Mage Among Superheroes

Combat was exhausting but satisfying. I learned a lot in the fight against Rodentia, but I wasn't sure it was more than she did. It was a bit concerning that she could force me to use specific spells to defend myself and then follow up by overcoming that with something new. She had so many rat-based gadgets. Heat beams, the ability to bounce her cheese ray, and the 'adaptive shield' were all surprisingly effective for how inefficient they seemed.

Francois was quite happy to hear that our equipment held up against the cheese ray though. For whatever reason it only didn't affect living tissue, which was good because otherwise I would just be dead. Then again, if I hadn't seen the results on that poor civilian, I would have suggested a proper tactical retreat. Getting hit by beams you are unfamiliar with is a poor tactic.

I had leveled up, which meant I had 10 points I could spend if I wanted to keep my plan for helping Izzy return to our former world. I wasn't fully sure I would be able to cast gate if I got it, but I had to be willing to try. I couldn't allow even a former friend to remain somewhere they didn't want to be. Though Izzy wasn't fully certain on going back yet. I wouldn't be spending those points to learn Gate until I was certain. 39 points was a lot! I could upgrade Stoneskin three, almost four times.

Either way, I was left with 10 points to spend how I pleased, no promises attached. I did have to consider Midnight, though. His level was improving quite nicely, but still lower than mine and likely to remain that way unless we went a long period without combat. Something like a year or more. Because while Curse of the Barbarian was annoying, it did make for pretty quick growth when I could fight.

The point being, while learning new spells was always tempting, I decided to upgrade things. Midnight could have upgrades equal to the upgrades of Familiar Bond- 3- so I first looked at the top. Firebolt wasn't always useful, but it would be cheap to upgrade. Energy Ward was extremely helpful and the increased efficiency would be quite welcome. One level could cut off almost .2 mana. That didn't sound like much, but it was a couple minutes of normal regeneration, and if I cast it on multiple people the efficiency was even more important. And more power behind it wouldn't hurt.

For my last two points I had to try something. I hadn't tried upgrading things below the first category- the spells I had learned spontaneously. I still didn't understand them, and that annoyed me… but two points on the Light spell might tell me something. Or they might disappear into the void. Even if it worked I wasn't super keen on the idea of more efficient light when tons of artificial sources existed, but I wanted to see if I could and thus I had to try.

The results were… interesting.