Chapter 27

The next morning, I had a very pleasant uninterrupted wake up call and a very pleasant breakfast with the girl I perceive to be the most beautiful girl in the world. We sat together on the couch feeding each other leisurely until we remembered what we'd agreed to do the day before.

I teleported over to my parents' house while they were cleaning up after breakfast to collect them, "If you're ready we're planning on starting the hand-to-hand combat training today."

"Oh, do we need to bring a year's worth of food?"

"I enchanted the dungeon so the food you eat regenerates itself when you eat it. Bring whatever you plan to eat, if you're ok eating the same thing every day then that's alright with me."

After they got ready, I teleported them over to outside our house and knocked on the door. My beautiful girlfriend answered the door with a lunch box in hand. "We ready?"

"No, but it's good enough."

My parents gave me questioning eyes. "We'll never be prepared to face that pain again but we're as close as we're getting so let's get this over with… oh by the way I have a pet lich and she's a bit of a character."

"Which character?"

"If you meet her, you'll see."

We teleported into the dungeon together into the room I'd set apart for exercising. I then made a second bed and separated the two into two separate rooms that were now apart from the workout room and connected via a door respectively. Essentially, I made us both some makeshift bedrooms for when we take a rest during the year and I explained what we had planned for the year.

"First thing's first, I'm going to be teaching you all the radiant auto regeneration spell, I don't know the actual name of the spell but that's what it does so that's what I'm calling it."

"Question."

"Yes, dad."

"Are we learning the spell before or after we start the time-warping spell?"

"reality-warping spells, in general, are dangerous in that if you cast too many spells while you're in one the added weight of having cast so much could be extraordinarily bad for you as mages tend to have an upper limit to how many spells they can cast in a day… granted the number increases with experience but as you don't feel the consequences of your actions in the midst of this reality-warping spell it would be very dangerous to learn too many spells during it and activate them too."

"Question."

"Yes, mom."

"Are we going to have the same or similar reaction you did when you cast the spell because we all have necrotic marks?"

"It's likely but not sure. I cast both those spells in the same day."

"What does your book say."

The pages turn as I read ahead to check. "Book says it's a toss-up you might or might not, it's not giving a definitive way to avoid it, just seems random. Even if you did get the same reaction though book said it's not terminal and you'll be healed any damage you take anyway by the radiant spell after the internal conflict resolves."

"So, there's no real demerit to casting it then?"

"Your marks might end up looking more like mine and you might be out of commission for a few hours, which is why I'd rather do it here rather than in that spell where a few hours are months of time wasted… oh yeah, the headache is like being slammed face-first to the ground from a standing position. That's about it."

"Question"

"Yes… my pet lich"

She stood in the doorway one arm over the other with her wine bottle in one of her crossed arms and her wine glass in the other. "Do you mind if I join you for this one?"

"Are you going to learn the year in a day spell to learn magic faster after you see it done once?"

"Perhaps."

"Did becoming a lich make you better at magical research so you can develop your own spells?"

"Somewhat."

"Do you plan on hanging around us for the duration of the year?"

"I was planning on studying in my own room, but I might pop in once in a while."

"I don't really see any demerit in letting her join us, do you?" I asked the three I brought with me. "Why is she in her underwear?" My mom asked.

"It was hard enough even to get her to wear that." My pet smiled a mischievous smile and sat beside us. "You want to learn the radiant spell too?"

"Couldn't hurt."

"You're an undead so it literally might."

"Check your book."

I read it and it said it was highly unlikely the radiant spell kills her. Well, if it does, she can't say I didn't warn her. "There's a not zero chance it might kill you."

"What's the percentage?"

"… you know what fine. You want to join in be my guest." I had them all read the radiant spell together and explained the subtle intricacies of the spell they were hung up on and after a few practice chants book told me the perfect time to get them to cast it and I had everyone cast it together.

After casting the spell together, I saw the spell circle being drawn on everyone, including my pet. I kept starring at her, but she wasn't the one I should have been paying such close attention to. My mother let out an ear-piercing screech. She fell to the floor after a bit of shouting and just passed out. Her marks were flickering between the normal marks and the marks I have. Everyone else's marks seemed to fade into marks similar to mine without all the pomp and circumstance… lucky.

We moved my mother into the room I'd prepared for my parents and let her rest for a few hours while her marks flickered to give her time for everything to settle. We all stayed at her bedside though we knew she'd be fine. I as a support to my father who was worried, my girlfriend as a support to me and my pet because she had nothing better to do until I cast the spell to accelerate our perception of time.

Her marks settled down after about an hour and she seemed healthy enough, but it appears the mental strain isn't something the radiant spell could fix. I snapped my fingers. I quickly produced a small pamphlet from the dungeon floor and handed it to my pet. "What's this?"

"Read it, cast it, study the domain and come back to me when you've figured out how to cast this domain's self-defence spell."

"I can do that… Perfect Recall is it?"

"Yeah, if we have a spell that can recuperate the mind it might be easier to overcome mental stress that isn't so easily undone by simple healing magic."

"Interesting that you'd think of this."

"I do still need my mind magic marks."

"Fair enough."

With that, she left us for a bit after telling me to summon her when we were about to start. We waited by mother's bed for a few hours after which she shakily awoke and asked us if she was still alive. My father replied that she was and held her hand to his face with tears in his eyes, "You're alright, everything's going to be ok."

"I was hoping if anyone got the bad transition it would be my pet." My girlfriend punched me. "What? Then none of you would have had to suffer."

"Still, you shouldn't wish pain on anyone."

"I only wish for the safety of those I care about… by the way the pain of overexerting yourself in the year in a day is much worse than that was."

"Eh?" my mother responded with a weak inquisitive sound.

"And as I heard from her father that is potentially fatal. But Book says we shouldn't die now that we all have both spells… probably."

"We'll be fine." My father affirmed. "If you could survive the exercise with a weak untrained body, we who have been trained should be able to take it in stride."

"Well, dad prepare yourself to feel your body being ripped apart and built back up repeatedly for an entire day because that's basically what we felt."

His determination seemed to falter for a second. "You don't have to join us if you don't want to it only gets worse from here."

"No, if you're brave enough to face this pain and feel it necessary, the least I can do is ensure you have proper training by the end of it so your time isn't wasted."

"Thanks, dad I know you're scared. I suggest we make a note of the exact time we start so when time's about to end we have enough time to crawl in bed and wait for the suffering to begin."

With that cryptic warning out of the way, we waited another hour for mom to be well enough to run and got ready to cast the spell. I took out my spell focus and handed one made in the dungeon to my pet after summoning her to my side. She knew what that meant and pierced my abdomen with it causing it to disintegrate and reappear in her abdomen.

If I wasn't quick enough this time she might have actually died. When the focus was removed it too bore the mark of anti-magic. It seemed as though if I were to take it out of the dungeon its true form would just be the symbol hovering above a rod.

I had her remove it and return it to confirm my suspicions before we began. The rod of the focus was simply the longest arrow on the symbol. It was a strange spell focus. It seemed that any magic it didn't give a boost to would actually be weakened if cast by it.

Also, my pet had marks I didn't have when she returned, she had the marks of mind magic on her skin making an interesting image I was not familiar with. I didn't get a good look at it though as it was partially covered by her robe and I didn't want to stare.

After summoning all the components necessary to cast the spell I held a focus in each hand and had everyone join hands with me before casting the spell, sending us all into a frozen world where time was slowed for one year in this day.