"So tell again why we're training to make my magic weaker?" Jero asked. "Wouldn't I want to be stronger? So I could take out sothing like that other plant monster with the vines."
A reasonable enough question, but I had answers for that. "You're not making your magic weaker, you're learning control. You ever been in a fight before that?"
"... a few."
"Anyone try to kill you?"
"No. Not really."
"Great. So we've established a few things here," I nodded. "First, you know sothing about fights. And you'll probably get in them again."
"I-"
I held up my hand to stop him, "It's just a fact. I'm certainly not in a place where I can tell you that you shouldn't fight. But rember what you said about the first plant creature you killed. The thorny one."
"It burst into flas and turned into a pile of ash."
"People don't burn that easily, but as it turns out they also don't do so well with any part of them set on fire or burned even skin deep. A single Firebolt is enough to kill soone, like shooting a gun at them. If they don't die, they might be crippled. And you'd be better of not doing either of those on accident."
"But what about monsters? When they show up again…"
"You want to be able to respond appropriately. The one that burned up could have been taken care of at lower power, I'm not saying you should have known that ahead of ti, but it's sothing you'll have to be able to figure out for the future." From what I'd seen of New Bay, there was no chance that there wouldn't be more dangerous incidents, and even if he didn't seek them out Jero was exactly the sort to get involved if sothing happened in front of him. "Now, how many Firebolts can you cast before you pass out?"
"Three. Because I have six mana and they cost two each."
"I'd count it as two, because you pass out on the third one. If your enemies aren't dead or incapacitated for longer than you passing out from mana exhaustion, it doesn't matter if you got another shot. Of course, that's if you're alone, protecting just yourself. If you have to protect soone else… just make sure you aren't going to make things harder for whoever you were protecting when you pass out."
"It's kinda sad to be restricted to doing so little…" Jero frowned.
"You'll level up, and also… that's the point here. You could do five Firebolts at half cost and still be on your feet. If you get a little ten minute break, you could do one more." I paused for a mont, "I'm not advocating using Firebolt on people. It's pretty ssy and you really don't want to start a fire when you miss. But if you have to, think about how strong it needs to be. Don't forget you can miss."
We practiced for a while, with him taking shots at while I had Energy Ward active. Over the next two hours he shot a total of eighteen Firebolts at vaguely half power. So were less, so were more. Energy was more mana efficient defending against them- about half cost- and it was better than Shield because it lasted between rest periods if there was extra energy, and it didn't scatter deflected energy around us into the side of a building. Just because most were brick and concrete didn't an nothing could catch on fire.
"That's so cool," Jero said. "That Energy Ward thing. I could just like… never get burned? Could I pick up sothing hot with my hands?"
"Sure, just make sure you cast it before you do that. And don't forget other people don't have it."
"Aweso. So you cast it like…" Jero began to gather mana. I would have stopped him, but he was the one who would suffer the consequences of mana exhaustion. It wasn't a dangerous spell, so he'd have to really screw it up to do any more harm than that. I stepped forward to catch him so he didn't hit his head- he had Force Armor on, but it was still possible to get a concussion if you hit wrong. "... Like this?"
I stopped with my arm about an inch from his shoulder, then reached up to tussle his hair. "That's it. Good job. Just one question. How much mana did you just use?"
"Well I cast it at half so… one?"
"That was definitely two full points," I said. "Which is two. Which should have more than knocked you out." I chose to ignore him successfully casting a fourth level spell on his first attempt at reduced power for the mont. "Did you level up again… twice?"
"I don't think so."
"How much mana do you have left?"
"One?"
"And before you cast?"
"Uh… I didn't really think about it."
"Sit with for a second," I gestured for him to follow to a nearby set of stairs where we could be vaguely comfortable. "Are you certain you haven't leveled up again? Have you been practicing magic?"
"Mostly Shield," Jero said. "You said that one was fine to do alone."
"It is. How many tis can you cast it?"
"Three, but then I'm basically passed out."
"Not actually passed out?"
"I let it last for the whole minute, so I should have um… so left."
"How much?" I asked. I knew, but I was also responsible for teaching him to do math… and sotis mages needed to be specific.
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"Three tenths? Because it's one mana per ten minutes, right?"
"Right," I nodded. "Which puts you at less than half a mana remaining, which is definitely the passing out point. You sure you haven't been downcasting subconsciously?"
He thought for a few monts, which was good. "No, I just let it flow naturally."
"Hmm," I scratched my chin. "That doesn't quite line up." Even with the increased mana regeneration that was happening now- I'd approximated it as sowhere close to ten percent higher in normal locations- there was basically no real difference between .3 and .33 mana in terms of incapacitating a mage. "Let's have you rest up and test sothing."
During tis where he was recovering mana, he did school work about half the ti, while taking so ti to simply relax. I would answer any questions he had, but honestly I was useless at history. I did, however, learn how all of the instructional books were arranged. Finding answers in the books was easy, since it was always in the section that people had been asked to read. I taught Jero so reading techniques, and though he said he was bad at reading it seed like he just needed practice. Like math.
"Okay," I said. "You recovered?"
Jero nodded, closing his eyes and breathing in slowly. "Yep, I feel full on mana."
"Great. Cast Shield consecutively like you practice," I held my phone in my hand, "The natural flow, not trying to conserve anything."
As he cast the spell I paid close attention to every detail, especially the mana he used. It was not as natural to feel soone else's mana expended as it was for one's self, but approximating was possible. And there were things that could be judged from the quality of the final spell. My phone also helpfully had a tir.
One minute and five seconds went past. "Great. Again." One minute seven. One minute four. The fluctuations could be any number of reasons, such as imprecision in my asuring technique… but they clustered around a number I had been anticipating.
Jero looked exhausted afterwards, as he rightfully should be. "See now… I can barely… think…"
"Point six, would you say?"
"What?" Jero asked.
"More or less than half a mana remaining?"
"It should be, uh…" Jero was looking at his fingers, indicating he was thinking about math dazedly.
"Just your feeling, not a calculation."
"More?" Jero said cautiously.
"Well that's sothing. You've upgraded your proficiency in Shield."
"I thought that took points?" he said awkwardly.
"So does learning spells," I pointed out. "And you're clearly not level four so you can't possibly learn Energy Ward alone, let alone that and everything else."
"... What does that an?" he asked.
"It ans you should practice whatever you want to get good at… and if it's Firebolt make sure you're sowhere safe."
It seed he was still probably level 1, but I had no doubt he'd reach level 2 soon enough. It was triple the amount of experience, but it was hard to say how much killing a monster had put him over the first level threshold to begin with. And unlike myself, he should gain experience from studying and using magic.
Jero's mother ca out. "Heading to work, mom?"
"Yes, that's right," she nodded. "Before I left I wanted to talk to, uh…"
"Turlough," I said, gesturing to my unmasked face. "The other na is kind of dumb anyway."
"Right, Turlough then. I had a question about that, actually."
"Hmm, will it take long? Should we start walking since you have to get to work?"
"Um, I, well…" she sighed, "Probably should." There was an awkward silence for a few monts as we began walking. She looked around to make sure there was nobody within easy earshot, but aside from so cars driving by with their windows up the evening light had few people casually walking about. Especially in the current neighborhood. "So you have powers."
"Obviously. It's not unusual where I co from."
"Do your powers ever make you weirdly fast?"
"Define weirdly fast. There's magic to make people fast."
"I see," she bit her lip. "Can I see it?"
"You could even experience it. Though I'll probably tone it down a bit to make it more comfortable."
"That's fine. I'd like to know if it's the sa as… sothing else I've seen."
I held out my hand, gathering just a bit of mana for Haste. I focused mostly on shortening the duration, though I was certain the power would also suffer from the reduction in mana.
Tylissa took my hand and the power flowed into her, then she looked back confused as she found herself ahead of us. I vaguely waved as she walked back towards us trying to talk, and a handful of seconds later I could finally hear her properly. "-going on?"
"That's the Haste spell," I said, "It makes you faster, but because of that you also talk fast and are hard to understand."
"Oh," she said. "That's… interesting. It's different than what I saw before, though."
"What did you see?" I asked. "Speedsters exist, but I'm sure you know about them already."
"It was during the portal incident. After Jero passed out, there was a girl with swords that chopped up the other plant monster. She moved quickly and… elegantly."
"Hmm, that could be… lots of things really," I shrugged. "I wouldn't really know more unless I see it."
"I see. Well, that's fine," she nodded. "Uh, Jero can walk the rest of the way and knows how to get ho safely. I'm sure you're busy with other things so you might want to head back?"
"I have ti," I shrugged. "This girl with the swords," I said. "You sure it was a girl? Not just… a small woman?"
"Well, uh… hmm. She… might have been?"
"Hmm." Had Izzy saved Jero? There could certainly be another woman with swords, but a halfling? That was more rare. There were certainly other people of similar sizes, but they usually had more distinctly alien appearances like Zorphax the Martian. I kind of wish I had a picture, but I didn't. So I described her.
"Yes! That's it!" Tylissa nodded. "Since you know her, I take it she'd a super, then?"
"Hmm? Well, in the sa way I am basically. It's complicated, but sa as I'm a mage she's a scout. Why?"
"Um, no reason, really…" she said. "Well, work's just around the corner. Since you have ti, could you walk Jero back?"
"Sure," I nodded. He'd be fine unless he got attacked by a super, presuming he kept Force Armor active like I suggested, but I really didn't want him to have to Firebolt soone. Even I hadn't killed a person. That I knew of.
Tylissa went down the alley and quickly stepped into so rear door with a burly guy standing next to it. There was no signage in the rear, but the front made it pretty obvious with more bouncers and the like.
Even with his dark skin, Jero's blush was obvious as he noticed checking out the signs. Embarrassnt, certainly. I knew that certain professions were looked down upon even as people eagerly flocked to their services. The stigma also existed in my world, but people had to do what they could to survive. Though working at a club was at least safer than so other professions.
"Co on Jero, let's get you back ho."
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