When Shang confirmed that this was the problem, Callen started to stroke his beard in thought.
"I want to alter my pathways," Shang said.
Callen's brows furrowed at that point, but he kept thinking.
"It's risky," Callen said after several seconds. "From what I've heard, the passageways form during your breakthrough, and they have essentially been created by your Path, correct?"
Shang nodded.
"This means that these Mana passageways are a natural extension of your Path. Messing with them might weaken your Path or directly make it impossible to use it in the future. It would be like you knowing the theory but not being able to put it into practice."
Shang knew what that meant.
He had created all of his techniques before he had created his Path. Back then, using his techniques had cost several times more life energy and Mana than now.
If everything returned to how it was before, Shang would only be able to use a single Shock before running out of Mana. One Anger and his body would have already atrophied to a terrifying degree.
It would essentially cripple his Battle-Strength.
This was also the reason why Callen had to undergo another Mind Read before meeting Shang.
If Callen gave Shang incorrect information on purpose, he could essentially cripple one of the Skythunder Kingdom's strongest assets.
"I would advise against changing your Mana passageways," Callen said. "Instead, I would suggest altering your techniques to fit your Mana passageways. For example, you could change this movement to be a bit more like this."
Callen gave a couple of examples of how Shang could change the movement of his Mana for different attacks while pointing at different parts of the pictures.
Shang only frowned.
Then, he stood up and pulled out his Long Sword.
Callen wasn't panicked.
Shang swung his sword a couple of times and implemented Callen's changes.
After a couple of swings, Shang's frown deepened, and he ate a Wind Blade Seed.
Callen wasn't surprised that Shang was using something to help in his training. Every Mage did that.
Shang swung around a hundred times, and eventually…
CLIRRRRR!
The beautiful sound appeared.
This meant that Shang had performed the attack perfectly and that it conformed to his Mana pathways.
However, Shang didn't like that.
Yes, everything worked out, but the attack just felt wrong.
It felt like this attack had been created by someone else.
It didn't feel like his own.
"What do you think?" Shang transmitted to Sword.
"It's good, but I don't like it," Sword answered.
"It feels wrong."
Shang remained in thought for a couple of seconds.
Eventually, Shang put Sword away and sat down on the chair again.
"It resolves the issue, but I don't like the result. The attack doesn't feel like me," Shang said.
"Then that won't work for you," Callen said as he returned to thinking.
Shang raised an eyebrow.
"I expected you to tell me that my feelings aren't important in that regard," Shang said.
"Oh no, they are probably the most important," Callen added. "Us Mages often use Spells that are known by several Mages, but we also all have our own Spells, Spells that we create. These Spells evoke a certain feeling of familiarity and belonging, and it has been proven several times that having these feelings is a tremendous help in advancing."
"A Spell you don't like is very hard to develop further, and it is harder to establish the fine control over Mana you need to reliably use it. These feelings are of utmost importance."
When Shang heard that, some of the nervousness he hadn't known he felt vanished.
For just a second, he had believed that he was being overly difficult.
"So, is there a way to change my pathways?" Shang asked.
Callen frowned. "As I said, it's very risky. The accuracy and number of minor adjustments necessary are shocking, expensive, and time-consuming to perform. This would be a project that continues for years, and if a mistake is made, a blueprint of how the passageway has been before the alteration has to always be at hand."
"If you don't mind the question, Duke Sword, what is the level of your mind?" Callen asked.
"Initial True Mage Realm," Shang answered.
"Hmmm," Callen hummed as he fell into thought again.
"I don't want to be responsible for potentially crippling one of our Kingdom's strongest assets," Callen said.
"Because of that, I think it would be better to teach you the process and Spells. They might be a bit hard for an Initial True Mage to understand, but with enough time and dedication, you should be able to master the process."
"At that point, you can mess with your own passageways as much as you want."
"Would you be okay with that?" Callen asked.
Shang released a sigh and nodded.
This was not a sigh of acceptance but one of relief.
Shang didn't feel comfortable with giving someone else full control over his power.
It was much better when he could do everything himself.
Callen nodded. "We might need to spend a couple of months together until you can use the Spells with adequate mastery. These are complex Spells since we are changing the fundamentals of your very being. We are changing the very thing that tells your body what it has to recover to. After all, it would be senseless to spend time and effort to change your passageways just for them to recover to their old state after an injury."
"That's fine," Shang said. "Thank you, Professor Callen."
Callen only smiled. "That's my job. Now, I hate to ask this question, but I need to know before I commit that much time to help you."
"Payment, right?" Shang asked.
Callen only laughed sheepishly and nodded.
"Are five True Path Stage beast corpses enough?" Shang asked.
Silence.
Callen only looked at Shang with a skeptical expression.
"Not enough? What about ten?" Shang asked with a frown.
"Wait, wait, wait," Callen said. "You are offering five True Path Stage beast corpses? Like, entire ones or only some parts?"
"Entire ones, of course," Shang answered. "I am carrying several of them in my Space Ring, and I don't really have a use for them. If I need more, I just hunt more."
At that point, Callen took a deep breath.
Five True Path Stage beast corpses.
If he sacrificed his entire wealth, he might be able to get half a leg of an Initial True Path Stage beast.
"Is it enough?" Shang asked.
"Yes!" Callen almost shouted, losing his composure. "That's more than enough!"
Shang nodded. "Then, that's going to be the payment."
The two of them exchanged a couple of pleasantries, and eventually, Callen left to inform several people that he wouldn't be available for several months.
And then, Callen began to teach Shang everything he would need to change his Mana pathways.
