Rivers of the Night - Chapter 553

Chapter 553: Self Preservation

Since the weakest disciples of the Sect were Silver Mancers, the weakest treasures they had here were likewise of the Silver Resonance level. Interestingly enough, what divided the first and second floors wasn’t whether the treasures were Lower Silver Resonance or Higher, but instead something else entirely.

It seemed that this lower floor had Silver Resonance items from Lower to Peak that were of a Manaborn Grade in quality. The second floor, however, had the same at the Runebound Grade. There were no Arcane Grade items here for free exchange, but this made sense.

There were some Arcane talents that appeared in the Nightingale Sect from time to time, but they appeared only over several generations.

The only Arcane Resonance talent amongst the disciples now was Blackmaul. Neither Kaelen nor Lyra were at this level, as both were still at the Runebound Resonance level.

From what Theron could tell, the concept of Resonance was a little less tied to bloodline in this world as compared to the continent. Back on the continent, your Resonance—or whether you had one at all—seemed entirely tied to what family you came from and whether you could awaken your ancestor’s fruits of labor.

But here… none of the disciples seemed to come from great Clans, though some undoubtedly did. Instead, their Resonance talent was more random, less physical and more spiritual in a lot of ways.

This aside, it could be said that the average standard for a great disciple in the Sect was to be of the Runebound level. A talent like Lyra or Kaelen would be Higher or Peak Runebound Resonance talents, compared to Blackmaul, who was a Lower Arcane Resonance talent.

Theron was technically also a Lower Arcane Resonance talent, but for complex reasons, the testing orb he had used registered him as a Celestial.

Knowing all of this, the choice was probably obvious. But passing up on free items, especially when he was so poor now, would lead to more questions than anything else. So, Theron bent the rules a little and picked two auxiliary treasures from the first floor.

The first was a spatial ring to replace the one he had lost, and the second was just a disk with no other purpose than to increase the amount of Mana in a general region.

He went up to the second floor after that and bent the rules a little more.

“This is a cauldron?” Theron asked Lyra, looking at a black cauldron with gems of polished silver embedded around it. It had three feet shaped like roaring eastern dragons or lions… it was a bit difficult to tell. As for its size, it was just about a palm’s width in both width and height.

It was incredibly tiny, the sort of vessel one might use to char garlic in an oven rather than craft anything substantial.

“You’re not a crafter, are you?” Lyra raised an eyebrow.

“No.”

“Then why are you interested in a cauldron?”

“I’m only interested in not wasting free money,” Theron said with a grin.

Lyra scoffed. “This is just a little Silver Resonance cauldron. You could buy a hundred of them for any one thing on the third floor. Even if you ignored the first and second floors, you wouldn’t be losing out on much.”

“I’m more so interested in why a Sect of Dark Mancers would even have something like this here.”

Lyra fell into silence for a short while.

She understood what Theron meant. Crafting was something only Soul Mancers could do, and some rare variations of Spirit Mancers as well. But it wasn’t something that Elemental Mancers could do. So, she wasn’t surprised Theron would have such a question, but she seemed lost in her own thoughts for a moment as though distracted by something else.

Suddenly, she shook her head.

“Some Dark Mancers prefer to attack from a distance and can refine tools like this instead. Dark Mana is pretty flexible, so if you have a tool like this, you can use it both defensively and offensively, though it isn’t particularly good at either one.

“Basically, it’s a treasure that can expand and contract, along with changing its weight based on the amount of Mana you pour into it. But it takes a lot of practice to refine its control, and even if you master it, you probably won’t ever be as good as a Soul Mancer…”

Theron’s gaze flickered as he felt he gained a bit of the puzzle right before him.

He had already noted that people in this world seemed a lot more fond of close combat. Though… Lyra’s answer didn’t quite seem related to this entirely.

So he decided to push a bit.

“That sounds interesting. Attacking from afar has its benefits, no? Why always put yourself in danger?”

Lyra shook her head. “Unless you’re a Cloud Realm expert adept at attacking from a distance, I would forget it if I were you. It’s still somewhat possible to do something like this in Nightingale Sect territory, but you have to note that when you go out into the outside world, especially for the coming gathering, it becomes exponentially more difficult to control atmospheric Mana.

“Not all the Mana in the world will be Dark Mana, nor will there be such majority dominance by it here. Even though you’re a bit luckier than us since you have two, not one, Resonance, it’s still not enough. There are too many Mana types in the world, and worse than that, their levels are too high.

“If you spend too much mental capacity in battle trying to control Mana you can’t properly refine first, you’ll end up dead. So it’s safer to go into things in close combat.”

Hearing this explanation, something clicked for Theron.

So that was it. Of course.

In the Nightingale Sect, Dark Mana ruled. Not only that, but the world here was a bit limited. Maybe there was no chance to break beyond the Dome of Heaven Realm here at all.

In the outside world, there was more competing Mana—of much higher levels at that. Even Mana you had great affinity to might not listen to you.

They fought in close combat as a method of self-preservation.