Time flew by swiftly, as if it were but a blink of an eye, andLeoric had already ascended to his fifth year at the academy.

  Just the day before yesterday, he celebrated his fifteenth birthday in this world. It was also Leovena's birthday, but since it wasn't a holiday, he couldn't go home to be with his sister.

  Soon, just this final year left.

  In his first year,Leoric studied the basic theories. It was from his second year onward that he officially began to delve into magic.Leoric's grades started to improve at a faster pace from then on, especially when he reached his fourth year and began practical training. During the year-end exams,Leoric soared ahead and secured the fourth rank in his class.

  Of course, due to annual eliminations, various accidents, voluntary withdrawals, and other reasons, the number of students in his grade had dwindled from over a hundred at the start of their enrollment to fifty-seven now.

  By the time they graduated at the end of the fifth year, this number would be reduced by at least half, if not more. Perhaps, only no more than twenty students would graduate. Of course, withLeoric's current grades, there was no need to worry about being eliminated.

  The reason forLeoric's rapid progress in his fourth year wasn't because he excelled in practical battles—in fact, he was far from it. In his past life, he was basically a law-abiding citizen, and in this life, he was the child of a law-abiding small businessman. He rarely even engaged in physical fights, and his only experience with slaying existed solely in games and novels.

  All of this was still thanks to his half-assed internal cultivation.

  The curriculum at the wizard school was relatively reasonable. The first year was dedicated entirely to learning basic theories. From the second to the third year, students learned more advanced theories while undergoing minimal magical training to master some simple spells. Upon reaching the fourth year, if one hadn't been eliminated, they could already be considered a basically qualified magic apprentice.

  The magical theories that needed to be learned were already ingrained in their hearts. What was needed next was a vast amount of practice, specifically training in spellcasting.

  As a fourth-year student at the wizard academy, the standard daily schedule was as follows.

  After eight hours of sleep, students would wake up at 6 a.m.

  From 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., they would spend an hour preparing their magic. Every wizard in this world did so without exception. Magic couldn't be cast casually and effortlessly; it required ample preparation after sufficient sleep—typically one hour. Of course, this was the usual case. Some wizards with exceptional talent or strength could shorten this time to some extent.

  From 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., breakfast was served. Spiritshade City was semi-militarized, and the wizard academy was also semi-militarized. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were served at fixed times, quantities, and qualities. If one missed a meal, they would have to go hungry for half a day.

  From 7:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., which was approximately two and a half hours, was dedicated to spellcasting training. Students practiced the spells they prepared in the morning in laboratories, playgrounds, corridors, corners, and everywhere possible. They researched, discussed, pondered, analyzed, and compared, carefully examining whether each pose of their spellcasting movements was correct, whether each syllable of the incantation was perfect, and whether their communication with the magical network was smoother than the day before.

  From 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., lunch was served.

  After lunch, most students were free to do as they pleased, but a handful of diligent students seized the opportunity to take a nap. From 11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., after another eight hours of rest, the students would wake up.

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  From 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., dinner was served.

  From 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., there was another hour dedicated to preparing magic.

  Next, from 9 p.m. to 10 p.m., before lights out, there was another hour for students to practice their spellcasting skills once more.

  This was a typical day for a fourth-year student. The crucial part was the eight hours of sleep. Magic was an extremely subtle and profound art. To prepare magic correctly, one had to do so when their mind was the clearest, otherwise, things could easily go wrong, and even injury or death were possible. Therefore, sufficient sleep had to be ensured, which was generally eight hours for most people. Of course, some people were naturally more energetic and might be sufficient with six or seven hours of sleep, but this was an extremely rare exception. Among wizards, who were known for their frail constitution, such individuals were even rarer and could be ignored.

  So, even the most diligent students only had two opportunities for spellcasting practice each day. Moreover, forcing oneself to sleep for sixteen hours in a day was actually very difficult, violating normal physiological rhythms. To adhere to such a schedule long-term, some powerful hypnotic drugs were inevitably needed. According toLeoric's observations, the top three students in his grade during the fourth-year final exams all took strong sleeping pills like candy.

  All medications had side effects. Occasionally taking them might be okay, but doing so long-term would undoubtedly greatly harm one's health, potentially leading to numerous future problems. This remindedLeoric of his high school days when, near the college entrance exams, many students crammed and studied, taking large amounts of stimulant drugs to save sleep time. They could stay awake all day with just three or four hours of sleep. Now, in Spiritshade City, these same students took drugs to help them sleep. Although the methods were different, the underlying purpose was the same, achieving similar results in different ways.

  Frankly speaking, using drugs to forcibly alter the body's normal physiological rhythms was essentially squandering one's life. Everyone understood this, but in reality, there were often helpless circumstances where one had no choice but to do so. During the college entrance exams, it was crucial for students, almost determining their future, so they would endure even at the cost of ten years of their lifespan. Similarly, students at the wizard school played this way because their graduation exams were also extremely crucial.

  If one ranked first, they had a chance to attend a more advanced and covert secret school, rumored to be headed by Mr. Hajek Horner, the deputy mayor of Spiritshade City. There, they would be taught more profound, sophisticated, and magical skills, entering the true power core of Spiritshade City. Even if one couldn't win first place, they should still strive for a good grade to have a chance to work in the government or be taken under the wing of a powerful wizard, leading to a promising future.

  If one could only graduate with average grades, they might end up as a low-ranking officer or even a soldier in the military, possibly dying heroically in battle against creatures from the Shadow Realm at any moment. If they performed even worse and were eliminated in the graduation exams, they would have to go home in disgrace. The 200 gold coins they spent on tuition and the five years of arduous training would all be for naught, leaving them with nothing but tears.

  With such intense and brutal competition, it was no wonder everyone resorted to methods that bordered on self-harm or suicide.

  ButLeoric was different. While others needed eight hours of sleep, he only needed two hours of breathing exercises. Therefore, the opportunities for spellcasting practice he had each day were not two, but four or even five.

  Practice makes perfect; this saying was dead-on. With more than twice the training and practical experience of his classmates,Leoric quickly rose from a novice to a top performer. After all, no matter how outstanding one's arcane talent or scholarly background, it couldn't match several times more practical experience.

  AmongLeoric's classmates, there were plenty of geniuses. In fact, after years of elimination, those who remained in the school could basically be considered talented, especially those who ranked in the top ten, of course, excludingLeoric.

  Among these individuals, some were born with the ability to sense the existence of the magical network, some could memorize lengthy and complex spells after hearing them just once, some could imitate extremely bizarre and cumbersome spellcasting movements after seeing them just once, and there were even super weirdos who could comprehend deeper magic without any guidance. For example, Kuken, who topped the exams last year, was almost inhuman.

  Leoric, with his not-so-outstanding talent, managed to outshine everyone and secure the fourth rank, proving once again that practice was the sole criterion for testing truth... Well, this was going too far.

  In short, after countless times of thanking Tian Boguang in his heart,Leoric entered his fifth year and began his final-year sprint as the fourth-ranked student in his grade.