Mage Among Superheroes

After I became more lucid, I realized that obviously thirty points of experience was significantly less than half a level. It was still very good, though, so I didn't regret what had happened when trying to scry Gloom. I just regretted not doing it more effectively.

More poking and prodding from the doctors eventually resulted in me being let go, though they made me promise to come back so they could make sure there was no brain damage. I felt fine, but an hour before I hadn't been able to do basic math so maybe they had something.

"Sorry about that," Great Girl had brought me to the cafeteria to get lunch, where she apologized. "I didn't think something like that would happen with Scrying. That's not normal, right?"

"No, usually it should be a case of nothing happening. But apparently Gloom's powers have some sort of interaction with it. It seems a bit dangerous for now so I'll have to try again when I'm stronger." Would more points in Scrying help, or did I need some sort of mental defenses? Unfortunately the latter was kind of lacking at lower levels. There was the absurdly high level and powerful Mind Blank, or a small handful of protection spells that weren't properly tuned to protect against someone like Gloom. Unless he was a Fiend? Seemed like something worth knowing, but I didn't plan to test that with my brain possibly melting on the line.

"Yeah good idea. So do your saves go up with a higher level?"

"Save what?"

Great Girl tilted her head and frowned, "Like your… resistance to stuff? Especially mental."

"Oh, yes," I nodded. "It does."

"Really?" Midnight joined in. "I haven't noticed."

"You wouldn't," I shrugged. "It's not like you're suddenly better. And I don't think people have been throwing mental attacks at you." I leaned back and sighed, "I just realized those aren't that rare here, huh? Things like that are pretty discouraged in my world, but if you just randomly get a power it's not like you have much choice…"

"Mental attacks are frowned upon?" Midnight asked. "Why?"

"Because it's easy to cause irreparable harm to someone. Only higher level healing magic is of any help. It can mess people up pretty bad, and it's kind of evil. Still short of necromancy, though."

"Sounds like they banned it because it was too effective," Midnight did something resembling a shrug. "But I suppose you'd know."

"... yeah." I thought for a few moments. I looked at Great Girl. "Mental attacks aren't looked on more highly here, are they?"

Great Girl shook her head. "Mostly not. Though it depends on what kind. If you can just put people to sleep, it's very useful. Anything nonlethal and without permanent effects. Any sort of mental control is… more regulated."

"I thought so. I should avoid getting anything like that for now… especially since I'm less familiar with how most of it works. Since I wasn't going to be able to use it anyway."

"Yeah… so about your other problems. This Deimos guy…"

"Handface? What about him?"

She snorted. "Is that what you call him? That's a good one. Anyway, he used some kind of higher powered rifle, right? I remember you saying Stoneskin was too expensive, but do you have Shield? It's supposed to be a short burst of high defensive power."

"It is," I nodded. "It helps against most incoming attacks, but… it only lasts a short time."

"Could you use it as a reaction to being shot?"

"Uh… if I saw someone shooting an arrow at me, maybe. If they were really slow on the trigger and I was watching, I guess the same would work with a gun. It's a lower level spell, so gathering the mana is quick. But I'd have to know the attack was coming." I paused to think for a moment, "It might be desirable to pick it up for use in combat instead of replacing Force Armor. Though it would be lacking my substantial number of upgrades and thus cost about an extra half point of mana."

"That's a shame," Great Girl said. "What about a Contingency? You could have something trigger if you're attacked."

"That… would require a lot more skill points. Plus an expensive material component. Also, not immediately useful against a sniper. I would still have a hole in me and then a defensive spell would go up." I still rubbed my neatly trimmed beard as I thought about the idea. "The idea does resolve one of my problems, however. That is, how much mana I can hold at once. Contingency requires use of all of the mana upfront, so if I could guarantee nothing would happen for a couple hours…" I shook my head.

"Oh yeah. You're still searching for a way to recover mana more quickly, aren't you? Maybe I could talk to some people who could help. I owe you at least that much for what happened. And a match, of course. I'm interested to see how much stronger you are. I heard you got a new spell."

"That's true," I nodded. "It's about… three times as powerful as Shocking Grasp was. Would that be okay?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

"Well… that's fine. I owe you a serious spar for this whole fiasco. Though we should probably put it off for a couple days to make sure you don't have any lasting damage."

She was right, of course, but that didn't mean I had to like waiting.

-----

Over the next two days I learned that ivory was illegal, and rubies were still really expensive. That made me wonder what parts of the material component were actually important, and which were just tradition. I knew things didn't necessarily have to be expensive, though it made sense that it would be the case when there were a lot of high level wizards vying for the same materials. In this case, the component might be called a 'focus' as it wouldn't go away afterwards. It was just a little statue of the caster to hold onto the magic. Thus it made sense that any sort of magically conductive materials would be usable, but unfortunately I didn't know anything in this world that would do it but gemstones. Maybe I could get a license to get some ivory?

That, and what other spells I might get once I actually had more points to spare, occupied my thoughts. When I got more points from my next level I wasn't going to spend them all on a high level spell that I couldn't use. For multiple reasons, since the mana cost would also be prohibitive.

Then I got a text from an unknown number. Fortunately, the sender eventually identified themself.