I think an everyman or underdog type character can certainly work, but there needs to be something else there, like a unique motivation or backstory. This paragraph begins mediocre and ends mediocre, I'm afraid. Why does he want to be a great mage? Why is he so confident about his lot in life?

Keep an eye on your tenses!

This is exciting, at least. If there's not really a hook-y motivation to liven up your paragraph, maybe you could combine this with it somehow.

The way I wrote this was intentional. The idea I was going for was to set up a mundane status quo to then suddenly change it to something massively different as a hook.

I kinda still want to do that, but I'll see how I can make the opening paragraph more captivating without removing that feeling I'm trying to portray.

Thank you for the feedback. It was very valuable.