By then, Wilbur already knew that Lavinia brought Hope newspapers, and he tacitly allowed it as Hope's daily entertainment.
Hope had also figured out when Lavinia and Wilbur came to visit him, and had settled into a new routine:
He still woke at six every morning. Until Lavinia brought his lunch at eleven, he had plenty of privacy. He would go up to Old Williams's roof to watch the sunrise and the Rose Garden beneath it.
At around six, it was time for dinner. Before lunch, aside from his nap, Hope read Common Herb Collection. He had once considered using the Reading Potion to help him read, but it was completely unnecessary; he was already reading fast enough, and the book was about to have served its purpose.
Every other day, Wilbur brought Hope clean water shortly after dinner. From then until nightfall, Hope didn't leave his room again. Instead, he read the day's Arkham GG-Man and New Federation Newspaper.
Hope's bed was in the farthest corner of the storeroom, as far from the door as possible. He had chosen that spot himself.
There was nothing special about it at first glance, but it had one major advantage for Hope:
Dunwich's terrain was uneven, and the Whateley House grounds had been left untended for years, so they were covered in mounds of earth.
In the front half of the storeroom, the indoor floor was level with the ground outside. But that wasn't true in the back. The ground outside was more than ten centimeters higher than the floor inside.
In other words, if Hope sawed a ten-centimeter hole in the wooden wall beneath his bed, like the mouse hole in Tom and Jerry, it would open onto nothing but damp earth.
Whether Wilbur had forgotten or simply hadn't cared, he hadn't removed all the tools from the storeroom. That allowed Hope to finish his little project in three days.
At midnight, he used a hammer and saw to cut a hole, then dug away some of the earth behind it and used Uncertainty to move it elsewhere.
He carefully took some wire and used it to fasten the piece of wood he'd cut away back into place, making a crude little door. He bent the wire into two loops on one side so the door could swing, using them as hinges.
He closed the door and locked it with Mr. Corey's Heart-shaped Padlock, keeping the key in his pocket, close to his body.
Hope finished his project on the night of June 10. He felt an indescribable domain unfold from the Heart-shaped Padlock, shifting shape in the air before finally attaching itself to the wooden wall, with the storeroom as its boundary.
The next day, when Lavinia came to bring him lunch, Hope knew someone was standing outside, about to enter, even without hearing a sound.
The padlock and key had formed a strange connection with him, turning the entire storeroom into an extension of his senses.
So when Hope saw the Miskatonic University campus in Arkham GG-Man, he felt that he could go take a look.
With the Heart-shaped Padlock, he was confident he could leave for a long time without Wilbur finding out.
Hope didn't plan to have Paul go to Miskatonic University. For one thing, Paul was still in mourning for his parents. He had no good reason to leave Dunwich so suddenly, and the townspeople would gossip. It might also put Wilbur on alert. The second reason had nothing to do with reason at all: Hope wanted to go by himself.
Night arrived as expected. Hope had memorized the newspaper photo, and before leaving, he checked his stats once more:
Agility: 1.31, Constitution: 1.55, Vision: 0.67, Mana: 0.01, 0, 18
Uncertainty: 1
Source-ification: 0.3
Curse of Darkness: 1
At some point, the fifth number on the first line had become eighteen. Hope was sure it had been sixteen when he checked the previous day; it had suddenly risen by two today.
Hope quickly recalled everything that had happened that day, including the funeral, Paul's argument with Mr. Sawyer at the funeral, that awful-tasting leaf, and his conversation with Paul.
He still couldn't figure out what had caused the number to increase. But if he firmly committed these memories to mind, he could compare them with future increases and look for similarities.
Hope closed his eyes and used Uncertainty to pinpoint a spot behind a tree in the photograph. He still had some doubts about whether he could use Uncertainty on a black-and-white photo.
His doubts soon faded. Just as with every previous use of Uncertainty, Hope felt the sounds around him gradually recede.
The sounds took longer to fade than they had when he went to the Rose Garden. Hope knew it was because Miskatonic University was much farther away, and Uncertainty needed time to take him there.
He opened his eyes to the sound of insects, facing an unfamiliar broadleaf tree with a trunk thicker than his waist.
Behind the tree stood the largest library in the Bay State, called "Philip" in the newspaper.
The black-and-white newspaper photo hadn't done justice to its grandeur. It was a vast, tall red-brick building, about five stories high, with a red-tiled roof and white stone window frames. Several towers rose above it. The walls were covered in bold patterns, and the marble quoins had been carved into beasts Hope didn't recognize.
A magnificent example of the exuberant architectural style.
Unfortunately, it was already midnight, and all the lights inside Philip Library had been turned off. Only a few streetlamps, supported by black wooden posts, cast a warm yellow glow outside. Hope realized those were gas lamps, too.
"Who are you?" a voice asked from behind the tree.
Hope stumbled backward a few steps. He hadn't expected anyone to be behind the tree, and he was so startled he nearly ran.
He steadied himself and smelled alcohol in the air. The pungent odor was terribly out of place near the library. Even outside, the quiet atmosphere made it all the more noticeable.
The speaker was sitting on the ground, leaning against the tree, with a clear glass bottle in his hand. Hope didn't need to look closely to guess that it contained liquor.
Agility: 1.00, Constitution: 1.51, Vision: 0.95, Mana: 0
Hope crouched down and leaned closer to look. The man was practically a vagrant, with a scruffy beard and untidy black hair that looked as if it hadn't been washed in ages. It stuck up from his head, making it look half again as large. He had a somewhat plump, square face, a prominent nose, deep-set eyes, and features that seemed too small for his face.
"Who are you?" the man asked again, slurring his words. He was clearly drunk and not thinking straight.
Hope hesitated, wondering whether to leave without bothering with him or make up a name and exchange a few words.
But the man spoke first. "I'm... I'm August Derleth. I'm... a graduate of this university... Literature!"
After introducing himself, August Derleth seemed to have forgotten he'd wanted to ask Hope's name. Instead, he raised the bottle in his hand. "Want... want some?"
Hope didn't drink, so he didn't know much about liquor. But judging by the cheap packaging and the pungent smell of alcohol, he could tell it wasn't any good.
Wasn't Miskatonic University supposed to be one of the best universities? Was the Literature department doing that badly?
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