Rivers of the Night - Chapter 688

Capítulo 688: Criticism

Theron’s eyes darted around the Spells, looking through them one after another.

Movement Spells, Control Spells, Attack Spells, Defense Spells…

It was the same bundle of four, but the ones that interested Theron the most were actually the movement ones. They were interesting to him not because he was obsessed with evasion—he was of the opinion that if he was controlling a battlefield correctly, he shouldn’t need to take a single step at all if he was going all out.

The reason they intrigued him was because the methods of movement when you weren’t a Space Mancer were quite fascinating. Well, they could either be fascinating or completely ridiculous.

There was a Water Mancer Spell here that essentially turned the battlefield into a river of flowing water, ejecting its caster in various directions of flow to act as both a method of positioning oneself for attack and evading any dangers.

Theron felt that this was silly.

It was a high-level technique, one that required exceptional application of Cloud Mana. But the amount of Mana you needed to put into it was ridiculous even for the likes of Theron, let alone others. And it was impractical.

The point of movement was a lack of predictability, and this movement method was decipherable even by someone who didn’t comprehend Water Mana the way Theron did.

By comparison, when Theron used his Water Resonance to mimic Water Mana with his movements, advancing and retreating in kind, his movements could only be predictable by someone who had an understanding of Water Mana that surpassed his own.

However, anyone who was watching the flow of currents of this Spell knew where you were going and how you’d end up.

Even if you changed and varied the currents of water on the battlefield, not only would that require exponentially more Mana to cast, but there would only be so many variables you could incorporate.

This Spell was something that would only be of great use if you were quite literally in a body of water already. At that point, Theron could see it being exceptionally powerful.

But how often would he be in such a situation?

There were many Water Mana Spells here that were in the same vein, but ultimately lacking.

Then there were the ones that really caught his attention but cost more than his entire budget.

There was a Spell here called [Spirit Walk]. It wasn’t technically a Water Mana Spell, but could be used by any Elemental Mancer who was a Primal—thus the expense.

It was technically a Dome of Heaven Resonance Spell, and it allowed one to morph their body into that of their element and use it for a quick teleportation.

Unsurprisingly, one needed a high Resonance Grade to do this. But what was interesting to Theron was that he could see that he would have been able to use this technique as early as when he had formed Arcane Resonance, a full two steps beneath that of Primal.

Well, that was his guess based on the descriptions. Without Three Stripe VIP rights, he couldn’t confirm that. But he kept it tucked away at the back of his mind.

‘To think I still don’t have enough money to trade for these Spells…’

Theron almost chuckled to himself. He had taken a year of revenue from the King Inn, but how many years of accumulation would someone like the Merchant King have?

For Spells like this, they would move whole cities’ worth of assets and liquidate large sums of their net worths to get their hands on them.

This one Spell cost over 100 million Heaven Mana Crystals, and it was on the cheaper side—probably because it was so ubiquitous in its use.

Spells that were more perfectly tailored to a single type of Mancer were, ironically enough, far more expensive.

Ultimately, Theron’s conclusion was that buying a movement Spell for Water Mana would be a waste of money and his time. It was far better if he did it for Dark Mana.

The number of Spells similar to that of [Shadow Step] and [Death Walk] was almost eye-watering. It was clear that Dark Mana was the far better evasion-type Element.

There were movement Spells here designed for dodging, redirecting—ones that doubled as escape methods and attack methods, or even defensive methods.

Even after going through them all, Theron was unable to make an informed decision—especially not without Three Stripe privileges. But… he had a bit of a trump card.

‘What do you think?’

He had an Ancestor with maybe the deepest well of experience in regard to Dark Mana Control and history in one of his controlled spaces right now. Why not use him?

Theron had never been opposed to learning.

‘According to your combat style, you favor control. You are very calculative and play many mind games. You are adaptable and won’t easily forget small, minor details. If you were a different person, I would advise you spend more time on the simpler Spells, as there are only so many techniques and Spells a person can dedicate their lives to. But… I feel like you almost have too few.’

Theron’s gaze flickered.

He had always focused his time and attention on a small handful of Spells at a time. As a Bronze Mancer, he only had three. As a Silver Mancer, he once again only had three—the number rose to five only if you considered the two techniques the Old Assassin taught him, that being [Songful Blade] and [Blood Escape].

He drilled those Spells and techniques into the ground so furiously they grew powerful to the point he could easily use them at higher tiers of Mancy without them losing a beat.

Most people at the Hall probably didn’t even know that [Shadow Step], [Shadow Extend], and [Shadow Flush] were all just mere Silver Resonance techniques.

But according to the Nightingale Ancestor Bird, he was actually holding himself back by being too focused on chasing perfection in these much weaker Spells and techniques.