Villin just finished having a casual conversation with yet another elder when the dates arrived, a certain red-haired beauty seemed to be approaching him.

Yet when he looked at her he felt stunned. Kayley was approaching him in a red dress that fit nicely around her waist. Her red hair was curled causing her to look quite different compared to usual. She still wasn’t wearing makeup but looked stunning in her current state.

Villin approached her with a smile and when he noticed the action of the runemasters around him that were welcoming their own dates he mimicked them, inviting Kayley to a dance.

At this point, most of the tables consisting of food had already sunk into the floor and classical music began to play from all around them.

Villin got more-and-more nervous. It had been years since he had danced, he was completely unprepared for this.

When he put his hands around Kayley’s waist he slowed his breathing and focused himself, he could do this!

And so he took his first step, and then his second, and then he stumbled nearly falling to the ground.

‘Well fuck.’

The following hour could be called disastrous. It wasn’t just Villin, no, almost half of the runemasters stumbled around the dancefloor trying to follow their partners.

Villin was afraid Kayley would be offended in some way because of this but when he looked at her he saw she was trying to hold in her laughter only barely succeeding.

After half an hour some of the tables reappeared giving Villin a place to sit with his date.

And so Villin sat there, his head in his hands, having lost his pride.

“Don’t feel too bad.” Kayley said “The other runemasters must’ve done this dozens of times and most of them don’t even know how to dance.” she noted.

Villin let out a deep breath before sitting up properly, he scanned the dancefloor real quick to see if he could spot either professor Crumb or Ruby.

He noted beforehand that half of the runemasters were dancing together, this seemed to be the reason there weren’t as many dates as there were runemasters.

It didn’t take long for him to find Ruby and her date.

It had to be said that even now that you could go ahead and sit by the side, there were still plenty of bad dancers in the room. But none of them could compare to Hawk. When Hawk stumbled he didn’t just fall by himself, he took everyone around him with him. Just by looking for a minute, Villin saw Hawk was responsible for at least five different people to fall.

Villin could see that Ruby’s cheeks were bright-red, she seemed to be a little embarrassed by the whole situation.

It was hard to imagine how someone could be this bad at dancing, after a bit Villin and Kayley weren’t the only ones looking and discussing the duo. A number of other runemasters by the side were also discussing what could’ve caused a dancer this bad to be born.

Another ten minutes later, the duo also left the dancefloor, they were surprised by applause. “My goodness what a performance that was young man, never have I seen anything quite like that.”

A number of runemasters ‘complimented’ Hawk in such a way causing his face to turn red. Villin couldn’t help but laugh when he saw the welcome the duo had gotten.

A few minutes later the dancefloor was once more filled with tables and chairs and people were chatting and introducing each other’s dates. It was at this point that another group of individuals entered. They were the talented youths that were invited to the competition on this day. Seeing their arrival, Ruby and Hawk joined Villin and Kayley to assess the ‘enemies’.

There were about twenty youths that entered with varying ages. This affirmed that they were really looking at ‘talent’, they didn’t look for the strongest youths under twenty years of age.

The group guessed that about six of the youths would be around their age. Two of these wore grey robes, meaning they were students of runemasters.

There were another seven that were somewhere around sixteen and the rest was around the age of twenty.

As they were assessing their enemies Kalob Lannister approached the youths and gestured for Villin and Ruby to come over.

They did and the attention of the runemasters was quickly on them.

“Alright so, as you should know, this competition will have two sections. Firstly there will be a competition on runology. You will be given a goal you will have to complete using runes. This goal will differ according to your age. The older you are the tougher your goal will be. Whoever accomplishes their goal to the fullest extent will be properly rewarded.

“After this will be the combat competition. In this competition, you may only use items you have made. There are a few exceptions, if you do not have a self-made wand, for example, you will be given a basic one by us. This competition will start with the youngest contestants, and we will make our way up as more matches are finished. Once more, the winner will be properly rewarded.” Kalob announced.

Villin thought about the situation for a bit. Obviously, he wouldn't have a chance in the combat competition, he could only do his best. As for the competition on runologie, he thought he would have a great shot at winning that one. His competition would probably be Ruby and the two youths nearing twenty that had red robes on.

Once everyone was clear on the rules, the middle of the room was once more made available. A ring rose out of the ground, there were twenty-two dots spread out across the rings, each of them had a name written in the center.

It was quite clear what everyone was supposed to do and so each of the youths entered and found their spot. Villin noticed himself and Ruby were placed in the center of the ring.

“Now, let us begin the competition!”