In truth, among mages, if a first-circle spellcaster is already considered a formal mage, then anyone who reaches the third circle can be regarded as a fully trained, qualified mage. Starting from the fourth circle, however, a mage is recognized as someone capable of making breakthroughs in their own magical studies.
That is to say, even though mages of this level still have much to learn, their academic grasp is already sufficient for them to attempt minor innovations and even create something of their own.
Once they reach the sixth circle, mages become as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns, true elites, capable of leading larger projects. At the Academy of Mystra, this is also the stage where postgraduate studies come to an end, a level one could roughly compare to completing postdoctoral research.
Unlike the basic curriculum, postgraduate studies allow for a far more generous grace period. Students are granted up to fifteen years, meaning any mage who reaches the sixth circle within that timeframe is considered to have graduated successfully.
Upon graduation, these mages are formally invited by the Academy to become professors or figures of similar standing, nominally equal in rank to Hermione and the others.
Naturally, Alaric had no intention of allowing outsiders to stand on the exact same level as his own women. For this reason, he established an additional body: the Academy Supervisory Committee, the highest executive authority of the institution. Hermione and the others were all part of it. This organization bore some resemblance to the Kirin Tor Council of Dalaran, but in practice it more closely resembled the Department of Policies and Regulations within the Mage's Association.
In short, mages who surpass the sixth circle are qualified to serve as professors, lead projects, and, upon reaching the seventh circle, guide postgraduates. They form the backbone of the Academy, the tier that ensures its continued advancement.
Looking back at the various mage organizations Alaric had experienced, Hogwarts was a purely academic magic school. The teachers there were hardly different from those in an ordinary Muggle school. They watched over their students with the same care as parents would their children. Though tuition was required, the relationship between teachers and students was never a mere transaction. Every professor, even Snape, upheld a sense of duty and ethics.
Dalaran, on the other hand, was another story altogether.
The mages there adhered strictly to the principle of equivalent exchange. This applied even between official mages and their apprentices. A would-be apprentice, even one who had yet to master a single cantrip, had to serve like a menial servant before earning the right to be taught magic.
As a result, countless apprentices became little more than tools for their masters' exploitation. Only true prodigies could escape such exploitation, but even then, their freedom was merely the result of long-term investment and the lure of greater returns.
The warmth and tenderness of Hogwarts were entirely absent in Dalaran. What replaced it was the cold, unfeeling balance of trade.
In such an environment, the mages produced were naturally far more pragmatic and battle-hardened than those of Hogwarts. They became "adults" in the truest sense, realists who could see through the world's illusions and press forward. These mages mastered caution, calculation, and strategy to their fullest extent, far outstripping the "children" who graduated from Hogwarts.
But this system came at a cost: inefficiency and waste of resources.
For apprentices, dividing time between menial service and piecemeal study meant their magical progress was painfully slow. Furthermore, because any mage, no matter how incompetent, could take on apprentices, the quality of teaching varied wildly. Many masters had poor talent themselves and passed down flawed or incomplete theories, dooming their students to mediocrity. Quite a number of apprentices who might otherwise have gone further had their futures cut short in this way.
Alaric founded the Academy of Mystra precisely to reconcile these two extremes.
On one hand, Mystra's Academy modeled its basic education after Hogwarts. It did not even charge tuition. Students up to the fourth circle received the most solid foundational training possible, ensuring they had systematic knowledge and fair opportunities to advance, without being led astray.
On the other hand, even within this basic stage, Alaric gradually introduced the principle of equivalent exchange. Every student was obliged to serve as an assistant to a professor. In this way, they gained an early taste of reality's harshness, so they would not remain as naïve as the young wizards of Hogwarts.
But Alaric allowed it to stop there.
Children remained children. Until graduation, he had no intention of exposing them to the true hardships of society. That would come only after they left school, when they would need to adapt to the rules of mages on their own.
After graduation, even mages allowed to remain for postgraduate study were no longer considered students but true mages. Their further education was half-work, half-study. The "work" consisted of teaching undergraduates and assisting professors. The "study" was to receive guidance from professors and to make use of Academy resources.
If a postgraduate mage managed to achieve academic breakthroughs during this period and shared their results with the Academy, they would be granted additional resources in return.
When such a postgraduate reached the sixth circle and completed their studies, they would then be appointed professors. The principle of equivalent exchange would still apply, just as it had during their postgraduate years.
Professors were required to contribute to the Academy through teaching, completing institutional tasks, or making and sharing scholarly breakthroughs. In return, they gained access to the Academy's knowledge, magical materials, resources, and even the guidance of their peers.
To formalize this, Alaric introduced a contribution system, creating a virtual currency known as "Contribution Points," valid throughout the Academy.
Meanwhile, though the Academy was sustained primarily by Alaric and his companions' resources, it also had a channel for funds to circulate back.
That channel was its graduates.
For those who wished to pursue magic further after graduation, the Academy's basic education had indeed been free, but this did not mean that further resources would also come at no cost.
Mages who had failed to reach the fourth circle before graduating, those who had not reached the sixth circle within fifteen years of postgraduate study, or those who declined the Academy's invitation, all these groups included individuals unwilling to give up on the mage's path.
For them, the Academy's resources, its magical materials, its vast library, its professors' guidance, were treasures unattainable anywhere else. They could only be found in the Academy of Mystra, the sole magical institution in the Greek divine realm and perhaps in the entire world.
Though such mages had left the Academy, the institution did not slam its gates shut to them. As "alumni," they could purchase access to these resources with money or by accepting commissions from the Academy. Of course, compared to insiders, alumni had to pay a much steeper price.
At first, this income from alumni amounted to very little. But as the Academy produced more and more graduates, the number of mages increased. Funds recycled back through the alumni gradually multiplied, so much so that even Pandora and the others found the results astonishing.
After all, mages whose talents had been proven lacking required far more time and resources to reach the level of the Academy's geniuses. The price they had to pay was exponentially higher.
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