Mage Among Superheroes

It was only when I had been back for a full week that I felt things had returned to some level of normalcy. From Ceira to the abductions from my former world, there hadn’t been more than a few moments back in New Bay, and then barely enough to see Jerome in person and convince people I was still alive. I’d been in contact with the Brigade, so they had been able to keep them informed, but it wasn’t the same as hearing from someone in person or at least directly through magic.

“You almost made me learn Sending myself,” Jerome commented.

I shrugged. “Maybe you should have. It’s useful.”

“For what?” Jerome asked.

“Rapid communication over long distances…” I lost my verbal momentum as he held up his phone. “Okay, fine, but there are situations where it’s better than technology. Beyond being on other planes…”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. I can’t cast it yet.”

“Really?” I asked. “It only takes 10 mana.”

“Hey, don’t forget I’m growing at the rate of a normal person who doesn’t get into many- who doesn’t get into fights.”

“What level are you?” Midnight asked.

“Just 14. It’s pretty close, but I’d have to have two upgrades to guarantee casting Sending. Or one more level,” Jerome shrugged.

“You must have been studying hard to catch up so quickly,” I said. “When you get your next level, I’ll teach it to you. You never know when you need something like that.”

Jerome sighed. “You sound a lot like my mom. ‘Get defensive spells, you need to keep yourself safe’.”

“You know she can probably hear you,” Midnight commented.

“I know,” Jerome said. “My hearing improved too. Anyway… it’s not like I thought it was a bad idea. I spent a lot of my recent time, effort, and points on acquiring Variable Freedom. It’s useful for uh… full moons. And just in case anyone tries to grab me.”

“Is the second one frequently a problem?”

“Not yet,” Jerome said. “But with you as my master and my mom working for the Brigade, something might happen eventually. Mom’s had to accept that I’m not going to be normal, though. And her new job is… much better.”

“Have you learned anything else interesting?” I asked.

“Uhh, I learned Knock. It’s useful for opening doors or unlocking security or whatever.”

“Security?” I tilted my head.

“Like on phones,” Jerome held his up. “You know, because it’s locked.”

I furrowed my brow. “Is that… how it works?”

He shrugged. “I don’t make the rules. It works, that’s all I know. Though to be fair I haven’t gotten to practice on anything I don’t have the key or password for. It’s, uh… loud.”

I nodded, “That does sound like one of its features. Could you teach me?”

“Oh, uh, sure,” Jerome nodded. “I think I can.”

“It worked for light,” I pointed out. “I’m sure you can. Oh, also… I don’t know if you’re going to be able to use it as much, but I learned a new technique. Multicasting. It takes about triple the cost of a spell for four applications of it. Which means for you… level 3 or lower spells.”

“That’s the majority of my stuff,” Jerome said. “Except the Freedom spells which I really stretched for. The one that would push me the most is Mage’s Reach. What happens when you make four hands anyway?”

“A good question,” I said. “Let’s find out.” 9 mana later, and I had four hands floating. I wasn’t sure if it was conscious or subconscious, but two were left hands and two were right. When I began to move them, they moved in pairs with a bit of effort, though they easily synched up with my actual movements. Getting either pair to operate independently… took more effort. And using my actual hands at the same time? Well, only a quick reaction from Jerome kept a lamp from shattering on the floor. “Sorry about that,” I said as he pulled the lamp back out from Storage. “The answer is… more hands. Which the mind is not designed for.”

“What about with Enhance Mind?” Jerome asked.

“I would assume that would help,” I admitted. “But I don’t-” I stopped myself.

“It’s fine,” Jerome said. “I already figured out you were using the placebo effect. Especially after I learned it myself and felt the effects.”

“Well…” I shrugged. “I suppose that it wasn’t that convincing to begin with.”

“It was really helpful, actually. I learned to believe in myself. And you taught me how to actually study and gave me something I cared about.”

“Right. Well, that’s another thing I could learn from you.”

“I’m glad. I’ll learn anything you’re willing to teach me…” he looked vaguely towards the other parts of the apartment. “Though mom would definitely prefer I started with… utility.”

“Clean is really easy,” I said. “Shelter is… hopefully irrelevant. But since it doesn’t take points, I think teaching you everything possible is probably worthwhile.” Natural upgrades for individual spells were harder to come by the more upgrades of any type you had, as far as I had determined. But that didn’t mean learning new spells would become more difficult. In fact, it seemed like it should be easier. Comparing to the concept of a wizard in this world, it was more or less as expected… without a big book where everything was written down.

-----

Water Breathing was something I had only used a small number of times in total, and it had been semi-accidental that I learned it at the time- I had basically been intending to use points without properly taking the steps required, and I ended up just casting it. It was the first actual spell that I learned without spending points on it, starting a cascade of strange discoveries. There was hopefully never going to be practical benefit for Jerome to know it, but it was still useful for teaching purposes. It was practical for a demonstration of the spell, of Multicasting, and an unnecessary demonstration of Assistive Familiar Casting.

Plus it was fun. Jerome’s apartments shared a pool, so it was a perfect place to use it. With multicasting, we could target Tylissa, Jerome, his friend Haralamb- who was also around to learn- as well as Midnight and I since we counted together. Haralamb had also been exposed to portals and ended up with the mage class, so he and Jerome had been training together.

“Feels weird,” Tylissa commented. “Like a… film in front of my mouth?” She shook her head. “I’m a bit nervous about it.”

“I know it works,” I said. “I’ll show you.” I dove into the pool. I took a deep breath… which was just like any other breath I had taken in my life. Except with water instead of air. Unlike what I had first felt, it wasn’t quite that my lungs actually filled with water, but the filtered air was certainly colder and wetter. The spell also came with helpful mental bypasses that didn’t make people reject breathing underwater, otherwise they might just pass out from not breathing at all.

Ultimately, most of that particular afternoon was spent swimming around and having fun rather than actual magical training, but we still got some done. Jerome and Haralamb trained Multicasting with Shield. It was the cheapest spell that easily went on other people with a clear visual effect. Whether it was some quality of Jerome’s or that he was higher level- though those factors weren’t unrelated, since he had become quite the studious individual- he was the only one who actually managed to learn it.

It had only taken me a few casts to get it down, but that was after getting a spark of inspiration. Jerome had me to demonstrate, and it took him his five full casts to manage, which was his full mana capacity plus two more hours. That didn’t leave him any mana that afternoon to teach me Enhance, but I wasn’t particularly in a rush.

“Ugh,” Jerome said as he managed it. “These mana limitations are brutal. Maybe I should get a familiar…?” he looked at Midnight.

“I should be an anomaly among Familiar,” Midnight said. “But I think it should still be helpful? Comhghall knew about Assistive Familiar Casting, at least.”

I nodded. “Indeed. Though I wouldn’t suggest picking a companion casually. If the bond breaks… it’s not a comfortable process, from what I hear.”

“So if I got a hamster… in a couple years I would regret it?” Jerome asked.

“No,” Midnight said. “You would regret it immediately. Hamsters are terrible.”

I laughed, “What I think Midnight means is that a normal animal’s lifespan should be lengthened by the bond. You don’t have to worry about that part too much, but don’t get anything highly susceptible to disease. Pick something smart.”

“Are you encouraging my son to get a pet right in front of me?” Tylissa raised an eyebrow.

“The familiar will also be able to use the Clean spell,” I said. “Once I teach it to Jerome.”

“Yeah, well… it’s a bit awkward because animals don’t necessarily like us.”

“Ah… right,” I nodded. The werewolf thing. Would that make dogs a better or worse idea?

“Were you just thinking they should get a dog?” Midnight asked.

There was no way my thoughts were that clear. It was probably just experience. Midnight and I were barely separated in the last year and a half, after all. “Real dogs aren’t that bad,” I reminded Midnight, who grudgingly agreed.

“Do you think I should get one, sir?” Haralamb asked. “A familiar, I mean. Not necessarily a dog.”

“There’s a reason mages or ‘wizards’ are rarely pictured without one,” I said. “Though if your parents aren’t in the loop, it might be more difficult to convince them. And there’s the cost of supporting another living being. A typical familiar can’t just go out and get a job.” Haralamb was from the same neighborhood as Jerome had been… which meant his family was not wealthy. Tylissa and Jerome were much better financially since she became a tracker for the Brigade, but that didn’t somehow make Jerome’s friend more wealthy.

Jerome might actually be able to make money with his current magic- though he seemed focused on improving his powers more than using them at the moment. Haralamb was behind in time and experience, plus he was still going to school normally.

“Probably better to leave a decision like that for later,” I said. “It’s a lot more than just getting a pet.” Making Midnight my familiar was more of a matter of spontaneity and a bit of naivety. We both needed someone who would stick with us, so it worked out. But a wrongly chosen familiar could be a lasting thorn- or require an intentional bond breaking which was by all records an awful experience.

-----

Numbers filled the pages in front of me. Okay, that wasn’t quite true. In fact, a relatively small portion of what I was looking at were numbers, but it was all math.

“So what’s this?” I asked.

“Math you haven’t learned yet,” Jerome said. “Unless I missed something.”

“Yeah… I honestly don’t know where to start.”

“That’s what Enhance Mind is for,” Jerome said. “Pay attention to my casting because I can’t do this that many times.”

I focused on the flow of his mana… and how it affected my thoughts. My thoughts were faster… in a different way from Haste. There, they felt like the same speed with everything else slower. Here, it was truly faster. I grabbed my pencil, looked down at the work and… “Yeah, I still have no idea.”

“Well, obviously. You still have to learn. But you should be able to skim the previous chapter here much faster. In fact, I’m going to put a time limit… which is more or less the duration of the spell. Then you try to do what you can, and hopefully replicate the spell after that. Or we repeat.”

“Why not just cast the spell a few times?’ I asked.

“Because it’s always better to do something practical, right?” Jerome asked. “You try to give something tangible to focus on too, and math is the one with the most straightforward results. We could do puzzles and stuff, but once you learn how to solve them you don’t really need Enhance Mind. We could get some, though.”

That all made sense. Though I was pretty sure the logic would have followed normally regardless. I began to read through the indicated section of the book, finding I quickly made connections to things I already knew. But I wasn’t sure if the spells was helping, since I could only read things for the first time once. Perhaps a review after this would tell me.

If only studying gave experience like it was supposed to. Wouldn’t that be great?

Though if it meant not having Aspect of the Barbarian… I likely wouldn’t be at my current level. Why didn’t anyone teach me properly? What was wrong with people who just got stronger by fighting?

Perhaps I answered my own question there. But people in power wouldn't have to worry about that so much if they weren’t making things difficult for people on purpose. Knowing what I knew now, however…? I might have a reason to actually do something once I became truly strong.