When we returned to the Idiot-ville with Blaise, now a successfully enhanced human, though one with far more empowerment than regeneration, I could only shake my head in disbelief. Two of our earlier experiments either had a grudge match or were sparring in a way seriously detrimental to their environment, their strength enough to break rock and shatter some of the houses they had been using.

For a moment, I considered if I wanted to intervene, but while I contemplated, more people, two of our experiments and three normal people jumped in, throwing hands and waving sticks and clubs around in a somewhat hazardous fashion. Next to me, I felt Blaise start pushing her empowerment, though not as much as she could have, before jumping forward, covering the distance in seconds. At least the improved speed worked out fine, though I wasn't sure if throwing down without a good understanding of one's own strength was a good idea.

When I noticed that the brawl was growing even further and now threatened the food stores of these people, I could only shake my head and confirm to myself that these guys were generally idiots. Then, I walked forward, readying my Mind Magic as I went. Just before they could deal actual damage to important buildings, I struck; I even activated Overflow so I could be certain of my success, even if it took a little more Astral Power than strictly necessary. Hopefully, the extra power would turn into a headache for these idiots; they were too stupid for their own good. Maybe some pain would teach them restraint, but I doubted I was so lucky.

"What do you think we should do with them?" I asked Luna while we were quickly checking if any of these idiots were seriously injured or might have managed to land in a way that would lead to serious injury later. At the same time, I was quietly asking myself whether the alterations we had performed on these people were the cause of this brawl. But if they were, why would three unenhanced people have joined in unless they were confident enough to think they'd be able to take down all four of the enhanced who had been brawling at the time, which was a bit of a stretch?

"Wake them up one by one, starting with Blaise cause I doubt she was involved in the original grudge. Once they are awake, you can decide if you want to play judge or something. I don't want to get involved more than I have to," she admitted. In response, I raised a questioning eyebrow, wondering why these people were so beneath her notice, given that she had spent numerous hours helping people at Jademoon Tower and even in the settlements we had visited, she regularly took time to speak and listen to people in an attempt to help. Not that all that many immediately trusted or listened to her; she still had the look of a teenager, even if that, too, had been fading quite a bit over the winter, making me wonder just when her accelerated growth and the maturity to go with it would stop.

Soon, we'd get very strange looks when she addressed me as 'Mother', simply because I was starting to look a little younger than I chronologically should, possibly due to the Elven heritage I had gained, while Luna looked a lot older, making her look maybe six to eight years younger than me. Not quite what people would imagine when they heard about mother and daughter, to say nothing about our obviously different races.

When she didn't elaborate on her disinterest, I shrugged and reached out with my Mind Magic, pushing Blaise into consciousness. She groaned for a bit before rising to her feet, only to start swaying and sink back to her knees.

"My head," she quietly moaned, her eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"I would say this was a case of playing stupid games and winning stupid prices," I scolded, fairly annoyed that these idiots had risked my test subjects. "Care to explain why you jumped into this mess and what the mess was about in the first place?" I prodded, curiously if there was an actual reason or just some people being dumb.

By now, a few of the other locals had moved out of their haphazard shelters, looking at the people lying in the snow, though curiously nobody made a move to help them or wake them up.

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"No, I just saw them brawling and wanted them to stop," Blaise replied, blushing a little, "It didn't quite work as I had hoped," she admitted, her blush deepening. For a moment, I was tempted to facepalm, but I managed to stop myself. This sounded like such an idiotic sentiment that I wasn't sure what to say. Granted, I had contemplated intervening, too, so maybe it wasn't truly idiotic; she merely had overestimated her personal strength, as the others had possibly done, too.

"Does that happen often?" Luna asked, not quite certain just how stupid these people were. There was nothing like that near Jademoon Tower. If anybody were to dare try it, I would kick them out so fast their heads would spin, and their bodies would need a few days to catch up to their behinds, just due to the force of my kick.

"Well, no, not often," Blaise admitted, the blush deepening even further, "Just once or twice a week, you know?"

At her confession, I needed a second to consider if I'd see that as 'often' but concluded that it depended on the severity of the brawl and the damage it caused, meaning there was no real answer. But, off the cuff, I decided that weekly brawls with the potential for serious property damage were too annoying to be allowed as common practice.

"Foolishness," I muttered, not trying too hard to lower my voice, "I'll wake the others. Is there anybody willing to play arbitrator or something like that? Or will they start beating on one another again and possibly trash your food stores, leaving you in some serious shit?" I asked the assembled people, none of which looked like they were about to step forward.

Letting out a soft sigh, I wiggled my fingers a little, pointing at each of the fallen bodies in turn while pushing my Mind Magic. The gesturing was wholly unnecessary, given that Mind Magic was trivially easy to cast without any gestures, but it made for a good show. The fallen started to move, all groaning and I noticed that their regeneration wasn't dealing with the obvious headache they had, possibly because it was considered damage to the Mind but the regeneration worked on the body. Where the boundaries between those were was a little fluid, but it was a reasonable explanation, so I mentally ran with it.

"Anybody willing to take responsibility here?" I asked again, and just like before, I didn't get any volunteers, making me grumble just a little and wonder if this was why these people were in the state they were in. Stubbornness and nobody willing to stand up and take charge? It was a bad combination, especially with people getting annoyed at being cooped up but remaining unwilling to do anything about their situation unless brawling to get rid of frustration was considered 'doing something'.

"Maybe we should leave these people be and give them some time to handle their differences, debate their difficulties and come to a reasoned decision about what they wish to do with their future," Luna suggested, her tone just overly sincere enough to make me realise she was mocking them.

"It might be a wise idea," I agreed, not wanting to deal with them any longer than I had to and by now, the kinks in our enchantment seemed to have been worked out for the most part. Sure, there likely were people around who didn't react well to it. We would have people die horrible deaths from it, but I could live with that; at least, I hoped so. I doubted I'd use it on any of my loved ones, mostly because it came with those incredibly confining drawbacks, and I was confident I could teach anybody at least some magic if I took enough time. Maybe I should look into removing the enchantment, but that, just like creating it, would take a lot of time and effort, especially as I doubted that anybody would volunteer to forfeit a benefit they had acquired through serious pain.

Looking around once more, hoping against hope that somebody would stand up and take charge, Luna and I started to walk away, slightly disappointed that the idiots of Idiotsville had lived up to their name.

"You know, we should consider if we want to continue supplying these people with the means to destroy more and get better if they get beaten down. It takes away some of the incentive they have to remain somewhat peaceful. Can you imagine them starting to branch out and cause trouble elsewhere?" Luna asked, making me sigh in agreement. Maybe there were people who should get left behind in the change and everything that came after it. In a way, it was natural selection in action; at least, I hoped that they wouldn't pass on their genes. This had me considering how the enchantment would deal with reproduction, how it might influence the different processes, and whether I needed to include more warnings if I decided that I'd be far away when it could become an issue so their issues wouldn't be my problem. Moral questions: they were so fun.

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