Hello.

It has been a while, but rest assured it is summer, and i will now proceed with the story, expect time skips, not coiling dragon quality, but Spanish telenovela quality time skips.

Enjoy.

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Wesley continued reading until sundown at which point he went to the basement. After getting to the basement, Wesley didn’t immediately start refining, rather he just sat cross legged in the center of the basement pondering.

'Holy Port? Since darkness and light are opposites, then it is possible that they have similar techniques'

Wesley was really interested in the Holy Port that the teacher showed. Dark Warp is a very handy technique for escaping and infiltrating closed places, but it is more than useless during a fight since it wastes immense amounts of mana and takes a long time to invoke. However, that Holy Port was almost instantaneous, meaning that it could be used to dodge or even aim for the opponent's blind spots.

Unfortunately for Wesley, He has absolutely no idea how to drive a similar technique from his Dark Warp based on the brief demonstration the elder gave during class. An idea is just that, Wesley recognized the similarity between light and darkness, but to be able to mimic the techniques of the opposite affinity, not only are theory needed, but luck and flashes of insight are equally as important.

Inventing a technique is never easy since you first need to conceive it, then apply it. Application is easy compared to conceiving a technique. Because the conceiving of a technique is never easy, most people derive their techniques from other people's techniques just like Wesley, only Wesley is having a hard time with the application since he has no idea what the mechanics behind the Holy Port are.

Furthermore, while the difficulty of deriving one technique from another is already substantially high, using another affinity, let alone the opposite affinity, exponentially increases the difficulty. Different affinities have different characteristics, it is hard to emulate the ferociousness of fire if a person is a water mage because water's gentle and malleable nature is polar opposite to fire. However, the opposing nature of affinities only increases the difficulty but does not make the process impossible, after all, waves are water while still being ferocious.

Wesley continued thinking for about two hours but after not making any leeway 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 then went to his room to sleep a little.

If it was up to Wesley, He would keep on pondering for days until he found a solution, but Wesley realized that one cannot force or rush this process, furthermore, he had classes the next day, and although he could skip four of them, he wouldn’t dare skip the swordsmanship class through by that monster second elder.

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

Wesley's life during this year was awfully monotonic, he would wake up in 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. He would then come back to the Manor and head straight to the study to give Sela her reading lessons then read a little until it is dark outside 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, Wesley's daily schedule was varied too much from this. He would exercise his body in the morning, study from tutors, read some books, then refine for two thirds of the night before sleeping. Such a rigid schedule can never be followed by regular people since most people.

As for the management of the Manor, everything was handled by Lane. In this year Wesley and Lane took direct control of three small businesses while lending gold to at least ten including the five major businesses. All of the financial aspects 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 gold, Lane had access to enough funds to keep the Manor running.

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

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

As for little Sala, Wesley only 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 is both not smart and pointless because magic studies requires a certain amount of understanding and discipline which is simply not present in the a three year old. Wesley himself started learning from Rale at the age of five which is the standard age.

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 would see it. Vision is only possible because of light and in this instant there was no light in this basement. However, if one was able to see in this basement, they would notice Wesley sitting crossed legged in the dead 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 named Dark Domain.

The book [Refining Darkness] outlined that the most suitable refining technique for a dark mage is to release his Dark Globe while refining, causing him to simultaneously deplete and refine mana. This technique both increases one's mana pool as well as the quality of their mana while increasing their control since a balance between depletion and refining needs to be constantly kept. However, after almost three and a half years of using this method Wesley encountered a flaw in it. Space.

As one's mana capacity and quality increases, the circumference of their dark globe also needed to increase to make keep the balance between the depletion and refining of the mana. But Wesley only has the this basement, and after a year the circumference of the Dark Globe he could maintain while refining increased from a few dozen feet till it reached the borders of the basement, meaning that anymore increase and the outside will also be affected by his Dark Globe.

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 is simply using one's own mana to stimulate the naturally occurring dark elements in one's surroundings making them expel the other opposing elements of fire and light. This causes the surroundings to become pitch black disabling the vision of one's vision and making them susceptible to attacks.

Wesley saturated his surroundings with his mana, making his surroundings not only 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 is one to one, Wesley on the other hand used a ration of four mana to each dark element.

To Wesley's surprise, after doing this, not only did Wesley stimulate the dark elements, he could leverage the strong connection they had with his mana to move it around. Furthermore, Wesley discovered that he control did was not only limited to the dark elements but certain objects as well. For example, Wesley's sword was easily moved around by Wesley as if it was a dark element itself, but once Wesley tried to move other objects like a steal sword or a cup, they could still be moved but with exceeding difficulty compared to moving the sword.

This excited Wesley, since he was able to come up with a combat application for his Dark Globe as well as being able to continue with the Refining Darkness Technique without the need to look for a new place.

The time was around midnight, normally Wesley would be heading to sleep about now, but tomorrow was a weekend so Wesley didn’t have to attend any class so he instead opted to continue refining and further improve the control of his Dark Domain.

However, suddenly, Wesley felt a foriegn, human shaped, object entered his Dark Domain based on fluctuation at the southernmost border of his Dark Domain. Because Wesley had tremendous amounts of mana in his surroundings when using Dark Domain, he could easily feel anything or anyone that is within it.

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

"Who dares intrude upon my Manor."

Wesley remained silent for a moment as he waited for a reply. After almost two breaths a voice came from the place where the person was at. This voice clearly belonged to a man because it was low and manly, but it was almost whisper like and had the effect of making people extremely uncomfortable.

"This Manor originally belonged to my family. I only wanted to investigate what happened to the previous owners."

As soon as Wesley heard the "this Manor used to belong to my family" part, he felt like he understood the situation but he wouldn't dare lower his diligence because this person was not normal. He not only managed to enter Wesley's basement from the outside but he also seemed unfazed at being surrounded by Wesley's Dark Domain. This showed that he was extremely powerful. Wesley spoke again while his sword hovered in front of him, pointing at the man and his dagger in his hand:

"And what is the name of this family of yours."

"The Black Family. This is our ancestral Manor. Mind telling me how you came to own it."

Wesley thought for a moment, then ignoring the man's question, asked him another question:

"Can you prove that you are from the Black Family?"

The man was quiet for a moment, then his low, soft whisper like voice emerged again:

"I can't prove it since I never needed to before. How do you suggest I do it?"

Wesley thought for a moment. He knew it was not easy to prove if one belonged to a certain family, insignias and emblems are most commonly used, but they are easy to forge or steal. After a moments silence Wesley spoke again:

"How many children does the head of the Black Family have?"

This question was Wesley's way of probing the honesty of this man's words. He made it sound like the Black Family's head is still alive on purpose, if the man spoke in the past tense, it would indicate that he knows the Black Family is no more, making it improbable that he would launch an investigation three years later. If the man also included little Sala in his cont then he would have known about Sala's birth which around the same time as the Black Family's massacre, again making it odd that he would start his investigation three years later or even need an investigation.

"My brother has four children; Little Lane, Stein, Wannel and Lavar."

Hearing the man's answer, Wesley felt certain that he was indeed from the Black Family. Wesley immediately reached to catch his sword that was floating in the air and canceled his Dark Domain. As soon as he did this, the extreme darkness in the basement receded. The basement was still unlit so Wesley pointed towards the exit and spoke:

"Let's go. We'll speak in the study."

The man simply walked the exit in an unharried manner. Wesley was certain this man is a Black, but he still would lower his guard too much so he still held his sword and dagger while looking at the dark robed figure of the man heading towards the exit. Wesley wanted to test the man further and see if he could find the study since this should have been his home.

The man walked out of the basement and headed towards the study without any hesitation. The moment Wesley and the man emerged from the dark basement into the lit hallways of the Manor, Wesley noticed that the man wore a totally dark uniform with a hoodie. His shoulders were broad and his six foot body seemed to be filled with muscles that were bulging only without making him seem burly, also had multiple daggers hanging from his hips.

Wesley was surprised at the man's attire. To be able to enter the basement through the outside meant that the man was a mage, but based on his attire and body, one would almost certainly think he was a swordsman.

Wesley and the man reached the study. The man immediately walked in and Wesley followed soon after. After walking in, Wesley shut the door and walked towards one of the seats to the side and sat while the man simply stood opposite of Wesley.

The man looked at Wesley very closely his eyes showing an odd light. When he experienced Wesley's Dark Domain, he felt as if he ran into some expert which is why he was polite and composed, but now that he saw the Wesley's youthful face, he couldn’t help but have some complicated emotions creep in his heart.

Wesley, seeing the look on the man's face decided to break the silence:

"My name is Wesley, I am the current master of the Black Manor. Mind telling me who you are?"

The man seemed to have been awoken from his stupor and spoke with his regular whisper like voice:

"My name is Neal Black. I am the younger brother of the head of Black Family. Now mind telling me how you managed to own this Manor, my brother never would have sold our ancestral home?"

Neal's voice, although still low and whisper like, showed his anxiety. Wesley felt regretful that he had to tell him what happened but he couldn’t lie or misguide him:

"The Black Family was massacred three years ago. I bought the Manor from the city."

Neal's face paled and his eyes turned glossy as if he was about to cry, but he pinched his nose bridge and spoke with his voice clearly showing his shaken state:

"I see........It seems I was too late."

Wesley was startled at Neal's words. Neal implied that he knew about the Black family's impending doom before it happened, making Lane's information faulty. Lane said that they had no idea they would be attacked.

"What do you mean. How were you able to know that the family was in danger?"

Neal looked at Wesley his face still pale and spoke again:

"My brother sent me a message some three or so years ago. He said that the four families were preparing to make their move only........only I was too late"

Wesley was surprised at Neal's words.The four families were the rulers of the Blackreach City, they held tremendous power and influence for a millenia. Furthermore, he believed that the Shorn Family were responsible for the attack on the Black Family.

"What do you mean the four families. It was the Shorn Family that killed the Black Family"

Neal was still clearly shaken but he was slowly regaining his composure, as soon as Wesley mentioned the Shorn Family, his eyes shone with a murderous luster and he spoke:

"Shorn?........Those trash serve the four families. I will make sure they don't have a single root left in this world."

Wesley was In deep thought. If the Shorn Family served the four families then the moment he killed them off then he caused the four families to be on their guard. His only chance was if they didn’t associate the death of the Shorn Family with the Black Family matter or to him. Wesley suddenly thought of something and immediately looked at Neal who was almost fuming and excluding a thick bloodthirst.

"Neal, Calm yourself. The Shorn Family are all dead. Also Lane, Stein and the others are alive and well, it is best if you don't make any rash actions that might put them in danger."

Hearing Wesley's words, Neal's eyes shone bright and the glossy on his eyes fell as tears as he felt great joy in the bottom of his heart.

"Is it true.....are they truly alive."

"Yes they are. Only I had to change their last name to Gray because I feared they might be suspected when I killed the Shorn Family. It seems that was the correct decision."

Wesley felt extremely glad he made some contingency plans before killing the Shorn Family, otherwise, who knows if right now he would be laying dead in some ditch. He knew that the four families could easily kill him without fearing retaliation from the ject kingdom because of the fact that if his father invaded the Blackreach County, then he would have to fight the other three kingdoms, and to risk another War of Four for Wesley who he viewed as useless.

Neal Spoke up again with excitement still present in his voice as if he has forgotten all about the death of his other family members:

"Where are they. Can you take me to them. Please"

"Haha, it is past midnight, they are definitely sleeping. Go to the Master Bedroom upstairs, they should all be sleeping there."

Neal didn’t even wait for Wesley to finish his words as he darted towards the study door.