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Chapter 50
Varian the fool
"This happened a bit over two thousand years ago. During that era, it existed a very famous band of bandits. Their leader, a man called Varian began as a petty thief but started to gain notoriety and eventually created his own band of bandits who would go around the Algioso State robbing rich and powerful people, sometimes they would give some of their loot to the commoners, making them very popular. Sometimes they would even strike at the neighborhood State of Ylem."
Professor Olivia continued. "They ended up gaining quite a bit of notoriety after successfully evading the authorities several times. Commoners told stories about how they stole from the rich and powerful and saved the poor and needy. A lot of people from low backgrounds decided to join their ranks. The Varian Bantits quickly became the biggest and most famous band of outlaws in the entire continent."
The Professor looked back at the forest and made a gesture with her hand.
"Their base of operation was somewhere inside this forest. After defeating all the opponents sent by the Great General, they probably felt invincible. They were strong, smart, and great in numbers. Their leader, Varian the Great, as they started to call him, had big aspirations. He wanted to be more than just a bandit, he wanted to become a ruler…he wanted to become an Emperor."
Many of the students could not help but laugh after hearing this. To them, the mere thought of taking down the Empire that has ruled for ten millennia is just ridiculous, no matter how strong this band of bandits was.
"Yes, that would be a normal reaction to this statement." Professor Olivia said. "But to them…they really thought they had a chance of winning, especially if they could fight in their own territory…this forest right here. To challenge the Emperor, the bandits started to steal the tributes going into the Empire from the States, they also stole from people close to the Emperor himself."
Olivia gave a pause. "This of course did the trick. The Emperor was enraged with Varian and his band of bandits. Varian wanted to lure the Emperor's army to this forest, he was certain of his victory if he could achieve that, so he never tried to conceal the location of their hideout. The Emperor assembled a great army, composed of some of the most powerful Magus on the continent, as well as thousands of soldiers and capable knights. It was an army capable of taking down an entire nation, and they were all focused on taking down a band of bandits."
"I guess that this band of bandits did not last long." One student commented.
"Yeah…no matter how confident this Varian was, taking on the Imperial army seems just…dumb." Another one said.
"I agree with that sentiment." Said the Professor. "In fact, the "War" if you wanna call it that, lasted only one day and it only lasted that long because many of the bandits escaped deep into the forest and were hard to find. After the ordeal was over, 'Varian the Great' was executed and started to be known as 'Varian the fool' for his poor decision of striking the Emperor. Although most will call this forest, the "Varian Forest", it is also known by a second name…" The forest of the fool". Well, now you know some of the stories of the place you are walking into. Professor Garret will now tell you about your mission inside the forest"
Garret took a step forward as Olivia went back.
"Listen well, because I will only explain it once" Professor Garret's grave voice resounded over the clearing.
"Your mission is to go in there and survive for three days by your own means while hunting unranked beasts. Bring back their tainted cores. The three students who bring back the biggest loot will have prices… that's all!"
"Humm….thank you Professor Garret for that…brief explanation." Started the Headmistress. "But maybe I should elaborate a bit more. You will not be taught about demonic beasts in detail until your second year. But what you need to know is that the term 'unraked beast' is used to describe beasts who had started to absorb mana into their bodies, becoming much stronger and more dangerous than normal beasts. The unranked beast had started to form their mana core but is not complete yet, this is why we refer to those as 'tainted cores'. After an unraked beast absorbs enough mana to purify their core, it will enter the level of 'ranked beast'."
"Arent ranked beasts equivalent in power to an Official Magus? What if we encounter one of those?" A worried student asked.
"You will only be staying in the outer area of the forest, the chances of finding a ranked beast in that place are very minimal and there is a clear delimitation to the inner areas, stay away from there. I and the other two professors are here to make sure that no ranked beasts get into the area where you will be staying. As long as you don't do something foolish, you will be fine." Explained the Headmaster.
"What are the rewards mentioned by Professor Garret?" Asked Hilda Vance.
"We will count the amount of tainted cores that you will bring back after three days. The third person with the most cores will get three mana pills, the second price is a box with ten mana pills, and the first price…" The headmistress took out a small box and opened it. Inside was a silver ring with a green crystal embedded in it. "A mana ring from my personal collection. Its value is around one thousand gold coins."
The students got excited after hearing about the rewards. Even the lowest one was three mana pills that were already worth one hundred and fifty gold, as for the ring, even those who were not interested in that type of focus could always sell it and one thousand gold was a huge amount, even for a noble. They may be able to get even more as the ring came from the personal collection of Headmistress Arabella Aston and she is a very popular figure in the entire State, not only for her power and talent but also for her beauty.
"We will be camping in this clearing for tonight. The survival competition will start tomorrow!" Declared the Headmistress.