"What were you thinking, you dumbass!!" My sister yelled at me. The mass had slowly thinned, so I disengaged my camo, which allowed my family to find me.

"Now they have something better to talk about, than me," I explain.

"It's the other way around!"

"Oh, I almost forgot," I took out two of the catfishes I caught and showed her. "I got these for you, evolved catfish, there are two more, as well as some evolved anchovies and quails. Where should I put them?"

She squints at me. "Fis—spp," but had to quickly silence her daughter. That earned us a grin and a smile from both our parents.

"Follow me…" They have working refrigerators! I mean, I could probably whip some kinda spell up for this, but dang, a fridge. "Put them in here—They're chilled, when did you catch them?"

"About 11 AM today, I made some makeshift Trilattic Ice packs."

"Good, at least you use that brain of yours once in a while." She says, "might be a little risky to eat, but that's before all this attributes business. A bit of cleaning and a thorough cook should make them more than mere edible food. If only we had some fresh veggies."

"You mean this?!" With a flourish, the bag Dianti provided manifests. I totally forgot about this one… I got interrogated about the seeds, then the dungeons, then about what other secrets I had, which I insist was nothing, Geez.

But after all that, we had a nice dinner. The fish and quails were given to the children who each had new toys in hand, the girls and ladies got new clothes while the guys shared cans of beer. All in all a great evening, until a bunch of people—only geared in mundane armor, weapons and tools—gather up and approach us.

"What's the meaning of this?" My mom asks the lead couple. Atech chose this moment to casually saunter over and sit by where my family is seated.

Everyone stares at him for a while before one of the couple, the lady, looks at my mom and answers. "Apologies, but we're here to address the problem that Mr Zen here has a way to disable our main form of defense and offense."

"My name is Zane," I tell her with a grin. "Only my friends and family call me Zen."

"Alright, Mr Zane. Is there any way you can disable that part of your spell?" She asks politely. "I understand that you made the spell."

"I did make it, though I can't disable the failsafe, nope."

"Can not, or will not?" The man asks.

"Hmm~," I make a thinking pose. "It might be possible if I update the feature or something. Or give it better control, I wasn't quite a hundred percent conscious when I came up with the spell."

"Please do so." The man said again with authority.

"No."

"This is not a request." He said, taking a step forward. Seriously, Budiman and now them, monsters are real now and my most annoying troubles are still caused by humans.

I grin at him but say nothing and look to my side. "Do you like him dad? Is he someone important?"

"He is actually, he owns the territory." My mom says, I turn my head to look at her.

"And do you two like him? A family friend? Now that It's come to this, are there any government officials?" I once again inquire.

"You better not be ignoring me!!" The man shouts. I don't bother to even look at him this time.

"Mom? Dad?"

"He is important, I would consider him a friend. Most of our combatants and protectors used to work for him." my dad answers. "As for the government, he has an agreement with them about using this Center as a shelter, other than that, I don't know."

"I am here asking on behalf of everyone in my Territory. Your ability to disable our Trilattic Swarm needs to go. Even if you decide to leave for another Territory. You're too dangerous to ignore with that sort of power over us." He added with bravado.

"Is that a threat?" I turn my head and ask him. At least the others behind him are staying quiet, shows that they believe in him?

"If that is what it takes." He says.

"Do we have to do this? Can't we just be peaceful. I already told those nine guys that came to pick me up, that as long as my spell is not used on innocent humans, or me and mine, there will be no problem from me."

"That is true now, but what about the future?" The lady says.

Gah, this is too much. "I've grown bored of this conversation. Know that I wish as many people as possible to survive. But, the failsafe is not going anywhere, if you wanna use my spell, you accept that. If not, well, then stop using it." Everyone stiffened at my words.

"Zen, maybe you should reconsider?" My sister asked me.

"Nope, I've had one of my spells used against me before." I tell her, "one is plenty enough."

"Well, I'm afraid that leaves us with no choice." He says. At that, the thirty or so people behind him react by readying themself to charge, or run away. Who knows. "I'm sorry Antonio, Claudia… Capture him!"

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Capture me? What do you think this is? Some kinda action cop movie." I jape. My hand rises up and I cast Latent Coating, mimicking the properties of rat glue. The spell shoots out of my hand and passes between the couples head before unraveling to encompass a four by four meters area behind him. "A hundred and twelve mana to disable thirty guys, not bad right dad?"

Note to self, give Latent Coati—all my spells failsafes before it's too late.

"Wha..?" The Territory owner—and a few more people around us—said. Oh, I never got his name.

"Sorry, what's your name mister territory owner?" I ask him, better late than never. But, he is too busy looking at the ra—people behind him to answer.

"Wuaawww," came a cute voice. Mini used the chance when her mother is dumbstruck to run at me. "Acek Zenn! Wha wash tha~t!?"

She had a sparkle in her eyes and that made me grin. "That, Mini, is called Latent Coating."

"Wuaaww, do it again acek! You missed two people!" She enthusiastically points at the couple.

I grin and once again raise my arm.

"Zen, no!"

"Yay yay yayy!"

"NO! MINI! Come here."

"Wait Zen!"

"Ahohoho-ahahAHAHA"

"pshuuw, pshuw!" And made sounds with my mouth. The couple flinched and I found myself laughing along with Atech… He's a cool guy.

"You wanna think this over?" I ask the owner.

He points at me, "yo—," but all ten disks fly out of my back to hover above me, this is mostly for show as I can really only control three with precision.

"I have a few more spells, one would eradicate all humans here, which I definitely won't use." I tell him, "another would cause a freezing storm and rain lightning in a fifteen meters radius. I can probably target that right and make sure all of you are within that range while my families are not."

They all quietly stare at me. "I'm a threat to all of you even without my failsafe. What that does is to just make it easier for me, which means I can hold back. Which, in turn, means you all have a better chance to survive stu—unsmart attempts like this."

Mini, too, is staring at me. Her eyes are sparkling even brighter.

"Yea! Stu-uns-mart peoples get. better suvaival chance!"

"Eherrm." I turn to look at Atech. He points at the guys stuck in rats glue and says, "ya should ele'se them."

I only just noticed some of them having trouble breathing. Unthinkingly in haste, I reach out to the coating with my Mana Manipulation and change their property into soap and water. That will allow them to breathe and slip around.

It did not take long for them to disband. "Acek, I wan your magik." Mini used puppy eyes, it's super effective!

"Yeah Zen, I wan your magik!" My dad says. "All of them!"

"Don't be ridiculous," my mom interfered. "What do you mean a spell that can eradicate us all?"

So, I describe Will-o'-Woe to them, then Will-o'-Weal, then VLoS. The look on my mother's face depicts horror at the amount of firepower on my person, the looks on my dad's face instead, shows unbound glee.

"Gimme!" He says.

"No!" My mom intercepts yet again.

"Why?"

"You don't need them"

"Yes I do."

"Whatever for?"

"Too...—"

"See, too nothi—"

"—to protect you!"

"We've been married for 29 years! You can't fool me."

I find myself looking back and forth at them. The couple's banter doesn't look like it will end soon, so I tell Tiffany that I'm off to explore and skedaddled out of there.

We're gonna need a place to stay, outside of this Territory.

A bunch of gleeful giggles smattered among a single booming cackle draws my attention, where I see Atech and a bunch of kids playing and joking around. After watching them for a while, I then notice a corner that holds a simple workshop, a middle aged person seems to man the area. People wearing my spell come and go. Sometimes to observe the stuff he has around, which seems to be various gun-like parts. Others would approach him to discuss about something on their arm or shoulder. Something that I assume to be their gun-like part.

Bored of observing and deigning to approach with how things are, I exit the Territory and look for a decent location to claim.

I managed to find one nearby, somewhere between the shelter and Atech's abode. It was a small building, maybe someone's modest house. A few roach kills and I have it under my name, which is when the knowledge pack I bought age—days ago decided to inform me; now that the integration has been completed, any unCored Territories are lost when unoccupied for more than six hours. Damn! 'Updates please.'

** DING **

Combat summary

Enemies slain:

ShadowRoach lv 5 x 7

DarkRoach lv 6 x 2

AbbysRoach lv 8 x 1

55 syscred and 156 exp awarded

Only ten total for both the travel from Atech's home to the Center and for cleaning up this building. Their Cores increase the mana in my ring to 33.

** CLING **

Tiffany Prayoga: Zen where are you?

Tiffany Prayoga: They're done and wanna talk with you

Zen: Otw

---

"Zen, you may give him Latent Coating and the weal one." My mom says, victorious. There is just her and I here right now. "Tiffany and I too, if you don't mind."

"Of course not, would you like owne---"

"WE'RE RICH!!" came a shout, which turned out to be my dad. He approaches us running with a wide grin on his face. "Over twenty million sales!"

"What do you mean dear?"

"Our Trilattic Swarm, over twenty million sales." He clarified.

** CLING **

Rascarna the God of Magic: Oi, I had just finished one of my live shows and had mentioned your Conjure Trilattic Swarm spell in passing

Rascarna the God of Magic: That should hopefully give you enough to afford a planetary VCS network

Rascarna the God of Magic: You better be replying to me soon!

Rascarna the God of Magic: I'll be patient for 28 seconds

Rascarna the God of Magic? Really?? This is gonna be troublesome isn't it… I hear my mom say, "oh, thank god!" Then see the two of them going off to find Tiffany and relay the good news. I know we shouldn't believe in things so easily—but, call it intuition—she might not be too far off with that statement.

Rascarna the God of Magic: 10

Rascarna the God of Magic: 9

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Rascarna the God of Magic: 3