Iris has been taking care of things in the real world while I have been supporting her from the mental side. I manage the flow of her mana and enhancement. Unfortunately I haven't yet had a chance to experiment with offensive magic, but I have been thinking about our options. What will be the most cost-effective in every situation. Material magic is out, in my opinion. 

Even if I should learn things like hurling fireballs or spears of ice, or forming spikes of stone, there will be encounters where that won't work. Like, lets say we find a golem and all I've practiced is frost or fire magic, it'll be totally immune right? After all, It's made of stone. Hurling ice at it won't be any better than chipping away at it with a sword or gun.

Using fire to melt the stone or blast off large portions might be effective, but what if it can just reform itself? Then I'll have spent so much mana for nothing. Wind magic is really only cost-viable as a means of detection by scattering mana out on the wind or enhancing sounds. I might be able to cut with condensed blades of air, but that again isn't cost effective.

Then what about earth magic? It is more promising than other options, though what if the enemy is amorphous or flies through the air? Shooting out stone bullets from the ground would defeat the purpose of having a gun, and spikes or barricades can be reacted to.

Then what's left? Well there is lightning magic. It does seem just as promising as earth magic and could be usable, but some enemies could be immune, like mr golem from the earlier example. The electricity would simply get grounded and disperse, plus it is extremely expensive.

No, none of these could work. Magic needs mental and physical resources to function. Mental is one thing, but we could only use so much mana before it taxes the body. Primal enhancement heats up the body much like mana exhaustion, but in return grants explosive power. Though mana exhaustion occurs right after. A useful trump card, but not a card to be played regularly. That's why its a trump card.

So what of immaterial magic? There's light magic, which is absolutely useful. I have already put it to good use by using it like a flashbang. But using it to distort light around us for active camouflage, or creating illusions will also be a useful application. But for offense? I could create beams of light. Theoretically this could reduce whatever is hit to ashes or slag, but its even more expensive than Lightning. Condensing light and projecting it in a line takes a large amount of mana. Perhaps a surprise card I can keep in reserve.

Then there's darkness magic. Honestly I'm unsure how I could use it outside of blinding an opponent, but Flashbang already does that, and if the enemy doesn't use eyesight, then both options are useless. So how could I use darkness magic? I could try to shoot invisible bullets. That could be useful, but I'm unsure of the power it could produce. Then shrouding physical bullets in darkness? But I could produce similar results with Light magic. Further investigation required.

Then, instead of relying on existing elements for magic... Frontier magic. What if I shaped the existing mana on its own? Forming mana into something like hardlight, condensing the very mana itself into a shape and projecting it. Fortunately, in this mental space, I could simulate the real world through Iris' senses. At least here I can keep my original body. It is most comfortable being male as a male.

I tried forming several darts in the air around me. They appeared as a wispy silver-blue dart, and touching them, they were like warm glass. I formed a target in the mental space and shot the darts rapidly at the target, all of them piercing through. The target in this case was a thick log. The penetration wasn't good enough to shoot all the way through, but this had promise. I had a simulated status that I checked, and the cost was relatively Inexpensive 4 "mp" per shot. I wonder how much actual mana was meant to be "a point"?

It certainly wasn't a single particle, unless a single magic particle is exceptionally large. Aside from magic, I had also been thinking about our situation. And a possiblity came to me that I hadn't thought of previously.

What if we were needed here? Say, to stop an approaching calamity. Surely a higher power would wish to preserve the world they govern. But that was so stereotypically anime that it was hard to say if that really were the case. You can't believe everything in fiction, it's best to investigate everything before reaching a conclusive answer.

Of course, it was equally likely this higher power was simply using us as pawns, either to further some goal or for entertainment. But wait... Another idea had occured to me as well. If a higher power does indeed exist, other higher powers would as well, right? And much like anything with sentience, they would have differences. Then what if we were brought here, or rather revived here, by an evil power seeking to use us as a destructive force?

Say, if one power wished to summon a "hero" to save the world, but another wished to summon a "calamity" to destroy the world. Then perhaps there were more than one hero or calamity currently existing in this world? Would Dior be one of those calamities? She was strong enough to beat Iris, us, and was in the company of a force capable of destroying an entire district. Surely this could grow into a force that poses a threat to the entire union. But we fought with her naturally. So were we indeed a summoned "hero"? Or was there no actual rhyme or reason? It was hard to say.

So I've been stuck with these uncertainties for the past couple days while Iris has been flirting with Christy. I couldn't help thinking she may also have an important role in the grand scheme of things, but as of now she didn't fit onto the board.

And now there was the current situation... I couldn't put up a proper optical camouflage just yet, and so Iris went and did something like acting out a makeout session with Christy. Maybe my past life experience is having a bad impact on her, but she really went in a bit much for it... At least it was convincing. What's more unusual, seeing a pair of lovey dovey girls in a back alley, or seeing a pair of young female hunters spying on criminal activity? well, they're both unusual though.

~~×~~×~~

As I was tailing the suspicious man from a distance, I turned to Christy while we were near the main road.

Iris: "Christy, I'm sorry but could you head on back without me? You would rather stay away from anything messy, I'm sure."

Christy: "I'm... Still confused about everything, especially 'that', but... Am I going to be a burden?"

Iris: "Rather than being a burden... I don't want you to experience the dark side of the world. And I don't want to turn you into a target."

Christy simply shook her head and looked at me with a selfless smile. "I'll be fine, I decided to follow you after all. If I don't experience this side too, I won't get any stronger. So, don't worry about me."

I simply sighed and shook my head. I turned without answering and continued to walk after the man. He had disappeared from sight, but I could still track him with magic. We soon caught up again, where I saw him at a small gate in the wall. There was a guard there, but they didn't look like an official guardsmen. The man was let through the gate, and he exited into the Outer Ring.

Now what... Forcing my way through wasn't an option. And being let through probably wasn't going to happen. I held my chin as I thought, but a moment later an idea occured to me as I looked down at my hand, at the clawed gauntlet.

Iris: "...Wait here for just a moment, and don't make a noise, okay?"

Christy tilted her head. "Sure...?"

Alright. I stretched for a few seconds before crouching down, and launching myself at the wall. I activated Physical Up and jumped off the wall, hitting the other wall and jumping off it as well. I then enhanced my claws with mana and dug into the stone, hauling myself onto the roof 20~ some feet above the street.

I pulled out the old rope I kept from back in Gravel 13, when I made the makeshift bludgeon. This was the spare length I had from making it. I let the rope down to Christy, who was still in shock, before snapping back and grabbing hold. I pulled her up as she climbed and soon enough the two of us were on the roof and I was storing the rope in my bag.

Christy: "That... Was unbelievable, Iris. You're so amazing!"

Iris: "Really? Well there's still more to do." I said, hauling her up onto my back.

C(onfused)hristy: "Eh? Eh? Ehhh-?"

I didn't wait for her to process the situation as I ran and leapt off the building. Using wind magic, I both slowed my fall and silenced my landing as I ran across the rampart to follow the man from earlier.

We caught up soon enough, only to see him entering a large warehouse in an uninhabited area. Back to business as usual, then.