After everyone was seated, the principal of Homemon Watts, Tiberion, simply said a few polite words. The white-haired elder seemed to be in low spirits and looked like he might fall asleep at any moment.
However, whenever Griffith stared at the learned old man, he could always feel an invisible force disrupting his perception. It's like the principal is there, but not there...
Immediately afterwards, one of the professors sitting at the head 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 begin now. Each branch will conduct it in order." The professor opened the wooden box and reached out to take out a somewhat worn-out pointed wizard hat.
"It's begun," Galadia said excitedly, "Griffith, are you curious?"
curious? Curious about what? What could I be curious about without knowing anything?
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 see through the heart and soul, and can see the characteristics and potential of every extraordinary person."
Well, it's the thing that can describe my strength, agility, and perception in numbers. Griffith thought about the crystal lens on the Earl's Mansion.
First came Minerva College, where a new student was the first on the list to put on the shabby hat. The large brim of the hat almost covered his head, which looked ugly and funny.
Suddenly, a gap opened on the brim of the hat, and it wriggled like a mouth. The two holes in the hat even looked around like eyes.
"It's fried chicken again," the wizard hat said with some dissatisfaction. "The brats who come up later, please remember to wipe your hands clean so as not to stain my smooth skin."
This hat, alive!
Griffith seemed to hear a strange landing sound, faintly coming from the depths of his soul. Common sense and rationality seemed to shatter at this moment, and chaos hit his brain, as if he had encountered a mythical creature a long time ago and was as unbearable as it was.
Fortunately, after experiencing so many incidents, his tenacious will survived the impact, and his mind became clear again after a brief dizziness.
The freshman wearing the hat was startled and almost jumped out of his seat. The professor next to him held his shoulders and said to the hat:
"Please start, Mr. Talent Hat. I hope it will end as soon as possible. There is still a topic waiting for me to submit."
"Okay, okay," Talent Cap muttered with his eyes closed for a while, 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 hat deflated after being pulled, "This, um, a pretty good talent, C+, spell casting enhancement!"
A huge crystal immediately projected a phrase on the wall, which was a description of testing talents——
"Spellcasting enhancement. The power and duration of the spell will be increased by no more than 15%, and the chanting and effectiveness time of the spell will be extended by 3-10 seconds."
There was a shout immediately in the dinner hall. For freshmen who have never understood their talents, this test can very intuitively display their strengths and weaknesses.
The freshmen who were sure that they had enhanced spellcasting happily took off their hats, saluted solemnly at it, and then returned to the long table. The test found that his talent is quite good. Although it has the disadvantage of reducing the casting speed, the effect of increasing the power is very obvious.
One by one, Minerva's new students came forward to be tested. When it was Sonia's turn to test, the expression on the talent hat suddenly became wonderful:
"This is, oh, so rare...
"Beautiful young lady, you actually have a rare dual talent, and you are also an insight and a mirror!"
Sonia's talent introduction was immediately displayed on the crystal.
Insight(A). The caster has a certain probability of uncovering the secrets and analyzing the mysteries and origins of the world. This talent can be further developed.
SPIEGEL (A). The caster has extremely high resistance to negative mental effects such as charm, confusion, and fear, and has a certain chance of being accompanied by one or more gain effects such as high-speed chanting, double casting, and guaranteed success during the spell chanting process.
Amidst the exclamations, Principal Tiberion and several senior professors who were sitting high above opened their eyes and looked at Sonia with caution or interest.
"Sonya is very powerful," Galadia secretly told Griffith, "The current principal, Tiberion, has the gift of insight, which means that Sonia will be promoted to high sequence more quickly.
Immediately afterwards, Galadia also walked up to be tested.
The elf pinched the edge of the hat with his slender fingers, rubbed his fingers in disgust, and reluctantly put the hat on his head.
The whole hall was holding its breath. It is not uncommon for elves to come to Homemonworth to study, but among this class there is only Galadia.
The boys from different branches looked at each other crazily. The slim and slender figure, the long black hair hanging down and the smart and clear eyes give people an irresistible sense of mystery and temptation. If they were to meet face to face, it would be difficult for them to even raise their heads.
Whispers have already let everyone know that Galadia is the daughter of the Archon of the Elf Kingdom. Powerful and outstanding talent is one of the blessings given to her by the goddess of the stars and the silver moon, destined to be special from the beginning.
What could it be? Griffith was also curious.
"It turns out it's you." The talent hat shook the tip of the hat. "You are more awe-inspiring than my father's aura. I'm sorry, I can't overstep."
I dare not mention the talent cap!
There was an uproar in the hall. Galadia grabbed her greasy hat and rubbed it on the table before getting up and returning to her seat.
…
As Minerva's test came to an end, it was finally Griffith's turn to put the talent cap on his head. Based on the previous experiences of Shutoral, he estimated that his talent should also be related to strengthening defense or attack.
"Strange, very strange," the talent hat seemed confused, "Am I getting confused?
"I should be right, you are one of those terrible little bastards... You shouldn't be... Your talent is...
"Concentration (C+). Increases the caster's mental recovery speed by an additional 15% and reduces the casting cooldown by 9%."
this……
Griffith felt like he was surrounded by strange eyes. His talent cannot be said to be bad. Mental recovery speed and spell casting cooldown are very important to extraordinary people in many ways. If a magic configuration or extraordinary ability happens to be stuck in the mental cooldown time and cannot be generated, it will be fatal. .
However, the problem is that Griffith cannot cast spells at all! The Spellbreaker path also rarely has extraordinary abilities that can be actively deployed.
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 magic configuration will be washed away by the blood and become a mess. This is why knowledgeable and powerful wizards avoid battlefields and killings, and leave the dirty work to the army.
The freshmen from other colleges have already begun to cheer. Even if they don't know Griffith, they think he is really a funny weirdo.
"Hey, genius, you really deserve to be from Minerva!"
"Easily obtained a talent that we could never even imagine!"
Griffith took off his talent hat and walked to his seat with a normal expression. He didn't mind the result too much, and didn't quite understand what everyone was uproaring about.
I don’t know you...
Galadia patted the shoulder of the trainee knight who returned to her side and comforted:
"Don't take it too seriously. The improvement of your talent is just the icing on the cake. Moreover, after your ability improves, the cooldown time of the holy weapon or sealed object may also be affected by your talent, which is also very good!"
Suddenly, the hall immediately became quiet.
Aaron came to the side of the talent cap.
It's him! Everyone held their breath and stared at this beautiful, quiet boy. The moment he put on his talent hat, Principal Tiberion couldn't help but adjust his sitting position.
Aaron, the boy who defeated the man, the only bloodline of his family to survive the deadly attack of dark magic.
He was as beautiful as a porcelain doll and destined to be special.
What talent will it be?
Just when everyone was curious, the talent hat howled with a heart-piercing voice.
"Gula Banning, labor camp!"
…
The confused talent caps were dragged away for debugging, and the talent test will continue after a while.
The sumptuous dinners seemed endless. The closer you get to the back, the more exquisite and precious Minerva's food becomes, and some students from other colleges even made dissatisfied protests.
Griffith finished the food in front of him, but could not join in the conversation around him. Not only did he not understand what the girls were talking about, but the allusions that the boys used to use before were also incomprehensible to him, as if he was hearing another language.
After dinner, we will go out for a walk. Griffith packed some roast lamb and fruit wine, packed them in small packages and put them in his pocket. Suddenly, his hand touched something warm and cold.
This is a strange piece of flesh and blood, showing a crystal bright red color, as smooth as gelatin, and exuding an indescribable strong attraction.
Perhaps it was after the tentacle monster attacked the Flying Leaf and was repulsed, Griffith got stuck when he was hit by the explosion and fell into the sea water. However, from the look and feel, it's impossible to imagine it coming from giant tentacles with dead gray skin and rancid smell.
When staring at this piece of red flesh, Griffith will have the desire to swallow it in one bite. Fortunately, caution and reason stopped him.
Common sense in mysticism told him that this was a piece of flesh and blood essence, something that only very powerful life forms could possess.
The question is, what to do with this thing?
…
After the dinner, Griffith did not go back to the dormitory directly. Instead, he hid two daggers in his boots and patrolled along the deep corridor. He also brought some barbecue and sweet wine that had not been 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 period.
Homemonworth is located in the southwest of the Sea of Tranquility. The Flying Leaf sailed through a series of small islands during the day before reaching the bottom of the steep cliffs here. Griffith looked towards the direction of disembarking, and in the darkness he could vaguely see the rocky steps winding upward from the bottom of the cliff.
The disembarkation location is southeast of Homonworth Castle, and slightly to the north is the undulating cliff. On the cliff is a corridor connecting the library, dormitories and classrooms, and below is the blue water. A little further west from here, that is, to the northwest of the castle, is a stream flowing out of the valley, where the school has built a trestle to lead to the neighboring town.
There is a large open space between the city wall and the cliff. If any enemies rush out of the Whispering Forest, they can move around the city wall to flatter terrain. This is also the focus of Griffith's examination.
When fighting in the East, this habit helped Griffith many times to detect the enemy's intentions or find gaps in the encirclement. This is also an important reason why he has been patrolling strange places before going to bed every night.
To the south of Homemonworth is a large area of dark green Whispering Forest.
Although there is a road that passes through it and leads directly to the castle of Bjelan, the magical energy lost in the ancient era has accumulated in the Whispering Forest for some reason. During the dinner, the professors repeatedly warned that there were innocent souls wandering there and there were strange mutant creatures everywhere. Anyone who didn’t want to live could go there.
Griffith climbed a tower and looked over the south side of the castle. There are continuous walls and even a towering gate as the entrance. After leaving the city gate and heading south, there is a large sloping land immediately extending to the edge of the Whispering Forest.
The structure of this college is really strange... Griffith walked south along the corridor surrounding Homemonworth.
Cliffs, fjords and rapids surround Homonworth on three sides, with the only easily accessible south side blocked by vast forests. Between the forest and the city wall is a steep slope. If any enemy tried to attack from the south, he would be divided by the forest and then attack the strong wall on the south, not to mention that the attack process would be exposed to the defenders who occupied the absolute commanding heights.
This is a carefully chosen fortress! But to protect what?
Homemonworth is far away from the main waterway and is not a strategic location on land. To be honest, it is quite difficult to attract an army to attack here.
Griffith tapped lightly on the black boulders that framed the city wall. This rare boulder is extremely strong. Homemonworth used a large number of boulders to build itself into an extremely strong fortress, which means that there are extremely important things here that need to be protected.
"Argos, Voss..."
"Argos."
"Naa..."
A repetitive and indistinct murmur suddenly broke through the silence. The voice was distorted and hoarse, full of indescribable chaos.
Griffith was startled and looked for the place where the sound came from.
The repetitive and monotonous sound gradually faded away, replaced by a clear voice.
"Good evening, young man," a blurry shadow suddenly appeared in Griffins' consciousness, spitting out human words, "If you don't go to bed so late, are you looking for strength? Or are you pursuing love?"
Griffith immediately drew the dagger from his boot.
"who?"
"The psychic node Minos is at your disposal," the shadow said. "Minos collects the source of essence and helps the holder to evolve to a higher level of life form."
