In the middle of the night before the day of their departure, two figures stood on the outskirts of Sharrow.

A boy with silver hair that stood out amidst the darkness, who had just recently broken through to the C tier asked, “What is it, Uncle Julius?”

“Hope, do you know how one becomes an immortal?” Julius questioned him, almost rhetorically.

“Through increasing their mana capacity, understanding, and experiences, right?” Zieg replied, deciding to entertain him.

“Indeed. Specifically experiences. When one is often exposed to battle and life-threatening situations, revelations that lead to breakthroughs and sparks of insight frequently occur,” after saying this, there was a brief moment of silence as Julius appeared to be thoughtful.

“Hope, how would you like to join Paragon? I’m sure your father would have wanted that for you as well.”

Not expecting the sudden invitation, and at the mention of Paragon, Zieg’s eyes widened.

Seeing Zieg’s reaction, Julius chuckled, and promptly added, “Not now of course, but in the future. There will also be some conditions...”

Zieg looked on at Julius in interest.

“There will be a guild meeting ten years from now. Enroll in the magic academy Galvane, and we’ll meet again in ten years time. If you are able to become an immortal by the time we meet again, I’ll take you to the meeting, and formally invite you into the guild,” Julius said while staring absent-mindedly into the sky as if he were envisioning the future.

“But what about your training?” Zieg asked dubiously.

“My training? My training has a ritual of starting off with throwing people into the depths of ancient dungeons and seeing if they make it out alive. In the end, the best teacher is experience.”

Zieg was secretly surprised at the hidden meaning behind those words. This implied that Galvane was equivalent to an ancient dungeon.

“Uncle, what’s so special about Galvane?”

“On the surface, Galvane is a magic academy for elites that was established about five months ago, rather, it’s a place that exemplifies survival of the fittest,” Julius smiled and continued to explain.

Through Julius’ explanation, Zieg was able to grasp the rough concept of the school.

All of the several thousand students are given a special badge with a ranking number, and every day the student that holds the badge with the largest number by midnight is expelled. New students are given a blank badge that also acts as the largest number upon acceptance into the academy. To change to a higher rank, you must win a duel against a student with a badge that has a lower number than yours. The winner switches ranking numbers with the loser.

You are only allowed to request duels against people who have a lower number than you, are only allowed to request a single duel a day, and must accept the first three duel requests you receive within a day. The challenger selects the location of the duel. Each duel has a preparatory period of up to 30 minutes before they must begin.

Furthermore, in a duel, anything aside from preemptive attacks prior to beginning and outside interference by others is allowed, including prepared traps, crippling, maiming, and killing your opponent before they surrender or admit defeat.

There were also optional missions within the school that rewarded you with money or temporary duel immunity.

Anyone aside from demons is allowed to enroll into the academy, but the minimum requirement of enrollment is to at least be at C tier.

Despite the extreme conditions, or perhaps because of them, Galvane is said to be the greatest magic school in the Grandiel continent, generating the most talents in the shortest period of time since its establishment.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

(Whoever made this academy is an extreme sadist. So he wants me to stay in that sort of environment for ten years...) Zieg thought.

“I’ll enroll into Galvane, and in ten years I’ll definitely become an immortal and join Paragon,” Zieg said resolutely to Julius.

Hearing his decision, Julius smiled happily, and said, “You have great potential with the elements, Hope. The best piece of advice I can give you is to use each element to their fullest potential. Do not ignore any of them and favor one over the other. Only when utilizing each element is their full power brought out. I truly hope to see you again in ten years.”

(The day we meet again in ten years… That will be the day you die.) Zieg thought as he nodded.

Several hours ago on the same day, two people were having a conversation inside an office.

“Can you do that for me, old man?” a young male immortal wearing a long black overcoat, with long black hair tied into a ponytail asked the other.

“Volheilm’s son, huh? Well, I dooooo owe you one…” a wizened old man with the picture-perfect appearance of a wizard wearing a tattered, grey robe that seemed to be at the peak of the A tier said while stroking his long, white beard.

“Will you do it, or not?” the young male immortal asked once more, this time in a tone laced with hostility.

“Hahah, no need to get hostile now, Julius. We’re both friends, aren’t we? It’s like you’re always walking around with a stick up your ass. Have you been stressed out recently? The whole human supremacy thing not working out well for you these days? Want a lollipop?” the old man asked as he pulled out several candies from god-knows-where.

“In the name of Paragon, I will purge the world of a—” Julius started saying as the mana density in the air increased, but was quickly cut off before he could finish.

“Okay, okay, sheesh. Let’s not do this, I only made the school several months ago, I don’t want it to be destroyed yet, so I’ll do you the favor,” the old man cried.

“Should’ve just taken care of that army myself…” the old man mumbled in regret.

“Well, what the hell are you still doing here? Stop looking at me, I get embarrassed easily, especially when people stare at me so intently while I use my abilities. Leave unless you want to see me start going ‘kyaa, kyaa.’ Is that your new hobby? Embarrassing old men?”

“Old fool…” Julius said under his breath as he left the room, closing the door behind him.

“YOU SURE YOU DON’T WANT A LOLLIPOP?” the old man shouted after him, but was met with no response.

The old man sighed disappointedly, and said, “Well, let’s get this started. Worldbreaking technique: Astral Invasion.”

The old man’s voice entered directly into everyone in the grounds of the academy’s mind.

“Ahem, ahem, how’s everyone doing? Your headmaster Chase here. I wanted to make an announcement that tomorrow, a kid with silver hair will be entering Galvane, I think his name was Hope. Anyway, there’s a reward for defeating him! The first one to defeat him will be granted a year of immunity from duel challenges, but wait, there’s more! After defeating him, you can meet me for a personal, special grand prize of…” Chase paused for suspense, and surely, many students in the academy were expectantly waiting for their headmaster to continue with a glint of greed in their eyes.

“A lollipop!” Chase announced feverishly.

After that announcement, silence encompassed the school grounds for quite some time.