Rivers of the Night - Chapter 156

Chapter 156: Eruption [Top 10 in GT Bonus]
Theron looked down at Caelan’s corpse, not feeling much at all. He didn’t need others to see his victory. He had known from the start that this person wasn’t his match.

Plus… now wasn’t the time to display his true strength.

His earlier commotion had caused quite a number of people to gather here, so it likely wouldn’t be long before he met up with those three again. Once that happened, he would have much less freedom to do things the way he wanted to, so everything would have to be prepared.

After cleaning up the battlefield, Theron left the region once more.

Once he was sure he was alone, he checked on the Aberrath Bloomstone he had collected.

As he had told the old man, his ability to understand the other Forbidden Spells of the Luminescent Moon Sect was severely hampered. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t understand the value of this Aberrath Bloomstone.

If nothing else, he could definitely use it to trade for more Vital Bloomstone and thus complete his progression to Silver Mancy with more speed.

Though, he seemed to have found another shortcut to this. If he could comprehend the other runes of the Black Limbo Tortoise shell, would he be able to smoothly unloosen his bottleneck?

But there was still one thing that left him confused…

How had that horse used the Aberrath Bloomstone to transform like it did? And was it natural for a beast to be smart enough to hide the deposit like it had?

Sure, Mana Beasts were far smarter than feral beasts, but not really to this extent. They knew enough to understand how to protect resources, but usually that manifested in just them becoming lurking watchdogs. Something like moving a boulder over a deposit after they had found it was far more rare and basically never happened.

Their intelligence usually manifested more like intuition in controlling and countering various Mana skills.

Was this an odd mutation of the beasts in this realm? Were they smarter than normal? Or was it something that Theron was missing?

‘This just might be… very important…’

**

Half a day passed before Theron finally ran into the group that he was looking for. He managed to find just one more deposit, and this was actually of Tribulation Bloomstone interestingly enough. Unfortunately, it only had three pieces of Bloomstone within it. But something was still better than nothing.

The group themselves, though… seemed much less enthusiastic to see Theron. And they were much larger than Theron was expecting.

There were the obvious three—that being Dorian, his fiancée Vaeilina, and Jodie. But there were also about a dozen others, most of whom Theron had no recollection or understanding of.

But this much was expected. As powerful as the three Core Disciples were, the firm hold Ironvale had over the hearts of the other disciples told a tale of just how difficult it might be if they were to try to do everything alone…

Especially considering Ironvale was the only Ninth Silver Resonance existence in the whole Secret Realm.

Theron didn’t say much, just hanging behind the group. He was content with being ignored.

While Vaeilina had tried to smooth things over after their initial meeting, Theron knew well enough that Dorian and Jodie were more set in their ways. To them, maybe Theron being humble was only natural. After all, he was a man that had married into his wife’s family and was now an obvious pawn of the Thistles to them.

Somehow, they seemed to have skipped over the fact that they were pawns as well. But whether that was willful hypocrisy, or they felt they were different somehow, Theron didn’t care to figure it out.

Soon enough, they would be useful to him. He was just waiting for the right time.

What he was curious about, though, was the fact Dorian—who should be in control of the Verdant Bloomstone right now—didn’t seem eager to use it just yet. They were definitely planning something else first.

If Theron had to guess… they didn’t want others to stumble into an opportunity by following a commotion they triggered—least of all Ironvale himself.

Knowing this, the obvious answer seemed to be clear.

They wanted to kill.

There was no way they could cause a commotion that would be bigger than whatever the Verdant Bloomstone would bring down. The only chance forward was to kill… kill until rivers of blood ran true.

…

“Here.”

Dorian’s voice came from the front of the group.

‘Odd,’ Theron thought to himself.

They had long left the stone maze region. From what Theron could gather, the group had come forward to check out the commotion he had caused, but after ensuring that it had nothing to do with the Verdant Bloomstone, they left to start their own plans.

This was convenient enough for Theron as this allowed him to run into them without much issue. But now that they had finally reached their true destination, his gaze couldn’t help but flicker.

From what Theron knew, this region was two territories southeast of the stone maze. The air was much more humid, and the temperature was much greater. This region was the eruption zone, and it was known for forming powerful steamy geysers.

The Bloomstone that appeared here most often was known, appropriately, as Eruption Bloomstone. It was a Bloomstone used with a Forbidden Spell that was a perfect mirror to the Berserk skill abilities of some pure Flux Mancy Beasts.

Berserk was an incredibly rare Flux Mancer spell and not every Flux Mancy Mana Beast would have it. If there was a rank for most expensive and valuable Echoes, Berserk would most definitely be in the top five, if not the top three, not just in this Province, but across likely all of them.

This Forbidden Spell of the Luminescent Moon Sect, however, could actually mimic it quite well. In fact, depending on the tier you used the skill to, it could be even more effective than the Echo.

But of course, much like always, not only was it impossible to understand the spell, it required external Bloomstone to trigger properly.

That was all well and good. But what was the purpose of this?

“Theron.”

Dorian suddenly called out to him.

Inwardly, Theron’s attention focused. What could he possibly be calling him for after ignoring him all this time?