Chapter 23 - Wesley's Meeting

Wesley continued reading until sundown, at which point he went to the basement. Upon reaching the basement, Wesley didn’t immediately begin refining. Instead, he sat cross-legged in the center of the room, deep in thought.

'Holy Port? Since darkness and light are opposites, it’s possible that they have similar techniques.'

Wesley was very interested in the Holy Port the teacher had shown. Dark Warp is a very handy technique for escaping and infiltrating closed spaces, but it is nearly useless during a fight because it wastes immense amounts of mana and takes a long time to invoke. However, Holy Port was almost instantaneous, meaning it could be used to dodge or even strike at an opponent's blind spots.

Unfortunately for Wesley, he had absolutely no idea how to derive a similar technique from his Dark Warp based on the brief demonstration the elder had given in class. An idea is just that—an idea. Wesley recognized the similarity between light and darkness, but being able to mimic techniques of the opposite affinity requires not only theory but also luck and flashes of insight.

Inventing a technique is never easy. First, you need to conceive it, and then you apply it. The application is easy compared to the conception of a technique. Because conceiving a technique is never easy, most people derive their techniques from others, just like Wesley. The real difficulty lies in the application, as Wesley had no idea what the mechanics behind Holy Port were.

Furthermore, while deriving one technique from another is already difficult, using an opposite affinity exponentially increases the challenge. Different affinities have different characteristics; it’s hard to emulate the ferocity of fire when you are a water mage, because water's gentle and malleable nature is the polar opposite of fire. However, while the opposing nature of affinities increases the difficulty, it doesn’t make the process impossible. After all, waves are water, yet still ferocious.

Wesley continued thinking for about two hours, but after making no progress, he gave up and started refining. It was very unlikely that he would decipher another person’s technique on the first try. Wesley refined for a third of the night before going to his room to get some sleep.

If it were up to Wesley, he would have continued pondering for days until he found a solution. But he realized that one cannot force or rush the process. Furthermore, he had classes the next day, and although he could skip four of them, he wouldn’t dare skip the swordsmanship class with that monster of a second elder.

- - - - - - -

In the blink of an eye, a year had already passed.

Wesley's life during this year was awfully monotonous. He would wake up early in the morning to practice his swordsmanship and exercise his body for a few hours. Then, he would go to the academy and attend the light magic and swordsmanship classes, while attending the remaining classes once a week. Afterward, he would return to the manor and head straight to the study to give Sela her reading lessons, then read a little until dark, at which point he would go into the basement and refine.

Ever since Wesley was five years old, when he was first approached by Rale, his daily schedule had rarely varied. He would exercise in the morning, study with tutors, read books, then refine for two-thirds of the night before sleeping. Such a rigid schedule could not be followed by regular people, as most people simply couldn’t keep up.

As for the management of the manor, everything was handled by Lane. Over the course of this year, Wesley and Lane took direct control of three small businesses while lending gold to at least ten others, including five major businesses. All financial matters of the manor were managed by Lane, and although Wesley still held most of the wealth, the revenue from the three controlled businesses, as well as the other businesses that owed them money, meant that Lane had enough funds to keep the manor running.

Wesley hardly interfered with Lane's work because, first, he had very little talent for management and finances, and second, he wanted Lane, who was naturally talented at this, to garner more experience. Of course, Wesley still held onto the gold, because entrusting such vast amounts of money to a nine-year-old would be asking to be robbed.

As for the remaining siblings, the three brothers—Stein, Wannel, and Lavar—had started practicing sword techniques. Both Wannel and Lavar favored conventional sword techniques that relied on strength, so they practiced with the guards every day. As for Stein, he seemed to have developed a liking for Wesley's Silent Techniques, so Wesley allowed him to accompany him during his morning practice sessions.

As for little Sela, Wesley focused on teaching her how to read and write. Although he was interested in examining her light magic, he realized that teaching magic to a three-year-old would be both impractical and pointless. Magic studies require a certain amount of understanding and discipline, which a three-year-old simply doesn’t possess. Wesley himself had started learning from Rale at the age of five, which was the standard age for magical education.

Currently, Wesley was sitting cross-legged in the basement of the manor with his eyes shut. The basement was completely dark, without a single thing visible. In fact, if one waved their hand in front of them, they wouldn’t see it. Vision is only possible because of light, and in this moment, there was no light in the basement. However, if one could see in the dark, they would notice Wesley sitting in the center of the room, with a pitch-black sword swirling around him as if it were alive. This was a technique derived from Wesley's Dark Globe, which he had named *Dark Domain*.

The book *Refining Darkness* outlined that the most suitable refining technique for a dark mage was to release his Dark Globe while refining, causing him to simultaneously deplete and refine mana. This technique both increases one's mana pool and the quality of the mana, while also improving control, since a balance between depletion and refining must always be maintained. However, after almost three and a half years of using this method, Wesley encountered a flaw: space.

As one's mana capacity and quality increase, the circumference of their Dark Globe must also increase to maintain the balance between depletion and refining. But Wesley was limited to this basement, and after a year, the circumference of the Dark Globe he could maintain while refining had grown from a few dozen feet to the borders of the basement. Any further increase would affect the outside world.

So, instead of looking for a bigger space, Wesley exponentially increased the amount of mana he used to stimulate the dark elements in his surroundings. Dark Globe simply uses one’s own mana to stimulate the naturally occurring dark elements, making them expel opposing elements like fire and light. This causes the surroundings to become pitch black, disabling the vision of those within and making them susceptible to attacks.

Wesley saturated his surroundings with mana, making not only the area dark but also extremely corporeal. It almost seemed like a dark fog filled the basement. The ratio of mana to dark element needed to invoke Dark Globe was one-to-one. Wesley, on the other hand, used a ratio of four mana to each dark element.

To Wesley’s surprise, after doing this, he not only stimulated the dark elements, but he could also leverage the strong connection they had with his mana to move them around. Furthermore, Wesley discovered that his control wasn’t limited to the dark elements alone but extended to certain objects as well. For example, Wesley’s sword was easily moved as if it were a dark element itself. However, once he tried to move other objects, such as a steel sword or a cup, they could still be moved, but with far more difficulty compared to the sword.

This excited Wesley because he had found a combat application for his Dark Globe and could continue refining his Darkness Technique without the need to find a new place.

It was around midnight. Normally, Wesley would be heading to bed by now, but tomorrow was a weekend, so he didn’t have any classes. He opted to continue refining and further improve his control over the Dark Domain.

Suddenly, Wesley felt a foreign, human-shaped object enter his Dark Domain, based on the fluctuation at its southernmost border. Because Wesley had infused so much mana into his surroundings while using Dark Domain, he could easily sense anyone or anything within it.

Wesley immediately stood up, his sword pointed menacingly at the place where he felt the fluctuation, while at the same time invoking his Dark Dimension and pulling out his dagger.

"Who dares intrude upon my manor?"