Rivers of the Night

Theron's gaze became a hint cautious.

He couldn't fathom the amount of power it would take to do something like this. Just the fact that there was a formation painted over such a large region was already shocking enough, but this feat of power seemed to be on a level all its own.

Water was heavy. Very heavy. It was part of the reason Theron had always found it a bit silly that it was seen as the weakest Element. At worst, most should just say they had no idea how to use it effectively instead.

But this river… it was on the order of trillions upon trillions of kilograms. To suspend it all... And for there to be no obvious Mana surge causing it either…

Theron couldn't wrap his head around it at all.

Slowly, Theron began to walk forward.

Whatever had caused this didn't want him to reach this point, but now that he had made it so far, there was no way he could just stop now.

He continued forward quite slowly, trying to scan everything in his path. But he found his Third Eye to be especially restricted, and the air here just felt so… heavy.

The density of Dark Mana was such that no other Mana seemed allowed to exist. He could barely gain a small trickle of Water Mana thanks to the river above his head, but as he headed deeper, he was finding that it was harder and harder.

However, there were no dangers. It was almost as though whoever built this never expected anyone to get this far in the first place, so they didn't think it necessary.

Maybe that wasn't so foolish. After all, setting aside the formation itself, just the fact that there was such a saturation of Mana Beasts should have killed Theron long ago. Who could guess that they wouldn't dare to touch him?

…

Theron wasn't exactly sure how long he had walked, but it should have been over three days or so. He adjusted his direction based on the currents above his head, moving in the direction opposite to the way they wanted to push him from.

Nearer the bottom here, the currents were actually more predictable. Probably because there was less depth to work with, they were all pointed away from the same direction. That made it easier on Theron.

And that was when Theron finally saw it up ahead.

It looked like a small shack, carefully constructed of shimmering black ore that reminded Theron a lot of Ebonstone.

'It's not quite Ebonstone. The vein patterns, the presence, the circulation of Dark Mana are all a little different… but the principles and the function seem to be close enough… But…'

Theron noticed something else instantly.

The shack was actually using principles of the Ebonstone-lookalike to gather and concentrate Dark Mana. The density of the Mana here was absolutely shocking.

If one was a Dark Mancer and cultivated here instead, the progress would be tenfold faster for not even half the effort.

It was too bad he wasn't a Dark Mancer; otherwise, staying here for a decade or two might very well be worth it.

Theron wasn't in a particular rush to do anything, nor did he care enough about seeing or interacting with people to feel the solitude.

Cultivators as young as himself wouldn't normally enter seclusion for so long. He was speaking about hiding himself away for a period twice that of his own age as though it was nothing.

But Theron didn't care about this. In fact, he was feeling a hint disappointed.

Although he knew that it was unlikely, he had been hoping that maybe whatever was hidden beneath this river would be related to Water Mancy instead—maybe the Dark Mana was a red herring.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem he was so lucky.

Still, this experience had taught him a different method of using his Water Mana. Though it didn't count as his Water Mana Control evolving like it had when he learned from Karra, it was still a good foundation for his next breakthrough.

Maybe he could learn a bit more here. He still needed to learn about this world's cultivation system, so it wouldn't hurt to check and see.

While the library he had seemed able to distill all of the world's sciences into a summary he could consume and learn from, it didn't teach him any true cultivation. For that, he would have to learn from other things…

Stepping forward, Theron cautiously reached a hand toward the door of the Ebonstone-lookalike shack. He pushed when nothing seemed prepped to attack him and looked inside, but his gaze immediately sharpened.

His body tensed as a wave of powerful aura surged toward him, but his gaze remained icy cold.

'A corpse?'

The only thing in the entire shack was a single prayer mat, upon which a skeleton draped in black and crimson robes sat. There were a pair of eerie ruby-black stones in place of the skeleton's eyes, and they seemed to be the origin of the heart-shuddering aura. Well, that and the radiant aura coming from the belly.

Theron closed the door behind him, and the harsh winds came to a sudden stop.

The silence was eerie and could make one's goosebumps run wild, but Theron's expression didn't change.

Taking a step forward, he reached for the skeleton's robes and ripped them off with a single strong tug. The moment he did, it was all revealed.

At the location where the dantian of the man or woman had once been, there was a sparkling Core hovering there in silence.

Theron's eyes narrowed. 'This should be this expert's Core. But why does it… look like that?'

Bronze, Silver, and Gold. Those were the colors that Theron was familiar with.

But this Core almost looked cloudy and malformed. Though it was perfectly spherical if you looked at it for long enough, there seemed to be a fog hanging around it like it hadn't been properly prepped beforehand.

However, Theron felt that this should be wrong.

The power of this skeleton was too great. If they were so incompetent, unable to fully compress the strength of their Core, would they have made it so far?

Or was it that they had done well until this point, but failed at their current Realm? Whatever that Realm was?

'And what are those?'

Theron looked at the gems in the skeleton's eyes deeply. There was an eerie bloodthirst coming from them, and they also seemed faintly dangerous. But Theron wasn't sure what they were.

'Hm?'

Theron's eyes narrowed.

It was well hidden, but under the sleeve of the skeleton, there was also a spatial ring.

Theron reached down and plucked the ring off the finger.

'A restriction… a powerful one…'

Theron's gaze flashed, but almost instantly he had a solution.

With a thought, he pulled out the Karmic Needle and Thread. With practiced motions, he stabbed his body through and wrapped the other end of the thread onto the Core of the skeleton.

The moment the thread of Karma was linked, the restrictions on the ring seemed to have sensed a familiar aura. Then, they naturally opened up.

While Theron was focused on the ring, there came a flash from the gems in the skeleton's eyes, but it was impossible for his Third Eye to be focused on both the inside of the spatial ring and the outside at the same time.

The size of the spatial ring took Theron off guard. It didn't seem like a small storage device at all, but was instead an entire land. One could have probably fit a small mansion with five rooms and bathrooms on it seamlessly.

Better yet, the space was incredibly sturdy, far more so than any that Theron had ever seen before.

In the past, there were some treasures that Theron had come across that he couldn't store at all because the spatial device he had on hand would collapse. But he didn't believe that this spatial device would have such a problem at all.

Theron was about to go through everything one by one before something caught his attention. His gaze flashed, and he pulled it out.

The moment Theron's focus returned to his mind, he felt his hand sink down. He was forced to flex to stop it from sinking all the way to the ground and toppling him over.

In his palm, an inky-bladed dagger radiated a dense killing aura and pooled with a black fog that made it impossible to tell whether it was just six inches long or as much as twelve inches long.

'A dagger…'

Theron's eyes flashed.

He much preferred the change of pace and fluidity wielding a short sword and dagger gave him. But he had to switch out his daggers so often because he couldn't find any good quality ones that he had had no choice but to switch over to Ironvale's sword. But…

Theron brought out Ironvale's sword and then casually swung the dagger down on it. He didn't use much force at all, no more force than a Bronze Mancer would be capable of, and yet…

Chi.

The black iron sword was split in two.

Theron's gaze couldn't help but flicker. The black iron sword was very good. There had to be a reason Ironvale was capable of using it as an Echo.

And yet, it couldn't even withstand such a light blow.

'It is a bit heavy, though… it will take some getting used to.'

He liked his daggers to be light and nimble. This one was clearly designed to be used by someone much stronger than himself.

An ominous chill crept along Theron's neck.

His eyes sharpened, his head whipping around.