Ascension: Strongest Fateless Mage

Erica and Michiru had a pretty close fight, but Michiru won. With the sword and sword empowering spells similar to split slash and others but more flexible and powerful, she had the upper hand from the start till the end.

Erica's magic labyrinth, Clouds of Nineveh, was mainly a support and defense type magic labyrinth. She didn't have any offense in her first awakening magic spell, but her B-rank normal magic spell, Compound Sphere Strike, was pretty lethal, and she managed to hurt Michiru once.

"Erica, your path is a good one, but you need to explore it more and learn more magic spells from it later," Touma said with a consoling smile before looking at the students and continuing, "alright, now Yelves vs. Kevin. Come at the center."

...

There were still five fights left between ten students, and out of them, five students won and went to the next round. They were: Kevin, Lolan, Michelle, Yushi, and Monika.

"Now that we have ten winners, we will begin the next round after you have all recovered your mana," Touma said before adding, "you don't need to overthink this competition because I just wanted to see your adaptability and basic capabilities right after you just awakened your magical labyrinth."

He continued with an encouraging smile, "you have much more time in front of you and countless ways to improve yourself and master your awakening magic spells as you practice with them more and more. The real competition will be in your final exam of the 1st year, and we got a full year before that starts."

The students who lost nodded strongly with determination, while the other ten also knew what Touma-sir said was right and that the future was uncertain. Just because they won today doesn't mean they will also win tomorrow. After all, they had just started their real journey with magic today.

…

After half an hour, the second round began. Five won out of the ten remaining, who went to the last round.

Zevien, Vernisia, Sophia, Dan, and Yushi won against their opponents.

In the last round, Touma arranged a free for all, as all five started fighting each other, and the first two to have their 100 points deducted would lose, and the remaining three will be the winners.

But a tricky thing happened, when Yushi and Sophia got eliminated, Dan's armor points also turned 0 at the same time as Sophia's. When Sophia was attacking Dan, she got attacked by Yushi; hence causing the three of them to get eliminated.

Zevien and Vernisia were in their high-speed battle, but the other three lost before they got to finish their match.

'I need to fix this mana problem as soon as possible,' Zevien thought with a frown.

"Yushi got eliminated first while Sophia and Dan were eliminated simultaneously, so Sophia and Dan will fight each other to decide the 3rd winner," Touma said.

"I don't want the spot," Dan said as he rubbed his nose with a smile and gestured to Sophia with his hand and a courteous bow, "Sophia can be considered the winner."

"Heh, what a gentleman," Erica said with a mocking smile.

"More like a simp, hahaha," Warmos laughed.

Students laughed hearing that while Dan rolled his eyes and said his reasoning, "I am not interested in Touma sir's tier-1 spells because my master already has perfect tier-1 spells ready for me."

Dan puffed up his chest with a proud face and spoke, "it's too bad you all don't have a powerful master like me."

"Ahem…so what, we…hah, we actually don't need masters," Henrith said as he thought of a counter and grinned, "we will forge our paths ourselves."

"Well said, brother Henrith," Kevin said with a laugh and patted Henrith's shoulder.

"Alright, alright," Touma said as he used his sound wave trick again by snapping his finger, "get back to your class now. You will have to attend five sessions of twenty minutes each that introduce Alchemists, Enchanters, Magic Smiths, Mystic Chefs, and Jewelists."

"As you know, it is a must to pick an occupation that will increase your proficiency and control in using mana and magic," Touma said with a serious expression.

Walking some steps, he continued, "Moreover, your occupation will be your source of income, so choose carefully and try all professions in the 1st year before choosing one. We recommend that you don't choose your profession in your 1st year and practice all five before finally choosing one in your 2nd year. However, if you have a clear knack for one profession, you can attend the class of that profession and ignore other classes. The choice is yours but make those choices carefully."

"Understood."

All the students nodded while Zevien already knew that he was a good Mystic Chef and Jewelist.

In his previous life, he had chosen Jewelist as his magic profession. Jewelists were people who could create gemstones by condensing mana with exotic materials found in the forests and wilds. Gemstones could have various effects on the user or items. They also have expiry dates since they are limited to several uses; once someone uses a gemstone a certain number of times, it turns into dust. Jewelists also create accessories like rings, bangles, etc., with gemstones embedded in them.

Enchanters were a two-in-one profession, in a way, because they also dealt with tailoring and then enchanting their tailored clothes using their magic sigils. The enchanters create leather and other soft clothing, unlike the smiths, who create solid armors and weapons. Enchanters enchant their tailored clothes by infusing magic sigils in them, which have magical effects akin to magic spells and require good understanding.

Mystic Chefs were people who could cook magical foods using various ingredients and meats of magic beasts. Their food can give a myriad of temporary benefits like fast mana recovery, increased magic spell potency, fast healing recovery, etc. Most importantly, their food always tastes exceptionally delicious, so they are famous.

Alchemists are people who craft magic potions with various effects in all fields. Transformation, debuff, attack, buff, etc. Magic potions can get thrown as an attack or drunk for some effects, or both. But some of the potions taste awful.

As for Magic Smiths, they can craft weapons and items using magical ores and solid materials. Not much to say about them.

'I chose jewelist in my previous life, but I was just as good in the Mystic Chef profession. So I will choose Mystic Chef this time,' Zevien thought. He had a reason because Vernisia had also chosen the Jewelist profession, so instead of both selecting the same, Zevien decided to choose Mystic Chef this time so he could cook delicious food for his future wife.

[A/N: Vote with power stones and add it to the library for more chaps. Support is appreciated. Thank you.]