Looking at it now, I’m not sure how I didn’t notice these signs before. I get that my wisdom is low, but surely 4 isn’t that bad.

3rd street was the one right next to the street the Job Hall was in (helpfully named 4th street), so finding that was no issue. Unfortunately, each street was still rather long so it took me a good 10 minutes of walking back and forth to finally come across a small shop with the phrase Pill’s Alchemy Supplies written in swirling letters above the door. Honestly, it was a little hard to read so you couldn’t blame me for not noticing right away.

As I opened the door a little bell rang and I heard someone shout something from another room, though it was too muffled for me to make out what they actually said. When they didn’t immediately come out I assumed they were gonna be a while and decided to inspect the wares and see what ‘Alchemy Supplies’ actually were.

The shop was small but every inch of space was used effectively. There was enough room for 4 shelves but 5 were squeezed in without being too claustrophobic. Each of the different shelves was stocked with different stuff, though to my undiscerning eyes it looked completely random. I was sure that someone who knew about alchemy would be able to see a pattern, but I just didn’t even know what half of this stuff was supposed to be.

Across the wall behind the counter were rows of singular ingredients, each one with a price listed beneath. Looking it over, it seemed that most of these things were worth upwards of 4 silver, with just a couple of things that looked like regular grass and leaves being listed in coppers.

A door opened and a man walked out wearing a near stainless apron with what looked like a pair of goggles sticking out of a pocket and thick brown gloves. Their hair was probably the most well kept out of anyone I'd seen in my entire life, which admittedly wasn’t saying much but it was still quite noticeable.

“Are you here for alchemy supplies? You don’t look to be an alchemist so if you are I’d recommend you tell the person you’re shopping for to do it on their own. They can’t expect to get the best quality ingredients without being there to check,” Every word he spoke seemed very… intentional. Like he had planned all of this in advance or something.

“Actually I’m here about the job you posted to the Job Hall.”

“Ah, wonderful. Follow me then, it should be a quick job. I noticed a few rat droppings in my storage area, so I need someone to clear them out. There shouldn’t be many, based on the amount of droppings only 3 or 4, so I imagine it will be an easy task for one such as yourself,” He opened a hatch underneath the desk and climbed down, so obviously I followed.

I noticed that there was what appeared to be a pulley system attached to the wall next to the ladder that was locked at both the top and bottom. That’s probably fun to use.

Once we reached the bottom I saw that this room was absolutely filled with shelves that reached the ceiling, with just enough space to walk around and put a stool down to reach the higher up merchandise.

As I walked into the room Pill climbed back up the ladder, saying “Well, I’ll leave you to it. I trust that you won’t be foolish enough to steal or damage anything, but if you do you’ll be paying for it. The hatch will be open, so come back up when you’re done.”

With that, I was left alone in the basement to hunt some rats. Which I didn’t exactly know how to do, but it seemed simple enough. Just zap them until they stop moving, probably.

Just as soon as I find them.

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The room was small, but it still took longer than I liked to admit to find anything. After a while of fruitless searching one lone rat wandered into the middle of the room, but as soon as it saw me it froze and scurried away. Acting fast, I immediately leap at it, charging lightning as I did. Unfortunately it was surprisingly much faster than me and managed to avoid my first attack, fortunately it was just running towards a dead end.

“Gotcha!” I yelled as I immediately fired off a lightning bolt. The rat tried to swerve to the right for some reason, right in between the wall and an unlabeled crate, but it wasn’t able to outrun lightning and was quickly fried.

Combat Cleared 1 Rat [Level 3] Defeated

Reached Level 5

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Choose A Path Skill Lightning Bolt Static Shock

That rat was nearly the same level as the wolf! Also, level 5 just from that? I must have been getting closer by levelling my skills, but still. It was just a rat.

Regardless of the anticlimactic way that I got there, I was still level 5 now, which meant I got to choose my next Path Skill! This first decision was probably the most important, since whatever Skill you choose decides what you get offered next, and you weren’t likely to get offered a skill again. I’d once seen it described as kind of a tree, with each choice being a branch, and each branch branching into more branches.

They described it a little better in the book.

The reason this choice was more important than any other is because it basically locks you out of half of the skills you could potentially choose from. For most people this would mean they would look up what their Skill tree looked like, but… I guess I forgot. Based on what that guy at the Hall said I might not have been able to check anyway, but I still should have tried.

There was nothing to be done now since I couldn’t just wait to choose this, I wasn’t that patient.

I had absolutely no idea what Static Shock would do, but the other option, Lightning Bolt, I might have an idea about. I could technically already do that, after all. It’s strange that something that you could learn so easily was the second option, since that seems like it would be kind of useless, but that almost made it more tempting to me.

If I can already do Lightning Bolts, how much better could this make them? Static shock is an unknown that could be good, but I already know that Lightning Bolt is a good option, and making my main form of attack better is surely a good idea.

The logic seemed sound to me, even though it was basically me justifying wanting to make the coolest choice. A shock just doesn’t sound that impressive to me, so why would I bother with it?

Skill [Lighting Bolt] Chosen

Existing Proficiency Detected

Altering Level

Path Skills Lightning Generator 6 Lightning Bolt 3

Choose A Stat To Increase Willpower Wisdom Strength Agility

I have to make another choice? I guess I need Wisdom more than anything else now, maybe it’ll even help me make a better choice next time!

Also level 3 Lightning Bolt? Nice.

I really wanted to test out my new Skill right away, but for some reason I doubted that Pill would appreciate me shooting Lightning without a target, so I decided against it. Look at me, making wise decisions already. That Wisdom is putting in some work.

Now all I had to do was look for the rest of them. Shouldn’t be too hard.

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What I thought must have been years later I finally found another rat, this one an odd maroon colour for some reason. It was in the same area as the last one I found and would be killed just as easily.

In a manner almost comically alike to the previous rat, this one ran out into the open then immediately scurried back once it saw me. This time I didn’t bother attempting to jump on it, instead testing my new Lightning Bolt skill on the test subject that had graciously offered itself up.

I immediately noticed that it was much easier to use than before. My home-brew lightning bolts took a lot of focus to cast and I always felt them struggle to stay away from my hands, but this one quickly and fluidly streaked through the air towards the rat. It even looked smoother and more controlled too.

Whilst I was getting excited over how much more powerful my Lightning Bolts were, the rat collapsed dead on top of its fellow and I got my third combat notification.

Combat Cleared 1 Earth Root Rat [Level 5] Defeated

Unfortunately I didn’t get another level, but I was much more focused on the name and level of the rat to care. That seems strange. What’s an Earth Root Rat supposed to be?

I was distracted from my thinking by the sound of little paws scrabbling across the stone, and I looked up to see another rat trying (and failing) to get behind the box before I zapped it with a Lightning Bolt. This one was bright green too. Okay, something’s going on here.

Combat Cleared 1 Vibrant Life Rat [Level 5] Defeated

Getting annoyed at this point, I marched over to the box and pulled it to the side, only to see a massive hole in both the wall and the crate. Its contents were almost entirely gone, with just a few scraps of what must have been used to organise all of the ingredients that were once inside. What was of greater interest to me was the hole in the wall which, upon inspection, led directly into the sewers.

If you’re gonna start a job then you better finish it.

Resolutely, I crawled through the hole and dropped onto the stone walkway that bordered the river of sewage. Wherever these rats are coming from, it's gotta be somewhere in these sewers.

Is it odd that the only river I’ve ever seen is composed of sewer water?