The moment that Alice regained consciousness, her eyes shot open as she immediately got up, eyes wide in surprise. However, she relaxed a couple of moments after as her surroundings registered in her mind and the memories of her promotion returned to her.

She felt a lot better now. No, scratch that, she felt as though she'd been completely reborn. The world around her was clearer than it had ever been, the energy particles, especially those of the fire type, danced around her, begging to be used.

Her body felt hundreds of times stronger, faster, and more responsive. Information flowed through her mind as easily as water and as fast as sound. While she still lacked enough experience and understanding of her new powers to fully put them to use, she felt as though she could crush her previous self thousands of times over with her pinkie finger.

She took stock of her surroundings, finding herself in the familiarity of her teacher's lab room. She'd slept here multiple times already, hence, she was familiar enough with the environment to come to the conclusion that she was not under any immediate threat.

Hence, she took the time to check her sea of consciousness. She didn't even need to meditate anymore to see it, she could simply will herself to look at it, which was helpful enough.

Her sea of consciousness truly was a sea now, and it was filled to the brim with powerful spiritual force, far dwarfing that of her acolyte self. Her body that had always been stronger than most as a Grand Knight had also received a qualitative change, feeling tens of times more powerful than before.

Last but not least, within her, she could 'feel', for a lack of a better word, her innate spell. Each magus would receive a spell during their advancement, one that would be uniquely suited to them, and Alice was no different.

Unknown to Alice, though, what she believed to be true wasn't the complete truth. While it was indeed true that magi could receive an innate spell that matched them, that was only for those who cultivated high-grade meditation techniques or through other methods. Most magi advanced thanks to the Reactive Elixir and Grime Water, which allowed acolytes to fuse a spell and make it their innate spell, but it had the horrific downside of blocking off the path to further advancement.

Closing her ocean-blue eyes, Alice allowed her senses to identify her innate spell. It had no name as of yet, but still, Alice could immediately tell every detail about the spell, and she knew that, as she herself grew in strength, the spell would as well.

'I'll have to go test it out later in an appropriate location as soon as possible...' She mused silently to herself, a giant grin on her face. She tensed her leg, and in an instant, she was out of her professor's lab and had arrived at his office, a trip that would have normally taken a few minutes to complete.

It was as though the acolytes that she passed moved in slow motion, being unable to see her as she passed by them. Only the stronger rank 3 acolytes even sensed her passing, alarm showing in their eyes as they tensed. Still, Alice didn't bother dealing with them.

Loki sat in his office chair, scribbling away on some of his papers. However, when Alice arrived in his office, his hand paused immediately, and his eyes moved up from the paper to stare at Alice's own.

"Cheeky student. Already trying to show off to your teacher?" Loki asked jokingly after a couple moments, breaking the silence between them. Alice's cheeks reddened slightly at being caught red-handed, but she didn't back down.

"I have the right to show off." She said with confidence, puffing up her chest in an attempt to look prideful. Her teacher just snorted though, motioning for her to come to sit in the chair in front of his desk, which she happily did.

"So, have you had a good nap, princess? You were out for four entire days, you know. Even the grandmaster was worried about you, the famous 'Fire Princess'."

Alice looked at the floor, suddenly finding her shoes much more interesting than the man in front of her. "I have a nickname now? That's nice, I guess?" She said, not really knowing how to answer the man she looked up to so much.

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There were so many things she wanted to say and ask. 'Are you proud of me?', 'What will happen now?', and all sorts of questions tried to force their way through Alice's lips, but they remained tightly closed. She could tell that her teacher too looked as though he wanted to say something but couldn't find the words for it.

In the end, Loki just let out a long sigh, his poker face falling as he revealed a gentle look. "You know, I was worried too. You caused quite a ruckus during your advancement, and forget the world record, you truly shocked everyone this time. Did you know that, based on your energy undulations, you've already become a semi-converted magus?"

Alice blinked in confusion, not understanding the term. Seeing her unasked question, Loki shook his head with a smile, a bit exasperated. "Basically, rank 1 magi themselves have differing levels of strength, from newly-advanced magi to peak rank 1 magi. A semi-converted magus is one who has already converted from 40% to 60% of his or her spiritual force to that of their chosen element. It usually takes many years and resources for this process to occur, and to be honest, what you did makes no sense to me."

Alice nodded, feeling somewhat weirded out. She didn't feel 'converted', but if Loki said that she was, then he was probably right.

"Anyways, I know you're eager to go test out everything you've gained, and I too am eager to help you with that. First, however, I have been ordered to give you some papers, and even I was not allowed to check through them myself, regardless of my status." Loki said, taking out a large scroll from under his desk.

The ancient thing seemed to radiate with power, causing even Loki's face to show some caution. However, Alice could instinctively feel that the power radiating from the scroll was a friendly one, likely having been purposely made to cause this reaction from her.

She carefully took the scroll from her teacher's hands, and after inserting a sliver of her spiritual energy in it, the scroll opened up.

As she read through it, Alice couldn't help but be stunned. The grand-elder, a figure who hadn't appeared in public for multiple centuries, was offering her to become the heir of the Fire Mausoleum, essentially making her the immediate next in line for the title of grand-elder. 

Furthermore, it also clearly stated that, if she accepted, she would immediately be given a position of authority only lower to that of the grand-elder himself. Not only that, but everything within the academy and its surroundings would be made accessible to her, for no cost whatsoever. 

There were a few conditions states, things like 'don't abandon the academy' and 'don't do anything to cause it harm', but there was very little in terms of meaningful restrictions.

Instead of choosing something that she might come to regret one way or the other, she instead chose to do the sensible thing and she turned to the man that had become her rock and anchor for answers.

"Hm... Well, personally, I wouldn't accept. I only picked up my job as a director because of a favor I owed to the grand-elder from a time long past, however, you're different. I can tell that you truly like it here, and besides, what you're being offered isn't a job, but a position of power." Loki explained, trying to balance his words in a way that wouldn't influence his student one way or the other.

To him, a job and a position were two very different things. A job was something a person did to make money, while a position was something given to those who were recognized as key members of a group. If Alice were to accept, there was no doubt in Loki's mind that she would eventually rise to become the leader of the Fire Mausoleum, but at the same time, she wouldn't be able to ditch the place until she did so.

"I... see. Thank you, Teacher. I think you're not wrong... I like it here. I'll sign it." She said, and although it seemed like a hasty decision, she'd actually thought over it quite a lot, and her insane thinking speed allowed her to do so extremely quickly.

She wasn't an adventure-junkie, nor was she a battle-maniac. All she really wanted was to hole herself up in some laboratory with endless resources and continuously experiment on all sorts of weird and interesting things, and the grand-elder was offering her exactly that.

Although she'd never done it before, she knew how official magi signed things. After thinking it over for a moment, she put her hand on a specific section of the scroll, and after a moment, a dull, red glow emanated from it.

When she retracted it, a signature had appeared. However, it wasn't in words, but rather, it was a symbol. A large, sun-like symbol at the center surrounded by ten smaller suns rested gently within the confines for the signature.

Every official magus and above had their own personal secret imprint, unique to each one. Through it, one would be able to communicate with that magus even at extremely long distances. 

The scroll floated away from Alice's hands, and despite being an old piece of paper, it somehow managed to look satisfied. Within moments, it disappeared, flying away towards who Alice could only presume to be the grand-elder.

"Good, now that's over with. Follow me, you have a lot to learn before you can truly call yourself an official magus." Loki said, gently leading Alice back to his lab.

Alice stared at him for a moment before nodding, a smile slowly growing on her face. She'd deal with the rest later, but for now, simply doing what she loved sounded incredibly lovely.