It took five days for Villin to finally wake up. He opened his eyes groggily as he still felt a faint headache. He was on a white bed in a white room. To his left was a windowsill atop of it were a few vases with white flowers.

Villin sat up and looked out the window, he could see an endless expanse of green, it was quite beautiful.

“Villin!”

He was surprised to hear a voice from his right, when he looked he saw Kayley standing there, she seemed tired and before he could do a thing she jumped at him, hugging him tightly.

Villin felt his mind go blank by the sudden change in the situation but found himself incapable of doing much more than just patting her on the back as she seemed to be trying to choke him out. After what felt like an eternity she let go, looking at him while holding back tears “W-when I saw you fight those creatures I thought you were going to die, I’m so happy you’re still alive!”

With these words, she stormed out of the room leaving Villin behind.

Villin didn’t think much of it as he simply let himself fall into the bed again, he could feel life energy coming from this bed, it seemed to be reaching out to his mind, attempting to heal the damage that had been done.

Three minutes later professor Crumb entered the room, only to be immediately stunned.

He came here right away once Kayley notified him Villin was awake. He thought the boy would be lying groggily on the bed trying to come to terms with the situation, maybe he would be crying when he realized he survived.

One could only imagine the professor’s surprise when he saw the boy crouched down next to the bed using his finger to go over the runes used to enchant the bed and mumbling to himself trying to figure out how the whole thing came together.

“Y-you little brat!”

Villin looked up in surprise to find professor Crumb standing at the entrance. Villin quickly got up and looked at the professor happily.

Seeing the expression Villin used to look at him even the grumpy professor Crumb couldn’t get himself to yell at the boy for getting out of bed so soon. 

And so the two men stood there looking at each other, neither wanting to be the first to say something. This standoff was finally interrupted when Ruby entered the room from behind professor Crumb, she seemed to be completely healthy again, no doubt her bloodline helped.

“Villin! Good to see you’re well again!” the girl didn’t hold back her smile, she had woken up two days ago and still felt extremely happy to be alive.

Villin smiled back at her “I see my lifesaver has come to greet me!”

Ruby looked surprised at his words for a few words, unsure of how to reply. Before she realized it Villin had approached and put his hands on her shoulders “I am extremely grateful for what you did back then, you saved my life, thank you!”

When he said these words Villin couldn’t have been more sincere. He wasn’t stupid, if it wasn’t for Ruby he proba- he would’ve died. On his own he didn’t stand a chance at surviving, it was only because she was there that he had gotten a shot at it.

Ruby seemed unsure on how to respond, after thinking for a bit she simply nodded. Seeing she had received his thanks, Villin turned to professor Crumb “How long was I out for and when can we go back to The Academy?”

“It’s been five days, the two of you can go back as soon as you tell us what happened that day, who that creature was and why it let you two go.”

Even though Crumb didn’t like acting like an interrogator, it was necessary for the current situation. The creature that let them go back then was as strong as a teacher, it could do considerable damage if let be.

Soon the duo began explaining everything they recalled about that day. Neither of them tried to hide a thing and they kept talking about it ending at the point they saw the black figure leave the cave and where Ruby sent a spell at it. After that, they didn’t remember a thing.

Following this, professor Crumb responded with what they knew about the situation. First, he explained the area everyone was sent to was infested with cannibals. Cannibals used the souls of magi to evolve and strengthen themselves. They were one of the biggest participants of the third central war and ever since then the few survivors had gone into hiding.

The two ‘elders’ that captured Villin and Leonardo should be survivors such as that, as for those that challenged them, the six that still looked mostly human should be newer in nature whereas the two creatures were also probably survivors from the war.

The first stage of the evolving process went from human to creature of darkness. It was here they were the easiest to defeat. These people would gradually lose their intelligence and weaken their senses, in some cases they forgot they were magi at all and hence stopped using magic. In return, their body would become tougher, stronger, and faster.

This evolution ended when they become creatures of darkness. When one got to this stage they regain their intelligence and senses. Additionally, they would become much stronger than they were before, and they would no longer need to feast on magi souls.

The reason this path was used at all was because Creatures of Darkness were always extremely talented, they would be able to gain strength quicker than most humans. The only silver lining was that almost all those who picked this path were very untalented, for them this was the only way they could gain strength and surpass their peers. The number of talented magi who have been known to pick this path was very few.

With some of their questions answered Ruby and Villin felt a bit more at ease. Even though professor Crumb said Creatures of Darkness are very hard to capture due to their exceptional talent in the element of space, with the white tower looking for this one, there was practically no chance it would escape.

They were kept for one more day in what time a multitude of people came to wish them well, there were a few people here for more as well though. Kalob and Sally Lannister, for one, came bearing gifts. Villin was clearly rather unhappy to see them, even though they were kind to him and all that, this was their fault. He heard that his island wasn’t even the only one infested with cannibals, there were a bunch of em. As the organizers they didn’t even check things properly, it didn’t even have to be for the cannibals, what if a powerful magical beast was hiding on one of the islands?

Still, the gifts did placate him somewhat. Both himself and Ruby had gotten an upgraded version of the gift that would’ve been given to the winner of the first round.

They both got a white disk about half a meter in diameter. It was filled to the brim with runes to the point Villin couldn’t make sense of it. Apparently, this was one of the newest advancements the white tower had made. The disk, when used, would expand in size before utilizing one of five powerful magic arrays. 

There was one that attacked whatever was inside, one that defended anyone inside, one that healed anyone inside, one that regenerated the magic power of anything inside, and one that practically erased the existence of anyone inside. The final one was an extremely advanced version of an invisibility spell, even if someone tested the area with magic power they would be unable to sense anything was wrong.

According to the couple, the disk could become as wide as twenty meters in diameter and its effects were extremely substantial.

Another gift was given to him by professor Crumb in the name of the white tower itself. It was a new pair of gloves, one of which was a wand, this time around though it was a decent bit more powerful than his previous one. 

It was capable of casting three spells each being up to sixteen nodes. This was equal to a wand of the fourth grade. 

As for Ruby, she was given something else entirely. Once the school year ended she would be given a medal of bravery by a councilmember in a large ceremony.

As for the final reward they both got, it was the most substantial.

Professor Crumb explained that the two of them would be getting all of the riches that were gotten from the cluster of cannibals they were involved with. At first, both shrugged when they heard that but when they finally got the list both of their minds went blank.

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