Lightning sprang from target to target with little to no input from me. The training dummies melted- but they were designed to do that. Each one fell in sequence over the course of a couple seconds, one at a time. I wondered if it had to be like that. My reading as an apprentice didn’t go in depth on higher level spells. I breathed out slowly. That certainly was a lot more destructive power than anything else I had.

I looked over to the other person in the room, Shockfire. Just because the members of squad C-4 were surveying our options didn’t mean we wouldn’t train together at all anymore. And I particularly needed Shockfire for this, because I had no idea how to do… things. Things that didn’t involve using spells exactly one way with perhaps one exception inspired by Midnight. And while I knew I was still locked into fundamental forms for spells, I could probably do a bit more.

“Ready?” I made sure Shockfire was focused on me. He was very resistant to fire and electricity, but he could still be hurt- especially if he was not consciously protecting himself.

“I am,” he nodded, eyes darting between me and the new mess of targets throughout the training room. They popped up out of the floor, almost like magic but actually through some fancy tech stuff.

I raised my staff, gathering mana into crackling lightning. I took things slowly, both so that Shockfire could prepare and to get more of a feel for my magic. This was a spell I couldn’t afford to let go wrong, more than any of the others. I let it flow towards Shockfire, designating him as the sole target in my mind. It was possible this would be a complete waste of mana, but that would still teach us something.

Fortunately, Shockfire did manage to ‘catch’ my magic in his hands, redirecting it towards the targets. I tried to make it avoid one of them in particular, but… at that point, it seemed to no longer be my spell. It just hit everything.

“Wow,” Shockfire said, waving his hands. “That’s impressive. My fingers are numb.”

“Do you need to catch things with your hands?”

“It has to touch me, or get close to touching me, you know? So… I’d rather it be my hands than my face,” Shockfire said.

“A small area of influence,” I nodded. Given that he could remove lingering control instead of just redirecting things, it wasn’t that odd. Strength of certain kinds also came with other limits. Though there were supers that were just ‘stronger’. The world wasn’t fair. Though that had been true even back home for me. Like people who could get experience from normal activities. I wondered if I could wrestle Shockfire for control, before he fully got it. But I wouldn’t do that today, and especially not without warning him.

“Alright, we should get some civilians in there next,” Shockfire said. Some of the training dummies changed color. Things weren’t always so easy to pick out, but training had to start somewhere. “Ready?”

“Sorry,” I said. “That’s all I’ve got. I’d need an hour to recover the last half of my third cast.”

“Oof, that’s rough. Gotta keep training that capacity, I guess.”

“I just need levels,” I shook my head. “That’s the only way.”

What a pain. Part of the reason I was training Chain Lightning was to try to get a natural upgrade to make it more efficient. A single upgrade would cut off more than half a point of mana from the cost. If I spent all of my free points for two upgrades, I could get it down to a cost I could almost cast three successively. But it was also the only combat spell I had with no natural upgrades of any type. I wanted to see if it was easier to get a ‘natural’ upgrade if I didn’t have any bought with points. And I also wanted those points for other things. I couldn’t bet on level 29 coming quickly, as I was just over the threshold to reach it. I barely got any experience for the space bugs. Well, it was more than a tenth of a level so it wasn’t nothing. Just nowhere near what I had gotten in some battles. It seemed that actually killing things wasn’t really worth any more experience.

“We could work with Firebolt…” I said hesitantly. “But I think we should probably devote our sessions to one thing, especially if they’re like this.”

“Makes sense,” Shockfire nodded. “Let’s wait for that next one. It’s not as easy as it looks for me, either. I don’t have to provide the energy, but it’s not like I can just use incoming energy forever.”

So we waited, and he was able to direct the chain away from ‘civilians’. But he only took out about half the others, because he worked his way around one side and found himself too far from the next target that wasn’t through a civilian. I had many thoughts about how to find efficient paths, and whether or not we might be able to curve things… but that would have to be for later. I’d probably taken too big of a leap with this spell.

-----

“Yo,” Great Girl caught me at lunch. “Still bummed about moving?”

“The new place is nice,” I said. “I only miss being close to Jim and Khithae.”

“Yeah, only seeing people at work is rough,” Great Girl said. “Most of my friends… uh… don’t mix.”

“They aren’t supers,” I nodded. “I understand. That’s still a concern for most people.”

“I almost envy you,” Great Girl said. “Not concerned about getting recognized. Until I remember why you don’t bother with it. Sucks that people suck.”

“I don’t think I should have to,” I folded my arms. “Even if I’m an orc, I’m still me. Just a person living their life.”

“Right? That group Doctor Doomsday pulled through is ruining everything.”

“They seem like pretty typical orcs, from what I know.”

Great Girl frowned. “... Seems problematic. So… is that all that’s bothering you? Usually it’s power related.”

“I just need more levels,” I said. “My limited number of spells I can cast is frustrating.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Great Girl said. “Low levels suck with limited spell slots. Though I suppose you don’t have to deal with those, exactly.”

“Just mana,” I nodded.

“Can you get more besides levels?” she said. “Like a feat or uh… more points in some secondary stat?”

“I don’t have ‘stats’, just levels and points.”

She clicked her tongue. “What a restrictive system. Though I guess it mostly just describes your power, rather than giving it to you.”

“... Maybe?” I tilted my head. “Everyone in my world has this so its difficult to say.”

“Well, why don’t you talk to my s- talk to Doctor Rose again? She helped you last time with the regeneration thing, right?”

“She’s your sister?” I thought back to the basement full of games and fantasy paraphernalia. “That explains so much.”

“Why?” Great Girl held up her hands in frustration. “How do you always get things like that when you don’t even notice people’s names?”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Like Shooting Star.”

“Her civilian name is secret,” I said. “But I think I would have noticed if it came up around me.”

“Not that,” Great Girl rolled her eyes. “Her super name.”

“What about it?” I tilted my head.

“Tell me what it is,” she said.

I frowned. “You just mentioned her. And isn’t Stargirl your rival or whatever?”

“That!” Great Girl pointed right at me. “That’s what I’m talking about.”

I pondered for a second. “It wasn’t a secret she was your rival. Was it? I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be obvious when you cratered her.”

She grabbed my shoulders. “You called her Stargirl.”

“Yes?” I tilted my head.

For no reason at all, Great Girl began to shake me. “I thought you were making fun of her!” Great Girl said while continuing to shake me without explaining. “But you just don’t remember!”

“I just said she’s Stargirl” I complained.

“It’s Shooting Star, not Stargirl!” Great Girl complained. “It’s so much worse because her name is cooler!”

She stopped shaking me. “Wait really?” I frowned. “She is Shooting Star and not Stargirl?” That didn’t make any sense. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“... is Gloom actually called Black Hood?”

“For some reason you remember that one,” Great Girl threw up her hands. “But you don’t even remember your own nemesis’s name.”

“I have a nemesis?”

“Deimos. Obviously.”

“Listen, that’s more of a one sided thing. I didn’t do anything to make Handface hate me or want to kill me.”

“Except be the one to cause that scar you’re naming him after,” Great Girl said. “And call him Handface instead of Deimos.”

I frowned. “... Are you sure you’re not making these names up?”

-----

I once again found myself in the basement office of Doctor Rose. I looked at her carefully. “You’re not tall,” I said.

“Yeah, thanks, I know,” she rolled her eyes.

“But you are taller than your sister,” I finished.

“Wow, she told you?” Doctor Rose’s eyes widened.

“I figured it out,” I said. “Also that she’s a nerd like you,” I looked at the stuff surrounding us. “I’m not sure which bothered her more.”

“She’s done a pretty good job of keeping it secret,” Doctor Rose said.

“Or nobody said anything,” I pointed out. “Sometimes people just don’t say things.”

“Fair point. You can be pretty blunt.”

“I don’t see a reason not to be, most of the time.”

“Great. Now then, we should get to the actual reason you’re here instead of gossiping about my sister. She said you want ways to improve your maximum mana capacity.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “Mana Crystal Deposition does not return mana instantly, and overuse has health issues.”

“Oof, sorry about that,” Doctor Rose said. “I’m a researcher, not really involved with the practical things.”

“It would be easier if you stepped through a portal,” I commented.

“That’s… tempting, but I wouldn’t want to risk it. And I doubt you can just conjure up a portal to your world.”

“Not until I get more mana,” I replied. “Which is half the point.”

“Right, well. Your mana is related to level?”

“It is.”

“Is it linear? Geometric? Exponential? What about mana costs?”

“Linear,” I said. “Specifically, I have level plus 5 maximum mana. Spells cost as much as their own level, ranging from 1 to 20.”

“Wow, that sounds like information that should be secret.”

“Everyone knows it,” I said.

“Everyone in your world. Here, people could calculate what your maximum is and intentionally wear you down.”

“Only if they know my level. Or all of the ranks of my spells. That reduces mana cost, but differently.”

Doctor Rose nodded, “Alright, I’ll assume you considered that angle already and still find yourself in need of more mana. Speaking of level, if you could give me a ballpark for demonstrative purposes…?”

“28.”

“That’s… specific. Maybe you should be more precious with that?”

“I trust you,” I said. “If you do something bad I can have your sister beat you up.”

“Sure, but people could like… steal information from me?”

“The only enemy I have currently is also your sister’s enemy. I… assume that your existence is secret.”

“Uhh…” Doctor Rose frowned. “I know who you mean. And don’t worry, we’re cautious about it.”

“Should I come here in disguise?” I asked.

“If someone’s already watching this place, it’s too late,” Rose said. “Just don't let people follow you around. Especially for your own sake.”

“Noted,” I agreed.

“So, I do have some ideas,” Rose said. “The numbers you’re working with are… not great. It’s odd that it would be so limited in growth. You’d go from casting 6 spells at-level to… exactly one. Though if we’re more reasonable and go for multiples of 5, it’s more like 10 and 5. Which doesn’t sound that bad until you consider that you could cast at least 100 of those first level spells.”

“There is a significant difference in power,” I said. “It’s not odd to not be able to throw around many high level spells.”

“It kinda is?” Doctor Rose frowned. “I’m not saying supers can operate at maximum output for long periods, but that’s too little. And considering other mana-related information was unavailable to you, this might be as well.”

I nodded, “I suppose I did figure out ways to recover mana slightly faster. But unless I can get more than ten times ‘normal’ it doesn’t really solve my problem of endurance.”

“Right, so… I assume you’ve pushed yourself to the limits, right? Any improvements?”

I shook my head. “I just pass out from mana exhaustion.”

“Have you done it with the intent of improving your capacity?”

“... no?”

“I’m not saying it will work,” Doctor Rose said. “And in fact if it did, I would expect it to happen automatically. But that’s one thing you can try. Preferably with supervision by medical professionals. Passing out isn’t good.”

“It’s fine.”

“It’s really not,” she said. “The other straightforward option would be resting up to your maximum and trying to have… more? You might have tried that already, I don’t know.”

I shrugged. “I accepted many things as true that were not. I’m willing to try these things. If they work, perhaps my apprentice could learn them.”

“I’d be careful with that,” Doctor Rose said. “You’re both older and higher level. Both could affect things like this. Like, maybe you don’t automatically unlock all of the maximum mana from a level?” She tilted her head. “Sadly, I can’t be sure.”

“If I had more mana, I could portal to my world and search for forbidden tomes,” I said. “In which case I might not need this information.”

“That’s a catch-22, isn’t it?” she shrugged.

“... 22 what?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Doctor Rose said. “I can give you some other options, but those are the one’s I’d start with. Let me know how they go, if you would.”

“Of course,” I agreed.

I had no idea if I would have any success with this, but it was nice to have options brought to my attention. They seemed like things I could think of, but it was difficult to go outside of what I ‘knew’ were the limits on my own.