I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 259: Operation Retrieval

“The Tome of the Four Elements…” Blob could not help but repeat the name of the item Argentum wanted to retrieve from Verdant Breeze Town. He pondered over the name of the item for a bit, trying to link it to the idea that it was an item that was incredibly important to Argentum. But unfortunately, even after a short while, he could not correlate the two thoughts together as he had no idea what such an item had that made it important.

With that in mind, he focused his sense of vision before going ahead and asking Argentum in a slightly curious tone, “So…what makes this item special?”

In response, Argentum went silent for a bit as he recalled all of the information Aurus had regarding the tome from his past life. After rummaging all of the related thoughts, organizing them and processing them into a string of words that would allow Blob to understand it without much difficulty, he took in a deep breath before replying, “If I were to sum it up, the Tome of the Four Elements is a book that has a lot of magic spells within. If you don’t know what magic spells are, it’s like the attack I use from afar or the enchantment I used on you when you were attempting the Power Baptism.”

“I see…” Blob said slowly as he tried to absorb the information given to him by Argentum. It took around ten seconds or so for Blob to do so, before going ahead and asking a follow-up question, saying, “So…are the magic spells stored inside this item incredibly important?”

“In a way, yes,” Argentum radiated an aura of affirmation before going ahead and conjuring three small balls of energy around him. He made sure that these three balls were large enough for Blob to notice, but small enough for the guards to not realize that they were in the middle of a bunch of trees that were near the walls of Verdant Breeze Town.

Slowly bobbing up and down, the three balls radiated different auras as their colors differed from one another. A green ball, a blue ball, and a red ball signifying the Wind, Water, and Fire element respectively. With these three balls conjured, Argentum continued with his explanation as he said, “So far, after being with me for quite a while, you know that I can control three elements. Wind, Water, and Fire, right?”

Blob nodded as a response to his question as he said, “Do the elements you control have something to do with the item you’re trying to obtain?”

Just as Argentum was about to answer Blob’s question, Blob realized that his question was somewhat stupid as the name of the item had something to do with the elements. Barring his creator from answering his question for a while, he then followed up with another question, asking, “On second thought, since the name of the item has the words ‘Four Elements’ on it, what’s the fourth element?”

“Surprisingly, you asked two questions that would directly reveal the importance of the tome,” Argentum said in response as a light chuckle resounded out of him. Soon after, he imitated the sound of one clearing their throat before telling him, “I’ll answer your second question first. The fourth element is the Earth element, which has something to do with the ground we’re standing on right now. Along with the three other elements I have control over, they make up the most common elements that beings in this world wield, known as the four foundational elements.”

“Which segues quite nicely to the first question you asked me,” he added soon after. He then continued, “The elements I control do have something to do with the item I’m trying to obtain. Normally, an item would have a lot of restrictions before it could be used to a great extent by a being. As for this Tome of the Four Elements…”

“There are no restrictions whatsoever,” Argentum muttered in a serious tone. “Now, you might be wondering. If there are no restrictions on the item, why am I telling you that the elements I control are important?”

Surprisingly, Blob interrupted him from continuing his explanation as he said, “To be honest, I wasn’t actually thinking about that…but go on.”

“…” Argentum was temporarily left at a loss for words as he did not expect Blob to say that, but eventually, he had regained his composure, imitating the sound of one clearing their throat once more. Taking in another deep breath, he went back to where he left off, explaining, “The reason as to why I told you that the elements are important is that…”

“Only one being could become the sole owner of the tome,” he continued before adding, “And a being that has superb understanding over the four foundational elements has a greater chance of becoming the sole owner of the tome.”

After he was finished saying this, he could not help but recall Aurus’s memories regarding the Tome of the Four Elements. The very first memory Aurus had regarding the tome was that of a post telling everyone that someone had obtained the Tome of the Four Elements, listing the down the effects it brought to a player.

Due to the number of boosts and insane spells it would allow a player to cast, multiple players came to where the tome was last seen, only to be decimated by the holder of the Tome of the Four Elements. Although Aurus was just an observer of the whole situation, he could not forget the stunning power and beauty of the spells cast by the holder, making him feel like the element he had control over was the true version of the element, unlike the ones cast by elementalists and mages in the game.

After that incident, those that had the intent to hunt down the holder of the Tome of the Four Elements loss their motivation to do so, finding out that the combat power that player had increased to a couple ranks higher its current rank due to their mastery over the four foundational elements. Since then, that holder was renowned as the Supreme Tetraelemental Archmage, with his combat prowess even resounding throughout those at the Transcendent existence level. At the very moment the player had broken through to the Transcendent existence level, the other Transcendent level players were shocked to find out that he had the combat power of someone at the second or third rank already.

With these memories lingering in his mind, Argentum could not help but become expectant of the gains he would get once he obtained the tome, knowing what was written inside the tome due to the holder from the past spreading the information after he made sure that the tome was his.

“True Element spells…” Argentum muttered as he gazed at the position of the sun, noticing that the sun was pretty close to setting. From the name itself, True Element spells were spells that allowed one to show the properties of the element they were utilizing in its purest form. Due to the purity of the elements utilized being near the peak, the efficacy and destructibility of such a spell were multiple times higher than a normal element-based spell.

He then closed his sense of vision for a bit, trying to recall the location as to where the Tome of the Four Elements could be found. Fortunately, the holder from Aurus’s past life was kind enough to tell everyone where he had found the tome, telling everyone in the player forums that the tome could be found in a library that could be seen inside the manor of the leader of Verdant Breeze Town.

Although it was more or less a hazy memory for the past Aurus, thanks to the Memory DLC upgrades, the clarity of such memories was at an impeccable level that even Aurus’s birth in the past life could be recalled by Argentum, down to the finest detail.

Finally recalling all of the information regarding the location of the tome, Argentum went ahead and commanded the system to open up a map that would allow him to see the entirety of Verdant Breeze Town. A few seconds later, a small holographic screen filled with multiple details appeared in front of his field of vision, prompting him to go ahead and plot out the route that they were going to take so they could enter and leave the town with the tome safely.

Closing the screen in front of him, he then turned around to look at Blob and sent him a strand of energy filled with the route that they were going to take for this plan. Surprisingly, the strand of energy also contained a title on it, prompting Blob to ask Argentum, “Operation Retrieval?”

“Yeah,” Argentum nodded as he replied. “That’ll be the name of our operation…to make it sound official and cool.”

“…” Blob did not know what to say for a few seconds after that. Eventually, he did respond, saying, “Alright, then.”

After that, the two talked back and forth regarding the route that they were going to take, as well as back-up plans just in case they got caught by the leader of Verdant Breeze Town. Coincidentally, they finished resolving all of the possible holes in their plans just as the sun had already set, which meant that night was about to come.

Utilizing his enhanced senses, Argentum went ahead and checked the top of the stone walls, letting out a sigh of relief soon after as he found out that the guards were not patrolling yet. With that in mind, he then told Blob, “It’s time for Operation Retrieval to start. Morph into the smallest and most inconspicuous thing you know.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Concurrent to Blob’s nod in response, the two went ahead and transformed into two small and inconspicuous items. Argentum went ahead and transformed into a small pebble that did not look off when placed on the ground. As for Blob…

“A red leaf?” Argentum could not help but ask, to which Blob replied, “I haven’t really morphed that much so this is the best I can do.”

“Fine,” Argentum let out a low sigh before casting movement speed boosting spells on both of them. “It’s many times better than you being in your original form anyway.”

Swoosh! Swoosh!

After giving a signal to Blob as to when they would start to head towards Verdant Breeze Town, the two of them went ahead and dashed at the fastest speed they could muster without breaking through the sound barrier. Although they couldn’t break through the sound barrier in their original bodies, due to their bodies currently having a smaller surface area, there was a higher chance for them to actually break through and alert the guards that were just about to guard the area.

Fortunately, no mishaps happened in their journey to Verdant Breeze Town, with the two of them safely entering through the gates of the town within ten minutes or so. Seeing that both of them had successfully entered through the town without a problem, the two went ahead and suppressed their auras to the bare minimum as they made their way to the center of Verdant Breeze Town, the place where the leader of the town resided.

Due to the small size of the town, it did not take long for the two to arrive in front of the manor where the leader resided, taking around the same time it took for them to arrive at the gates. Just as they were about to ponder as to which entrance they were going to use to enter the manor, the main entrance to the manor was opened by a lavishly dressed woman covered in makeup, her face flushed a slight red as she walked out in a slightly funny manner.

Oblivious to what the woman was feeling, the two of them could not help but focus their sense of visions on one another before hastily entering the manor through the main entrance. After that, Argentum went ahead and sent Blob a strand of energy that had the shortest routes towards the library inside the manor. With both of them now having the routes memorized, the two hastily made their way to the library, only taking a couple of minutes to arrive in front of what seemed to be a plethora of books.

“Holy heck,” Argentum could not help but say through a connection formed between him and Blob through a strand of energy. “That’s a lot of books.”

“Indeed,” Blob said in response, agreeing with what Argentum felt. “So…where’s that Tome of the Four Elements you were talking about?”

“It’s probably in one of the corners,” Argentum replied as he urged Blob to started moving through the great number of bookshelves in the library. He then added, “If you want to help me out, keep your sense of vision peeled for a book that has the aura of the four elements in it.”

“Then again, I’ve got to say, this leader has a lot of books,” he muttered to himself in slight wonder, recalling the background of the leader of Verdant Breeze Town. Just like Argentum, he was someone who pursued the peak of magic. Not satisfied with his current position, he needed to gain more power in order to become a City Leader, which at least had the combat power of a Rank 5 Animate. The leader of Verdant Breeze Town, knowing this very well, could not help but become depressed as he had already sapped his potential, stopping at Rank 3 Animate.

Until…he found a book that seemed to be the ray of hope he needed.

Of course, this book was none other than the Tome of the Four Elements. After buying it, he skimmed through it and pondered over it, surprised that his stagnant strength had increased quite a bit after just a few minutes of contemplation. With that in mind, he planned that he would quit his position of being the leader of Verdant Breeze Town after some time and fully focus on learning the entirety of the Tome of the Four Elements.

Unfortunately for him, Argentum was about to grab it first.

“Where could that tome be?” Argentum said in a tone of slight annoyance as he had already searched through the library a few times. It was then that he realized that Blob was not by his side anymore, prompting him to head to where he was.

“You should have told me you were heading to another part of the library,” Argentum muttered in a slightly furious tone as he had finally found where Blob was. “What if you get caught by the lea—”

Just as he was about to berate Blob for separating from him, Argentum’s senses could not help but pick up the aura of four elements that seemed to harmonize with one another. Following where the aura came, his sense of vision eventually met up with a book that looked slightly tattered. On the center of its front cover were four crystals that were colored green, blue, red, and brown respectively.

Surprisingly, Blob was intently looking at this book, only realizing that Argentum was beside him after a minute or so. Letting out a light chuckle, he focused his sense of vision on him and said, “I guess this is the item you were looking for?”

“Yeah…” Argentum said slowly in a tone of disbelief. He had to go through the entirety of the library a few times, only to end up finding nothing. But Blob only had to separate ways for him for a bit and he already found the tome?

“Why do I feel like luck is shining on Blob and not me?” 

——–

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