"Go on then, tell me how you would rather not lose whatever it is that you have left after losing everything over these many heartbreaking years!" the elder told the dean of the Griffin Academy as his grin became even larger.
This elder was from a mystic academy within Bitter Falls city called The Mystic Sabre Academy. And as one would guess, their academy specializes in training their students as both the path of a mystic, and utilizing said elemental techniques within their sabre as the main weapon. It was not uncommon for weapons to include a demonic core to power it up with a particular element, however, it was fairly rare for a mystic to use anything other than a staff as a weapon in battle.
Due to such a specialization, quite a few normal citizens in both the city and surrounding area flocked to academies such as theirs. Making them a top power within the region and almost enough to be on par with the noble clans. Because of this, the elders within the academy such as this one, were rather lofty.
"I bet you that one of my students will surpass all of yours within the tournament." the dean of Griffin Academy replied as a cold expression appeared on his face. The teachers and the students seeing such an expression coming from the dean, made them feel rather afraid.
"Sure, we can do that for the bet, but tell me little phoenix, what are you willing to wager for this bet?" the elder almost taken back from such a bet felt his eyes turning into an endless stream of gold. With such a high stake bet, the dean must be bringing something very pleasant to the eyes forward.
"Unlike you, I have drank the blood of a demonic beast associated with the ancient phoenix. What not many people including my closest friends know, is that I kept enough blood for another expert to do the same and to instantly grow their power." the dean replied as he withdrew a small bottle with demonic beast blood within.
Not only the elder, but several of the top powers within the region who were eavesdropping in on this conversation couldn't help but to gasp in shock as a small group of older experts made an appearance on the side of these two in order to verify that what the dean of the Griffin Academy had said.
To their amazement, within the bottle, an aura of an ancient phoenix demonic beast who could freely roam the world since the ancient times filtered out of the bottle, enough for everyone present to realize that the dean was in fact holding such a treasure within his hand.
"Deal!" without hesitating, the elder quickly agreed before any of the onlookers who looked as if they wanted to make the bet instead could. The elder knew that this would potentially cause a small uproar and might make him a target of these experts and the powers behind them, but he didn't care. Such minor issues would mean nothing as long as he would be able to get his hands on the bottle and use it for himself.
Since the very first tournament that the Griffin Academy took part in, the dean and this elder would make such a bet but with high quality treasures which was hard to find unless an expert were to spend their lives traveling across the world and facing many dangers.
The elder winning every single time, would actually save each individual treasure he had won and used it to flaunt his wealth to other experts within Bitter Falls, allowing his reputation to be rather good even outside of the academy he was representing.
Still, only betting these insignificant treasures almost entirely unusable unless he were to outright sell them to the highest of bidders, the elder chose to withdraw each one and to use the remainder of the most precious items and gold to match the extreme cost associated with the dean's item within the bet to make it more equal.
Taking account of all the treasures in the elder's possession, the dean of the Griffin Academy could only chuckle as he nodded his head to solidify this agreement before taking a closer look at these other experts. "As you have heard and witnessed, this bet concerns both of our academies and the winner must hand over everything placed today within the bet itself without question."
"I must also thank all of you for bearing witness to this bet of ours. Knowing the dangers associated with refusing to hand the winner everything would end with that individual being imprisoned by the royal family of the Sun Dynasty given the severity of what was put on the table." the elder cupped his hands towards the other experts which included a rather highly decorated military general.
All the experts could do was groan as they all took their leave for the time being. It was true that if they played the roles as witnesses if the loser were to refuse to hand anything over to the winner, a small reward would be given to them as well as a chance to meet several experts in charge of the courts. Still, it was all meaningless since they couldn't make their own bets with the dean of the Griffin Academy in order to win the bottle.
With such a bet being presented in a public place such as this, word of it spread like wildfire, even reaching those who did not get along very well with the Mystic Sabre Academy. Such competitors were given the order to assist anyone from the Griffin Academy and to instantly take down anyone from the Mystic Sabre Academy.
It was not only because they didn't like the Mystic Sabre Academy, rather, a higher up within any of the top academies in the region losing all of their wealth would also indirectly harm the future of said academy. In such an indirect warfare between top tier academies and powers, getting any edge was equivalent to winning a big battle to them.
