I stare at the soul for a moment.. good to know they may be brought outside. And that even here on True Space, it behaves similarly to how it does within my Soul Hearth; by being very malleable and never retaining any changes done to its form. I take it that means in the event I am capable of using it for something, I need to use the whole thing, or not—who knows! After playing around with it for a few more minutes, I'm alarmed to find that it is very slowly dissipating into the ambient atmosphere. Hastily I let go and allow the damaged soul to return into the comforts of my Soul Hearth. Besides, they're almost done with the battle down there so I wish to Blink down and hear first hand, about their experience in combat with those Quagxytes. And holding a soul while I'm at it does not feel like a good idea. As although there is little chance anyone can see, or even detect it, let alone care or liken the sphere; a soul. But I am partly infamous for having inhuman teeths, why tempt fate and risk the off chance people do notice and gossip spreads about me being the devourer of souls. Even if I actually am…

As their battle concludes, I Blink down.

"How was the battle?" I ask Kirana, approaching her and a group of people standing together discussing who-knows-what matters very seriously. All besides Kirana startled at my question. Geez, these people need to invest in some kinda sensing skill.

"The battle went fine." Kirana glanced at me to answer rather blandly, before turning to rejoin the discussion. They are talking strategy, the various ways they can use to improve their next encounter with more Quagxytes. Is she angry?

"That's great! Since everything is fine, I'm going back up for now." I reply, only to barely be acknowledged with a lazy wave. Didn't even bother giving me another glance. I shrug and blink out, maybe it's that week of the month… Is that still a thing? Of course I didn't bother finding out, who would I even ask! Instead, I'm back on my favorite spot on the roof of my Tower, wondering about the two Quagxyte assaults that are just a few hours apart from each other while watching the sun rising over a pollution-free horizon. The view is stunningly beautiful as ever---ever since the change…

By the time I start Sensing signs of activity below on the grounds, I have decided that I currently have no way to find out—their appearances might even be totally random! Micro Flight. Need to find Agus and hand over these 20 VLoS infused Co—is that Kirana? And Billy..? Kissing!? Billy is picking Kirana up from her residence, and is now escorting her towards the breakfast grounds. Uhh, I close my gaping mouth and fly forth towards our shared destination. Any thought of having a relationship has flown out of my mind since magic is real, spellcasting is much more interesting after all. But I guess that is not the case for everyone.

Undoubtedly, flying is definitely faster than walking, which meant I arrived much earlier than the two, sitting with my family this time. I can't help but stare when they arrive. "You've lost your chance, Zen." My mom says when she caught me staring at them, my dad too turn to look at me and only to nod in agreement.

"What? No! I've never thought about her that way." I tell them, but only I know deep down inside—now that I've seen her kiss someone else—that I might have been a tiny bit interested. That the thought of being with her might have flashed across my mind at some point—thoughts I ignored and denied… ah well, this might be better for all of us in the long run, as I never intended to stay on the planet, maybe not even the galaxy.

It only took me a mere fraction of a second to locate Agus, which did not work as a very good distraction. Then a much longer time; in the tens of minutes, to extract myself from my family. And a mere blink, to Blink onto an empty chair on his table. "Hi!"

"Hello," he replies calmly. "I've been expecting you."

"What? You do fortune telling now too?"

"Fortune telling is fake!" He said with disgust.

"Are you sure? As things go now, I can grab souls with the palm of my hand!" I say with a grin. "I think predicting the future is kinda in the same level of supernatural with soul-stuffs"

His eyes gradually widen as my words sink in. "Seriously?"

"Sure, unless I'm deluding myself." I reply, still grinning wide. "Anyways, where do you want the 20 Core-350s that contain VLoS."

"Ah yes. Thanks," he nods and looks around the table for a good spot. "Wait, 350s? So we would need 5x that to refine them. 1750 mana each… keep them for now. I think you should come with."

"Fine, hurry up then!" I got myself comfortable on the chair to wait while he finished his breakfast of rice and rendang. He was kinda slow and the food smells great, so I ended up getting some of these delicious calories for myself---not that I care for some mere calories nowadays. As well as buying 100 Creds worth of cakes from Renita for anyone who wants some. "Free cakes! Get them while they're available!!"

I still ended up waiting for Agus as he slowly devours three slices of cake. Three!

"Why all the haste anyways?" Agus asks me, when settled down within his Enchanting Chamber. "I wanted two more! But just couldn't survive any more of your insistent nagging."

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

I hear him whisper 'you nag like my oma,' to which I promptly reply. "I did not mag, let alone nag like a grandmother!" But he asks a good question, why was I in such a hurry?

"Anyways, here are 20 VLoS Infused Cores! Let's get to work!" I decided to say instead of answering.

1,750 mana every 30 seconds is 14 hundred mana spent in 4 minutes, way below my regeneration of 17,940 for the same amount of time; in this case, the machine is the limit! So in 10 minutes, I was done and is now watching Agus work on 20 ornate wands—he refused to make them into staffs, but agreed to make them better looking Wands. I relent, it is mere cosmetics and will not affect its performance, not to mention that he's the one making them anyways and it is not even something for me to use myself.

A lot happened last night and I barely had the chance to fabricate Mana Cores; producing a mere 37 Core-150s. So I figured as my part in preparing for our new recruits are completed, I might as well continue now while Agus works. "I heard we plan to continue digging towards the tunnel you found with Mana Sense later today." Agus initiated a conversation, even as his hands are busy carving the wand.

"I take it everything is ready then? Even the siege weapons?" I ask, not a single one of the magic ballistas has been properly implemented below, last time I checked. Some are still awaiting to be enchanted, some still under construction. Even now, I can feel people working on the dozens of massive bows surrounding the kill zone. "I can see people still working on them, so they plan to finish today?"

"That's impossible!" He emphasized. As someone involved in the production, I would expect his words to be credible. "Rather, they believe that our new combatants supported by their more experienced fellows are enough to defend the stairs."

"I see—"

Henry: Zen can you meet me below?

Zen: Why?

Henry: To meet the new guys, and to please give them some of your spells.

Zen: K

"—e. I gotta go, they need me downstairs. Do you need help with anything else?" I say to Agus, it is getting kinda boring watching him work.

"Nope, go away" he replies with a grin. "Are you bored? You look like you're experiencing the epitome of boredom."

I grin and give him a two fingers salute, "smell ya later!"

Blink!

"Don't quote pok—."His reply was cut off. And I exit Blink's Subspace near the bottom-most stairs of our mine, still grinning wide.

"There he is!" Jennifer says only a few moments later.

"Good morning." I say. "Ready for some free stuff?"

Henry offered me a few sheets of paper that lists all 300 people and what two Spells they want among the few I own, Spells that we agree should be basic or necessary enough to give out, namely; Magico Disk or Beam Torrent, Trilattic Swarm, Latent Coating, and Vermillion Lord of Storms. Or in that order, single target Spell, defense, crowd control and AoE attack Spell.

The plan is; I would call out one or more names from the list and they will step forward. I would then bestow their Spell of choice in reference to the list. Rinse and repeat. I find it weird, "why do they have to choose two?"

"I don't want you losing out too much by always giving us your Spells for free." Jennifer says when Henry points at her with his chin. "This way, they have enough variety between themselves and they can buy anything else they feel is necessary from your shop in The System's store."

"Ohh~," I glance at Henry and he shrugs. So I smile at her and say, "thank you Jen!"

She smiles at my appreciation and opens her mouth to reply, only for me to interrupt her as I added—while acting as if she broke my heart. "But you're treating me like a stranger! They can have all five. Okay?"

She doesn't reply, closing her mouth to stare at me. So I continue, "hey! I want humans to survive as much as you all do."

"Besides," I keep going as she squints her eyes. "300 people buying these Spells may sound like a pretty significant number, but compared to the Multiverse, that's not much at all. So relax~."

"I told you so." Henry decided now is a good time to prove his point, clearly they argued about this. "Besides, he's probably too lazy to check what each person wants. Right?"

I grin at that, he knows me quite well after years of gaming, eating and now surviving together. Does not stop me from denying the accusation. "You're entirely mistaken!"

"Let's get started!" I hurriedly changed the topic and moved things along while Henry is getting his shirt dirty. 5 spells per person takes me about ten seconds each, including the time it takes for me to navigate my interface and target a new person. Extra time is also needed once I am done bestowing all 10 people standing on the frontmost line with the Spells and they are required to turn around to walk towards the back of the line, while everyone else takes a step forward; all in all I spent about 75 minutes to give all 300 people my original Spells.

"Who enlarged the room?" I ask Henry and his wife beside me.

"The diggers---our Earth Mages, they got bored just waiting for these batches of combatants to be ready and requested to be put to work." Henry replies. "We figured there's no downside having a bigger room"

I shrug, "true… So what now?"

"Now give them 15 minutes to organize and settle down. Then we can restart our mining operations." Henry says with confidence.

"Awesome!" I give him a thumbs up. Meanwhile, I reorient myself with the tunnel I had found, west, I think… dense flows of earthen mana that forms a winding—there it is! "Hen, how about I start Shaping the new tunnel now?"

"Where is it exactly?" He answers me with another question instead. So I point him in the right direction and he efficiently had someone mark the spot. Then, I re-ask my previous question. To which he answers. "Thank you, but no!"

"Cool!" I Blink down into the west side of our kill pit—and blink back. "Say that again."

"No Zen, you need to go find Agus and make more of those metal coated Shape Stone infused Cores." He said to my utter disappointment.