After explaining the situation with the ants, Villin asked them to gather the entire guild as he had an announcement to make. Soon after, everyone had gathered on the ground floor, it was rather packed like this, but that wasn’t a problem since everyone had a short break from work currently.

After seeing everyone that was available had gathered, Villin used transfiguration to raise himself above the others, making him visible to everyone in the guild.

Even though it quickly became quiet when he became visible, he didn’t say a thing for the longest time.

He looked at the people before him, taking in each of their faces, after he had looked at everyone in the eyes, he finally spoke.

“Hello members of Athena’s Forge. I know most of you don’t truly know me, and that is unlikely to change soon. When I created this guild two years ago, I had one goal in mind. I wanted to create a guild that innovates magic everywhere. Create bigger, better, magic.

“Now, I see that this dream is becoming more and more of a reality. Some of the people here are fully capable of creating complex enchantments on the tiniest of objects. Some of you here are capable of taking on half a dozen fourth graders all by yourself. Some of you here have managed to create your own derivative spells, enhancing magic in the truest way.

“I know all of you must be proud, incredibly proud to have reached these heights. But if you will, allow me to tell you all one thing.

“It is NOT enough.

“Your great enchanting skills won’t save you when you are faced by a dozen opponents all by yourself.

“Your combat prowess won’t be of use when you are forced to survive in a frozen tundra.

“Your knowledge on magic won’t help you in surviving an ambush.

“Let me repeat. It is NOT enough.

“You must master all of these skills and more. Earlier today, I created the skeleton of out core tower. In order to enter some extremely tough requirements will have to be met. Requirements none of those here have met quite yet.

“If you complete the requirements that shall be posted on the wall, I will teach you the most important, most underused branch of magic myself. You will be able to fight for true riches and follow myself and my three dearest companions, to explore the limits of magic.

“Survive, Explore, Improve. Do these things and you will reach unseen heights.”

After giving this long speech, Villin lowered himself to the ground again. The entire tower had grown deathly silent, all that could be heard were Villin’s footsteps as he walked back upstairs.

“Why do I feel so inspired despite having been told off?” the member that recovered the earliest asked, bringing the others out of their stupor.

Amelia, Rein, and Kayley reacted no different compared to the other members, and soon everyone began speaking again.

Nearly everyone had conflicted feelings about the speech just now, unsure of what to think about it. Soon after this, this changed into curiosity as everyone wondered what requirements Villin would put to become a core member.

Most expected that you would have to become slightly skilled at each of the professions he mentioned, reaching the level of a second-grader in all seemed somewhat likely while some thought Villin would go even more extreme and put requirements equivalent to becoming as good as a third-grader at each of them.

Around ten minutes later, when everyone was still gathered, lines of text began appearing on the wall. Villin used transfiguration to make these imprints. And the four requirements appeared, once everyone read it, they once more felt shocked.

Taking most of the treasure from a certain guild’s branch all by yourself? That was an insane request! Creating five useful derivative spells? How long would that even take? Reaching the top three in either a runic or pill exchange? There were literally only three people that could do each every three months. And then transfiguring a puppet with limited intelligence? There was only one person in the guild, other than Villin, that knew transfiguration, and she didn’t even know that was possible!

Because of the ludicrous requirements, there were two distinct reactions in the guild’s members. On one hand, there were those somewhat angry that Villin seemed to be wanted to keep the core tower only to himself and maybe his friends. On the other hand, there were some that got really excited. They had been constantly looking for challenges, it was the reason they came to Athena’s Forge. And now they had been tasked with the ultimate challenge.

The following two days, the situation developed further. The small libraries that had been made in the tower suddenly got more books in them.

One of them seemed to be a journal, and about twenty copies could be found in the library. The research journal talked about the web, or specific nodes to be more exact.

It was the research Villin and Kayley had done before he was captured. The amount of knowledge it held was rather massive and the vast majority didn’t understand most of it as it wasn’t structured like a schoolbook, it was incredibly chaotic.

A massive number of wooden spell books appeared as well, free to learn for every member that wanted it. These were the spells required to practice transfiguration. Athena’s Forge was extremely rich currently so this wasn’t much of an expense.

And finally, fox masks appeared. The masks looked as if they were made out of stone but it was reinforced with Blue Mythril. They were placed all around the tower so that anyone could grab one sneakily if they wanted to. The masks were similar to the one he had made when he fought a guild in the forest himself, just more refined.

These three things showed the members that Villin was serious. He gave them some of the resources needed to achieve the requirements, the rest was up to them. Of course, they would still be paid for their work and all that, but they would have to choose how to get funds and how to use them themselves.

As a final thing, Villin had contacted Ruby, commissioning her guild to keep a good eye on his members for decent pay.

Villin wanted to figure out which students were making moves and when. Even though there was nothing wrong with schemers, it was best to know who is and isn’t one.

One week passed and Villin was outside, working on one of the wards that would stop anyone from using invisibility spells to get in. It would be a great help overall. It was then that one of the members approached him, a boy called Max.

“Is anything the matter?” Villin asked after finished the rune he was working on.

Hearing his questioning words, Max paused for a moment before responding, “No, well, yes. Ehm. I saw that you need to report to one of the upper echelons to let them know when you are planning an attack, so, ehm, I’m going to attack someone soon.”

Seeing how nervous the boy was, Villin couldn’t help but smile. To think that this kind of boy would be the first to try and attack instead of the more typical combat types.

“Alright then Max, when and who will you be attacking?”

Subconsciously, Max looked over his shoulder to make sure nobody was watching before he responded, “I’ll try to attack ‘Today’s Oddities’, I’ll make my move in seven to nine hours from now, in the middle of the night.”

Villin had to admit he was surprised at the boy’s choice. ‘Today’s Oddities’ was a rather large guild. Then again, it wasn’t combat-focused at all and there was almost no reason to attack them, they probably didn’t have many valuable objects.

“Alright then. Remember, wear your mask and don’t get caught.”

After hearing Villin’s reminder, the boy nodded and turned away.

Villin paused in his work though as he thought about the boy’s choice. Today’s Oddities should have a decent amount of magical crystals but wouldn’t have any expensive materials or items. Then again, they did have information, a currency in and of itself. It was a decent choice, Villin thought, ‘Today’s Oddities’ never got attacked because they were a popular newspaper and would surely slander any attacker, that and they didn’t have many treasures.

This also meant that their defense would most likely be extremely bad. As far as Villin knew, Max was mainly an enchanter. He also dabbled in fighting but wasn’t even in the top third when looking at the entire guild, it was surprising he made a move first.

For the next couple of hours, Villin continued working on the ward. Then, six hours later, he stopped and began making his way towards Today’s Oddities.

The requirement of members having to tell the upper echelon before attacking wasn’t just to stop them from stealing credit, it was also to monitor them. They could have a look at how the student attacked, maybe learn from it, and make sure the student was working alone. Then, if something went wrong, they could jump in and rescue them before their identity was revealed.

No matter what, the identity couldn’t be made known. It wasn’t to save the guild’s reputation but to save the person themselves. If Max was caught and unmasked by Today’s Oddities, he would be personally slandered. Other victims of fox-masked attackers would also direct their anger on him.

Then, when someone found him and beat him in the wild, they could decide to leave him in the middle of a dangerous area unconscious.

No matter what, this was the best way to do things. And soon, it was time for Max to make his move.