Despite the panic reaction from the security guards, the three of us managed to handle the remaining nine goblins. Jennifer chose to micromanage her disk, controlling each one to accurately pierce through a Goblins head, gaining her 3 individual kills, and a shared one with me. Henry didn't seem to be aiming for kills, his face focused and calculating, probably testing out the spell. Me on the other hand, chose to show off a little, summoning 12 disks for 42 mana -- courtesy of Prodigy Mage -- and lining them up into three rows of 4 disks each, about thirty centimeters apart. Lining the disk wall to the road, I shot them at the charging enemies.

The massacre ended soon after, the guards storming in to finish the downed Goblins while I cackle with glee at the power of my spell. All in all, I got a solo kill and seven shared kills out of the twelve approaching Goblins. Totalling 22 Creds and 516 Experience.

** DING **

You are now level 2

Yas! I made a silent yes pose. Though the cackle-mood's all spent, 2000 exp to level three.

"Did something good happen?" Herman's voice could be heard coming from behind us. "I leveled up." I say, turning around to see him.

"Congratulations!" His face flashed with concern before a confident smile once again adorn it. "What you three can do baffles me, is that magic? I was prepared to lose a few more men, not watch them help put down already dying enemies."

"Kakak Jen! Can you teach me, pleaseee~" a tiny figure dash at Jennifer, coming into a snuggle. They're intimate enough to hug, already? Kakak, or just kak, may be used to address someone a little older, kinda like big sis/bro, it's pretty commonly used on account of being polite, even to address strangers. Not hugging though. "I'm sorry, among the three of us I'm the least knowledgeable about magic. But maybe you can ask kak Zen for the spell," she pointed at me.

"You do know the spell costs 100 Creds right?" I respond to them.

"Yeah, I definitely know you're the one who sets it at that price!" Jennifer leaked. The traitor!

"Woww. Kak Zen, you have a hundred creds? You're so rich!" I scratch my head, not sure how to respond to that, they didn't catch Jennifer's leak about me being the one to set the price. "Stop bothering them, Lin." Herman reprimands his granddaughter.

"Sowwy."

With that adorable apology, Jen once again had the girl in her arms. "She's so cute, come on Zen! I've always wanted a little sister. Pweaseee." She also whispers something into Linda's ears. Causing the little girl to look at me with puppy eyes, saying, "pweazeee, kak Zen." Earning her a glare from her elder. What am I, your rich uncle!?

I sigh, Henry, somewhere behind me laughs out loud. It's not like I'm losing much, just kinda didn't want people to know, don't want too much attention now. What possessed me and made me show off earlier, sigh.

Opening the merchant window, I note 214 upgrades out of the 256 I've sold, and eleven new sales. Cool! Gonna get them later, for now, I proceed to gift the little sister Magico Disk, she yelped in glee and ran off pulling Jennifer along by the hand. Fine, leaving the explanations to the big sister.

"What happened?" Herman asks me, his eyes confused and wary. I look at Henry, our resident explainer, but see him in the middle of taking deep breaths to stabilize his overtaxed lungs. So I answered, "I gave Linda a spell, she'll be able to cast a spell now, the one we were using. It's a feature from the CredStore, gifting, you know the System's CredStore?"

He nods, "I do, Linda remembers about it from the white room. It's how we've managed to handle our situation. The store has very cheap foods and drinks we can get in massive portions. You really just spent 100 Creds on a spell for Linda?"

"Not really, don't worry about it." I replied. This is getting tedious, being around too many people really drains me. Feels like ages ago, I had to keep meeting and talking to strangers to make money and stay alive. But maybe, with all the changes these few days, that's not the case anymore. Let's, shift the subject, "so, can you help Jennifer?"

"Yes, sure we can." He answered pretty quickly. At that promise, Henry decided to butt in. They talk about checkups, treatment, and territory stuff. I left them halfways to find someplace quiet to pull up my updates, make plans and collect the sales. Eventually, I made do with sitting on the floor in an empty hallway.

The combat notifications were just the usual, and the sales were easily enough added to my profile. My eyes now focus on the free Attribute Points I have, what should I spend them on? Hmm~.

I triggered Mana Sense, entered Meditation and started making random geometric shapes with my Mana Manipulation to grind the skills. Mana sense keeps me aware of my surroundings, and the shape my mana takes. Meditation helps me calm my mind to hopefully make better choices. I calmly open my stats and reinspect the attributes.

Charisma is out, my current focus is survival which translates to my ability to kill, hide or escape my enemies. My offensive capabilities are currently quite satisfactory, that leaves my ability to hide or escape. Either I focus on magic and solely rely on mana to buff my other shortcomings, or physically enhance myself and fill in the gaps with a mix of skills and spells. Decisions decisions…

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My bonuses lean a lot towards a magic build, but this is real even if this feels like a game sometimes, my actual body. Dying is the end, no resurrecting, no loading saves. Which means being a glass cannon is out. So~, using mana will still be the main focus, but losing some firepower for a little tankiness would be a good trade.

So, five points. Three in Constitution and one each in Wisdom and Will to balance the mental stats out. Might need to invest in the other physical stats eventually to balance my physique out, but I'll cross the bridge when I get there.

Alrighty, that allocation slightly increased all three resources and their regen. Wow, this feeling of getting stronger can get addictive. Combing my profile, I also notice an Fp, 'Inspect'.

** DING **

Free Points (Fp). May be allocated to increase the level of a system skill by one level for every point spent, or pooled to improve comprehension of a system registered spell at the cost of five points for Early into Basic comprehension. Then, costing double the previous cost for each consecutive stages.

That's so expensive. How high do skill levels and spell ranks go anyways..? The System really needs some kinda introductory knowledge packet for beginners… hmm, the thought feels familiar… Anyways, that Fp is staying unallocated for now.

"There you are," called Henry, snapping me out of Meditation. He came to sit beside me on the floor. "So, have you managed to buy that introduction packet I told you about?"

Ohh~.

He knows from the look on my face that I forgot, which is why he added. "Did you get the map at least? You can definitely afford it."

Damn it! I can't help but grin at him. I've always been kinda forgetful. Growing up into a responsible adult got me into the habit of keeping notes and reminders on my phone. Lately, with magic becoming real and all the fighting for survival, I haven't touched that piece of tech for about, maybe 2 days. Though I'm starting to realize now, this new life of surviving and staying alive is where I feel like I belong, kinda, I still love the convenience of modern life. Yet, the freedom earned through power, such relief.

I laugh. Henry too, infected by my joyous mood, started laughing. It got pretty loud, so much so that a pair of security guards decided to come and check. Though they just silently left after seeing who we were.

Our laughter ended soon after, which is when I claimed the free packet and unlocked both the map and the share feature, all in all a total of 60 Creds. "Alright, got them now. Free packet, map and shared map. Checking my profile, all three show up as level zero skills." I informed my friend.

"Nice. Get an extra person for the map, the description says it's ten times the number of extra shared slots you have, which is currently zero." He told me.

I tried what he suggested, selecting to get an extra slot would cost me zero Creds. I didn't finalize the purchase, instead, selecting to buy 5 extra slots. The cost rises to 100 Creds. Hmm, so 0 x 10 = 0, then 1 x 10 = 10, plus 2 x 10 = 20, and so forth till the last addition of 40 Creds. This becomes 0 + 10 + 20 + 30 + 40 = 100. I told Henry and claimed the free members slot.

"Oh well, no exploits there. Some guy several billions years ago probably managed to make use of it." He shrugs. I chuckle and agree with a, "probably."

The knowledge packet I just bought seems to have integrated seamlessly with my memories. No walls of text abused my sight, but things are now just, known. Spell masteries, for instance, I know the moment I inquire myself, has five masteries levels; Early, Basic, Intermediate, Advance and Peak.

I know what Mana and Monster Core are as if I've lived my whole life seeing them everywhere. Skill levels seem to have no maximum limits, it just gets tremendously harder to increase as the numbers get higher. And various other stuff commonly known to anyone born to The System. Pretty creepy, in a sense.

I tried sharing my map with him. It turns out he needs to have unlocked his map interface before accepting a shared one. So he did and I resend the share invite.

Henry and I spend some time discussing my level up and his theory about spell creation. He assumes The System assists everyone with using spells that it recognizes, as an example, he explained how he wouldn't be able to control those disks like I do, but when using my spell from the store, it becomes second nature. He's also making good progress towards making his own spell, planning to create some defensive trap type spell utilizing his ManaScript. He gave me an example; if condition on & pressure exerted, trigger explosion. Or something like that, probably. It was much more complicated for sure.

Around 30 minutes has passed before footsteps can be heard echoing down the hall, multiple footsteps. Our heads turn towards the source.

Out of the corner, a group of people approaches us, Jennifer on the lead hand-in-hand with Linda. Herman kept pace behind them, chatting with a lady in a medical uniform. Following further behind them are 3 personnels, one of them being the scalpel lady, the other two unfamiliar.

"There you two are, why are you boys hiding out here? Geez." Jennifer scolded as she approach us. "We only know where to find you because your laughter attracted some guards on patrol."

"Secret meeting exclusive for members of the overpowered hero team." Henry blurted. Damn right! So I voiced it. "Damn right it is!"

"Oh grow up!" Jennifer made eye contact with Linda, then told her, "Boys!" Whereupon they both roll their eyes in sync.

"Never!" Henry shouted, standing up and pulling a phoenix pose. I hastily form a crouching tiger. Unexpectedly, Herman rushed forward and struck several bodybuilder poses beside us, showing off his impressive muscles.

"Eyang?" A bewildered Linda has appeared. All the staffs got frozen in time, one leg in the air. "I want to be a hero too," he exclaimed. Needless to say, Henry and I ended up on the floor. Jennifer had to keep herself upright on account of the pregnancy but her body visibly shakes as she kneels right where she was standing, the doctor lady rubbing her back. Linda and the security guards look like they are experiencing their first out of body experience.

Casting Lesser Heal did nothing to heal the cramps on my stomach. So the three of us suffered in silence for a few minutes, while the other victims collect their lost souls. Herman has a pleased look on his face, taking in the sight of us inexperienced young'uns.

But all funny things will come to an end. Soon enough, the mood turns serious. Jennifer opened the discussion, "let's spend some time here for a few days." She told Henry and I.