Ascension of a Street Rat
M.E. Robinson
Street rat Rowan gets a second chance: a sword, a spellbook, and tuition to Faebrook Academy, a school for aspiring adventurers. Starting far behind mana-dense noble dungeon-diving heirs, he must fight, study, and hide his past to climb - from first-year survival to party dungeon dives in the Fae homeland, to rebuilding his severed mana paths in a dragon-guarded underworld prison so a mere street rat can ascend to threaten dragons and gods.
Progression: Academy-year advancement at Faebrook Academy for aspiring adventurers: street-rat protagonist Rowan starts with only a sword, a spellbook and tuition gold, competing against nobles whose bodies hold dense mana from years of family-dungeon diving. Advancement is explicit and physical - dungeon dives densify bodily mana, school years mark power tiers, and book 3 centers on severed mana paths that must be rebuilt so Rowan can grow strong enough to ascend and threaten dragons and gods.
Goodreads
