Zatiel was in his laboratory creating the runes for 'Secondary consciousness' and 'Aerial Walk', as for 'Transfiguration', he has already partially understood how the rune worked, diminishing the effort he will have to put to craft it, but still, he wasn't familiarized enough with it to start creating it, and even if he was, the amount of energy that takes to create a rank 1 rune is something that he still doesn't have.
Even if the quality and quantity of the energy that a Neo-demon has is superior to one of a Magus in the same rank, to create a rank 1 rune even with the reservoir of a rank 1 life form it will be difficult, not counting that 'Transfiguration' is a high grade one, and Zatiel is not even close to reaching the peak of rank 0.
Just when Zatiel was preparing to rest and end the day, an indifferent voice was heard in his house.
"Apprentice Zatiel, you are summoned to the fourth floor of the tower by the Magus Jhon, you must come immediately."
The voice left as abruptly as it arrived, and gave the command as if it was an absolute one without waiting for an answer.
"So they are finally contacting me, it was faster than I thought, I guess I underestimated the importance of the runes, It doesn't matter. Let's see what they want."
Zatiel was not concerned with the summoning, although most of the apprentices will feel scared if they are called by a Magus, this fear originated from the unknown that surrounds them, but to Zatiel a Rank 1 Magus could not be more common.
But there was someone in the house that was not even close to being relaxed.
"Zatiel! What happened? What did you do? Why is there a Magus calling you? Did you offend someone?"
Sophia seems like a machine gun firing question after question and terror could be seen in her face, an obvious sign of the fear that she has for Magi.
"Relax, they probably just want to get information about my runes, and maybe some sort of transaction, there is nothing to fear."
Zatiel will usually just ignore this type of behavior but seeing the concern in the apprentice's face he chooses to explain the situation so she will calm down.
Sophia was able to relax when understood that the calling was not to impart some punishment but to speak about rune crafting.
"They may want to know your process and way of crafting your runes."
Sophia may not know a lot about runes, but Zatiel's talent was obvious even for her, so she was thinking that the Magus wanted to know his process.
"They already have all the information about my entire process and my abilities in crafting."
Zatiel was not worried that the way he created his runes was in the open, after all, they were just some rank 0 ones, this way it will help dissipate the notion of some type of external help.
"How? I swear that I have not talked with anyone about what I have seen in your laboratory."
Sophia knows that besides her there was no one in Zatiel workroom, and was scared that he would think that she was some kind of spy.
"You are not very bright, right."
Seeing the state of the woman Zatiel started teasing her.
"Hey! What is that supposed to mean?"
Sophia's anxiety diminished greatly as she got upset.
Zatiel just nodded as he saw how she relaxed a little and started talking.
"Tell me what are Magic Towers?"
Although Sophia was confused by the question, after a moment, she gave the answer she thinks is the most correct one.
"Magic Towers are the headquarters of Magus, they have the facilities they need to optimize their meditations and also the equipment needed to perform their experiment. They also can work as a stronghold to face enemies and enhance the abilities of the Magus that has control over it."
Sophia's answer was a simple but very complete one, filling all the basic roles of the tower.
"Correct. Then tell me, will you let hundreds of people be inside something so valuable without taking some precautions?"
After a moment Sophia understood what Zatiel was getting to.
"You are saying they have surveillance in the entire tower?"
Sophia could not help but start to look at her surroundings, trying to find some sort of device.
"You will not find anything, and although they monitor us, it is not at all times. Most of it happens when someone gets close to an important part of the tower or some higher-ups want to find information about someone. Anyway, I must leave, I will get back in a while."
Zatiel left the house in a relaxed manner, not anxious about the meeting.
.....
It didn't take long for Zatiel to reach the fourth floor. Once he reached there, a small golem receives him and guides him to the house that the Magus Jhon owned.
The house looked very similar to the one apprentice had, but bigger and the materials were of a higher grade.
The golem took him to the entrance of a big room. Once Zatiel entered, he saw a middle-aged man waiting for him.
As Zatiel got closer to the man, he started to assess him.
'A rank 1 Elementium Magus, by the power of his magnetic force field, I can say he advanced not too long ago. Oh, he is using my runes.'
"Apprentice Zatiel greets Magus Jhon."
Zatiel made a bow as he greeted the man, although in his previous life a rank 1 being was no different than a mortal, now he is not Zatiel the Archdemon, but just Zatiel the apprentice.
Besides, his ego was not so insignificant that he would feel inferior just for bowing to someone.
'So he is the runemaster, by what I know they usually are very slow in enhancing their power but he is so young and the energy in his body already rivals one of a pseudo-magus.'
As Jhon evaluated Zatiel, some envy could be seen in his eyes.
A Magus feeling envy from an apprentice was something no one will believe, but the feelings of Jhon were understandable.
After all, even though humans have amazing potential, being able to reach great heights, trying to compare themselves to Neo-Demons, beings that even dragons will feel inferiority, was absurd.
"I will go straight to the point, Arthur's master was coming to kill you but I intervened and forced him to leave"
Jhon's face was prideful for the feeling of superiority that he had for having, according to him, saved the life of Zatiel.
'So he is just a middleman,' Zatiel saw the expression of Jhon but didn't care for that, what calls his attention was the information he revealed.
He knows that no Magus will get the animosity of someone of the same rank just for the life of an apprentice, so there must be some more powerful who gives the order.
Of course, Zatiel did his part to feign fear when the master of Arthur was mentioned and relieved when he found out he was expelled.
"I must thank you, lord Magus."
Gratitude could be seen on his face as he thanked Jhon.
Jhon just nodded, but his mood improved immediately when he saw the gratitude on Zatiel's face and his feeling of superiority was enhanced.
"Of course I did not do this for nothing. I will continue protecting you for five years, during this time you must reach the level of a Rank 1 Runemaster, and when you do it, you must create eight runes of my choice."
When Jhon finished speaking, he threw a parchment to Zatiel.
Zatiel caught the parchment and inside it was a contract. The contents were the same that Jhon was saying but the one who would get the runes was another person named Clyde.
'I should accept it. If I don't do it, that Clyde guy could do something drastic, and although a Rank 1 Magus does not present an absolute threat, taking care of him right now will be too troublesome and will call too much attention.'
"I accept the proposition of lord Magus."
After seeing that there was nothing out of the normal, Zatiel signed the contract.
After the contract was signed, it floated back to Jhon's hands.
"Ok, then we are set, you can leave."
The moment the contract was in his hands, Jhon dismissed Zatiel immediately.
Zatiel made a small bow and left the room, heading to his house.
