Theron didn't let his guard down as the calm, beautiful smile. There was something particularly innocent about the woman's gaze, but after what he had realized, he was even more cautious.
Plus, it also didn't help that the only person to truly pull the wool over his eyes in his life also happened to be an innocent little girl that looked like she couldn't harm a fly…
Only to turn out to be a 12-year-old Silver Mancer.
Truthfully, Theron didn't need the recent reminder to be cautious at all.
"It has been a while since an Elementalist has made it here. I am very happy. What is your name, little brother?"
Theron's gaze flickered before he responded in his usual gentle tone.
"Is that so?" the woman smiled a meaningful smile. "How coincidental, I didn't think that I of all people would be the one fighting it out against an assassin."
"I will be fighting you?" Theron asked.
"Well, not me, per se. But a version of me, I guess. Which version, though… I guess that would depend."
Theron frowned inwardly, not sure what this meant. The woman was speaking in cryptic, hard-to-decipher language.
It was the sort of challenge he hated the most, because he wasn't even meant to understand her in the first place. That, though, only made him more focused.
"Hoho, little brother is very focused. In that case, I won't waste your time anymore."
With the same smile, there was a ripple that came from the young woman, and soon she was radiating a dense Water Mana.
Theron raised an eyebrow.
If she had always been a Water Mancer, he would have sensed it long ago. It was more like she had become one.
Was she trying to match him, or something?
Theron's body moved before his mind understood clearly. He shifted his head to the side, dodging a [Water Bullet].
It had manifested right in front of his face and hardly had the time to accelerate.
But it didn't seem to matter.
The young woman blinked. It seemed that even she was surprised that Theron had managed to dodge.
A second [Water Bullet] came, and then a third.
But when the fourth tried to form, it froze, stalling out. Water sputtered in the air and fell impotently to the ground.
The second and third [Water Bullets] slammed against Theron's body, only to seamlessly fuse into his Mana skin, vanishing without the slightest hint of an impact.
The young woman was already having difficulty hiding her surprise, but now it was even more exaggerated.
She seemed to forget that she was in the middle of a trial at all, her wand almost falling out of her hand.
Even when Theron raised a finger and drew it across the air, she was a step late to react.
A [Water Scythe] tore through the air, appearing before her in a blink.
She hurriedly raised her wand, a defensive ward forming.
Theron tilted his head to the side.
Wands weren't rare. In fact, Elemental Mancers that used normal weapons like Theron were actually on the rarer side. That was mostly something Soul and Flux Mancers did.
The reason why Theron had rarely run into such people was because the Nightingale Province tended more toward weapon users. But that wasn't necessarily true across the world.
As someone that had lost himself in books for much of his formative years, Theron was well aware of this.
Even so, he didn't have much actual experience with such existences, and that showed.
He felt as though the control over his [Water Scythe] was about to be ripped apart.
But the young woman was halfway through…
The [Water Scythe] she was so confident in dealing with was formed of Mana far denser than anything she had ever seen from a Bronze Mancer.
Blood splattered and silence fell.
Then, slowly, the blood faded away, as did the two halves of the young woman's body.
She seemed a bit pale, but mostly just more surprised than anything else.
"… You are… something else, little brother."
She chuckled eventually, and then her eyes lit up.
"Honestly, there is no point in continuing the rest of the tests. I do not understand why you are so powerful, but it's clear to me that you've transcended the level of a Bronze Mancer. If I'm bound by fairness, there is no test here that will pose any challenge to you."
'She's lying…' Theron concluded.
Maybe it was because the woman was a bit flustered, but her ability to hide her true thoughts was significantly handicapped.
She wasn't lying about there being no challenge here for Theron. She was lying about her level of surprise.
Was she surprised at his strength at Bronze Mancy? Yes.
But she didn't believe that there were no others capable of this. No, more accurately, she knew exactly what it meant for Theron to be capable of this.
What was inexplicable was… why? Did she know about the oddities going on in his body?
What Theron didn't know was that she was completely ignorant of those things. Instead, she was enamored by something completely different.
"So, tell me little brother. Will you take the rewards for the Bronze Mancer? Or will you attempt to take those of the Silver?"
The eyes of the woman were sparkling.
This time, Theron's frown appeared on his face.
He realized something else… it wasn't that the woman was easier to read because she was flustered, and seeming… excited, now?
No, it was also because she was still in her Water Mancy form. Somehow, Theron found that he could read her intentions much more clearly because of this.
He stared at her silently for a long while before he slowly opened his mouth.
"No, thank you. I will take the Bronze Mancy rewards I've earned and won't overextend myself."
The woman's eyes opened wide in shock. She was so looking forward to the answer that she forgot to consider the possibility of Theron saying no.
It was only for the briefest of instances, but her face twisted with rage.