Rivers of the Night

Theron brought out the cauldron and closed his eyes. His Dark Mana thrummed to life.

There were many restrictions on Elemental Mancers in terms of refining treasures that Soul Mancers didn't have to deal with. Soul Mana was like a universal key, capable of refining any and all treasures in existence. However, unless a treasure was specifically refined with a specific element in mind, or designed to be neutral, it would be impossible to make use of it.

This cauldron was designed to be used by Dark Mancers; as such, it could only be refined by Dark Mana.

Understanding these underlying principles now after having read the technique, it made Theron curious. The unnamed cultivator's dagger had bound itself to him after taking his blood… what did that mean?

The realization only made Theron all the more certain that this mysterious inheritance he had stumbled into was related to the so-called Demon Corps he had been framed as a member of.

Oh, the irony that their Patriarch was so entangled with this group they sought to kill him for being a part of.

Although Patriarch Nightingale hadn't known, something told Theron that, given the man's character, he wouldn't have given a damn even if he had known.

Theron focused his attention on the cauldron, his Dark Mana seeping into it from all sides, saturating it.

The first step of the process was to fill a treasure completely with your Mana. The booklet emphasized that it had to be your Mana. Flooding a technique with unrefined Dark Mana from the atmosphere wouldn't work.

The entire point was to form a connection with yourself. If you didn't do that, you would be wasting your time.

Of course, the more powerful the treasure, the more of your Mana it would take. If the treasure was too powerful and you couldn't do it in one go, you were better off foregoing the attempt entirely.

That was because while you were recovering your Mana, the Mana you had used to refine the treasure would slip away into the atmosphere. If you couldn't recover your Mana quickly enough, then you would be right back to square one.

Luckily, this was just a Silver Resonance treasure. The one good thing about Goddess Sacharro's actions was that she had formed his second Core completely to the same standard as his first Core. As such, even his Dark Mana was substantially more than his counterparts'.

He had compressed his Mana so much that he had more than most Gold Mancers—more than enough to refine a Silver Resonance treasure, even of the Runebound Grade, in a single go.

Once the first step was completed, the second step was the marking process.

This marking process was a pseudo sort of Soul branding. It wasn't done by the Elementalist themselves, but was rather a benefit left behind by the Soul Mancer that crafted the treasure in the first place.

Through this Soul Mark left behind by the Soul Mancer, it was possible to form a resonance between the treasure and your own soul, effectively making the treasure itself almost act like an extension of your own Core.

The irony was that some sometimes called this the Second Core Resonance, while Theron himself was using his very real second Core to make it happen.

Communing with this hidden Soul Mark was impossible unless the treasure was fully saturated.

Once again, it was as easy as breathing for Theron, and when he opened his eyes, the cauldron was already zipping around under his command.

It felt almost… surreal. It was like wielding his own Mana, and yet not at the same time. There was a bit of a barrier, a lagging of sorts that wasn't there when he communicated with his own Mana.

If Theron was correct, how smooth this communication was came down to familiarity and also how good the treasure was. The more skill the Soul Mancer who crafted it had, the less of this input lag there would be.

It probably took a bit of skill to deal with this lag in battle. But Theron could see why others would rather avoid this method entirely. Unless you were truly scared of death, or wanted it as a trump card your enemies wouldn't see coming, it was probably a far weaker form of combat.

That said…

Theron looked toward a familiar black box that held his new spear.

The problems he listed were all related to having an item you needed to control from a distance. Plus, with his ability to think ahead and plan out his steps in battle, this lag might not be as detrimental as he was making it sound in the first place.

However… if you refined a weapon you held in hand, there was nothing but benefits to the refinement process. Something like what happened before when he activated [Shadow Step] and failed to swing his weapon in time in a follow-up likely wouldn't happen even if he was unfamiliar with the technique.

With a refined weapon, applying techniques to it was orders of magnitude easier. And even if you ignored techniques, simply pouring your Mana into it to amplify it all would be far easier as well.

However… that was no normal spear. Theron had just learned why it should be impossible for him to refine that spear. In fact, Matriarch Macie was probably banking on the fact that he wouldn't be able to refine it, because she certainly had no ability to refine it herself.

Theron wondered… what look would she have on her face when he did refine it?

Doing it the normal way was impossible. But… if he used his [Entangling Blood Vein Pupils], he could forcefully mark atmospheric Dark Mana as his own. He could bypass having to use his own internal Mana to a large extent.

He couldn't get revenge on that woman just yet, but this sounded like a satisfying jab for the time being.

She couldn't complain if she was the one to have given him the weapon, right?