[Big Thanks to RolaySaltT20]
Theron's eyes snapped open.
His heart jolted and he hacked, water spluttering from his lips.
Quickly, he closed his mouth and stopped breathing. He forced himself to press down the panic, still not quite understanding what was happening.
There was nothing but darkness all around him, but he could feel that he was submerged in water. Well, if almost choking to death didn't make that obvious enough.
He had thoughts of how he had managed to survive down here for so long, but that wasn't his top priority, not when he had water in his lungs.
Water Mana spun around him and he was quickly propelled to the surface.
'Sixth Resonance?'
The moment he began to use his Mana, Theron sensed the difference. He had inexplicably jumped up another tier in cultivation.
Theron's cultivation had always been fast, ever since he started to take it seriously, that is. Not even half a year ago, he wasn't even at the First Resonance, but in that span he had reached the Fifth.
That was a rate of almost one cultivation realm per month.
Of course, that was also because he took great risks, putting his Meridians through a great deal of hell and heavily relying on his exceptional Mana Control to avoid lasting critical damage.
But even for him, this was quite shocking.
He looked down at the necklace around his neck again. He could remember the odd feeling he had gotten from it before, but he had never felt something like that from it in the past.
It was a keepsake his parents had given him. He had always had it on his person, but even more so after he lost his family. It was maybe the only piece of them he had left, having been forced to leave everything else behind.
Never did he expect that it had a secret in it as well. But no matter how he probed it, nothing came to him.
'Third Eye…' Theron thought to himself silently.
He clenched his necklace in his palm. That must be the threshold he needed to reach.
If Theron had already been adamant about improving his cultivation as quickly as possible, it was even more so now.
Theron's head peeked above the surface of the water. He had no idea where he was right now, but he hadn't lost his head enough to forget that he just might still be in danger.
Questions about how he managed to survive still swirled in his mind, but he had a feeling that he would have to wait until he reached Silver Mancy to figure out all of those answers.
After checking around to make sure that there was no one, he controlled his Mana to expel the water from his lungs and finally gasped for breath.
There was a harsh burning at the back of his throat, a product of water going down the wrong pipe. But he suppressed his urge to cough, his eyes still scanning.
He was still not confident that he was out of the woods.
High above, the moon hung in the skies. He had been out for so long that midday had been left far behind.
Taking deep, steady breaths, he continued to move to the tides of the river. His gaze shifted, looking at the stars above.
'I see… it really is near the city.'
Judging by the stars in the sky, he should be in the same general region of the world. The city shouldn't be more than a hundred or so kilometers from here. Now it was just a matter of making it back.
Unfortunately, that was easier said than done.
This deep in the forest, there were beasts to worry about, and there was no guarantee that the members of the Guild or the attackers had cleared.
Depending on how deep he was, he wouldn't just be dealing with feral beasts. He might be dealing with true ranked beasts.
The smartest thing to do seemed to be to stay in the water. But…
Theron hadn't even finished the thought when he felt the shift in the waters beneath him.
With a quick thought, he propelled himself out of the water, leaping up just as a large maw bit at him.
He barely registered that it was some sort of crocodile creature before he cast [Water Bullet] directly into its mouth.
A snap of pain shocked the creature awake, a splash of blood coming from the sudden attack.
It closed its mouth on instinct just as Theron fell from the skies above, unsheathing his weapons in a fluid motion.
He flipped in the air, spiking down both of his blades through the creature's eyes.
With a wrench of his wrists, he twisted and yanked.
The water churned as the two were buried beneath its surface.
A moment later, Theron was spit out, landing on the surface so lightly it hardly rippled.
This was exactly what he was worried about. The waters weren't free of beasts either, and because of the unique mobility of water-based creatures, it was truly like playing a game of life roulette betting on it.
Once more, he could only question how he had managed to survive and reach this point.
Still, there was no doubt that Theron was far stronger on water than he was on land. Regardless, he would follow this river for as long as he could.
'The city… should be in that direction.'
Taking a breath, Theron set out.
Despite having just been submerged in deep waters, he was dry as the whistling wind around him. Gripping his blades, his icy blue eyes flashed.
…
In an unknown location of the forest, a blond young man stood high in the trees, lightning sparking in his eyes as he scanned the river before him.
"I don't believe that you've managed such a perfect escape…" he whispered softly.
With his little brother dead, Raiden's last chance to learn the secret of the Merchant Greycoat mission had slipped through his fingers. But he was unable to let the matter rest.
"… You wouldn't die so easily, right?"