129 Shady Dealings Part 2

Inside Desmond's secret base unnerving screams escaped Desmond's mouth. The chains wrapped around his arm rattle ceaselessly. Desmond tugged and squirmed with all his might he was ready to pull off his own arms to escape the pain Zane was inflicting on him.

Zane's figure stood nearby Desmond and watched him struggle. One mental attack after the assaulted Desmond's mind until he foamed at his mouth and fell unconscious. To properly torture someone you must break their mind not just their body. Zane's will etched that lesson into Desmond and he will repeatedly do so as part of Desmond's training.

Time passed and after a while, Desmond awoke from his long slumber. His entire body was shivering every muscle in Desmond's body remembered how Zane's will mutilated him and the illusions he trapped him in, but no matter where Desmond checked his body was perfectly fine.

Despite what his eyes told him everyone one of his other senses told him otherwise. The signals he received were overwhelming so he turned them all off. Desmond's body completely shut down his spirit body huddled in a corner deep inside himself fixing all the errors that he found and only reemerged when he was done.

When Desmond finished his ragdoll of a body spontaneously regained life and struggled to his feet. Desmond focused his eyes on Zane's will and then asked him.

"How long have I been unconscious this time?".

Zane's will spared no sentiment or concern about Desmond's health he only explained and moved forward. "You've been unconscious for 18 hours this time since we've been at this for a week none stop your mental walls in your sea of consciousness is showing signs of breaking because of this we will stop your magical training for a few days and focus on your studies".

The sea of consciousness refers to a person's mental strength and its stability. A strong mind can significantly boost a person's control of a spell, complexity of a spell a person can use, and amount of different spells a person can use at one time. Along with various other things that are indispensable to mages and cultivators.

Desmond didn't like that he had to temporarily stop his magic training, but he also wasn't a person who was stupidly stubborn who takes unnecessary risks, so he went along with what Zane's will requested.

"That's fine, but I need you to help alter my spells. All the spells I know break apart when too much energy is inserted inside. That significantly increases my rate of failure when casting a spell when I'm not careful. Incorporating the property of my soul fire will take about 1 -2 months, but how long would it take just to increase the amount of energy I can impute into all of my spells".

Desmond had plans to eventually return to the reserve unit before they think he deserted which implied him being out in the open for all of his enemies for long periods at a time so he didn't want to be completely defenseless. Zane's will replied, "that will take about an hour to alter all the spells that you know."

Desmond was amazed by how fast Zane's will could get his request done.

"How come you can get that done so quickly but not the other thing". Desmond asked very skeptical about Zane's time frames.

"The spells that you know are only at an apprentices level which is no problem for someone with the skills of a formation path grandmaster like myself to alter. Your first request will take longer because not only do I have to create a new spell formation that suits you specifically, I have to incorporate the usage of your spirit energy that is tainted by the wills of a bunch of other souls while creating something that can add in the unique property of your soul fire".

Zane's will's voice contained a tinge of anger because his skills were coming into question by someone who had none. Desmond clearly felt its anger so Desmond didn't question further and just did what the will wanted. Desmond removed the chains holding him down with a key that he had in his poket and then began his lessons.

The lessons Zane's will put Desmond through incorporated a wide variety of things.

herbalism, magical beast and human Anatomy, history, along with runes, math and language skills.

Listening of Zane's will preach hours on end made Desmond feel like he was back in school. Desmond only cared about the magical side of things, but even when Zane's will got to those topics it's beauty was tainted by the presence of math.

"Why is there so much math? There's more math then Magic".

The numbers and equations Desmond was presented with would make Nobel prize-winning professors have a headache. Magic becomes exceedingly more difficult the further down the path you get to the point of performing brain surgery while doing rocket science would seem like a piece of cake.

Desmond endured 4 days worth of that torture until his mental walls healed and he could safely use magic again.

Zane's will had long since presented Desmond with the altered version of his spells. sparing no time Desmond tested them all out. Quickly he found that his spells were a bit more flexible than before. he could inject as much Magic in them as he felt like but they wouldn't break down.

But that simple alteration made each spell enormously more complex than before. That put a big cap on the amount of spells Desmond can you simultaneously. Before Desmond can only need two Spells at the same time. After the transformation he went through the strength of his soul was significantly boosted. So if he continued using the same spell formation Desmond could launch more then 10 Spells at the same time.

But because of the complexity of the spell and his own lack in Foundation Desmond can only cast five Spells at the same time.

Desmond was very happy about his boost in power. he was just a tinge sad about not being able to go all out. if Desmond caused too much of a commotion in the sewer it would attract unwanted attention.

Desmond played around with this spells a bit and cast the spell [shape water] on the sewer water which allowed him to change the states of the water near him from liquid, solid, to gas.

The sewer water with a 3 meters of him completely froze which surprise Desmond because that significantly exceeded what a beginner rank spell could do. All because of the alterations Zane's will made Desmond can increase the power and range of all his spells by expanding more Magic.

But what Desmond really wanted was to utilize Spirit energy as a substitute for Magic because Desmond magic reserves had a limit and so did his Spirit energy but his spiritual energy was significantly stronger the magic he currently had inside his body. By switching between the two Desmond could increase the length he could fight.

Desmond had many issues that he needed to solve to increase his combat power which will leave him completely reliant on Zane for a very long time.

"Stop testing spells and get over here. Your next lesson starts now".

Every type of will had limited functions and specialitys there actions are tied to the desires and emotions of the person who created it at the time of its creation. Zane's will only wanted to teach Desmond so it can complete the task it was made for. When Desmond spent time playing around it got annoyed.

Desmond looked coldy at Zane's will who was standing inside the base watching him as he walked back into the base.

"What's then next lesson?".

Zane's will replied, "it will be strengthening your sea of consciousness. Since you want you become an illusionist this is a subject you can't slack on. Illusionist have to trick the mind and senses of people with extraordinarily strong wills and mental fortitude. To over come that your mind must be stronger then your opponents.

There are many ways to strengthen your sea of consciousness and about 90% of them involve enduring a strong external mental pressure to slowly expand your mind. Your mind right now is quite weak you can't even enter your sea of consciousness when you meditate making it no better then a mortals.

That's because your mind at this point is in a gas state which is bad because it means it easily influenced by external pressure. By using the technique i'm about to give you, you will be able to increase the pressure on your mind which will condense the gas till it becomes liquid and expands to become a vast sea".

Zane's will then waved his hand which let out a birst of energy and carved the proper way to perfom the technique he wanted Desmond to learn. Having the information forcefully implant in his head heart but Desmond endured it.

Zane continued explaining and said, "the technique is called [fools challenge] it allows a person to strengthen there sea of consciousness by grinding away at another persons mind. Its a top grade technique that is very useful and can shave years off the time it would take to condense your sea of consciousness.

While its a great technique the problem is it can be quite dangerous. Having your mind exposed to someone else leaves you vulnerable to even the weakest opponent because what your doing is fighting a person off with only will power as your weapon not physical strength or magic. If your will is weaker then your opponents you can become heavily injured to the point your journey down the path of magic could immediately end or just die".

Desmond didn't like hearing about the potential dangers of a technique that Zane's will wash showing him because they were always so extreme. It made him wonder if the consept of making techniques with little to no risk even existed in the new world he was in.

With a bit of hope Desmond asked Zane's will if there was anyway to lower the danger just like how he did with the summoning that he performed. Zane's will laughed maniacally and told Desmond, " there is".

Desmond relieved at the new asked what it was.

Zane responded by saying, "its the same lesson that I spent that long week grinding into your body".

Desmond felt a chill run down his spine because he instantly knew what Zane's will meant. After figuring out what had to be done Desmond turned to towards Robert. His poor naked figure was still chained to the wall in a half conscious state. Blood, dirt, and sweat clung tightly to his body while dark bruises, burn marks, and cut were all clearly visible even from a distance. A large wide empty bin layed under Robert, Desmond put it there to be Robert's toilet and to collect any other bodily fluids like blood that fell to the ground.

A tired sigh escaped Desmond's mouth as he looked at Rober. He felt no pity or remorse for what he had done he just became mentally tired from thinking about all the time him and robert were going to share together.

The technique [fools challenge] allows the users mind to battle against the mind of there opponent since the battle is a contest of wills there is a way to cheat. Which is to inflict the same amount of torment that Desmond endured for a week on his opponent. Essential all Desmond has to do to greatly ensure his own safety is torture Robert till his mind breaks.

Desmond spared no time getting to work he completely remembered the painful things Zane's will did to him and how he did it. With so many toys that he never got the chance to touch the two of them had no shortage of activities to play together.