Ester hid underneath a pointed outcropping made of the husk of an abandoned and broken ship wing.
Gathering a portion of the trash rain only the sound of liquids splashing, objects colliding and the sound of his respirator humming loudly entered his ears.
Using an empty can with a faded out label, Ester brought back the fluid and gave a casual glance at its innards.
Having already emptied out the black sludge like contents, the tin can was now filled with a lightly glowing liquid as metal scraps floated on its surface.
"Hmm..."
Letting out a low hum, Ester set down the can while removing the bag from his back, making sure that the respirator wasn't damaged in any sort of way.
Adjusting his belt, Ester began to rummage through the bag's contents.
Made out of plastic, it was dull and brown colored, just like the rest of this wasteland.
Ester's left hand hissed with the sound of pneumatics as it carefully picked out its contents with the help of his right hand, handling the contents with the gingerness of a parent with an Aether battery.
Picking out a small rod shaped item with an empty socket set in the middle of it, Ester's left hand carefully brought out a thick ball of cloth.
Unraveling the bag of cloth, several glowing blue crystals contained in glass containers revealed themselves each with a different luminosity to them.
'I probably have to go for a rift run later this week.' Frowning at the sight of several of these glass containers being incredibly dim or outright not glow at all, Ester picked out one of the brighter ones.
Handling it with care, Ester moved the rod shaped item in his hands, and stuffed the Aether Battery into the empty socket.
Waiting a few seconds, the light of the gem dimmed noticeably allowing Ester to bring the rod shaped item towards the tin can.
And in the same instant that he did, the rod instantly began to click sharply and swiftly
"Is it already toxic waste disposal this month?"
Staring at the rod that had began to chirp as if the world was ending, Ester slowly brought the rod away from the tin can and plucked out the Aether battery.
Carefully setting it in the pile with the rest of them, his hands busily moved, packaging the lot of them in the same cloth ball that they had just appeared in.
Rearranging the bag so that they could be safely slotted in, Ester also picked out a large rain coat from within.
Draping the raincoat over his body and bag, Ester rubbed his goggles that had lightly fogged up and adjusted the respirator on his face.
With his preparations complete, Ester left the cover he had found himself under, knocking over the can filled with toxic waste, letting its glowing contents flow into the decomposed earth below.
Stepping out from underneath his cover, almost instantly the sound of rain pittering and pattering against his raincoat, sliding down in glowing neon green fashion
'I heard that exiles actually like the rain.'
His eyes dragged themselves past the toxic gas filled clouds to the Dumper. Liquid ver. drop down Toxic Waste taken from various planets.
'I wonder what's so appealing about this.'
Grey eyes lingering on the Dumper sent by Outer Management to dispose of the accumulated toxic waste safely
He really didn't have any positive feelings for Outer Management.
Ester's eyes turned to the designated trash zone of the week.
'Focus Ester, you're here to scavenge, not wonder about rumors.'
Lightly slapping his face with his gloved right hand, Ester's eyes regained their focus as he trekked across the mountains formed from invaluable trash.
Leaping over puddles of toxic waste and landing precariously on top of condensed piles of trash, stinky winds carried with them discarded wrapping papers and adverts of businesses.
Ester sighed as a few hours passed by with nothing valuable to be seen in sight, only the sight of condensed garbage for miles on end.
But that was to be expected since this dumper was specifically used to get rid of irradiated items in liquid form.
Thankfully, the toxic waste was mostly irradiated water and not the more harmful, dangerous but valuable toxic sludge
'The Toxic Sludge should've already all fallen anyways.'
Feeling a small bit of joy in his heart at the thought of not having to worry about death by rain, Ester's eyes traveled across the irradiated and green glowing landscape.
With trails of neon green gathering near the sides of mounds, eventually, they formed green puddles of toxic collection that either were puddles or rivers.
Carrying a green tint to their translucency, Ester's boots splashed through the puddles.
And although there were a quite a few of them that Ester had already passed by, his goal wasn't them.
'Bingo.'
It was in fact, not a puddle or a river.
It was in fact, a lake.
At the bottom of this lake there was the valuable Toxic Sludge that could be traded in the marketplace with a high chance of a solid radiation source forming at the bottom.
Glowing a spectacular neon green even in comparison to the irradiated waters giving off a ghostly glow, Ester estimated the size of the lump.
'The larger the lake, the better, and by the looks of it, it's above average.'
Since larger lakes had a higher chance of forming clusters of radioactive materials like Plutonium, Uranium and a few others, Ester had a small grin on his face.
'There is the ocean that has more but I don't have the equipment for that.'
Not that possessing the equipment would do him any better of course.
The ocean had many horrors hidden in its glowing depths that Ester preferred to never know he existed
Well, even if they knew that he existed, they probably would view him as nothing more than a little snack not worth wasting much effort on.
Stepping towards the Lake, Ester fiddled with his bag, fishing out a long thin wire connected to a flat bottomed disk.
Hesitating for a moment, his hands moved to his belt buckle, unclasping one of the many packets and retrieving a cloth covered item.
Taking out the Aether Battery hidden within the cloth ball, he placed the glowing crystal into the flat bottomed disk, causing a blue web pattern to emerge on its bottom surface.
Unravelling the spool of metal wire, he wrapped the tail end around his left hand twice.
'Then comes the tedious part.'
Swinging the metal plate, it carved a blue trail through the air.
*Pitter patter
The winds seemed to be particularly whimsical this day as the toxic rain switched between a light drizzle to a heavy downpour where you could barely see a meter in front of you.
Sending little droplets of irradiated water into the air, Ester aimed upwards in a curve and estimated how much force he would need to put into his swing.
Releasing his grip on the flat plate, it flew through the air, slicing straight through the numerous raindrops that continued to collide against the Trash Planet.
The spool of wire in his hands swiftly whizzed as string was pulled swiftly outwards in an arc.
'Bullseye.'
Clenching his hands in victory, the flat plate slapped right in the middle of where he was aiming, the heavy piece of metal sinking into the lake below.
'Usually that takes several tries.'
Feeling particularly happy today, the metal plate sunk to the bottom of the lake and stuck to the Condensed sludge, sinking into the mud like substance.
Waiting for it to sink some more so that he could retrieve the most Sludge in one go, he let out a length of wire for it to continue sinking before he would pull it upwards.
Silently waiting for that time to come, Ester's smile dimmed slightly as his ears caught sounds that were distinctly different from the ambient rain noises.
And anything not to do with the Trash rain and the poisoned wind meant trouble.
Instantly laying flat against the ground, Ester deactivated his respirator, letting its many pumps slow to a halt.
And as it did, he took off his mask, making the already noticeable smell of metals increase.
Tasting the metal on his tongue, Ester took in sharp shallow breaths of the toxic air that relentlessly attacked the human body.
Calming his heart beat so that it slowed the spread of metal poison in his body, Ester made a note to take demetallizers later.
And finally to his already excessive preparations that would fool dumb beasts, Ester heard the sound of respirators other than his own prompting him to use a weave.
Hand forming a simple symbol in the air, Ester felt his skin become crusty as his entire body was covered in a thin layer of condensed trash.
But all this paid off once the source of what was adding in that noise appeared.
'People.'
Ester frowned underneath his mask.
'They're Corpse disposers by the smell of it.'
Wheeling over a rusted over wheelbarrow, the wheels squeaked with much needed oil over the din of respirators pumping cleaner air into their lungs.
Shaking with the weight of unknown naked humanoid bodies, the bodies were thin, gaunt figures, skin pale from lack of UV light.
'...The victims of migration.'
Walking past him as if they didn't even see him in the first place.
Ester's grey eyes stared at the back of their heads as he watched them dump the cold unmoving bodies near the lake, uncaring if they tumbled into the irradiated waters.
They couldn't protest either way, they were dead.
Having dumped all of them out of the cart, one of the Corpse Disposers placed a small metal symbol atop their corpses.
Shaped like a circle, sharp blades protruded from it, curling inwards.
Eyes lingering on the unfamiliar symbol, the Corpse Disposers soon left the vicinity of the corpses allowing Ester to stop his act of being a pile of trash.
Instantly turning on his respirator upon confirming that they weren't nearby, Ester took in deep gasping breaths of the much cleaner air entering his lungs, the hiss of air pushing past the filters.
Greedily sucking in the filtered air that tasted like a less intense version of the blood lingering in his mouth, Ester's heart beat ferociously.
'As I thought, using a weave in this environment a bad idea'
Hand still tingling from the brief usage of the Weave, his vision briefly blurred before stabilizing.
After calming down a bit, Ester picked up the metal wire on the ground and pulled.
'At least the wire is still intact.'
Wire tensing briefly, Ester planted both feet near the banks of the lake and pulled, prompting the toxic sludge embedded into the bottom to move.
Ester's eyes glanced at the bodies near the water and noticed that the corpse that had rolled into the lake was nowhere to be found.
'...Another disappearance.'
Having been used to the strange nature of the lake that consumed any biological lifeforms that entered its waters, Ester ignored it.
He made a pointed effort to not get any of the irradiated waters on him though.
Hauling the round ball of toxic sludge onto the surface, it left a trail of green on the bottom of the lake bed, glowing brightly as it soon breached the surface with a hiss.
Blocking his eyes instinctively, Ester hauled the toxic ball of sludge onto the pre prepared tarp, grabbing all four of its corners and wrapping it all together.
Using the wire that had just hauled it up as a tool to tie the four corners together, Ester pocketed the wire spool while shifting the tarp to his shoulder.
Dark blue and grey tarp appearing strikingly to any observers, Ester soon began his walk back home.
+++
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