I did consider trying to close the fiery portal, but even if I could do it I doubted that Vilhelmiina would appreciate it. She might have so sort of plan that needed these portals to be permanently active.
There wasn't really anything inherently wrong with fire elentals, but they were probably the worst option for city base cri fighting what with all the flammable buildings and people. So only getting a fire elental and then a fire elental with a pot of water under one arm was a bit… inconvenient.
I took a look at my points. Was there any reason not to spend them? So far, I hadn't co up with a good one. I might invest massive amounts into a single low level ability at so point to see how it broke things, but that wasn't necessarily a good idea.
Points were for spending. I had enough to purchase Summon Moderate Elental, so that was what I did. I positioned myself carefully to optimize my ability to call upon a powerful water elental. 13 points of mana… No, I doubled that to try to separate things as far from what had been happening as possible.
I felt it, coming to my call. I saw a swirl of water form in the air. And then… the clay pot surrounding it and a very bouncy and still waist high fire elental.
"... It's you again."
The fire elental tilted its head.
"You're the sa one as I kept getting," I explained. "I recognize you."
The fire elental pointed at its face, where there was a flaming moustache as if to say 'it couldn't possibly be , I have this poor disguise'. Certainly, it didn't have that before. But in that case, how would it know that it was different?
It seed that I wasn't going to gain any ground here. "Well, just to save so ti, do you think other elentals of the sa tier you know would also agree to be summoned?"
It nodded seriously.
"Alright. You can go for now, until I actually need you."
When it was gone, I sighed. I might never be able to call upon anything but a low ranking fire elental at this rate. Or maybe I'd have to find so other connection to different elental planes.
I supposed I shouldn't keep Frank waiting. As I left the room I realized sothing. I glanced over my shoulder at the label by the door. Though I knew it said 'misc. portals', I also knew I couldn't read that. Since I constantly had Translate active I hadn't really thought about it. I wondered if Frank had knowledge, or if it was from being around Vilhelmiina previously.
Or maybe it was a language I'd co in contact elsewhere. I couldn't place it, though. It didn't use any familiar alphabet, not that I knew many. I could recognize the English alphabet and its associates, a few other forms of writing from Earth, and Celmothian and Bunvorixian. So it wasn't any of those. Or Common.
As I walked past Frank, he suddenly continued moving as if he'd never stopped. "We will reach the exit shortly."
"Thanks, Frank."
The cannon bot led to a cylinder a bit bigger than that turned into an elevator… which ca out in a park bathroom stall sohow.
-----
The whole point of visiting Vilhelmiina was to try to get a replacent for my staff, but that part hadn't worked out despite the other stuff I got. Another clip of antimagic bullets was nice. The ability to summon a minor fire elental was nice, since I hadn't been successful with that before. It might bring closer to a spatial magic mastery… hopefully.
As for the staff, my next best option was Ceira. She was busy, so I wasn't able to get ahold of her until evening. We ended up speaking on the phone, just because texts would be awkward. And were more easily monitored. Both of us had various protections, but it was better to be secure if possible.
"You're asking about that Yggdrasil sprout?"
"That's right," I said. "I lost my staff due to unforeseen troubles. Vilhelmiina apparently doesn't have the ability anymore."
"I get it," Ceira said. "That thing is hell to keep alive. It springs up like a weed, but it's so greedy for nutrients that it falls apart just as quickly. Through a couple changes in apartnts and a good bit of magic, I barely have anything to show for it."
"Oh. Well, if you can get sothing staff sized- maybe a bit bigger than six feet tall and a couple inches across so that soone can work with it- I'll… owe you another favor. I'd offer to pay you but the money would be pretty aningless. I could Teleport you sowhere or take you to another world or dinsion, within reason."
"Hmm…" she pondered. "Tell about that Teleportation stuff. Because even if I make most of my rich clients co to , I still lose a significant amount of ti on transportation. I don't usually waste mana but it also ans I don't get much ti to relax. I- hold on, I need to take this other call."
I was put on hold. I didn't even know our phones could do that. Maybe Ceira had a special system. It wouldn't be that weird. I waited a good ten minutes before she got back to .
"-and if you threaten anything like that again I'll just let you die!"
"I feel like that wasn't ant for ," I replied.
"Eh, sorry Turlough. I had to yell and I wasn't going to actually do that at the client. Instead, Angela will be sending them a more diplomatic version of that."
"If they made you that angry, maybe you should just let them die."
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"And let all their money go to worthless heirs? Hell no! I've got dical clinics to build in third world countries, and third world countries to turn into first world countries!"
"Can you do that?"
"I'm going to try," Ceira said. "As far as dical centers go, given the ti constraints most of what I've gotten done are simple things. Even if you throw a ton of money at stuff it takes a while to build a building and get staff. Thank goodness I've got Angela to visit all those places for because I absolutely could not personally verify even 1% of these things."
If Angela betrayed Ceira's trust I was throwing her through a portal to sowhere awful. I'd just have to find the real one. But from what I'd heard, Mada Multitude was pretty unimpeachable.
"Do you get to see any of it?"
"Maybe if you Teleport places! Can you do that with pictures?"
"Yeah, but there are distance and change limitations. Also I really need to test so of my current limits after I broke magic before I actually Teleport you."
"... Good point, dude. Hey, actually, what I need most is to get away from cities. For mana."
I nodded, not that she could see . "Right. Because you're a druid." Theoretically a connection to nature could promote both mana regeneration and maximum mana improvents. Though, Mana Manipulation for Mages was obviously a bit lacking on the non-mage stuff. I probably shouldn't bring her to the quarry.
"It shouldn't take much effort to get back to the Sequoias. We need to figure out how much Teleportation will be matched up against a staff, though."
"You can also help pick spells."
"I'm not sure you want that. I'd default to combat ones."
"Exactly. I shouldn't need them. But I might."
"Petrify," I said.
"Uhh…" Ceira hesitated for a bit. "I don't want to kill people."
"They can be unpetrified later. And even if their heart stops, people can be on standby to fix that."
"... I'll consider it."
I would also consider it. Though I'd need to be able to reverse it and that ant another spell. And I didn't have Regenerate, which would matter if I broke bits off of them during a mission. Oh, but I could put soone in Storage! Only if they were tiny or I got way more capacity, though. Especially since stone would be denser.
-----
Now that we were fairly sure I wasn't going to blow people up unintentionally, I was getting back into regular patrols and missions. Of course, there was still a lot of ti reserved for training, and that included spending so ti with new recruits who also had portal powers. Though, most of them would be working from previous lessons I'd given and not receiving personal instruction from . For one thing, so portion of them were taking up support positions- healing and things like that.
In fact, I think there were a couple d school students. I wasn't sure if they had been in d school before they got powers, but there were a couple clerics and druids in the mix. The Brigade was going to help them get practical experience. Normal hospitals weren't always prepared for a magical residency.
Currently, it was just Midnight, myself, and Shockwave on patrol. It was a bit short of a proper squad, but we were there half to remind people that supers were protecting New Bay… and half to respond to ergency situations.
We got a call. I cast Physical Freedom on Shockwave. Midnight cast Haste. We might have swapped roles, but we weren't certain that it would work out. Even Shockwave didn't want to risk that, because they preferred to not spend their paychecks on broken windows.
"KImback."
I was pretty sure Shockwave left out so punctuation there. And pauses.
"That was fast," Midnight comnted.
"That is the point," Shockwave balanced their speech pretty quickly.
Before Haste could run out, we got another distress report from the dispatcher in our ear. "Coordinates are-"
Shockwave was gone. And then back. Technically, I could see them running back and forth, but it hadn't taken long to get around the corner. I would find it hard to react to Shockwave, but I could still witness them. Speedsters had limits, after all.
Rather than walking next to us, Shockwave was in front. "So kind of gas," they reported. "Also, more orcs."
"Doomsday?"
"Hard to say."
"We'll have to take a look."
Midnight and I ran off, with casting Haste. I constrained it to a normal cast, so that I could be sure I would end up with functional friction and stuff. It didn't cost that much now, so it would be more of a waste not to speed us up.
As it turned out, the strange gas was pervasive enough as to be a smokescreen for the whole street when we arrived. Shockwave was waving a sheet like a giant fan, but that wasn't quite enough. Quite possibly Physical Freedom was interfering, though maybe they wouldn't be able to swing the sheet without.
"What are the chances its flammable?" I asked Midnight.
"Can't tell," Midnight said. "My suit is very confused. It's not anything natural."
"Well, I'm not going into an area with an unknown gas," I said. "Standard Power Brigade protocol. But…"
I moved forward and reached out my arm, grabbing as much as I could with Storage. Actually, as a gas I probably could have taken a lot more if not for range limitations. I wasn't touching enough of it. That was probably a limitation in my expertise, though.
Then I release the few cubic feet of yellow-grey gas away from the rest of it, casting Firebolt into the air at the sa ti, piercing through it.
"Not flammable," I said. Next I had to determine how much mana I was willing to risk on the task. Normally, I would have been conservative. At the mont, I felt like I had so much.
I stabilized a Conjure Moderate Elental, trying to get an air elental. I had no proof that it was in any way better than the Minor version, but I could hope.
A swirl of wind and air. Then, flas. I should probably na this little elental. I was pretty sure it was just one.
A mustachioed fire elental flapping its arms really hard looked eagerly over its 'shoulder' at . "Blow away all that gas," I said, pointing.
There was so chance this would do nothing at all. I was hoping that this elental ca from a strange reality where it could sohow at least perform the air elental tasks I'd called for.
It began to spin on its toes, arms out. Faster and faster, until I could feel a significant breeze even from over ten feet away. Then it twirled into the gas cloud. I really hoped it wasn't more flammable when gathered together.
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