"Ahem."
Otto cleared his throat, his voice echoing across the room.
"Enough chatter. From this point forward, your lessons will focus on practical applications rather than theory. You will learn by stepping into the unknown yourselves."
He lifted his right hand and, without any dramatic chant, simply waved it through the air.
The world around them warped.
Desks bent and stretched, walls melted like wax, and the ceiling dissolved into streaks of light.
In an instant, the classroom was gone.
The students now stood on uneven ground covered in moss, surrounded by towering trees whose leaves glowed faintly green in the dim light.
Strange bird-like cries echoed in the distance, mixing with the low hum of insects.
And in front of them, just a few steps away, spun a swirling portal of light blue, its surface rippling like water disturbed by a stone.
"The dungeon lies beyond this gate," Otto's calm, deep voice explained.
"Your groups will form once you pass through."
