I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 346: Awake Once More

With the problem of having no Heaven’s Wind Potions being taken care of, Argentum soon left the Grand Blue Inheritance, activating all of the movement speed buffs as he went ahead and headed to the final destination he had in mind. Of course, with Wind being the only element he had not understood to the True Element level, the destination he was heading towards was more or less a given, being the Tempest Cliff, his birthplace.

With Felix taking only a couple of hours to transform the materials he was given into Heaven’s Wind Potions, the time at which Argentum had arrived was already past midnight. Although he knew that Inanimates did not care whether it was morning or night, he still opted to be as silent as possible once he had arrived at the entrance of the Verdant Blossom Branch Alliance.

Surprisingly, just as he took a few steps inside the main hall of the alliance, a silhouette appeared in front of him, its body being made out of energy that took on a dark cyan hue. Of course, this was none other than Horell, who had been given the position of de facto leader by Herellia and Argentum before they went off their separate ways.

Naturally, with Argentum appearing in the alliance, Horell could not help but let out an inward sigh of relief as he thought that his job as acting as the leader of the alliance would be over. But, unfortunately for him, things would not go out as he expected it to.

“Is Aurus still unconscious?” Argentum instantly asked Horell after greeting him with an aura of glee. In response, Horell lightly nodded as he replied, “Yeah, he is.”

Just as he was about to finish his response there, he could not help but remember the peculiar phenomenon that happened involving Aurus a few days ago. With this in mind, he prompted Argentum, who was making his way to where Aurus was, to stop for a second.

Wondering why he was stopped, Argentum was about to ask him why, only to notice the aura of uneasiness surrounding Horell.

“Is there something wrong, Horell?” Argentum could not help but ask, slightly feeling anxious as well. Horell did not respond to Argentum’s question at first, but after some time, he let out a sigh before saying, “Well, something happened to Aurus a few days ago.”

In an instant, Argentum thought that something had befallen Aurus, instantly making him activate the movement speed buffs he had deactivated before entering the alliance. Fortunately, Horell was able to stop him from zooming to where Aurus was as he said, “Wait a minute, Argentum! Don’t head there just yet. Listen to what I have to say.”

“If it involves Aurus getting hurt, then save it for later,” Argentum said in response, adamant on heading as to where Aurus was. Seeing how it would be hard to persuade Argentum to calm down, Horell decided to be straightforward and explained what happened a few days ago, saying, “No, Aurus didn’t get hurt at all. It’s just that…something happened to Aurus while he was evolving.”

At this point, Argentum’s attention was fully focused on Horell, wondering what he meant by his statement. Taking an inward sigh of relief after seeing how Argentum had calmed down, Horell went ahead and continued his explanation.

“While doing my usual check over the alliance, I happen to arrive at an untimely moment within the Tower of Seclusion,” Horell said. “Out of nowhere, a large wave of energy started to emanate from one of the rooms, so I tried to find out where it came from…”

“…and it came from the room where Aurus was in.”

“Naturally, I entered the room without hesitation, wondering what was going on. Of course, I saw the companions Aurus had with him standing near one of the corners of the room in nervousness and fear since they also did not know what was going on.”

“Looking at Aurus, though, I noticed that there was a white thread of energy extending from his body, going all the way to the ceiling. I had a feeling that this white thread continued far beyond the ceiling, but I could only see up to the ceiling.”

Horell then went silent for a bit, wanting to see if Argentum was keeping up with his conversation. Noticing a light nod from Argentum, he then continued with his narration.

“After some time, this white thread disappeared while the increase in energy disappeared as well. Of course, at this point, I thought something was off with Aurus. But do you know what happened next?”

“What happened next?” Argentum asked, his curiosity at an all-time high. Knowing very well not to drag the story, Horell replied, “A voice resounded throughout the room we were in, talking about how from that day onward, the thirteenth Spiriveritas or something was born…something along those lines.”

“Spiriveritas…” Argentum could not help but repeat this term, feeling that it was somewhat familiar. He then went ahead and rummaged through Aurus’ memories, wondering if he had any knowledge on it. After a while, he did obtain some knowledge about what a Spiriveritas was. Though, unfortunately, the knowledge Aurus had on them was only superficial.

‘According to Aurus’ memories, a Spiriveritas is the term for a being that’s part of a strong organization covering the entirety of Erudinia,’ Argentum thought to himself, eventually coming to the conclusion, ‘Does that mean Aurus is now part of this organization?’

‘Maybe Aurus will know more about it once he wakes up,’ he thought, deciding that it was better for him to place the thought at the back of his mind for now since he did not have any clue on what it was. As for Horell, he looked at the silent Argentum for a bit and asked, “Do you know anything about it?”

“A Spiriveritas?” Argentum asked before shaking his head. “Unfortunately, I don’t know what that is either. Anyways, I’ll be heading to where Aurus is.”

With those final words, he then turned around to head to the Tower of Seclusion. Before he could get far away from Horell, Horell went ahead and asked him, “Since you’re here, you’ll be taking over the position of leader, right?”

In response, Argentum replied without looking back, “Herellia chose you for the position, not me. Good luck.”

Whoosh!

And with that, Argentum went ahead and zoomed towards the Tower of Seclusion, leaving Horell alone with an aura of slight melancholy as he asked himself, “Why did I join this alliance again?”

…

Thanks to the small size of the alliance’s ecosystem, as well as the fact that Argentum had activated his movement speed buffs, it only took a few minutes for Argentum to arrive in front of the room where Aurus was staying. Taking in a deep breath, he then gradually opened the door that led into the room before seeing the changes that had happened while he was gone.

Naturally, the most drastic change in the room was the fact that the cocoon of energy covering Aurus was now as thin as a sheet of paper, with his body being more or less visible to everyone who was in the room. With there not being much obstruction between him and Aurus’ body, Argentum could see very well with his enhanced senses that Aurus looked more like a human than he did, which he thought might have something to do with Aurus being a rare species.

As for the companions that accompanied Aurus, once they saw Argentum enter the room, they all greeted him with joy while bombarding him questions like where he went, what he did, and so on. Of course, with him being away from them for quite some time, he took his sweet time answering each and every question they had, even going so far as to narrate what happened to him these past couple of weeks while he gone.

Eventually, they were satisfied with the answers they had obtained from Argentum, allowing him to do his own thing, which he did. Without hesitation, he sat a small distance away from the cocoon surrounding Aurus as he went ahead and summoned a few flasks of Heaven’s Wind Potions from the system’s inventory. Not long after, he consumed the contents of one of the flasks as his perception over the Wind element had increased.

Following that, he did the same thing, conjuring tendrils inside the cavity where the tome was located as he flipped to the section where the Wind element was explained. Using the tendrils he had conjured, he committed and organized the information of the tome regarding the Wind element to his memory before going ahead and taking one last look at Aurus before closing his eyes.

“I wonder who will finish first, you achieving your evolution, or me achieving [True Wind Affinity].”

With that, Argentum went ahead and started his process of enlightenment, gradually increasing his understanding of the Wind element to the True Element level. Of course, with his understanding over the Wind element already being at the Animate level, that meant that it would take him less flasks to achieve the True Element level, though he wasn’t too sure if that would be the case.

To be honest, the only reason why he had opted to enhance his understanding of the Wind element in the alliance instead of any other place inclined towards the Wind element was none other than Aurus. Ever since he had embarked on his journey of achieving Lesser Origin, he always took into consideration the time that remained before Aurus woke up. Even right now, while he was increasing his understanding over the Wind element, he took the time Aurus would wake up in consideration, remembering that there was only a couple of days left before that happened.

Nevertheless, time continued to pass, with each flask Argentum downed taking up 2 hours of his time as he used it to gradually increase his understanding of the Wind element. Surprisingly, after the 2 hours of increased perception were up, he would look at the cocoon of energy for a while, taking note of how much energy in the cocoon was left before it shattered.

And so, Argentum repeated this process until he had downed around 30 flasks or so. By the time he was about to down the 31st flask of Heaven’s Wind Potion he had, a change had finally occurred to the cocoon of energy surrounding Aurus.

Crackle…crackle…

At first, the change was faint, with everyone in the room having to strain their sense of hearing to hear what was happening. But as time passed, they could clearly hear that the cocoon of energy surrounding Aurus was now beginning to crack. First, hairline cracks appeared on the surface of the cocoon, then it gradually transformed into large cracks that looked like spider webs.

Eventually, this spider web-like crack had covered the entirety of the cocoon before…

Crash!

In less than an instant, the cocoon of energy had shattered into a thousand pieces as they instantly transformed into green wisps of light. These green wisps of light soon coalesced around Aurus’ body, which was still hovering after all this time as it gradually descended to the ground, with the green wisps acting like some sort of cushion.

It did not take long for Aurus to truly be on the ground, with the green wisps now being absorbed by his body as the aura surrounding him had gradually intensified with each wisp absorbed. Of course, the increase was not that terrifying, though it was still considerable when compared to the previous aura surrounding Aurus before his evolution.

At this moment, Argentum, as well as the companions Aurus had, looked at the still unconscious Aurus with auras of excitement and expectation on their faces. All of them were waiting for Aurus to finally wake up, eager to tell him everything that had happened while he was unconscious.

Thankfully, it did not take long after the cocoon cracking for him to awaken as everyone felt a slight increase in energy from Aurus as a faint grunt could be heard coming from Aurus.

“Mnggh…”

Gradually, Aurus opened more and more of his sense of vision, with his other senses following suit. Eventually, he was conscious enough for him to move, which came to him naturally as he became more and more used to his new form. Unsurprisingly, the very first thing he saw…was his clone.

Of course, recalling how his clone looked like before he evolved, Aurus could not help but feel surprise as his appearance was drastically different from what he looked like before. At the moment, Argentum’s upper portion was made out of blue energy, his middle portion made out of brown energy, and his lower portion made out of green while his arms had red energy spiraling around it.

At first, Aurus could not believe what he was seeing, but after feeling the connection he had with him, he went ahead and asked, “Argentum…is that you?”

In response, Argentum replied, feeling an immense amount of glee, “Yes, Aurus. It’s me, Argentum.”

“Welcome back.”

“…”

“I’m glad to be back.”