Rivers of the Night

Theron took a seat in the middle of the treasure room without a care in the world. Now that he knew how to leave this place, there was no need to stress about it. He could use this region as a safe haven for his breakthrough. The pile of Vital Bloomstone stacked up before him, and initially, he planned on just practicing the dance he had learned from the tower over and over again, but then he had a different thought. Swallowing the Vital Bloomstone worked to heal him. Swallowing the Resonate Bloomstone had amplified his Mana a great deal as well… What about the others? His gaze shifted and it landed on the Echo Bloomstone. Originally, this was the Bloomstone that the Thistles were likely the most after. With it, one could integrate with an Echo far stronger than they should normally be able to handle. At least that was what Theron had picked up from reading the Forbidden Spell… but it was also deeper than just that. Potentially, it could allow one to swap out their Echo after already entering Silver Mancy, and most importantly, it could help one to improve one's Echo with far greater swiftness. So what would happen if Theron swallowed one? If he was going to break into Silver Mancy, it was in his best interest that his Echoes be as powerful as possible first. While he wouldn't chase a stronger foundation over improvement, if he had the potential for a stronger foundation right in front of him, why not take it? Plus… he had a feeling that something interesting would happen. 'I'm putting the cart before the horse.' Theron closed his eyes and entered a silent state of meditation. He had all these things around him, but he was forgetting about the most important thing. He raised a hand to the necklace around his neck and grabbed it. He took a deep, slow breath and then exhaled. The opportunity to see what was in this necklace before Silver Mancy might be huge, but it could also potentially be dangerous. Do it. … Theron felt as though his mind was sapped out from his skull. And then he was overwhelmed by completely new sensations. The first was a deathly, bone-chilling cold. Dense and dark, it made him feel as though his fingertips were turning back and his lips were being painted in blue. But then came the heat. Overwhelming and relentless, they ground away at him from two separate directions at the same time. PA. It all shattered. … A grogginess hit Theron in waves, but when it faded away, and his eyes opened, he was shocked. The moons still hung high above him, but whereas before they felt so very far away, right now it felt like he could reach out and touch them truly. 'What's this…' Before, Theron only felt a certain degree of closeness with the blue moons, but now that same closeness had been extended to the purple ones as well. In fact, the two blue ones that he had ignored earlier reached the same level as the blue moon he identified with the most, while the purple moons rose in familiarity to the level they had once been on. It was a peculiar change, and one that Theron couldn't easily explain. But then he felt another change. 'My control… it's gotten even better? What is going on?' It took Theron a long moment of meditation before he slowly grasped what was happening. His mind… no, his soul, maybe? It had been refined yet again. As much improvement as he had gained from his Third Eye before, right now it was like he had improved by ten times more in a single sitting. What was going on? 'The necklace, it refined my soul for me?' Theron frowned, not quite knowing how to feel about this. He thought that he would get answers. A power-up was nice, but he hadn't even gotten used to the first one before this came. Somehow, it left him feeling far emptier. It wouldn't be until many years later that Theron understood how groundbreaking what he had done on this day was. The difference between experiencing this at Bronze Mancy versus Silver… Theron took a breath and steadied himself. With a flip of his palm, the Black Limbo Tortoise Beast Core appeared again, and he was ready to alternate between seeing how the Echo Bloomstone could help him while he broke through the rest of his bottleneck. But then… He only gave the Beast Core a glance when suddenly the second layer formed of 99 runes all reflected in his mind at once. Abstruse concepts he hadn't been able to grasp before came to him in a flood. Instantly, all 99 were imprinted onto his Bronze Core. It shrank, and then shrank again, impurities pouring out from Theron's body one tidal wave after another. 'So… easy.' Theron watched as his Bronze Core shrunk to the size of a sliver of a fingernail, his breathing remaining even. Before, without Third Eye, he could only vaguely feel the changes and observe his Core. But now, it might as well have been hovering right before his eyes. He didn't even have the time to care for or consider just how much more control this would give him. He was too stunned by his leap in comprehension abilities. Theron had always been intelligent. That wasn't him being cocky, it was just an objective truth. But right now, it felt like his brain had suddenly gotten a far purer, more powerful fuel to rely on. It changed everything. It had taken him weeks to understand the simplest layer of the Black Limbo Tortoise runes before. And this time… he understood the second layer with a glance. He turned his attention to the third layer. Three seconds. The rune shrank into his core to match its new size, and suddenly the sliver had become a barely perceptible point of light. And then the last layer. Barely half a minute. Theron's Bronze Core became a grain of sand, shining so bright it looked every bit the part of a Gold Core. He stood to his feet, his eyes sharpening as he fluidly took the first step of a familiar dance. Large amounts of Mana began to flood toward him. That was when Theron realized he had neglected something else… The Mana density in this place was simply off the charts. And, because of his new Manaborn Resonance, he was pooling together more than a hundred times more Mana than before.