In the end, the ferals decided that they needed more time to discuss before they could make a decision on whether or not they wanted Greg on their challenge team, postponing it until tomorrow night. With nothing else to do, Greg spent another hour or so digging out more of the underground base and getting it ready for the others to move in before returning to his main body and getting some sleep. Then, after spending a bit more time than he probably should with Tessa again, he rushed over to the training complex for his second meeting with the Archmage, arriving exactly on time thanks to a timely shift into his cheetahman form.

“Woo! Made it!” Greg grinned as he returned to his normal form, taking a seat in front of the Archmage.

The Archmage raised an eyebrow. “Is the timing of our meetings an issue for you? You seem to be struggling to make it on time.”

Greg coughed awkwardly. “No, the timing is fine, I just- I'm not good with transitions, I guess? I either spend half an hour waiting to leave, or I get caught up doing something else only to look up and realize I should have left five minutes ago. And… I've been getting kinda caught up with something lately.”

“Hm…” The Archmage hummed. “Would it help if I assigned you a task to complete before our meetings? Something to ease you into the day?”

Greg scratched his head. “That- seems like it'd exacerbate the issue? I think I'd just get caught up doing the task instead, you know?”

“Possibly, but I would have you perform the task here, so even if you are caught up, I can interrupt.” The Archmage elaborated.

Greg paused, then nodded. “Okay, yeah, that could work. Assuming you don't care if I'm a little late for that.”

The Archmage smiled. “Of course not. That would defeat the point, wouldn't it? Now, do you have any questions before we get started?”

“Actually, yeah.” Greg nodded. “I've noticed that a lot of your tech uses these runes.” He gestured to his network device as an example. “But isn't magic all about intent? Where do the runes come from?”

“Ah, a good question.” The Archmage nodded. “To start, runes are innately meaningless. What matters is the intent the mage infuses into the rune as they inscribe it. That being said, a standardized rune language is useful for multiple reasons. First, it allows others to understand the function of what you've made. Second, it improves the focus of your intent, as when you've learned that a rune means fire, it naturally draws your understanding of fire. And third, standardized runes allow mages to craft cooperatively, which is important for larger workings, such as rituals or this very ship. But you shouldn't concern yourself with runes until you've mastered a few spells at the very least, as without a refined intent, the runes will have little effect.”

“Fair enough.” Greg agreed. “Oh, I also wanted to know what your policy is on sharing what I've learned from you with my friends.”

“You are free to share anything I've taught you so far, but as your apprenticeship progresses there are certain signature spells I would rather not see spread, due to their more… abusable nature.” The Archmage replied. “But I would caution you against investing too much of your time in educating others. You must build up yourself before you can support others.”

Greg nodded. “Yeah, I know, I was just thinking more along the lines of pointing them down the right path. I don't think I even could teach anyone right now…”

The Archmage smiled. “Any other questions?”

Greg cocked his head. “I don't think so? Wait, yes! I wanted to ask you about the mana investment limit. Specifically why there's a limit in the first place.”

The Archmage sighed. “We don't know. It's simply a fact that an individual can only handle taking in so much mana at once, usually somewhere between one and two mana pills a day, though this limit can be grown if you regularly hit it. It doesn't appear to be a physical limit, as it doesn't matter where you invest the mana, it just accounts for the total amount of mana invested. There are many theories for why this limit exists, but ultimately no one can say for certain. It is simply a fact of life that we must accept.”

“Gotcha…” Greg muttered thoughtfully. “Alright, that's all I have then.”

“What did your mana investment limit end up being?” The Archmage asked.

“Oh, I haven't hit it yet.” Greg shrugged. “It's at least two mana pills, though.”

The Archmage blinked. “You- didn't hit your limit? Why did you not continue your mana investment then?”

“I didn't know I was supposed to have a limit and mana investment is really, really boring.” Greg explained with a slight grin.

The Archmage did not look amused. “It is imperative that you both learn and make full use of your mana investment limit. Any time you don't hit your limit wastes an opportunity for growth. And I did not think I needed to mention that you should read the beginner's guide.”

“I- You're right, sorry, I'll make sure to do that before our next meeting.” Greg apologized.

The Archmage gave him a sharp nod. “Good. Then let us begin with the nature of force.”

*

After the lesson, Greg spent the next two hours practicing converting his smoke into force, sending blasts at an impact plate to gauge his progress. The mages had a unique unit to measure the power of an attack called epm, or effect per mana, which was the ratio between the amount of mana used and the effect it created. Weirdly, spells could have values over one epm, which apparently happened when mana was used to create secondary effects that went beyond what the mana could do on its own, but that wasn't Greg's concern at the moment. His focus was getting his force blasts epm as close to one as possible, which… Well, he was only managing about point four at the moment, but it was his first spell. He was still working on focusing his intent in the first place, not to mention the mental hoops he had to jump through to convert his smoke into force.

Greg sighed as he sent a final force blast at the plate, getting a pathetic point two in the process. “Alright, that's enough of that. Time for lunch.” He grunted, stretching slightly as he made his way towards the cafeteria. He sat down at a random table after getting his food and let out a sigh. “I miss having lunch with Tessa.” He paused. “Wait, why am I not having lunch with Tessa?” There was no reason she couldn't meet him at the cafeteria, right? It was a little late now, but he was definitely going to insist she join him tomorrow. He was almost starting to miss hanging out with her. Maybe he could get Lapodala to sync their schedules a little? If Tessa had training at the same time as him, it'd be a lot easier to get there on time. Plus, there was no reason she couldn't help study his smoke, right?

He quickly finished eating and headed to the lab for another session with Lapodala, after which he'd have his second challenge with the squad, then another hour of mana investment to complete his schedule. Then tomorrow he'd repeat his schedule from yesterday, which he had started thinking of as a training day, and the day after he'd repeat today, or a challenge day. Then he'd have a break day before starting another four days of switching back and forth, except this time he'd start with a challenge day, ending in another break day that he still had to complete a challenge on before it all started over again.

“So, what do we have for today?” Greg asked as he arrived.

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Lapodala gestured to a line of cages and plants. “Today we're testing the resistance living being's have to your smoke, and attempting to determine what factor influences it the most.”

Greg paused. “So I'm just killing things today?”

“It doesn't matter what you do, as long as it's repeatable and living being's resist it.” Lapodala shrugged. “This analysis is going to be primarily focused on you, not them.”

“Oh. Alright, cool, I can do that.” Greg agreed. Lapodala got him set up in a chair covered in runes with some kind of halo covering his head, before directing him to the first test subject, a small frog-like creature. Greg took some smoke and pushed it through the frog creature with a little bit of effort, before turning to Lapodala. “Good?”

“Can you do something a bit more substantial?” Lapodala asked as she examined her network device.

Greg frowned, turning back to the frog thing. What could he do that was more substantial? He supposed he could convert it to smoke, but he did try to avoid killing things when he didn't have to. There wasn't much else he could do though… He paused. Unless… Did attaching his smoke to a creature take extra effort? He moved his smoke back into the creature and tried it, grinning slightly as he had to put that bit of extra effort in, slowly filling the frog up with smoke until… “Huh.” Greg grunted as he suddenly felt a very familiar connection to the frog. He narrowed his eyes, trying to move his consciousness into it, but- “Nope, that's a no go.” He muttered, trying instead to direct the frog to hop to the left, and… the frog let out a panicked croak, scrambling wildly. “Well, that didn't work.” Greg sighed.

“What are you doing to it?!?” Lapodala asked incredulously, looking between him and the terrified creature that was doing everything it could to break out of the cage.

“Nothing? All I did was connect my smoke to it and tell it to hop left. It- didn't appreciate that.” Greg explained. “Apparently connecting to another creature with my smoke lets me connect to them like my other bodies, except I can't control them.”

Lapodala blinked. “What- what does it let you do?”

Greg scratched his head. “Share their senses and maybe communicate? It isn't exactly smart enough to tell on that one… not sure if it does anything else.”

Lapodala tapped her lips with a finger. “Greg, what is the most fundamental capability of your smoke?”

Greg frowned. “Transformation and conversion?” Lapodala stared at him expectantly. “What about it?”

Lapodala sighed. “If those are the fundamental qualities of your smoke, then would it not make sense for anything your smoke can do to be related to those qualities? In particular, could you transform something connected to your smoke?”

Greg blinked, turning back to the frog. Could he transform it? Into what? It wasn't like he had a ton of forms that were close to its size… even his tiny person form was a good bit larger. Still, it didn't hurt to try, right? He focused for a moment, trying to get the frog creature to transform. Slowly it began to shift, some of Greg's smoke getting drawn in to make up for the missing mass, its croak shifting to a scream as it, somewhat predictably, freaked the fuck out over what was happening to it. “Huh.” Greg grunted. “Well, that's pretty cool, isn't it?”

“Yes, it is ‘pretty cool’.” Lapodala agreed, studying the transformed creature thoughtfully for a moment before scanning it with her network device. “Ah, unfortunate.”

“What?” Greg asked, cocking his head.

“The transformation is merely superficial, unlike your own. It still has the same natural mana as before.” Lapodala explained.

Greg blinked. “Well shit, that would have been really cool, huh?” Being able to change people's abilities into whatever they needed for the situation would have been awesome. Though he guessed that'd fuck up any spells they learned, since they'd need a whole new conversion process for the new mana type… not that it mattered, since he couldn't do it anyway. “Should I do something about him?” Greg asked, gesturing to the still screaming clone of himself.

“Change him back?” Lapodala offered. “Unless you would prefer having a random creature running around looking just like you.”

“Ah, no. No I would not.” Greg muttered, transforming the creature back into the frog-like thing it was before. “So, on to the next?”

“Yes, but don't remove your smoke.” Lapodala replied. “We will need to test for any additional uses, and I would like to see how the creature responds to long-term exposure to your smoke.”

Greg nodded. “Fair enough.”

Lapodala had Greg connect his smoke to several other creatures and a few plants, analyzing the amount of effort it took each time to try and pin down exactly what factor was resisting his smoke. The results were confusing to say the least. A physically powerful creature would resist his smoke just as much as a magically powerful one, but a physically sturdy plant was much less resistant than a plant infused with mana. Additionally, more intelligent creatures seemed to be more resistant to his smoke on average, but it wasn't a very consistent factor, with some dumber creatures being incredibly resistant, while some smarter creatures barely resisted his smoke at all. In general, stronger and smarter creatures resisted Greg's smoke the most, but Lapodala couldn't figure out why. Why would physical power and magical power have the same effect? Why was intelligence so inconsistent? It didn't make any sense!

“I think I need to stop there, or I'm going to have too much strain for the challenge later.” Greg finally announced.

Lapodala raised an eyebrow. “Strain?”

“Yeah, using my smoke doesn't make me tired, it just gets harder and harder to actually do anything with it the more I push it, so I call it strain.” Greg explained. “Like a rubber band getting less stretchy the more you use it, you know?”

“Interesting.” Lapodala muttered. “What increases your strain?”

“Anything that takes effort?” Greg offered hesitantly. “You know, walking, fighting, doing this stuff, all that. And the more effort it takes, the more the strain builds.”

Lapodala paused. “That- should have been obvious, shouldn't it?”

Greg shrugged. “Kinda, but honestly, nothing about my smoke seems to make sense, so I can't exactly judge you for making sure.”

Lapodala sighed. “Yes, well, I suppose we'll stop here for today then. Unless you have any ideas that wouldn't affect your strain?”

Greg thought about it for a moment, before shaking his head. “Nope, I got nothing. Oh! I did want to talk to you about the training for my girlfriend. Do you think you could teach her from eight to ten in the morning?”

Lapodala raised an eyebrow. “That should be fine. Why that specific time though?”

“Well… that's when I have my lessons with the Archmage, and I figured it might be nice to sync our schedules? Oh, and I was wondering if you'd mind if she helped out with studying my smoke, cause… Well, why not, you know?” Greg explained.

“Having another person here to see how utterly ridiculous you are would be somewhat gratifying.” Lapodala muttered. “Very well, if that is what she wishes, then I see no reason not to go along with it. Though if you would provide me with her contact information, it would be much easier to coordinate.”

“Oh, shit, right.” Greg scrambled for his network device, sending Tessa's contact information to Lapodala. “And I don't actually know if she'll go along with it yet. I just had the idea at lunch, so I haven't talked to her.”

Lapodala frowned. “It seems… unwise to make plans for another without consulting them first.”

Greg paused. “I- wouldn't call this making plans… I'm just seeing if the plans are possible before I bring them up, you know? Ultimately whatever training you give her is between the two of you, I just think it'd be nice to be on the same schedule.”

“Hm.” Lapodala hummed slightly. “Is that all then?”

“I think so?” Greg nodded hesitantly, trying to think of anything else he might want to bring up. “Yeah, I think that's it. See you tomorrow?”

“Yes. Hopefully with a more solid direction of experimentation.” Lapodala agreed with a slight sigh. “Making sense of your smoke is proving more difficult than I initially thought.”

“Hey, at least we're making progress, right?” Greg offered. “I mean, without this, I wouldn't have figured out how to convert things into smoke or that I can transform others.”

Lapodala groaned. “Yes, and that is good, but until we figure out why your smoke can do what it does, then we haven't gotten any closer to understanding what it is, and if we don't understand what it is, then it doesn't have any use for anyone but you! And even for you, if you can't understand what your smoke is, then you'll never become an archmage!”

Greg blinked. “Wait, really? I need to understand my smoke to become an archmage?”

Lapodala nodded. “Yes, because in order to become an archmage, you need to create an intent that counters your natural mana, allowing you to create pure mana, which requires a deep understanding of who you are and the effect your natural mana produces.”

Greg frowned. “Well, shit.”