I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 280: Reunion

With his movement speed boosting buffs still activated, it did not take long for Herellia and Argentum to enter the small ecosystem of the alliance, only taking over a minute or so to arrive at the end of the corridor. Before heading towards the Tower of Seclusion, where his original body was, Argentum told Herellia that they were going to take a break for a bit, to which Herellia did not have any qualms with.

After obtaining her approval, Argentum went ahead and took in a deep breath of the surroundings, thinking to himself that there was truly no better place that could replace the alliance base in his mind. Letting out a sigh of relief and joy, Argentum then muttered, “Haah. It’s truly great to be back.”

“Argentum.” Listening to his words, Herellia could not help but become curious as to what Argentum had done before finally arriving at the entrance of the alliance, prompting her to ask him, “If you don’t mind me asking, what were you doing before arriving at the alliance?”

“It would be better if you save that question for a later time, Herellia,” Argentum responded in an instant before adding, “For now, I just want to see Aurus again.”

Letting out an aura of affirmation in response to his statement, Herellia then went ahead and headed towards the Tower of Seclusion, with Argentum making sure that he was already beside her while following. Nevertheless, as they made their way to the Tower of Seclusion, Herellia had multiple questions to ask Argentum in her mind. The question she wanted to ask the most was a better understanding of Argentum’s relationship to Aurus, recalling the message Argentum sent to her as he replied to her question a while ago.

“Hey, Argentum,” Herellia said as she focused her sense of vision on him, to which Argentum focused his sense of vision on her as he asked, “What is it?”

“Although I know that you weren’t lying a while ago thanks to the [Eyes of Undeceiving Truth], I still couldn’t wrap my head around you being Aurus’s clone,” Herellia responded to his question before adding, “Could you elaborate a bit more on what you mean by that?”

“Hmm…” Argentum pondered on what he was going to say for a bit, rummaging through Aurus’s memories regarding the process of him being made. Eventually, a coherent answer was formed in his mind as he replied, “To be more exact, you can consider me as a vessel of Aurus’s soul. Half of his soul is inside my body, which allows me to converse with you without a problem, while the remaining half is obviously inside his body. Then again, I’m not sure about the specifics so it would be better to ask Aurus regarding this matter instead.”

“Anyways, did that help clear a bit of your confusion?” he asked soon after, to which Herellia radiated an aura of affirmation with a mix of uncertainty as she responded, “A bit…I guess.”

After that, Herellia went ahead and pondered over new topics to ask about, eventually thinking a certain thought that had a chance of happening. With that in mind, she initiated a conversation with Argentum after a few seconds of silence as she asked, “Now that I think about it, after you meet up with Aurus, are you going to leave the alliance and head elsewhere?”

“For a few days, I don’t think so,” Argentum said after thinking about the question for a short while. Getting a hunch that there was a hidden meaning beneath her question, he went ahead and asked a question of his own, saying, “Is there a reason as to why you asked that?”

“Well…” Although Herellia wanted to answer his question with the thought she had in mind, she decided that it would be better for her to ask him the same question after he was done meeting with Aurus. With that, she responded, “I’ll just tell you the reason after you finish meeting up with Aurus.”

“Alright,” Argentum nodded in response as he placed the thought in the back of his mind. After that, the two headed towards the Tower of Seclusion, arriving at the entrance of the building within a couple of minutes.

They then went ahead and entered the tower, searching through the various rooms and floors of the tower for a few minutes before finding the room where Aurus was residing. Finally sensing a familiar aura radiate from a certain room, Herellia then said to Argentum, who was beside her all this time, in a relieved tone, “We’re finally here. The room where Aurus is in.”

Just like Herellia, Argentum felt Aurus’s aura as well, which originated from inside the room. But thanks to his enhanced senses, he was able to sense even more than that, feeling the slight nuances in his aura. To him, Aurus’s current aura was akin to a beating heart, calming down for a bit before gushing with intense power. Nevertheless, amidst the heart-like movement of his aura, he felt that his aura was also gradually intensifying throughout the process, letting Argentum know that his original body had not reached its limit of improvement just yet.

“If you don’t need anything else from me, I’ll be taking my leave for now.” Seeing that Argentum went silent for a bit, Herellia went ahead and imitated a coughing sound to catch his attention before saying. In response, Argentum lightly nodded as he replied, “Once I’m done with what I have to do here, I’ll make sure to head to where you are.”

After letting out an aura of affirmation in response, Herellia then went ahead and left Argentum to his own devices as she headed towards another part of the small ecosystem. On the other hand, Argentum could not help but take in a deep breath as he looked at the entrance of the room, sensing the other auras that radiated around his original body’s aura. But just as he was about to open the entrance and enter, the entrance was instead opened from the inside, revealing a female humanoid made out of water.

“Hmm? Who could be outside?” The humanoid muttered to herself as a curious expression was plastered on her face while opening the entrance. In an instant, the humanoid was soon greeted with the sight of Argentum, who, in response to the current situation, could only wave his hand and awkwardly say, “Uh…hi there.”

“Ah?” In response to Argentum’s greeting, the humanoid briefly had a confused expression on her face, which soon changed to that of wariness as she turned around and shouted, “Hey, everyone! We got ourselves an intruder!”

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

As the sound of movement loudly resounded throughout the room, Argentum could not help but feel that he was being wronged yet again, prompting him to radiate an aura of confusion as he uttered, “Eh?”

“An intruder? Surely, no one would bother Master unless it’s urgent, right?” A harmonious masculine voice responded to the humanoid’s statement from a while ago, which was soon to be revealed to Argentum that it came from a sculpture made out of a chiseled rock.

“Intruder? Does that mean we have to fight?” Soon after, another female voice resounded throughout the room, revealing to Argentum a sculpture made out of vines as a red flower sprouted on her head. In response, the humanoid made out of water, who was at the entrance this whole time, responded to the other female’s words as a spear made out of water soon materialized on her free hand before pointing at it towards Argentum by saying, “Depending on this intruder’s next move, we might just have to.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Unfortunately for the humanoid, just as she was about to attack Argentum, a deep masculine voice resounded throughout the room, which dissuaded her from doing so. Not long after, a feminine voice followed up on the other person’s words, saying, “Yeah. If you do, then you’re basically going to hurt Master.”

Whoosh!

In an instant, two silhouettes soon showed themselves in front of Argentum, moving the humanoid made out of water to the side as they went ahead and bowed in front of him. The first silhouette was a sculpture of a wolf that radiated an aura of immense regality, while the other silhouette seemed to be a curvy piece of wood covered in black and white flames.

Even though their appearances were quite bizarre, the two of them did not hesitate in shouting, “Welcome back, Master!”

Scratching his head in response to the two silhouettes’ words, Argentum then let out an awkward chuckle in response as he replied, “I’m just his clone. Your true master is right there.”

“Either way, it’s nice to see you two again,” he said not long after, radiating an aura of happiness as he continued, “Fenrir. Charisa.”

As for the other voices that resounded throughout the room a while ago, they could not help but look at the current situation before going ahead and looking at each other with an aura of confusion surrounding them as they simultaneously questioned each other, “That’s Master?”

“So that’s why I felt like the aura of the being outside was familiar,” a feminine voice said all of a sudden, originating from a sculpture made out of vines, but with a red flower on her head instead of a yellow one. “To think it was actually Master…Phoria is happy.”

“May I enter the room?” Feeling that the current atmosphere was still awkward, Argentum went ahead and imitated the sound of one clearing their throat as he asked this question to both Fenrir and Charisa. In response, Charisa went ahead and said, “It’s your room, Master! You’re always welcome to come in!”

“As I’ve said, I’m just his clone, but oh well,” Argentum could not help but say in response to Charisa’s words before letting out a light chuckle. He then went ahead and entered the room, allowing him to finally see the other figures, that were talking a while ago, more clearly.

“Terrence, Marielle, Eu, Phoria,” Argentum went ahead and said the names of the other figures one by one as he focused his sense of vision on them for a bit. He then added in a happy tone, “It’s nice to see you again.”

“To think that it was actually Master’s clone coming to greet us, what a surprise.” The first one to respond to his words was Terrence, letting out a loud laugh tinged with slight embarrassment.

“Just before you say anything, Master, let me apologize in advance, okay? Hehehe.” The next one to respond to his words was Eu, letting out a slightly embarrassed giggle as she apologized to Argentum.

“It’s really good to see you again, Master.” The last one to respond was Phoria, radiating an aura of happiness as she felt that everything was back to normal.

As for Marielle, who was the humanoid that opened the entrance to the room, she felt incredibly ashamed that she was thinking of attacking their master, prompting her to look down at the floor as she radiated an aura of immense embarrassment. Looking at her for a bit, Argentum went ahead and relieved her embarrassment as he said, “You don’t have to think about it too much, Marielle. To be honest, that was something I should have expected when entering the room.”

In response, Marielle gradually looked up at Argentum before inwardly letting out a sigh of relief, though her expression gave it all away. She then said to Argentum as she took a deep breath, “I apologize for my earlier actions, Master. I hope you can forgive me.”

“No worries. No worries,” Argentum said in response to her words before asking everyone, “Anyways, how has everyone been while I was, in a sense, gone?”

“We’ve been improving all of our skills, Master,” Terrence responded to his question before adding, “Thanks to Master’s comprehension speed, all of us have already reached the peak of Transcendent level for our skills.”

“That’s good to hear,” Argentum nodded as he said those words. He then pondered over something for a bit before soon asking them, “Now that I think about it, what did you guys do after you were finished grinding your skills?”

“Sleep,” Fenrir said in response.

“Talked with Eu and Phoria,” Charisa said in response.

“Sleep beside Fenrir,” Terrence said in response.

“Polished my combat skills,” Marielle said in response.

“Did any of you get bored?” Argentum asked them after hearing their responses, only to hear the six simultaneously say, “No.”

“I see. That’s great,” he said not long after before letting out a light chuckle soon after. He then went ahead and focused his sense of vision to where Aurus was, which was at the center of the room. Currently, the body of Aurus was in its usual form, though it seemed that the details on his body had become a bit more exquisite. Not to mention that he was currently covered in a cocoon which took on a light green hue, supplying him with energy that seemed to enhance his aura.

As he looked at the state of his original body for a bit, a thought soon surfaced in his mind as an aura of solemnity surrounded him. Turning around, he then looked at the six and asked them, “Is it fine if you guys leave me and your master alone for a bit?”

Surprisingly, the six unanimously replied that they were fine with that, unhesitatingly heading out of the room they were previously in as Argentum and Aurus were now left alone. As Argentum saw the six leave the room, he could not help but think that his original body’s allies are truly loyal to him. Taking in a deep breath as he sorted out his thoughts, he then went ahead and poured out what was on his mind as he started to go on what seemed to be a monologue.

“It’s been 10 days since I’ve left Tempest Cliff to go on a journey to become a Super Animate. Let me tell you that it was definitely a fun and interesting adventure. I had to undergo two inheritances before arriving at the final destination I had in mind. Surprisingly, I became partial owners of those two inheritances! Don’t you think that’s cool?”

“Other than that, my plan has been fully fulfilled. I’ve gotten the item that I needed from that town, and now I’m capitalizing on it to make sure that my strength grows at a decently fast pace. Then again, it’s kind of saddening to think that you’re still in the process of evolution. It feels kind of lonely.”

“But, of course, you’ve been through a longer period of loneliness than me, seeing as to how I’ve looked at your memories in the past. Er…surely you wouldn’t berate me for doing that, right? Hahaha.”

“Anyways, you better make sure that you don’t disappoint me with your evolution, okay? With you taking such a long time to evolve, I’d be mad if the evolution you chose is utter garbage.”

“Once you finish your evolution, make sure that the first thing you do is meet up with me, okay? I’ll show you how strong I’ve gotten, and you’ll show me how strong you’ve gotten. In other words, let’s fight.”

“All in all…”

“I’ll be waiting…”

“Okay?”

——–

Want to see some official art of IRAAS? Want to get additional perks?

Then head onto my Discord server! The link is https://discord.gg/SRaEwGE

Hope to see you there!