I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 331: All Roads Lead to Suspicion

While Argentum was just about to begin absorbing the Condensed Terra World Shard he had obtained in order to achieve the True Element level of affinity for the Earth element, in the Supreme Terra Firma Inheritance, both Rosalia and Eleanor had arrived in front of a room that one would not normally find inside an inheritance. In fact, it would be more appropriate to say that this room was something one would normally find inside a home. 

A comfy bed, a desk that looked like it was made for studying, minimalistic yet nice-looking lights, and other amenities that seemed to fit the overall vibe of the room. This could all be found inside this room, which was actually the room where Rosalia usually slept. At the moment though, a tall Pseudo-Animate that was made out of pure green energy could be seen sitting on the bed Rosalia slept on, fiddling with its fingers in a nervous manner.

Looking at the Pseudo-Animate, it only took Eleanor less than an instant to realize that the Pseudo-Animate Rosalia had in her inheritance was not Argentum at all. At most, it was just pure coincidence that a Pseudo-Animate that exhibited the same abilities like Argentum would appear. Nevertheless, she couldn’t tell Rosalia that she had finally cleared all of her suspicions without even knowing the Pseudo-Animate a bit more. So, with an expression of slight surprise, she looked at Rosalia beside her and asked, “Could you introduce me to this future disciple of yours?”

“Well, I did say future disciple a while ago, but in actuality, he’s my disciple already,” Rosalia slightly sticked her tongue out as she said this. She then went to where the Pseudo-Animate was and placed her hands on his shoulder as she introduced the being to Eleanor. “As I’ve said before, this Pseudo-Animate has shown amazing talent in learning skills, as well as impeccable combat ability where he could even fight against those that are of a higher level than him.”

“As for his name, it’s better if he says it instead,” Rosalia continued, to which the Pseudo-Animate lightly nodded as he stood up from the bed before bowing in front of Eleanor. “Nice to meet you, Lady Eleanor. My name is Argento, a disciple under Lady Rosalia.”

‘Even his name is similar to his, how much of a coincidence can this be?’ Eleanor could not help but think to herself as her mouth twitched from hearing his name. Letting out a light yet seemingly awkward chuckle, she returned the greeting to Argento as she said, “It’s nice to meet you as well. Is it fine for you tell me the reason why you decided to learn under Rosalia here?”

“Ah, I’m aiming to fuse both Earth and Wind together to achieve Tempestuous Terra Firma,” Argento replied to her question without any hesitation, giving off the feeling that he was proud to be learning under Rosalia as he talked. In response, Eleanor lightly nodded before sending a strand of energy to Rosalia in order to talk with her in secret. After the connection between them had become stable, she then said to her through the strand, “I’ve confirmed my suspicions. That disciple of yours is not the being I’m not looking for.”

“Oh?” Rosalia raised her eyebrows in response to Eleanor’s words. Not expecting that Eleanor’s reason for being in her inheritance was because of a being, she went ahead and asked, “Who are you looking for, then?”

“Coincidentally, his name is not far off from your disciple’s name. His name is Argentum, and he’s also a Wind-based Pseudo-Animate just like Argento,” Eleanor responded. “But he’s far more terrifying than that Argento of yours.”

Hearing that her disciple was inferior to this being Eleanor was talking, Rosalia could not help but lightly frown as her pride was somewhat being shattered in the process. Fortunately, Rosalia knew that Eleanor was straightforward when it came to conversations like these, so she brushed any idea of taking it out on the being Eleanor mentioned off. In fact, her curiosity was piqued because of what Eleanor said, prompting her to ask Eleanor, “How’s he more terrifying than Argento?”

“First off, he’s aiming for Lesser Origin,” Eleanor said, to which Rosalia became speechless as she was not expecting such a goal from such a being. With her curiosity being piqued even more, she then asked, “Did he succeed?”

“He’s already obtained [Fire Affinity] from me and [Water Affinity] from Felix. The only thing left for him to achieve it is to obtain [Earth Affinity],” Eleanor replied, only to let out a sigh as she continued, “And that’s why I came to your inheritance, wondering if he decided to heed my words and head here.”

“Who knew he’d be so adamant in going to that damned Desecrated Inheritance?” she could not help but feel a bit of anger not because of Argentum, but because of the owner of the inheritance itself. Noticing a hint of rage in Eleanor’s words, Rosalia could not help but ask, “What’s wrong? Melzarin’s inheritance is comparable to mine though.”

“Sure, you could say that,” Eleanor said in response to her words, adding, “But Melzarin’s the worst guy I’ve ever met.”

“Melzarin’s a nice gu—” Rosalia could not help but say in response to Eleanor’s statement, only for her to stop as she noticed that Eleanor was glaring at her with daggers in her eyes. Scratching her head, she took in a deep breath and asked, “So, are you planning to head to his inheritance now that you’ve confirmed your suspicions?”

“Pretty much,” Eleanor replied in a solemn tone as she suppressed the anger she was feeling. “I’ll be heading at the fastest speed I can muster. If you want to come with me, you can, though I’ll still hold up my part of the deal once I’m done with what I have to do in that place if you don’t.”

“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve left the inheritance, so why not?” Rosalia let out a light giggle as she cut the connection between the two of them before covering her upper and lower torso in a large mass of Earth energy particles. Soon after, these particles disappeared, revealing Rosalia in a long-sleeved dark green t-shirt and black jeans, complemented by minimalistic running shoes.

Not minding where her pajamas had gone, Eleanor then turned around and summoned a great portion of her energy as she said, “I’ll be using some of my movement speed buffs to hasten the journey. I’d appreciate it if you use yours as well.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Rosalia let out a chuckle as she continued, “The distance between his inheritance and mine is too far away, so it’s a given that I’d use to speed up the journey.”

After that, she looked at Argento, who was looking at the two of them, and said, “Make sure to take good care of the inheritance while I’m gone, okay?”

“As you wish, Lady Rosa—” Argento was about to reply, only to stop as the two of them disappeared in front of his field of vision. Scratching his head in slight confusion, he let out a light sigh as he muttered, “She should really place her pajamas in a better place. Did she think hiding it under the bed sheets was a good place? You’re making me to do more work here.”

…

While Rosalia and Eleanor were heading to the Desecrated Inheritance at the fastest speed they could muster, a tall silhouette could be seen let out a slightly malicious chuckle from time to time as a screen could be seen in front of his field of vision. On it were two large dots and a small yellow dot that gradually blinked from time to time. This small yellow dot was making its way to the large dot up north, giving the silhouette the idea that the thing that the dot was representing was gradually coming to one of the places it decided to mark on the screen.

“She’s finally coming…” the silhouette muttered to itself in a slightly excited tone as the faint clacking of bones could be heard throughout the room. “Eleanor’s finally coming to the inheritance…”

It turns out that the two large dots on the screen represented the Desecrated Inheritance, which was the large dot up north, and the Flame Spirit Inheritance, which was the large dot down south. As for the small yellow dot, that represented none other than Eleanor, the owner of the Flame Spirit Inheritance.

With that in mind, it was no surprise that this silhouette was none other than the owner of the Desecrated Inheritance. A dark skeleton that was 2 meters tall and had dark brown flames in its eye sockets, this being, who went by the name of Lord Calcifas in order to look imposing in front of the inheritors, was also the disembodied voice Argentum was talking to, as well as Melzarin Vadicarde, the owner of the Desecrated Inheritance.

After confirming that she was heading to his inheritance, Melzarin could not help but let out a loud cackle as he said, “She’s finally coming…she’s finally coming…she’s finally coming to see me again!”

“Oh, Eleanor…from the first time I met you, I already fell in love with you,” he continued to mutter, bringing up a screen that showed what was happening in the room where Argentum was taking a trial. As he watched Argentum move through the bookshelves in a lackadaisical manner while lightly grazing his hands over the books, Melzarin could not help but say, “If not for this young Pseudo-Animate right here, I might have never gotten a chance to meet you again for a few thousand more years. Thank you for being related to Eleanor.”

“Speaking of which, this being is just way too fast at comprehending, even finding out that this trial had something to do with his specialties,” Melzarin continued, letting out a sigh of relief after remembering that Argentum’s suspicions gradually died down after some time. Nevertheless, he knew that he had made a mistake, thus he was going to make sure that if Eleanor came after the third trial was done, he would create a trial that did not seem to be inclined to his specialties.

“Well, to be honest, I really only have two trials, so he has already passed my inheritance with flying colors, but…” he said, focusing his attention on the screen with dots once more.

“Just hold on for a little bit more, young Pseudo-Animate. I’ll surely repay you once she arrives.”

…

In another part of the Desecrated Inheritance, one would find a room filled to the brim with bookshelves that contained skill books that were inclined to the Earth element. Inside this room was a Pseudo-Animate that had the colors green, brown, and blue all at once on his body. Of course, this was none other than Argentum, who had been sitting near the entrance of the room cross-legged for over two and a half hours now.

During the previous two and a half hours, he waltzed through the various bookshelves of the room, lightly grazing his hands over the books as the system continuously announced to him that he had learned a new skill inclined towards the Earth element. He could afford to do this since his comprehension speed was increased thanks to Aurus consuming an All-Seeing Comprehension Leaf before he underwent an evolution process. If it was any other being, even those with the best talent would take around half a minute to learn a skill.

At the moment, his sense of vision was closed as he commanded the system to bring up information regarding [Sage’s Earth Magic], namely the innate spell that came along after learning it. As [Sage’s Water Magic] came with [Niflheim Horizon], a domain spell that reduced the defense of his enemies, he was curious if the first spell he would obtain from [Sage’s Earth Magic] was a domain spell.

Ding!

“Sure enough, it’s also a domain spell,” Argentum inwardly muttered to himself as he read the name that was plastered on the screen that appeared in his mind.

“[Jotunheim Domain]…” he murmured the name of the spell, pondering over it for a bit as he continued, “If my memory…I mean, Aurus’ memory serves me correct, then the Fire and Wind variant of this skill would have something to do with Muspelheim and Alfheim? What does it have something to do with Norse mythology?”

“In any case, I’ll probably find the answer that in the future. For now, identify [Jotunheim Domain],” he added, eliciting a notification sound to resound from the system as a screen appeared in his mind.

________

[Jotunheim Domain]

MP Cost: 20% of the user’s MP gauge, 1% of the user’s MP gauge for each additional second of binding

Understanding the intrinsic properties of the element of Earth, the sage of earth now has access to the realm of arth in another plane. This spell allows the user to create a domain that emulates the realm of earth from another plane, binding those the sage deems its enemies in a world of earth, as well as reducing their combat ability to near zero.

When the user decides to only use the spell for the first cast, the binding effect would only last for 10 seconds. Any second after that, would continuously consume a small percentage of the user’s MP in order to keep the binding effect active.

> Duration: 10 seconds / dependent on the user’s MP regeneration rate

Note: All spells from the [Sage’s Earth Magic] skill, may it be crafted or innate, would show twice as much power inside this domain.

________

“From the effects of this new spell, I guess the first spells would also have something to do with giving a debilitating effect to those I deem as enemies?” Argentum muttered to say, wondering what kind of effects his attacks would have under the effects of both [Niflheim Horizon] and [Jotunheim Domain].

“I should probably go and look through the bookshelves one more time. I might’ve missed a few skills here and there,” he said soon after, ready to open his eyes and stand up to waltz through the bookshelves another time. But just as he opened his eyes, a familiar fiery silhouette appeared in front of him, making him fall at a loss of words as he muttered.

“Eleanor?”