I was walking around town once more. Curiously looking around for any changes.

The first and most obvious difference came from the makeup of the town. That is, there were a lot more people walking around. All of whom had one particular thing in common.

They had all been on the farm prior to that point.

Not that you could tell by looking at them.

Each and every person moving about wore fresh new clothes in the style of everyday Canadians. Things like jeans mixed with different shirts, with either a branded blazer or a fine hoodie on top.

What's more, none of them retained even a trace of hunger. Nor did they hold on to the fear, apprehension and general misery they'd had when I first laid eyes on them.

In fact, looking at them now, it would be difficult for anyone to consider these people as outsiders in the town.

"Wait a second. Doesn't this count as human trafficking?" I asked Elsie.

"What makes you say that?" Elsie asked innocently.

"Because these people were in North Korea before and now they're here. In northern Ontario. Canada. That's quite far."

Elsie shook her head.

"It's only trafficking if they're against it." She informed me, in a voice that was just shy of condescension. "All these people you see here volunteered to be here. They wanted to leave their homes, for a bit. I order to get the training they know they need."

I narrowed my eyes at that.

"Okay, first of all. I'm 99% sure that's not how that works. Pretty sure border checkpoints are still a thing. Also, that sounds like your great-Grandpa doing something shady."

"Well I won't deny that."

"But why though? Why even bring all these people here?"

'As cattle, obviously.' The evil-ass voice whispered in my head. 'What else would they be good for?'

'Quiet you!' I hissed internally.

The voice recoiled in my mind, as if struck.

'Now, do not be hasty child. There are advantages to them being here. Ask for a few samples. If there are this many, the old man might grant us some. We could make great inroads to our...'

'There is no us!' I snapped back.

"For their own education. Duh." Elsie replied as if I were stupid. Completely oblivious to the conversation within my head due to the Skill blocking off her mind-reading.

"These people might have cores now, but that doesn't mean they know the first thing about using them or about magic in general. You had coach Russell to guide you every step of the way and even then, you only covered the basics in great detail."

She paused to greet another girl. Someone who must have been from the farms, given the way she looked at all the buildings in town with a gleeful fascination.

The other girl waved enthusiastically at us. Calling her by name and calling me Mr. Conan.

Then she left and Elsie resumed talking.

"Besides, a very small number of families actually came here to Dunstonberry. Way more of them were diverted into other Dungeon communities or settled into the burgeoning town around your Dungeon."

"This doesn't look like a small number." I countered. "It looks like the town's doubled in size overnight."

"That's because most of them like to hang around downtown. Having disposable income is new and exciting and having access to consumer goods makes it even more novel of an experience. In reality there's only a thousand new residents. The first thousand to get cores. Another five thousand people who recently got cores got displaced to other parts of our operation and yet another ten thousand are tackling your farm and your Dungeon in order to get cores even now."

'My Dungeon.' The voice of Pool-Cecil growled. 'My realm. My units. My rightful place!'

'I swear I'm gonna burn the whole thing to the ground if you don't shut up!'

'Fool. How would that even work?'

I paused.

'Okay. I'll do what you did and birth myself a clone. One with a [Life] core.'

There was a longer pause.

'You wouldn't dare.'

I cut off most of the magic I was sending to the skill. Keeping just enough to push Elsie's mind-reading away.

He was right, I wouldn't.

Because if I did, Mr. Robertson would have no reason to treat me or my family well. Or to keep me alive in general.

Perhaps it was my paranoia speaking, but I didn't want to take that chance just yet.

'Plus, it wouldn't change anything.' I told myself. 'For all I know, the clone might get their own blacklisted Skill and go on a completely different spree. What I need is a way to make sure I don't black out and let Pool-Cecil take the reins.'

Elsie whistled to herself. Again, completely ignorant of what was going on.

"Yes sir. You might have shit the bed, but you can still be happy about having a generally positive effect Cecil. Grandpa James says we might be able to save a couple more billion people around the world if we keep expanding at this rate."

"Just from a month and a half of changes? That, seems like a stretch." I told her.

"Not really. Great-Grandpa Carlyle said there were only about 7000 people with any kind of power last time and humanity clung on pretty well. All things considered. We had over three times that number in different communities before you showed up and we're close to doubling that number now. The people you helped feed, the ones who first came with us to the Dungeon when you had your little fit, they've got 4th and 5th Stage cores. Some even came out with 6th Stage cores, though they're always rare no matter what the conditions are. Even your friend Shortround came out of it with a [Space] core. It might not be all that offensively, but that stroke of luck alone means she's high society now."

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I considered that for a moment. Doing some quick math in my head.

If what Elsie said was true and there were around 10, 000 or so people training on the farm and in my Dungeon, then that meant we were looking at new cores every 45 or so days, extrapolating based on the time I'd woken up. It was likely shorter or longer depending on the individual, but I wanted a simple rough estimate.

365 divided by 45 was a little more than 8. Rounded down for simplicity, 8 times 10, 000 was 80, 000. Times 3, the number of years we had left according to Mr. Robertson and that came out as 240, 000. Almost a quarter of a million people.

Yeah.

When she put it like that, I could see how my actions might have had a positive effect.

"Wait a second. Won't someone notice all the new superhumans leaping around? Especially if a place like North Korea gets ahold of them? What are places like South Korea or Japan or the US going to think when they see the usual border guards being replaced by roided-up ninjas leaping 30 meters into the air and throwing lightning bolts around?"

Elsie gave me a sideways glance.

"I assume they'll notice eventually. But Grandpa James told me we're moving up the schedule in general. He's already planning 20 more incidents like the one in Alaska. Just to make sure the media picks up on magic in a way the governments can't completely cover up. The idea is for regular people to at least be aware of the basics through mass dissemination and for at least 5% of the global populace to have some kind of advanced core and to have the knowledge and willpower to get that for themselves."

"That still doesn't answer the bit about North Korea. Last I checked, they weren't exactly known for being one of the most reasonable countries around. I can guess that Mr. Robertson has some kind of agreement with the supreme leader or whatever he goes by these days, but what if the other guy sees all his new magic subjects and decides to give your family the finger? What if he goes public and says that North Korea is best Korea and that he plans to make it the only Korea? The dude's been launching missiles for a while now you know? That doesn't exactly scream level-headed."

I furrowed my brows then. Thinking of all the ways this could go wrong.

"And what about the regular citizens we're powering up? Aren't those people exposed to constant propaganda? What if they attack someone across the border because they figure they can tank a couple hundred bullets? What if they're right and the South Koreans freak out?"

Elsie gave me another condescending look.

"Oh yes Cecil. I'm sure the people we rescued from political imprisonment, slave labor camps and certain death will be very inclined to use their newfound powers in order to crush the capitalist pigs. Very smart of you. It isn't as if those kinds of people are constantly trying to escape to the South or any other capitalist country."

I did not bother to hide my displeasure at her snide comment.

She noticed and raised her hands to her chest in a placating gesture.

"Okay, okay. Jeez. Can't even joke around with you these days."

"Look." I began again. Growing more serious. "I get that the people Mr. Robertson has been helping, that I've been helping, have been downtrodden. I get that. But there can't be enough folks trapped on concentration camps to fill the Dungeon farm. Not for more than a few months anyway. That means that at least some of the new arrivals will start to come from regular towns instead, if your family wants to keep the project going. At least a fraction of those new arrivals will be loyalists to the regime and at least some of those loyalists are going to see their newfound power and get ideas. Even if we assume the supreme leader is totally on-board with all of this, how long will it be before we see some kind of coup? How long will it be before some other countries start to notice their unhinged neighbor raising a legion of super-people?"

Elsie went quiet for a few seconds. Allowing the silence to stretch on as we passed new storefronts filled to bursting with new costumers.

"To be honest, I don't know all the details Cecil." She said bluntly. With some hint of apprehension leaking into her voice. "I know a lot of things because Grandpa James and dad and great-Grandpa Carlyle let me know, but I don't have all the details. From what I've heard, the South finding out is part of the plan, but a part that won't come together until later. Grandpa James seems to be completely convinced that both countries will unite semi-peacefully. Like West and East Germany. The way he puts it, the most problematic aspect of the whole thing will be all the economic refugees fleeing to the South once the borders collapse. Most of his attention is going towards modernizing a lot of rural areas so the flood of people won't be so large once the date comes. And no, before you ask, I don't know how the supreme leader or any of the existing leadership factors into all of this. I just know that no one in my family thinks there'll be a problem."

I narrowed my eyes again.

"Were you reading my mind to know what I would ask?"

"Not this time. I can't read you when you're using that Skill."

I flinched. Though I did notice that she didn't seem as aggressive or... well... scared as I would have been in her shoes.

Her deep blue eyes found my own and a slight impish smile crossed her features.

"Come on now. I won't begrudge someone using their own Skills if they're trying to practice. You have the right idea, using it as you are now. I told you. The best way to pass the Inquiry is to show that you're not scared of using it and that you can use it selectively without turning into a supervillain on a dime. Keep working on it slowly and you'll eventually get to a point where you can have the benefits it gives you, without having to worry about the drawbacks."

She tugged my shoulder and gave me a more reassuring smile.

"I should know. There are plenty of Skills from the [Knowledge] core that I would consider sinister, but you don't see me abusing them. And besides, even if they blacklist the Skill, so what? The most they'll do is keep you under watch, which they're already doing because of how important you are. Nothing will really change."

I digested that last bit.

"Thank you. I... I appreciate it and... wait a second!"

I snapped my head in her direction.

"What do mean you've got sinister Skills?"

"That's what you chose to focus on?" She complained. "I was trying to make you feel better."

I kept staring.

"Okay okay. So, maybe I can see the future a little bit."

A sudden shiver crept up my spine. It must have shown in my face because she immediately clarified.

"It isn't as if I can tell what's going to happen at any given second Cecil. More like, I can tell what's going to happen in 2 or 3 seconds if I focus. That and I can get a certain, vibe, off of people."

"A vibe?"

"Yeah. Like, a feeling of how they really are and how they'll act towards me. And ow I will feel depending on the long-term effect they'll have on me."

"That sounds extremely vague and the parts that aren't vague are making me freak out even more."

"I know." She groaned. "The point I was trying to make was that you shouldn't feel like you're some sort of circus freak because of what happened. It is odd and it is unprecedented, but not unique in the grand scheme of things. Everybody has things they can do that others can't. Everybody has an aspect of their magic that would land them on a lot of government lists. Keep practicing and things will work out."

I nodded and kept walking. Recalling once more that I wasn't going out for a stroll, but heading to the local courthouse.

I was then overcome with an urge to change the subject.

"I guess that means we'll be expanding the farm?"

"Of course that's what it means Cecil. Also, it is now farms. As in plural. Demand is spiking even more now, despite the investigations in Europe and America."

I felt my stomach twisting at that.

"Did something happen?"

"Yep. Major droughts in lots of fertile places. That, and dust storms around the American mid-west and magic-saturation in most of South America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Mostly centered around the Sahel region, but the crop failures stretch all the way east to the Levant and all the south to South Africa. Add to that the fact that there's another major series of floods and earthquakes in China and the world is pretty much screwed."

She paused, as if contemplating her own words.

"I'm honestly surprised this inquiry's going forward at all."

"Do you mean the global inquiry against your family or the inquiry we're going to right now?"

"Both." She stated, matter of fact. "It's all a farce anyway. Everybody knows nothing is going to happen, even if the Skill gets blacklisted. There's too much to gain and very little to lose, so long as you're properly supervised from now on to keep Pool Cecil out of the real world. As for the international one, well...."

She shrugged.

"A famous general once said that an army marches on its stomach and someone else once said that people are always a few missed meals away from the end of civilization. I can't recall the exact quotes, but I can see the correlation between having food and a stable society. And I know plenty of others can see the correlation too. Sean in particular is always goin on about dinosaurs and mass extinction events. I do my best to tune most of his nonsense out, but I was also able to see a common denominator. Whenever there's something like a mass volcanic eruption or an asteroid impact or whatever, the first step to total collapse is the lack of food. Which leads to a Great Dying."

"The Great Dying was one particular event, not a general term." I corrected.

"NEEEERD!" She ridiculed. Slapping me over the shoulder and laughing to herself.

I grumbled a little more, but kept on walking.

In the corner of my mind, I gave her a brief word of thanks, as I now felt a little bit better.