Chapter 17: Marquis Charles can no longer laugh

Edith sighed again.

Most of the apprentices she had come into contact with in her previous life were graduates of Beunis College and were considered "completed", but they still made her feel stupid, not to mention the preparatory students who had not yet passed the examination screening.

"We can prepare for the path of alchemy, but we don't have to do it this way." She spoke, drawing everyone's attention.

Barney was puzzled: "Aren't spells and potions the only two ways to heal? What else can you do besides that?"

"You can steal the healed demon-eating birds from others." Heda suddenly said, narrowing his eyes and looking into the distance. "The strong prey on the weak. This is the law of this world."

Barney: “…”

My God, is this still the elegant duke's daughter he knew?

Edith coughed lightly, and Hedda suddenly realized that her words were inconsistent with her character. She immediately blushed, shut her mouth, and sat upright.

Edith retracted her gaze upon seeing this and changed the subject, "Yes, this is one way, but I prefer this option as a backup."

"First, we can't use attack spells above the intermediate level, which will have a great impact on actual combat. It will be difficult for us to snatch other people's cages while protecting two teammates. Second, since the president has stated that he will give us scores based on various factors, the personal ability that can be demonstrated on this path is too single. Even if we can complete the task, the score may not be high."

Everyone fell silent for a while. After a while, Barney spoke vaguely: "It turns out that completing the task does not mean you get a high score..."

They all fell into misconceptions, easily taking "completing the assessment" as the highest criterion for judgment, but forgot that the process of completing the task is the basis for demonstrating their strength.

"So as long as I can show myself as much as possible within five days, I can enter the academy even if I don't cure the demon-eating bird?" Nina asked weakly, "But healing only tests spells, potions only test potion configuration, and snatching only reflects attack ability... It seems that none of these can fully demonstrate myself."

"Why not try to catch a new demon-eating bird in the jungle?" Edith asked.

Hedda: "Catch a new one?"

Edith nodded: "Didn't you listen to the test requirements?"

"'At least two people with healthy demon-eating birds are heading to Central Falls', there is no requirement that it be the original one."

"As long as the birds in the cages are 'healthy' at the end of the day, that's fine."

......

Joyce left a lot of magic threads in the dense forest. He didn't need to keep an eye on them all the time, but he could still sense the status of each group in real time.

It was just as she thought—a complete mess.

In previous years, the practical examinations were divided into two groups, which was always a combination of "master + companion". The master led and the companion followed orders. The two people who had practiced together since childhood and had a high degree of cooperation performed pleasingly in the test questions that were revealed in detail.

This is so boring.

Therefore, she changed the rules this year. Four people in a group, basically two nobles and two companions, the leadership alone was enough for these young ladies and young masters to fight for a while.

As she expected, within ten minutes of the test starting, no team left their initial teleportation range. They were either arguing over leadership or fighting over who would keep the supplies. Even teams that had barely decided who would be the captain due to family differences would still argue over treatment plans.

She watched with interest for a while, closed her eyes, and embedded her consciousness in the shadow in the academy. She opened her eyes, felt the reactions of the nobles on the scene, and nodded with satisfaction.

That’s great, because the arrogant performance of their own children in the projection was too embarrassing. Everyone was pretending to look at the sky, the ground, and the handkerchief, and finally no one clamored to change the test questions.

Everything here is basically stable, so next we should focus all our attention on the examination room.

She called her consciousness back to her body, felt the changes in the field, and opened her eyes subtly.

A team actually set out?

......

"Recite some knowledge about the Demon-eating Bird."

Edith pushed aside the dense branches and shouted behind her.

Heda understood immediately that Edith was creating an opportunity for her to perform. She coughed twice in a reserved manner. She covered her mouth with a fan and said quickly, "The magic-eating bird, also known as the red-tailed brown bird, is found in forests with dense magic power and has no fixed nests. Its main food is the magic power emitted by trees containing magic power. It also consumes a certain amount of monsters, including mages, so it is not advisable to get too close to it."

"It is a solitary, nocturnal animal that lays eggs at the roots of magical trees. The eggs do not need to be incubated by the mother and will hatch on their own after absorbing magical energy for 30 days."

After listening to her, Edith continued, "The feathers carry tiny dust particles with paralyzing properties, so direct contact should be avoided as much as possible."

This bird has an ordinary appearance, a not-so-mellow call, is difficult to feed and is aggressive, so it is not on the list of aristocrats to watch. Except for people like Edith and Hedda who have a wide range of interests, ordinary students don't really know so much about it. Barney and Nina naturally don't understand it, but they are eager to learn, so they quickly took out their pens and notebooks to record the information.

"It's a sure thing. We're really sure to have a team like this!" Barney lowered his voice and whispered excitedly in Nina's ear, "You don't have to listen to me 100% from now on. Just follow their - no, Edith's arrangements, and you'll be right."

Nina nodded in agreement.

Joyce raised her eyebrows when she sensed this scene. She chose the demon bird to reduce the possibility of being recognized by students. She didn't expect that these two people not only knew about this creature, but also knew it very thoroughly. The research results on the dust contained in the feathers of the demon bird were just circulated within the association a year ago, and were only disseminated through academic newspapers in the past two months. Knowing this meant that this person named Edith had been pursuing the most cutting-edge academic information, which was good.

She couldn't help but open her eyes again inside the academy, and said to the people around her with emotion: "This Edith is really good. She is emotionally stable, knowledgeable, and has such a good attitude towards learning. I want to be her mentor myself."

"Ha, ha, is that so..." The people around him reluctantly echoed, and Joyce realized that something was wrong. He tilted his head to take a look: "?"

"Who are you? Shouldn't the principal be sitting here?"

"I'm not a royal noble, so I wasn't assigned a seat. The principal just compensated me by arranging for me to sit here." The smile on the man's face looked very stiff for some reason. "It's an honor to meet you, President Walker. I'm Ford Charles, and my fiefdom is in the northern capital."

"Oh, Marquis Charles, nice to meet you." Joyce searched her mind and finally recognized the other party's identity. She shook his hand perfunctorily, turned her eyes back to the projection, and sighed again: "Is this Edith just a study companion? The master is really blessed by God."

Marquis Charles could no longer laugh.

......

"etc."

Edith stopped everyone, squatted down, and pulled out an ordinary grass from the bushes on the roadside. "Collect some medicinal herbs. Even if you can't make a healing potion, it's good to add some points."

"But this grass has no magical fluctuations." Barney also squatted down, and stretched out his hand to pull it. Heda's pupils suddenly shrank, and he raised his foot and kicked his butt hard.

Edith's grass was finally saved.

Barney was caught off guard and rolled over twice while howling. When he got up, he saw Hedda's right foot slightly pulled back, with his toes pointing outward about 30 degrees, standing in the standard "praying posture", showing his aristocratic demeanor.

It was as if she had never stepped foot.

He cast a resentful look at Nina again, but the study partner silently turned his eyes away, pretending that he saw nothing.

Damn it, I was bullied by the gang.

Barney failed to play the victim, and got up angrily. He just happened to hear Edith's final words: "...Therefore, the magic potion is not very effective against the demon-eating bird. If you want to cure it, it is best to mix it with herbs that ordinary people eat on a daily basis."

Potions, like spells, rely on magic power and will be directly digested by the mana-eating bird: potions made with ordinary herbs rely on themselves to fight the disease. Although the effect is slow, at least the results can be seen.

"The demon-eating bird in our hands has no obvious external injuries. The examination room needs to give out a large number of questions in a short period of time. It is unrealistic to let the bird naturally catch a cold or something like that. It is very likely that it was fed with poisonous fruit." Edith analyzed calmly, "It will take too long to find out what kind of poison it is. It is better to directly prepare a universal antidote. At most, it will take two days longer than taking the right medicine."

"You also know how to prepare common medicines?" Barney exclaimed in surprise.

The medicine made from non-magical plants is slow and has poor effects. Apart from ordinary people who can't afford magic potions, who would specifically learn this kind of thing!

"My father is a doctor who studies common medicinal herbs," Edith said without blinking.

She wasn't lying - the original owner's father was indeed a doctor, and in order to save costs, he would go to the wild to collect some herbs to make his own medicine, and no matter who checked, there would be no mistakes.

As a commoner, it would be easy for her to arouse suspicion if she revealed her knowledge of potions too early; but there was no problem in showing her ability to prepare ordinary potions - it was both concealed and could add points, killing two birds with one stone.

Barney and Nina nodded in understanding. Hedda knew Edith's "background" and was afraid that her words would remind her of her father's death, so she patted her on the back.

"It's okay." Edith smiled at her, raised the grass in her hand, and brushed away the mud at the bottom with her hand, revealing the white roots. "This is one of the raw materials for refining the antidote. Let's keep it for future use."

Everyone nodded, and after Edith had finished collecting the information, they walked towards the depths of the forest.

There, the leaves block out the sun, making it more like night, and there are more demon-eating beasts.

......

Deep in the jungle.

Lynch was in a stalemate with another noble. That man was called Thompson, also the son of the Marquis. The two had similar family situations and it was hard to tell who was more important. Both wanted to be in command, so they had a quarrel. It was still unclear who was the winner, but the companion who was "carefully selected" by the Marquis Charles suddenly changed sides and advised Lynch to listen to the other party.

Lin Qi would rather die than obey.

The two of them struggled for a while, and suddenly they heard the crunching sound of dead leaves not far from them. If they listened carefully, they seemed to hear the noisy discussion of several people.

The two of them stopped arguing unconsciously.

The sound was getting closer and clearer, and it was obviously belonging to a four-man team.

Thompson was visibly excited.

He made a "truce" gesture to Lin Qi and whispered, "Stop for now, let's get rid of this team first."

Lin Qi frowned: "What do you want to get rid of?"

Thompson said as if it was a matter of course: "Kill their bird, of course."

"The bird is dead, there is no way it can be resurrected, so they are naturally out of the game, and we have one less opponent."

He looked at his "teammate" expectantly, but Lynch did not give him any response.

"......"

Lynch fell silent.

He seemed, as if, to discern a familiar tone among those voices.