“Good, now, if I were to use the Byron runic chain, it may be possible to switch between a passive and active state, I’ll just need to find a way for it to identify threats and we should be good,” Max mumbled as he looked at a stone golem in front of him.

The rigid stone golem was about two meters tall, it was created by merging a multitude of stone blocks together using transfiguration, since Max wasn’t too good at the art yet, this was the only way he could get it to have a humanoid shape. The golem lacked hands and feet but due to the material used, it should have enough grip to move around properly if he could finish the task.

Max clacked his tongue as he thought of the tasks completed. He was the first to succeed in robbing a guild’s main riches and it helped him massively financially. Shortly after this, he also reached second place in the runic exchange, placing just behind Rein. This meant he completed half of the requirement, the tasks that were left included creating a golem capable of defending the tower passively and creating either one completely new useful spell, or five new useful derivatory versions.

After some thought, Max decided to focus on the task where he had the highest chance of success first He was an enchanter and magic array-creator first and foremost so he figured he would have some chance at completing the golem task in a relatively small period of time. He learned some basic transfiguration and quickly began experimenting, while Villin was in Atlantis he was practically locked inside of the tower, working tirelessly on the enchantments that could create the desired effect. Max wasn’t looking to create a great golem, just one that fit the requirements, at least for the time being.

Yet, he kept on getting stuck at the most difficult step. He found a way to create fake joints using enchantments, allowing the golem to move properly, he even managed to insert a small moveset of fighting techniques that the golem was capable of performing. The biggest hurdle was getting the golem to see without spending too much power and recognize threats.

The last bit was the toughest, something basic such as ‘the golem will activate when it sees a wand or an offensive spell being used’ wouldn’t work since allies would also be attacked. If someone attacked ‘Athena’s Forge’ the guild’s members would be using offensive spells of similar destructive abilities compared to the enemies’.

After putting a great deal of thought into it, Max decided that finding a way to do this section himself may not be the best thing to do. If he could get the information from someone else that would be more ideal. He decided to put the names of those that may be able to help on paper to help him decide how to handle this. Villin and Rein stood on top of the list, the others were the leaders of various transfiguration guilds that may have that kind of information.

“But, if they have this kind of information it’d be too valuable to give away. Even with the information I still have from my raid, I doubt I’d be able to trade for it,” he told himself as he scratched a few names off the list.

Villin and Rein were the first names he got rid of. If he could just ask them for the solutions the requirements for becoming a core member would be a joke, they were supposed to find a way themselves. But then again, perhaps a trade could be made with Villin or Rein if he showed his skills while doing so.

After this thought came into his head he quickly formulated a plan, he got rid of all the names of the various guild leaders and wrote down two new names.

Professor Jaiden Howitzer and professor Baldur Wing. These were the two respected transfiguration teachers, if there was any place within The Academy that taught how to create passive golems it would most likely be given to the elite students, those that got to the sixth grade. As for teachers, they were generally the elite even amongst sixth-grade students before graduating.

Since professor Baldur Wing was over sixty years old, Max scratched his name out as well. Even though the likelihood of him having the required technique was higher, he had too much experience, some students stood nearly no chance of stealing or fighting him.

This left behind professor Jaiden Howitzer, she wasn’t even thirty yet but was an extremely talented student in a multitude of courses, she ended up teaching transfiguration out of her own choice.

Now alone, Max didn’t stand much of a chance of doing anything. Even though students were allowed to fight and all that without consequences as long as they didn’t kill each other, this didn’t include teachers, if he were to attack a teacher, he’d be in serious trouble.

Robbing teachers was most likely also forbidden but if nobody knew who did it, it wouldn’t matter much and Max could always get rid of the book holding the technique after learning it so it couldn’t be traced back.

Before realizing it, Max had spent a handful of hours thinking of various situations and possibilities. After this time passed, he found himself walking towards Amelia’s office.

-------------------

Villin smiled as he looked at the creatures surrounding him, there were dozens of giant ants around him allowing him to initiate the conversation with the queen ant.

“Where are my metals? Did you lie to me about the compensation?” the queen ant painfully said to Villin’s consciousness while he kept a smile on his face.

“No, I was simply away for some time, I have returned now and I have the metals I owe you, as well as more to by the lives of some of your children,” Villin said casually before overturning two spacial bags revealing a small mountain of iron ore.

Villin could feel the queen ant was somewhat speechless at first, but after a bit, two-dozen ants split off of the main group and went to stand behind Villin, “Here, after taking what you owe, you have enough for these.” the queen ant said as some of the other giant ants began carrying the iron ore.

“No, I’ll just take ten. The others are capital. If someone comes here with the crest of Athena’s Forge and kills some of your children, it would be best to just chase them out, this is payment in their stead.”

Even though the queen ant didn’t completely understand why he would do things this way, she gave him a mental nod before a number of the ants sent behind Villin went back to their nest leaving behind only ten.

Villin simply nodded before turning around and beginning to leave, followed by the ten giant ants that were now his. He got all the way to the edge of the tile when the ants stopped following him, it seemed they were completely unable of traversing beyond the border. With science on his mind, Villin used his strength and barely managed to carry an ant, he took a few steps with it and put it beyond the border, once placed down, the ant stopped doing anything at all, Villin entered its mind and found that its connection with the queen ant had been severed. He then ended up just killing the ten ants before putting them inside of his spatial bag.

When he got back to the core tower, Villin first cooked up a basic meal using the ants’ meat and organs. He found that the meat of the ant wasn’t the only tasty bit, the majority of its ingredients ended up being. There were a few that were slightly poisonous but a basic pill could easily take care of it.

Villin cooked the meat very lightly before eating it, Salmonella wasn’t too big of a threat here, (similarly due to pills) so he could experiment with it properly. He found that whether properly cooked or not, the meat was extremely tender, the taste would change somewhat though.

If someone ate a bite of raw meat from the giant ant and a piece of properly cooked meat, they would most likely think they were from completely different animals.

Even though he wasn’t a cook and wasn’t planning to be one either, Villin found it most important to at least test the new delicacy out somewhat. It was possible that the meat from the giant ants would be the primary source of income for Athena’s Forge when they left The Academy, if they could export the meat that is, or relocate the nest. The carapaces were also very strong but not everyone had a need of those, even though Magi generally died young, it was more often due to failed experimentations than fights.

Since Kayley would be doing the work for their tiny revenge plan against The Academy and Athena’s Forge was pretty much running itself right now, there wasn’t much Villin needed to do right now. He had considered going on a mission again but knew that most of them were rather useless to him. He could also try to go further out and explore the more dangerous areas but it was a large risk since he could always meat another tile such as the one with the giant ants but with a less talkative leader.

After thinking of what would help him gain the most strength currently, Villin decided he wanted to go out shopping outside of The Academy. The Academy was currently the second greatest school in the continent but this didn’t mean it had all the techniques the school ranked tenth had, for example, they just had the second greatest overall strength.

Then again, despite having read quite a few books, Villin never found a mention of some shopping mall or auction hall he could go to, it seemed that he would have to ask one of the more experienced teachers where he could find such a place and if students were allowed to go there.