Mage Among Superheroes

Chapter 462 - 462

I was trapped. Seemingly endless corridors that stretched on even as I moved as fast as I could. I was almost sprinting, trying to get out. And what was worse, the techniques I knew to find an escape route didn't work. Every wall seemed identical, so I couldn't tell if I was making progress. And- oh, there it was. I just needed to turn.

The first thing I saw was Midnight's eyes. "That was weird," I said. "How long did that take?"

Midnight's emotions reflected my own turmoil, but confusedly. "Fourteen seconds," he said.

"Felt longer," I said.

"It might rely on mental processing speed," Midnight said. "Anyway, I couldn't really feel your emotions until you came back."

"Good to know," I said. We had tested Maze on me first because… worst case, I could Gate out. It wasn't supposed to last forever or anything, but sometimes magic did weird things. "You want to try?"

Midnight thought for a moment. "I suppose I should experience it just in case it is used against me."

"Or if you need to pop out of reality for a bit," I suggested.

"That's… a weird way to use that."

I shrugged. "Cheaper than teleporting away and back. Unless you use Dimension Door and end up within visible range, which is risky. Tell me when you are ready," I said.

Midnight nodded. "I suppose I agree with that assessment. And yes, I am ready to be thrown into the Maze."

I gathered mana. It took a bit, since it was near the top rank of normal spells. Far faster than it would have once been, but I couldn't help but keep thinking about Zentha Qitris' speed. I could do better.

Midnight… faded out of existence. He wasn't suddenly gone, but instead grew more transparent over the course of a second or so. We'd have to test that to see if there was some sort of danger. Could you still move? Were you in physical danger, or was it just a lingering impression? I felt his mana and my connection to him fading similarly.

Then Midnight was back. "That was way longer than you," he said.

"Nope. Eight seconds."

The exact numbers would be recorded by the training room. Though, a few tests later we determined it really didn't matter.

The times between Midnight and I varied significantly, but we averaged about the same after three tests each. That was Midnight's limit. With a little bit of mana recovery over the testing period, he was at almost exactly 3 uses. We could do so much more if it had upgrades, but that was the whole point of the practice session.

My level was higher, because we got most of our experience from combat- and Midnight shared some of that experience with me. As I had Aspect of the Barbarian, I came out significantly ahead in terms of combat experience. I was just about double his total experience, putting me at level 47 while he was just level 32. I didn't have access to detailed information about familiars, but I was fairly certain his growth wasn't slowed. So we both benefitted through sharing upgrades and proficiency to some extent. More than most, with fully unlocked natural growth.

"Who do you think we should test with now?" I asked Midnight. "I can cast another one."

Technically, I could cast Maze 5 more times- but I wasn't intending to push myself to the very limits of 'negative mana'.

Midnight shrugged. "I'm not sure it matters too much. Whoever is around that we trust."

There wasn't anyone in the Power Brigade that I distrusted, but there were certainly those with which I was more familiar. I could absolutely trust the old Elemental Magic Squad, Great Girl, or Shockwave.

The first one I found was Shockwave. "Hey. Wanna test some new magic?" I asked them.

They frowned. "Will it hurt?"

"It really shouldn't," I said. "I wouldn't pick you first for something like that. You're not known for your exceptional durability."

"Are you kidding? Do you know how often I stub my toes?" Shockwave thumped their chest. "I'm basically made of iron."

"Anyway, it's just a Maze spell."

"Ugh, puzzles?"

"You can run as fast as you want through it."

"Deal."

And so, Midnight and I observed as Shockwave went into the Maze.

I began to make some idle conversation. "How long do you think-"

But it was over.

"Oh. Welcome back."

Shockwave collapsed to the ground, suddenly breathing heavily. They began to sweat. "That place was freaking endless!" They were gasping for air.

I exchanged looks with Midnight. "Uh… hey, maybe take a deep breath."

"I'm-" Shockwave huffed and puffed, "Trying!"

Could I focus Enhance Mind to try to snap Shockwave's thoughts back into something sensible? Or I could just…

As I began my swing to slap them, Shockwave was standing up and grabbing my wrist. "Hey, no need for that!"

"Feeling better?" I asked.

"Do you know how far I ran? I'm freaking exhausted…?" Shockwave tilted their head. "Huh." They looked down, shifting their legs. "Nothing hurts. But I was running flat out for like an hour!"

"You were in there for three seconds," I said. That was a record low so far.

Shockwave sat down. "Why am I so freaking tired, then?"

I shrugged. "Mental fatigue, maybe? You were kind of physically there. It's a space that breaks a lot of rules. Want to try again?"

"You said three seconds… was that fast?" Shockwave asked.

"Pretty fast," I said.

"I can do better."

"Great."

Once Shockwave confirmed they were ready, I cast the spell again. I took great care to make sure it was performed exactly right, since now I was digging past the normal limits of mana. Fortunately, it wasn't all that near my mana fatigue limit. About two thirds. I was a bit slower because of my caution, but the spell was quite stable.

Shockwave took noticeably longer the second time. Not long, but longer.

They reappeared in a reverse of the way people faded out. "There!" Shockwave said. "How was that?"

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"... Slower," Midnight admitted.

I nodded. "About five seconds."

"What? But it felt like… twice as fast at least!" Shockwave complained. "If it was an hour before, this time it was thirty minutes max."

"Hmm. How's your mental fatigue?"

Shockwave frowned. "Not as much, I think."

"You think fast, right?"

"Yeah," Shockwave said. "I'm not one of the unfortunate speedsters that doesn't have a reaction time or decision making process. I hear it sucks."

I nodded seriously. "Do you think faster when you run faster?"

"Not really," Shockwave said. "Though I can kind of push my whole power to be… more."

"Ah," I said. "Then you probably did that the first time. Were you more conservative with your speed, this time?"

"Yeah. The maze didn't really seem to be about physical distance covered. I'm honestly not even sure there is a 'real' answer. Like, the turns and stuff I saw might just be the thinking process…?"

"Sounds about right," I said. "Dimensional Magic had a lot to say about Maze, but Wrickle noted that much of it was speculation that required further testing." And that some of the other mages were 'pansies that couldn't navigate their way out of a dead end alley'. That was in a handwritten annotation in the margins. I was pretty sure that the 'official' version didn't include such lines.

Shockwave stretched. "That was interesting. But given my second attempt, I don't think I can beat my record today. Let me know if you want to try again tomorrow."

"That would be a great help, actually," I said. "I probably shouldn't do any more right now anyway."

I was curious about casting it on myself, though. I could wait to recover mana first, though. Today wasn't low-mana-experimentation.

"Wanna hit the gym?" I asked Midnight. There weren't that many machines he could use, but we could always do cardio. And even if he was limited to doing floor exercises, the gym floor was much comfier than the training chambers.

"Sure," Midnight said. "Why not?"

-----

The next day we had several experiments and different test subjects lined up. Shockwave again. Then we had Calculator, because he should be very good at it. Third was Maze on myself just to see if it was somehow different from someone else casting it. Then we were going to cast Haste on Midnight and myself. Finally, we were going to cast Maze on two people at the same time- Midnight and myself separately. We might get interesting results with Multicasting, but even with Assistive Familiar Casting letting us combine our total fatigue limits, Midnight and I were a good bit short of that threshold.

Shockwave was in good form, and was out of the spell in two seconds flat.

Calculator was looking on with curiosity. "Intersting. I thought this spell was one with high shutdown potential. Is that not the case?"

I shook my head. "It doesn't seem to be good against people that think fast. Well, it doesn't have any upgrades yet anyway. Also," I held up a finger. "You can't dodge it."

"Ah," Calculator nodded. "I suppose even for Shockwave, being out of the fight for two seconds could be a pretty significant factor. Now then, would you use it on me?"

Shockwave looked on with interest. After all, they hadn't seen the spell from the outside.

Calculator faded out… and then back in. "Fascinating."

Shockwave frowned. "So that's what it looks like?"

"No," I said. "Normally, there's a lag period in between."

Should we count Calculator's time as one second? Or zero?

It's a good thing I had never considered this spell a viable option for fighting Calculator anyway. My optimal plan if we actually had to fight was to use Haste… and then leave.

Shockwave sighed. "I can't believe my time was beaten. But if it's just thinking," they shrugged. "I'm not going to pretend I can win. Need me for anything else?"

I shook my head. "Not right now, thank you. You can return to your other training."

Calculator stayed to observe in person. He might notice something interesting.

Maze, cast on myself, was pretty much the same as when Midnight had done it. The only difference was the constant nagging feeling that I could just unravel the magic and be out. That seemed like cheating, though.

I was out in sixteen seconds. That was actually quite reasonable. I did wonder if practice would allow me to depart more quickly, however. Having to compare to those two was disheartening. At least Midnight was a pretty close match for me.

I next cast Haste on Midnight, sending him into the Maze next. Calculator asked some questions when he returned- out of my presence so as to not influence my own report. I was then Hasted, and Midnight cast Maze on me.

My thinking was faster. I felt myself going through the Maze at a rapid pace, reaching decisions points and choosing between them in record time. It wasn't really about physical movement, but remaining stationary would lose time.

I popped out. "How was that?" I asked Calculator.

"Comparable to Midnight," he said. "How do you feel you did?"

Midnight was out of the room so his emotions wouldn't influence my answers. I was willing to bet Calculator would swap the order of the questions to prevent bias, too. Or whatever he thought made the most sense, and thinking was his power.

"Pretty good," I said. "Haste really helps." Taking into account my relative experience… "I'm thinking… less than five seconds?"

Calculator shook his head. "Sorry. It seems likely that Haste did nothing."

"Wha-" I nodded. "Oh. Time is already distorted. It couldn't reasonably be compressed further without advanced magic."

"Indeed," Calculator said. "Though the times have been quite variable so far. But I imagine you didn't feel particularly slow?"

"Not at all," I said.

"We will replicate the experiment, but it seems likely to be very little. Oh, and tell me when Haste wears off."

That was a relevant point. Though I had subjectively experienced a significant amount of time in the maze, it had only been ten or fifteen seconds out here. We confirmed that the duration of Haste closely matched the external time. Spells could vary enough that we might have lost or gained one or two seconds in either direction. I should have been suspicious when Haste lasted for so many subjective minutes. Maybe it was actually just a placebo effect in that place.

-----

A few more days of tests. Haste was pretty well confirmed to not make any real difference. Enhance Mind did, and could be used inside- though spellcasting was sluggish. Specifically, the absolute time required to cast a spell was the same, which meant several seconds outside for some things. Casting Gate to get out was a slog. It felt like holding onto the spell for four or five minutes at least.

But everything that was supposed to work, did. And it wasn't long before, presumably, we got an upgrade.

I never saw the upgrade, which is why it was only a presumption. I actually missed it until it was fused. It was the first time we cast Maze on Great Girl because she wanted to try it out.

At some point, Midnight and I began to sweat. "How long has it been?" I looked at the time. One minute.

"That's… fine… right?" Midnight asked. "It can last up to… ten?"

"In theory," I agreed.

We hadn't had anyone go over forty seconds before, though. And it wasn't like Great Girl was dumb. The media might portray her like that because she had a bruiser power- especially after she became a werewolf- but she had helped me figure out a number of troublesome things with magic. And she couldn't even use it herself. It was all from her own hobbies. Or 'her friends'. Well, I would bet that her friends who shared her hobbies would probably know the same things.

Fortunately, Great Girl did get out far before the ten minute mark.

"Whoa," she said, holding her head. "That was rough. Seems like it took forever. But you said time was distorted in there, right? How'd I do?"

"... Two minutes," I showed the actual timer.

She frowned. "That's… really bad, isn't it?"

She was my friend and I didn't want to be rude. "It's not… great," I had to admit.

She sighed. "Ugh, did I actually get the worst time?"

Midnight hit her with the big one. "By a significant margin."

But shortly after that we discovered the upgrade and the fact that I now had Master Spatial Magic. So suddenly it was sharing in a whole ton of upgrades, and thus way stronger. Especially since I had still put in the normal amount of mana, thus overcasting it.

With all that put together, Calculator took like… 5 seconds to escape. But that might have been an infinite percent improvement, so I wasn't going to complain.

The spell was a pretty awful matchup against some powers. I wasn't going to favor my odds against most tech supers, for example. Still, bad matchups were a feature of every ability. I wasn't going to shoot Shockfire with a bolt of lightning in the theoretical world where we were enemies. And there were a ton of people I would want to use it on. Though, about half of them were currently taken care of.

The bigger purpose was advancing my understanding of magic, though. It wasn't just Maze that grew all at once- it was Teleport and Gate and Spatial Rift and even the moustachioed version of Ignis. All very useful. Now, some of them were almost too cheap.

I needed to arrange a chat with Wrickle for sure now. If nothing else, I wanted to tell her I got better. And maybe she could teach me a few tricks I hadn't even considered.