I think I can classify mother of learning as dark academia. Mainly for two reasons:
First reason is the main character prioritizing not only learning and improving his own magical prowess, but also going out of his way to research and study dark magic. Oh I have the natural ability to read people’s minds and mess with their memories? Sign me up. Oh, necromancy and soul magic is something that’s useful to me? Sign me up. Oh blood magic can enhance my magical abilities? Sign me up. Oh I need a bigger cash flow to fund my golems and obscure magical devices? Sign me up. Oh my enemies have these secret magic spells I might need? Let me rob their houses and steal it.
The other reason is the amount of times our main character get jealous of his friend and brothers over how much better they are at either being social or being better at magic then him despite how much effort he puts in. Or, likewise, the amount of times his friends get jealous of him being better at something they spend their entire lives honing.
It gets them motivated to try harder. A lot of characters have this need to try their hardest not to get left behind. Heck, even a nine year old is motivated to get better at something she doesn’t even need to focus on yet. And let’s not forget the villain that has our MC in a desperate bid to get better at magic so he’s not at a disadvantage the next time they clash.
Let’s not forget his paranoid personality and the fact that nobody trusts him to speak the truth or believes he’ll do the right thing if it clashes with his self preservation. (not even spiritual entities trust him with that lol)
Let’s not forget the demanding teachers too. They demand excellence but they also would make you throw hands if they ever taught you. If this doesn’t spell dark academia, I don’t know what does
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