I opened the book and started reading the summary.

As expected, it was a book about the workings of magic on the continent. Information about the Magi and other spellcasters, the ways of magical practice, the divisions of power and styles, and other miscellaneous information.

The book was thicker than the Geography compendium, and it was just the first out of three volumes. The complexity of magic was clear to see, just by the sheer amount of content from the basic book.

I opened the book and read through the first few chapters, faster than I did before with the other books, my excitement was clear to see.

But after reading those few chapters, my excitement faded into my growing frustration.

Not because I got bored, but for two reasons.

Firstly, because it was complex, and it used many terms I have never seen before without explaining them.

The second reason…

Aptitude is more important than I thought it would be!

I didn't know what a 'Magus Soul' was when Lord Angus assessed me, and when he said I had a yellow soul and could become an initiate magus in my lifetime, I thought it was a good thing.

At the second chapter of the book though, I discovered the Ranking and meaning of Magus Souls.

There are ten rankings, that from the worst to the best are: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, Silver, Gold, and White.

The stronger the soul, the easier it is to bend mana and cast spells, as well as move it through the Magic Paths of a spell circle without much practice.

My soul is a Yellow Magus Soul, the third lowest, and it indeed means I can become an Initiate Magus in my lifetime…

But there is a big emphasis on the word LIFETIME!

Most people with yellow souls, after training to become a magus, take fifty years on average to reach the level of Initiate Magus! And they can't advance after that!

That is not a matter of effort, it is an iron-clad rule. Yellow souls can't advance further than Initiate Magus level.

That threshold increases with each soul rank. A Violet soul can reach the peak of magus power in their lifetime, and the further ones are considered geniuses.

A silver soul can advance to initiate level a few weeks after starting to practice if slow, two days if fast.

That speed became even more absurd in Gold and White souls.

There are also some special kinds of souls, like the Azure hued souls that have an affinity to the water element, but all souls followed these grades.

Red and Orange souls couldn't even become spellcasters at all, and most commoners have souls of these grades.

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Improving the grade of your soul is impossible, and only legendary items from fairytales and novels are said to be able to do so, but they don't exist.

Which means that I can't improve my soul and can never achieve a power bigger than the Initiate Magus level.

"Fuck you God! You gave me such a shit soul!" I yelled at Sixth that was by my side, visibly showing my anger.

He shrugged and smiled smugly as always.

"I didn't do anything. That is just your bad luck."

I was incredibly mad at Sixth's nonchalant answer. However, I shouldn't despair because of something like that. Being an initiate magus is already a good thing, and enough to become a noble.

"That's alright. Being a great powerhouse isn't for me anyway, so I will only have to study and become a low-leveled Magus. That's already much better than becoming a peasant."

I was getting comfortable with my future. I've never been someone with many ambitions, so whether I become a great king or just another small figure doesn't matter, if I stay alive and well.

However, Sixth's next words put me down again.

"Yeah, becoming a noble would be great... But you must learn everything from scratch and without tutors, daily lessons and other privileges." Commented Sixth.

"Adding to that, it would be hard for you to keep your job for fifty years... They'll probably fire you tomorrow."

When Sixth said that, I looked at him, again unable to contain my anger.

"Why is that?! I know how to copy stuff! I know how to read and write!" I yelled.

I've never lost my composure as much as often as since I met Sixth. I swear that I get angry just by looking at his face now.

"Yeah, you know how to read and write... But can you draw a Magic Circle?" He questioned, and then flipped the book in front of me.

When I looked at the book, I saw a circular drawing that was filled with runes and weird lines. The entire drawing seemed extremely complicated, and the fine lines in it ranged from a few millimeters thick to a few centimeters. The crisscrossing lines that seemed like a child's drawing didn't look like anything intelligible.

I read the text in the next page and discovered what exactly that was.

It seems like a Magus has only twenty spells that they can cast at will, while all the other spells need to be cast by drawing a Magic Circle. Magi have developed incredibly advanced memorization techniques for that purpose, but the human brain can only go so far, thus there as a need to record Magic Circles in their spellbooks.

Scribes are tasked with record-keeping, and contrary to my guesses, that mainly pertained to copying Magic Circles.

But how can I, that can't even draw a dog, draw this goddamn devil's work of a drawing?!

When I realized that after today, I would probably be fired, despair finally appeared.

My legs felt weak and I stared blankly at the book in despair. I couldn't believe, that after being transmigrated to a magic world, I would be unable to learn magic.

I already knew for sure that I wouldn't be able to follow the path of magic, and I wasn't even qualified as a scholar.

Overflowing with desperation, my brain was rushing to think of an alternative.

Magic was real!

Magicians were real!

But I couldn't become a Magus!

...

Wait? I can't become a Magus?

It was when that last thought appeared in my head, that I noticed that not all was lost.

I am an otaku and a fanatic for novels. I've spent basically my entire life only reading novels and watching anime, my studies were secondary to all of that.

Regaining my motivation, I glossed over the book's index as if my life depended on it, I was searching for something...

It was then that I found what I needed on one of the last chapters of the book.

"Foreign methods and other magic arts… This is it!" I said looking at that line with glee.

There were many ways to practice magic, and the one I just read about was the Traditional one.

If I couldn't become a Magus?

I'll practice magic in another way!

Who needs that biased 'Traditional Magic'?!