Villin felt extremely excited as he realized where he was. At the same time, he also felt thankful, it was clear Silver had given him the wand sheath that was attached to his arm.

Just as most others were doing at the moment, he grabbed his wand and inspected it. It was a black smooth piece of wood, there wasn’t a handle or anything of the like making it look rather slippery. When you touched it however you could feel how rough the wood actually was reassuring him that accidentally dropping your wand probably didn’t happen very often.

This was the first grade’s basic level wand given automatically to new students. When he looked at the wands of other people he actually noticed a person about twenty meters away from him that was holding a different one. He saw the girl’s wand was dark red and there were two small barriers on one side of the wand creating a very simple handle.

As if she felt that someone was looking at her the girl immediately turned toward him. She had bright red hair and a rather small nose, her lips were thin and skin fair. She could be considered a typical beauty. Before she looked at him she looked rather arrogant looking at the people around her with a faint amount of disdain but when she looked into his eyes she immediately turned stunned. A moment after that he noticed she blushed as she hurriedly closed her mouth and turned away in embarrassment.

Villin felt extremely weird when he noticed her reaction. He checked his robe to make sure nothing weird was on him, seeing there was nothing abnormal he could only shrug and wait for something to happen. And just as he thought that a loud voice boomed through the hall.

“WELCOME CHILDREN, TO THE ACADEMY!”

Villin hurriedly used his hands to cover his ears before looking up towards where the sound came from. When he looked up he was the one to feel stunned. A large face appeared in the sky above them. It was about twenty meters wide and a multitude of them had appeared at the same time so that everyone could see at least one of them. The face was in black and white and no color could be seen on it, it almost seemed like it was made out of mist.

The man depicted had a sharp nose and curly hair. Even though he couldn’t see color he could tell the man had a ghastly complexion too. Just as he thought that the man started speaking again.

“IN A MOMENT SOME CONTRACTED WILL COME AND EXPLAIN THE RULES TO ALL OF YOU, LISTEN CAREFULLY AND BE PREPARED FOR THAT ONLY A TENTH OF THE PEOPLE HERE ARE EXPECTED TO GRADUATE!”

Villin felt that his eardrums would shatter if the man kept talking but luckily he stopped as the mist which the faces were made of dissipated.

A massive door appeared on one end of the halls as hundreds of people entered making their way to a specific kid. 

Contracted. These were mortals who found out about, or were exposed to magical society on accident and were then allowed to join it as long as they signed a contract. In fact, it was more accurate to call them slaves with the conditions they were given.

A bit of time passed as a fourty-year-old man made his was toward Villin before just standing opposite of him and not speaking a word. The other contracted around did the same time as they didn’t reply if the kids were to ask them something. 

When the final contracted got into place something...magical happened. First Villin thought the floor had just switched color as brown appeared on the ground in squares and rectangles but soon he was proven wrong. Out of the ground everywhere came small rectangular tables and wooden chairs. The small table was set between himself and the contracted while he actually had to move to get off the chair as it was growing upward.

About ten seconds had passed until the items were fully out of the floor and many of the students seemed to be just as surprised as he was. Before he thought his surprise was probably childish and most kids here would find it normal but he was proven wrong, it seemed like making chairs and tables rise out of the ground was an impressive feat.

Villin soon went ahead and sat in his chair and it was then that the contracted who sat before him started speaking in a monotone voice.

“Alright so welcome to the academy, if you have any items that you had permission to bring they were either put on your person or put beneath your bed. If you wish to follow any of the optional classes the payment is at the start of each month beginning now, so please let me know if there are any classes you wish to sign up for. And then here are the rules so please read them over and sign at the bottom.”

When the monotone man finished his words he retrieved a few pages of paper out of his white robe putting them onto the table.

“I’d like to sign up for ‘enchanting’, ‘pill-making’, and ‘magic arrays’, please.”

After saying this he took the fingernail-sized pieces of crystal out of his robe and put them on the table, there were ten of them. The man took seven of them and put them away allowing Villin to retrieve the other three.

After this he read the rules, there weren’t too many of them and things were quite simple. Firstly divulging information about the school was forbidden with a few exceptions such as saying which classes there were. Alongside killing other students these were the only rules who were absolute and where there wasn’t any leeway. Other rules such as not casting offensive spells outside of both class and the dueling grounds all had a fine on them. If you paid the fine you’ll be allowed to go after spending some time in ‘the chamber of horrors’. Other than being a place with a rather scary name there was no other info on this place.

The rules seemed rather fair overall and there was nothing that stood out. He was just about to ask for a pen when he saw a student next to him use his wand to stab his own hand causing a bloody wound to appear. The student couldn’t help but let out a yell before tapping the bloody top of the wand onto the paper.

Soon more yells came from other places in the hall as they used the same method to sign. A few others used their teeth to bite their thumb before wiping the blood onto the top of the wand to sign. Villin himself also decided to use this technique as he bit into the skin of his thumb while moving his hand away with full force.

He barely managed to stop himself from yelling out as the thumb hurt like a bitch. He then got some of his blood onto his wand and tapped it onto the contract. After this the contracted simply retrieved them before getting out of the chair.

“Now please make your way out of the room through the large gate to have your web activated.”

After saying these words the man hurriedly made his way toward one of the sides of this massive wall. As soon as he got there a small door appeared, once he went through, it went away once more.

And so Villin stood up and started making his way toward the massive door the contracted had come out of, he had to be careful not to bump into anyone as there wasn’t a lot of space left now that all the tables and chairs had appeared.

It was only when he truly stood in front of the door that he realized how massive it was, however. It stood there with a height of over fifty meters, reaching all the way to the ceiling, it was opened slightly allowing those that finished signing to go through. Villin was sure that if the door was as heavy as it looked it would be nearly impossible for the people here to open even if they worked together.

Through the gap of the door, he only saw a blinding white light hiding where the people that went in went toward.

With little hesitation he also went in, being forced to close his eyes. After just walked a few meters he suddenly felt sick to his stomach as he was able to open his eyes again. He immediately leaned onto a nearby wall as he did his best not to puke.

“No worries if you have to puke, it’s pretty easy to clean up Villin, just a spell away you know!”

At this point, Villin finally managed to stop gagging and he could have a proper look around the room.

The room wasn’t big, only about ten meters by ten meters. He was standing in a corner while in the middle of the room was a kind-looking man holding a crystal ball. The man seemed to be about fifty and his hair was starting to become grey. He looked healthy and full of vigor as well unlike the contracted he saw. Additionally, he was wearing a Silver robe showing he was a teacher of class B.

Villin didn’t ask how he had gotten his name because it was probably just using magic so he simply replied.

“Thank you for your concern professor but I am fine now.”

Villin bowed slightly as he read that this was a sign of respect and when he looked up he heard the man laugh.

“Well, would you look at that. If you are so sophisticated and smart even before learning magic I can’t help but fear how you will be once you awaken the web.”

Even though Villin didn’t understand what he could only see as this teacher’s banter but he nonetheless smiled a bit and nodded so he wouldn’t look dumb.

“Well then mister Grey, come on over here and awaken your web, I assume you have been looking forward to this day, haven’t you”

“Yes, very much so professor!”

Villin didn’t lie as truly had been awaiting getting his magic. When he did it wouldn’t be long before he could cast magic and make true enchantments. After saying his words he walked up to the professor waiting for something to happen.

“Alright then Villin, go ahead and touch the crystal ball. When you do you might feel a force trying to enter your consciousness, don’t try to impede it and allow it to enter even if it might feel a tad weird.”

Villin nodded nervously as he tried to clear his mind, what if his excitement would cause him to accidentally resist the web? That would be the worst scenario possible.

With his mind now somewhat cleared he reached out and touched the crystal ball.

If one were to ask how this experience was he truly wouldn’t know how to reply. He felt as if something was trying to make its way into his thoughts and become a part of them. His instinct would’ve been to try and fight it if the kind teacher hadn’t told him to do the opposite. The force went in further and further until it made its way into an unfamiliar part of his mind, one that was empty as if it were missing something. Then this force expanded and filled this space up.

Villin gasped as he stumbled back, nearly falling to the ground. ‘I can feel the air.’ this was his first thought. He felt something all around him, pushing against his skin as if asking him to let it in. Inside of his body has this very same ‘air’ filling it up entirely. Other then this he could also feel his mind quickened even further, if he previously needed an hour to read a book then now he would only need thirty minutes.

“Alright Villin, so what just happened is that you have gotten a ‘web’. Once you go out of this room you should try to connect with it, this should take about an hour, once this happens simply observe the web do not try to make any connections, it is extremely dangerous and may prove fatal if you pick the wrong one!”

Villin nodded slightly overwhelmed as he tried to understand what had just happened.

“Now try to expel the weird force you feel within your body, it’s called magic power.”

Villin tried to use his mind to expel the new force he felt and surprisingly it was rather easy to go so and soon he could see his body glowing, he could even feel the force around him getting slightly thicker.

“Well done Villin, seems like you got the hang of it rather quickly, welcome to class B. I must say I truly do look forward to teaching a bright young man such as yourself.”

Villin nodded as he got his mind back in order. “Thank you, professor!”