Chapter 315: The Request

"And I decided to enter the core area…" Charles explained his actions as he was seated alone in a dark room.

Outside, the messengers also gave out their confessions. There were also awakeners who were sent into the Theodara secret realm to verify their words through direct inspection.

Instructions were continuously sent in and the results came out in a couple of seconds.

So far, no one had lied.

The audience watched the twelve different screens showing the live confessions of the five teams and Varian.

The steps of the teams were logical and predictable. Everyone understood what they were doing.

But Varian…

At first, everyone was confused by Varian's actions.

First, he went to Thunder plains and got the Fury dynamites.

Then, he went to the Aether Gardens and brought a few plants that enraged others.

In either case, he wasn't found by messengers.

His answer to that query was straightforward.

"They're all weaker than me and I was on guard all the time. There was a messenger or two that saw me, I knocked them out."

That one or two meant Ahri and Priscilla Xander.

Anyway, after getting the vengeance flowers, he went to Vine Forest and provoked the messengers into attacking Charles.

"…."

Eve Xander, the butler of Charles, almost coughed out blood.

'So you picked drugs to provoke Charles…but why?'

But soon, he understood the gist and clicked his tongue.

'What a cunning fellow.'

Charles Xander was ultimately a wild card. If he recovered, things would go south.

The best way to deal with him was to pit him against other teams. But why would they come again and attack a 'weakened' Charles?

If he eliminates those messengers, either Ashtarh or the Xavier team would decide he's still dangerous and they'd attack him again!

Varian continued calmly.

"Messengers being eliminated in Vine Forest served multiple functions. One of which was that messengers in every region were reduced.

So when I went to Ice Region, there was only one messenger of the Ashtarh Team. I knocked him out and sent a half-typed message to Tiama.

Then I set the explosives on a mountain and set a timer for them."

Varian talked lightly, but everyone present in the hall dropped their jaws.

If you set up a timer, you must accurately predict the actions of the other party!

They all knew the difficulty!

"Then the Twisted Islands, Ahri and….I used a common face mask and modified it to pose as Ahri and misled Helia.

Of course, Ashtarh also got the wrong message."

'….'

The reason it worked on Helia was her character. She didn't dare to stay because she was afraid of confrontation with the strong.

But the reason she went to the Ice Region was an obvious reason of her personality.

Her pride.

She looked down on Sarah since the beginning of the banquet. So many of them saw this, but how many could actually make use of that information?

"Ashtarh should've trusted Ahri's message and the disappearance of the messenger should've convinced them.

Then they entered Ice Region shortly after Helia's team." Varian explained nonchalantly, the details and reasoning.

Everyone just watched dumbly as the man told how he just fooled every top genius.

Why did it seem so easy coming from him?

"Anyway, the explosion timing was off by almost 40 seconds or Ashtarh's team would be more injured."

'Insane…this was just insane.'

Richard leaned against the wall and took a deep breath.

He saw Evander, along with other Sovereigns staring at Varian's hologram.

They all had surprised expressions on their faces.

In fact, a few of them nodded from time to time and their eyes brightened up.

"By this point, the general trajectory was set. I went to Thunder Plains, lured a level 6 beast to eliminate the messengers and in the meanwhile, I took away some lightning fury orbs.

In the Aether Gardens, I avoided the surveillance of the messengers and sneaked in successfully. I got a couple of Illusion Formations.

Finally, Twisted Islands. There were more people there, but thankfully, none on the above island.

There's a secret route to the floating island that's known to some people and I read it in a book.

With that, I reached the floating island and took away a few space formations."

'….'

All those items could at most exert the strength of mid-level 6. Why did he collect them at all and why them of all?

Because any member of the team could easily dodge them with their speed.

"And that's it. I leisurely went to the laden burrows. By then, everyone was already fighting.

I just decided to target the winner. After all those injuries, they'd come out anyway since there could still be more beasts inside.

Since my Space and Illusion formations need to be fixed to the ground, I needed a spot where the winner would step into.

The obvious choice was the entrance exit.

But I didn't arrange it immediately."

Varian rubbed his chain and shrugged. He didn't seem to the difficulty of his actions.

"Anyway, I had a bad feeling about Charles, and soon, he did arrive and went inside.

Shortly after, I arranged the illusion formations and space formations embedded with lightning-fury orbs.

All of them only needed aura to operate and that's why I picked them." He said.

'…why does it sound so simple?' Evander thought as he kept sighing inwardly.

'And what's with your thinking all of a sudden? Did your brain suddenly awaken or what?'

Regardless of his thoughts, he was happy.

Everything Varian said so far was verified!

That meant he only used his power of peak level 5 all the time.

"Charles exited out after some time. He was injured, so my illusion formation and space formation worked on him long enough until the lightning orbs' attacks caught him.

And yeah, that's pretty much it." Varian nodded lightly.

Then he looked at the camera and said. "I am done, right? Are we getting the prize now or what?"

"….."

At least give us time to digest what just happened! But no one found any major problem with what he said.

According to the reports, he didn't cheat.

If a peak level 5 replicated what he did, they could theoretically achieve the same results, but...

A level 5 aiming to best the strongest level 6s of the federation? Bitch please!

Forget aiming, just dreaming that big was impossible!

But the reality was indeed stranger than fiction.

Somehow, the audience felt a mix of shock and yearning at Varian's achievement.

'I want to be like him too. I want to dream big, I want to achieve my goal.'

This time, the audience was silent without anyone asking them to.

The seniors now placed him at the same level as Charles, if not higher. 

Such a person shouldn't have improved based on treasures. Perhaps even Ambrosia was a lie! 

Yes, yes! This guy is a natural genius! We need to support him!

As they rationalized their actions, the final ceremony began.

Varian was on the stage with Sovereigns and Evander.

The Sovereigns chatted with him for a bit.

Sovereign Ares patted him on the shoulder or at least tried to. "Atta boy! Any peak level 5 would've not even tried, but you did.

Just for that courage, I am optimistic about your future. Come to Neptune sometime and visit the frontlines! Slaughter some Abyssals, it's very refreshing!"

Varian nodded lightly, his lips threatening to leak out a big smile.

'Frontlines…are interesting.'

Sovereign Vianne chuckled and said. "I have a good daughter."

Varian's face stiffened.

"Cough. Cough. Don't joke, Sovereign Vianne, doesn't your daughter have a daughter already?" Evander coughed lightly and defended his innocent disciple.

…Well, not so innocent but still.

"Oh?" Vianne smiled teasingly at Evander and waved her hand. "Well, I don't have anything. Just some money. I'm very stingy, so…"

She swiped her comm and Varian's eyes nearly popped out.

There were too many zeroes.

Varian could now retire, buy a private island and live for 100 years without any worry of money.

"Hahaha." Vianne laughed lightly and stepped back.

The other Sovereigns also gave a gift each.

Finally, Evander looked at him with a complicated expression and gave him an exquisite glass vial.

"Enlightenment potion." It was the prize of the trial.

"Evander, he's your disciple, aren't you going to gift him anything?" Ares suddenly asked, causing Evander to stiffen on the spot.

'….'

Varian turned his head and whistled. Even though the treasures they gave were mostly useless, who knew?

Evander wanted to gift Varian, but anything he gave would pale in comparison to the gifts Sovereigns gave him.

For instance, Sovereign Kevin gave Varian a 'teleportation talisman'. If he activated it, he'd be teleported far enough that even level 7s wouldn't find him easily.

Evander thought hard and finally glanced at Sarah in the audience. Her gaze was transfixed on Varian from the beginning to the end.

Her eyes showed a mix of emotions that he didn't think his usually silent daughter was capable of.

She was surely a bit angry but also relieved that Varian wasn't in danger.

Evander didn't look at her for long though. As Sarah grew up, she resembled her mother more and more.

And reminded him of her death.

"If Sarah is fine with it, I won't object." He said slowly.

"Eh?" Varian was taken aback. What fine?

Evander wanted to beat up Varian, but looking at the Sovereigns', he controlled himself and said.

"So, what is your request? Make sure it's reasonable."

All the Sovereigns looked at him as did the audience.

Varian smiled lightly and said.

"Four hours."

"Four hours of training…it'd be a bit hard, but we can plan 10-minute sessions over the year. Sovereign Albert, right? I will inform h—"

"No, Master, I need four hours from you."

"....?!"