The Admiral of Hogwarts

"Why did you give me Veneto's share of the money as well? Aren't you afraid I'll swallow it all up?" Hugo joked after putting the money away. "There's over 100 Galleons in here, which is a lot of money by any measure."

"I don't think you'd dare," Fred said. Hugo had already recognized him by this point. "Don't forget how that lady smashed the troll's leg. I reckon if you swallowed this money, your head would be cracked open like an egg."

"You're right, I wouldn't dare." Hugo shrugged, then looked at the Weasley twins, who were a head taller than him, and asked, "By the way, I remember you guys also placed bets. How did it go?"

"Hey, we're not as rich as you, nor as brave, so we only made one Galleon and seven Sickles each." George shrugged. "After all, there weren't that many people from the three houses willing to support Gryffindor out of friendship, so the odds weren't that high. Plus, we only put in about ten Sickles each to begin with, so winning this much is already pretty good."

"At least this money is enough for us to buy a batch of materials to continue our experiments," Fred added. "Thanks to your idea last time, I think we can now try making some prototypes."

"Sounds good." Hugo said, taking out ten Galleons from his own pouch and placing them in the twins' hands. "Like you just said, since I'm part of this research, I should contribute some effort."

He waved his hand, cutting off Fred, who was about to say something, and then looked at them seriously. "If you really consider me a partner, as you say, then take this money. After all, partners should be equal."

"I might not be very useful in this group because I'm too young and don't have enough knowledge. But I think I can make up for these shortcomings with some money." Hugo smiled. "Besides, I only got this money because you told me about this, so it's only reasonable to give you some to use."

"Alright, we'll take the money," Fred said, taking the ten coins. He realized that Hugo was serious, and it made sense. He even felt that refusing the money would be looking down on Hugo as a partner. "We'll put this money to good use."

"That's right." George nodded. "If we can open a shop in the future, this money will be our first investment." He then took out a small notebook and carefully wrote down Hugo's name and the ten Galleons invested today.

"Then I wish you all the best for your future shop." Hugo said with a smile. At this point, he was probably the most confident person that the two could open a shop. At least the Weasley twins themselves still had some doubts about whether they could open one.

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, Hugo said goodbye to the Weasley twins. Then he turned left and right, arriving at another empty classroom on the floor below, where Firefly with her pigtails was already waiting for him.

"Brother Hugo, you're finally here." Seeing Hugo walk in, Firefly rushed over and hugged him. After a while, she let go and took out a pouch from her body, handing it over. "By the way, thanks to your guidance, I won so much money this time, so this money is for you."

Unlike Hugo and Veneto, Firefly, as a girl with a straightforward personality in everyone's eyes, directly took out 12 Galleons and bet everything on Gryffindor winning and Harry catching the Golden Snitch this time, so she won 144 gold coins. And now, the pouch she gave Hugo contained the 100 Galleons they had agreed on.

In fact, both Veneto and Firefly initially intended to give the money to Hugo. After all, Hugo himself, as the Admiral, was the weakest link in the entire system, and strengthening Hugo's strength was the most important thing for the ship girls at this time.

On the other hand, if it weren't for Hugo providing information about the plot, neither Veneto nor Firefly would have been able to obtain this wealth. Therefore, the two ship girls felt that the money should belong to Hugo.

Most importantly, all the ship girls basically recognized that everything they had, including themselves, belonged to their Admiral when needed, and this money was no exception. However, Hugo still convinced them to leave some pocket money on themselves, using the excuse that they always needed to carry some money when in school.

After chatting with Firefly for a while, the two went to the Great Hall together for lunch. After lunch, Hugo didn't practice with Veneto as usual, but stayed in the dormitory. Because it was Saturday, his roommates had gone out to relax, leaving him alone in the room.

"Alright, Victory, how do I acquire skills?" After confirming the safety of the room, Hugo immediately contacted Victory, his most important system assistant, through the Admiral Network and asked this important question.

"It's very simple. First, lie down on the bed," Victory said. "Because the process of instilling these skills may have some impact on your body. If you're standing, you might fall directly to the ground because of these problems, and it would be terrible if you got injured."

"Alright, I'm lying down now." Three minutes later, Hugo lay on his bed as instructed, then said to Victory through the Admiral Network, "What should I do next?"

"You just need to choose. Each ship girl has her own power. And the 300 Galleons you have can get you three ordinary skills belonging to the ship girls."

"Ordinary skills?" Hugo asked strangely after hearing this word from Victory. "Do you mean there are some higher-level skills?"

"Of course, my Admiral," Victory said. "Skills are divided into two categories. One is ordinary skills like this, where you will acquire the skill itself. For example, the ship girls' foreign language abilities and some combat skills."

"The other is powerful skills worth 3000 Galleons. These skills not only require more money, but also require you to unlock certain avatars to strengthen your body before you can learn them."

"For example, Firefly's skills include one called 'Deadly Impact'. After choosing this skill, you will learn an extremely powerful set of close-quarters combat techniques that can inflict damage on opponents by colliding with various parts of your body. But if your body strength and power are insufficient, this move will not only lack its original powerful lethality, but may even injure yourself."

"I see, I understand." Hugo could also understand this restriction. After all, many of the ship girls' skills were based on their powerful bodies, and they simply couldn't be used with a human body of flesh and blood. Therefore, he gave up those tempting advanced skills and began to look at the ordinary skills.