Rand Grimhammer was sitting in his Patriarch Chamber when four people entered with measured steps and they stood in attention.
His gaze was on a short clip of the Black Hole hand trembling before he slid the device into his drawer and looked at them.
They all bowed and straightened.
"Elias has been confirmed to be consumed by his Talent!"
"I request that my branch of the family be responsible for the newly formed ore. My connection with the Goldsmith Noble Family will prove useful in reduction of costs of refinement!"
Two of them spoke while the other two remained silent for a minute waiting his response but there was none.
The female among the fourspoke, "I told Elias that his mother will get 0.1 of the Ore!"
"Why?" The first man who spoke asked.
"To calm him down. At the face of annihilation, he may have funny ideas," she answered.
Elias's confidence in leaving his mother with them may waiver if he saw his death—and as a person with black hole teleportation is not impossible.
They understood that and approved of her judgment.
"She will still have 0.1 ownership, but will be funneled toward improving her mental state!" the patriarch said.
They were taken aback, even the female was shocked; she didn't expect he would agree, let alone keep the promise.
"Father, with all due respect, what will a mad woman do with all that wealth, and why do we need her to regain her mind?" the tallest among them asked.
"Because I said so!" The patriarch made no room for argument.
He then looked at the one who proposed a deal with the Goldsmith Noble Family.
"I don't want us to be mining in that location. I want us to put on efforts on bringing the entire ore here. Like the Project Minor Planet of Four Leaf Clover Country."
"That will cost an astronomical amount of money which we don't have!" they replied. "Not to mention pulling all available favour we can in short amounts of time.
"We must make it happen. Don't forget, the ore is mixed with Red Horn and the whole colony of the locust, refined and condensed inside a black hole!"
The female nodded her head in realization. "There will be valuable Gravity Talent Energy in it, and also it might help us toward understanding Black Hole creation rather than beating around the bush!"
"Yes. But even better if all the material condensation has created entirely new material that we don't know of we will be pioneers in another technology advancement.!" a man with a soft voice slowly said.
They also realised they needed the ore here with them to guard their secret. Leaving it there maybe subjected to schemes and interruptions.
After some more conversations, all left but the female.
"Something's bothering you?" she asked.
"You are always perceptive, Linda!" The man sighed.
"Do you think Elias is still alive?" She asked, and he shook his head.
"That is not my worry. Zar is."
"Zar! What about him? Is he still alive?" Her voice tone ros.
"Yes. He is. The moment Elias awakened, I felt a spike sensation, and then it began to build up. Zar is alive but lost somewhere in the world. His son's awakening might have created a radar for him to follow."
"If that is the case, then the Black Hole unleashed will serve as a gigantic radar."
"It has. Though I no longer feel him, I know he is coming back and very strong!"
Linda laughed, "Haha. No wonder you want to be nice to his wife. But what will you tell him about his son?"
"That's not something I will worry about. He is at most Rank 4." Rand sighed before he looked out through the window. The moon appeared close to earth and bright; however, that didn't help in easing his worries.
"I should have become Rank 5 by now!" he muttered.
Linda sighed too; for a moment, her anger flared up. "He is stupid. Falling in love at first sight. To an inept, no less."
She looked at her uncle and said, "With your permission, I can sacrifice my hammer for you. That will give you the necessary push for you to reach Rank 5."
"No. We will follow the normal route, refine our hammers together and complement each other. That is the correct way."
Rand thought afterward, 'The moment we open the Sacrifice Method, our family will become a ring of deadly scheme and bloodbath.'
"Besides, it doesn't need to be me who reaches Rank 5. Maybe you or others!"
He stood and walked inside. "Don't mistreat her!"
"Ha. I never hated her; it was you who went into a rage and almost killed Zar and kicked him out of the family."
"Hmm!"
***
The place the Black Hole graced this world had been transformed. From a giant chasm filled with colony of red locusts and Red Horn, among other things such as plants and bleak energy of death, was now a titanic round ball, pink in color.
The baby Black Hole had consumed everything within the sphere of 100km in diameter and condensed it into a single object.
Red Locusts were wiped out clean, large sections of Red Horn were eaten up too, and the whole ground and minerals were gone. Red Horn contributed to making the ball pink in color.
It was a perfectly round, extremely smooth, 11 km diameter floating pink ball. The power of gravity rippled from it.
To Grimhammer and Worldbender, Gravity Talent centred Noble Family, this was the greatest gold mine.
Thousands of kilometers away from all that, inside a lush, beautiful forest covered with vines and roses so mesmerizing one could believe this was heaven, was a young man floating above a rock, half dead.
Elias snapped open his eyes, and his floating turned off as he slammed onto the rock beneath. The rock shattered, and Elias's heavy body sank into the earth like a small mountain condensed into a small human.
Perhaps he was tired, or his energy was depleted, but he stopped sinking.
Elias's eyes stared at the dark sky, as dead as an eerie void, his pupils had expanded to encapsulate the whole iris. Veins around the sclera pulsed, almost rupturing.
His body had become thin like someone who had gone days without food; his ribs were countable from a distance, his head appeared larger, like the mistake of an artist in sculpting a statue.
Voo!
His eyes became normal, and he took a deep breath. Like a miracle, his body mass was rebuilt, pain vanished, and all wounds healed, leaving no scars.
That was not entirely true, but he was functioning again—except for his mind. He was in a state of daze as he only saw two sentences:
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SSS-Rank Potential
Talent: Black Hole
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