Black Hole: The Book of Iratus, Episode 31

Chapter 301

Iratus, "Didn't Desidia imply the shard could be used to return you three home?"

Venatio, "If we found the right reality machines, the teleportation one we have requires one to travel to both places they wish to connect. So we are still stuck here."

Resonantia, "That felinefolk sounded rather suspicious from how you all describe her."

Venatio, "I just assumed she was my replacement. That situation was something my patron would have me do."

The hyena man's ears perked up at that.

Fractura, "Hold on. Your patron was a summoner, right?"

Venatio, "Yes, and his name is Data Error."

Ignis, "What madness could cause someone to have such a name? Why? How?"

Fractura, "Might be a callsign. Anyway, this guy would lead us to a reality shard? Dude, that's the opposite of what these summoners want."

Tempestas, "No, remember the other summoner faction interfering with you guys? Now it makes sense why they would."

Fractura, "This is crazy. I keep saying this experiment with the tower folk was just nothing, but now I'm really starting to sweat."

Venatio, "Pah, Data Error is just another summoner; I'm sure he has tens of thousands of other locations he is running. This is how these people work."

Fractura, "This guy must be one hell of a radical. I...kind of like it."

Iratus, Clamor, and the other four girls just sat there in silence, unable to comment on the topic that was beyond their knowledge.

Iratus, "So, back to the original topic, is Desidia an ally?"

Venatio, "As far as I can tell, yes. If she is my replacement, very yes."

Clamor, "Ok, now how about that reality shard?"

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Chapter 302

Fractura, "I vote for turning it into power. We wouldn't need petrol for the boats or electricity for electronics."

Tempestas, "We don't really have electronics."

Fractura, "We've barely searched for locations to loot. The campsite and several places south of here should have them. We could have air conditioning, video games, and whatever else."

Venatio, "That is tempting."

Fractura, "Just tempting? I don't know how people who lived without electricity could endure this crap or live without real entertainment. I want movies, video games, shoot, I'd take a light switch over the nothing we currently have."

Iratus, "We have games."

Fractura, "Tabletop stuff is golden, but it only matters if other people are willing."

Iratus, "Well, come over more often then. You will find someone always up for something."

Fractura, "I do, and you tower folk are always busy, always working. It is crazy just how much labor goes into surviving."

Victoria, "Without proper knowledge of this electricity stuff, I don't know if most of us could vote on this."

Fractura, "Think of all the technology you are aware of and see. We are hundreds of years more advanced. We have better than the battleship, and now that I think about it, all the medical machinery in that hospital could actually be used. I could use."

Venatio, "I'd have to help you with translations and reading, but yeah, it would be a godsend if something bad were to happen to anyone here. Now I still think teleportation would be a better option."

Fractura, "Take the floor."

Venatio, "Just think of a location you don't want to hoof it to. The boat shop, the other tower, our campsite, the road tunnel place, the rice fields, even the hospital We could just travel three days out and make a little something too."

Aestus, "Wow, that sounds so useful. Oh, we should make a tele-thing at the hot springs cave!"

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Chapter 303

Clamor, "It is certainly difficult to argue connecting two points."

Fractura, "Oh, you get it."

Clamor, "Concepts are easy enough. I've been around your games, and I am keenly aware of magical fiction. It's kind of weird to hear what is supposed to be fiction become reality."

Tempestas, "The summoners have such advanced technology that magic is the only way to describe it, even for people like us."

Iratus, "I'll say."
  
Tempestas, "Now, can we talk about dismissing the shard and sending it back to reality? It may only be a shard, but it will heal the stability around here, even if it is small. This ripple may even push back the next blackest day."

Iratus, "If reality is melting, then shouldn't the governments outside do something?"

Fractura, "Oh, they are. They, corporations, and treasure seekers come on down here for the shards so that they can be the masters of reality. No one is willing to throw away such a god-tier resource as reality shards, and even more so if the problems using shards will have consequences tens of thousands of years from now."

Ignis, "Is repair even possible?"

Fractura, "Maybe crash Nexus Prime into the Prime black hole since everything here was made from shards."

Tempestas, "And a lot of them. We need far too many years of observation to figure out what is happening. Even with the few hundred on record, we know nothing. Now we have experiments that prove the de-stability does fizzle out when the shards are given back into reality. Whatever problems are around because of the summoners mess, we will without a doubt have a better time out here, and if we use a shard, the opposite will happen."

After another minute for people to stew, there was one final discussion before people started giving their stances.

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Chapter 304

Fractura and Ignis were talking about how they could use the energy for their side, while Venatio and Resonantia talked about where to connect a pair of portals. Finally, Tempestas and Clamor were waiting to see who else would join them in dismissing the shard. Given a moment, Iratus came up with his own idea.

Iratus, "What about the summoner's tower? I have that keycard for that place, so maybe there is more reality machinery in there."

Fractura, "Among other things."

Venatio, "Considering what we found and how our group is being helped, we might find things that are beneficial for our group."

Fractura, "Some might not be reality machines. To be honest, what we have now can be used now, where the tower would be a death trap."

Resonantia, "How so?"

Fractura, "From what Venatio has said about the hospital place, it is actually highly irregular in how lax the security was and how few monsters were within it."

Venatio, "In my first summoner building run, there were ten originator metalheads on the bottom floor. Not only that, but getting around the center room was also pretty easy. If anything, there was just too little security."

Fractura, "Compare that to the tower. We ran into several drones that can basically kill us in a second." The hyena man thought for a moment before continuing. "If we did want to try to delve into it, we would have to do it slowly and as safely as possible. Combine that with the intense freezing air, and this is something that could take a year to clear out."

Tempestas, "And that's still insane. Summoner places usually have an insanely low survival rate."

Victoria, "I'll still vote for waiting to see what the tower has."

Aestus, "I'm still thinking. All of this magical stuff is really hard to think about."

Fractura, "Technically, not magic."

Iratus, "We might have to sit on this and take time to think things over. I also don't think just an outright vote is sufficient when we have a very serious decision to make."

Clamor, "I agree."

Fractura, "Yeah, that makes sense."

With a few more nods, the meeting would eventually end, and everyone went about their daily lives.

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Chapter 305

Fractura and Tempestas would go home, but Clamor and Venatio sat down at the table with the tower folk.

Clamor, "Can we talk for a minute?"

The girls were finishing up their dinner as Iratus came over to sit back down.

Iratus, "What is it?"

Clamor, "So I have been talking to Venatio, and we wish to live here in the stone tower."

Iratus, "Why, what's changed?"

Clamor, "Besides being too old? Frankly, I don't like how lonely those cabins are. My back is still not healed, and this has hampered my ability to work."

Venatio, "And despite how well it is to get a good walk in, I prefer to walk on my own time and not travel such distances from here and back. The two of us are too old for this."

Iratus, "Girls?"

Ignis, "The worst part is limiting our moments to our room only."

Victoria, "I am now regretting putting the library on the fourth floor now too."

Resonantia, "Let's speak with more decorum, please."

Victoria, "Anyway, I don't think any of us would shun these two away."

Ignis, "Though we will have to make haste in constructing their own house."

Clamor, "Maybe get a proper wall put in place."

Iratus, "So much work to do."

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Chapter 306

Many days passed with the new projects being the priority. On day 142, Tempestas and Fractura came by to watch the construction projects unfold. Despite his age and hurting back, the old rabbit man was hard at work with a large saw, and Iratus was helping him cut tree logs. Their muscular forms were on display as they moved heavy logs around.

Fractura, "I have been wondering what you guys were up to. What are you all building?"

Clamor, "A wooden wall and my own home around here."

Fractura, "Oh wait, people can just make their own houses now?"

Iratus, "Why do you want to live here too?"

Fractura, "It would save me the effort of walking over here all the time."

Iratus, "Sure, build a house right over there."

Fractura, "Sweet."

Tempestas, "Where did you find a saw? Where did you find all the tools?"

Fractura already took his shirt off and got to work.

Clamor, "Around. You guys should check out Last Mistake one of these days because there is a lot of stuff all over the place."

Tempestas, "What are you doing, Fractura? What about the summoners tower?"

Fractura, "All the tech is busted, and I don't know how much longer those lights will stay on."

Iratus, "Yeah, there were lights and stuff, weren't there?"

Venatio, "Before you ask, it's far more likely that it isn't a shard pumping energy into it."

Fractura, "Goodness, two shards in one lifetime."

Venatio, "Three for some of us."

Tempestas, "You're really going to leave and make me live alone?"

Fractura, "Honestly, I spend more time here than where we currently sleep. I think it would be beneficial to live closer."

Tempestas, "You seemed fine living in the other tower."

Fractura, "Sure. When it started, I was confident that I could just live alone; it didn't matter because I've always been alone. These days, I'm not doing anything, and I'm bored. I'll take work, then peaceful nothing any day. Maybe I'll open a shop next."

Tempestas, "What's gotten into you?"

Clamor, "Aren't you already selling your medical services?"

Fractura, "Without a much larger population and access to medicine, I'll need a side job to fund my needs."

Tempestas, "Silver chains. Whatever, I guess I'll make a little something too."

Venatio, "Nevermind, I don't want to live here if she is staying."

Tempestas, "Can't stand someone being more beautiful than you?"

Venatio, "You caught me; I am just too jealous."

Clamor, "Don't worry too much about Tempestas."

Tempestas, "This is only temporary anyway. I still believe getting home is possible. We all have lives to get back to."

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Chapter 307

The people who worked took breaks often. The girls got more paper and ink and had been making cards. The group began brainstorming ideas on what card game to make and settled on their own kind of game.

Iratus, "So we should have a side pile and draw cards for everyone to buy."

Fractura, "I think I like this so far."

Clamor, "Really? This seems really random, and I don't know how much skill is part of this."

Fractura, "Yeah, it is about how to spend your points and make smart choices. However, we need a 'just for fun' type of game right now. We can focus on board games and other card games later."

Resonantia, "I like the randomness. I like how the bonuses work when you stack the same class or faction units."

Victoria, "But it does limit the way people build their teams. I'd like a more free-form way of playing, but this is still fine."

Ignis, "I prefer to play the game before turning in a statement of fact."

Aestus grabbed some of the discarded avocados.

Aestus, "I'll give the chickens some of the extra food."

Iratus, "Woh woh. Not those. That stuff is toxic to chickens."

Venatio, "Huh, I never put much thought into what chickens eat. Since we will probably be helping around here, what else should we avoid feeding the chickens?"

Iratus, "Uh...tomatoes, potatoes, onions, garlic, raw beans...and citrus fruits. As for what we usually feed them, we give them whatever we can find, such as grains, vegetables, apples, and melons."

Victoria, "Without the seeds and in small pieces, we have also fed them some of their own cooked eggs."

Fractura, "That sounds morbid."

Aestus, "If you think that's weird, did you know chickens eat tiny rocks?"

Fractura, "Really now? Why do they do that?"

Iratus, "They need grit to help digest their food since they do not have teeth to break things apart."

Eventually, the group would make their final preparations for their new game, and when night came, Fractura and Tempestas would head back to their own tower.

Clamor and Venatio went to bed quite early, leaving the rest of the group alone in the community room.

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Chapter 308

Iratus and the girls played war games with the wooden figures for a while.

Iratus, "We sure are busy these days."

Victoria, "You mean the wall and the houses? Because it will be much more difficult in the coming months."

Ignis, "Most assuredly, we will be taking on fewer duties as our baby's growth proceeds."

Iratus, "Hopefully, having the extra hands will pick up the slack."

Resonantia, "Considering they and we have had some problems in the past, I guess that's all forgiven at this point."

Iratus, "Most of their problems with me don't count when they have loot to gain. The rest is that they don't like taking risks, but since we are the powerhouse of manpower around here, they kind of want to eat, and we offer the food. Though it almost isn't fair since we have a whole family to outcompete with the others."

Resonantia, "Sure, but I think Fractura, Tempestas, and Venatio are just too lazy to try to hunt, while Clamor can only do so much by himself."

Aestus, "That makes no sense. They are willing to risk their lives fighting monsters, but they don't want to spend the time to hunt, skin, and cook."

Victoria, "Actually, they still gain the right to the loot of the places we raid, and normally there are only basic dumb monsters to fight, if any. Finding these powerful and crazy monsters might be uncommon compared to the norm."

Iratus, "Considering our luck, it might be the reverse."

Aestus, "Let's see. The stone city and the castle city didn't have anything abnormal."

Resonantia, "Last Mistake had that four-legged thing, while the caves and cold tunnels had the ebonies."

Aestus, "The cabins and the train tracks also only had normal monsters too."

Iratus, "When certain monsters are normal, you know the world you live in is messed up."

Resonantia, "Then there was the battleship and hospital."

Aestus, "Well, we still have all those other locations along the southern road."

Iratus, "Also, that castle city had those centaur metalheads, so..."

Aestus, "Maybe we are just unlucky?"

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Chapter 309

More days would pass until day 146 came. This day, Iratus, Clamor, Fractura, and Tempestas went to Last Mistake to gather more supplies. The ruined Lionheart Republic town has been peaceful since the day it was purged of the monsters called treeskins. The group took apart buildings, taking nails and other materials from their carts as they traveled around.

Fractura, "So there is still at least one monster in the hospital, right?"

Iratus, "Yup."

Fractura, "Is it possible it could just walk right out?"

Iratus, "Yeah."

Fractura, "Shouldn't we do something about it then?"

Clamor, "Since when do you care about monster hunts?"

Fractura, "I would actually like to appropriate the building for my own ends. I can't really do that if there is still one monster wandering around."

Iratus, "Is the hospital even useful without power?"

Fractura, "I'd have to explore and look at everything to know for sure."

Iratus, "Well, I would like to get a better look at the place myself. Give me another few days, and I'd be willing to join your delve."

Clamor, "Ah, you kids, go ahead and go monster hunting. I'm too old to keep doing these things."

Fractura, "As you literally build walls and houses."

Clamor, "Far less dangerous."

Tempestas, "You know, if you have a say in the loot, you could sell it to us at a later date for other goods and services."

Clamor, "Yeah...maybe I will join then."

Fractura, "And thus, capitalism wins again."

Iratus, "Although he could join the expeditions into all those places near the south road if he wanted a lot of variable loot."

Tempestas, "Don't give him ideas."

The group spent hours going back and forth for the supplies they needed to continue their building projects. After some coordination and talks with everyone, the expedition team would consist of Iratus, Resonantia, Fractura, Clamor, Tempestas, and Venatio. Iratus took his standard loadout, Resonantia had her bow, Tempestas with her metal spear, Clamor with his great sword, and this time the hyena and badger took metal spears as well.

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Chapter 310

The bot came to life as Venatio drove it out to the river. This time the party brought their many bags and even a cart to grab the loot.

Clamor, "Ugh, I think the days have been getting hotter."

Iratus, "I mean, the tropical environment here has always been unbearable."

Fractura, "No, I think the cold air from up north has finally stopped."

Clamor, "Then we can expect hotter days for who knows how long."

Iratus gave a loving nuzzle to Resonantia and spoke.

Iratus, "You know, I remember you saying you had a pet fox once before. I was wondering if your culture shares our love of pet choices."

Resonantia, "Sorry, my love, but taking a fox for a pet is quite unusual for our world. Calling it exotic still wouldn't reach it. I was a kid; we caught a fox when we were hunting for wild horses, and I didn't want to kill the poor thing. It isn't unheard of, but pet foxes were just uncommon."

Iratus, "Darn, no war foxes for you guys then."

Resonantia, "Hearing about your giant foxes never sounds right." She finished with a bit of laughter.

Iratus, "What kind of pets did your people have?"

Resonantia, "Snakes usually."

Clamor, "Despicable, unlike we in Beryl. We had the noble cat and smaller felines for pets. The smaller ones were excellent ratcatchers, while the larger cats were great friends and warriors when needed."

Resonantia, "Rarely, from what I heard, your jungle cats were more on the lazy side than anything else."

Clamor, "I mean...uh...yeah..."

Eventually their boat pulled up to the makeshift pier, where the group tied their boat and headed off to the spiral mountain, where at the top they finally made it to the hospital from the planet Purity. The heavily fortified hospital still had its front doors lying outside, long since broken off from the building. The group lined up and prepared themselves to find the last monster.

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EPISDOE 31: END

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Episode 31 End Character Sheet
Name: Iratus Lionheart
Species: Mousefolk
Age: 14
Coverings: blonde fur, white gambeson (many repairs, some leather patchwork, a lot of minor damage, and torso tear), leather gloves, tactical vest, tailorcraft backpack, leather plate helmet
Weapons: Long Sword, 3x Knifes, Short Sword
Equipment: belt, belt bag, water skin, leathercraft backpack, 2 bags, 33 oval copper coins, 7 small silver bricks, 6 gemstones, 20 fine silver coins,20 fine gold coins

Wounds: none

Relevant Community Stash: a fire starter, whetstone, several leather items, 3 glass jar, 12 empty bottles, 1 fish net, fishing gear and other supplies, primitive sewing kit, trowel, woodcutting axe, a bunch of small wooden figures, wooden dice, metal scrap, lots of rusted metal, several small fish nets, a strange device (Gameboy-like device), compass, sextant, some bedrolls, a tent, lots of rope, a large barrel, writing material, 80 cloaks and other clothing materials, some fabrics, 6 carts, 11 tattered tents, skin drum, beautiful arts of tropical scenery, floatation devices, wildlife figures, lots of tropical clothing, rope ladder, reality machines: portal maker and energy use, 1 reality shard, woodworking tools.

Armory: 10 wooden spears, 56 short swords, 53 knifes, 25 daggers, 34 metal spears, 2 hand bombs, 21 rusted weapons, many armor pieces, ruined metal armor, semi-automatic rifle (no ammo), box of unknown ammo, 4 hunting traps, 3 snares, 2 pistols (no ammo), 12 unknown bullets, 4 backpacks
Aestus: leather vest, leather helmet, metal spear, short sword
Victoria: scrap metal breastplate, leather helmet, metal spear, short sword, crossbow, flashlight
Resonanita: breastplate, metal helmet, metal spear, short sword, compound bow, flashlight
Ignis: leather helmet, metal spear, crowbar

Treasure: 88 oval copper coins, 33 oval silver coins 74 ancient metal coins, 20 fine silver coins, 44 fine gold coins, 23 fine copper coins, a tarnished silver brooch, a small ornamental figurine, a handful of sparkling glass beads, a small wooden trinket box, a few antfolk tapestries, some antfolk art, 107 copper lion coins, 5 silver lion coins, 14 gold lion coins, 115 wolfen metal coins

Home Base, Tower: Large Storage Area (many crates, clay pots, and wooden chests), Basic Workshop Area (lots of tools, woodcarving tools, glue, sandpaper), Kitchen Area (many tools, many cutlery items, pots&pans, makeshift grill), Library, Armory, Infirmary Room (surgery tools, first aid kit, plenty of medicine), Guest Quarters, Master Bedroom (proper bedding, sensual antfolk sculpture), Six Bedrooms (proper bedding)

Outside Base: Butchering Hut (modern butchery kit, smoking rack), Tannery Hut, Underground Storage Area, Garden Area (fenced in)

Books: 3x woodworking books, weathered leather-bound journal, war game booklet, sketch book (from warband), special documentary on Nexus Prime #34, 16 Broken Tower documents, Bathhouse Reviewers (entire 80 book series), cards

Year 0, Day 146

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Special documentary on Nexus Prime
Author: [DATA ERROR]
Report #: 24
Metalheads are what they call the viscus hot liquid. It makes no sense, but then again, the people we have summoned here have no idea what these creatures truly are. This animal survived as a black goo that lived in super volcanic vents in deep oceans. They are like an extremely complex microscopic animal that has grown exponentially without evolving into a 'normal' animal.

This rare creature forced our empathy to coddle these things in an attempt to preserve them, only to find their true adaptive ability when they decided to eat the karma-born beings. Without superheated temperatures, they suck themselves into a ball, where their self-heat regulation works against them, making their surface not too hot, which traps their nucleus inside.

They reproduce like cancer, where they just multiply forever, except that ever since we took them out of their biome, they required a biological component to exist and thus attacked people to overtake their bodies. However, since people's bodies are not hot enough, these creatures' oil-like bodies partially solidify into something like metal that covers the bones. The metalhead is still quick-active and still able to use part of their superheated self to attack.

While it has been documented metalheads attacking a variety of beasts, they seem to target almost exlusively soulbound. While we do not know why, perhaps they hold the perfect shape as a host.

Metalheads are quite adaptable; by taking a host body, they are able to walk and seek out more prey. Luckily, metalheads are nothing but instinct, so they only wonder around aimlessly in a location and are only dangerous in a horde.

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