Hello, it is me again.

I know the speed of release is really slow, sorry bout that, you see i have procrastination syndrome, it is no joke.

any ay enjoy the chapter.

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As Wesley was walking towards the exit, the entire hall was quiet. Everyone present understood how powerful Wesley's swordsmanship is to be able to beat a mage after he cast his spell, this made him one of the candidate for champion, because not only does he have the advantage of being a swordsman, but he also lacks the disadvantages.

However, Wesley's sudden surrender caused everyone present, excluding the swordsmanship students, to be stupefied. The swordsmanship students knew how lazy and uninterested Wesley truly is, but the other students were still pondering as to his reasons.

"Halt."

Before Wesley could even walk half the distance to the exit, a deafening shout came from the stage causing Wesley to stop in his tracks and turning to see why someone is shouting at him. As soon as Wesley turned around, he saw that the student on top of the stage was currently staring daggers at him. Wesley only looked at him blankly and spoke in a sleepy, confused voice:

"Yes?"

"You can't concede."

Wesley instinctively rolled his eyes; this was the second time he was told that he can't do something when he clearly could do it. Wesley was forced to participate by the old monster, but why would he care about what some random person demands. Wesley immediately turned around and continued his walking without even replying.

Seeing Wesley ignore him and continue walking, the student on top of the stage was angered beyond his wits. He immediately muttered something without puasing to think and shouted:

"Light Sword."

Almost a second later, a bright, three feet long sword without a hilt materialized in front of the student. He immediately pointed towards Wesley whose back was turned to him willed the sword to stab him. The bright sword immediately rushed towards Wesley. A whistling sound reverberated across the hall as the sword flew through the air.

This was a famous spell of light mages that is derived from the equally famous spell Wind Sever. Although it has a relatively fast invoking speed, it is not nearly as destructive as its wind counterpart.

The student wanted to face Wesley because of this spell. The speed at which this spell was invoked took away the advantage that swordsmen have over mages, but seeing Wesley win even after a spell was cast made his desire to test this spell increase. Unfortunately, Wesley's submission caused him to become infuriated and unable to think clearly, but it was too late.

Most of the students stared unbelievingly at the sword that was flying towards Wesley, as for the elders, each of them had a ghastly look on their faces, but there was no way they could move dozens of feet in the few seconds it will take the sword to traverse the distance. As for the student who cast the Light Sword, he only stood there motionlessly as he understood what he did.

Wesley who was walking suddenly felt danger approach him from behind. He immediately turned around only to see a bright streak of light rush towards his head. The bright sword was within five feet of Wesley meaning that he had less than a second to react.

As soon as Wesley saw the bright light heading towards him, he understood that death was approaching him. A ruthless light emerged from Wesley eyes as he bent his upper body forward and made relaxed his muscles.

When the light sword was within two feet of Wesley throat, Wesley immediately unsheathed his sword in an arch, causing the sword to become a dark blur because of its speed. The moment Wesley's sword was halfway through the swing, the light sword collided against it and the sound of metal being hit rung throughout the hall.

But Wesley didn’t stop there. He took advantage of the momentary pause caused by his sword swing and its arching movement to change the trajectory of the light sword. Almost a tenth of a second later, the light sword that was heading towards Wesley's throat followed the arching swing of Wesley's sword and completely turned a hundred and eighty degrees.

This was a combination of two of Wesley's Silent Sword Techniques; Silent Draw and Silent Counter. Silent Draw enabled him to move his sword fast enough to collide with the light sword and Silent Counter enabled him to redirect the strength of the light sword to change its trajectory. Of course Wesley didn’t do this on purpose, rather in the moment before death, his body, In last ditch effort to survive, reacted.

The light sword was now heading towards its original source, the student who cast it. This was a scenario that could not have been dreamt by any of the students present. The light sword that they feared would take Wesley's life was not only blocked but used against its master. They all watched as the light sword traveled astonishingly fast towards the student on stage. The student now had a pale, fearful look on his face, he knew perfectly well how powerful this spell of his is, and furthermore, he has no way of stopping it.

The moment the light sword was within two feet of the student, the area in front of the student brightened and a shrill, cold voice emerged from the bright zone:

"Disperse."

The light sword immediately stopped mid air, and then simply crumpled. A moment later, the brightness in front of the student subsided, revealing an azure robed elder with a cold face stood there. It was the third elder who just used his Holy Port to appear in front of his student in the last second.

The student, seeing that his life was saved, knelt as his legs gave out. He stared at the floor thinking of how his life would have been over by now, then a small smile appeared on his face as he realized that it didn't. He immediately looked up at the elder who saved him and spoke in a shaky voice:

"Thank you Elder. I don't know wh......."

Before he could even finish his sentence, a powerful slap connected against his face caused him to roll backwards twice. He immediately looked up at the third elder who was glaring at him with a look of disgust clearly visible on him. He then spoke in an equally disgusted voice:

"You dare speak after what you did. Begone, I'll deal with you later."

"Yes elder."

The third elder then turned around and looked at the Wesley who was standing in his original spot with his sword drawn.

"I apologize for my student's actions. Come, I'll heal your injury"

Wesley's currently had blood dripping from his face. A long, straight cut that was caused as the light sword was being redirected went from the left side of his neck to his left jaw. Although the cut was not deep, it was still bleeding profusely, and most of the students who has never seen blood were feeling somewhat queasy.

Wesley on the other hand only stood there, unmoving, as he stared at the elder. This third elder was capable of using his Holy Port to stop the light sword when it was heading towards Wesley, but he didn’t move until his student was the one in danger, and yet,here he is apologizing and offering to heal Wesley as if this was all a minor misunderstanding.

Wesley laughed inwardly and spoke as he sheathed his sword:

"Thank you for the offer, but It is not necessary."

Hearing Wesley's words, the third elder narrowed his eyes and spoke again:

"It is best to heal injuries immediately lest they become permanent."

"Like i said there is no need."

Wesley didn’t even wait for a reply and immediately resumed his walking towards the exit. Seeing Wesley walk away from him, the third elder couldn't help but be infuriated, he now understood why his student did what he did.

As for all the other elders who were present, they all shook their heads resignigly. They all noticed how the third elder opted not to save Wesley but was quick to save his own student, and yet, here he is offering to heal Wesley. What kind of idiot would ever trust a man that had no qualms about them dying to heal them.

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Wesley immediately walked out of the hall and went to find a washroom so that he can clean the blood off. The washroom was fortunately empty so Wesley immediately took off his shirt and used it to wipe the blood off of his neck. He then started circulating mana around the wound on his neck to stop it from bleeding.

The so called healing that the third elder was offering was simply using mana to close a wound by stimulating the body's natural process of clotting. However, light magic is used the most because the wound will not show any oddity after it heals, whereas other affinities cause the wound to become slightly different.For example, if one used a fire affinity mana to close a wound, then in the future when the wound heals, the scar that is left behind will be more red.

Wesley stopped the bleeding, then he proceeded to clean the blood from the shirt. After ten or so minutes, Wesley left the academy grounds and walked towards the Manor. His walk did not take too long so Wesley reached the Manor after thirty minutes.

As soon as Wesley walked into the Manor he ran into Lane who was currently instructing some of the guards to do something. Lane caught Wesley's figure in the corner of his eye, then he turned to greet his master, but as soon as he turned he noticed something.

"Ma...Master. You are wounded."

Seeing the clotting wound on Wesley's neck and jaw, Lane couldn't find the words to speak. Wesley seeing the astonished and worried look on Lane's face, couldn’t help but feel slightly happy at his concern for him. But Wesley currently had something else on his mind so he replied in a firm, uninterested voice

"Lane, this is but a scratch. Come, I have something to talk to you about."

Lane was surprised at Wesley's tone. He couldn’t help but wonder what it is that Wesley wanted to talk to him about that is much more important than his injury. But Lane simply nodded.

Wesley immediately started walking towards the entrance to the Manor and Lane followed. While walking, Wesley continued speaking:

"Lane, I need you to move my bed, training armor and post into the basement."

Lane was puzzled at Wesley's order. So he hesitantly asked:

"Are you planning on remaining in the basement for a long time Master."

"Yes. The academic year is over, since I won't be going to classes anymore for a month, I'll spend my time training."

"Understood Master. I'll have the things moved immediately. Is there anything else you need me to do master."

"Remember that I am not to be disturbed for this month."

"Understood Master."

Wesley immediately went upstairs to change out of his bloodied uniform and take a bath. He then headed downstairs at which point Lane was already waiting for him.

"Master, everything has been prepared."

Wesley nodded and then proceeded to pat Lane on the shoulder:

"I'll leave everything up to you Lane. If there is an emergency, be sure to notify me. Also, make certain that little Sala continues with her lessons."

"Yes Master."

Wesley immediately headed towards the basement and unhesistantly walked in. The basement was as dark as usual since there were no sources of light anywhere. The only difference was that there was now a bed in the center of the room and a dark post near the bed.

Wesley proceeded to lock the door to the basement and then walked towards the bed and sat on it cross legged. However, Wesley didn’t invoke his Dark Domain to refine, rather he just sat on the bed staring at the darkness with eyes full of thoughtfulness.

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For the last year, Wesley has spent numerous hours pondering how to derive a spell similar to Holy Port from his Dark Warp. Unfortunately, Wesley has only seen the spell once and has never seen it again. This caused him to have no way of knowing how to go about the deriving of the technique.

Nevertheless, he continued pondering and experimenting, he tried countless methods and came up with countless application, but all of them ended up failing to bring out the results he desired.

However, when the third elder used his Holy Port to save his student, Wesley had a moment of epiphany. Everything from the anger he felt from being attacked, to the pain of the wound he received suddenly vanished as he heard something click in his mind.

How is it that the third elder is able to use his Holy Port to appear in open space. For example, Dark Warp opens a tunnel between two points, however, there needs to be a shadow or darkness in those two spots for the tunnel to be opened forcing Wesley to use the shadows of walls or corners to open the tunnel. It is also safe to assume that the light equivalent of Dark Warp, Holy Jump, works the same way.

But the third elder appeared in a place that was without a wall, or some other medium. Wesley immediately understood that there was a medium, only not what he expected. The third elder must ve used the light elements in the surroundings as a medium to open a tunnel.

Of course this was not the biggest shock that Wesley received, since shadows are essentially dark elements, so he already knew that they could be used as mediums, but after thinking the third elder's Holy Port, Wesley faced another question, where does the tunnel come from?.

The tunnel that is the centerpiece of all these spells has been taken for granted by Wesley who only thought about opening it but never tried to understand its origins. However, now that Wesley started focusing on the tunnel, he understood something.

The tunnel is simply put, the connection between elements. And mages simply use their mana to forcibly increase the size of the tunnel and walk through it. This is not too profound of a knowledge, but it led Wesley to another conclusion; the tunnel is always open.

Since mages only use their mana to expand the tunnel to be able to walk through it, they do not create the tunnel, meaning that the tunnel is always open between elements.

The moment Wesley came to this conclusion, he suddenly realized that the incantation for invoking Dark Warp is essentially useless. If Wesley wanted to Warp somewhere instantaneously, all he has to do is use tremendous amounts of dark elements to make a large combined tunnel rather enlarging one tunnel forcibly.

Of course Wesley was not sure if his theory was going to work, but he rushed home and decided to lock himself in the basement to try it. Naturally, the basement was the best place to test his theory since the need for a copious amounts of dark elements disqualified most other places.

Currently Wesley was sitting cross legged on his bed thinking of a way to collect a a lot of dark elements to converge on his body. He could invoke his Dark Domain and manually move the elements to his body, but that would be similar to killing a chicken with lightning, extremely wasteful.

So Wesley decided to try another method. He would pour his mana into a single element and cause it to attract the other elements like a magnet. This method was less wasteful than using his Dark Domain, the speed by which the elements converged was too slow to be of any use to Wesley during combat.

Next, Wesley tried using the elements while they were in their natural positions, but this proved insufficient as well since the tunnel was simply too small to be used by Wesley.

So now Wesley was faced with another problem. He needed a way to instantaneously attract dark elements to his body, if the speed is too slow then it would be useless during battle, and if the mana needed is too high then it would be simply pointless. However, Wesley wasn’t too disheartened, he already had the end product insight, all he has to do know is connect the dots.

A week went by in a flash. During this week, Wesley spent everyday in the basement only walking out to go to the bathroom once a day. And aside from sleeping a few hours each night, exercising a few hours each morning and eating twice a day, Wesley spent the remainder of his time trying to think up of a way to solve the problem with converging the dark elements on his body.

Right now, Wesley was training with his armor on as he continued doing each of the Silent Sword techniques countless times, he that he wondered if there was perhaps a way to use mana in conjunction with swordsmanship. With this thought in his head, Wesley impued some mana into his sword hoping to perhaps make it sharper or move faster or some other reaction.

The moment Wesley impued mana into his dark sword, he felt that his mana was following some tiny veins in the core of the sword. These veins were microscopic and in the millions. It seemed that the entire sword was made out of these veins, furthermore, they were set in odd patterns that Wesley couldn’t comprehend.

As soon as Wesley's mana entered the sword, dark elements all over the room rushed towards it as if they were being pulled by a tremendous magnet. Wesley was startled greatly and immediately retracted his mana from the sword causing The dark elements in the room returned to normal, but Wesley just stood there astonished at what he had discovered.

Wesley has noticed before that this sword of his has some connection to dark elements since he was able to easily control it in his Dark Domain, however, he never truly gave it another thought and has never tried to impue it with mana. Wesley has simply decided to ask his master the next time he saw him.

But now that he saw the reaction of the dark elements to his sword Wesley was ecstatic. He has finally found a way to instantaneously converge dark elements around him, furthermore, his sword certainly had a mystery and Wesley enjoyed such things tremendously.

Wesley immediately took of his training armor and walked to his bed then proceeded to sit cross legged on it. After taking a few deep breaths, Wesley impued his sword with mana again, and just like last time, dark elements rushed towards the sword in droves from all over the room, only Wesley didn’t stop them this time.

Tenth of a second later, Wesley was surrounded from head to toe with dark elements causing him to become a dark spot in the middle of the basement. Then with a single thought, Wesley's body disappeared from the bed and reappeared in the furthest corner of the basement while still being covered in darkness.

This entire process took less than quarter of a second which is many time faster than the third elder's Holy Port. Wesley was excited beyond words, he simply stared at his sword like it was some sort of treasure. He couldn’t believe how lucky he was to find the solution to his most vexing problem so easily, this must be the equivalent of some people's luck for a lifetime.

Wesley immediately warped to his bed and sat down again. Now that he has succeeded in deriving a technique similar, if not better, than Holy Port, Wesley wanted to further probe his mysterious sword. The thing that interested him the most what would happen if the dark elements were allowed to enter the sword unobstructed.

Wesley immediately impued mana to the sword and watched as the dark elements poured like a torrent into the sword, only they were not being attracted by his mana, rather they were being absorbed by the sword then circulated around the veins of the sword over and over again. While those elements were being circulated in the veins, more and more elements were being absorbed.

After around two hours of this constant absorption and circulation of the dark elements, the absorption stopped as the sword's veins were filled with dark elements. The dark elements in the sword simply stayed there unmoving.

Seeing the elements just sit inside the sword, Wesley couldn’t believe his eyes. His sword was a storage device for dark elements, furthermore, it is capable of storing such a tremendous amount. Wesley needed only a second's worth of collected dark elements to be able to perform Dark Port, yet this sword of his collected dark elements for two hours, this was simply unfathomable to Wesley.

Wesley realized that his new technique that he derived from Holy Port, which he will call Dark Port, needs a lot of dark elements, and while Wesley can easily perform it in dark places or at night, there is no way to perform it during the day, or in well lit places. Yet, now, he can simply carry his dark elements with him at all times.

This realization made Wesley happy beyond belief. He would need to thank his master for this treasure of a sword, because this sword not only made it possible for him to use a great technique, but also eliminated that technique's one weakness.