"D*mn her," River cursed under his breath as he wove through the crowded street, shoulders brushing strangers on both sides.
His senses sharpened with every step. He quietly activated the Mana Gathering Technique—the revised version he'd painstakingly restructured. Instead of simply pulling mana into his core, this version rippled outward, acting like a sonar. Threads of perception spread into the air around him, brushing across the flow of people, flickering like invisible tendrils searching for abnormalities.
Nothing. No foreign presence pressing too close, no aura that screamed danger. At least, none he could detect.
