A length of wood arced towards my nose. I leaned left to catch it on my shoulder instead, which wasn’t exactly comfortable. Usually I would have defensive magic going, a simple Force Armor spell being more than enough to absorb such a blow. Here, I had to do without.

I countered with my own staff, feeling it bend slightly as it accelerated. I aimed for the midsection of my target, but she cleanly blocked by catching my attack in the middle of her weapon. Her position allowed her to lever her weapon up into my ribs. It hurt, a little bit. But the weapons were intentionally designed to lower how much force was imparted to those struck, at the cost of a bit of realism.

My sparring partner was Meztli, her experience using weapons without powers being very helpful. Such a limited battle did not provide me with much experience in terms of numerical value, but I would be better able to use my weapon when it was required. It was also part of another attempt to improve my maximum mana- I alternated between sparring at full mana, and completely out. Neither seemed to have any change, though Doctor Rose was quite reasonable to suggest that if the Curse of the Barbarian affected it, such physical activity would be reasonable.

When my stamina flagged- it was always mine, to the point that I wondered if Meztli was secretly using her powers on levels I couldn’t notice- she would help me recover, and then we would continue. In the worst case, this training would allow me to be more effective when out of mana in a situation where firearms were unwarranted or even not useful.

“Well?” she asked when we were finally finished.

I took a few deep breaths. “Still… the same…” I had hoped that each of these activities might have provided me with a slight increase in maximum mana, but with everything combined I could not feel any difference. Various tests told me the same. Perhaps it was true that everything was limited by level. It was already good that I could improve abilities in both power and mana efficiency without spending points.

But I kept running into the limits of how much I could use in a short time. Increased ambient mana levels improving my regeneration didn’t make much difference in the short term, as battles usually lasted a few minutes to perhaps ten or twenty if there was a large amount of maneuvering. I might recover enough mana for a lower level spell in the more extended engagements, but I would be lucky if it was actually sufficient for Mage’s Reach or a couple Shocking Grasps. A Sonic Lance would be the extreme end requiring perhaps half an hour, and that was almost a third of the cost of a Chain Lightning.

To be fair, Chain Lightning had been a stretch. It was powerful, certainly, but there were many intermediate levels of magic I could have opted for. Just not any with both power and flexibility- specifically avoiding collateral damage was a priority. Even if I didn’t care about the background, I was always part of a team and I wouldn’t want to damage any of them. A little friendly fire could be worse than doing nothing at all.

So far my efforts at training the spell had not resulted in a ‘natural’ upgrade. However, I was not willing to give up on that. It would happen eventually, and whether it meant I needed to use it more in practical situations or its level simply required more training I was uncertain. I was still holding onto the hope that not using point upgrades would speed that process, but I had no chance to compare just yet. I would need another combat spell of similar level to actually compare.

-----

The first thing Doctor Rose did when we got in contact again was express her concerns. “I don’t know if I’m actually helping at all. This whole time, I’ve only really come up with one… maybe two things that helped you. And a ton of failures.”

“My own efforts to improve my mana regeneration and capacity have done nothing at all,” I pointed out. “So two successes given your limited actual information is quite helpful.”

“It sure doesn't feel like it,” she sighed. “I’m down to the last few ideas, and I honestly don’t like any of them.”

“No harm in trying, though,” I shrugged.

“That’s the thing. There might be some harm in trying some of them. Those mana crystals you make… they cause you some trouble if you overuse them for recovery, right?”

I nodded. “There is a sort of buildup that comes with various negative side effects.”

“So the one thing that really works… isn’t great for you.”

“It gives me an option I didn’t have,” I countered. “And… it was the first step towards me discovering there was more to how class abilities could work. Seeing Mana Crystal Deposition listed without spending points on it… was quite enlightening.” I thought for a couple seconds. “I assume one of your ideas has something to do with that?”

“It’s just like my sister said. You’re too insightful, but only in the most awkward situations.”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” What could it involve? Obviously, making more of them did nothing to improve my mana capacity.

“Are you sure you want to hear it?” Doctor Rose said. “It’s potentially risky to your health.”

“I’m not going to eat mana crystals, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“That’s… both very close and extremely far off,” she said.

As she didn’t continue, I assured her. “I am here to listen to your suggestions. And though people might think I don’t care about my own safety because I desire to get into combat frequently, that is untrue. If I determine it’s too much of a risk, I will avoid it.”

“Fine,” Doctor Rose nodded. “I guess that’s the best I can ask for. So, you’re trying to increase your maximum mana.” I nodded. “Basic math says you need to have mana, and then add more.” I nodded again, frowning slightly. “So, if you’re full on mana and try to absorb a mana crystal, what happens?”

“I explode?”

“God I hope not,” she put her face in her hands. “Please don’t say things like that. Actually, forget I made the suggestion at all. It’s probably a terrible idea.”

“I can see the logic behind it,” I admitted. “I will try it.”

“That’s exactly what I just said not to do!”

“But you came up with the suggestion. It sounds like it would work, and you want to know if it will.”

“Not if it hurts you!”

“Your desire to know and your desire for me to not be hurt are not mutually exclusive,” I said. “You still want to know. And so do I.”

“But I don’t want to be the reason you got hurt more than I want to know. So please forget I said it.”

“I don’t think that’s entirely true,” I countered. “Or you would have avoided saying it at all costs. You just don’t want to be the cause of me getting seriously hurt. So… I am going to leave, and not tell you if I attempted it unless it succeeds without problems.”

At that, I turned to leave. “This might be worse!” she called after me.

It might be. But I also wasn’t planning to do my test in a basement.

-----

There were two choices I had. One was to recruit Doctor Martinez and inform him of my intent to experiment. That would allow any damage I did to myself to be quickly assessed. On the other hand, it would also let the Power Brigade know I was performing ‘dangerous experimentation’ which could sometimes be frowned upon. So the question was, did I want to be safe more than I wanted to risk not being allowed to make this attempt?

Ultimately, I rationalized that I was going to try eventually anyway. It would be worse to do so if I was told not to, so I wouldn’t bring it up. There was a thing that people said- better to… not get caught? Something like that.

I found myself in my new apartment, facing one final question. Should I involve Midnight? Or more specifically, if there was even a way not to involve him. If something bad happened, he was literally across the hall- and I wouldn’t be able to hide it. Attempting that and then surprising him with danger would be the worst thing that could happen.

So I invited him over, where we sat in my ‘living room’, where I had a couch and a coffee table. So far, it had not been involved with coffee in my presence.

“I am going to try something,” I explained to Midnight. “I’m not sure exactly what will happen, perhaps nothing at all. But I would like you here to watch over me in case something goes wrong.”

“Why not go to the Brigade, then?” he said with a bit of worry.

“They don’t need to be involved in everything,” I deflected.

He let it go at that.

I had in front of me one of the largest crystals I had made. Approximately palm sized, and containing somewhere around four mana. Or rather, it cost somewhere around sixteen mana to make, but I was able to recoup four mana from similarly sized crystals.

I was at full mana, but I waited another few minutes just to be sure. Then, I squeezed the crystal. It didn’t break. Of course not. I didn’t have the grip strength to break apart large crystals. Mana crystals weren’t so fragile that they fell apart at the slightest touch. The only reason I could ‘crush’ them normally was because I coaxed them into the form of free mana as I absorbed it.

Now, the crystal and my full mana were fighting against me. So I pushed- and pulled. This crystal would release its power, and it was going to go inside me.

The first part was easy enough. It was made to sublimate back into mana, after all. It just took a bit of prodding to circumvent my natural instincts.

Then I pulled it into me, where the dense mana clearly did not want to go. I felt a pressure building up within me, but I didn’t release my grip. I felt like my body might crack apart, my skin threatening to explode. Somewhere along the way, my nails dug into my palms, providing a surge of pain- but the different pain helped me push through.

Then, the pressure began to lessen. Uncertain if I had been successful, I began to repeatedly cast Variable Freedom, not for any particular reason except that it had the highest mana cost of something that could be cast quickly and dismissed consequence free. I made sure to use its full nine point cost instead of the upgraded discount. One. Then I let it unravel. Two. Three. Twenty-seven points. Six more should remain. I cast Arcane Sight. I was feeling drained, but not empty.

Finally, I finished with Energy Ward, my instincts telling me that four points of mana was extremely close. I reeled momentarily, sensing I had reached my limit. But I remained conscious.

Four extra points, just as much as the mana crystal. But, had I truly achieved my goal, or just temporarily overcharged my maximum? That was still an option. And if I had the choice, I would much prefer to consume a mana crystal to recover over the course of a minute or so than spend that same amount of time fighting the pain of absorbing a crystal.

“Are you alright?” Midnight asked. I felt concern, but also relief.

“Yes,” I nodded, “Thank you for keeping watch. And not distracting me.” He’d concealed his emotions during the process to help, something I’d forgotten to ask for.

“What was it for?” Midnight asked.

“I attempted to increase my maximum mana forcefully.”

“Did it work?” Midnight prompted.

“At least in part,” I admitted. “I can’t exactly know for sure at the moment. I’ll have to see if I can naturally recover to the same point.”

Midnight swished his tail. “I didn’t like that. It… hurt. And I know it hurt more for you.”

“Hmm…” I pursed my lips. “Pain doesn’t bother me that much. Not when I have a good reason to endure it.”

After that, I waited. It would take somewhere around five hours to recover to maximum, though I could significantly reduce that time by intentionally drawing mana into myself- and going up to the roof would help a bit as well. The process could likely be sped up by consuming mana crystals normally, but I didn’t want to distort the results. I was hoping for something, but I still just had to wait.