Chapter 16

In magic club that evening I got a call from the archery club advisor and went to go see him, when I got there, however, the magic club advisor was also there with him. "Did you help him figure out how to use space-time magic?" she asked me her voice quiet and strained as if sleep was not in her vocabulary.

"Yes."

"Do you mind teaching me? He's a terrible teacher." The archery club advisor took immediate offence to that but as I've had a class taught by him before I'll have to agree. He just kind of says facts with no explanation, when people ask questions, he takes them as personal attacks and refuses to explain further than what's written in the book he's teaching from.

"Do you have any more rare grimoires I can read?"

"Just my infernal grimoire but I already know how to read that one."

"No, I meant as payment for teaching you. I taught him because it gave me a chance to learn it as well."

"So, you'll teach me space-time magic if I teach you infernal magic?"

"I believe that's a fair trade" she saw the four books floating around me. "Are you trying to become a jack of all trades?"

"No, I have the Perfect Recall spell and want as much power as possible."

"And you think summoning magic will help with that?"

"It couldn't hurt"

After a bit more back and forth she agreed to teach me infernal magic if I could teach her space-time magic. We spent the rest of the club's time in her office where I had rewritten the key for space-time magic and was having her learn how to read it first before I started pointing out the parts that were pointless to the spells listed meanwhile, she had me learning how to read in abyssal because infernal grimoires don't tend to be written in common.

By the time club was over and it was time to go home I understood half the abyssal language and she figured out the key I gave her. While we were there, we asked each other questions and answered questions asked to the best of our abilities. If I didn't have to learn a whole new language, perhaps I could learn this magic faster.

Instead of going straight home, I bought a couple more enchanted books with blank pages, book wasn't about to run out of pages anytime soon but warned that more grimoires would pass through my hands and I'd need all the paper I could get. As I walked home today, I had time to revise my transcript of the radiant grimoire. I found a couple of mistakes I had made in the transcription and edited them as I found them. I think my copy is near perfect, but I'd like to spend a bit more time with it anyway.

There's a space-time magic spell I could use to make it a perfect copy but there's a much higher chance of this spell doing the opposite of what I want. Turning the vice president's grimoire into an imperfect copy like the one I was making. This spell is notorious for making a copy of the wrong thing. Many great books have been lost to time because some lazy caster decided to take a shortcut in their copying and accidentally turned the original into a blank book.

I'll only make a copy with that spell when I have a backup and only if I'm too lazy to care I'd need to make a copy again anyway by hand later. Doing work right the first time is more important than ruining someone else's possession for laziness's sake. My copy now isn't perfect but it's more perfect than before. My copy of the time-space grimoire isn't perfect either but it's good enough to get an understanding of the magic.

When I got home that day I checked book to see if anything came of the sandwich I left for the hermaphrodite. It seems they used it as a map and also tried to eat it. They thought the sandwich might have been poisoned but instead, they just took a bite of a sandwich that like any other food in the prison I made it regenerates when consumed. Causing this person to realise not only could they no longer kill themselves they now held in their hands the temptation to continue living.

On that note. I teleported into the dungeon. "So, you're still naked? After all the trouble I went through to steal those clothes for you?"

"Hey! Those clothes smell like that weirdo who was eyeing me up when I took the job to kill your family."

"I think that weirdo is down here right now."

"Well, when I find him, I'm going to personally rip off his legs and feed them to him."

"I think 'he's' a hermaphrodite."

"What does that mean?"

"It's like a guy who's a girl at the same time"

"Then I'll rip off his tits and shove them up his ass while I'm at it. Who cares?"

I would have put more effort into defending this person I've never met and what pronouns they prefer but then I remembered this person tried to kill me and so I stopped caring. "You got marks of mastery yeah? That means you know magic right?"

"Yeah, a couple of spells got ingrained into my soul when I became… this." She said gesturing to herself.

"Great, here's a blank book be sure to copy down all the details of every spell you learn so I can take them from you in time."

"Wait what?"

"I told you earlier, didn't I? Everything you own is mine, this includes knowledge." She frowned at my explanation but took the book anyway and began writing down the information she received as instructed. "I'd buy you clothes, so you don't have to sit here naked, but I'd rather not go through the trouble of explaining why a guy wants to buy girl clothes."

"Just tell them you like playing dress-up."

"Thanks for adding more reasons not to buy you clothes. I didn't ask or need them but sure. Why not?"

I left her to finish writing down what few spells she knew and went back home. [best girl] didn't walk home with me today, she had something she wanted to do and as I wanted to do something else, we just didn't walk home together.

That evening I rearranged the layout of the maze just to mess with the assassin I'm not in control of. In fact, I started reading book with the express purpose to close and reopen passages right next to them I left them crying on the floor before I was satisfied.

I used a space-time spell to distort the space around me to make me invisible and silent and teleported over to watch them cry. I drew them a new map on a new sandwich and dropped it on their back before teleporting out of there. And continued to mess with them for the next hour or so.

That evening my now, almost, girlfriend came over for dinner and I asked her a question that's been on my mind for a while now. "You want to go on a real date any time soon?"

"What do you mean by a real date?"

"You know, dressing up, going to an expensive restaurant, getting drunk and kicked out of the expensive restaurant, going to a pub, starting a bar fight. You know a real date."

"Oh… I think I can do that."

"We know each other so well and yet we so rarely ever just get together to talk about nothing."

She seemed kind of happy about the idea. "Oh, by the way, I finished memorizing the spell you told me to learn."

"Do you think you can cast it?"

"Yeah." I handed her my spell focus and had her cast it without a circle. When she was done with it a new spell circle began forming on her body. "What spell did you just make me cast?"

"It's a space-time spell that makes it so you can't age anymore, I'd cast it on myself but I'd rather this dagger be useful to me someday." I pulled out the radiant dagger and began twirling it idly in my hand. "What does that do?"

"if it breaks or chips or whatever it fixes itself by healing or making the person using it younger. As I have three healing passive spells active on me right now this is basically worthless to me."

"Then why not just sell it and cast the spell on yourself?"

"Why risk someone who hates me getting their deplorable hands on something like this? Wait…" I teleport back to where the lich is, "here hold this," and teleport back. "Problem solved."

"What did you do?"

"I gave it to an undead."

"You met an undead?"

"No, I made one. It's a lich and she lives in the labyrinth… well… 'lives' isn't the right word but she's there now."

"Can I meet her?"

"I don't know how safe that would be. She can't attack me as the person who turned her into an undead, but I don't know she wouldn't attack you. She's very defiant."

"Oh, so you're worried she might try to attack me?"

"Yeah, liches tend to have high-level magic from the time they're created, and she did form with a magic circle on her skin crude as it was. Actually… I think her magic circle looked more like a proper magic circle the last time I saw it."

"Can the magic bypass the healing spell you made us cast?"

"I have no idea so it's best not to test it… also she refuses to wear clothes and I don't know how comfortable you'd be seeing her."

"What!?"

"Yeah I went through all the trouble of getting her clothes and she just insists on not wearing them."

"Did… Did you?"

"I don't know what you're about to ask but I'll tell you now she's a 4 on a good day, you have nothing to worry about… plus I'm not into necrophilia."

"T-that is not what I was going to ask at all!?"

"oh?"

"I was going to ask if you saw anything."

"Well, I threw a blanket over her when I made her, but she tends not to stay under it. She's kinda just roaming the halls of the maze now." Her face turned red and she got really quiet. I asked her if she could buy something like a cloak for me to try and convince her to wear at least that and though she couldn't look at me right now she nodded. That went over better than I thought it would.