I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 344: One Step Closer

XXXX Continent, Inferno Plains.

Whoosh!

“Haah…haah…” Under the rays of sunlight only found in the early morning, a Pseudo-Animate radiating three colors at once could be found in front of an abandoned building at the inner region of the Inferno Plains, seemingly catching its breath even though it had no need for stamina. Nevertheless, this Pseudo-Animate was none other than Argentum, who had exhausted an amount of energy far beyond what his body could normally hold.

Fortunately, it did not take long for him to return to normal as he allowed the energy flowing throughout his body to balance out. While doing so, he could not help but mutter, “Although a journey like that would normally take me days to trek back and forth, it’s still surprising that I could actually reach this place in a matter of hours.”

“I wonder how long it’ll take me to reach a level where I could do something like that?” he continued to mutter as he pondered over something for a bit. Soon after that, he focused the energy in his body towards a certain point, forming a sigil that allowed him to be recognized as an owner of the Flame Spirit Inheritance. Normally, Eleanor would be the one forming the sigil to allow Argentum to enter the inheritance. But since Eleanor was away at the moment, Argentum had to create his own sigil, which was taught to him through the spirit contract they made.

Utilizing this sigil, it did not take long for Argentum to appear in the room where Eleanor usually looked over the inheritance. Taking a quick look around, he then went silent for a bit as he stood in place, wondering what he needed to do before he would go ahead with his plans of increasing his understanding of the Fire element to the True Element level.

Around half a minute or so later, he then sent a bit of energy into the sigil he had created, allowing a corridor that connected to one of the other rooms in the inheritance to form. Using his enhanced senses, he could see a familiar silhouette at the very end of the corridor, sitting in front of a desk as it held what seemed to be a brush. Lightly chuckling from the sight, he then walked through the corridor in a leisurely manner, making sure to not disturb the silhouette.

Thankfully, by the time he had arrived at the other side, closing the corridor behind him, the silhouette had let go of the brush it was holding, looking at Argentum with an expression of slight surprise as it said with a tone of glee, “Argentum, you’re back!”

Not long after, it noticed how overboard its reaction was, prompting a faint shade of red to appear on its face as it let out an awkward chuckle. This silhouette was none other than Herellia, who Eleanor had taken under to learn everything that a new Animate should need to know. Even though Eleanor left Herellia off on her own in this inheritance, she still gave her something to do, which in this case, was to practice her writing skills.

Radiating an aura of slight glee, he looked at Herellia before looking at the parchment filled to the brim with symbols, some large and rough, some small and smooth. Naturally, Argentum knew that Herellia was trying to improve her proficiency with the alphabet of the continent they were in, making him ask her, “Eleanor told you to practice writing before she left?”

“Uh-huh,” Herellia said in response, lightly nodding. After that, she wrote a few more symbols that corresponded to the various letters of the alphabet before placing the brush she used for writing beside the parchment. Stretching out her arms, she then stood up before grabbing a glass of water from a table near her. After making sure that she drunk enough to fulfill her needs for the day, she let out a sigh of satisfaction before sitting in front of the writing table once more.

“How did your journey go?” Herellia asked with eyes beaming with curiosity. Ever since she had become an Animate, she could not help but feel that her current life had become boring compared to her previous life of being the leader of an alliance. Nevertheless, Eleanor told her that it would only take her another week or two to know everything she needed to know before she could do anything she wanted.

Of course, Eleanor made sure to include fighting in the things she had to relearn, shocking her as she noticed that the amount of power behind every move she made was multiple times stronger than even a hundred attacks in her Inanimate form, without taking buffs into consideration. Unsurprisingly, combat training was the only thing she looked forward to while she was here in the Flame Spirit Inheritance.

“It went well,” Argentum briefly responded, though his response elicited a light frown to pop up on Herellia’s face. At first, he was confused as to why Herellia would react like that. Fortunately, with the help of Aurus’ memories, he knew what Herellia was trying to achieve, prompting him to let out a peal of laughter as he said, “Alright, alright. I’ll tell you what happened.”

And just like that, he narrated everything that he had witnessed throughout this journey of his to the Desecrated Inheritance, as well as the Supreme Terra Firma Inheritance. While doing so, he also wondered if he should hide a few things from her like how Eleanor went berserk. In the end, he decided to spill everything since Herellia had been with him ever since his original body had joined the Tempest Branch Alliance…though he did omit Eleanor going berserk.

By the end of his narration, Herellia looked at Argentum with an expression of awe as she could not help but imagine herself going through the same situation. She then closed her eyes for a bit, subconsciously nodding from time to time. After a while, she opened her eyes once more, a light smile on her face as she said, “Thanks.”

“That’s what companions are for,” Argentum said in response, which surprisingly prompted Herellia to say, “Ah, right. What brings you here all of a sudden?”

“To consolidate my power, of course,” Argentum hastily replied, remembering that he had not told Herellia of his goal of achieving Lesser Origin. Although there was nothing wrong with him telling her what Lesser Origin was, he thought that it would just confuse Herellia even more.

Nodding in understanding from his statement, Herellia then took a deep breath before picking up the brush once more as she grabbed a new piece of parchment from under the table. She then gestured with her hands for Argentum to go do his own things as she said, “Alright, you go do that while I continue practicing my writing.”

“Alright, then.” Argentum scratched his head for a bit in slight confusion before infusing a bit of energy into the sigil, allowing the corridor that connected Eleanor’s room to Herellia’s room to be opened once more. Just as he was about to turn and leave, Herellia said out of nowhere, “Speaking of which, if you plan to meet your other companion along the way, I think now’s not the right time. At this time, I think he’s still undergoing combat training.”

“Got it,” Argentum nodded before walking through the corridor back to Eleanor’s room, closing the corridor behind him once he stepped foot into the place he had first appeared. He then made his way to the center of the room before sitting down cross-legged, commanding the system to open up his inventory a few seconds later.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Not long after, multiple small rifts appeared in front of Argentum, dropping down a few flasks filled to the brim with viscous red fluid, with some falling over others while they were being summoned. These flasks were none other than the Heaven’s Flame Potions that Eleanor had concocted and given to Argentum quite some time ago. Although he had 20 of them in his possession at the moment, he could not help but remember the time he had consumed over 50 Heaven’s Water Potions only to achieve the True Element level of understanding for the Water element.

With that in mind, he dispelled the sigil he used to control the various portions of the inheritance before going ahead and rerouting the energy in his body towards a certain point, allowing him to connect with a certain being soon after.

“What’s up, Argentum?” Since he was in the Flame Spirit Inheritance, it was no surprise that the one Argentum had contacted was Eleanor. “Do you need anything from me?”

“Yeah,” Argentum said in response, dragging the very last syllable of his response for a bit. “Could I grab some more Heaven’s Flame Potions from you? I think I’m gonna need quite a sizable amount of it.”

“Are you going to try and achieve the True Element level of understanding for the Fire element?” Eleanor could not help but ask, slightly surprising Argentum for a bit, only to conclude that Felix had talked about the various levels of understanding with Eleanor once he had obtained his hands on it. Nodding in response even though she wasn’t there, he responded, “Exactly. I think now’s the perfect time for me to try and attempt achieving Lesser Origin.”

“I see,” Eleanor said, going silent for a bit. Not long after, she then told him, “Head to the storage room. At the very far end of the room, turn left and you’ll see a pile of Heaven’s Flame Potions I’ve been saving for selling. Of course, you shouldn’t feel guilty that you’re using them since you’re the one who gave me the recipe to concoct them in the first place.”

Even though Eleanor said that, Argentum still felt a bit guilty, prompting him to say, “I promise I’ll repay you for this in the future.”

With that said, he then thought of repaying Felix in the future as well for giving him Heaven’s Water Potions. After talking for a bit more, the connection between the two had been cut off as he infused energy into his control sigil, allowing a corridor that led to the inheritance’s storage room to be created.

It did not take long for Argentum to arrive at the storage room, though it did take a while for him to reach the very far end of the room, even with a couple of movement speed buffs activated. Either way, at the very moment he had arrived at that point, he then turned left, only to be left at a loss for words as the amount of Heaven’s Flame Potions he could see with his field of vision was far beyond what he had expected.

“So that’s why Eleanor told me to not feel guilty,” Argentum said as he could roughly count that the number of flasks he could see with his sense of vision was around in the hundreds range. Taking into consideration the number of flasks it took for him to achieve the True Element level for the Water element, he went ahead and took around 50 flasks to bring the total number of flasks he had to 70, making sure to grab a bit extra since it would take him quite some time to get back to this place.

Activating more movement speed buffs to hastily get out of the storage room and head back to Eleanor’s room, Argentum went ahead and sat down in front of the flasks he had summoned from his inventory before placing all of the flasks he grabbed from the storage room beside those. Taking in a deep breath, he then went ahead and drank up the contents of one flask, increasing his perception of the Fire element to a higher level.

With that, he then conjured tendrils inside the cavity in his upper torso where the Tome of the Four Elements was located, flipping through the pages of the book before stopping at the section of the Fire element, committing everything to memory before going ahead and starting the enlightenment process.

By the time he had consumed 12 flasks worth of Heaven’s Flame Potions, his progress in terms of understanding the Fire element had already surpassed the Animate level, being around halfway to achieving the True Element level. Unfortunately for him, just as he was about to consume his 13th flask, a message was sent to him through a strand of energy, prompting him to let out a sigh of slight annoyance, though that did not stop him from appearing at the entrance of the inheritance.

Whoosh!

With an aura of slight annoyance surrounding him, Argentum went ahead and entertained the visitor who had appeared in front of the inheritance, Rosalia. Of course, he was somewhat shocked to see Rosalia here after a day since she did say that it would take a day for her at the very least to procure the items he needed. Taking into consideration the amount of time it took to arrive here, it meant that Rosalia only took around half a day or less to procure everything.

Snapping her fingers with a light smile on her face, a large swath of Earth energy particles appeared in front of the two before transforming into the various items Argentum had asked from her…though the quantity was far beyond what he was expecting.

“Isn’t this much more than what I asked from you?” Argentum asked, wondering if there was a catch to their seemingly equivalent exchange. In response, Rosalia replied, ‘It is, but it’s worth it when compared to the recipe you’ve given me. I’ve tested out the waters for the Heaven’s Earth Potion and they’re instantly selling like hotcakes. As thanks, I’ve decided to add more portions of the items you needed…though it was mostly because Eleanor told me you’d need more of it for something.”

“Tell Eleanor my thanks, then,” Argentum let out an awkward chuckle before telling Rosalia that he did not need any help in storing it inside the inheritance. Even though Rosalia was slightly curious as to what Argentum was going to do to move so much stuff at once, she decided that she shouldn’t even bother, given how she was far stronger than him.

After making sure that Rosalia was long gone, Argentum went ahead and commanded the system to keep all of the items in his inventory before heading back to the inheritance through his sigil.

With that done, his grind to enhance his understanding of the Fire element continued.