Alchemist or Cultivator?

Chapter 6

Wizard Kane’s words struck Rayn like a bolt of lightning, forcing him to see the truth hidden beneath the academy’s polished promotions.

In only five years, more than 5,000 people had entered the academy, yet only 153 had survived. These were not ordinary recruits sent into battle as disposable soldiers. They were legitimate wizards who had already endured ten years of professional training.

The impressive returnees displayed by the academy were simply the rare few who had survived and advanced. Their success stories were used to draw in more inexperienced youths, who would then become the next batch of cannon fodder.

A chill ran through Rayn.

The Wizard World was far more brutal than he had imagined. The Wizard Academy was not simply a place where young people studied magic. It was part of a huge war machine, constantly supplying new “fuel” for the battles beyond their world.

The thirty-year contract was not merely a restriction placed on apprentices. With such a terrifying death rate, it was also an unspoken acknowledgment that survival itself was part of the test. Even among Logistics Element wizards, nearly half would die.

Combat Element wizards faced an even worse fate. The contract’s length alone revealed how severe the casualties were. Wizards were not philanthropists. If they believed a Combat Wizard could survive more than five years on the front line, then the resources spent training that wizard were considered worthwhile.

Such a death rate. Such brutal conditions.

“Aren’t you afraid?” Rayn asked instinctively.

His question quota as a freshman had already been used up, but none of the wizards ignored him. They exchanged glances before suddenly bursting into laughter.

“Hahahahaha!!! How could anyone not be afraid? Perhaps fearless people exist in this world, but they are certainly a rarity!” The Wizard of Magic Potions laughed and patted Rayn on the head.

Rayn became even more confused. Wizard Kane noticed his expression and smiled down at him.

“Don’t understand why?”

“Yes.”

“We are indeed afraid of dying, but there are things worth pursuing even more than death driving us onward!”

“What things?”

“Do you know? The Multi-Dimensional Planes are vast, so vast that the destruction of a single plane is no more than a fleeting star. On the other hand, this means nearly endless possibilities.”

Kane pointed toward the Combat Element stage. Mars, the Third Level Wizard who stood at the front of the group, was signing an autograph for an apprentice.

“Do you see him? That Mars guy only has Third Level Talent and theoretically shouldn’t be able to become an Official Wizard, but look at him now…”

“Knowledge, power, lifespan, status, glory, wealth… any desire can be realized within the Endless Plane, and all you have to do is ‘merely’ survive on the battlefield.”

“In pursuit of one’s desires and ideals, no matter how high the death rate is, it’s nothing but a ‘necessary cost’!”

Rayn’s heart sank when he heard that.

A necessary cost?

The phrase sounded harmless, yet behind it was bloodshed on a scale he could hardly imagine.

The excitement filling the square suddenly felt different. The cheers and noise seemed sharp in his ears, while the young apprentices who were eager for power and glory reminded him of people who might one day fall on distant battlefields.

“What a… cruel world…” he murmured to himself.

“But also a world full of hope, isn’t it?”

Kane chuckled when he noticed Rayn’s low spirits.

“Of course, the death rate in Logistics Element isn’t actually that high; after all, Logistics Element is the true lineage of Skyrim…”

“What do you mean?” Rayn was taken aback.

“There’s no need to hide it from you, anyway you’ll see the problem when you sign the contract later,” Kane said, looking around.

“The plane we’re in now is called Skyrim 13th Plane. The so-called Skyrim Academy is actually just a base for providing fresh blood to a certain Wizard Organization, so when you sign the contract you’ll be signing not with Skyrim Academy but with the Wizard Organization behind it and as for the name of that Wizard Organization…” Wizard Kane drew out his words, “it’s called Skyrim Workshop.”

Rayn’s eyelid twitched.

The information behind those words was almost too much to process. The fact that a wizard organization could use multiple planes as talent reserves was already astonishing, but the organization’s name caught him off guard.

A group called a “Workshop” sounded like an organization built around production and manufacturing. If that had been its purpose from the beginning, then Kane’s claim that Logistics Element was the true lineage suddenly made much more sense.

But one question still bothered him.

“If Logistics Element is the orthodoxy, then why use such a method?” Rayn wondered as he looked at the scene around him.

The contrast was obvious. The Combat Element area was packed with apprentices, while the Logistics Element side was almost empty.

“Doing this… surely would lose many talented geniuses, right?”

Even without considering the difference in obvious benefits, anyone who recognized the danger would probably choose Logistics Element. Yet many young prodigies were too confident in their own abilities. They believed they were destined to become exceptional, perhaps even the protagonists of their own generation. Those people would naturally choose Combat Element.

“Because… this is originally a trial aimed at testing ‘wisdom’.”

Kane was not the only one pleased by the explanation. The other wizards around him also showed approving expressions.

“People with high talent indeed cultivate faster, but the most important trait for a wizard is ‘wisdom’.”

“Talent can be altered, but wisdom is innate. Moreover, now that we can access other planes, amidst endless opportunities, talent seems insignificant. However, unlike talent, wisdom has no clear external manifestations, so the academy devised such a method.”

“The academy intentionally left many flaws, those who see through the issues behind the propaganda demonstrate the ability to think independently without being influenced by the environment, sufficient insight, and… enough self-awareness. These abilities are essential for becoming a wizard.”

One of the wizards laughed as he added, “I heard that when wizards hadn’t left the Primordial Plane, to select people of wisdom, apprentices would be sent by big ships to the academy’s location, encountering various enemies along the way for testing.”

“But such testing consumed too much, and the intensity was hard to control, plus we’re now in a phase of massive expansion and people are needed everywhere, so they’ve switched to this milder method.”

Rayn fell silent as the pieces finally came together.

What looked like an unfair recruitment process was actually another examination. The academy had never intended to hide every flaw. It had placed those flaws in plain sight and allowed the apprentices to reveal themselves through their choices.

Talent could help someone advance quickly, but wisdom determined whether that person could recognize an opportunity, understand a danger, and make the right decision when everyone else was being swept along by the crowd.

The realization left Rayn with mixed feelings.

The academy was cruel, but it was not foolish. Even the way it recruited apprentices was designed to separate those who simply possessed talent from those who could think for themselves.

Rayn could not immediately answer. Before Kane had explained everything, the choice had seemed simple. Combat Element offered strength, fame, better opportunities, and the promise of becoming someone important. Logistics Element looked like the safer path, but also the less impressive one.

Now he understood that the academy had intentionally created that impression.

Thousands of apprentices would arrive believing they were choosing their futures freely, when in reality the academy had already prepared the choices to reveal their personalities. The confident would rush toward Combat Element, while those who questioned the propaganda might notice the hidden path.

And even that did not guarantee survival.

A person could have enough wisdom to choose correctly and still die on another plane. The academy was not offering safety, only a better chance to understand the world they had entered.

Rayn glanced toward the Combat Element stage again. The young apprentices were still gathered around Mars, their excitement untouched by everything they had just heard. To them, the Third Level Wizard represented the future they wanted. He was proof that even someone with limited talent could rise high enough to gain power, status, and everything else the Wizard World had to offer.

Rayn could understand their desire.

If the Endless Plane truly contained countless opportunities, then staying weak forever was its own kind of death. The danger was real, but so were the rewards.

That was perhaps the cruelest part of the Wizard World. It did not force people into battle by taking away every alternative. Instead, it gave them reasons to choose the dangerous road themselves.

Rayn lowered his eyes and considered the two paths before him.

Kane dismissed the Illusionary Barrier and turned toward Rayn.

“Alright, Q&A time is over, from here on out it’s up to you to decide.”