While reading through the chapter, I discovered that among the non-orthodox magic paths, there are three categories.

The Foreign Arts, that are the magical paths used by people from other continents.

The Strange Arts, that are the magical paths from this continent that stray from the traditional path.

And the Dark Arts, dangerous and evil magical paths that are shunned and hunted down, in this and every other continent but the Western Continent, that is also called the Dark Continent.

There are three known Foreign arts, respectively:

Druidic Piety, practiced by Druids in the north. It preaches the worship of what is natural and the fusion with nature, enabling the druid to control nature around them and unite with it.

Qigong Cultivation, practiced by the Daoists in the far east. It turns mana into Qi and uses it to strengthen the practitioner's body and the powers they may gain beyond that depends on the 'Sutra' that they practice.

Beast Ritualism, practiced by the Beast Lords of the southern tribes. They tame beasts and use them to battle, having no effects beyond that. Although, since magical beasts are usually stronger than people of the same level, it is considered a strong art.

There are many strange arts, but the most widespread are three:

Martial Arts, which uses the mana acquired during the Resonance meditation to defend and release it to attack others. It is known as the weakest form of practice, but it is much easier than becoming a Magus. Those that find traditional magic too complex to learn, usually train in Martial Arts, it is normal that commoners with Yellow souls or better train in Martial Arts.

Warlock Arts, which fuses the Beast Cores of magical beasts with the practitioner's body, giving them the powers and characteristics of the beasts. It is much stronger than Traditional magic, but extremely expensive to practice, making it a form of magic only available to higher nobles.

Divine Pledges and Demonic Pledges, which means you would give your soul to either a powerful god or demon to gain power. The power you gain varies depending on which god or demon you serve. The Divine and Demonic Servants strength varies depending on the grade of their Magus Soul. The moment they pledge their souls, the Servant's power would instantly peak to the maximum their Magus Souls can handle, meaning that they wouldn't need to train to become strong, but at the price of their soul.

Seeing so many options, I got extremely happy. I should be able to practice at least one of them, and have the talent for at least one of them…

"Fuck this! Bullshit Druid Spirit! Bullshit Qi Seed! Bullshit Beast Crown! They are all the same shitty Magus Soul I have!"

After screaming that, I threw a tantrum out of anger and flipped a chair that was by my side. (Because flipping tables is for noobs)

It seems that the same restrictions I have with becoming a Magus apply to everything else, I can't go beyond the first level of practice!

Each one of the foreign arts called the core from which they drew mana in a unique way, but they were all the Magus Soul, there was no difference beyond the names. The Strange arts all depended on the Magus soul as well.

Seeing me flipping chairs and tables everywhere in the library, Sixth took a step back while giggling, he seemed to be mocking me again, but I was too angry to hear.

After seeing that I almost broke one of the chairs, I managed to calm down lest I had to pay for the damages. I threw my weight on the chair I was before and slammed my head against the table.

I was exasperated, but still managed to stay calm. Raising my head from the table and sighing I rubbed my temples, to alleviate a headache I caused to myself.

"Sigh… If the foreign arts and strange arts aren't any better, I just hope the Dark Arts can help me." I said, trying to get my hopes up, and started reading about the Dark Arts.

Besides the two categories, there are two Dark Arts, those that practice them are undoubtedly the strongest and fiercest of all magicians, but the Dark arts are incredibly dangerous as well.

The Demonic Arts are one of the two Dark Arts, it requires the practitioner to summon a Demon using the Resonance Meditation technique, and defeat it in physical combat and mental combat.

Those that practice Demonic Arts can absorb the Demonic Core of the demons they defeat and use it to produce Demonic Energy, by doing so they receive the Title of Demon Lord. They keep the Magus Core in the process as well, which gives them numerous advantages like being able to harness more mana than normally and practice faster as well. A Demon Lord can fight someone one level stronger than them with their demonic powers.

But if a Demon Lord ever loses a battle against a Demon, that demon will take over his body and descend upon the Realms. Demon Lords are frequently hunted down exactly for this reason, and many disasters happened in the past because of powerful Demon Lords that lost control.

The other Dark Art is Necromancy.

To practice necromancy is extremely simple. When using the technique of Resonance Meditation to acquire more mana, the practitioner needs to mentally state their desire to learn the secrets of Death, and by doing so, a Dread Trial will start instantly.

The Dread Trial is a mental challenge that only the Necromancers understands, and after completing it for the first time they become a real Necromancer, whose proper title is Dread Lord.

After completing the first Dread Trial they will acquire the powers bestowed by Death itself, being able to raise the dead and use Necrotic Energy to cast various spells, much like a Magus. Their Magus Soul will become a Dread Core, but it seems that there are ways for them to become Magi as well. If they fail the first Trial, however, death comes instantly, and their bodies become dust.

The requirements for a Dread Lord to advance are unknown, but after they meet these requirements, they must pass through another Dread Trial.

Failing any of the subsequent Dread Trials doesn't result in death, but the Dread Lord instead becomes an Undead themselves and lead their army to slay the living.

Each time a Dread Lord loses control, a weak one can purge a town at least. The strongest Dread Lords were known as the biggest calamities that could walk through the earth, making the Continents unite to end them. The church and the secular powers still send troops to contain the Dark Artists in the West periodically.

Both of those Dark Arts don't require any magic knowledge beyond the Resonance Meditation technique, the power they acquire become innate, and the knowledge on the workings of Demonic Invocations and Necromantic Spells, as well as magic in general, are automatically assimilated by the practitioner.

And since they create separate cores…

"Dark Arts don't require talent…"

It was convenient and powerful, as well as extremely fitting for my situation and that of every other commoner.

The risks were high, but the payoff was huge…

"Even still, I have to take the risk. If I stay the way I am now, I can't even remain a Scribe."

I can copy books that have only words and numbers, but that isn't enough since I know nothing about the 'Magic Circles' that are required to learn spells.

Copying magic tomes requires extreme precision since the formulas to spell diagrams were extremely complex and looked like those nonsensical magic circles from my world's animes and manga. It also used a rune structure I didn't understand.

When Lord Angus noticed that, he wouldn't keep me anymore. What use is having a scribe that can't do his job?

Even if he did keep me to copy only normal books, that wouldn't last forever. Lord Angus has an Indigo Magus soul, and that makes him able to ascend to the fourth rank as a Magus and become a Count. While he's currently only at the second rank, he'll soon reach the third rank, probably in another five years. By then he won't need a scribe since water magic can copy books or tomes freely, I would be unemployed anyway. Thankfully the copying magic is at the third level for some reason.

If I get fired, I know that I won't be able to get another job even if I understand magic circles. It was already a miracle that I got this one because I wouldn't have been accepted if there was an alternative.

"So… Are you going to do it? Or will you take a shot at farming?"

Sixth was looking at me, he wasn't smiling like usual. He had a serious demeanor, his serious self made me remember he is a powerful God.

I looked at the book again, it wasn't like I had a choice. Being a commoner would be a harsh life and the life expectancy was just a little better than our own middle ages, so I would die either way. At least with the knowledge from the Dark Arts practice, I can still be an Initiate magus with some more practice and become a noble.

"I'm sorry mom… Your son needs to become Evil." I smiled wryly as I said so, not really believing a magic practice could make me evil.

Not hesitating anymore, I sat cross-legged and started using the Resonance Meditation technique...

Seeing me starting to meditate, a smile appeared in Sixth's face.

It wasn't the usual smug smile, instead, it brimmed with excitement.

"It seems it won't be boring with this fella... What luck I have!"

As he said that in satisfaction, I was already in a meditative state, completely oblivious to Sixth's remark.