I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 272: Unlocking the Origin

Listening to Argentum’s response to his question, Felix thought that it was a logical answer as he nodded. He then told him, “I see. Do you have an idea as to how long it would take you to obtain it using the tome?”

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Argentum said in response with a tone of slight uncertainty. “Although I know I have a high comprehension rate, depending on whether the words inside the tome resonate within me or not, that also affects the speed at which I can obtain it.”

“Wait just a damn minute,” Eleanor yelled all of a sudden, attracting the attention of both Felix and Argentum, as well as Blob, prompting them to focus their sense of vision towards her. Noticing that everyone in the room was looking at her, she went ahead and reduced the tense atmosphere surrounding them by imitating the sound of one clearing their throat. After that, she lightly scratched her head as she focused her vision onto Argentum, asking him, “You’re telling me that you’re going to learn [Earth Affinity] here?”

“Yep.” Argentum nodded.

“In an area of the continent where the density of Water energy particles is insanely high?” Eleanor followed up with another question, to which Argentum nodded in response.

“Now how the heck are you going to do just that?” Eleanor muttered not long after, pondering over the possible ways she knew Argentum had that would allow him to do so. Eventually, a thought related to the deal she and Argentum made a while ago surfaced in her mind, prompting her to ask Argentum in a slightly cautious tone, “You have a variant of the potion for the Earth element?”

“Bingo,” Argentum unhesitatingly replied, letting out a light chuckle soon after. Not long after, Felix let out a chuckle as well, making Eleanor feel embarrassed as she radiated an aura of slight infuriation at the two. With a ‘hmph’ sound, she told them, “I was just making sure that his plans weren’t fruitless, that’s all.”

After that, she then looked around the room to find a topic to shift towards, her sense of vision eventually landing on Argentum’s companion, Blob. From the fact that Blob was a Fire-based Pseudo-Animate, Eleanor could not help but think that Argentum had actually followed her words, nurturing a companion that would help him out.

‘And to think that his companion had undergone a Power Baptism as well,’ she thought to herself, only for another thought to surface in her mind as she asked herself, “Wait a second. If his companion has undergone a Power Baptism, then that must mean…”

In an instant, her sense of vision was shifted back to Felix and Argentum, who were talking about a few things related to the Tome of the Four Elements. Utilizing the entirety of her senses, she then went ahead and examined the aura Argentum was radiating, making her let out a gasp of surprise as she asked Argentum, “You’ve successfully undergone a Power Baptism?!”

“Huh?” Felix uttered in response to Eleanor’s words. To him, the words she said just now were quite outlandish, not befitting her usual personality. Nevertheless, he gave her the benefit of the doubt as he said to Eleanor soon after, “Are you sure your senses have dulled after a long amount of time? There’s no way a Normal-grade Pseudo-Animate would be able to clear a Power Baptism that earl—”

“Oh my fucking god,” Felix said not long after taking a cursory glance at Argentum’s current aura. Since Felix felt Argentum’s aura back in Verdant Breeze Town, he was more sure than Eleanor that Argentum had truly undergone a Power Baptism. In just a span of a few hours, Argentum had actually done something that other Pseudo-Animates would usually delay?

With this question in mind, Felix could not help but look at Argentum from a new light once more. Back at their first meeting, he looked at Argentum as a genius that was sure to become their equal eventually. But now? He now looked at Argentum as someone who would surpass him and Eleanor without a doubt, ushering in a new era wherein he was the focal point!

It took a few minutes for the excitement and surprise of the two to calm down, which was around the time where Argentum answered calmly, “Yes, I have.”

“Unbelievable,” Felix said in a tone of admiration and awe. “Throughout the 20 thousand or so years I’ve lived, I’ve only met around a dozen Normal-grade Pseudo-Animates that have cleared their first Power Baptism. To think that you’d become one of them as well.”

“I’m at a loss for words, Argentum,” Eleanor said not long after. “I thought that you’d clear your first baptism at the Magic or Grand-grade, but to exceed my expectations and clear it at the Normal-grade. You’ve truly surprised your teacher.”

“Well, then,” Argentum said as he let out a chortle. “If you think that was surprising, then please raise your expectations higher for I am going to clear the Origin Trials before evolving to Magic-grade. Mark my words.”

In response, Felix and Eleanor looked at each other for a bit before letting out a laugh of their own. After some time, Eleanor told Argentum, “Alright, I wish you the very best of luck in accomplishing that goal.”

“Same here,” Felix said after Eleanor, letting out a light giggle.

Listening to their words of encouragement, Argentum went a bit silent as he knew that they thought that he was joking around. Unfortunately for them, this was also a part of his plan in becoming a Super Animate. By obtaining an incredibly strong evolution, the foundation of his power once he turned into an Animate would become incredibly sturdy, allowing him to be recognized by the ones with authority as someone with great talent as long as he showcased his power. With that title on him, he surely thought that he would obtain a ton of resources that would allow him to grow stronger even faster!

Nevertheless, even though he knew what they were thinking, he did not refute them as actions speak louder than words. While he was thinking about the next step in his plan to becoming a Super Animate, he thought to himself, ‘Speaking of which, I should ask Felix and Eleanor if they have other methods to transform into an Animate.’

‘But I’ll save that after I obtain [Earth Affinity],’ he thought to himself soon after, remembering the evidence he obtained back at Verdant Breeze Town that Felix might know something regarding that area.

After placing those thoughts at the back of his head, Argentum looked at Felix and told him, “Could you make two separate rooms for me and Blob to train in? We’ve delayed it for quite some time already.”

“Alright,” Felix said in response as he nodded, gesturing with his hands soon after as multiple strands of his energy soon scattered in multiple directions. After about thirty seconds or so, two corridors were soon formed on one wall of his room, leading to two decently-sized rooms that had nothing within.

Seeing that the two rooms were now made, Argentum looked at the silent Blob and told him, “I’ll be taking the right room. You go take the left.”

“Got it,” Blob succinctly replied as he nodded. Just as he was about to make his way towards the left corridor, Blob was stopped by Argentum as he shouted, “Hey, Blob! Catch!”

Whoosh!

With a rift opening above his palm, a flask that contained a red viscous fluid was soon thrown in Blob’s direction, to which Blob caught without a problem. Taking a closer look at what he had caught, an aura of bewilderment soon radiated from him as he looked at Argentum and said, “Isn’t this yours?”

“Indeed, it is,” Argentum replied calmly, radiating an aura of slight happiness as he knew that Blob was somewhat concerned for him. Reassuring Blob, he said, “Just so you know, I have a recipe that allows me to make that thing in basically infinite amounts, so you don’t have to worry about a thing. You want to quickly improve your understanding over those new Fire spells you obtained, right? If so, then take it.”

Listening to his creator’s words, Blob wanted to say something as he tightly gripped on the flask, only for a sigh to come out as he lightly nodded before heading towards the first room through the left corridor.

Watching Blob make his way towards the first room, Eleanor could not help but look at Argentum and tell him, “You’ve raised your companion well.”

“Well, you were the one who gave me the skill in the first place, Teacher,” Argentum said in response, letting out a light giggle. As for Felix, who was listening to their conversation at the back, he could not help but be a bit surprised that Eleanor decided to give her student such a skill. Not only that, but he was also surprised at the fact that Argentum was actually able to raise his companion to such a level.

“Mind if I go into your companion’s room?” Eleanor asked Argentum, to which he replied with a question of his own, asking, “What for?”

“Just gonna help him out on improving his control over the Fire element,” Eleanor hastily replied. “You don’t mind me doing that, right?”

“Not at all, Teacher,” Argentum radiated an aura of elation as he continued, “Be my guest.”

Whoosh!

And with Argentum’s confirmation, Eleanor dashed towards the room where Blob, seemingly teleporting in front of Argentum and Felix from the sheer speed of her travel. Felix and Argentum looked at each other for a bit before they went ahead and laughed at Eleanor’s action.

“I guess she wanted to do something new after being cooped up in her inheritance for a long time,” Felix said afterward, to which Argentum nodded before saying, “Well, with Teacher doing this, my companion would improve in strength, which means my strength would improve as well.”

“Right,” Felix succinctly responded to Argentum’s words before realizing that Argentum’s plan was delayed once more. Without hesitation, he asked him, “Anyways, shouldn’t you head towards the other room and go do your thing?”

“Ah, right.” It was then Argentum realized what Felix realized, saying a few words of gratitude to Felix before making his way towards the unoccupied room. After arriving there, he then went ahead and sat on the ground, calming himself down before taking out the tome from inside his upper torso.

Thud.

Placing the Tome of the Four Elements in front of him, he looked at it for a bit and muttered to himself with glee, “As long as I understand all of the contents inside this tome, I’m pretty sure I would be able to defeat higher-ranked Animates even at Rank 1. If they don’t take notice of me with that kind of feat, then those guys are just stupid.”

“Speaking of which…” Just as Argentum was going to go ahead and start his journey to obtaining [Earth Affinity], he remembered that it had been a while since he had last checked his stats.

“Since I’ve just cleared my first Power Baptism, I guess it’s a good time to check,” he muttered to himself with that in mind, commanding the system soon after.

Ding!

Accompanied by a notification sound resounding throughout his mind, a small holographic screen was soon revealed in front of Argentum’s vision, detailing his current stats. After skimming through the contents, the feeling Argentum felt was that of shock. Of course, it was not an immense shock since he had already seen Blob’s stats beforehand. Nevertheless, he was still shocked as he did not believe that he would have such an absurd amount of mana.

________

[Argentum] (Level 10/10)

Experience: MAX

Species: Wind Elemental

Existence Level: Pseudo-Animate

Grade: Normal

Power Baptism: 1

—————

[HP]: 410/410

[MP]: 5530/5530

—————

Stats:

Vitality – 41 (x10)

Strength – 29 (x10)

Defense – 29 (x10)

Agility – 50 (x10)

Intelligence – 58 (x10)

________

Taking in a few deep breaths to calm his senses once more, Argentum soon closed the holographic screen in front of him as he commanded the system to take out a certain item from its inventory.

Whoosh!

With a rift opening up just a couple of decimeters above the ground, a flask which contained brown viscous fluid soon appeared in front of Argentum’s field of vision as it landed on the ground with a slightly peculiar ‘clang’ sound. Then again, Argentum wasn’t someone who looked at the finer details, grabbing the flask from the ground before going ahead and manipulating the energy circulating inside his body.

Soon after, the opening where the tome lied a while ago was soon opened, to which Argentum threw the contents of the flask into. As he did this, he could not help but mutter to himself, “This is how you use a potion as a Pseudo-Animate, right?”

Normally, a potion would be ingested through the mouth, but that was only the case for Animates. Since he was a Pseudo-Animate that only took on a humanoid form, but did not have the stuff necessary considered to be an Animate, he thought that this was the closest he could get to ingesting it.

Ding!

As he closed up the hole in his upper torso, a notification sound soon resounded throughout his mind. Without delay, he went ahead and commanded the system to open up the notification screen in his mind, allowing him to read through the notifications he had just received. It only took a few seconds of skimming for him to radiate an aura of expectation and elation as he soon closed his vision, attuning his body to the Earth element in the surroundings thanks to his greatly improved perception.

‘You have ingested the Heaven’s Earth Potion.’

‘Your perception of the Earth element has increased by 200%’

‘Time remaining before buff wears out: 1 hour 59 minutes’

“It’s now or never! To the goal of becoming a Super Animate!” Argentum shouted inwardly to psych himself up before treading on the path to learning [Earth Affinity].

——–

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