Rivers of the Night

At a moment like this one, Theron wished the inner armor hadn't broken apart, but his focus remained just the same. He felt like the inner armor Garethon had formed had much more potential than he was able to unearth from it, but now it was a thing of the past.

This formation… is very complex…

Theron had been doing his best to skirt against the edges, trying to find a path toward the center of it all while avoiding the obvious traps. But it felt like the further he went, the worse the quagmire became.

The good news was that he wasn't going in the direction the formation wanted him to.

The bad news was that it didn't seem to matter.

He was still no closer to any goal than when he began, and worst of all, the beasts around him seemed to slowly be getting restless.

The Alpha had already had some good intelligence at the Runebound level despite having only been at the lower levels of Gold Mancy. Many of the creatures Theron was coming across were at least Runebound, and their cultivation was even stronger.

That was to say that their intelligence was even greater than that of the Alpha in many ways.

In truth, this was a huge reason for why they hadn't attacked yet. They probably felt that Theron was young and had backers even stronger than himself somewhere they didn't want to offend. After all, he couldn't have given birth to himself, right?

Unfortunately, these beasts weren't intelligent enough to know the irony of those words.

Even so, the more they observed Theron, the more inconsistencies they found. But the most obvious of the questions was… where were Theron's backers now? Why were they letting him get beaten and battered like this?

Could they be unable to help him? Did that mean that Theron was easy prey?

Theron could feel the subtle changes in them. In fact, he could read the emotions of these Water Mana Beasts even more clearly than he could human Water Mancers. He could feel them getting antsy.

Suddenly, Theron's eyes sharpened.

How were these beasts moving around these currents?

As Theron pretended to continue focusing on the currents sending him flying in all sorts of directions, he spared more thought toward these beasts.

Before, he was trying his best to ignore them so that he could focus. It was an advantage of having a chilled heart. Not many people had the option to ignore so much danger around them in the first place.

But after a few attempts, Theron saw something odd.

These beasts seemed to be following him. Though there was some change in the encirclement, it was still about 30% the same as when he first entered the river, and it had been several minutes since then.

This was another reason he had ignored it. The fact that the beasts were being swapped in and out meant that they were struggling against the currents as well.

Plus, Theron was being thrown left and right by the currents. So long as they were near him, they would be buffeted by the same currents and follow his path. The fact many of them were near him made sense—thus, all the more reason for Theron to ignore it.

But while he hadn't learned much about these currents, there was one thing that Theron had picked up on…

They were oddly acute.

Meaning, unlike in real oceans and rivers that had large, overarching, general directions for most of their currents, this river was like a stack of complex jigsaw pieces. A pair of people stranded just a meter away from one another might get sent flying in completely different directions from the oncoming currents.

So that left the same question once again.

How were these beasts still following him?

Theron observed them for three current bursts, his eyes sharpening every time.

These beasts… they're not just Water Mana beasts, they're Dark Mana beasts as well.

Theron had to forcefully press down the shock.

Dual Mancy Path geniuses existed… in theory and in legend. However, even Raiden, who Theron had thought might have been a Light and Lightning Dual Mancer, had only ended up being a pretender.

Yet, there were so many right in front of him.

It was no wonder he hadn't sensed what was happening immediately. They were using Mana he wasn't adept at sensing to change their directions.

Dark Mana was incorporeal, hard to track. But it had the same—or at least similar—fluidity to Water Mana at the same time. In fact, it was far more shapeless than Water Mana, so it was easily influenced.

This was why Theron had thought that it was the Water Mana that was deciding the currents of the Dark Mana, and the whole reason why the layer of Dark Mana above looked so much like a real river.

But the reality was the exact opposite of that.

It was the Dark Mana that influenced the Water Mana here.

And these beasts were using the vice versa to their advantage. By tethering their Dark Mana to certain strands and currents here, they were ignoring some currents and riding others.

This required a keen sense for both Dark Mana and Water Mana.

Theron's hand reached up to his necklace, feeling out for the Mandate Core. Should he try?

He wasn't sure he could do this at all. He wasn't familiar with Dark Mana and its inner workings at all.

But…

He was extremely familiar with Water Mana, and he bet his control over Water Mana was far superior to these beasts, even if they were powerful Mana Beasts. He didn't believe he would lose to anyone in this regard, and if he did, that was only because there was something he had yet to learn that he would soon learn from them.

Theron's eyes sharpened as his eyes darkened, Dark Mana flooding them.

His gaze turned focused, and he felt out the currents of Water Mana in all directions until he locked onto one.

There.