Chapter 99: Athena’s Forge

The following week passed by quickly. He attended all of the classes once but sadly there was only a single one Villin felt was interesting, this was 'Tactics of War' the new elective class Villin had applied for. This class taught the students leadership, how a team should move in certain situations, and how to respond to changes in the environment.

Even though it was quite rigid and much of what they had been taught would be useless in practical combat scenarios there were still some tactics that could be used or adapted.

Whenever Villin was not in class he would be learning spells or working on enchantments, Elinoire had also returned and she seemed fine so Villin ignored her, making sure there would always be a barrier between them when he was practicing runes, he didn't want his techniques to be stolen.

After this time had passed Villin was also prepared to create his own guild. He was now standing together with his three companions.

"I would like to invite you all to Athena�����s forge. This guild will be focused on revolutionizing a multitude of magic fields. Looking around I can see the magical community has gotten somewhat stagnant in its progress, I believe I'll be able to change that if I can get the right people to help me out."

He chose Athena's forge because Athena was the goddess of Wisdom, Handicraft, and Warfare in greek mythology. It was a goddess that perfectly encapsulated what he was trying to do. Wisdom was what was required to advance magic as a whole. Handicraft would include things such as runology and wand-making, and as for warfare, well, that one was pretty obvious.

Kayley agreed to join without question, she had already intended to do so for a while. She had looked around the guild hall multiple times the last weak and other than the two guilds that focused on pill-making nothing seemed interesting to her in the slightest. Pill-making was too little for her as well. Sure she had a great amount of talent for the craft but she cared about her other research as well.

Amelia didn't hesitate much either. She had a lot of fate in Villin and didn't see a reason to doubt him now, certainly not now that he was a runemaster as well.

As for Rein, he was clearly doubtful. Seeing him hesitate for so long, Villin took the initiative to speak, "It's alright Rein, as I told you all before you can join a different guild if you want to, I don't mind!"

Hearing this, Rein looked at him with a complicated expression "It's not that Villin, it's just that, I don't think I'll be of any use. Your guild stands for innovation, this means the members should be intelligent and extremely talented. Even though I take pride in my intelligence, I'm just not as talented as you all. All I'm really good at are magic arrays, and hell now that you're a runemaster that doesn't mean much anymore anyway. I simply don't believe I can contribute."

Seeing Rein like this, Villin shook his head. "Rein, you're wrong. Simply because I'm a runemaster you are assuming I'll just be able to do all sorts of crazy research by myself right? I can't. Enchantments and magic arrays are often used by runemasters as well, it is done so because they are easier to draw and take less time and effort to create. Even if this wasn't the case, the sheer number of experimentation I'll need to do to make good pieces of equipment is extremely large.

"Remember the puppet I made? It took a month for me to finish that one. And even now it will still probably take me twenty days on my own. I honestly wanted you all to do whatever you wanted, if you have something you want to try out, then do so. But since I have heard your concerns so clearly I must ask, do you want to be my assistant? It would save a lot of time if someone could create a number of the enchantments and magic arrays needed for my projects. And hell, even the puppet has a large number of full enchantments and magic arrays within it, a lot of time could be saved like this." Villin finished his short speech with a complicated expression.

Villin didn't like how he spoke to Rein just now, asking one of his companions to be his 'assistant' almost seemed insulting to himself, but surprisingly, after thinking for a few moments Rein agreed.

In reality, it was a natural choice no matter what angle you viewed it from. Rein would be able to learn a lot from Villin by working with him, even if he didn't realize the essence of runes, it would also allow him to practice a lot. Even if this wasn't the case, once the whole situation was revealed he would also gain status from it. After all, Villin was a runemaster and he would be half a student of his.

But this all wasn't what Rein thought about, he just wanted to be able to keep doing things with the three people in front of him without holding them back, Villin just gave him an opportunity to do so.

Shortly after this little meeting, Villin set out toward the Grade Holder to officially establish the guild 'Athena's Forge' he was sure it would be in the papers by the next day. He had already gotten quite a bit of attention from the two newspapers the last week, his trip with professor Crumb through the third grade was revealed, they also heard a teacher from Class A came to get him in the dormitories to give him presents. He was currently a hot topic of discussion, he did notice a lot of people looked at him negatively though, a natural thing considering there were suspicions he was a traitor of the school and Elinoire's bodyguard.

After this he went to find professor Crumb, he just finished up a class and so Villin found a moment to hand him the response letter for the Lannister household.

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To:

Kalob and Sally Lannister

Hosts of the annual Runemaster conference

I would like to gracefully accept your invitation to the annual Runemaster conference. I am extremely content that I'll be able to meet you both in person. Runemaster Crumb has said a lot of positive things about you.

Even though I am still lacking in overall skill, I would also like to accept the invitation to compete against other promising Magus. I simply hope I will not be embarrassing myself too badly.

Once more I wish to thank you for your invitation, I will meet you all the first day of the following month.

Sincerely Yours,

Villin Grey

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Before asking professor Crumb to deliver the letter he asked if the letter was alright. After all, he didn't know the Lannister household's titles, for example, hence he simply put 'Hosts of the annual Runemaster conference' but professor Crumb assured him it would be fine. He was also quite surprised to see Villin mention himself in the letter. Even though it was a complete lie and professor Crumb had never talked with Villin about the Lannister household, he was quite happy Villin would be putting him in a positive light and the Lannister household would probably be flattered as well.

In the end, things went alright, but things would only get more difficult. He felt like the days were many times shorter compared to before. He simply had so much to do. He had to properly let the school know of his guild and its purpose, otherwise, they would forever remain at four members. He would also need to work on both spells and another puppet.

Despite the lack of time, Villin still felt rather content, things were going good, Decorus surely wouldn't have enough strength to try and attack again so soon and he saw the people that thought he was a traitor as irrelevant.