Chapter 173: The Reunion

After Ruby and Villin's companions came out, a number of others got introduced as well. Surprisingly over half of the people in the top twenty were a part of Athena's Forge. Villin didn't recognize any of them, which made sense since all of these were in the third grade back when he was still in the second grade.

The boy that liked gossiping so much was proven right that most of those in the top twenty weren't up for grabs. 'Athena's Forge' seemed to be pretty united and there probably wouldn't be anyone willing to leave the guild that had such a bright future ahead of it.

Two more people that went from the second grade to the fourth grade in two years and were also in the top twenty were Hawk and Sara, the upper echelon of 'The Black Swans'. Sadly, one of their upper echelon couldn't pass the third grade in one year but the fact they had three members that moved from the second grade to the fourth in two years was already rather insane.

Normally, there would be one person in a year capable of passing the third grade in a single year, this year's lineup was far beyond simply impressive.

After the top twenty left, the other students came out in a large stream, the ones in the front were still those with better scores but the attention paid to these was a lot less.

Villin wanted to go and talk to his companions but found them completely surrounded by a big group of people. Kayley and Rein in particular were extremely popular while Amelia was trying to keep the people surrounding them away. 

Villin clacked his tongue, he crouched down and touched the ground with his hands, making transfiguration somewhat easier and after a couple of seconds, a wall erected around Rein, Kayley, and Amelia, keeping the others away.

The guild representatives that were trying to make contact with the group looked around for the perpetrator and Villin obviously stood out.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" A boy called out when he noticed Villin was the cause of the sudden barrier.

Villin scoffed as he turned towards him, many of the spectators now also looked towards him with frowns on their faces, in this place contacting was extremely important, guilds without allies would be attacked and robbed within days.

Yet Villin went against them without worries, he looked at the boy that had talked to him a few moments before and was now sweating furiously. Bloodlust was easy to fake and those that never trained their mind or hadn't gone through many stressful situations couldn't do a thing to defend against it.

Just as the surrounding students noticed that something was wrong with the person that accused Villin, he spoke, "My name is Villin Grey, leader of Athena's Forge. If you have business with the guild you will have to find our headquarters and talk with us there, anyone blocking our way here will be seen as an enemy and we will act accordingly!"

His voice boomed across the area, attracting stares even from people that hadn't been anywhere nearby.

Villin sent out his mental power and everyone around felt some pressure on their minds, a clear warning.

An explosion sounded out at this moment as the thin wall Villin had created to protect his core members was blown through and Amelia stepped out. Many of the students were already intimidated by Villin so when the 'One-Eyed Demoness' came out with a snarl on her face, the majority of the people backed off, with the others not closing in on them either.

Without the mental pressure a number of the people here would've surely called Villin out on his ruthless behavior, but when the pressure was added, being safe became a priority to most people here. It was clear that Villin wanted to intimidate his potential enemies and it was most likely he would set an example if someone offered themselves up.

The people in the fourth and fifth grades weren't stupid kids. They were all proper magi, and the representatives of the various guilds also knew how to play 'the game' to some extent.

Villin turned around and began walking towards the 'city', soon followed by Amelia, Kayley, Rein, and a number of other members of 'Athena's Forge'.

Amelia had an intimidating expression on her face as she stared at everybody head-on. Kayley seemed aloof as she didn't bother to look at anybody, pretending they were all trash. And Rein seemed down-to-earth as he smiled kindly and waved at people here and there.

None of them rushed up to Villin to ask how he was as they would've done if they alone. When it came to 'the game' they were some of the best players around. In the third grade, they were one of the biggest guilds around, and this wasn't just because of their strength, they knew how to appear, how to act, and how to talk.

Over this year they had purposefully changed their personalities somewhat, becoming three people in no way similar, a mysterious trio with diverse personalities, kept together by an even more mysterious leader, that was how they were seen.

Amelia the dangerous, Kayley the smart, and Rein the sincere. These were some of the other nicknames they had gotten. 

Something so simple, that seemed so simple, was actually extraordinarily important. It made them extremely well-known as many students would talk about them and stories would form, spreading their names. They would often appear in the various newspapers as everybody wondered how they got together and most people felt somewhat attracted to at least one of them.

After walking for a couple of minutes, Villin paused his steps a little so that he walked next to Amelia who was just behind him, "Where's our headquarters?" he asked as he had no idea. They told him that they commissioned a guild to make it during the break when they visited at Silver's place, but he didn't know where it was.

Amelia only barely refrained from smiling as she pointed to the left, looking that way, he immediately knew what their place was. Even from here, a good two-hundred meters away he could see a tower towering over all other buildings in the area.

Villin knew they were very rich and they had a bunch of members that just came from the third grade so a big initial headquarters was a must, as for making it large vertically, that had simply been the style of the guild. The initial tower Villin had built was made that way and his companions had kept the same style in the third grade.

As Villin came closer the size of the building stood out more and more. Most buildings around here were two or three floors tall, the bigger guilds simply made it wider. Since attacking was permitted, making tall structures wasn't done anymore, after all, one decent explosion could have it crumbling down.

But, first of all, Athena's Forge didn't know the fourth grade would permit attacking and things of the like. And even if they did, they had some of the best enchanters around, thanks to the guidance of Rein, the enchanters in their guild were stellar, they would be able to enchant the tower in no-time, keeping it safe from some basic explosions.

And that wasn't even counting Villin, who would be able to create a couple of magic arrays alerting them the moment anyone began casting a destructive spell outside.

The tower was magnificent. It had a total of fifteen floors, nearly reaching all the way up to the artificial ceiling. It seemed slightly wonky and unstable but some enchantments would be able to take care of that quickly. Currently, it had a bunch of support from the outside helping to keep it up, it was exactly how they had requested.

The four leaders of the guild stood just outside looking at the massive building while the other members were a few meters back appreciating the building as well. The guild that had created this had done a magnificent job for sure, Villin was also confident it would've cost a massive amount but he didn't mind that too much, he would probably be here for three years, maybe even four, and even after he was gone, this building would represent Athena's Forge.

Once the building could properly stand on its own and the supports were gone, it would be truly intimidating.

A bit later, they all entered the building, and the upper echelon went over to the top floors.

The five top floors were theirs. The eleventh floor was meant for meetings between them. The twelfth floor was for Rein, the thirteenth floor was Kayley's, the fourteenth Amelia's, and then the top floor was for Villin.

Each floor was massive, meant to hold dozens of people including their equipment and bed.

The building was partially furnished, the workstations, beds, and other essential furnishement were there, decorations hadn't been added yet though, they had agreed that those would all be created by the members, increasing their belonging to the guild, and they would pay their members for the decorations created.

Together, the four of them went to the eleventh floor, it was divided into several rooms, one of them had a big table with four chairs, it was here that they sat down.

Villin had a glint in his eyes as he looked at his companions, he noticed his chair was bigger than the others' but he didn't mention it, "Now, let us talk."