Rivers of the Night - Chapter 158

Chapter 158: Street Rat
Dorian’s gaze flickered as though he wanted to say more. Or maybe it was that he was already in the process of saying what he planned in case Theron rebuffed him.

But what he didn’t expect was that there wouldn’t even be the slightest shift in Theron’s expression. He just took the Bloomstones and vanished.

Somehow, Dorian felt like something was wrong. But he also couldn’t place just what it was.

“That was easy,” a young man said as Theron vanished. “How long do we wait before we go and actually complete the mission? I tried to tell you that we should have just let him go. It’s such a waste of Bloomstone if he doesn’t make it all the way there…”

The young man’s voice trailed off as Dorian gave him a look. He didn’t know why, but he felt a chill.

“Talk less, Ali,” Dorian said coldly.

His mouth clamped shut in response, his adam’s apple moving slightly as though swallowing the next words he had wanted to speak.

Ali shrank back into silence. But much the same way as it was with all the others, it was impossible that his ire would be aimed toward Dorian.

These sorts of street rats could only target those they thought to be weaker than themselves.

Looking down to the ground, Ali clenched his fists in his robe sleeves but said nothing at all.

Dorian looked toward where Theron had disappeared again, and a silence fell over the entire group.

…

Theron had already forgotten about the others the moment he entered the geyser. He knew that it could blow at any moment, and speed was the best option.

Others might have avoided this geyser because it had only just blown, but it was precisely because it had that he selected it.

The moment he entered, he fell into what felt like a steaming, fathomless pit.

‘This vapor really is very difficult to control… no, it’s basically impossible…’

Theron had controlled mist before. In fact, it was the very foundation that formed his Immortal Jellyfish Echo. Even before he got his Immortal Jellyfish Echo, though, he had already been capable of using mist to detect his surroundings at the cost of a substantial amount of Mana.

Unfortunately, there was a difference between mist and steam. Mist was just regular Water Mana that was highly dispersed. Steam, however, was a phase change. It was no different from Theron trying to control ice.

It was impossible.

In this state, the Water Mana was hardly reacting like Water Mana. Instead, it was a lot more like Fire Mana—violent, unrelenting, and almost cancerous.

Fire Mana wanted to consume everything it touched, and this steam seemed to want to pass on its volatility around as well.

This was just a natural law of energy, a movement of things from higher tiers of concentration to lower.

If Theron tried to control this vaporized steam, he would burn his body from the inside out the moment communication was formed between himself and it.

His Meridians couldn’t withstand that unless he was a Fire Mancer. But, obviously, a Fire Mancer couldn’t control this steam either because they weren’t a Water Mancer.

Luckily, Theron had his own plans.

‘There.’

He caught onto a ledge and pulled himself up.

This ledge should be one of the many small openings that the unknown beast used to make their tunnels.

Theron had known that it would be here from the start. That was because, while he had no ability to control this superheated water, what he could do was sense it just as easily as he could any other Water Mana.

This region seemed like a land for Fire Mages, but it was almost like a candy store hidden behind glass and bars. He could see, but he couldn’t touch or enjoy.

And that was still more than enough.

Theron pulled himself up and squeezed himself into the hole.

He lowered his head, crawling forward with sure wiggles.

A dozen minutes later, he had made quite a way in before there was another rumble, and the geyser shot once again.

‘There are good odds that they’ll try to get in now, thinking that I’m dead. But they might also wait for the next. It doesn’t really matter much either way.’

Theron could feel that he was almost there.

The tunnels were winding and seemingly endless, but he made his way through them with shocking ease, always choosing the right path in the fathomless maze.

Then he stopped.

Up ahead, there was a deep drop to a sea of red gold. Heat hit Theron’s face in waves, or it should have had his Water Mana not been very good at dispersing it.

If there was one thing Dorian hadn’t lied about, it was that Water Mana was very good at dealing with heat. Ironically, it was even better than Ice Mana was. That was because the specific heat of Water was far higher than Ice Mancers could match. An Ice Mancer would have to output far more Mana to deal with the same amount of heat as compared to a Water Mancer.

Of course, there were some genius Ice Mancers that could control Water Mana as well. In which case, they had an advantage compared to Theron.

But such geniuses were rare.

‘There.’

Theron laid eyes on the beast. It was just as Dorian said, a large lizard-like beast that was about three meters long, not including its slender tail, which was easily another two meters all on its own.

Its main body was black, but the shell on its back, pointed with spikes, carried a black, rouge, and almost maroon color to it. The shell looked almost like a layer of triangles pieced together step by step and was sharp at any angle.

Theron’s shoulder shimmied, bringing forward a single Resonate Bloomstone.

‘If I’m right about this…’ Theron’s eyes flashed.

The shelled lizard beast’s mouth opened with a yawn, a rough tongue of black and violet rolling out.

Theron’s finger flicked, sending the Bloomstone zooming forward in a wrap of Water Mana.

It soared through the air, layers of water steaming off and leaving a comet trail in its wake before it popped into the lizard’s mouth perfectly.

The beast’s body trembled.