Chapter 61 - Transformation

Inside the dark, gloomy basement beneath Wesley Manor, a single firestone sat on top of a dresser, flickering with a weak light. The basement was so dark that this feeble light didn’t illuminate much.

However, it was enough to reveal the figure of a person holding a thick book as he sat on a bed. The figure's face was partially lit by the firestone's light; however, the curvature of its face caused part of it to be shrouded in darkness while the rest was illuminated.

This partially shadowed, partially lit face, coupled with its jade-green eyes that shone brightly under the light, gave it a devilish feeling. It was as though a devil of darkness was sitting there. The figure was clearly frowning slightly, which only added to its devilish appearance.

Wesley had been in the basement, reading the book about channels, for almost a week now. During this time, Wesley had read the book cover to cover multiple times. If he could describe this book with one word, it would be thorough.

This book not only detailed each known channel in the body, but it also described their known uses and even included instructions on how to invoke them. It was extremely detailed because, even though not all the channels in the body are known, those that are easily reachable number in the hundreds. It even contained the specific invocation for Wesley's dark spells.

This surprised Wesley at first, because it was simply too convenient. If all one needed to become a mage was a book that told you the exact channels for all the known spells, then such a book would be extremely priceless.

However, after thinking about it, Wesley realized that this wasn’t the case for one big reason. As far as spells went, this book only spoke with certainty about basic spells; anything more complex or advanced was simply conjecture.

So it made sense that this book was not priceless. If people wanted to learn basic spells and had the capability to do so, all they had to do was ask any random mage, and they would gladly tell them. Basic spells were nothing like a secret.

The real treasures and secrets of mages were advanced spells. Wesley's Dark Port and the third elder's Holy Port were such treasures. It was very unlikely that either of them would easily teach these to anyone, let alone write them in a random encyclopedia.

Furthermore, as far as advanced spells went, Wesley's Dark Record contained almost a dozen. Compared to his Dark Record, this encyclopedia was simply too common for Wesley to be interested in it.

However, the reason Wesley was reading this book wasn’t because of its value, but to gain more knowledge about channels and how they functioned to make spells possible. In this regard, Wesley's gains could be said to have been great.

After reading about channels and their invocation methods, Wesley learned a lot about the basic spells of every affinity. Although he wouldn’t be able to use them, Wesley learned how they worked and even the time it took to cast them. This would definitely prove beneficial in the future.

Officially, Wesley was a Practitioner-level mage. Practitioners were those mages who could only use basic spells, or swordsmen who hadn't bonded with a sword. Wesley had only learned the three basic spells of Dark Mages from his Master, so he was a Practitioner. However, Wesley was actually a Master-level mage.

The difference between practitioners and masters depended on whether the person had mastered an advanced spell. Therefore, Wesley, who had Dark Port, was a Master. However, this small difference was enough to make masters many times stronger than practitioners.

As a Master, Wesley was capable of defeating multiple practitioners with ease already. Now, by learning about these basic spells and their invocation times, Wesley could deal with practitioners even more efficiently.

However, Wesley didn’t care about that. He could already deal with practitioners before. What he needed was a solution to his problem. If Wesley couldn’t use his channels, then there was no point in worrying about his ability to grasp the timing of spells.

Unfortunately, after the third time Wesley finished reading the book, he tried to invoke each and every spell in the book, regardless of affinity, but nothing happened. It was as if the mana in his body was nonexistent.

Wesley felt extremely apprehensive about the results. He knew that being able to use different affinities was impossible. But he still hoped for a lucky break or some sort of miracle, but nothing happened.

At this point, Wesley had come to terms with the fact that he was no longer a Dark Mage. His core didn’t react to the channels of Dark Mages, just as it didn’t with the other affinities. This simply meant that he was not a Dark Mage the same way he was not a Wind Mage or an Earth Mage.

Wesley felt some sadness and regret at this fact. However, he was not too distressed. He knew that his core was fine and that he still had mana, so he was still a mage—he just had no idea how to access his abilities.

Thinking this way, Wesley was able to calm his raging emotions. He convinced himself that he would fix this problem and become better than before. This allowed him to focus on his research once again.

After reading the book three more times, Wesley found what seemed to be his last chance. He hadn’t paid much attention to this specific section before because it was more like a footnote.

- - - - - - -

The section Wesley was currently reading was the smallest of the entire book. In fact, this book was divided into seven chapter for each of the affinities. Each specific chapter contained all the channels that correspond with that affinity, an average of fifteen channels, and allocated one page to each channel.

Comparatively, this entire section was one page long and contained eight channels. Normally, this wouldn’t capture anyone's attention, but Wesley was desperate and needed some sort of hope which is why this less than impressive section captured his attention.

This section was simply titled Vestigial Channels.

Half of the page was filled with an small introduction that truthfully resembled an afterthought than an introduction. It went like this:

[Aside from the channels that correspond to the six affinities. There are a group of channels that correspond to any of the affinities. This group of channels are Vestigial and serve no clear purpose. Some scholars claimed that they corresponded to a lost affinity, however, because the scholar had no evidence or support for his claim, and the fact that everyone in the world is born with one of the six affinities, this theory was tossed out. Other scholars claim that these channels are a product of a divergent mutation.

Unfortunately, aside from speculation and conjecture, nothing is known regarding these channels. After hundreds of years of constant research, the invocations for these channels have been discovered, the first thing that was noticed was the simplicity of these channels' invocations and structure, which shows that they serve no purpose whatsoever.]

Wesley was surprised as he finished reading the introduction. If there are only six affinities in the world, then why would there be channels that correspond to neither of them. It simply didn’t make any sense. But there are only six affinities and this didn’t apply to any of them.

"Perhaps...."

Perhaps, Wesley who didn’t couldn’t be said to belong to any of the other affinities would be able to make use of these so called vestigial channels. Perhaps whatever affinity they corresponded to would be whatever affinity he has now.

Wesley instantly looked at the first of the channels and its invocation. He was surprised to find that this channels invocation was not even four words long while the longest was fifteen words long. Wesley's most basic spell was Dark Globe and it was ten words long.

This caused Wesley to frown slightly, and the hope in his heart to be decrease. The simpler the invocation, the weaker the spell. If this channels required half the invocation of Dark Globe, then it was half as strong.

Even if Wesley was able to cast spells using these channels, they would most likely only be weak spells. If Wesley was in his original state, he would disregard these entire channels, but now, Wesley was in desperate need of a way, so he clenched his teeth and started invoking.

Wesley immediately muttered the invocation for this channel. It took him less than two seconds to finish the entire thing. This was the time for the fastest known spell, Wind Blade. But this didn’t cause Wesley to be happy because Wind Blade is known for how weak it is.

However, before Wesley could even frown, his mana rushed to the newly opened channel. It was as if a dammed river suddenly found an outlet as the mana rushed in tides through the channel.

Wesley's face that was in a perpetual frown the entire week suddenly became ecstatic. He simply stared at the mana that was rushing from his body to the outside world and he couldn’t help but smile.

"Finally...Hahahaaa"