Mage Among Superheroes

Of the two options of continuing to try to find Mided and rescuing Midnight, it hadn't even been an option. An old apprentice guy I barely spent time with? Whatever. We'd been in proximity for far longer than Midnight and I, but we'd spent probably a handful of hours total actually interacting. Quite a bit more if you counted passing each other on the stairs.

Anyway, I eventually contacted him through the same means as Comhghall. Sending with a proper focus and an overload of mana.

"You alive? I suddenly became quite busy with some rescue and revenge operations. I still want you to tell me what you know about Uvithar's circumstances." I felt like I had enough leeway to add a few more words. "It's really me… again."

While waiting for that to come back, I tested a few things. There were always more things to test, but this time it was Grease. Less explosions and all that. Technically it could be set on fire during its temporary lifespan, but it was less immediately destructive, even if it ended up unstable.

I tossed out Grease in a training room, being intentionally careless with exactly how it functioned. I wanted to see if it always chose the same factors to destabilize. If so, I could sort of rely on that. To that end, I didn't look at the spells I cast. I just used 4 points of mana- a full double- and picked vague regions on the edge of the room. Cameras would record it for later.

If I was looking I would subconsciously affect the results. I could see what it looked like and subconsciously either stick to or shy away from it. Well, one time I was pretty sure I hit myself with it even though it was supposed to be not close, so that probably also affected things.

16 points of mana gone in a few moments. Previously a quarter of my maximum, and now one eighth… which was still not trivial. It should be a useful test, though. Hopefully. Though any variations could have come about from me believing there would be variations.

How complicated.

After a five minute timer, I was able to look at the video. One Grease spell turned into a sort of jelly blob. Another one didn't go as far as intended- that was the one that partially hit me. Though it was a larger area, so there was that. One went further and covered a larger area, but didn't last very long. The final one looked fairly balanced, but it too covered a greater area than expected. Obviously using twice as much mana should have resulted in more area, but it wasn't double area, but more like double radius.

Ah. Was it counting as a higher level spell? In those circumstances… I'd have to get it measured properly. And there was one person who was really good at that who was already going to review the tapes at some point.

Calculator reminded me that we had computers that could do the same area calculations, since they were well aware of the dimensions of the room. And then he sent me the numbers anyway. Accounting for upgrades, with the base being a 5' radius, it became a 12' radius when it was most stable and similar in features.

This, of course, was another way in which magic was broken. Downcasting did seem to exist. But now, overcasting was possible. Did that mean I should buy huge numbers of upgrades in lower spells? That way I could turn Firebolt into a Fireball or-

Wait, no. The features were far too different. Just because they both had fire didn't mean they were the same. The range, form, power, and area were all quite different. Presumably I could make Firebolt more explody than directly burny… with spell mastery. In which case, everything would be a fused spell to begin with.

Obviously investing points in broader categories was better. I had precisely two, right now. Basic Light Magic, and Advanced Divination Magic. I had fused spells in Alter Time Flow, Enhance, Size Shift, and Variable Freedom. Theoretically, the latter group was a partial step towards the former. Or perhaps those things with a dichotomy lent themselves towards fused spells and were unrelated to masteries.

If only I could contact Master Uvithar and ask him. I was tempted to reach out to Wrickle about spatial magic, but I didn't know much about her except that she was an enthusiast. Loyalty and conspiracy involvement were unclear. Though, she did give me some information so she couldn't be all bad. Even if she was trying to push me into making some sort of breach… I didn't care because it was useful knowledge.

Should I try to figure out how to throw a ton of objects out of Storage at once, arranged in a specific orientation? Was that a practice method that would help me achieve some sort of spatial mastery, or the result of spatial mastery?

I got a response from Mided.

"Sorry I couldn't help. Please don't contact or look for any of us from the tower. If you must, figure out who you can trust first. No names."

How annoying. But at least he responded this time. Maybe Master Uvithar would tell me something different. I hadn't been able to contact him before, but I had overcast magic now.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I put together a message, wasting about half my words telling him yes it was me I could cast Sending now. I didn't get a response, and I actually got the feeling it never reached him. That was just my intuition, I didn't have any proof.

Wrickle was next. I had to figure out how to send a message to her that didn't contain any things I shouldn't know- either for her sake if she was an ally and we were overheard, or for my sake.

I wondered… since I could reliably reach my old world with Sending, wouldn't it be better to focus any excess mana on something else? Maybe I could prevent it from being intercepted. Or cause backlash to anyone who tried. That would be…

Far beyond the original scope of the spell. But the secure communication certainly fit. I took my time crafting the spell as well as my words.

"I'm interested in the tea and the book throw. Are those good methods to practice or a result of training?"

As I waited for my response, I considered Grease once more. I had pushed spells to double their limit, but they were ones near my standard fatigue limit before I broke magic. Were there limits to overcasting? Was it double? That would just be using the full mana complement spells should originally have, right?

So I tested it. If I was going to do it, why not go for the extreme? My proper fatigue limit was 24 now, so I ramped up Grease many times beyond its limits. I was careful when releasing it- if it didn't all go into the spell, I would have to absorb the free mana or risk wasting it. Or possibly worse, now.

But it did. Oh yes, it certainly did.

I was disappointed. Not in my abilities, or in my failure, but rather in my success.

I couldn't say that it wasn't good enough. It was certainly worthy of being a very expensive spell. It was just…

Way too much.

I sat in a pile of black muck several inches deep. Any attempt to stand would only result in toppling over. I couldn't say I had created a frictionless surface, but it was fairly close. I'd only managed to get myself into a sitting position with Mage's Reach pushing on the inside of my clothing. Otherwise, I would still have half my face buried in Grease.

It covered the training room from wall to wall, which was quite a sizable achievement.

My disappointment filled me so much that I didn't sense the curiosity from Midnight until it was too late.

"Hey Mage what's-"

A flood swept him away into the hall. Not quickly, but he was scrabbling to hold onto the door with his suit's extendable limbs. There was no way he was going to be able to close it.

"Welcome to the sea of disappointment. It'll pass soon. Probably."

It did not. Before I received Wrickle's response, I had given up on waiting. I cast Fly to extricate the two of us… people coming out of other training rooms were dealing with it in their own ways. At least once you included the area of the hall it was less deep. At least only a little got into the elevators… and the elevator shaft would be fine, probably.

Wrickle's response came about the time we were mucking up the cafeteria floor. I really hoped it all disappeared soon.

"The answer to your question is yes. If you want the long answer, it's yes to the second part and then yes to the first. Have you used that cool spell I told you about?"

… People already knew I could cast Gate. Knowing I could also cast a technically lower level spell shouldn't surprise anyone, especially her.

Oh! I should have set up the spell to pass multiple messages back and forth. For double the cost, I might get four sets? What a blunder. If I didn't have to worry much about dimensional restrictions or secrecy, that might be the best way.

I spent a regular amount of mana to respond.

"Yes, I got to break some expensive things owned by people who were not nice to my friend. Unfortunately, I don't have any access to the more flexible features." Because access to the normal planes was cut off, and I wasn't connected to them to begin with. Just because I knew about the hells didn't mean I was able to call upon them.

Wrickle's eventual response came before the Grease spell ended. Significantly before, in fact. "I'm sure you can find some good components out there somewhere."

That made me wonder if she had traveled to other dimensions. Would it be weirder if she stuck to things connected to just one world? Probably. So she expected them to have planes with stuff I could connect to. Or maybe it didn't have to be cool planar traits. Maybe I could make a spatial rift that connected to a star or-

Alright, I definitely shouldn't test that one. Maybe a planet like Mercury or Venus. Something super hot or with extreme features. I just needed a place where I could use such spells. Even the middle of a training room wasn't a good spot to put Spatial Rift.

Fortunately, Calculator preemptively contacted me with a suggested place. And by 'suggested place' it was really 'an old quarry far away that nobody should be looking at if I was going to be doing any more experiments'.

The Grease incident didn't even last much more than two hours, yet for some reason people seemed to think it was a big deal. Midnight thought it was funny once he understood what was going on.

Great Girl thought it was hilarious and was sad she missed it.

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An incident occurred that I didn't hear about until far later, after it had weaved its way through various sources. It was only eventually connected to me by a snippet of the audio. Unrelated to a larger portal incident, something came to New Bay. Perhaps it had help, or perhaps it stumbled upon and slipped through a natural portal of some sort.

The incident was caught on a security camera, revealing a large winged lizard with green scales, though only during the investigation. This creature accosted a civilian, speaking in a language nobody could understand. And then melted the civilian. Instead, the news picked up the story- without access to the actual video- and named the creature 'Fleshmelter'. On account of the melted flesh, leaving behind just bones. How, precisely, it was connected to me took far longer for anyone to notice.