Chapter 17

The conversation I just had would have been overheard by my parents right now if it weren't for the fact, they're on a quest right now. I let them know nothing would come attacking them until the next assassin comes after the weeklong holiday. They're currently warry of us who survived that last assassin without a single injury or are still wondering how we won. That or it's taking a while for the next assassin to make it to town.

That evening I invited her to my bed, but she declined and had me teleport her back to her house. I gestured for her to give me a kiss on the cheek when she was back in her own home and though she hesitated she did end up giving me one. After going home and having a well-deserved rest, I awoke to the twins in my bed again. "What do you want?"

"We just missed this."

"You know I could report you to the authorities for this right?" after slipping out of their grip I noticed they took my clothes when I was asleep, so I grabbed some of my clothes from the closet and teleported into the labyrinth while they were starring at me in the morning light. Since I tend not to leave the concealment spell active at night my tattoos were showing.

Sitting in front of me slack-jawed and surprised was the lich I summoned, "W-wha-why?"

"Calm down I just needed a place to change where the twins can't find me."

"Who?"

"Have you ever had a stalker before?"

"uh…"

"Think of them like that except they probably would have killed me if I didn't treat them exactly as I do." By the time I finished talking I was dressed, and the lich was done stammering. I used my spell focus to conceal my tattoos again and turned to her to speak again, "did you manage to finish that grimoire I gave you?"

"Oh, that? No, while I was writing them down more started coming to me and as a flood of information hit me, I suddenly gained a new tattoo and couldn't think for a bit."

"Oh, I hadn't noticed before." She did in fact have two spell circles drawn on her now. One looked like my necrotic spell circle when I first got my marks and the other looks like the one, she had to begin with except it's centred itself on her chest instead of spreading out across the entire body like these marks usually do. Instead, it just looked like a circle with 8 equidistant arrows pointing out from the centre with a skull in the middle, it was pitch black.

"That's the first time I've seen a magic circle marked on someone's body that actually looked like a circle instead of a mobius line that just traces the limbs and under the neck… you mind if I take a look at your grimoire?"

"Go ahead." I picked up her book and began reading it. It was horrible, like when a fiction writer who never liked essays tries to give a report in a professional nonfiction setting. It was barely readable. To think there'd be such a disconnect between two forms of writing. This may just be the hardest magic to decode. Or… "Here, read this learn how to format spells and write it down again."

I passed her my first ever grimoire, it's mostly beginner level spells and cantrips that are used often in everyday life, but it should teach her how spells are supposed to be written down. I left her, her sad approximation of a grimoire, a blank book, and the order to get better at writing spell theories.

I teleported back home and grabbed my book bag before teleporting over to [best girl]'s house and walking to school with her… after having breakfast with her. While in class I watched over my pet lich's progress with learning magic and saw through book that the way she wrote the spell theories for the spells she was using was actually the way the spell theories were meant to be written… in other words… "The person who wrote these spells is an idiot…"

"What?"

"Sorry professor I didn't mean to say that out loud I'm just lamenting my rotten luck while doing my utmost to ignore your boring lecture about how cactuses taste."

The class laughed for a minute before the teacher told me to wait outside for my disrespectful outburst. While I stood there, I recalled the spells written and tried to decipher what the magics could possibly be. Are they simply so basic I can't wrap my mind around them? Have I surrounded myself with such challenging work I can't even begin to comprehend it?

Is there something I'm not seeing? And then I noticed something, the way it's worded, it's too awkward, is it possible the person who wrote this used an anagram? Why? What would even be the point? Who could possibly learn it? My mind rearranged a few letters from the first sentence and it immediately looked more like a regular spell formula than this. I slapped myself in the face. This is going to be very annoying to decode.

After class the professor told me that if I wasn't going to take his lectures seriously, perhaps I shouldn't attend at all, to which I replied, "I already read your whole textbook and can pass any test you throw at me throw them all at me now, I'll pass them all with flying colours. I'm only in your school because I have free access to the magic club and all my friends are here."

Book let me know this little outburst would cause him to start every lesson from here on out with a pop quiz until I fail one, which isn't likely, or until he concedes that I really don't need to listen to him, which also isn't likely.

I spent lunchtime with my friends just discussing some fun hypotheticals and generally being sociable. "Where have you been? We missed you."

"I've had a lot on my plate lately, my parents think I'm spending too much time working on my magic and not enough time working on my physical attributes."

"Yeah, without your magic a stiff breeze could probably knock you over."

"It wasn't an invitation to criticize me."

"Seriously man you need to work on everything, not just magic, if you only focus on one thing, you're not going to make it when physical confrontation becomes necessary."

"I have close-range attack spells I should be fine."

"Fireball is not a close-range attack spell."

"It is for me." I really don't want to consider their criticisms because physical labour is painful and irritating. But if I never do it people who only train their muscles might be able to stand up to me… if I were a normal mage. Though if they're also abnormal it may put me in a dangerous situation.

"since you're worried, I'll try physical training over the week we have off but if it's every bit as painful as I know it's going to be, and I see no results I'm not going to continue it."

"A week's not enough time to get results."

"Not without magic it isn't. I found a spell that lets me spend a year in a day, it doesn't age me but everything I do in that year has a cumulative effect on me at the end of it."

"Why don't you just use that now?"

"And spend a month ignoring my teachers instead of an hour? No thank you." In the centre of the dungeon, I repurposed a small room with only one entrance to serve as a workout room for me while I have a week off, I plan on inviting [best girl] to train me while we're there. Luckily this is one of the rooms where you have to go up a nonsensical gravity changing set of staircases to reach an inverted doorframe placed too high to jump over so while we're there we'll be unreachable to people who still don't realize if you believe you can walk up a wall in the labyrinth; the gravity in the place will allow it.

I spent that evening's classes wondering why despite the fact my pet lich is always wandering the halls she always ends up back in the same place I made her. Can I summon her? I'd rather not test it right now. That evening while I was in the magic club advisor's office learning abyssal and helping the teacher with what parts were and weren't integral to casting the spells so she could gain her marks already, [best girl] came into the club room and said she needed to see me.

I swiftly asked the magic club advisor for a book on how to read abyssal and a copy of her grimoire so I could continue my studies over the week off. She told me she'd have them ready by tomorrow and that I should come in to get them then. When I walked up to her, she simply said, "teleport us in front of the clothes store we're going shopping." While grabbing my hand.

No one else understood the meaning behind those words but I did. So, I teleported us over to the store most people buy clothes from in this town, she dragged us inside and walked straight towards the person behind the counter, "One cloak please."

"Oh, anything you're looking for in particular?"

"Something big baggy flowing and dark preferably. Perhaps with sleeves."

"That's not a cloak but ok" after a bit of rustling from behind we were greeted with this dark cursed looking robe that had a pale faded black colour as if worn with age. I felt instinctively drawn to it. "Where did you get this?"

"There's a monster from a far-off country's most famous dungeon where there's a monster called a death wraith. These robes are dropped every single time one dies. Someone said they give a boost to necromancy spells but as no one uses necromancy they don't sell very well."

"How much for one?"

"You going to a costume party or something?"

"Something like that."

"They don't tend to sell very well so I'll cut you a deal and sell it to you for 3 silver coins."

"Can I buy 3 for 8?"

"You know what? Sure, take them. Just don't go starting some weird creepy cult or anything."

"Why would I ever do that." After paying the man his due we took the robes I took two and handed one to her. She tried to refuse at first, but I reminded her that the spell that protects her is a necromancy spell and told her I'd feel better if I knew her protection spell was more effective. She told me to go try and convince the lich to wear the cloak and so I went back to her room and found that she wasn't there for once.

So, I tried summoning her. When I did, I saw her mid-swing with the radiant dagger I'd given her in her grip, "What! I was just about to kill that idiot!"

"Wow I came to give you a gift that could boost your magic and this is the thanks I get? Ok, stay naked for all I care."

"Wait what is it? …please… I'm sorry."

"I got you a robe because when I told my girlfriend about you, she wanted you to have clothes she practically dragged me to the store. She'd probably be mad if I didn't end up giving it to you, so for her sake, I will personally make sure you put this on."

I then took out the robe from my bag and put it on her, there were no belts or sashes to close the robes, so her front was completely exposed but everything else seemed covered, so I don't care anymore. I then teleported her back to her fight without warning and teleported away. Because that's what good undead pet owners do.