Theron looked at his Core for a moment before he pulled back and closed his eyes. A large amount of Mana began to surge toward him, rolling in waves that even knocked the hair of the two women up.
Dean Pennel was about to speak again when her pupils constricted.
Theron's eyes opened ten or so minutes later, his Mana replenished by as much as 10%. Now he had about a fifth of his Mana overall, but he couldn't wait, so he started again.
What he was trying to do was mimic the old woman's Mana, but the issue was that Dark Mana and Water Mana didn't have the same properties.
While it was the case that Dark Mana was prone to swallowing light, doing something like adjusting how much light it was swallowing was a lot easier than trying to replicate this.
Theron was trying to mess around with the smooth and rough textures of the water to give it depth it otherwise shouldn't have, making the surface more smooth where he wanted to reflect more light, and more rough where he wanted to swallow more light.
What he was doing was actually far more complicated, but he wanted to succeed.
He always took pride in his control, and it always came naturally. It could be said that this was the first time it wasn't.
"… What is wrong with this child?" Dean Pennel muttered.
"This is the first time I've seen him too. I don't even think he can hear us right now. I almost forgot that he was just a little boy."
Dean Pennel looked toward Fern.
Fern blinked. "Don't look at me like that, mother-in-law. You know that not having children was never up to me."
Dean Pennel snorted. Her son was a stubborn old brute. She had told Fern to just get him while he was drunk several times, but this daughter-in-law of hers was too much of a goody-goody.
"It's good to know that he has his own interests as well," Fern eventually spoke again.
"This doesn't look like an interest…" Dean Pennel said softly.
Looking at Theron, who had his head down as though the entire world had vanished, she saw a reflection of her own son.
This wasn't interesting. It was obsession.
If she knew Theron, she would understand why.
His entire life, Water Mancy had been Theron's greatest weak point. It didn't have great offensive power. Its defenses were good, but it would never be comparable to Earth. Its healing abilities were decent, but it would never be comparable to Light or what Soul Mancers could do with a single pill.
Control was all he had.
Control was his path to power, to true strength.
He could accept if his attack was lacking. He could accept if his defenses were penetrated, or if he couldn't heal himself well enough.
But he would never accept someone having better control over their Mana than he did his own.
If he couldn't maintain his absolute dominance in this field, how would he be able to accomplish what he needed to?
Theron felt himself enter a Mana-depleted state again.
He stopped, re-upped his Mana, and then went again.
It was difficult. How could he make the surface of the water rougher without actually changing the shape?
'Refraction index… messing with the density, the viscosity of the water… if I can bend the light enough… but that changes it beyond the properties of what still makes it water… I have to…'
Calculations ran through Theron's head one after another.
He ran out of Mana again.
Once more, he closed his eyes, focusing on replenishing it.
As the Mana rotated through him, he found it being compressed, the runes on his Core flashing as it manipulated the Mana. He was focusing on speed, but he had done it so many times in recent memory that he almost became passive.
Suddenly his eyes snapped open.
This time, he had barely replenished 1% more of his Mana and was only just in the green. In nothing more than a few seconds, he would probably be at a deficit again. And yet…
Theron shattered the sphere of water with a palm, causing a puddle to form over the black oak desk. But when he lifted his hand up again, the water followed, forming a sphere so perfectly round and clear it seemed to vanish in the air.
And then it moved, rippling waves forming across its surface and dancing in arcs like the strokes of an artist's brush.
The water splashed, and yet not a single droplet fell until a face formed once again.
But this time, if it wasn't for the fact that it was a transparent blue, it would have almost felt as though a real face was right before them.
A handsome man with a gentle countenance. A pair of eyes that reminded one of a slowly melting iceberg, inviting and filled with the winter's richest dew. Hair that danced in the wind as though every individual filament was just as real as they had been that day.
But then there was the pain, the realization, the understanding of what was happening.
The runes within it danced so delicately, hidden beneath the surface and capturing the light in just the right ways.
Theron's head slammed against the table and the two women startled awake.
Theron was out cold. He had given it everything he had.
Deep inside him, something was rolling in waves, the Immortal Jellyfish pulling and pushing on his blood in odd ways.
Water Mana began to spontaneously rush toward him and flakes of silver fell from his Core as he broke into the Fourth Silver Resonance.
Large pools of Mana swarmed him. Rivers formed in the air, rushing toward him.
Dean Pennel stood and stopped Teacher Fern from rushing forward. Deep in her aged eyes, there was a fierce glow.