After that chain of events transpired the teacher asked me many questions and I ended up giving him the component list and a mini pamphlet explaining the spell that conceals the marks. After which he thanked me profusely and I left the class. When leaving, I tested out my new pendant. I teleported to the breakfast club as my friend was just about to walk out and met her at the door.
I offered her my hand. "that us being 'more than friends' thing you mentioned earlier. You wanna start that now or later?"
"Now's good." She blushed slightly at the words but answered honestly and took my hand. We were going to walk home but I instead tested my pendant again and managed to teleport both of us back to her house. "This thing really will just send me back to wherever I've been won't it?"
"What is that?"
"It was a gift and the person who gave it to me vowed not to give up on taking me for herself"
"Who? Who gave it to you?"
"Remember the twins that used to hang around my like lost dogs?"
"The ones that hit you and me?"
"Yeah, those two. They had been trying to seduce me for a long while before you arrived and when you got here, I rejected them, and they didn't take it too well. I've been waiting all this time for you to come find me, I hope you know that." My words embarrassed her a bit.
"I didn't know you were waiting for me."
"considering we were too young to know how to use our abilities you wouldn't have known about mine until after I told you mostly because I'm keeping mine a secret mostly."
"But people know you're an oracle"
"But they don't know I'm not useless. So just keep that last bit to yourself." It seems as though a thought just dawned on her.
"So… you chose me over them?"
"Yes."
this blunt explanation seemed to satisfy her, and we ended up having dinner at my parents' house. She even brought over some of the boar meat to share. At the dinner table I pulled out a few sheets of blank paper and began writing down instructions for one of the hidden spells in the transcribed grimoire. And after our meal when I saw her home, I handed her the pamphlet I'd made and asked her to learn the spell as a favour to me.
Book said I should teach her this spell. She asked me if it was the telekinesis spell I said I'd teach her to which I replied, "that spell is easy when I teach it to you I'll teach you in person." And we left it at that. Feeling a bit coy I gave her a kiss on the cheek and turned away to leave when she grabbed my sleeve so, I stopped. "Yes?"
"Maybe give me some more time before doing things like that."
"But your reactions are so precious."
"You do something my heart isn't ready for again and I'll punch you."
"That's probably a bad idea you know what could happen."
She made a face but left it at that. I stroked her hair gently and said, "I'll try to tease you less, if you try not to punch me when I do."
"Alright."
With that, I teleported away leaving her to think on this. Now that I have this teleportation pendant moving around places, I've already been will be safer, but it might be difficult to explore new areas wait… before it's time for bed I go down to the labyrinth I made to trap the assassins and began exploring the place and mapping it out on the pendant. When I'd gotten myself pretty deep, I focused on the labyrinth and tried changing the layout a bit. As I was the creator of the maze it followed my instructions and changed as I thought it would. When I checked the pendant the map on it changed as well.
Well, isn't that convenient? In the dead of night about the time I usually go to sleep I grabbed the bones of our intruders from this timeline and put them down in the dungeon, I wasn't particularly planning on raising the dead at this very moment but if I wanted to these bones could make pretty good décor, make it seem as though some have already died in this labyrinth. As these thoughts went through my head, I made a hollow space in the wall nearest me and put the box of bones away and hid it, I'd decide where they go later.
For now, I went back to my room and slept. The next morning, I was really tempted to wake [best girl] with a kiss to see what she would do but thought better of it and decided not to. Today was the day our first assassin would arrive, but I was not afraid, book said they'd be trapped in the maze anyway. That morning after breakfast I read from my grandfather's grimoire, Book said I should learn and cast this spell in particular. Between classes, I hid myself in the restroom and cast the spell with my focus. As I saw my tattoos glow in the mirror, it seemed my necrotic marks were growing as the radiant ones were growing smaller. Must be because I now have three necrotic spells active and only one radiant spell.
I should seek a radiant master mage to teach me some passive rituals lest I lose my mastery… not that I know it's even possible but it's still not something I'd like to find out. The spell I just cast is the second hidden spell from my grandfather's grimoire, it has a name and is briefly mentioned in the theory of other spells, Spirit Sight with this I'll be able to see the souls of the departed that linger or regret, theoretically this will make it possible to summon stronger undead than just taking bones and forcing whatever lost spirits nearby to inhabit the corpse.
This should be helpful. That evening the club advisor asked me a few questions about the concealment spell I had taught him, and I showed him the errors in his logic while helping him to know the truth about the spell. After a while he was able to cast it. I asked him if he still had need of me or if he thought he could figure out the rest himself and he replied that he'd call me from the magic club if he needed anything but that he'd like to try his hand at figuring it out on his own. Apparently, his marks made it much easier to read the original manuscript. Perhaps the charm on the book was more to make it so non masters couldn't read it so easily. Well, it never bothered me so it might be the case.
When I got back to the club the younger members were barraging the club president with requests to teach them how to make spell focuses because I had one unique to the necromancy domain of magic and they wanted one that boosted the effects of their domain.
When I arrived the president rudely turned their attention towards me, "why not ask the man himself"
"I simply made mine myself using a spell from my grandfather's grimoire to imbue the intended effect, it became a necrotic focus, that still let me cast spells outside of its domain, because the effect didn't interfere with the casting of spells. Does that answer your questions?"
Once again, I turned their attention back to the man who knew the most about making magic items. They began demanding to know how to do what I just said and asking for explanations as to how what I described could be done. They even began asking what kind of effects could be given that wouldn't affect spell casting.
Most spell focuses are sold as generic rods, staves, and wands, they're simply meant to focus your spell so you can cast it without the components needed in your line of sight. There are spell focuses that are specific to a domain of magic but they can usually only cast spells for that domain and that is usually due to the effect imbued on them being a spell that needs to be cast on something else and can't be cast on the focus itself.
If someone puts fireball on their spell focus, then they gain the ability to cast fireball without having to use components, but it also locks the focus in the infernal domain. Spell focuses with self-defence spells like mine imbued tend to be more lax as the effect usually only extends to the focus itself. Basically, if you imbue a passive spell chances are the focus won't be locked into a domain whereas if you imbue an active spell, chances are, it will.
Spell focuses locked in a domain tend to have the highest performance in that domain but I'm not too worried about that. If I had to put it into numbers a regular focus gives no benefit to any spell of any domain whereas one that gives a boost to one while still being able to cast the rest will give a 30% boost to a spell's effect in that domain, and a focus locked in a domain will give a 70% boost to the spell's effects but that's usually only useful in magics like healing spells and attack spells, not really much to do with necrotic spells that are more on the passive side of spells.
As I watched the president suffer I sat at my usual seat and began reading through the space-time grimoire I just received when the vice president arrived. The transcribed grimoire was now thoroughly saturated with the magic from the spells written within and looked like a proper grimoire now. As usually when a grimoire is written the cover ends up appearing as some depiction of the domain its spells are written for. The clubroom itself has a few basic grimoires of a few popular domains and for some reason, we had a couple of pamphlets left from previous club members explaining a few space-time magic spells people wanted to learn and eventually found. The spells used to create the pendants and the gateways the twins made are an example of these spells getting used. "You got a new grimoire?"
"I got it on the errand the president sent me on."
"Is it a space-time grimoire?"
"Yeah, I'd be willing to part with a few of these spells if you'd be willing to part with a few radiant passive spells."
"Why?"
I looked around and whispered in her ear, "I think my radiant marks are fading as I learn more necrotic magic."
"You're more suited to be a necromancer anyway"
"I won't deny that, but I still want as much power as I can get."
"I'll tell you what, I'll give you a week to look at my grimoire if you give me a week to look at that space-time one"
"Curious, are you?"
"We're researchers, it's only natural."
We traded books and I immediately started reading as much as I could as fast as possible. Perfect Recall should help me to remember everything I need to know when I need to know it but I still want to commit the entire book to memory in case she tells me I can't make a direct copy so I can have a copy in my mind to transcribe later.
She began decoding the space-time grimoire with a troubled expression. So I handed her the key I made when I first started decoding it, "it's only fair right"
"Thanks… do you mind if I transcribe this?"
"Not if you don't mind, I transcribe this."
She looked at me and knowing I'd get a copy one way or the other now that I had it she conceded and said, "do whatever you like." And so, I transcribed her grimoire as she transcribed mine. I took out my focus and used it to cast a passive radiant spell chantlessly. Detect Evil it will let me know in advance when people with bad intentions approach me with the will to carry them out. She saw my tattoos glow and noticed the radiant ones returning to a size more matched to the monsters they were fighting.