On her way back, as promised she first went to Mr.Grimwald to tell him of her results.

As she reached the City Centre, she went straight to Mr.Grimwald’s stall who seemed to be free of customers at the moment.

Seeing Merlin walk towards him, Mr.Grimwald quickly rose from his seat to greet her.

“Merlin! What type of news do you bring?” he asked.

“Well, I managed to pass and will be attending the institute next month.” answered Merlin.

“Ahahaha, I knew it. Here I prepared something for you.” said Mr.Grimwald as he rummaged through his bag, taking out a necklace.

“I ain’t much of a blacksmith, but as a Dwarf I have other dwarf friends who are expert craftsmen. So here, an ether necklace. It will help in your mana training.” continued Mr.Grimwald as he handed it over to Merlin.

“Thank you, Mr.Grimwald.” sincerely thanked Merlin.

“Ha no problem; it's the least I can do for my favourite customer.” said Mr.Grimwald.

“Then bye Mr.Grimwald, and thank you.” said Merlin as she put on the necklace and left the stall.

A few minutes later she reached her home, where upon arrival she saw her mother awaiting her on the house porch sitting on the rocking chair doing some embroidery.

“Mom, I’m home.” said Merlin as she entered the home garden.

“Ah, Merlin, welcome home. I was just about to finish this. So, how is it?” said Nenevi.

“I passed.” answered Merlin.

“Congratulations, honey. I knew you would get in.” said Nenevi.

“Here, take this.” she continued as she gave her daughter the thing she was working on. The circular piece of cloth was fixed on a small circular wooden ring and the centre was decorated with himmelsamtal flower.

“Thank you mom.” said Merlin.

“Let's get in first; your father said he will return home today instead to celebrate your getting into the institute so can you help me prepare dinner?” said Nenevi.

“Sure mom.” said Merlin, happy that her father was returning early.

As the two girls were preparing their dinner, Nevil, the father of Merlin was busy inside the Tower studying the corrupted corpses of the creatures inside Abzi forest with Martin.

The corpse was that of a dryad, the protectors of the forest. It was set down on the analyzing table and as the table was inspecting the corpse, the two Council members were busy writing down the scan results.

“Hmm, what do you think of the results we got so far?” asked Nevil.

“Stranger really; they still seem normal so far.” answered Martin.

“Well, luckily we no longer have to psychically dissect it like before thanks to the Grand Magus’ invention.” said Nevil.

“Yes, this analysis magic really works wonders.” said Martin.

A few minutes later, the scan finally reached the important part - searching for the source and starting point of corruption in the body.

“ Finally. ” said Martin.

‘Corruption Analysis starting.

Scanning start :

Scanning body for corruption spots;................................................

Spot no.1 - core of dryad, percentage of corruption : 82.3%

Spot no.2 - Scanning……. no other spots found.

Scanning for possible points of entrance -

…………………………………………………….................................

Scanning finished : likelihood of entrance being air chamber = 100%

Scanning for corruption type…………………………………………..

Scanning finished : likelihood of corruption being airborne = 93%

Scanning whether corruption is contagious………………………….

Scanning finished : Corruption found to be contagious.

Scanning whether found corruption affects the major races:

……………………………………………………………………………

Scanning finished : 1)Jormunds - unaffected. 2)Faeries - unaffected. 3)Eathra - unaffected, 4)Aedras - unaffected. 5)Elves - likely unaffected. 6)Demons - likely unaffected. 7)Undeath - affected. 8)Beastkins - likely unaffected. 9)Humans - likely affected 10.Orcs - likely affected. 11)Giants - likely affected. 12)Dwarves - affected.

Analysis stopping.’

“Wait, calculate chances of likely and affected races to be fully corrupted.” said Martin.

‘Analysis starting:

Scanning for chances of full corruption among susceptible races:

…………………………………..

Scanning finished : 1)Undeath - 76% 2)Humans - 29%

3)Orcs - 20% 4)Giants - 10% 5)Dwarves - 64%.

Analysis stopping…….

Analysis finished.’

“Well, the results are worse than I thought.” said Martin.

“Yep, Didn’t think the corruption would affect 5 of the major races.” said Nevil. “Seems like things are going to get troublesome for us.” he continued.

“Yeah, but first we have to know how much visitors we have from the outside, then from that we will find out who came in from the forest road.” said Martin.

“Aaaaah, more work for us.” sighed Nevil. “But, I have to go home for my daughter. So can you trouble the other members just for today?” continued Nevil.

“Sure, a promise is a promise. Won’t want to disappoint my children either.” said Martin.

“Thanks man.” said Nevil as he walked outside the room.

“Phew, now then let's see who among the Council members are free.” said Martin as he started contacting them.

Meanwhile, inside the house Merlin and her mother were busy preparing food for the night.

“Now that there’s only 1 thing left to prepare, follow me.” said Nenevi to Merlin as she walked outside the house, Merlin following her.

Outside there was a cooler which wasn’t there before and Nenevi going up to it opened the large cooler; and inside it was a huge fish, around 5 meters long.

“This is your first time seeing this right, honey.” said Nenevi

“Yes, what fish is this?” asked Merlin.

Taking out the fish with her hands, Nenevi answered her daughter - “This is a King Fish, famous for its taste and difficulty to obtain it. You see, a friend of mine is a capable fisherman so I bought it from her. It is our celebratory meat and I am sure you and your father will love it.”

Now finished with displaying the fish to her daughter, Nenevi placed the fish in the air making it float with wind magic as she started preparing a place for roasting it.

“Merlin, do you still remember how to remove the insides of a fish?” asked Nenevi.

“Yes.” replied Merlin.

“Good, then can you please clean the King Fish. The process is similar.” said Nenevi.

“Ok mom.” said Merlin as Nenevi guided her to the cutting table on the right side of her by levitating the fish to it.

Nenevi had already put the necessary items for the whole process so Merlin quickly cut open the fish and started cleaning it, removing the guts and throwing them into a bucket.

Having finished placing firewood and setting up the grill, Nenevi went to her daughter’s side and became a spectator of Merlin’s work.

“Oh… You have gotten better at this, honey.” remarked Nenevi.

“Yes, mom. I ate some meat inside the forest so it was good practice.” replied Merlin.

A few minutes later, Merlin finished cleaning the insides of the fish and as such, her mother started the fire in the roasting station.

Placing the King Fish on the steel grill, the fish slowly started getting roasted. The appetizing smell of the fish started to spread around in the neighbourhood and Nenevi was busy monitoring the fish.

Nevil, who was now near the Council Property could also smell the King Fish and realizing the smell was coming from his home made him walk faster towards it.

Reaching the gates of his house, he saw his wife monitoring and switching the sides of the fish and his daughter beside her looking at her mother.

“Ooooh that’s a nice fish you have there.” said Nevil as he went inside the gate.

Hearing his husband speak, Nenevi immediately looked towards the gate and welcomed him home.

“Welcome home dad.” said Merlin as she too welcomed home her father.

“Ah Merlin, congratulations on getting into the institute.” said Nevil as he smiled and patted her daughter’s head.

“Thank you father.” said Merlin with a light smile on her face.

“Well then, here’s a gift your mother and I had prepared for you. It's an inventory pouch.” said Nevil as he handed over the item to her.

Surprised at the gift her parents had prepared for her, Merlin happily accepted it, “Mom, dad; thank you so much.” she said, as the gift she received was one she had wanted to have for a long time - an inventory pouch; a pouch made of leather which can fit dozens of items inside it despite its small size due the addition/implementation of space magic inside the pouch.

“Now you know how rare these things are, so be careful not to reveal it around too much.” advised Nenevi.

“I will mom.” replied Merlin.

“Now then, where did you get the fish from dear?” asked Nevil.

“From the Leicaster family my dear.” replied Nenevi.

“Ah yes, you have a friend from that family right? Uhm…..Valki was it?” said Nevil.

“Yes, anyways now that the fish is ready let us go in shall we?” said Nenevi.

“Sure but you two get in first, I’ll clean this up and follow.” said Nevil.

As the two went inside the house, Nevil dismantled the roasting station and placed it inside the storage box located near it and taking the bucket of fish insides, he basically vaporized it with fire magic and threw the ashes into the trash.

“Ah, finally… home.” he said as he went inside the house.

Inside Merlin and Nenevi were busy re-warming some of the food.

“Nevil, dear go take a bath first. We will wait for you.” said Nenevi.

Hearing this, Nevil went up the stairs and took his bath.

A few minutes later, now clean with a fresh pair of clothes Nevil went downstairs and into the kitchen. The kitchen table was now full of food and the centerpiece of the table being the King Fish which was roasted to perfection.

“Dad, come we’ve finished setting the table.” said Merlin, calling his dad.

“Coming Merlin.” replied Nevil as he went inside the kitchen and sat down on the table.

Both Nenevi and Merlin also sat down at the table and the three enjoyed the food as they talked about different subjects, the main topic being Merlin and the institute.