After standing outside of the door for a dozen seconds, Villin finally entered. He really didn’t want a bad teacher for this class. Once he entered he noticed most of the students were already seated, he was one of the last ones.
The chairs looked extremely basic but every table had an object on it, depending on the student the object differed. Some students had a cup, others a bowl, and a few had oddly shaped objects like springs and the like.
It was easy to assume the object corresponded with the skill level of the students. Students with better skills would be given an object more difficult to enchant.
Looking at the springs a few students had Villin suddenly felt a bit nervous, in a good way.
Enchanting a spring would be a challenge even for him. He might be able to do a lot of things with runes but having to work with such objects wasn’t something he had done before. He suspected every rune would be different quite a bit due to the truly odd shape of the enchanted object.
But his thoughts immediately disappeared when his eyes shifted toward the teacher’s desk. Sitting at the teacher’s desk was an old man working on a piece of equipment in front of him. It was professor Crumb.
For a moment Villin couldn’t help but smile when he saw the man before he gathered himself.
The teacher hadn’t seen him yet, Villin didn’t hesitate to walk up to the teacher’s desk. He was extremely eager to speak with the man.
When he arrived professor Crumb was still looking at the object he was enchanting, Villin didn’t recognize most of the runes and was unable to derive what he was attempting to create.
“What is it?” professor Crumb’s stern voice sounded out as he hadn’t looked at Villin yet.
Villin wasn’t sure how to respond for a moment before steadying his mind. “I wanted to thank you for answering my question last time,” he said, recalling the professor was the reason he found out how to properly use runes after he asked what the difference between enchantments and magic arrays.
Hearing his voice, the professor froze while in the middle of drawing a line. He then slowly looked up and met Villin’s gaze, visibly shocked.
He dropped his enchanting pen right then, ruining the enchantment he was attempting to make, and instantly got up from his chair “You! You are dead.”
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The professor looked at him as his breathing quickened.
Villin smiled seeing the professor truly did seem to care about him as well “Really? Damn that sucks.”
The professor realized the gaze of everyone in the class was rested on him and calmed himself. His hand was still shaking slightly but he managed to get his facial expression under control “How can I help you Villin?”
Villin smiled before reaching into his bag and taking out a train set, the one professor Crumb had given him. Then he also took out one of his notepads that held some of the findings the set helped him make. “I just wanted to tell you I finished your task professor, sadly I wasn’t able to turn it in in time.”
The professor nodded, still trying to look serious in order to maintain the image he had in class. Then he grabbed the trainset and the notebook. He promptly opened the notebook and began skimming the pages “And boy, what are your findings?”
Villin thought about the question for a moment before answering “Enchantments and magic arrays are all just runes.” he wasn’t sure how to properly vocalize what he had learned.
But it didn’t matter. Villin noticed the professor had totally frozen up after getting to the seventh page on the notebook, he was looking at the text with wide eyes, reading the same few sentences dozens of times. It was the area where Villin realized the essence of enchanting and magic arrays and began giving examples of what he might now be able to do.
“Everyone out of the class.” the professor said as if he was whispering. The students on the front rows looked at him in confusion, they saw the professor’s bottom lip started quivering “EVERYONE OUT NOW!”
The professor promptly walked past Villin and tried talking to the students in a slightly calmer tone “Class is over for the day, leave!”
A few students wanted to protest saying class hadn’t even started yet but they stopped themselves when they saw the professor’s fiery gaze.
Once everyone left the professor promptly closed the door of the classroom, leaving only himself and Villin inside. Once that was the case the professor began whispering to himself like a mad man “A fourteen-year-old runemaster, heavens what wrongs have I done to have wasted sixty years of my life.”
After listening to the professor’s rambling for a good moments Villin finally tested the waters “Professor?”
Professor Crumb looked straight at him, instantly stopping his rambling “Boy, follow me!”
Somewhat confused Villin promptly grabbed his notebook before following the professor out of the classroom. Just outside most of the students were still lingering about confused about what happened. Even though the professor had a bad temper, he never straight up told people to leave the class.
When the professor exited the class they expected him to invite them back in but instead, all they got was a “Don’t you guys have anything better to do than lingering in the halls! Get a move on!”
Once they had been walking for a couple of minutes Villin walked next to the professor “Professor, I’m confused. When you told me to study the train wasn’t I supposed to come to the realization everything is just runes?”