Mohan and Abel were just outside the village along with 5 or so Perversi Viri. This area was particularly rocky, with giant stalagmites and stalactites jutting out from every surface.
"This looks like the spike fields or something," Mohan says with a chuckle, looking around at all the rock formations jutting out of every surface.
"What the hell are those?" Abel asks him.
"It's an idea a bunch of scientists came up with so future humans wouldn't go to places with nuclear material," Mohan says as he begins drawing in the dirt. All the Perversi Viri surround the drawing as he draws the instructions.
"Ah ok, I mean it doesn't seem like a good idea to keep people out," Abel says as he sits down next to Mohan.
"You think so?" Mohan asks Abel, raising an eyebrow.
"Ya, I feel it would just make people curious, like I could imagine me and my friends daring each other to stay there for 5 minutes," Abel says.
"Ya true, you were probably kinda retarded as a kid if you would do that," Mohan says with a chuckle.
"Ya, ya, we both know that you would do the same," Abel says, rolling his eyes.
Mohan chuckles. "Ya, maybe," He says as he finishes drawing. His drawing was made up of various detailed drawings, showing what the aliens had to do step by step.
"Well we should get started then," Abel says. Mohan nods and stands up, the Perversi Viri do the same as they grab their primitive stone hand axes - which are small, sharpened stones - and go over to some vegetation to use as fuel and some wood to build a structure around the smithery. Meanwhile, Mohan and Abel took turns using the pickaxe to clear the area and mine ores like coal.
Abel is currently taking a break while Mohan uses the pickaxe. As he sits there, his brain drifts back to the nuclear semiotics Mohan is thinking about.
"Why the hell would the government fund a bunch of scientists to do something that probably wouldn't even work that well? Couldn't they just bury nuclear waste deep underground or something?" Abel thinks to himself. Abel bounces this idea around his skull before finally deciding to ask Mohan what he thinks.
"Hey Mohan, do you think the reason they have all this nuclear semiotics bullshit is because they want to have an excuse if they build something big in the middle of nowhere?" Abel asks while Moh.
Mohan looks at him blankly for a solid second before speaking. "How the fuck is that the first thing you think of when I tell you about this," Mohan says bluntly.
"I don't know man, what do you think tho?" Abel responds with a shrug.
"Well I mean it makes sense, he'll think of all the shady shit the government has done. I mean we've seen it first hand when our ship took off without us," Mohan replies as he passes the pickaxe to Abel before sitting down.
Abel gets up to clear up the few rocks that littered the area so that they could have a flat clearing to build their smithery. "You think the government is the reason we're stuck in this hell?" Abel asks.
"Well think about it, how would the AI take off without us? The only way it could do that is if it was programmed into it," Mohan replies.
"Well what if it went rogue or something? Maybe it flew off to save itself or something?" Abel says.
"I don't think that's the case, ever since the 2035 incident in China, AI have very very strict restrictions and the ship flying off without us is completely against all of Erina Haye's laws of AI," Mohan says.
"Ya true, it doesn't make sense though. I mean why would they leave us here on purpose?" Abel asks.
Mohan sighs. "I got no clue if i'm going to be honest" He replies as a silence falls between the two. "Well c'mon lets get this done, the aliens will be back soon with the materials," Mohan says as he gets up and stretches his arms.
Abel nods. "Ya you're right, I'll wrap up getting rid of the rocks, you get started on marking the layout of everything," Abel says, going back to getting rid of the rocks. Mohan nods in agreement as he grabs some pigment that they took from H??ü and begins to draw a layout of the smithery.
Hibiki looked around this alien ship, even though it was covered by the flesh from the flesh spire, there was something biological about it. The substance under the flesh was like a shiny membrane. It felt like he was a living, breathing creature instead of a vehicle. Despite this and the voices in his head telling him to get the fuck out of here, he goes deeper into the dimly lit ship. Hibiki tread carefully, not wanting to step on the veins that covered the floor. As he progressed deeper into the ship, he was hit by a pungent smell, he looked over to a shiny membrane that covered the entrance to one of the rooms. From underneath the membrane, some bile-colored liquid leaked out. Hibiki nearly gags but moves to the room, cutting the membrane open only for a wave of this disgusting smell to hit him, making his eyes water. Hibiki looks around, his vision blurred by tears in his eyes, he sees 3 pods. He gets closer to look within the pods. Two of them were filled with the bile-colored liquid and contained two nearly identical aliens. They had 6 limbs, and at the end of each were hundreds of small tendrils. Their torso is tiny in proportion to their limbs and head, which resembles a cephalopod's. Hibiki then looked over to the third pod, only to see it was empty.
"Man, this is boring," Luh groans, sitting on the cave floor as she watches the Luminare Reptans work together to claw out metals with help from Elena, who would tap a stick where an ore vein was so that they could claw it out.
"Well maybe it wouldn't be so boring if you helped find metals," Elena grumbles, as she stumbles around and looks for metals.
"Elena, your ass is hungover as hell. If anything you should be sitting down too," Luh responds.
"Ah shut up, I gotta help out the Reptans," Elena says as she taps on a small deposit of ore, attracting some Reptans who began clawing at the soft stone around the ores, chipping off the stone around it bit by bit.
"I think they can figure it out on their own, they seem pretty smart," Luh says with a shrug.
"Well what else am I going to do then-" Elena says before being cut off by Luh.
"Well you can tell me what's going on between you and Abel," Luh says with a teasing smile.
Elena immediately freezes up. "There's nothing going on between us," Elena says in a deadpan tone.
"Well Mohan told me that you gave Abel a bracelet-" Luh says, causing a light blush to show on Elena's face. Luh smirks but before she can integrate Elena further, she's cut off by the Perversi Viri hollering to them and running. Elena and Luh look over to see a giant tentacle shooting out from the darkness. Elena and Luh begin to run away along with the Perversi Viri, exiting the cave and leaving whatever the creature was in the dark.
Mohan and Abel had finished helping the Perversi Viri and Luminare Reptans to build a proper forge. They used wooden support beams and leaves to create a small structure under which the forges were. There were 3 forges, a small one that couldn't get hot enough to melt iron but hot enough to melt copper and other similar metals like tin. The other two forges had primitive air pumps connected to them, which would allow the fire to burn hot enough to melt iron.
"Fuck I'm exhausted," Abel and Mohan groan, laying down on the ground. The Perversi Viri and Luminare Reptans were just as tired, lying down and drinking water from bamboo bottles.
"Well at least we got this done, Now we just gotta wait for Miku to come back with the materials," Mohan says with a sigh, sitting up against a wooden support beam.
"Yup . . ." Abel responds by trailing off before speaking again. "Hey, how do you think Hibiki is doing on his own? Since he's also on his own," Abel asks.
"Well knowing Hibiki, he's probably found some other insane bombshell. Like watch him come back somehow finding another intelligent species of alien or some shit," Mohan says chuckling.
"Well ya that's true but like you think he's good up here?" Abel asks, tapping the side of his head with his finger.
"Ahh ya probably not, I mean I think he doesn't wanna hang out with us as much after the whole argument thing," Mohan replies.
"Well ya but bro, I apologized already so I don't even know what I should say to him now," Abel says with a sigh. "I shouldn't have gotten so pissed at him, he didn't even do anything that bad," Abel adds.
"Ya but I think he does know that you didn't mean too, I mean I talked to him too so I think he is chill with us but I think he mainly needs space from the girls. I mean Luh hasn't apologized properly, Miku was the one who started the whole argument in the first place and then Elena turned it all onto Hibiki. If I was him, I'd be annoyed as fuck too," Mohan explains.
"Ya, I agree fully," Abel says. The conversation dies down after that after the two look around. The two look up at the ceiling, the dark black obsidian that made up the cave ceiling is dotted with hundreds of glowing dots. Glowing moss of purple, blue, and green streaked across the cave roof like a miniature Aurora Borealis.
"As much as I hate this planet, I can't lie, this is pretty beautiful," Mohan says with a small smile.
"Ya it is," Abel says with a smile as well. This peace was short-lived though as the Luminare Reptans screeched, causing the Perversi Viri to stand up and grab their obsidian spears. Mohan and Abel stand up as well, Mohan equips his sword hand and Abel grabs his Katar, having left his sword at the house. They join the aliens in the center, covering each other's blind spots. A rumbling sound booms out from the darkness, vibrating their bodies against their own will. Then from the darkness, a giant creature steps into the light. It had two large arms, shiny black armor without a single scratch or dent, and a lush brown mane. It was a Maui's Reptans.
"Shit," Hibiki whispers under his breath, seeing the torn open and empty chamber.
Hibiki quickly slashed open the membrane and ran back to where he had entered. Just as he reached the room with the fleshy console, he heard a loud clicking. He ducks behind the console. One of the aliens from the ship enters the room, the membrane opening for it. It was clearly infected but he had never seen a creature as badly infected as this specific alien. It was covered from head to toe in the flesh and its skin seemed stretched and bloated. Eyes and organs poured out of any opening they could from in between the cancerous lumps on its body. Hibiki began to sneak around it but as if it was a walking hive, one of its eyes, which shouldn't be functioning, noticed him and shot a dart at him. Hibiki shields himself with the wooden shield at the last second before beginning to run, backward, using his shield to defend himself as the alien screeches and chases after him. Hibiki reaches the membrane he entered from, slashing it open before running out. Using his shield to block against the darts from The Heart.
"BURN IT DOWN! FIRE!" Hibiki yells, the Perversi Viri hearing the word "Fire" which was the word that Hibiki used before launching the catapults, recognized it and began to shoot at heart. One particularly bright Perversi Viri had even led the others to build 2 whole catapults after Hibiki had left. The Heart screeched, as blood poured down its rough and uneven surface like lava from an erupting volcano. This gave Hibiki a chance to make a proper run for it and reach the Perversi Viri. The infected alien, stuck at the entrance of the ship screeched as a stray fireball had set it ablaze. The Heart screeched as it began to melt, the blood not able to put the fires out fast enough.
"We got the bastard on the ropes," Hibiki said with a grin.
Then a loud metal creaking is heard. The Perversi Viri stop firing for a moment as they watch the flesh that made up The Heart's complex retract and accumulate to cover the alien ship. Then it slowly arose with a giant rumbling and creaking, like some newly awakened giant. Then it pulled itself away with giant fleshy and metallic tentacles and only in a few seconds, The Heart was gone. Hibiki's eyes widened in surprise and the Perversi Viri had stopped as well. Hibiki stared blankly at where The Heart had fled until something caught his eye from the corner of his eye. A familiar shiny metallic shine that immediately brightened his mood. Laying where The Heart once was was a ship - not an alien ship but it was instead the rescue ship that had crashed all those weeks ago.
Miku's mood, however, wasn't as bright. She and her small army of alien allies, consisting mainly of Perversi Viri and Luminare Reptans, just as the other groups did but in addition, Miku had 3 young Maui's Reptans with her. Turns out they were 3 of H??ü's 7 kids. This part of the cave was further down than the smoky forest and unlike the top, every large plant-like alien was bioluminescent. Obnoxiously so, as they glowed like mini suns. One species of animal was particularly hostile, they were roughly the size of a wolf but were completely vanta black. Making it completely impossible to see coming. That paired with silent pads on their limbs and a potent neurotoxin in their claws, made them the ultimate assassins. Miku had killed at least a dozen of these predators while trekking into the bright abyss. Eventually, after a bit of a trek, they reached the quarry. A giant quarry of iron, aluminum, titanium, and other metals.
"Finally lets get this done with," Miku mutters as the army begins their mining.
Elena and Luh sat outside, looking down at the ground. On the ground was a collage of drawings from a Luminare Reptan elder. The first drawing showed the tentacle and hundreds of dots inside of it. The second shows aliens being pulled in by it but the third shows the tentacle receding into the darkness as some object stands in front of it. Elena and Luh had no idea what it was so they sat there as the Perversi Viri and Luminare Reptans gathered materials while others began to craft what was drawn.
"What are they doing?" Luh asks, looking at them in confusion.
"No clue but it seems they found a way to scare the thing off, so that we can wrap up our mining operation," Elena says with a shrug. The elder Luminare Reptans who the others called "Yebwel" notices their confused tone and chuckles softly, even though it was an alien, it couldn't have sounded more human. The aliens had finished crafting the object.
"Huh so it's a scarecrow?" Elena thinks aloud.
"How is that supposed to work? I mean it would just go for it right?" Luh asked Elena as the aliens put the scarecrow into the cave. Elena and Luh followed right behind them. As expected the tentacle shot out in the dark towards the scarecrow before stopping in front of it, examining it. Now that it wasn't moving, Elena and Luh got a better look at it.
"So that's why they put all those dots in there," Luh trails off in surprise. The tentacle wasn't a single solid organism but made up of millions of tiny ant-like organisms. After the tentacle finished observing the scarecrow, it slithered back into the darkness where it came from.
"Well that worked somehow," Elena says in surprise.
"Ya no clue how but hey, I'm not complaining," she says with a small grin. Yebwel hears their excited voices and smiles softly as the mining resumes.
Abel and Mohan look at the giant Mauis Reptan, who is nearly as big as H??ü and leads his own pack of at least 20 Luminare Reptans. The Mauis Reptan grins confidently as he begins to communicate with the Perversi Viri. Even though Abel and Mohan couldn't understand the two parties in what they were saying, the situation was obvious, this Mauis Reptans wanted to take the territory. After a few minutes of a back and forth, The Mauis Reptan suddenly roars, silencing the other aliens before speaking once more, slow and intellectually. It was like looking at a younger H??ü. After the Mauis Reptan speaks, a nervous silence settles over the Perversi Viri and Luminare Reptans. It was clear what the Mauis Reptan had done, he had issued a challenge. No one spoke before Mohan and Abel looked at each other. If they didn't do this then they would lose the smithery, something they couldn't afford.
"I'll go if you go bro," Abel says with a grin, his hand shaking slightly as he gripped his Katar so hard that his knuckles turned white.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"Ya don't worry, I got your back," Mohan says, sweating slightly as they both step forward.
The Mauis Reptan's grin turned into a deadpanned expression as he heard the two stand in front of him. Both sides back off, giving them a wide berth to fight. The Mauis Reptan begins to make a noise so loud it feels like Mohan's and Abel's insides are being shaken around. Abel frantically looked around, knowing that much more of this would kill them, and spotted a broken-off piece of obsidian. He lunged at it and then hurled it at the Mauis Reptans, it shrieked as the obsidian slashed its arm. Mohan and Abel take this opportunity, rushing at the Mauis Reptan. The Mauis Reptan swings its tail at them. Mohan grabs onto the tail and begins to climb up on it while Abel rolls out of the way. The Mauis Reptan grabs at his back with one arm, trying to get Mohan. Mohan throws down his sword arm and Abel tosses up his Katar. Abel then uses Mohan's sword arm to slash the leg of the Reptan, throwing it off balance. Before Mohan could jam the Katar into its neck, it bites his shirt and throws him off and into the crowd. The Mauis Reptan stands back up with ease before grabbing a piece of obsidian off the ceiling and hurling it at Abel. Abel blocks it for half a second with Mohan's sword before rolling out of the way but he didn't dodge it completely as a piece of it had cut his pinky clean off. The Mauis Reptan smells the blood in the air and grins before rushing at Abel. Mohan, who during this had climbed up a structure of rock, jumps down and onto the Mauis Reptan's head and jammed his Katar into its skull, which only made a small chip in its armored skull but that was more than enough to piss it off and cause it to claw at itself, trying to grab Mohan. Mohan jumps down from its head before stabbing into its side, causing it to roar in pain. The now enraged Reptan backhanded Mohan and sent him straight into a stalagmite. Abel who tried to sneak attack it was similarly slapped into a stalagmite by its tail. The Mauis Reptans breathes heavily, like an angry bull as it touches the scratch on its skull caused by Mohan before beginning a slow and intentional walk to Mohan, who even if he wanted to could not move.
"Fuck, we're dead," Mohan says, clutching his dislocated arm.
Before the Mauis Reptan could reach them, a familiar sound rumbled through the cavern as H??ü dropped down from the cave ceiling and in front of the younger Mauis Reptan. The two communicate, with the younger one challenging H??ü leading to a brief but intense battle where H??ü's experience and greater size allow him to control the fight. The younger Reptan looks up at H??ü before pointing at Mohan and Abel and asking something. It looked confused, after all, some hairless apes chipped its perfect armor. H??ü chuckles before responding and the younger Reptan's jaw drops before speaking and bowing his head. H??ü grins before helping the younger one up and asks him something. The younger one responds with ?TY?, Mohan, and Abel assumes that this is his name. H??ü then leaves with ?TY? and ?TY?'s pack of Luminare Reptans.
Once the two leave, Mohan and Abel breathe a sigh of relief. "Holy shit," they both say at the same time.
"Well that went well," Abel says jokingly.
"You say that when your pinky is now missing," Mohan points out.
"And you say that when your arm is dislocated," Abel retorted. The two chuckle for a second which devolves into a light cough. The two then treat each other, Abel popping Mohan's arm back into its socket and Mohan wrapping up Abel's hand so it doesn't get infected.
A few hours later, Mohan, Abel, Elena, and Luh arrive back at the village. Having finished their respective tasks.
"Well you guys look like shit," Elena says, looking at the bruised bodies of the two of them.
Abel looks at Elena deadpanned. "Wow no shit," Abel grumbles, showing his missing pinky.
"Wait what the fuck? What happened??" Elena says, her teasing smile replaced by a look of concern.
"It's a long story, I just wanna freshen up right now," Abel says before heading for the house. Luh, Elena, and Mohan follow behind, with Mohan filling them in on what happened. Once everyone freshened up, they left the house and went to the gate to wait for Miku and Hibiki to return.
"When will they be back?" Luh asks, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Well Miku went deep into the caverns and god knows what Hibiki is doing is right now," Mohan says with a sigh.
"Ya . . ." Luh replies before trailing off. "Hey uh Mohan, what should we say to Hibiki? I still think he's still kind of hurt," Luh says fidgeting with her finger.
"Well I'm not sure but you definitely have to apologize," Mohan says before the gates burst open and Miku, who was covered in blood and guts walks in. Her face scrunched up and sunken as she walks past the group without speaking a word and heads straight to the house to shower. The rest of Miku's army flows in, the three Mauis Reptans carrying giant barrels filled with all kinds of metal ores, who were then instructed by H??ü to drop off at the smithery, which now had 24/7 guards.
"Well atleast Miku is back," Abel says.
"Ya, I wonder what the hell happened," Luh asks, looking at the trail of blood left behind by Miku.
"I'd rather not know," Mohan says before silence falls over the group until a loud rolling and scraping is heard before stopping outside the gate. Everyone rushes outside and their eyes widen.
"HIBIKI WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT?!" Luh yells, grinning widely.
"It's a long story," Hibiki says as he approaches them. The Perversi Viri begin heading into the city, tired after using logs to roll the rescue shuttle back to the city.
The group practically tackles Hibiki into a hug.
"I can't believe you did it!" Abel yells as the group begins to carry Hibiki back into the city. They let Hibiki freshen up and after about half an hour, everyone gathers around the house's living room. For a couple of minutes, no one speaks until Mohan clears his throat and begins to speak.
"So, how'd everyone's trips go?" He asks.
Miku shrugs. "It was a pain in the ass but it nothing crazy happened," Miku says.
"Same here," Elena says.
"Ya all that we ran into was some weird cave alien," Luh adds.
"I got a lot to explain so I wanna know what happened to you guys first," Hibiki asks, motioning to Mohan and Abel.
Mohan nods before Abel speaks up. "Well in a nutshell, a new Mauis Reptan showed up, tried to take the smithery, we fought it, nearly died before H??ü showed up and beat the shit outta the newbie," Abel explains quickly.
"Wait an outsider? Where is he now?" Hibiki asks, sitting up straighter.
"Probably with H??ü," Mohan says with a shrug.
"So does it have a name?" Miku asks.
"I think it's name is ?TY?," Moha replies with a slight shrug.
"Well atleast you both are safe," Luh says with a sigh.
"Yup, now Hibiki wanna tell us how you found the rescue ship?" Abel says, smiling widely.
"Well I got a couple of other things to tell you first," Hibiki says taking a deep breath as he begins to explain everything. Once he finishes explaining the group looks at him, completely dumbfounded.
"YOU FOUND A FUCKING ALIEN SHIP?!" Miku exclaims as everyone else starts to ask questions but eventually, everyone calms down.
"Ok ok, wait we gotta go through this step by step," Mohan says.
Elena nods in agreement. "So The Heart is the biggest flesh spire that we know of right?" Elena says. Everyone nods in agreement. "So maybe there's an energy source on the ship that allowed it to get so big?" Elena suggests.
"Possibly but I'm not too sure because if that's the case cause there's nothing that looks like the flesh on C-100, maybe the aliens brought it with them here?" Luh suggests and Mohan nods.
"Ya plus that would explain why nothing here is evolved to eat it and why the Reptans and Perversi Viri are waging war against it," Mohan adds. Abel and Miku nod, having been lost for the past 3 sentences.
Hibiki stays silent, thinking before speaking up. "I think it's a weapon," Hibiki says. Everyone goes silent and Hibiki elaborates. "The tech of the ship was very different from ours, it was alive. It wasn't like our tech which is cold and metal, it was warm and fleshy. I don't think that's its too absurd to say that its a weapon," Hibiki says.
A heavy silence fell over the group until Elena spoke up. "If it is a weapon then why would they bring it here?" Elena questions.
"Maybe they wanted to colonize the planet but then they crashed and it all went wrong?" Hibiki suggests.
"That is possible . . ." Luh trails off before going silent entirely. The group sat, thinking over the implications of it. If the flesh was a weapon then it was a planetary threat and based on what Hibiki said, it's evolving.
Before they could discuss more, they heard a loud crashing sound. They rush outside and see all the citizens walking to H??ü's and ??x?§'s home. Everyone gathers around the home as ??x?§ and H??ü come outside and begin speaking.
"Why do you think everyone's is gathered here?" Abels whispers to Mohan, who just shrugs in response.
The group doesn't understand what they are saying as they can't speak their language but they assume it probably has something to do with today's missions. They listened until a phrase that H??ü said made their eyes widen in surprise.
"COOKING SHOWDOWN!" H??ü's voice booms across the city, inciting cheers from the citizens.
"Huh, so they were spying on us huh?" Hibiki says, a smile creeping up his face.
"Well, we can't lose to the aliens when their copying our game," Mohan says with a grin.
"Damn right bro, we got this!" Abel says, going to dap up Mohan but Mohan doesn't return the dap and instead puts his hand on Abel's shoulder. "I swear to god-" Abel starts before being interrupted.
"Just listen to us and we won't lose," Miku says in a deadpanned tone. Abel sighs and nods. As all the contestants were heading to their cooking stations, a familiar voice called to Hibiki.
"HIBIKI!" H??ü's voice booms as he motions Hibiki to sit next to him and ??x?§.
"Join judge," ??x?§ says also motioning for Hibiki to sit with them.
Hibiki looks at them before looking back at his group. Hibiki motions to his friends and ??x?§ and H??ü nod in understanding as everyone lightens up.
"So why'd ya decline being a judge? I mean you would've gotten good food with your alien buddies," Abel says jokingly as they begin setting up their cooking area.
"Cause we got a competition to win obviously," Hibiki says with a huge grin on his face.
Everybody grins back and only moments later the gong is struck and our contestants are off! The contestants consisted of 5 groups, the father and son duo Mohan and Abel got food from yesterday, a group of Perversi Viri led by the intelligent Perversi Viri that built 2 catapults on his own whose name is ?D?t, a group of Luminare Reptans, 2 female Mauis Reptans, and a group of both Perversi Viri and Luminare Reptans.
"So what should we even make?" Abel asks as everyone begins to prep ingredients.
"Well we gotta blow them out of the fucking water, so what better than something they've never seen," Mohan says sharing a knowing look with Hibiki.
"Yup, our dish is gonna be noodles, think bout it. They've never seen anything with the same complexity as noodles," Hibiki says.
"Ya, you're right!" Miku says grinning as everybody gets to work. Miku cuts up meat before giving it to Luh to cook like a steak. Meanwhile, Elena and Abel were on duty to make flour by grounding a grain-like organism. Hibiki was cutting up other toppings they could use. Mohan was grinding the spices needed.
After 7 hours, a loud gong rang, signaling the end of the cooking showdown. The noodles that they cooked up were a combination of different things from all of their cultures, in other words, this noodle dish didn't just represent them in this competition but instead, this dish represented all of humanity. The first group up was the 2 female Mauis Reptans, who had made a giant slow-roasted leg of a Candentis Pascentis and 6 fried glow orbs. Glow orbs are bioluminescent orbs that grow on the backs of Candentis Pascentis, Hibiki theorizes they are used to promote the growth of bioluminescent moss which helps them hide from Mauis Reptans. The judges taste the dish and then discuss it with each other about the dish before writing down their ratings on pieces of paper using a black pigment. H??ü rates the dish an 8, ??x?§ rates the dish a 6, and their wives rate the dish a 7 and 5 respectively.
The next group up was the Luminare Reptans and Perversi Viri group. They had created a soup, using the bone marrow from Coronatus Pascentem and herbs like Sauave Olens and Exspiravit aromata to flavor the broth. The soup also had meat from Piscis Gojira and chopped Gigantis Dentiscalplum leaves and stems. An elegantly carved stone tool was used by the judges to taste the soup. The soup was given 6 by H??ü, 7 by ??x?§, 4 by H??ü's wife, and 8 by ??x?§'s wife.
?D?t's group was up next, he had an excited grin on his face as he showed off his dish to the judge. To everyone's surprise, he had made a large flatbread and a thick Catafractarius Pecuarius stew. The judges taste the bread and stew separately before trying them both together. ??x?§ smiles and gives the dish a 9, H??ü gives the dish a 9 as well. Their wives gave it an 8 and 9 respectively. The crowd watching the cook-off cheers loudly and ?D?t grins victoriously.
When the father and son duo walk up, the crowd quiets down. They serve their dish to the judges, a giant slow-roasted Coronatus Pascentem leg wrapped in Gigantis Dentiscalplum leaves. In a stone cup alongside the dish was a blue drink, made from a blue root called "Caeruleum Operarius", named due to the work it does by drinking excess nitrogen in the soil, which gives it its blue color and a sweet, ginger-like taste along with producing bubbles when placed into water. The other elements in the drink are Brochofungus syrup, water, sweet berries, and aromatic herbs. The judges immediately begin to chow down, occasionally sipping from their respective drinks. After they finished, without missing a beat they all unanimously gave the dish a 10. The crowd roars with cheers. Clearly, the father and son duo were a fan favorite and it wouldn't be a stretch to say the best chefs in the history of the alien society.
Up next was Hibiki and the others. They serve their noodle dish to the judges who look at it questioningly. The noodle dish consists of a thick stew, noodles, grilled meat, chopped vegetables, and small dumplings - similar to Russian pelmeni. H??ü is the first one to try it and takes the whole bowl and begins to slurp up the noodles. H??ü doesn't speak for a bit before breaking out into a great and booming laughter as he begins to slurp up the noodles faster. The other judges begin to eat the noodles too, ??x?§ eyes widen after the first bite and he begins to eat faster. After only a few minutes, all the bowls were empty and judges began to discuss. ??x?§ suggests a 10 but H??ü shakes his head and says something which they both agree to. Then ??x?§ suggests by putting two 1's next to one another, that they would get something larger than 10 which is made up of a 1 and a 0. H??ü immediately agrees with it, as do their wives. The unanimous rating for the dish was 11! The crowd looks confused but H??ü explains what it means and everyone breaks out into loud cheers for the group.
"We fucking did it!" Abel says, dapping up Mohan as the group celebrates and H??ü declared them the winners.
Immediately afterward, a giant party was thrown for the winners. The father and son duo, dejected about losing weren't going to participate but their minds were changed by trying some noodles. All the aliens socialized and drank to their heart's content, except for ?TY?, who stayed in the corner with a slight scowl on his face. H??ü's sons went over with cups of beer in hand, only a few moments later ?TY? was talking and laughing loudly along with them. Abel and Elena had quickly broken out into a drinking contest and begun drinking abhorrent amounts of beer. Mohan didn't drink but instead began exchanging recipes with the father and son, whose names he learned to be ì?x? and ???. Hibiki talked to H??ü and ??x?§ as he drank, mainly about business as usual. Miku and Luh drank sparingly while talking to one another.
"Hey Miku," Luh says, taking a sip.
"Wassup?" Miku responds, not having touched her drink.
"How should we talk to Hibiki?" She asks nervously. "I mean we did fuck up pretty badly and I'm pretty sure he already forgave Elena since she wrote her apology to Hibiki a while back," Luh elaborates.
Miku nods. "Ya I remember that but I have no idea how we should talk to him," Miku says.
"Should we just apologize? Maybe he'll forgive us like that?" Luh suggests.
"I mean I'm not sure, I mean you were close to him and then broke his trust and I broke his trust even more but then again, I guess all we can do is apologize," Miku replies with a sigh.
Luh nods as they both go quiet and get back to enjoying themselves. Eventually, Luh finds Hibiki, who has finished talking to the two kings.
"Sup," Luh says nervously.
"Hey," Hibiki says, confused by her nervousness.
"I just wanted to uh apologize for being an ass and blaming you," Luh says, fidgeting her fingers as she talked.
"Oh, I already forgave you, it's no big deal," Hibiki says chuckling.
"Wait seriously?" Luh says, her eyebrows shooting up in surprise.
"Ya, why would I stay mad? I'm just happy everything is back to normal," Hibiki says with a smile, causing Luh to smile too.
A few hours later, the party ended and all the drunk aliens stumbled home. Mohan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Being the only one who was sober, he was stuck having to drag these dumbasses back. Abel and Elena knocked themselves out in their drinking contest, Hibiki and Luh were drunk, rambling on about nothing to one another, and Miku was curled up on the floor crying while muttering about "Eva-101" and a pet turtle for some reason. After a couple of minutes of having to babysit his drunk crew and carry Elena and Abel, they reached the house and everyone quickly fell asleep.
The next day everyone woke up pretty late but as always they had work to get done. They spent most of the day helping the aliens with making better weapons. The Iron was used to make armor for the Perversi Viri while the titanium was used to make swords, speartips, shields, and ballista bolts for the ballista that Hibiki planned to create. Mohan and the others didn't have to do much as an old and surprisingly ripped Luminare Reptan named K?s?kü, who surprisingly was able to quickly pick up on blacksmithing and even did it better than Mohan. This gave the group some time to do some important work, like checking the ship. Mohan goes into the ship to check on it to see what was damaged. After about 2 hours, Mohan comes out and returns to the house, where everyone is resting. Mohan sighs as he plops down on the floor next to everyone.
"So how does it look?" Abel asks him.
"Well we got our work cut out for us, we'll need to repair a good chunk of the ship. A lot of it is pretty easy since I still have my tools but the thing is, we'll need a new engine since it's completely missing," Mohan says stretching and rubbing his forehead.
"Well shit, can we make a new engine?" Elena asks him.
"I'm not sure, I don't think I have the skill to make a mini nuclear reactor," Mohan responds.
"So we're stuck here?" Luh asks him.
"Pretty much, maybe I could try repairing the coms on the ship and then we just have to wait for a rescue ship again," Mohan says, sliding against the wall defeatedly.
"Well that is our only shot at getting home, so might as well try it," Hibiki says.
An oppressive silence forms as everybody is already tired and this news doesn't help one bit. Suddenly, Miku speaks up.
"I know where we can find an engine," she says causing everybody to perk up, hanging on to her every word. "My ship that crashed all those years ago should still be intact, we did crash but the engine was still intact when we did plus we crashed on a desolate mountain top so I think the engine should still be intact," She says, pausing for a moment before continuing. "But the thing is, it's on the other continent which is on the other side of the planet," She adds.
"Wait if you crashed all the way there, How did you get here?" Abel asks her.
"I swam obviously," Miku states as if it was obvious.
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Elena asks her.
"Well because it's not like the ship can fly, only the engine is intact. So no point in mentioning something useless but now that we got a ship that could fly, I can mention it," Miku says with a shrug.
"Well we know what we gotta do now, we gotta make a ship to cross what could be the most dangerous waters ever," Hibiki says with a hopeful look on his face.
Over the next 3 weeks, making the ship was the top priority but they also had to help the aliens. So, Hibiki taught ?D?t how to make different things and how they work such as gears, electricity, and even how to make gunpowder. ?D?t was eager to learn all of this and his huge collection of materials from his time exploring, made making things such as gunpowder 100x easier. Abel and Elena taught the Perversi Viri and Reptans how to use their weapons, H??ü quickly learned but obviously, ?TY? continuously tried to challenge him, only to always lose. Luh and Miku tried working out a map based on Miku's memory and lastly Mohan along with K?s?kü worked on making the ship. After these 3 weeks, they had done it. They made a ship and the alien society now had a small power grid, made using a simple generator and a water wheel, that provided heat to water pools in their public baths and lights. They also had glass bottles to store liquid in, utensils, pots, pans, and countless other advancements. Bringing this civilization from ancient Egypt to a society that could make Rome jealous. Now, having carried the ship up the cave and to the eastern ocean, they boarded the ship and they waved goodbye to all the aliens.
"Luck to Hibiki!" H??ü yelled loudly, waving from the shoreline.
"Safe stay," ??x?§ calls out, also waving.
Hibiki and the others smile and wave back as the ship's sail catches the wind and they begin to sail off.
"Well off to the deep blue!" Abel says with a grin as they sail off to C-100's other continent.
