Chapter 62 - Transformation (2)

A laugh echoed throughout the basement. The basement was relatively soundproof compared to the rest of the Manor, but Wesley's laugh was so loud and hearty that it couldn’t be contained.

The guards standing outside the basement couldn’t help but glance toward it with suspicious looks on their faces. Their master spent most of his time in the dark basement, and now he was laughing like a maniac. They wondered what it was that he did in there.

Wesley's laugh continued for almost a minute, at which point it suddenly stopped. Wesley had been so preoccupied with the joy of being able to invoke that he missed something crucial.

No spell was invoked.

His mana simply poured out of him without causing the surrounding elements to change in any way. This meant that these channels truly didn’t correspond to any affinity. They were the definition of vestigial organs since they served no particular purpose.

Wesley was alarmed by this fact, but he wasn’t worried. Over the last week of learning about channels, Wesley had noticed one simple difference between normal channels and these vestigial channels.

The reason why certain channels correspond to certain spells is because of their structure. Wesley noticed that regular channels' bodies were larger at some places and smaller at others. This gave them the appearance of bumps, which were sequenced differently for each channel.

The book stated that these bumps enable the mana to manipulate the elements in specific ways. The vestigial channels didn’t have these bumps, so the mana flowing through them was unable to manipulate the elements.

Wesley knew that if he wanted to emulate the same spells of his original channels, all he had to do was somehow copy these bump sequences onto the vestigial channels. Wesley wasn’t worried about this at all, but something else caught his attention.

There were eight channels in this section. Wesley wondered if he could use all six of them. If he could, he would have gained far more than he had lost. Wesley immediately started invoking those specific channels with renewed vigor and excitement on his face.

"Hahahaaaa!"

Thirty minutes later, another loud laugh echoed from the basement. The faces of the guards outside now showed more fear and worry than suspicion. They really wondered if their master was crazy to be laughing so loudly to himself.

- - - - - - -

"Uuugh"

Wesley's face was twisted into a painful expression. He was sweating profusely and his face seemed to be drained of all color except for his clenched jaws which were red. The current pain Wesley was experiencing is comparable to the time he was being tortured by that old monster. Only, this time, Wesley was the one torturing himself.

Wesley has found a way to emulate the bumps of the regular channels on his vestigial channels. He would use his mana let it accumulate at the exact positions of the bumps. This caused the channels to have the desired bumps because the accumulating mana would stretch the channel.

However, this caused a lot of pain because the entire process was similar to bending one's own bones. Furthermore, to make sure that the bumps were permanent, Wesley had to do each bump multiple times and hold each time for a while

In fact, it has been almost two months since Wesley discovered that he could use these vestigial channels. However, the process of transforming these channels was so painful and strenuous that it took Wesley the entire time to fully transform seven channels.

Every time Wesley finished fully and permanently transforming a channel, he would pass out from pain. Sometimes he would be unconscious for a few hours and other times he would be unconscious for a day. Also, the fact that it took him far longer to refine mana was not helping his speed.

Now, he was working on the eighth and final channel. Unfortunately, this last channel was the hardest and most painful for Wesley to transform. This was because the spell that Wesley was trying to emulate had many bumps in the original channel.

Wesley has already been working on this final channel for two days now. He didn’t get a wink of sleep in these two days, and every part of his body was aching from exhaustion. This exhaustion coupled with the pain from his channel that is being forcibly stretched, was simply too unbearable.

Wesley was no stranger to pain. He has tasted the old monster's torture, but he simply couldn’t help but real under this pain. Pain was pain and could be withstood with some resolve, but inflicting pain on one's self required a special kind of resolve.

Suddenly, Wesley's jaw that was clenched and his eyes that were tightly shut relaxed. A smile appeared on his face and then he immediately fell into unconsciousness. That smile still plastered on his face.

- - - - - - -

Almost two days later, Wesley slowly opened his eyes. The basement was as dark and gloomy as ever, but that one firestone on the dresser was still flickering.

Wesley stared stupidly at the flickering light for a few seconds while wondering what was going on. Suddenly, his hazy eyes sharpened and he stood up from the bed with a smile.

"It is finished. Haha."

Wesley remembered that he has finished transforming the last channel. He really couldn’t contain his excitement. This last spell was Wesley's favorite. He actually knew that it was going to lead to a lot of pain for him, but he still went through with it.

Wesley muttered something under his breath. Almost five seconds later, a tremendous amount of mana oozed out of Wesley back. Immediately, the dark elements in the surrounding contorted and shortly after, a pair of dark wings, each four feet long, emerged from his back.

This was the spell Wesley was most excited about. It is a variation of the most famous spell in the arsenal of wind mages named Wind Wing. Wesley named it Dark Wing. Only Wesley wings were formed of dark elements and wouldn’t reach the speed of wind mages.

However, Wesley really didn’t care about the fact that he wouldn’t be able to use this spell the same way wind mages do. Who wouldn’t want to be able to fly through the skies. Wesley has conceded to his childishness on that one.

His wings fluttered and then he lifted off from the ground. Wesley face contained unrestrained looks of excitement, he instantly increased his flapping speed and rushed forward. The feeling of flying can only be summed by one word: exhilarating.

The reason Wesley is able to use a dark version of the spell used by mages of other affinities was due to the vestigial channels.

After Wesley was done transforming the first three vestigial channels according to his three original dark spells. Wesley was left with three unused channels. He had no idea what to do with these channels, so he left them alone.

However, when Wesley was refining one day, he was slightly discouraged at how his refining speed was slowed, Wesley couldn’t help but recall that damnable old bastard that was the cause of this entire thing.

Inside the Kader Manor, if the old man didn’t escape through the ground, then Wesley would've killed him and this whole dilemma would have been avoided. Thinking of how the old man escaped, Wesley started thinking of ways he could have counteracted it.

In this moment of regret, Wesley suddenly had an epiphany. What would happen if he transformed one of his unused channels to a basic spell from the other affinities. If Wesley had the earth mage spell Earth Pillar, he could've embedded the old man's escape.

Wesley then used the encyclopedia of channels to study the channel that corresponds with that spell and then attempted the transformation soon after. Wesley had no idea if he was capable of copying the spells of other affinities, but he still tried.

After withstanding the intense pain of the transformation, Wesley tried casting the spell. However, he seemed to have failed to make an Earth Pillar. Instead a pillar that was made from dark elements emerged from the ground and solidified in front of Wesley.

Instantly Wesley understood. Although his affinity changed to something different from all the other six affinities, his core is still that of a dark mage. He can only manipulate dark elements, however, these vestigial channels could be transformed to emulate specific channels.

No mage of certain affinity could use the already existing channels of another affinity. However, Wesley's channels did not have a form, he was simply transforming them, not using the channels of another affinity.

After making this discovery, Wesley was ecstatic. The fact that he could use the other channels was already great enough, but not only that, he could also use the spells of other affinities, although the spells were not the exact same as the originals.

Wesley immediately went berserk. He immediately started transforming his remaining channels. The pain was intense, and the amount of effort he put into it was not small, but Wesley was willing to go through it.

In these two months, aside from his original three spells; Dark Globe, Dark Warp and Dark Dimension; Wesley made emulated five more spells which are: Dark Pillar, Dark Spike, Dark Flame, Dark Prison and Dark Wing.

Naturally, out of these five spells, Dark Flame was a failure. Wesley could make a flame that is dark colored, unfortunetly darkness is cold, so this flame was actually cold. After this blunder, Wesley spent more time considering his choices. Also, Dark Wing was more of a product of Wesley's indulgence.

Disregarding the one failure with the flame and the uselessness of Dark Wing, Wesley's other spells were all successful and practical.

In the past, aside from his Dark Domain which enabled Wesley to control his dark sword and use it to attack enemies, Wesley's original spells had zero combat potential. However, now Wesley had almost three more spells that have combat potential.

Also, as far as anyone was concerned, these spells were simply advanced dark spells derived from the spells used by other affinities. Wesley truly stepped into to the Master level, and as far as combat is considered, other masters wouldn’t be able to face him with his repertoire of spells.

Wesley's intense thirst for power and strength was slightly satisfied, but not quenched. Wesley already vowed to become an elder and protect everyone close to him, this was only the first step.