Ascension: Strongest Fateless Mage

The meeting was over after another hour of discussion and everyone dispersed.

On the same day, Dan and Erica got the Magician Growth Boost and awakened their 2nd magic labyrinth with Zevien's help.

Afterward, everyone got busy with their work while Zevien returned to his regular life with Vernisia, Erica, and Dan.

After a month, the government announced something shocking and revealed some big news as they opened…

Fairy Summoning Centers!

For now, the government opened a total of four centers in four different cities: Starlight City, Rastenlub City, Red Cloud City, and Trafalin City.

These four cities were major cities of Lopax country, and each city had a national magic academy. The government prioritized students first, and only after all the students made a contract with a fairy spirit would other general magicians can go there.

Each Fairy Summoning Center had two peak 3rd class magicians from the government who had successfully learned the spell. In the first five days, all academic students managed to make contracts with fairy spirits.

After that, students studying in magic dojos got their contracted fairy spirits, and then came the turn of general magicians that consisted of 5th class and higher.

The rules regarding fairy summoning were also explained like how they would receive severe backlash and punishment if they treated their fairy spirits with bad intentions and that they wouldn't be able to make a contract with a second fairy spirit.

Naturally, such a big move by Lopax country caused other countries to become extremely envious. The Magic Guild headquarters took measures to make it fair for everyone and bought the Fairy Summoning Spell from Lopax Country!

The Magic Guild decided to open a Fairy Summoning Section in their magic guild branches in all the countries so that other people could also get their own fairy spirits.

Despite all that, the fairy summoning magic spell was not publicized and was kept in extreme secrecy.

Zevien's contribution increased a lot after the Magic Guild bought the spell from Lopax country. After all, the price they paid to get the magic spell was too high. High enough that they got enough ingredients to use the Magician Growth Boost on 500 people and even get some other resources in high amounts.

As of this moment, Zevien was one of the top contributors to Lopax country despite just being a student.

Alas, only a few people in the upper echelon knew about him, but Zevien didn't care about such things except for making the orphanage an extremely safe place and getting some other privileges.

After all, he knew that this was nothing compared to the behemoth that was Astral Land. The entirety of the Gaia continent was like an ant compared to Astral Land, and he aimed to make it big in that world!

Time passed and after a few months, their mid-term exams were over.

Everyone passed successfully. Now that exams were over, it was time for the student exchange program, but along with that, another unexpected news arrived from Skyward Academy...

In the class, Touma looked at the list of people who had reached 500 magic power: Zevien, Vernisia, Erica, Dan, Tigger, Sophia, Warmos, Michiru, Kurisu, and Harith.

Tigger, Sophia, Michiru, Kurisu, Harith, and Warmos managed to reach 500 magic power with the help of magic crystals, just like Erica and Dan.

Vernisia had to use one magic crystal while Zevien had reached the 500 mark without using any crystal, just as planned. That way, everyone in Zevien's gang reached the 500 magic power milestone within a few days of a gap.

However, the students were going to get shocked by the news from Skyward Academy as Touma prepared to tell them about it.

"First, the students who will be going to the 2nd National magic Academy in the student exchange program are Dan and Erica," Touma announced.

"What?! NOO!"

"Sir, I think Zevien and Vernisia should go."

The students started talking because they felt that with Zevien and Vernisia, nobody had the chance to get the quota to enter the Skyward Academy.

"Silence!" Touma loudly said as he thumped his cane on the floor, spreading vibrations. After the students stopped speaking, Touma continued, "there is another piece of news from Skyward Academy about the admissions."

'Here it comes,' Zevien thought as he already knew about this big change.

"Ahem, the format of the tournament and admission distribution has changed. Not just that, but the Skyward Academy even changed their entire academy's training and studying methods."

Everyone was surprised.

Touma wrote [Magic Labyrinth] on the whiteboard and underlined it before saying, "all because of the magic labyrinth changes that caused everyone to progress faster!"

"The tournament has also been fast-forwarded because of this. The Skyward Academy will open its doors after a month, so we must finish distributing the admission quotas in a month!

"The upcoming tournament will start after twenty-five days, and only those who have reached 5th class magician can participate," Touma said as he dropped the bomb. "This means that the distribution of the quota has changed. No more separate tournaments for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-year students! Any 5th class magician student below 20 years old can participate!"

*WOAH!*

The entire class was in uproar except for Zevien and his gang since they already knew about it from Touma.

"Then we won't even get a chance to participate…this, this is unfair!"

"Sir, you are not pulling our legs, right?"

Touma shook his head, "there's no changing this. The tournament changed because the Skyward Academy changed its entire constitution. In the first place, It is not simply an Academy but much more than that, as it is tied to the Magic Guild."

"Now listen, those who have reached the 500 magic power mark can try to evolve their magic core, and those who have not reached 500 magic power can try to reach it via magic crystals. All in all, everyone has 25 days to evolve their magic core, then you can participate in the tournament."

…

After the academy was over, Zevien and the others directly went to their private training room to evolve their magic core and become 5th-class magicians.

"Let's start," Zevien said as everyone sat cross-legged in their huge private training area in the Zenith Corp. building and entered meditation.

As long as one reached the limit of their magic power in the magic core, they could trigger their evolution with a thought while meditating. However….the process of evolution is not so easily completed!