As May arrived, selection and elimination rounds for the Mage League began all over the place.

Even the Divine Magic Academy was no exception.

Except for first-years who didn’t know much, all other grades were paying attention to the selection process.

The Divine Magic Academy has a five-year system. The standard graduation requirement is to reach Tier Two in first and second year, Tier Three in third and fourth year, and in fifth year you must at least be Tier Three. To graduate, you need to master Magic proficiently, form your own style, or meet the requirements in support specialties like dollmaking, scrolls, arrays, etc.

If you want to stay on at school, you have to reach Tier Four within these five years, so you can continue your studies as an instructor.

In other words, during your time at school, every student at most gets two chances to participate in the Mage League.

But in such a worldwide competition, most people are quite self-aware and won’t daydream about being world-top geniuses.

You have to know, there’s no age limit in this competition, as long as you’re below Tier Four, you can enter.

Who knows how many pro contestants are inside, people who’ve been stuck at Tier Three’s limit for over a decade just to have a shot at the championship.

If you want to join, you might as well do the High School Magic League or the Ista Mage League—for more regional competitions with less fierce competition, the chances of winning a prize are higher.

Still, even though most people are self-aware, there are always plenty who sign up—especially for the individual event, where the number of applicants keeps reaching new highs.

At lunch, Hilia overheard a lot of classmates discussing it.

She noticed that what everyone talked about the most wasn’t the individual event, but rather—

the change in team event slots.

"There are only two spots in this year’s team selection? What’s up with that?"

"I went and checked—yeah, the school only gave two spots, so only the champion and runner-up teams in the selection rounds get it. Everyone else just gets a scholarship."

"Weird, why’s there one fewer spot this year?"

"Maybe it’s because our school didn’t perform well last time—didn’t even make the top 16 in the team event?"

"I think the most likely thing is the school’s playing around with the quota."

"What, saving it for someone with connections?"

"What good would that do? It’s not like they’d for-sure take first or second, they’d just show their faces and get eliminated—so embarrassing."

"This competition’s way too high-level, everyone’s a Tier Three peak Mage, the skill gap’s small, and just one weakling will blow up the whole team."

"True, who knows what’s going on, and the school’s not saying anything."

"Maybe the team did so badly, the Empire cut one slot. Let’s check the individual event—last time we had a third place, maybe this year some genius will take the championship..."

"..."

Listening to her classmates talk, Hilia logged into the school’s Star Spirit Curtain Wall on her wristband to check the announcements and everyone’s discussions.

"Looks like this spot is pre-arranged for us."

Seeing everyone discuss the highlights from previous years’ Mages, Hilia felt a huge pressure.

She couldn’t help thinking: "Those Mages who’ve been stuck at Tier Three for so long—could they have honed a lot of their Magic to Micro Level?"

Rose chuckled, "Very possible. But for a single Magic to reach Micro Level proficiency isn’t a big worry. You’re in the team event—unless all five opponents have Micro Level mastery and can still form a Combination Skill."

"So if someone could pull that off, they’d win easily?"

"Not necessarily. Team events are complicated—if you rely on one super-fine Combination Skill to try to win, the other teams will definitely study its strengths and weaknesses. For example, they might focus on attacking the teammate with the weakest defense, take them out first, and break your Combination Skill. Then your chances drop a lot."

Hilia felt a little bit relieved inside.

"Besides, with multi-person Combination Skills, in your era there are only battle tactics, no Fusion Skills, so you couldn’t possibly beat ’Super Invincible I Love You’s team. Instead of refining spells to Micro Level, it’s better to ditch your weak teammates and grab the individual event championship yourself."

Hilia: "..."

Thinking it over, Hilia felt Rose really had a point.

You have no way of guaranteeing that your teammates are so awesome you could all grind your Magic proficiency to Micro Level together. Everyone has their own mind, even in the best teams, tiny things can throw people off, or maybe one teammate zones out and wipes the group.

Or, because of poor results for a long time, there’s infighting—splitting into little cliques, undermining the captain, things like that...

In that situation, if you’re confident you could win, you might as well try for the individual event. Even if you miss the team event’s special rewards, the fame from the individual event is much bigger.

After all, winning the individual event is like saying you’re the world’s number one Mage that year.

Thinking of it this way, Hilia instantly realized she’d been a bit reckless before.

To compete in both team and individual event at once...yeah, not gonna happen. Even if the event times didn’t clash, you just can’t pull it off. Because in the individual event, even if someone’s not super talented, their fighting power at the same Tier is absolutely top-level.

Right now, Hilia most likely wouldn’t win. If she wants the individual event championship, she’ll have to try again in four years. But staying at a single Tier for four years just for a competition—not worth it.

Rose said, "Staying stuck at one Tier long-term is more harm than good. When you’re constantly at Tier Three’s limit, during your daily practice, you might accidentally trigger changes to the Ascension God Stairs, and pull yourself into the Divine Realm."

"If you don’t want to get yanked into the Divine Realm out of nowhere, you’d have to deliberately fail the Ascension test once or twice. But if you do that, it gets much harder to trigger the next ascension. That’s why so many middle-aged and older people are stuck at Tier Three forever, never able to break through."

"Master Rose is absolutely right! It’s not worth it."

After Rose’s explanation, Hilia, who’d felt pressured hearing about the insane fighting prowess of past Mages, slowly relaxed.

The really strong ones all go for the individual event. That’s great.

She asked, "I’ve handed over all the other Magic for Combination Skill No.1 to the others. When should we start secret training?"

Rose thought for a moment and said, "Let’s start in June. This month, focus on grinding your proficiency. As long as you reach ’proficient’, you can use the Combination Skill. But it’s best to get to ’mastered’, to draw out the full power of a Combination Skill."

"What about Micro Level?" Hilia asked.

Rose stared at her silently, not answering.

Hilia made a funny face and got up to leave.

Two months to reach ’mastered’ is already unlikely, not to mention Micro Level.

"Guess it’s practice time... Ugh, exhausting."

Ever since the holiday, Hilia’s been studying, practicing, studying, practicing—never a moment’s rest, and she’s about to lose it.

The girl seriously missed the days of storming Heretic Bases and exploring ancient ruins.

It was dangerous all the time—but she was so happy.

Rose just smiled silently.

Holding back so long, when she goes to compete in the Northern Alliance, there’s bound to be a big showdown.

No Holy Court or Divine Hall in foreign lands. What will happen there?

Can’t wait to find out.