Ascension: Strongest Fateless Mage

While Zevien and the gang were attending the opening ceremony, the Blood Sun organization finally confirmed the culprit after extensive investigation.

"After fully investigating everything, it is clear that the one who took our X-Door crystal was Alucard. In that resort, only he was from Starlight city, and the city lord of that city somehow found out about the X-Door crystal as well based on how he started the search operation right before we detonated it."

The Supreme Leader nodded after hearing the report and asked, "any news of this Alucard? Where is he right now?"

"No clue; he disappeared after entering Starlight city. After that incident, he hasn't been spotted anywhere."

"It is a colossal blunder that Lopax country got our X-Door Crystal. But they won't be able to reverse engineer it soon," the Supreme Leader said with creased eyebrows, "A mere 5th class magician caused such trouble for us. Find him and kill him."

"He should be 4th class now."

"So what?! Find him and deal with him!"

…

The large hall had a platform, and the headmaster of the Skyward Academy was standing on it along with five head teachers. They faced the five hundred students standing in front of them.

"I am the headmaster of this academy, Noril Pash. First of all, congratulations," Noril caressed his dark-orange bread while smiling. "It's good that everyone managed to arrive here in time."

The students below were still gasping for breaths. There were only eight students who could fly due to their awakening spell that helped them fly. The majority still couldn't access flying-type magic spells as classless magicians, and since everyone had just reached 5th class magician, they still couldn't learn it since most of the flying-type magic spells are tier-3.

"This opening ceremony is unlike the general ones you see in your academies or dojos. There's no student council here as well. You are all called here so that we can relay you some information," Noril said before he took out a mystical pen and started waving his hand as words appeared in the air.

Astral Land!

"Astral Land! Many of you might know about the existence of this place but not in much detail."

All students were a bit surprised but all of them, including Zevien, displayed a thirst to know about this place. All they knew was that it was a mystic place, vaster than the Gaia continent and the true world of magic.

"First thing you need to know is that in Astral Land, all magicians at 1st-class and below are considered…trash!" Noril spoke with a sharp smile, "because even 1st-class magicians are considered students over there. These head teachers behind me are all 1st-class magicians and my students as well. The reason is that Astral Land has a much stronger environment, and all spells below tier-5 have a significantly lower impact! A hundred meters giant meteor fall tier-5 spell is like ten meters big in Astral Land."

*Gasp!*

Hearing this, all the students were shocked!

"That is the reason that all magicians at 1st-class and below are considered as students in Astral Land. The path of magic completely changes after you surpass 1st class magician rank. From then on, your true path of magic will start, and you will become part of the true magic world, Astral Land! The goal of this academy is to nurture students who can make their own foothold in that bigger world!"

All the students got riled up as they heard such grandiose words and shocking information!

"We will make our own place in that world," Zevien muttered as he grabbed Vernisia's hand while clenching the fist of his other hand.

Vernisia's eyes were also burning with the fire of ambition and resolve as she nodded. "I want to see the peak of this magic path with you."

Headmaster Noril nodded smilingly after looking at all student's reactions. 'Let's see how many survive in this batch.'

"Alright, I have said enough. There's much more to Astral Land, but you are not qualified to know about it yet," Noril grinned as he waved his hand, and five doors in the hall opened.

The first door had a hammer hitting an anvil symbol, Magic Smith.

The second door had a magic potion symbol, Alchemist.

The third door had a knife and fork symbol, Mystic Chef.

The fourth door had a gemstone-shaped symbol, Jewelist.

The fifth door had a magic circle with eccentric patterns symbol, Enchanter.

"Your first class will start right away! Enter the door of your respective magic occupation! Remember, magic occupation is even more important in Astral Land for reasons that you won't understand now. Just know that importance of magic occupation is the same as magic combat there and in this academy as well! Now go!"

Zevien and the gang went on their separate ways and attended their first magic occupation class.

…

Zevien arrived in another hall with thirty-seven other students in the Mystic Chef hall.

There, a woman with long black hair and wearing a fancy black dress was standing with her arms crossed under her busty melons. "A total of thirty-eight students…low as always," she muttered.

Mystic Chef was not as popular as the other magic occupations.

"I am your Mystic Chef teacher, Wan Raina. Call me teacher Raina," Raina said as she swept her glance at all students. "Look at the floor and stand on a red square. Quick."

After each of the students stood on a red square that had a distance of five meters from each other, Raina pointed her finger at a wall with a leaver on it, and with a slight gust of wind, she pulled down the leaver.

A second later, the ground made some sound and a cooking platform appeared in front of each student. The platform had all the required tools and ingredients.

"Cook a tier-1 food dish. If you fail, you will have to do one thousand push-ups. Once that is done, you can ask me, and I will help you and teach you. Those who get passing scores from me can leave the class and do whatever they want. Your first day of the academy is over with that," Raina said before smiling with narrowed eyes. "However, in the next Mystic Chef class two days later, those who failed to cook a tier-1 food dish will be expelled from the academy."