Chapter 39: Raven

Inside were strange plants, strange insects, small animals, and so on.

These were all from the Forest Banshee’s lair under Cross Forest.

After returning to the city after killing the Forest Banshee that day, Heath had specially asked the Count for some Knight guards to help him collect materials underground. After all, it was impossible to waste so many good things, right?

Heath picked up these materials one by one and silently chanted in his heart: ‘Extract.’

[Beep, extraction successful. Spirit +0.001]

[Beep, extraction successful. Strength increase has reached the upper limit…]

[Beep, extraction successful. Agility increase has reached the upper limit…]

After all the extraction was completed, Heath glanced at the attributes on the data panel.

[Attributes: Strength 15.6, Agility 16.8, Vitality 15.1, Spirit 7.2]

After this period of hard work, Heath’s attributes had once again improved significantly.

The three physical attributes had reached the highest level he could reach under his Knight talent, and he could no longer increase them further.

If he wanted to continue improving, he would have to increase his talent first.

“Speaking of which, my talent has already reached 6 points. It seems that if I add another 1 point, I will be able to reach a higher level. I wonder when I will have this opportunity…”

Recently, Heath had been searching for the related Knight talent. Two days ago, an old Knight in the city died of an illness and he even went to officiate the funeral.

Unfortunately, the funeral did not extract the Knight talent.

Heath guessed that this talent could not be extracted by just anyone. It was probably because the other party’s talent was lower than his current talent.

His current Knight talent was already medium. He could probably only continue to extract talent from Knights with high talent. This was not easy.

After all, Knights with such talent were extremely rare. Moreover, most of them had extraordinary strength and it was not easy to die. Unless it was a large-scale war, it was very difficult to have a chance.

“Let’s wait it out slowly. Anyway, the strength of a Knight cannot be compared to two spells. It’s better to focus on the Wizards. It’s not good to ignore the root of the problem.”

The related Wizard attribute had improved a lot recently. His spiritual power had reached 7 points, and the number of runes for meditation had reached 8. He had stabilized at the intermediate Apprentice stage.

“At this rate, I’m afraid it won’t be long before I advance to advanced… It seems that I have to think about finding some means to hide my strength…”

After advancing to a higher rank, the strength of an Apprentice would increase significantly, and when that happened, their energy field would become very obvious.

If they did not hide it, it was very likely that the Wizards would notice it.

‘This is a big problem. I can’t let my guard down…’

To Wizards, surpassing ordinary people by a little was a genius, and surpassing them by too much was a material.

The materials on the experiment table…

Thinking of the strange experiments of the Wizards, Heath’s expression became much more serious. He immediately made up his mind. “I’ll go to the nearby Wizard market in two days. I’ll sell the accumulated materials and clear my dimensional pocket…”

After this period of hard work, the materials in the nest had been mostly excavated. Now, the materials were almost piled up in his dimensional pocket…

Pa-da! Pa-da!

At this moment, the sound of wings flapping could be heard.

The servants around suddenly became serious. They looked at a certain place respectfully and stood by the side with their hands hanging down.

A strange bird flew over from the other side. It looked like a crow with the same amount of pitch-black feathers, but it was a size bigger than a crow. Its pair of blood-red eyes were particularly eye-catching.

The strange bird landed on the stone railing.

Heath stood up and bowed. “Long time no see, Lord Aalto.”

This was a raven. It was also a magic beast, but it was an intelligent species. It could communicate with people, so Wizards liked to domesticate them as messengers.

Aalto in front of him was a raven domesticated by the Shadow Tower, responsible for the communication between the Shadow Tower and the human world.

Aalto raised its wings in a human-like manner. A mature male voice came from under its open beak. “Alright, little guy. It’s your human duty to be polite. You don’t need to talk nonsense with a bird like me.”

Heath smiled and took out two Magic Stones and handed them over.

Aalto’s eyes lit up when he saw the Magic Stones. “Right, isn’t it better to be direct?”

“Humans like to complicate simple things. Even when mating, they have to learn how to talk and dress up. This is the main reason why you can only have one or two cubs a year, but we can have several nests of eggs.”

After ridiculing humans for a while, Aalto opened his beak and swallowed the Magic Stone.

Then, he raised his left wing, holding a letter covered with red wax. “This is for you from the tower.”

Heath took the letter, but he was not in a hurry to open the wax. Instead, he told Aisha beside him, “Go and deliver the snacks I prepared.”

“Yes.” Aisha went down.

Only then did Heath open the wax seal on the letter and read it.

This was a reply letter.

After the matter of Cross Forest was settled that day, Heath wrote a written report and submitted it to tower through Aalto. Now, it was tower’s reply to him.

The contents of the letter were mostly polite words, praising his efficiency and encouraging him to continue working.

Aalto said, “The tower is very satisfied with your performance in the mission. Even some intermediate Apprentices might not be able to deal with the Forest Banshee. But you, a mere low-level Apprentice, solved the problem so cleanly. You even cracked an intermediate-level magic array left by a Dark Wizard and completed the mission in excess.”

Heath only found out from Aalto that a Dark Wizard Apprentice had been hunted down by the law enforcement team not long ago.

It was said that the Dark Wizard Apprentice had stayed in the vicinity of Reiden City for a period of time. According to the current clues, this Forest Banshee was most likely left behind by the Dark Wizard Apprentice.

Aalto continued, “Although the rating is not over yet, I heard from Merrius that you have at least seven stones. The only difference is whether you get red stones or yellow stones or blue stones.”

The tower used stones to evaluate the Apprentice’s mission.

There were seven stones in total, and they were divided into red, yellow, and blue. Seven red stones were the highest rating, and one blue stone was the lowest rating.

Aalto said, “Work hard. According to the rules, Wizard Slater needs to take in at least one Apprentice in the next few years. I think you have a high chance of getting this spot. At least 5%.”

Among the thousands of Apprentices in the tower, 5% was not a small chance.

Heath said, “Okay, thank you very much for telling me this valuable information.”

Aalto said, “You’re welcome, it’s an equal exchange. You gave me two Magic Stones, so I have to repay you with some information.”

At this moment, Aisha, who had gone out, returned.

At this time, she was holding a plate in her hand. There were eyeballs on the plate, and there was some yellowish-brown liquid hanging on the plate. It looked particularly terrifying.

However, facing the horrifying scene, Aalto’s eyes lit up. He flapped his wings and cried out greedily, “Oh! Eyes! Beautiful eyes! Quick, give them to me! They are mine!”

Aisha put the plate on the table, and Aalto began to eat in big bites.

Ravens liked to eat eyes very much, so Heath usually ordered the kitchen to remove the animal’s eyes during cooking and soak them in his special antiseptic liquid. Only when Aalto came to the door would they be served.

As he ate, Aalto praised, “Very detailed little guy. It’s because of your care that Aalto was able to taste such delicious eyes.”

“Aalto never owes a favor. As a price, I’ll tell you another piece of good news.”

Heath’s eyes lit up, and he quickly said, “Please go ahead.”

Aalto flapped his wings and shook his head. “This is a secret. No outsiders can be present. You need to let your little pets leave first.”

Heath nodded, then waved his hand and said to Aisha and the Knight, “You can leave first.”

“Yes.”

After the two of them left, Aalto opened its mouth to speak. Then, he brought Heath shocking news that completely exceeded Heath’s expectations.

What he said was…