Thoughts whirled through Greg's mind as the Archmage disappeared, leaving him to meditate on the lesson. The Archmage had detailed several methods he could use to improve his multitasking, from a simple all around increase in his mental capabilities to creating mental partitions to the Archmage's personal method of cloning certain sections of her mind, each of which had its own benefits and drawbacks. The general enhancement would allow him to gradually expand his focus as his mental capabilities grew, giving him a powerful mind but forcing him to split his focus on his own, which was relatively inconsistent since certain situations would naturally draw more focus than others. Mental partitions would immediately allow him to perfectly split his focus, but they would also permanently split his mental capabilities, reducing how much brain power he could dedicate to any one thing. As for cloning sections of his mind, the downside was that it wouldn't provide any benefit until he finished, but once he did, he'd essentially have the same benefits as if he'd enhanced his mind, then partitioned it. Of course, the ultimate goal of all three methods was the same, as eventually those who enhanced their mind would start to partition it, and those who partitioned would immediately need to start enhancing their mind to compensate for their decreased capabilities, while cloning was essentially doing both at the same time.
The main thrust of the issue was what you were doing with the mental enhancement. The Archmage had little use for partial enhancements, so cloning was the best method for her, allowing her to focus solely on the mental capabilities she needed to control more and more of her constructs. However, for someone like Casey, she'd probably want to go the general enhancement path, enhancing her control over her mana, allowing her to focus her fire into concentrated beams or something, until she was comfortable creating a partition. And Carlos would probably want to go straight for the partition, sectioning off a portion of his mind so it could hold a barrier for him while he focused on other things.
So, what was Greg trying to do? His first thought was that he was like the Archmage, purely focused on having as many bodies as possible, and while that was somewhat true, it didn't account for what he could actually do with those bodies, particularly his ability to change forms. The problem was that each form had a different natural mana, so each one would be better served by different methods. So what he needed to do was create a mind for each form and developing it in whatever way would benefit that form most…
Greg blinked as a thought occurred to him. Did he need to use mana for this? Couldn't his smoke make minds perfectly well on its own? Greg brought out a small cloud of smoke, creating a tiny version of himself and making it real, infusing it with smoke to keep it functioning. A frown creased his brow as he studied his tiny self, his focus switching between the two a few times before he let out a frustrated sigh. Even though he technically had two brains right now, he couldn't use both of them simultaneously. He could tell that the new brain was usable, but despite both brains being his, they weren't actually connected. At least, not on the level he needed them to be in order to use both simultaneously.
Greg sighed, shaking his head. His smoke was weird. It obviously held his consciousness somehow, since he'd spent a not insignificant amount of time as pure smoke and not noticed any difference in his mental capabilities. Yet he could clearly tell that having a real brain did something for him, he just couldn't tell what! It was like his thoughts were more set when he had a brain. He thought about it for a moment, but he couldn't figure it out. Clicking his tongue, he went to dismiss the little copy, figuring he didn't need an extra body he wasn't using telling him it was starving all the time, when he paused, the difference between having a brain and not suddenly clicking. He could clearly tell that the copy of himself was starving, but he didn't feel like he was starving! Instead, the copy felt like it was starving! Greg reached out, poking the copy and making it stumble backwards, not feeling anything himself, but getting a clear sense that the copy had been pushed.
Greg hummed thoughtfully as he considered what all this meant. Giving one of his bodies a brain seemed to give it the hardware it needed to operate, processing any sensations, keeping it breathing, the heart beating, and even keeping it standing. It just lacked direction… Greg narrowed his eyes as instead of trying to be the copy, he simply directed it, telling it to turn around. Immediately the copy turned just as Greg intended, spinning around to face away from Greg. Focusing a bit, he could even share the copy's senses, though that wasn't particularly surprising since that seemed to be the base state of his smoke anyway. The extra brain just made it so he could tell where the senses were actually coming from.
As Greg continued to direct his copy to walk around the room, he slowly put together what he needed to do. Just like the Archmage, he'd focus on cloning specific parts of his mind, except he wouldn't need to worry about anything related to perceiving what his copies were interacting with or operating the body, all he'd need to do was make something that could direct the copies like he was now! Thankfully, part of the Archmage's lesson had been creating a diagram of the different functions of a mind, so all he had to do was familiarize himself with the concepts behind decision making.
That was another part of the lesson that had thrown him for a loop. He'd expected to be learning more about brain anatomy or something, but apparently that was fairly useless. Well, not useless, but unnecessary, because the mana didn't care how your brain was arranged, all it cared about was the concept you were trying to enhance. Trying to tell mana to enhance your prefrontal cortex was only useful as it related to how you viewed the function of the prefrontal cortex. What was actually important was how well you understood the function of the brain. Or mind, as it were, since once you started adding mana, your mind would be more than just your brain. Which, he supposed, was the magic of it all.
Chuckling to himself at his own joke, Greg got to work figuring out the mental processes he needed to copy to direct his other bodies, meditating on what they meant to him, and putting them together in a way that would fit his needs. Then all he needed to do was take a mana pill and direct it towards the creation of the mind clone. But that was for later, according to his schedule. First, he had lunch, and then he had his first meeting with Lapodala.
*
“You!” Lapodala hissed as Greg walked into what appeared to be some kind of lab, causing him to freeze. “What have you gotten me into!?! How did you manage to become the apprentice of the Archmage?!?”
“Uh… luck?” Greg offered tentatively. “I went for my awakening and she had to test my mana to make sure it wasn't dangerous, which led to her learning about my smoke, which… was apparently enough for her to want to take me as an apprentice?”
Lapodala scowled at him for a moment, before letting out a frustrated sigh. “I suppose it would be ridiculous to think you'd somehow planned to become the Archmage's apprentice. I do wonder why you would still insist on having me study your smoke.”
Greg scratched his head. “Because we'd already agreed that you would?”
Lapodala blinked incredulously. “You- I have an entire team of specialists reporting to me now! People with decades- centuries more experience than I have! And you're telling me it's all because you agreed to let me study your smoke?!?”
“Um… yes?” Greg replied. “I mean, we did agree you could, right? It would have been rude to change that just because I suddenly became some big shot's apprentice. Oh! That reminds me! Since I am some big shots apprentice, it doesn't quite make sense for you to train me anymore, so, I was wondering if you'd be willing to train my girlfriend instead? You know, if you want.”
Lapodala just stared at him for a moment. “Are you- sane?”
“Uhhh… no? But don't worry, I've got a handle on it.” Greg grinned, giving her a thumbs up.
Lapodala opened her mouth, before snapping it shut and snorting, shaking her head. “Of course. Yes, fine, I will train your girlfriend. And anyone else you might like, since you have literally propelled my career forward by decades, if not more. But now let's begin studying this smoke of yours, and hope it is at least slightly more comprehensible than you.”
“Or at least more consistent.” Greg agreed with a slight chuckle. “So, where do we start?”
Lapodala sighed. “Our ultimate goal is to discover what your smoke is, which we will endeavor to accomplish by cataloging and defining its properties. Let us begin with what you believe to be the smoke's defining property.” Greg waited for a moment, expecting Lapodala to tell him what that might be. “Well?” She prodded.
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Greg blinked. “Well? Oh! What I think the defining property might be. Duh.” Greg smacked his forehead. “I guess it'd be the ability to imitate anything it dissolves? Cause without that, I'm just a cloud. Though I guess I'd still be a telekinetic cloud… but I wouldn't even be able to do magic without it, because as a cloud I don't have mana. So yeah, that.”
Lapodala nodded slowly. “Very well… let us begin with the transformation aspect then.” She waved for him to follow as she walked over to one of the devices in the lab, which appeared to be a contained runic circle similar to the one the Archmage had used to analyze his smoke. “Place some of your smoke inside.” Lapodala ordered as she used her network device to communicate with the device, runes lighting up inside it as Greg sent his smoke in. “Now, transform your smoke into something simple.” Greg complied, turning his smoke into a rock, pausing for a moment before going even further and simulating the rock completely. “Hm.” Lapodala frowned as she noted the data. “Okay, now do something a bit more complicated.”
Greg considered his options for a moment before deciding on a plant, making a copy of the little house plant the bird girl had had in her room, similarly going from a basic simulation to a complete one. However, the moment he did, it immediately started to wilt, as just like when he formed his bodies, it was completely lacking everything it needed to actually survive. “Should I send some more smoke in to keep it alive?” He asked.
“No, this is good data.” Lapodala replied. “We'll see how it looks when your smoke is sustaining it later.”
“Gotcha.” Greg nodded. “What next?”
“Can you make a small animal? Something small that will fit in the scanner.” Lapodala replied.
“Sure.” Greg nodded, creating a tiny version of himself, again slowly ramping up the detail of his simulation to hopefully catch as much of the process as he could.
Lapodala blinked at the tiny copy of Greg. “You- can manipulate the size of your creations?”
“No. Well, maybe? I haven't actually tried… but I did this by copying the form of this tiny woman I know and altering the appearance until it matched mine.” Greg explained.
“Hm.” Lapodala grunted, then shook her head. “Alright, that should give us a good baseline for your transformation. Now, let's see what happens when you dissolve something.” She tapped at her network device and three containers soon appeared next to them. She opened the first one, pulling out a chunk of rock and placing it in the scanner. “If you would dissolve this, please?” Greg nodded, sending in enough smoke to cover the rock, turning it into dirt to dissolve it. Lapodala frowned. “Can you dissolve something without creating something else?”
“I- maybe?” Greg scratched his head. “I haven't yet, but I could try?”
“Alright, let's try again.” Lapodala pulled another chunk of rock out of the box and placed it in the scanner again.
Greg sent his smoke to cover it, focusing on dissolving it without creating something else, but it wasn't working. He paused, wondering what his smoke actually did to dissolve things, and… he honestly wasn't sure. He just knew that if he created something where something else already was, that thing would get dissolved and turned into more smoke. Or it'd be used to create more smoke? Something like that, at least. Which meant there was something destructive that happened when he simulated things, so what he needed to do was create that destructive force without simulating anything? Greg frowned, focusing on his smoke again, trying to figure out what that destructive force might be. Some kind of vibration, maybe? That- sort of made sense, didn't it? A lot of reality was just things vibrating, wasn't it? Maybe? Greg sighed, wishing he'd paid more attention in physics. Or at least not forgotten everything the moment the test was over…
Anyway, vibrations seemed like a good bet, so he concentrated on his smoke and began to vibrate it. Immediately a hum began to emanate from within the scanner, Lapodala even taking a nervous step back as it built in intensity, which proved to be smart as the rock exploded a moment later. Greg clicked his tongue, brushing some debris off his shirt. “Well, that didn't work.”
“What- what were you even trying to do?!?” Lapodala asked incredulously.
“Well, I'm trying to figure out what my smoke actually does to dissolve something and I thought it might be something to do with vibrations, so I made my smoke vibrate, and… well, you saw.” Greg explained, waving a hand at the scanner, which thankfully didn't look any worse for wear after the rock's demise.
Lapodala stared at him incredulously. “How hard did you make it vibrate?!?”
Greg paused. “Like… half?”
“Half of what?!?” Lapodala asked.
“However hard I can vibrate things?” Greg shrugged. “I don't exactly have measurements for this stuff. Though shouldn't you?” He gestured at the scanner again, which presumably would have caught all of it.
Lapodala flushed slightly. “Right, let me… huh. It seems that it wasn't that you vibrated it all that hard, it's that you vibrated it completely, all across it at once.”
“Well, yeah? My smoke was inside it when it started vibrating.” Greg pointed out.
“Right… okay, let's try this again.” Lapodala grumbled, pulling out another rock and placing it in the scanner.
“Alright, but I gotta tell you, I'm running out of ideas.” Greg warned her, focusing on the new rock as he tried to figure out what he needed to do. It wasn't dissolving or vibrating… maybe he was thinking about this the wrong way? Yes, the object would be broken down, but in the process it either became or produced smoke… so maybe it was more about conversion? Greg blinked, suddenly feeling like an idiot. Of course it was about conversion! He focused on the rock, and instead of focusing on dissolving or somehow destroying the rock, he focused on turning it into smoke. His smoke immediately latched onto the rock like it did his body and it just… turned to smoke, just like anything he'd actually made out of smoke would. “Huh… did you catch that?” Greg asked, turning to Lapodala.
“I- did. Though I'm not sure what to actually make of what I caught.” Lapodala muttered. “You simply- turned it to smoke.”
“Yeah, that's what I got out of it too.” Greg sighed. “Next one?”
“Yes, let's move on.” Lapodala agreed, opening the second box and pulling out a small plant, placing it in the scanner. Greg once again sent some smoke at it and focused on turning it into smoke, and just like the rock, it was there one moment and the next all there was was a cloud of smoke. “I'm not sure if this next test will tell us any more than we've already gotten, but for the sake of completion…” Lapodala trailed off as she opened the last box and brought out a small cage with some kind of insectoid rodent type thing inside, placing it in the scanner.
“I am absolutely going to stick one of those in Casey's bed.” Greg chuckled as he sent his smoke at it, once again focusing on turning it to smoke. He felt a small bit of resistance, just enough to be aware of it as he pushed through it, and it poofed into smoke.
Lapodala shuddered slightly, eyeing Greg's smoke warily. “That is… terrifying.”
“Why?” Greg asked, cocking his head.
Lapodala frowned at him. “You just turned a living being into smoke like it was nothing!”
“Well, yeah, but that thing would have died from a hard smack.” Greg pointed out. “No way I could do it that easily to someone stronger.”
Lapodala shook her head. “Yes, a stronger constitution will resist your smoke, but how many people invest in their constitution? If you can destroy a rock, you can kill a good two-thirds of the mages on this ship. Easily.”
Greg cocked his head. “No? Living things resist my smoke. I had a harder time with that rat thing than I did with the rocks. I don't know exactly how it works, but I do know that things are a lot easier to dissolve once they're dead.”
Lapodala blinked. “It- is easier to dissolve something after it dies?”
“Yup.” Greg nodded. “There was this cheese grater dude I fought that my smoke couldn't even touch, but once it was dead my smoke ate through him like it was nothing. Well, not nothing, but it wasn't all that hard.”
Lapodala stared at him for a moment. “That makes no sense whatsoever.”
“It doesn't?” Greg asked tentatively.
“No!” Lapodala exclaimed. “If your smoke is physical, then why would it care if something is alive or not? If it's magical, then it would make sense for something living to resist it more than something that wasn't, but it wouldn't make any sense for it to stop resisting once it was dead! Maybe- maybe if your smoke was mental, but that doesn't make any sense either, since it doesn't have any mental effects!”
“I mean… it has my mind, doesn't it?” Greg offered hesitantly.
Lapodala scowled at him. “How would your smoke carrying your mind change how other people react to it?” She paused. “Unless… hold on, wait.” She frowned, holding up a finger as she thought. “Your smoke… is your body, mind, everything that you are… and when you dissolve something, it becomes your smoke…”
“Oh, I actually figured out that I'm literally just converting things into smoke.” Greg interjected. “You know, if that helps.”
Lapodala nodded. “Then, in essence, you are… stealing someone's body when you dissolve it? In a sense? That- might be able to explain things?”
Greg shrugged helplessly. “I got nothing.”
Lapodala grimaced. “Right… okay, let's start testing the quality of your creations.” She sighed. Because of course the smoke would have to be just as incomprehensible as the man himself.