Even though choosing a date wasn’t that big of a deal, Villin still found it to be of some importance. There were four candidates he could choose between.

Firstly there was Rein, his ‘assistant’. Rein had been helping him in making the puppet and bringing him along might help Rein improve his abilities.

The second person was Ruby, even though Villin didn’t know her very well, she was the second youngest runemaster alive, going together would also be a great help to both of their statuses.

But after thinking for a while, Villin decided not to go with either of them. Both of them would be calculated choices, he would rather go with someone he would actually see as a date.

So he had to pick between Amelia and Kayley. Even though Villin never acted or focused on it. He had some feelings for both of them after spending so much time with them both. And so, Villin walked down the steps of the new guild tower, to the second floor.

Kayley was standing at one of the pill-making stations finishing up a batch of healing pills. After waiting for a few more minutes, she finished up and pocketed a couple of bright-red pills.

When she noticed him behind her she smiled “Hey Villin, how are you doing?”

“Doing great! Say, Kayley, I am expected to take a date with me to the gathering in a couple of weeks, you wanna come?”

Villin decided not to hide his intention in any way, he wasn’t so awkward that he wouldn’t dare to call it a date. Still, he was somewhat nervous.

Kayley brightened up when he asked her “Sure! Let’s go together then!”

Hearing her affirmation Villin could relax a bit and the following couple of hours the two of them were engaged in discussion, once more trying to unravel the mysteries of the web.

The next two weeks were once more filled with preparation. After spending another week improving the puppet, Villin was occupied making a number of small runic devices, mostly just to see if he could get any more insights.

During this time, he asked Rein to begin enchanting the outside of the tower, each brick would have to be enchanted individually. Right now, Rein was making two types of enchantments. Enchantments to make the bricks more magic resistant and enchantments allowing the bricks to hold a certain number of magic power.

After the gathering, Villin entended to connect the enchantments on all bricks and cast the special derivatory spell of Reverto. Hopefully, the enchantments would help the shield be even stronger than before. He hoped this would then bring a bunch of publicity and be proof of the skill of both himself and Rein.

Nonetheless, this was all for the future as, right now, it was time to go. Villin was in the middle of enchanting something when Amelia ran up, telling him that professor Crumb had arrived at the guild tower.

Villin immediately put the disk in his hand away and made his way down, Kayley walking just behind him. Once they exited the tower they could see professor Crumb standing in his silver robe looking as stern as ever.

“Hello, professor! I am sorry, I thought we were only supposed to go tomorrow.” Villin apologized immediately since he felt that it was a bit rude that professor Crumb had to come to them.

“Phuh, don’t think about the little things boy, you are above that.” he scoffed “And indeed, the gathering is tomorrow, it is just that there is much to discuss before we go.”

After saying this he turned to Rein, he was busy enchanting the outer wall of the tower when the professor had arrived “Boy, I suggest you change the Sifficus enchantment with the Carilos one. Even though the Sifficus one is indeed better when performed alone. It will not only resist magic power sent at it but also the bits nearby, it will hamper the other enchantment’s ability to gather magical energy.”

After saying his bit, the professor turned around, soon followed by Villin and Kayley.

Villin and Rein were, of course, happy to get the professor’s advice, neither of them was so fragile they would take the advice negatively and Rein quickly began destroying his previous enchantments to redo them.

“So, boy, who is the girl you are taking with you?” the professor asked with his usual serious tone.

“Hey name is Kayley Alius, she is extremely talented in pill-making and the studies of the web, she is also one of my closest friends.”

Hearing his introduction the professor turned his head to look at Kayley, squinting his eyes a bit “Hmm, an Alius is it. Well then, a pleasure to meet you, miss. I do suggest you don’t reveal your last name when we are at the gathering, when your father is mentioned things can get quite… heated.”

With a slight frown, Kayley nodded. She didn’t know all that much about her father. She knew he was a fallen magus and he used to be part of the council but that was all she really knew about it, she knew very little about the events leading to this situation.

The professor then handed Kayley a small iron pin with a three on it, this would allow her to go to the third grade without problems. At this point they were already nearing the teleportation array leading to the third grade, Villin was surprised to see two people waiting next to the golden door.

On the left was a woman with silver hair and golden eyes. It was none other than Ruby Von Hauser. Standing next to her was a boy that also had silver hair but had red eyes making him look somewhat mean. Villin recognized him, the few times he talked to Ruby, he was also in the room, his name was Hawk if he recalled correctly.

“Alright, time to go through.”

When the professor said this, everyone pinned on their iron pins that depicted a three, then they followed the professor through the door.

While they were walking through the third grade everyone stayed silent. A number of people here recorded their actions with a number of magical devices. This would probably be big news. Not only were Villin and Ruby moving through the third grade together but there were two more people with them.

Still, the only one who seemed to care about all of this was Hawk. Whenever one of the people of the third grade took out a magical device generally used for recording things, he would stand between them and Ruby while glaring at the student. Villin could tell Ruby felt slightly embarrassed seeing Hawk act this way while walking with one of her peers but didn’t comment on it.

Once they went through another teleportation array, the group arrived at the white tower. Hawk and Kayley were quickly stunned when they saw the window, the sight was truly beautiful.

After looking at this sight for a bit, the group made their way toward professor Crumb’s office. There was only one day left until the gathering, and hell, there was a lot they had to go through.