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

However, it was enough to illuminate 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 a portion of its face to be shrouded in darkness while the rest was lit.

This partially shadowed, partially lit face, coupled with its jade green eyes that shone brightly under the light gave it a devilish feeling. As if a devil of darkness was sitting there. It was clear that this figure was frowning slightly, which contributed further to its devilish appearance.

Wesley has been in the basement reading the book about channels for almost a week now. In this period of time, Wesley has 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 talked about each known channel in the body, it also spoke about its known uses and even included how to invoke them. This was extremely detailed because even if all the channels in the body are not known, those that are easily reach 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 became 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 go, this book only spoke about basic spells with certainty, 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, then all they had to do is ask any random mage and they will gladly tell them. Basic spells are nothing like a secret.

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

Furthermore, as far as advanced spells go, 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 in its value, but to gain more knowledge about channels and how they function and make spells possible. In this point, Wesley's gains could be said to have been great.

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

Officially, Wesley is a Practitioner level mage. Practitioners are those mages who know how to use only basic spells or swordsmen who haven't bonded with a sword. Wesley only learned the three basic spells of Dark Mages from his Master, hence he was a Practitioner. However, Wesley is actually a Master level mage.

The difference between practitioners and masters depends on if the person grasps an advanced spell. Therefore, Wesley who has Dark Port is a Master. However, this small difference is enough to make masters many times stronger than practitioners.

As a Master, Wesley is capable of defeating multiple practitioners with ease already, and now, learning about these basic spells and their invocation times, Wesley could deal with practitioner with even more ease.

However, Wesley didn’t care about that. He could already deal with practitioners before. What he needed was a solution for his problem. If Wesley couldn’t use his channels, then there is no point in worrying about his being able 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 towards the results. He knew that  being able to use different affinities was impossible. But he still hoped that he would have a lucky break or some sort of miracle, but nothing happened.

At this point, Wesley have 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 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 a earth mage.

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

Thinking like this, Wesley was able to calm his raging emotions. He convinced himself that he will fix this problem and be better than before. This enabled him to focus on his research once again.

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

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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"

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

The guards that were standing outside of the basement couldn’t help but turn to the basement with suspicious looks on their faces. Their master spends 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 has 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 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 noticed one simple difference between normal channels and these vestigial channels.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The reason why certain channels correspond to certain spells is because of their structure. Wesley noticed that regular channels' bodies are larger at some places while being smaller in others. This gives it the appearance of bumps which are sequenced differently for each channel.

The book stated that these bumps enables the mana to manipulate the elements in specific ways. The Vestigial channels didn’t have these bumps, so the mana that goes through them unable to manipulate the elements.

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

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

"Hahahaaaa"

Thirty minutes later, another loud laugh came 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.

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"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.

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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.

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Everyone: [What is this. Another chapter. He must have spent a long time writing so much. Hmm. lets drop some reviews as a thank you.]

I know you guys feel the need to thank me with review, but i have to tell you..