—THOMB!
In the middle of the night, lightning struck; heavy rain poured down. It was suffocating; volleys of droplets numbed the senses of touch. The loud downpour masked the noise—the sense of smell was dulled.
A large creature spasmed as its muscles tensed. Everywhere it turned was the same—it couldn't navigate the unfamiliar lands. The rain was a tyrant it hadn't fought before.
Its mouth split open, crying as a loud shriek escaped its lungs. "Krrrrriiiik!" it ferociously wailed—KRRRAAACK-BOOMMMM… BRRrrmm... Thunder clapped, masking all of its cries, drowning them in rain.
Exhausted and low on mana, the creature combusted—only for the rain to sizzle on its skin, creating mist as its body cooled, aching from the brittling sensation.
Infuriated, the creature stomped the ground, causing a small explosion as it left a small crater behind. It howled, gliding blindly on the plains.
Suddenly, it detected something; it was uncertain of the shape, but it knew one thing—it was moving, breathing, exuding warmth.
It didn't hesitate; it had gone without nourishment for so long, it didn't care what the prey was.
—CRRSCH!
Its claws became scorching hot—aflame as spikes protruded from its body, bending and covering it like armor. In the blink of an eye, the nightmarish creature leapt.
..
Alone in the rainy night, a young man was on a stroll. It was raining quite heavily, yet he wasn't bothered by it. The droplets were quite oppressive and would've caused bruising had he not been under a water dome.
He'd noticed a gray creature in the distance, and it seemed to have noticed him too; it appeared blind, large, oddly humanoid yet alien. Its claws burned, glowing orange as water sizzled upon contact.
Before he could figure out its intentions, the creature lunged toward him. With a side step, it passed it, gliding in the wet grass.
With a quick spin, it followed up with a scorching tailwhip, firing a wave of fire, which was blocked by a water wall. It lunged again, cleaving the water wall as it reached for its prey.
The youth sidestepped again, tripping the creature on its back with a slippery sheet of ice.
"Krrrrriiiik!" The creature screeched.
Digging its claws into the ice, now on all four, its mouth tore open; molten energy gathered inside it, blasting a fiery breath toward the youth.
The attack illuminated the plains. The creature had thought it caught prey—it hadn't been more wrong. The moment it closed the distance, its instincts flailed. However, it was too committed to the act, thus it was either kill or be killed.
—Splash… splash… splash…
It froze as it heard footsteps behind it. Visualizing its enemy with sound, it growled, turning around, limping as it slowly backed off.
"You are dangerous," the man said, looking at the pitiable creature. "Sorry, but you must die," he added, his golden eyes eerily indifferent.
The pale creature tried to back off, trying to sprint the other way; it crashed into walls of ice, however, tearing the blade-like armor off its flesh. Ash-like goo poured out of the wounds as it whimpered.
"…" The man silently watched the creature with saddened eyes. "Sorry. You may suffer no more," he coolly voiced.
In an instant, the ice walls clapped like thunder, crushing the beast. The man clenched his hand, causing the ice to collapse into itself, cracking as pockets of air popped, leaving behind a perfect sphere—a tomb for it to rest.
—[.. Alum Miller ..]
It was now morning. The sun was rising as I yawned, eating a fruit. Glancing at the watch.
Yesterday morning was 7:22:36. Today's morning was 9:30:12. It didn't really matter, to be honest. I didn't have the tools to calibrate it, and days appear to be a little over 2 hours longer.
No matter. It is still useful to keep track of the hours.
The others should wake up by now. And on today's menu was insects. If they wanted to survive, they couldn't be picky with food. It just tastes like any other food. A little crunchy, different perhaps. But it was edible all the same.
When I went down from the roof, the others were still huddled up together, sharing what little fabric we had as blankets. Miu with her female friends, Oliver with his group, Emely with the other girls, and David with the rest. Nobody was alone the previous night, having presumably learned from the night before—that and the downpour.
All except one, I suppose.
I cast my gaze to the side. Noel sat on the deck, knee up, arm resting on it as he looked out. His other leg dangled, swaying back and forth as a finger tapped his leg.
"Morning," I called out to him.
His head turned. "Morning," he returned the greeting. "Did you get any sleep?" he inquired.
"A little."
He didn't say a word after that, only sighed. He got down from the deck.
"Oliver told me something when we switched. He told me you went to relieve yourself. But what were you really up to?"
"That. Then a stroll," I simply replied.
Though, in retrospect, it probably wasn't something I should've said. Noel bit down his teeth, palms clenched hard—then, he simply let go, taking a deep breath, followed by a long exhale.
"Haaah… Tell me next time if you're going on a stroll."
"Got it," I replied, scratching my cheek. "What about you?"
"I got decent sleep—I'm not all that tired to be fair," he replied, grinning. "Anyways, it's about time to wake the rest. Can you get the insects from the storage?"
"Got it," I answered, heading toward the temporary storage.
There were now different parts of the base; the center is called Branch Zero, the unfinished storage is Branch One—they even planned a kitchen here.
The guys insisted on the names; the girls simply rolled their eyes, letting them do whatever. Either way, they managed to finish a privy on Branch Two and on the ground.
As for the toilet paper situation, cooked then dried moss bricks, then used together with ash water. It's crude, but far better than a random branch or leaf.
During breakfast, they tried the insects, forcing them down after they were cooked. The idea of hygiene naturally arose from the previous day, and they all scrambled their head over soap.
The idea of making it wasn't too difficult, but actually doing it was more difficult than they'd thought.
They knew they needed lye, oils, or fats. They'd already prepared wood ash and water, hoping it would turn strong enough to make into soap or something remotely hygienic. The problem was getting their hands on fat.
But for some reason, Lova turned to me. "Why don't we ask the encyclopedia?" she told the others.
"…"
I bit into the insect. It crunched.
"O, Mr. Lumb—I mean Encyclopedia, how can we make essential oil? I know we can make it from plants."
I bit into the insect. It crunched. Crunch, crunch.
"The general idea is: Steam plants. The heat will burst the oil glands, travel with the steam as vapors. Cool down to a liquid. The end product should be fragrant water and essential oil. Expect the yield to be tiny."
"…"
Now they all stared at me for some reason.
The girls, now filled with hope, clasped their hands; some rushed to hug me out of excitement. Miu peeled them off while Emely giggled in the background.
Thanks, Miu.
"Why didn't you say this earlier?" they wondered.
"I was busy being an industrial machine all day. This is the first time I'm hearing this," I simply replied.
"Oh, right… Phew. We can finally make—"
"You still need fats," I said.
"…Can I have my hug back?" Lova asked, looking as though she wanted to hit me.
—Crunch… crunch...
"I-I guess it could still be used for skincare…" Lena murmured amid the silence.
"No, pure essential oil would be too strong," Emely stated, voicing it gently.
"It can be add it into the soap-making process for the fragrance," I added.
"…"
It became quiet again; they probably thought what the point was if they couldn't make it in the first place. Well, I only tried to add a positive; it didn't work.
"Hmm, I didn't want to suggest this, but we could extract fats from the insects we've caught. The problem is also quantity—there's too little of it. Nutritiously, we need the fat as well…" Emely said. She then sighed. "It was due sooner or later, but… let's hunt something!" she exclaimed, determined.
"Hell yeah!" Kevin cheered.
Noel chuckled. The other boys seemed conflicted, they presumably wanted to try hunting but weren't sure how dangerous the fauna could get or how they behaved.
"I didn't think you'd suggest that for soap, Professor," Noel teased.
"Mmhg…" Emely sulked. "What of it, you want some too, right?"
"True. We've been too comfortable all our lives, and this honestly feels gross. So… I'd like some ASAP, not going to lie."
And so it was decided. An innocent animal would become prey for soap to be made. This was going to be a long soap-making journey.