Blood tax

Chapter 34 Gurabanning, Labor Camp
After everyone was seated, the headmaster of Homonwarts, Tyberion, made a few polite remarks.The gray-haired elder looked in a bad mood and looked like he could fall asleep at any moment.

However, whenever Griffith stared at the learned old man, he could always feel an invisible force disturbing his perception.It's as if the principal is there and not there...

Immediately afterwards, one of the professors sitting at the top of the hall stood up and waved to the servant beside him.Soon, a box was moved to the center of the hall.

"The talent test will start now, and each branch will conduct it in order." The professor picked up the wooden box and reached out to take out a somewhat worn pointed wizard hat.

"It's started," Galadia said excitedly, "Griffith are you curious?"

curious?Curious about what?I don't know what to be curious about?
Sonia was also a little excited, and said softly: "This is the sacred artifact left by the guardian Minerva. It has the magical power to penetrate the mind and soul, and can check the characteristics and potential of every Beyonder."

Well, it's the one that can describe my strength, agility, perception in numbers.Griffith thought about the crystal lenses on the Earl's House.

First up is Minerva College, where a freshman wears that shabby hat first on the list.The big brim almost covered his head, looking ugly and funny.

Suddenly, a gap opened in the brim of the hat, and it squirmed like a mouth, and the two holes in the hat even looked around like eyes.

"It's fried chicken again," said the wizard hat with some dissatisfaction. "The stinky brats who will come later remember to wipe your hands clean, so as not to stain my smooth skin."

This hat, live!

Griffith seemed to hear a strange landing sound, faintly coming from the depths of his heart.Common sense and rationality seemed to be shattered at this moment, and chaos hit his brain, as if encountering a mythical creature a long time ago was unbearable.

Fortunately, after so many incidents, his tenacious will survived this shock, and his mind became clear again after a brief dizziness.

The freshman in the hat was so startled that he almost jumped out of his seat.The professor next to him pressed his shoulders and said to the hat:

"Please start, Your Excellency Talent Hat. I hope to end it soon, and there is still a subject waiting for me to submit."

"Okay, okay," the Talented Hat muttered for a while, closing his eyes, then suddenly shouted, "Ah, good. It's decided. Minerva!"

The professor picked up a wand and drew it towards the Sorting Hat: "Talent test!"

"Okay, okay," the tip of the talent cap was shrunk. "This, um, a good talent, C+, spell enhancement!"

A huge crystal immediately projected a phrase on the wall, a description of the test talent——

"Spellcasting enhancement. An additional increase of no more than 15% of the power and duration of the spell, the spell casting and effective time will be extended by 3-10 seconds."

There was a burst of cries in the banquet hall.For freshmen who have never known their talents, this test can be a very intuitive display of their strengths and weaknesses.

The freshman who was sure to have the spellcasting enhancement took off his hat very happily, bowed solemnly to it, and then returned to the long table.The test found that his talent is not bad. Although he has the defect of slowing down the casting speed, the effect of increasing the power is very obvious.

One by one, Minerva's freshmen came up to be tested.When it was Sonya's turn to test, the expression of the talent hat became wonderful:
"It's, oh, it's so rare...

"Beautiful lady, you have a rare dual talent, and you are also insight and mirror!"

The crystal immediately showed Sonia's talent introduction.

Insight (A).The caster has a certain probability to decipher the mysteries and analyze the mysteries and origins of the world.This talent can be further developed.

Mirror (A).The caster has extremely high resistance to negative mental effects such as charm, confusion, fear, etc., and has a certain chance of adding one or more gain effects such as high-speed singing, double casting, and certain spell casting during the process of spell casting.

Amid the exclamations, Principal Tyberion and several senior professors, who were sitting high above, opened their eyes and looked at Sonia with cautious or interested eyes.

"Sonia is very powerful," Galadia said to Griffith secretly, "the current headmaster Tiberion has the gift of insight, which means that Sonya will be promoted to the high sequence more quickly.

Immediately afterwards, Galadia also walked up to take the test.

The elf pinched the brim of the hat with her slender fingers, rubbed her fingers in disgust, and put the hat on her head reluctantly.

The whole hall was silent.It is not uncommon for elves to come to Homonwarts to study, but Galadia was the only one in this class.

Boys from different branches stared at him in disbelief.That slender figure, long black hair hanging down, and clear eyes gave people an irresistible mystery and temptation. If they got along face to face, it would be difficult for them to even raise their heads.

Whispering has let everyone know that Galadia is the daughter of the consul of the Elf Kingdom.Powerful and remarkable talent is one of the blessings bestowed on her by the goddess who rules the stars and the silver moon, destined to be different from the start.

What could it be?Griffith was also curious.

"It turned out to be you," the talent hat shook the tip of the hat, "you are more awe-inspiring than the aura of your lord. I'm sorry, I can't, arrogant."

The talent hat dare not say it!

There was an uproar in the hall.Galadia grabbed the greasy hat and rubbed it on the table before getting up and returning to her seat.

……

As Minerva's test drew to a close, it was finally Griffith's turn to put the talent cap on his head.Based on the experience of several previous Shutorals, he estimated that his talent should also be related to strengthening defense or attacking.

"Strange, very strange," Talent Hat seemed to be confused, "Am I getting confused.

"I shouldn't be mistaken, you are one of those horrible little bastards... you shouldn't be... your talent is...

"Concentration (C+). An additional 15% increase in the caster's mental recovery speed, and a 9% reduction in the casting cooldown."

This……

Griffith felt himself surrounded by strange eyes.His talent can't be bad either. Spirit recovery speed and casting cooldown are very important for Beyonders in many ways. If a spell configuration or Beyonder ability happens to be stuck in his spirit cooldown and cannot be generated, it will be fatal. .

However, the problem is that Griffith can't cast spells at all!The Lawbreaker pathway also rarely has extraordinary abilities that can be actively unfolded.

Even if a person who has been tainted with the blood of the army during long-term training and fighting has enough knowledge and spirit, his magical configuration will be washed into chaos by the blood.That's why learned and powerful wizards shy away from battlefields and killings, leaving the dirty work to the military.

Freshmen from other colleges had already started booing, and even if they didn't know Griffith, they thought he was such a fun geek.

"Hey, genius, you really deserve to be from Minerva!"

"It's easy to get a talent that we didn't even dare to think about!"

Griffith took off his talent cap as usual and walked to his seat.He didn't really mind the result, and he didn't quite understand what everyone was joking about.

I don't know you either...

Galadia patted the shoulder of the apprentice knight who came back to her side and comforted:

"Don't worry too much, the improvement of talent is just the icing on the cake. Moreover, after your ability is improved, the cooldown time of the sacred artifact or sealed item may also be affected by your talent, which is also very good!"

Suddenly, the hall became quiet, and even the passing ants put down the candy on their backs.

Aaron came to the side of the talent cap.

It's him!All held their breaths, watching the handsome, quiet boy.The moment he put on the talent cap, Headmaster Tiberion could not help but adjust his sitting position.

Aaron, the boy who defeated the man, is the only blood in the family who survived the deadly attack of black magic.

He was as beautiful as a china doll and destined to be different.

What talent would it be?

Just when everyone was curious, the talent hat howled with a heart-piercing voice.

"Gulabanning, labor camp!"

……

The disordered talent cap is dragged away for debugging, and the talent test will continue after a while.

The sumptuous dinner seems to be endless.The further back, the more delicate and precious Minerva's food was, and some students from other academies even protested with dissatisfaction.

Griffith finished eating the food in front of him, but couldn't join the chat around him.Not only did he not understand the topics of the girls, but also the allusions used by the boys were inexplicable, as if listening to another language.

Go for a walk after dinner.Griffith packed up some roast lamb and wine and put them in his pockets in small packages.Suddenly, his hand touched something warm and cold.

This is a peculiar piece of flesh and blood, showing a crystal bright red, as smooth as gelatin, exuding an indescribably strong attraction.

Perhaps it was when Griffith was blasted into the sea by the explosion after the tentacle monster attacked the Flying Leaf and was knocked back, and took it out of his old clothes along with the sundries when changing clothes.From the look and feel, though, it's impossible to imagine that it came from a dead gray rind and giant tentacles that smelled rancid.

When staring at this red flesh, Griffith will have a desire to swallow it.Fortunately, prudence and reason stopped him.

The common sense of mysticism told him that this is a piece of flesh and blood essence, something that only very powerful life forms have.

The question is, what to do with this thing?

……

After the dinner, Griffith did not go back to the bedroom directly, but hid the two daggers in his boots and patrolled along the deep corridor.He also brought some barbecued meat and sweet wine that no one had touched at the banquet, and was going to find a good place to clean up for a while and sort out what happened during this time.

Homonwarts is located in the southwest of the Sea of ​​Tranquility, and Feiye's daytime voyage passes through a series of islets before reaching the bottom of the precipitous cliffs.Griffith looked in the direction of disembarkation, and in the darkness could vaguely see the rocky steps winding up from under the cliff.

The place to disembark is in the southeast of Homonwarts Castle, slightly north is the undulating cliff, on the cliff is the promenade connecting the library, dormitory and classroom, and below is the blue water.A little further west, that is, to the northwest of the castle, is a stream flowing out of a valley, where the school has erected a trestle bridge leading to a neighboring town.

There is also a large open space between the city wall and the cliff, and if any enemy rushes out of the Whispering Forest, they can move around the city wall to a relatively flat terrain.This is also the focus of Griffith's inspection.

When fighting in the East, this habit helped Griffith detect the enemy's intentions or find gaps in the encirclement many times.This is also an important reason why he has been patrolling unfamiliar places every night before going to bed.

To the south of Homonwarts is a large dark green raving forest.

Although there is a road that goes through it to the city of Bayeran, the magical energy lost in the ancient era has accumulated in the Whispering Forest for some reason.At the dinner, the professors repeatedly warned that there are ghosts wandering there, and strange mutant creatures are everywhere. Anyone who doesn't want to live can go there.

Griffith climbed a tower and looked out to the south of the castle.There are continuous city walls, and there is even a towering city gate as the entrance.After exiting the city gate to the south, there is a large sloping slope, extending to the edge of the Whispering Forest.

The structure of this house is really strange... Griffith walks south along the corridor that surrounds Homon Watts.

Cliffs, fjords and rapids surround Homonwarts in three directions, and the only easily accessible south side is blocked by vast forests.Between the forest and the city wall is a steep slope.If any enemy tries to attack from the south, he will be divided by the forest, and then he will attack the fortified city wall to the south, not to mention that the attack process is also exposed to the defenders who occupy the absolute commanding heights.

Here is a carefully chosen fortress!But what to protect?

Homonwarts is far from the main shipping lanes and is not strategically located on land.Honestly, it's hard to attract an army to attack here.

Griffith tapped lightly on the black boulder that built the city wall.This rare boulder is extremely solid.Homonwarts used a lot of boulders to build itself into a strong fortress, which means that there are extremely important things to protect.

"Argos, Voss..."

"Argos."

"Naa..."

Suddenly there were repeated, vague whispers in the silence.The voice was distorted and hoarse, filled with an indescribable cacophony.

Griffith was startled, and vigilantly looked for the place where the voice came from.

The repetitive and monotonous voice faded away, replaced by a clear voice.

"Good evening, young man," a blurry phantom suddenly appeared in Griffith's consciousness, spitting out human words, "Aren't you going to bed so late, are you looking for strength? Or for love?"

Griffith immediately drew the short sword from his boot.

"who?"

"The psionic node Minos is ready to be dispatched," said the phantom. "Minos collects essentia to help the bearer evolve to a higher-level life form."

(End of this chapter)