“I have a problem,” I admitted to Midnight. “All this material component stuff we’re doing… I’m not certain it’s actually doing anything.”
Midnight was clearly confused at that. “What are you talking about? We have extremely clear results.”
“Do we?” I asked. “Sure, spells are better. But that doesn’t mean it’s because of the focuses.” That was mostly what we had- components that weren’t consumed. “It could just be because I believe it helps. The placebo effect.”
“Does that matter?” Midnight replied. “It works, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah… but I wish there was some way to know for certain. If it’s just my mind, it probably won’t be as strong as using the right things.”
“Then we’ll go do that,” Midnight said, beginning to move towards the door of the training chamber.
“What do you mean?”
“We have people here who can help us figure those things out. If I was giving you something my feelings might influence your results, but if someone you’re not connected to chooses something, it will be pretty obvious. All you have to do is not look. Just holding something and intending to use it should work, right?”
I pondered for a few moments. “I might be able to tell what it is by holding it.”
“You don’t have to touch things directly though. It works with gloves, at the very least. What if we put things in a box?”
“I honestly haven’t tried that,” I admitted. “Let’s go.”
-----
Old Shock was a busy man, but all of that business was for the sake of the Power Brigade. Actually, though, we didn’t need him specifically. It was just that the tech guys had the most random stuff available.
Since we needed someone, I just grabbed the closet guy. “Intern #1, you’re coming with us.”
He was dressed in a white lab coat. His skin was weird- it had both the color and patterning of burlap. That and other physical differences indicated he was probably an alien. “My name is-”
“Your task is very important, Intern #1,” I explained. “You need to hand me the things I tell you. But also sometimes, you need to hand me different things.”
“I’m not quite sure what-”
“We’ll try to bring a variety of extra bits and bobs along so that you have some options,” I concluded.
“I still don’t really…”
“He wants to do a randomized trial,” Midnight explained. “So we need things that are relatively light for the most part.”
That would be fine, but it could have been anything. We had some heavier focuses and stuff.
“I see,” Intern #1 said. “If you give me some further parameters, I can absolutely gather some materials to test with.”
“Certainly,” Midnight said. “I believe Mage should be out of the room for this part, just in case. I can help you choose as long as I’m not watching the experiment. It shouldn’t take long to verify one way or another, so we shouldn’t need to include my mana pool. Mage, why don’t you wait with the targets? We can limit it to a few spells that would be effective there.”
“Sounds good,” I said. “I’ll see you on B5.”
It took them maybe twenty minutes to come, arriving with a covered cart. “I brought blinders,” Intern #1 commented, holding them up. “You’ll still need to be able to see to target, but your peripheral vision could give something away. A color or size, perhaps.”
This guy was smart. We’d picked the right intern. “I’ll get in position then.”
“I talked with Midnight,” Intern #1 explained. “And we’ll be testing Firebolt, Water Blast, and Sonic Lance. I understand the first two of those take only a fraction of the energy, correct?”
“A little more than a third,” I confirmed. “Or… exactly forty percent if I maximize them all.”
“Excellent. Now then, I’m going to be handing you small receptacles. Don’t look at them, obviously. Try not to shake them, either. I’m going to tell you which spell to cast. After you do so, I would prefer if you don’t try to observe what I have given you. I will take notes on the results. First, though, I would like you to perform a baseline version of each.”
“Should I do the cheapest?”
“Whatever you can do consistently.”
Maximum or minimum, then. “Cheap is better.” I didn’t know how many tests we might need to do.
We activated the cameras- people needed to be able to watch their form, after all. The training rooms were for when you needed more space than a shooting range. I had enough different spells to test whether the new material components actually helped without going there. I could probably even include Chain Lightning or Blizzard… but they were several times again more expensive than Sonic Lance. Three different things should be good enough.
At the natural minimum mana levels I cast Firebolt, Water Blast, then Sonic Lance in that order. The targets were quite resistant, and even if mine had been destroyed they were also meant to be easily repaired or replaced.
“Good,” Intern #1 said. “Are you ready? If you could hold out your right hand. First, confirm that you can’t see it.”
“I can barely even see the barrier here,” I tapped it with my left hand. “So anything behind here is just… nothing.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Very well. I’m bringing you the first material component. It will be for the Firebolt spell.”
He kept his voice extremely neutral. Most likely, we could have had one further step where someone else who didn’t know said the spell, but I didn’t know Intern #1 well enough to determine his lying tics. I could barely do that with Midnight without drawing on our bond, and I spent way more time with him.
I felt a small box be pressed into my hand. Presumably with something inside. “Ready?”
“Whenever you are,” Intern #1 confirmed. “As long as it is firmly in your grip, do not hesitate.”
I drew upon about 1.43 points of mana. I had to keep track of that part myself, since we didn’t have mana measuring instruments just lying around. It was possible the components might change the cost somehow… though unlikely. Either way, it was habit to keep track of my quantities.
The Firebolt was… excessively normal. “Hmm. Maybe I need to take it out?”
“Please refrain from speculation,” Intern #1 said. “Head forward, please.”
“I didn’t look,” I protested.
“And it will be best to keep it that way. I’m going to swap to the next one. This is for Water Blast.”
My hand briefly became lighter. I wasn’t sure if this component was heavier or not. It kind of felt differently balanced, though.
I gathered mana for Water Blast. No change there. I drew upon the material component in my hand. Magic flowed out of me, forming into a burst of water that tore through the target and scoured the wall behind it. I blinked.
“Uh… I’m going to log that one as ‘improved’,” Intern #1 commented. “Unless you have some other comment to explain that?”
“No, that was pretty clear.”
There was no point in being obtuse when there was something so different. Though it was kind of more than I expected a material component to bring things.
Intern #1 grabbed the box. “Is this lighter?”
“Well, yeah. The material component was consumed,” I said.
“But that-” he coughed. “It uh, certainly consumed more than I anticipated.”
It was certainly high. I wondered if Khithae was gonna have to fix that wall. It might have gone deeper than the standard regeneration allowed. At least there shouldn’t be anything important beyond there.
Another thing placed in my hand. “... What spell is this for?” I asked.
“Oh yes. Sorry. Sonic Lance.”
I gathered 4 mana. A new target had dropped down to replace the other one, and an invisible force blasted it to smithereens. I staggered backwards as chunks of rubble flew from the other end of the target range, carried by a shockwave traveling down the contained target lane.
Wow, that was loud. My ears hurt. Not so badly that they stopped working, however. I could still make out Intern #1 yelling. “Stop! Stop! No more testing!”
Well obviously I wasn’t going to repeat that. It was a bit excessive. “Can I turn around now?”
“Uh, let me cover the cart back up! And take what you’re holding.”
Intern #1 did that. Then he let me look. “Okay, so,” he said. “I’m going to go consult with Familiar. Don’t touch any of that, please.”
Did he think I was going to ruin the experiment with curiosity? How rude, Intern #1.
“Nice one, dude.” I turned to see Bombino, who had been several lanes down. “But you're not supposed to break things that much. If you can trash the targets you’re supposed to put in a special materials request.”
I shrugged. “Normally that doesn’t happen.”
-----
“What did you do?”
I was surprised to hear from Calculator first. In person, even. “Testing,” I said. “Obviously. It worked… surprisingly well.”
The back wall was crumbled. It was pretty thick though. The deepest part went maybe a couple feet back into the concrete, but there was plenty more.
“Explain.”
“I don’t know. I’m still in the blind part of the experiment,” I said. “Who contacted you?”
“The alarms,” Calculator said. “I saw someone else here with you.”
“Ah yes. That was Intern #1.”
“... who?”
“One of Old Shock’s interns? Probably an alien. Burlap skin.”
“Billiop,” Calculator replied.
What was that? Oh, probably a name. “I suppose you would know,” I agreed. “Anyway, you can ask him. And Midnight. He rushed off to go talk to him.” Midnight was slightly concerned, now. I looked at the back wall again. “I think that was more power than Rocker can usually get.”
“Significantly,” Calculator confirmed. “We did update things for sonic durability once he was recruited. What do you think happened there?”
“Material components worked,” I suggested. “Obviously. Like, I wasn’t supposed to know that, but the difference was quite extreme. Plus, the boxes got lighter so the components had to have been consumed.”
Calculator wasn’t just talking to me, of course. His fingers were flying across the keyboard of his tablet. Probably talking to Intern #1 and like, 3 other people who were in crises. “I’ve received a response from Billiop. He will be more… precise… in his choosing of material components. But you may complete the experiment. In a different lane.”
Calculator ran over and grabbed a ‘lane closed’ sign. He also pressed some buttons that retracted what was left of the target thing. Not that people wouldn’t be able to tell things were wrong in that lane anyway. “Actually, before you try again… get yourself checked out.”
I tapped my forehead. “Helmet was on.”
“You could still have damage to your ears.”
-----
So Sonic Lance was off the table for a couple reasons. I still couldn’t think of what would cause it to be boosted by so much, but Midnight had calmed down his worries and Intern #1 had new instructions.
“Firebolt again,” he said.
I cast Firebolt. This time, it was… pretty decent. Visually boosted. Maybe it was just lingering confidence, though, because it wasn’t nearly as far. Though it was closer to what I might expect, though my expectations for material components for spells that didn’t need them were sort of up in the air.
“Firebolt.”
It was the same.
“Firebolt.”
Worse. Normal, maybe. Intern #1 tried not to let me know how he felt about that.
Three good Water Blasts- though they were still rather conservative in comparison. The target was actually withstanding all of these in a row. The wall was of course untouched. The fourth Water Blast was… normal.
“Normally I’d go review the results with a team,” Intern #1 said. “But the results are… pretty definitive. You’re going to have to have a talk with Midnight about focuses.”
“Okay. But why now? We were working on material components.”
“That is… why this is relevant,” he hedged. “He can explain what he thinks, and since I’m not a magical practitioner…” Intern #1 shrugged.
Why focuses, though? I made a face and felt my tusks rub against my skin.
