“ ‘The Correct Tool’ is vague as hell.”

Tactus is the first to say something after the whole family stares blankly into the void for a few seconds. We are all collecting our thoughts, still reeling unpleasantly from both the trips we just had. I am certain that nothing will be the same. I need to take a moment and recenter myself. Deep breaths and calm thoughts….

“What the fuck is going on?”

My mothers question sums up what I was thinkinging quite nicely. I look down at my sock covered feet and try to take stock of this chaotic morning. My family is alive and well. We either have a mass hallucination on our hands or the world just got a rude wake up call and weird new interfaces. I'm also still wearing my pajamas, consisting of black sweatpants and nothing else.

“ Alright people, seems like we have a good old cluster fuck on our hands.”

Calder lets some of his former military life peak through, evidence that he is feeling just as stressed as me.

“I'm gonna call the rest of the family, Clayton go check on how much food we have. Anita and Carter go check on the animals. Pax go and check the cars. I distinctly remember a certain system saying something about adjusting fundamental laws and I have a gut feeling they did that just to fuck with our cars and guns, anti-american sons of bitches.”

Calder is brusque and efficient with his instructions. Clipped words and hand signals show that he is all business after the unexpected morning we’ve had so far. I am still reeling from my psychedelic trip down cosmos lane but slap myself a few times and run out the front door to check on the cars. As i step onto the front patio my motion is arrested by the sight I see. I am assuming most of us were too shaken by the tutorial we were given to really notice but the world has well and truly changed, and not just the voices in everyone's heads.

The suburbs of southwest ohio are not what anyone would describe as “exotic”, patchwork quilts of corn and soybeans blanketed hills interspersed with isolated stands of trees was the standard view for most ohioans. Pretty most of the time to be sure, but a far cry from the riot of color and vegetation that greeted me outside my front door. The previously manicured lawn was now and emerald and violet sea of unknown life. The gentle sway of the vaguely familiar yet twisted plantlife almost caused me to miss the bulging compound eyes of a four armed praying mantis the colored like an unripe banana, which is a testament to my disorientation considering that coloring was still shit camouflage in this new world.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

My heartbeat increases and I instinctively take a step back before my mind processes what I’m seeing, when it does finally piece together a more comprehensive idea of what I’m seeing, I freeze in place. My breathing rasps; but not in fear. I am in an unfamiliar and twisted environment seeing what amounts to a human sized alien praying mantis but fear is not my primary emotion. It is certainly present, I feel it as a slight tremor in my knees and a drop of sweat sliding between my shoulder blades. This fear is overruled by an unnatural curiosity, I want to know. As I peer at the six foot tall predator, it takes a stilted step forward with its 8 legs my mind races taking in the details of the creature. Tall, green and yellow gradient chitin. Bulging iridescent eyes and four wickedly sharp hooked arms. I observe the way it moves and compare it to my limited knowledge of praying mantises from a short time in my boyhood spent dreaming of being an entomologist.

[Requirements For Skill Acquisition Met]

[Skill Acquired: Observe]

[Observe: Infer knowledge of targeted objects and entities. Amount of knowledge gained dependent on related knowledge and skill level. .5%*Skill Level chance to gain bonus knowledge of targeted object or individual on first observation]

[Initial Skill level of Observe: 1]

[You Have Embodied Your Concept]

[Strength: +1]

[Perception: +1]

[Acumen: +1]

Well that is enlightening and kind of cool honestly. Who knew this cultivation thing was gonna be so easy? Not me honestly. The notification required no reading, simply becoming something I was aware of without having to process the written word.I don't have time now to examine myself or my enhanced capabilities since acquiring a “core” with a capital C, but I was beginning to notice the difference. In this moment of danger, with a clearly deadly threat creeping forward from 30 meters ahead, I felt like someone had turned up the contrast on the entire world around me. Everything was crisp and my body was light. My proprioception must have gotten a bump because I was more aware of my body's position than ever before, making my next move much easier. Without taking my eyes from the intermittent dashing of the mantis towards me I backpedaled as fast as I could. Luckily my new bodily awareness saved me as my foot clipped the single step back into the house and allowed me to slam the door shut even as I stumbled backwards onto my ass. The sudden turn from curiosity to panic was caused by the information brought by my new skill. There was no System notification or text readout for me to see its status page like I see mine. The information was almost like a quiet monolog whispered to me by my own brain. It was like I had pulled the condensed information of all I knew about praying mantis and their like from my brain and remembered it all at once, even though I knew this could not be all the skill did. The reason for my confidence in this information coming from somewhere besides myself was easy. Slipped inside that packet of information was something I had no possible way of knowing, the name of the “Orantes Entomo” and the fact that its agility was higher than 30, a gift i'm sure from the bonus of my new “skill”.