“I heard you were the first second grade guild founder. I’m sure there’s plenty of problems you had to face because of this, I wanted to ask you to share your experiences so that my path might go smoother.” Villin had decided to be fully honest when he talked with Ruby Von Hauser. Even though he had no proof whatsoever he had a feeling she had a way to tell when someone was lying. It was just a feeling though, perhaps caused by her particular golden eye-color.

“Well well, what a surprise. I suppose I could give you some advice but advice is an odd and unpredictable thing. It’s not static like information so the advice you might trade for could be useless to you.”

Villin nodded, it was to be expected. “What’s the price?”

Ruby Von Hauser squinted her eyes as she looked at Villin. He had been a hot topic earlier this day, she had made a decent profit off of their previous interaction, and there were some people who told her to contact them if she got new information on him. She suspected this could increase greatly tomorrow, when the fact he had passed the third grade would be released in the papers.

Nonetheless, she had to confirm her suspicion. Even though what she wanted to ask him probably wouldn’t be for sale because of its nature, she might be wrong. These kinds of uncertainties were the things she hated most.

“How did you get the qualification to establish a guild of your own?”

Her question didn’t surprise Villin too greatly, he thought for a moment on how to respond.

“Well, even though I can’t share it using words, there is something I can show you.” he decided to be careful. If Ruy wasn’t actually the other runemaster in the second grade the existence of the white tower might be in the papers the next day. He was pretty sure that wasn’t something that would be appreciated.

“Physical evidence is often more conclusive than statements, show me.”

After Ruby gave her affirmation Villin took out a small silver pin depicting a pen. It was the runemaster insignia.

“This… they told me I was the youngest runemaster since the creation of the tower,” Ruby said somewhat dejectedly. 

“You were, until earlier today.” Villin’s reply caused Ruby to smile wryly. Even though she wanted to talk to him more about the matter, business came first. She got her answer it is time she gave Villin his.

She then went on to explain some of the problems Villin would surely be facing.

The biggest problem was recruiting members. Ruby already had some problems recruiting capable members and she was of a noble bloodline, furthermore, she also made her guild a lot earlier, at that point, there were still some people without a guild.

Now the situation was different, everyone had a guild as they were required to have one after the second month and most of them had been in their guilds for close to two months now, over this period of time a sense of attachment and loyalty would often have been created.

So, in essence, Villin would have to steal the members of different guilds and this would be no easy feat. 

He would have to be very careful of those that wanted to join as well, currently, he was quite infamous already, it was possible people would join just to lower the guild reputation and cause trouble.

Once Ruby saw he got the message she asked him another question. “Do you currently have a girlfriend?”

Villin looked at her oddly when she asked that, I didn’t think you’d want trivial information like that.”

Ruby managed to avoid looking embarrassed and held her business-face “I myself might have no interest in these kinds of things but at the moment it is the most asked question about yourself. More magic crystals are always a good thing.”

Villin smiled and nodded, he really didn’t expect this to be the most asked question, then again, most-asked might only mean a handful of people. There were two other intelligence-guilds after all, it was just that Villin had a good feeling about Ruby, she seemed reliable, his instinct was also proven right now that he knew for certain she was also a runemaster.

“Alright, I currently don’t have a girlfriend.”

After receiving his answer Ruby continued giving advice.

The other thing she warned him about was spreading too thinly. Once Villin found members he would need to find a way to make everyone a cohesive unit. You couldn’t split them up without allowing them to work together from time-to-time, this would cause a rift to form between the members.

“Additionally,” she continued “you should sell enchanting blueprints and magic array blueprints to The Academy. They don’t force you to give away any truly valuable information while still paying extremely well. It also gets you a lot of reputation. You might even get some contribution points for when you get to the fourth grade.”

Villin nodded, realizing this was something unique to the two of them. Enhancing certain enchantments or magic arrays shouldn’t be too difficult, only costing him some time.

It also made sense they could still be improved by newly-minted runemasters. After all, what runemaster would waste their time improving extremely basic enchantments and magic arrays.

He thought about everything she had told him, there were many small things where she had gone in the wrong that he could avoid now, saving him from the trouble.

“Thank you Miss Ruby, I believe that will be all, even though I would love to discuss runes with you sometime.”

Ruby was about to say her goodbyes before thinking of something.

“Actually, Villin, I believe I have a piece of information that might be important to you.”

“Oh? Please do tell.”

Ruby smiled slightly “Then first you should pay. What is your type?”

Villin was about to ask what she meant before he realized. Probably another question asked because of popular demand. Villin couldn’t help but wonder what was wrong with people in this school. One of the papers accused him of being a traitor of the school and yet these questions were the most-asked.

When he decided to answer the question Villin felt stumped again. He didn’t really know in all honestly. He had been so busy studying magic he didn’t have time for all that, the only thing that ever happened was the moment between himself and Amelia back in the mortal world. 

‘One-eyed girls, yup, his type had to be one-eyed girls’. Villin almost laughed at his own mental joke there before thinking some more.

He had been rather keen on Kayley lately, even though he didn’t really have feelings for her yet. Thinking of this, he had his answer.

“I like people that are smart, I spend most of my time studying magic so my type should be people I can discuss magic with.”

Ruby shook her head when she heard that “You must not have a lot of options than with your current status. Also, I can’t help but notice you said people, do you like guys as well.”

Villin simply shrugged “I’m not sure, I suppose I’ll see in the future.”

His answer caused Ruby to smile, “Alright then, as for the information you might want. There have been four concerning questions about you. Two groups and one individual have asked for your weaknesses. Another two individuals asked about love spells after asking about you. Not much you can do about the first groups, just be careful. As for those two individuals, be even more careful. Love spells are very dangerous if the conditions are right.”

Villin thanked her before leaving. He didn’t care if people asked her about his weaknesses, he knew he would probably have some cocky brats wanting to take him on. His problems laid with the love spells, he hadn’t heard of those yet but immediately started heading toward the library to learn about them.