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 Magus and other spellcasters, the ways to practice magic, 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 and became frustration.
Not because I got bored, but for two particular reasons.
Firstly because it was complex, and it used many terms I have never seen before without explaining them.
The second reason…
Apt.i.tude is more important than I thought it would be!
I didn"t know what was a "Magus Soul" when Lord Angus a.s.sessed 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.
My soul is a Yellow Magus Soul, the third lowest, and it really 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 is able to reach the peak of magus power in their lifetime, and the further ones are the ones 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 had 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 had souls of these grades.
n.o.bles are n.o.bles because they have the money and resources to improve their children"s souls before they mature, which happens at the age of fifteen.
Improving the grade of your soul after it matured is impossible, and only legendary items that only appear in stories and novels are said to be able to do so, but they didn"t actually exist.
Which means that I can"t improve my souls because of my age, and can never achieve a power bigger than the Initiate Magus level.
"f.u.c.k you G.o.d! You gave me such a s.h.i.t soul!" I yelled at Sixth that was by my side.
He shrugged and smiled smugly as always.
"I didn"t do anything. That"s just your bad luck."
I was really going to hit him, but then remembered something and smiled.
"You almost got me." I said copying his smug smile. "You said my body was re-initialized when I came to this world, so I am technically only a day old! Hahahahaha!"
Realizing this loophole I started laughing crazily.
Yes! I was reborn!
That means I can still improve on my soul and become more talented! I still have a chance!
I was still laughing loudly when Sixth shook his head and sighed.
"Poor fellow, despair made you crazy. He thinks he"s a newborn. Such a pity that a fine lad has gone mental in a single day."He said with an expression of pity on his face.
Hearing that, my happiness disappeared and I yelled at him again.
"Hey, you G.o.d of s.a.d.i.s.ts! You said my body had been re-initialized! That means my age should have been too right?"I screamed, fuming with anger while secretly fearing the answer.
The pity in Sixth"s face disappeared and his smug smile appeared again.
"Of course not you idiot! What has been re-initialized are only the parameters that don"t match with the laws of this world. Your age and other things that had no problems are the same."He said chuckling. "Actually, since you have no common knowledge and prior education, as well as because of your already matured views on the world, it would be hard to attain the knowledge necessary to become a Magus. You are probably going to die before becoming one."
Hearing Sixth"s words, my legs felt weak and feel on my knees looking at the ground 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 was hardly qualified as a scholar. I can only be a scribe for the rest of my life.
I was desperate and my brain was rushing to think of an alternative.
Magic was real!
Magicians were real!
But I couldn"t become a Magus!
But 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, without time to even make friends.
Getting up from the ground, I sat on the chair again and desperately glossed over the book"s index 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"?!