting my newly strengthened cattail.

‘Aye, Constance, thou must think as a Kiln and not as a person!’

Quickly unwinding the cattail from around me, I try my best to calm down and concentrate. The cattail slithers through the air entering the room above, where luckily, I feel something to latch onto.

‘Should only need to support the kiln, so this should be simple enough!’

Now latched on, I bend the cattail reminiscent of the way an elbow moves and lift myself upward. A minute later, I rise from the hole to find myself in yet another decrepit area, except this one seems to be full of old rusty metal beds.

Any fabric that existed looks to have rotted away a long time ago and the metal frames have rusted partially away. I find my cattail wrapped around one of the bed’s legs and unwind it to instead wrap it around myself. In the distance, I can hear a humming noise, so curiously I continue onward.

Noticing only a single door and not spotting the elderly rats, quickly, I drift toward the door and into a long hallway. All over the walls are odd words written like ‘Wolfe,’ ‘Goliath Bilby,’ ‘Lil Daryl,’ ‘ACAB,’ ‘Fuck President McCracken’, and then countless drawings, including one with an eerie little girl in white makeup holding a red ball.

‘Some of those seem in rather bad taste… especially the one about this McCracken person. Unless the meaning of the word is different than I am familiar with. The little girl is interesting, though. But what is that absurdly loud noise?’

Glancing around, other than the drawings, there are lots of metal objects and other unfamiliar items stored here along the walls along with a single doorway. Coming up on the door, the metal objects stop and seem to have been pushed away from the door. Here the source of the noise becomes obvious as there seems to be a remarkably loud device with rich orange cords coming off of it. Some sort of metal pipe runs to the back of it and up the stairs. Next to the device sits a bright red container with a yellow nozzle at one end. Looking closer, the word ‘Inflammable’ in large letters and pictures of flames becomes clear.

‘Does ‘Inflammable’ mean the same as ‘Inflammation’? At the docks of London, I would occasionally notice the goods from those roguish French traders would sometimes be marked with ‘inflammation’ to refer to things that may easily catch fire; the pictures and some of the other words seem to all hint to that being the case.’

My attention turns to the door, that is slightly cracked open. Listening for a moment and not hearing any signs of people, I push the door open with a loud creak. Once my sights meet, the interior of the room confusion immediately takes hold of me.

‘What? This… what?’

The room is spotless in stark contrast to everything else. Several large shiny round containers of various sizes litter the room, with devices, pipes, and cords running into many of them. The room is bright and full of lights, some of which blink periodically. Curiously, I move around the room, exploring everything I can find.

‘What’s this!? What’s this!? There’s color everywhere.’

Everything I find I try to read and understand, but for the most part, I cannot comprehend the information. However, that does not matter; all of this is extremely interesting.

‘These papers are so smooth and the writing so clear! Are they making medicine here!? What’s the medicine like now? If it is for medicine, where is all the mercury and herbs?’

Hearing the sound of something boiling, I move in that direction to find something bubbling in a small container over a flame that a metal candle-like object is producing. The liquid inside looks almost orange and seems to have a consistency similar to that of tree sap. Next to the metal candle, there is a dish with a few orange pills lying there.

‘Is this what they’re making? What is it, I wonder?’ I spend some time poking the pills, sliding them around the tray. ‘They look tasty for some reason? Perhaps, I should try one? I do not think there’s a medicine that could affect something made of haze.’

Unraveling the cattail and trying to pick up one of the pills, I inadvertently knock the tray to the floor, causing quite the racket. My stomach drops with every thunderous bounce of the metallic tray against the floor.

‘...Please, say there is not a person nearby to hear that.’

The sound of metal scraping against rock can be heard echoing down the hall.

“Hey! Is somewhere down there,” I hear a muffled male voice yell.

Obviously, it is impossible for me to answer, so I simply start looking for a place to hide.

“Man, there ain’t no one down there. If someone were down there, they would’ve had to walk by us,” a different male voice answers distantly.

“Whatever, I swear I heard something.”

“Just come on, you’re just trying to get out of taking the shot.”

“Psh, fine.”

‘Who was that? It does not matter; I am just glad they did not find me here.’

Looking back at the ground, two of the three pills are missing, so carefully, I let the cattail engulf the last pill. A thick orange haze moves through my body with a tart sharpness.

Earl Interface:

Absorbed Unknown Superacid (Magical)

0.5 Refined ???

‘A new unknown element? A superacid? Is it something like Nebula or Vitrum? And it is already refined? Are these materials possibly common in the world now? Regardless, the feeling was pleasant, perhaps a bit sour.’

Looking around a bit more except now cautiously, around an hour passes before I come to a decision.

‘...Let us go see what else is here, Earl. Everything I may learn is valuable…’ Suddenly, I remember the entire reason I came to this place. ‘Wait! Nay! I forgot I was looking for the elderly rats! My curiosity always hinders me!’

Rushing out of the room and down the hallway, a set of spiral metal stairs greets me. Proceeding upwards, a partially closed metal door greets me at the top. Discovering it just open enough for my kiln, I slip through and find myself in a place that finally does not seem entirely abandoned.

It’s not as big as the underground area; in fact, it is only a long hallway that leads to a wooden door with four other rooms off to each side. Entering the closest room, it’s full of brown containers reading ‘Civil Defense Survival Ration Cracker’; the date catches my attention ‘Date of Pack 10 62’.

‘1062? 10 62? Although I am certainly curious about the date, it’s not very helpful because I do not know exactly what those numbers represent. I could make assumptions, but in the end, they would just be guesses.’

The other rooms are empty with other brown containers that read things like ‘Dextran Injection 6%’, ‘Field Kits,’ and ‘Drinking water.’ Although not ruins like the lower floor, everything here still seems unkept. So entering the last door at the end of the hall, there is one last room composed of red brick with a large, black metal door at the other end. It’s a little less dusty here, and items are stored in a fashion that suggests someone may frequent this room. But, I am more concerned with the location of the ones I followed here.

‘Where are the elderly rats? Did they slip away somewhere? To be honest, this place is a little creepy. Ah, also, what happened to those people from earlier?’

"Achoo"

Hearing someone sneeze, my consciousness nearly returns to the Tenebrous Place in surprise. Spinning around, I find a group of men sitting in a circle, each holding a clear cylinder that seems to have a blue substance inside with a needle attached to the end.

I glide back through the doorway hastily and peek in. ‘They didn’t see me, right!? It does not appear so… What are they holding anyway? Is it made of glass? How expensive would glass that clear have to be? What is the blue liquid? It does not appear to be a mercury injection.’

There are six men in total, and they all sit in complete silence. All six of them simply stare at the clear tubes until finally, one of them breaks the silence.

“Okay, I can’t sit here in the quiet anymore. Who’s going first? Or should we do it at the same time?” the man shouts.

“A-are we sure about this?”

“We’ve already talked about this a thousand times. According to the Bishop, if we use this, there’s a chance we could get into the Beta.”

“Yeah, but… there’s also a chance it could kill us.”

“Fuckin’ hell, man. We all know that, but otherwise, we’ll have to wait for who knows how long until this ‘Beta’ shit is over, and then according to the Bishop, that’s when everyone would get in.”

“How do we even know this System thing really exists?”

“The Bishop told us a year ago it was coming, and then two days ago all over the internet people were saying they’d gotten into this ‘Beta’ thing.”

“Yeah, but the Bishop told us that it would happen all at once. He never said anything about only some people getting in. Besides, didn’t he also say there would be monsters? Where are they?”

“It’s just the ‘Beta,’ idiot. When it fully returns, that’s when shit will hit the fan. That’s why we need to get a head start now!”

“Goddam, man, I’m scared to die, though. At least I can try my luck against a monster, but this is just a gamble.”

“Well, maybe we should wait a few days. We only got these last night; we don’t have to do it now…”

“But the Bishop is supposed to come to check on us soon. There’s no way he is going to let us wait. Best case he takes it away from us and worst-case… well, you guys know the worst case.”

“Y-yeah, I heard someone refused, and then their kids disappeared. Another guy refused, and well, no one has seen him since.”

“That… that’s probably just rumors.”

The six men frown and look back at the clear tubes in silence.