My nose had ice on it. I wasn't even in the area of effect of the Blizzard. Or at least, I shouldn't have been. It seemed that some portion of it rebounded from the far side of the quarry, which was now covered in a thick sheet of ice.

I was beginning to see why Meteor Swarm might be one of the best high level offensive spells. The distance I could use it at was one of the main factors to begin with… but if it was boosted beyond the norm? It would absolutely be required.

"I think I'm probably never doing that in a city," I commented to Midnight. I really wasn't fond of the idea of taking the heat for a whole building collapsing. Chain Lightning would probably only kill whoever it targeted and leave a hole in the ground, though it might go out of control if it drifted towards overmax mana like that Blizzard just had.

The most reasonable option here was to just cast spells more cheaply and not worry so much about power. That could be faster too, which was a great boon. And if there was a particularly durable target, the normal versions would likely suffice. Pushing the limits was for if I might die anyway. Yes, that seemed reasonable.

-----

Calculator wasn't mad. How could he be? I trained in a training area.

But he was very serious. I'd already mentioned I didn't intend to try to do any of that. His purpose was to make sure I didn't tell anyone what I could do. "Don't do it. Don't hint that you can. People are already wary enough of your divination abilities. Your threat level increasing will make you a target."

"Wouldn't people stay away from us?" Midnight said. "Because of the danger."

Calculator nodded. "The sort of target like Deimos was making you. Anyone who wants you dead will just make sure you're dead, instead of staying on the level of restraint that supers usually engage in. Keeping the secret will let you have an advantage if it comes down to such a situation."

"... Stoneskin shouldn't be visibly stronger," I said. "And I suppose it didn't get that many relative increases. But at least three more upgrades."

"That's a good option," Calculator said. "I would suggest working at keeping a visually similar level of power for your other abilities. This also explains why your divination is so good."

"Really?" I asked. "I've been having so much trouble finding people lately."

"You literally forced various different groups to develop or adopt new protections," Calculator said. "And even then, you frequently bypass them. If that's the level of Advanced magic with a certain number of upgrades, the next tier might be… a bit much." He paused for a moment. "Officially, I'm going to adjust your threat rating slightly upwards. Unofficially, you're probably in the high tier."

Midnight twitched. "Like Doctor Doomsday?"

"No. Not yet. Though part of that assessment is more related to your history. Anyway," Calculator shrugged. "We can't avoid increasing your assessment, or the city will get on our case the next time you do something visible. But I don't think you want the fame from being one of the youngest to hit the high tier."

Stargirl had been in that tier. Could I face her head on now? Quite possibly. Darkstargirl might be stronger or less restrained, but at least I was fairly confident in standing up to her. And I might not have to run at full speed from Doctor Doomsday in case he tried to revive his completely unreasonable quarrel with me.

-----

Four individuals sat in a shadowed room.

"Did the lights go out again somehow?" asked Swiss Arms. "I can accommodate for that," she said as a glow came from her hand.

The door was flung open. "That won't be necessary." Lady Light stepped into the room, instantly filling it with brightness. She restrained her power just slightly, but even so it was rather uncomfortable for those inside. Yet it would have been worse had there been other sources of light in the room.

In different manners, all of them resisted the sudden influx of light. Calculator simply had his own eyes closed. He began to direct the flow of the meeting even as others were still recovering.

"We've gathered all of us here today-"

"There are only five of us," Swiss Arms pointed out.

"All of us who have relevant things to say on policy," Calculator continued in stride. "To discuss recent events. The topic today is those with dimensionally triggered ordered magical awakening."

"Portal powers," Swiss Arms declared. "None of the ones who matter care what it's called."

"Mage has gained 'advanced mastery' of two combat relevant fields of magic," Calculator continued. "According to calculations he has encountered one of the theoretical soft limitations on power. It was quite a sudden progression for his most powerful… and consistently used attacks. This has surpassed the base capacity of the most powerful magics available, in certain circumstances. The upper limits are… concerningly high."

Movebrain nodded. "Thus the increase in assessment. Hardly requires a meeting, though."

"I agree," Calculator said. "If that were all. However, we must presume others could obtain such abilities. If not immediately, then within a few years. Their growth may be limited by lacking opportunities and different innate growth rates… due to these 'aspects'. But in theory anyone with sufficient focus on a category of magic could develop significant skills. We're looking into how we might accomplish something similar for those within our employ who aren't inclined towards the same sort of magic."

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Telescope leaned back slightly. "Are you talking about Bandage?"

"No. We should imagine that she actually works quite similarly to a mage, just with different categories of advancement. Healing among them. If she can get a basic mastery, then she will be able to treat various sorts of wounds and maladies in the field- with little need for assessment. The most famous example of healing magic would be Regrowth, who carries a different strain of magical abilities from the same class system. Her focus appears to be on what would be considered a true master level spell, Regenerate. She apparently has significant devotion to that singular ability, and lacks diversification- but it has netted her quite some fame. We are looking for druids that we can train to have similar abilities, but achieving a steady result takes quite a bit of training. Regrowth seems to have had some fortunate encounters that sped along that process."

Calculator took a moment, then continued. "The sort of magic I was referring to doesn't appear much like magic at all. But all classes certainly use mana, which would be the basis for magic. We have a few of the Portal Squad with decent combat abilities, but we don't currently see any unification path that would result in sudden growth. One other individual, however, has caught our attention. Herder had quite a useful companion in a martian rust mole- and then a larger flyer, a dire bat. Certain proclivities led her towards squirrels, not known for their combat prowess… but magical enhancements have been quite good for them. Whether she individually trains her squirrels or ends with some sort of unified companion mastery, she is already effective. Relatedly, a name change for her has been suggested."

"That's not terribly common," Lady Light said. "What's the suggested moniker?"

"Squirrel Swarm," Calculator said. "It doesn't appear she will be dissuaded from her current path, and it's not a name that inspires fear… but they shouldn't all have to. Anyone who encounters her will learn caution regardless. There is significant versatility with small, agile, and yet powerful creatures en masse. Each can be presumed to be as capable as a common thug, regardless of their size."

"It's honestly a better name," Movebrain admitted. The others agreed as well.

"Should we change him then?" Telescope asked. "To celebrate his growth? Mage could be Archmage, perhaps."

"No," Calculator said. "That has specific meanings where Mage is from. Regardless of whether he meets certain qualifications, it would not work well for future interactions. But moving on from that topic… we have a headliner that also deserves an official promotion. Letting Great Girl be surpassed by a newbie- in relative terms- wouldn't be good for our image. And she had shown she is fully capable of controlling her alternative shapeshifting abilities along with her size. Combining her advancement with numerous others would help hide Mage among the rest, instead of singling him out."

Lady Light flickered for a moment as she thought, "It's a shame we can't promote her squad in the same way."

Calculator shrugged. "They are quite aware that the popular choice is to have a team geared around supporting a heavy bruiser. They have grown as well, so we can reasonably give them minor assessment increases at the same time. But I doubt Mono will ever particularly change. His accuracy is impeccable, but it's not a power. Normally most would have considered him overassessed already."

"I think most of us would rather not be shot by Mono, though," Telescope said as she looked at Movebrain.

The man raised an eyebrow. "You think I would? I have more than one vital organ, you know. They're all in there. Even with Francois' invisible head protection we're not invincible."

Swiss Arms stretched out her hands, some of her fingers bending backwards in their artificial joints. "Funny thing about that. He also began to develop faster after Mage came around. Mostly because the kid was great at getting injured."

"Francois does quite well with people who will let him dress them up as he pleases," Calculator agreed. "Our diversified yet cohesive visual state is ultimately good for the Brigade. And though Mage is at current the best for mental enhancement because of his mana pool, Bolster is quickly surpassing him in terms of natural upgrades in various assistive options. It helps that she likes doing it… and gains experience from general magical use. Mage happily forges a path for others to follow, while taking on most of the risks himself. We try to keep him alive through that."

-----

There were a few spells that could write things down. I could control a pen with Mage's Reach, but there wasn't any point in doing that. I could just write stuff on my own if I was going to be performing the motions. I didn't really know how to enchant things long term, because that was a specialized skillset, but I could get a spell that made a quill write. Presumably it would work with normal pens.

"Why not just use a transcription program?" Midnight commented. "That would be easier."

Oh. Right. "Yeah, those do exist don't they?" I just didn't want to spend so much effort writing, so I was looking for solutions. "It would be nice if I also didn't have to speak."

"Mental transcription? I don't think Celmothian tech is tuned to humanoid brain patterns. Otherwise we have it."

"That's… mind reading?" I asked.

"Wouldn't your spell do the same? Couldn't we do that?"

"I would have to assume that's somewhere in divination."

"Yeah. It's not weird that we can do it. It's only surface thoughts, though. And it doesn't work on everyone or everything. Like Bunvorixians without an inner monologue. We can more or less make it work for Celmothians but also they can usually just talk so…"

"Sometimes I forget that advanced technology is weirder than magic."

"It takes many people centuries to figure it out. Instead of one person a couple years of practice. Or like… five minutes and a particularly bad experience to awaken a power, I guess."

"Do Celmothians ever get powers?" I asked.

"Strangely, no. That's one thing we want to study about Earth. We might learn something about the hotspots. Though of course Extra is cautious about letting much advanced tech onto Earth, especially while our people are at war. Even if they've already effectively been pushed onto one side, they'd prefer we don't draw more attention."

I had a lot of notes to take for my book. Most of them were mental right now. Some stuff I'd written down already. But I needed to do it better. Especially now that I actually understood mastery better- or at least knew more about it. I still didn't actually understand how it could possibly keep all my upgrades from Basic, but I could include that as a thing that happened for future knowledge.

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