60 C60 Master

*Double Chapters Today BANZAI!*

(A/N: Want to read ahead of what I've posted so far? Go to my patreòn and get early access chapters.

As of this chapter, the patreòn is 16 chapters ahead at chapter 77. Today is my day off of writing so no chapters on patreòn tonight.

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With the mark in place, Tom will have an easier time contacting his followers. He just needs to contact all of the followers that graduated last year and give them the mark as well.

The rest of the school year was spent going through the motions. Tom made sure to spend the majority of his free time on becoming an Animagus. Other than meditating to find his spirit animal, Tom has been dabbling in battle transfiguration.

He's been working on things like changing the floor into spikes to turning anything into an animal or human to fight for him. Things like animals and human forms are a bit beyond him at the moment. Whenever he tries to make something as intricate as that, it would come out disfigured and revert to whatever it originally was.

Tom allowed the Slytherins to win the house cup this year. Although, he made sure that the gap between them and the other houses wasn't too big. With the training his followers are being put through, they could demolish the other house. Especially in the practical use of magic.

Before returning to Kamar-Taj, Tom charged Druella with contacting the graduates from last year. She would schedule meetings so Tom could give the rest of his followers the mark.

In order not to cause suspicion Tom had them show up in batches. The location would alternate for every batch as to not give away the meeting places.

When his fourth year of Hogwarts ended, Tom ended up staying in Slytherin Manor instead of going straight to Kamar-Taj as usual.

It took three weeks to finish marking all of his graduated followers, and boy did it feel good. They may have sworn their loyalty to him, but now he feels as though there's an extra failsafe from betrayal. If they somehow found a way to circumvent their oaths, which is extremely doubtful to happen, Tom would have that extra parachute to keep him safe.

Before opening the portal to return to Kamar-Taj, Mimsy gave Tom yet another report on the life of Captain America.

The good Captain still hasn't been allowed to join the war. Steve goes from state to state doing his shows as a war bond salesman. Although he hates every moment of it, he is helping his country pay for a very costly war.

When Tom returned to Kamar-Taj, he went straight to the ancient one.

"You're late." She says as she pours through a very old looking book.

"Sorry, I had to take care of something before coming." Tom replies as he takes a seat on the sofa. "What are you looking for in that book?"

"Nothing you need to stick your nose into." She says as she casually flips through the pages. "I hope you've kept up with your training. If you can't make at least 10 different eldritch weapons by now, I may have to rethink making you my personal student."

Tom doesn't reply and starts drawing on the eldritch energy. He first forms his greatsword and that sword starts morphing into different weapons. An axe, staff, knife, flail, hammer, etc. Tom ended up creating 25 different weapons.

The ancient one looked up from her book and gave her student an approving nod.

"Congratulations, Tom. You are now a master of the mystic arts." She says as she closes her book with a loud thud.

(A/N: I made my own standard for when you're considered a master. Nothing is really said about it in the movies. At least I don't remember anything like that in the movies. I also googled some stuff and decided to just do it myself.)

The second Tom hears what she said, a proud smile forms on his face.

"Don't be too full of yourself though. That just means you've passed the smallest requirements to graduated from being a student. I've provided you a strong base to build up from. If you want to continue your studies into the mystic arts, you'll have to learn the rest on your own. Of course, that doesn't mean you can't come to me with questions. I'm still your teacher and that won't change no matter how much you grow." The Ancient One says with a bit of emotion.

"Thanks, teacher." Tom gave her a formal bow and flashed her a smile. "I'll be sure to bug you with any questions from now on."

"*sigh* Yeah, just don't interrupt my 'me' time, alright? Also, come find me tomorrow. Every master gets a chance to find a compatible relic for themselves. We'll go from Sanctum to Sanctum to see if you have one." She says and Tom's eyes light up like fireworks.

Relics are items of power like Dr. Strange's Cloak of Levitation and the Ancient One's Eye of Agamotto. They have a slight sentience to them so Tom can't just walk in and choose whatever catches his eye. The relics would have to pick who can wield them. He only hopes that at least one of the relics on display in the sanctums will choose him. It would be awesome to be chosen by more than one though.

"Can we not go now?" Tom asks with his best puppy dog eyes.

"No, I'm busy with something at the moment. I should have it all wrapped up by tomorrow though." She wasn't affected and starts shooing Tom away as she dives back into the book from earlier. "Oh, and seeing as you're a master now, you can dress however you like."

'Thank god I can finally stop wearing these robes.' Tom thought and went to his room. 'Now I just have to graduate Hogwarts and I'll never have to wear Robes again. Unless it's for some sort of formal reason. Then I'll just have to grin and bear it.'

Tom returned to his room in Kamar-Taj and happily changed into some normal muggle clothes. No matter how much he wears them, robes will never be as comfortable as a nice pair of pants along with a shirt.

After changing his clothes, Tom goes to the library and browses for what he should start studying first. As a master, he now has unfettered access to all parts of the library. Of course, there are sections that only the Ancient One has access to. The only way to get a book from these places is to ask and hope she agrees.

As Tom is browsing the bookshelves, he sees a black book with no title. Something told him that this book would be interesting. It was getting late so Tom just took the book and returned to his room. Usually, books weren't allowed to leave the library, but Tom is a master now so he has more privileges than before.

When Tom returned to his room, It was almost time for him to get some sleep. He wakes up far too early to stay up late for no reason. Before draining his magic, as he does every night, Tom opened the black book and looked to see what it's about. He couldn't stop the smile from his face when he saw what the book entailed.

'Shadow Manipulation, Huh? I think I'll stay up a bit later tonight.' Tom thought as he gets absorbed into the black book.