Taking the Mutated Heart

As the sky gradually darkened and night began to fall, bonfires were lit in the inner castle square. A simple iron frame was built on the bonfire to place a large pot or iron bucket. Several burly aunts began to stir something like thick soup with spoons.

Some women and children, although still sobbing from time to time, began to build tents not far from the campfire.

I think there must be an adult male who died in the battle just now.

It was necessary to set up additional tents in the inner castle square because there were not enough rooms for living in the inner castle. After all, no matter how big the Clavel family's castle was, it could not accommodate the entire Silverpine Town's residents for refuge.

The rooms in the inner castle were given priority for the wounded and the guards who were fighting desperately at the front.

Obviously, under such conditions, although the food stored in the cellar of the inner castle was enough for everyone to eat for several months, the Baron and his family could not enjoy an overly luxurious dinner in the hall. They just had a simple bacon dinner as a welcome for Richard.

After dinner, the old baron, accompanied by Knight Rawlins, the sheriff of Silverpine Town, went to visit and comfort the residents of the town.

Silverpine Town is the fief of the Clavell family, and the old baron has always been prestigious in Silverpine Town. Because the Clavell family has been rooted in the local area for more than a hundred years, and the generations of barons have taken good care of their fiefs, from the construction of facilities to preferential tax rates, etc., so a large number of free people have been attracted to settle here.

This has transformed Yinsong Town from a small town with only a few hundred households to a medium-sized town with more than a thousand households.

With the comfort of the old baron, the hearts of the residents of the town who were currently homeless have settled down.

This gave Richard a real appreciation for his father's prestige among the residents of Silverpine Town.

When they passed a bonfire, Knight Rawlins pointed to a pair of orphans and widows beside the bonfire and introduced them to the old baron in a heavy tone: "This is the blacksmith shop in Silver Pine Town. They are the children of Blacksmith Joey. Blacksmith Joey died in the previous battle."

After hearing this, the old baron nodded, walked over and said to the child, "Child, your father is a hero. He will always live in our hearts." Then he said to the blacksmith Joey's wife, "If you have any difficulties in life, you can come to the Clavel family for help."

"Thank you, Baron," the woman replied, choking with sobs.

The old baron paused and added, "If the child wants to undergo warrior training one day in the future, he can also come to the Clavel family."

At this time, the little boy stared blankly at Richard in a black robe, pointed his finger, and said in an unusually clear childish voice: "I want to be like him."

Suddenly, everyone turned to look at Richard, which made Richard stunned.

Immediately, the boy's mother covered his mouth and explained, "I'm sorry, sir. Since Master Richard saved us this afternoon, the child has been particularly interested in the huge monster next to the master. I told him that only a wizard like Master Richard can summon such a monster."

When everyone heard this, they couldn't help but smile.

Richard couldn't help but squat down, smiled and rubbed the little boy's hair and said: "You have ambition, but to become someone like me, you may need a little bit of talent. Maybe you can start by becoming a knight."

After hearing this, the little boy nodded vigorously and said "hmm".

But this reminded Richard about testing the children's wizarding qualifications, so he mentioned this matter to the old baron and Knight Rawlins.

They were all familiar with the wizard aptitude test, especially the old baron.

Before Richard went to the Ignis School, he had seen Richard's simple wizard aptitude test once. At that time, Stefano, who was still a second-level wizard apprentice, helped Richard do it.

After thinking it over, the old baron decided that in order to avoid confusion, the test would be conducted in batches. The children of the family guards and servants would be arranged to take the wizard qualification test first, and then all the children who met the age requirements in Silver Pine Town would be tested.

The old baron asked the old butler Paddy to gather all the children of the castle guards and servants who were over six years old. As for the children of Silverpine Town, Knight Rawlins was responsible for gathering them.

When they heard that Master Richard from the Baron's family was going to give the children a wizard aptitude test, all the survivors in the inner castle square became excited.

This also diluted the original sad atmosphere in the square.

People are always like this, as long as there is hope, they will try their best to live.

This kind of hope, in particular, is likely to appear in the next generation.

This reminded Richard of a famous saying from his previous life: everything for the children, everything for the children.

The first to be tested were the children of the Clavel family's guards and servants. According to statistics, there were twenty-three children in total.

The wizard aptitude test also has age requirements for children. If the age of the test aptitude is younger than six years old, it is possible that the wizard aptitude has not yet been fully awakened, and the test may have major omissions, so it is not accurate.

So currently these twenty-three are all children over the age of six.

Under the unified arrangement of the housekeeper, the twenty-three children lined up obediently and waited at the door of the hall.

In fact, every one of these twenty-three children had seen Richard, so when Richard sat at the top seat in the hall, the children recognized Richard at first sight. He was the man in black robe who saved them from danger.

What Richard didn't know was that in the children's hearts, the most profound impression was made by the enormous abomination, not him as its master.

However, starting from the first child, seven or eight children in a row did not test out as having wizard qualifications. This made Richard sigh that the proportion of people with wizard qualifications among ordinary people was indeed very small.

However, when it came to the ninth child, Richard's eyes lit up.

Because the crystal ball finally responded, no longer like the previous few children who were motionless, finally a child with the qualifications of a wizard appeared.

But after a while, Richard's joy was dashed again, because the child's wizarding aptitude was quite poor, only level five.

However, Richard thought that the little boy looked strong and might be a good candidate for a knight, so he asked the butler to record it and the butler would hand it over to his father in due time.

Even if a child cannot become a wizard's apprentice, if he can become a knight, that is what many parents wish for.

In this situation where an average family can barely make ends meet, they basically cannot afford the cost of training a warrior, let alone a knight.

The next child to enter the hall for the test was a beautiful little girl with blond hair and blue eyes. She glanced at Richard with some fear.

"Come, child, don't be afraid. Hold the crystal ball gently in both hands, close your eyes, concentrate as much as possible and feel the energy particles in the air." Richard's magnetic voice came to the child's ears.

With Richard's encouragement, the little girl placed her hands carefully on the crystal ball on the table with a nervous mood, as if she was afraid of breaking such a beautiful object.

At the same time, according to Richard's instructions, he concentrated his mind and focused on sensing the external elements through the crystal ball. After a while, a strong green color began to gather in the originally colorless crystal ball, and gradually stabilized with very few other colors.

"Alright! Very good."

Hearing Richard speaking again, the little girl relaxed, opened her eyes, and looked at Richard with puzzled eyes.

"What's your name, kid?"

"My name is Tina and I'm ten years old. Sir, did I pass the test?" the little girl said in a low voice, obviously a little shy.

Richard nodded, "Yes, you are a lucky man, you have good wizard qualifications."

"Sir, does that mean I can go with you?" The little girl raised her head and looked at Richard with a pair of clear eyes. The corners of her clothes were twisted into a knot between her fingers, showing her nervousness.

Richard couldn't help but ask curiously: "Tina, why do you want to go with me? You should know that you are still young, and it is a very painful thing to be separated from your family. There is no need to be so anxious."

"My parents both died during the day. Now I am with my aunt." The little girl's eyes were slightly red.

Obviously, this was a painful memory for her, and she couldn't help feeling sad even when she just thought about it.

Richard looked at the bright eyes full of hope in front of him, and felt a little distressed.

This little girl had very good qualifications, with a high affinity for natural elements, and her mental strength qualifications were also at an average level. It could be said that her qualifications were much better than Richard's own before he entered school.

But it's a pity that Tina is friendly to natural elements, not dark elements, so Richard cannot recommend her to the Ignis School. That would be irresponsible to her.

"Tina, not yet. You stay at your aunt's house for a while, and then I will come to pick you up." Richard shook his head with regret.

The little girl couldn't hide her disappointment on her face, but when she heard that Richard would come to pick her up, she smiled happily again.

The little girl bowed and whispered thank you, then was taken aside by the old butler Paddy to register.

At Richard's suggestion, Paddy wrote down the little girl's name and address in detail, paying special attention to her. She would be well taken care of. If she was unhappy living at her aunt's house, Richard also instructed the old butler Paddy to let her live directly in the castle.

Richard was thinking about how to make better arrangements for little Tina.

It seemed that the only wizard apprentice he knew who had an affinity with natural elements was Ophelia. Obviously, there would be no problem if Tina was trained by her.

But Ophelia is about the same age as Richard. Isn't it a little too early to take care of a child? After thinking about it, Richard suddenly had a headache.

The next test for the children was uneventful.

Two hours later, all the children of the residents of Silver Pine Town were tested, with the exception of one child with a low affinity for the element of fire, whose training value was not high. However, Richard still instructed Paddy to record it.

Among hundreds of children, the one with the best qualifications is Tina, the little girl with a high affinity for natural elements.

That night, people kept coming in and out of Richard's room, from his father, mother, eldest brother, to the second-level wizard apprentice Duan, and finally Knight Rawlins, etc. This made Selena, who had been waiting on the side and had been looking forward to it, feel depressed.

However, Selena overheard that Richard would go to Silverpine Forest early tomorrow morning to track down the source of the monsters. This made Selena, who was originally overjoyed, feel anxious again.

The beautiful 17-year-old maid, who originally had some romantic thoughts, could only suppress the thoughts in her heart quietly when she saw her young master who was so busy.

Richard found that he was really not suitable for socializing. Although there were only his family and a few guests, chatting with seven or eight people made him exhausted. It was far less relaxing than studying witchcraft or making potions by himself.

Shaking his head with a wry smile, Richard suddenly remembered that he had not taken the [Heart of Mutation] yet. He would set out to track the monster tomorrow. Obviously, after taking it, his strength would be improved again, which would be more secure.

Richard took out the [Mutated Heart] that he had carefully stored away from the light green special box.

I saw a bloody heart the size of a baby's fist, completely red and emitting an unusual fragrance. This fragrance seemed to be able to touch the depths of a person's soul, making every cell in the body seem to be roaring, "Eat it, eat it."

According to the fishman's notes, as a mutated heart that can slightly improve one's mental strength, it is naturally extremely precious.

For example, the main raw material, the mutant crab demon's heart, the precious auxiliary material, the troll mantis's eye, etc., are very difficult to find.

Richard still remembers that it took a lot of effort to collect the raw materials for the [Mutated Heart]. It can be said that it took the combined efforts of the entire blind fishman tribe to allow Richard to collect all the raw materials.

In addition, the difficulty of making a mutant heart is even higher than that of making a golden horned frog egg.

This time, Richard also wanted to see how much change this [Mutated Heart] could bring, and whether it could really improve a person's wizard qualifications as described in the fishman's notes.

If it is true, then what is the exact magnitude of this? The notes are vague and do not provide a specific quantitative statement.

It melted in the mouth as soon as he took a bite. Alchemy was indeed magical. This thing that should have the texture of muscle turned into a jelly-like texture. After three or two bites, the entire mutant heart was swallowed by Richard.

A warm current immediately spread from Richard's stomach to every part of his body.

A feeling very similar to the pure soul energy that is fed back to Richard after the Soul-Eating Spider devours the enemy's soul is now slowly arising in his perception.

Although it is slower, the quantity is much greater. If Richard's body is a piece of soil, then now it is not just a thread of spring rain that is watering it, but dozens of threads, and slowly, it becomes hundreds of threads, watering the soil.

Spring breeze moistens the heart!

After an unknown amount of time, Richard fell into a deep sleep.

The beautiful little maid secretly observed her young master through the crack of the door for a long time. She didn't know whether she was angry that her young master didn't care about her or worried that he was too hard-working and tired, but she was well-behaved and didn't disturb him all night.

When Richard woke up again, he found that it was already the next day, because the morning light had already shone into the house from the window.

Instantly, Richard noticed the difference in the whole person.

It was as if the world around him had lifted a veil upon him. He seemed to be able to see the tiny particles floating in the air and hear the rapid breathing of the maid outside the door. Most importantly, he could feel the shackles in his body, which he did not know whether they came from his body or soul.

(End of this chapter)