I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 282: Preparing for the Tribulation

After pouring all of his emotions to Aurus, who was still in the process of evolution, Argentum could not help but let out a sigh of relief as he felt that his body had become lighter. Soon after, he let out a slightly boisterous laugh as he asked himself, “I wonder if Aurus would remember me saying this to him?”

With that, he then made his way towards the exit, only to open it and find out that the six were near the entrance of the room. Sensing their current auras, which were mostly that of curiosity, Argentum had a hunch as to what the six were doing, though he did not reveal that he knew outright. He focused his sense of vision on the six of them and asked, “What are you guys doing near the entrance?”

Whoosh!

Without hesitation, the six went ahead and distanced themselves from the entrance before looking at each other with their senses of vision. Not long after, the six simultaneously let out awkward chuckles as Fenrir said, “Oh, nothing at all, Master. We were just passing by the door. We just wanted to make sure that the masters are safe, you know?”

“Is that so?” Argentum replied with a question of his own, thinking that Fenrir’s answer could use some work if he wanted to lie better. Letting out a light chuckle, he added, “If that’s the case, then why were you six awfully close to the entrance?”

“So we could sense the aura of the two masters, yeah,” Terrence was the one who responded this time, letting out a light yet still awkward chuckle as he responded to his master’s question. The others continued to let out awkward chuckles, which gradually died down as they felt that Argentum already knew what they were doing by the door.

Seeing that the six of them had finally gone silent as they radiated auras of slight guilt, Argentum went ahead and let out a laugh of his own as he looked at them and said, “I don’t mind you guys eavesdropping this time. But if you do it one more time…”

Whoosh!

In an instant, an aura filled with killing intent, far greater than what Aurus could exude, soon surrounded Argentum as he continued, “I won’t let you get away that easily, okay?”

“Yes, Master!” the six hastily replied in fear of being punished by the clone of their master. Although they knew very well that their master wouldn’t do such a thing, they could not say the same with the clone as they did not know what he had gone through. With the six being so obedient, Argentum could not help but let out a sigh of relief as he went out of the room Aurus was in and told them, “Go ahead and continue protecting your master.”

In response to his statement, Charisa could not help but ask, “What are you going to do, Master?”

“I’m just going to head to another part of the alliance for a while, that’s all,” Argentum said in response to her question before pondering over something for a bit. Thinking that there was no harm in saying it, he then continued, “Once I’m done with what I have to do, I’ll be staying in the room beside your master. Are you guys fine with that?”

The six looked at each other for a bit after hearing Argentum’s question, sending a few strands of energy to one another soon after. Eventually, the six of them radiated an aura of cheerfulness as they simultaneously replied, “Of course we are!”

“Then, I’m glad,” Argentum said before chortling in response to their words. After that, he then bade farewell to the six in the meantime, leisurely making his way out of the Tower of Seclusion as his movement speed boosting buffs had now run out. Of course, his two status boosting skills were still active, allowing him to arrive at the entrance of the tower in less than five minutes.

After arriving at the entrance of the tower, he then went ahead and utilized his enhanced vision to find where Herellia was. Unfortunately for him, even after utilizing his enhanced vision to its fullest extent, he could not find any trace of Herellia at all, prompting him to ask himself, “If I were Herellia, where would I be?”

With that in mind, he then went ahead and rummaged through Aurus’s memories regarding the layout of the alliance’s small ecosystem. It took him a couple of minutes to narrow down the number of places Herellia could be to 3. Unfortunately for him, these places were quite far away from her, making him let out a sigh as he muttered to himself, “If only I had teleportation like my original body…”

“But I don’t, so I’ll just have to it the old-fashioned way,” he added afterward before activating all of the movement speed boosting spells he had in his arsenal. From [Zephyr Burst] to [Zephyr Magna Acceliaris], every spell was activated, allowing his speed to return to the level it was when ran from the Grand Blue Inheritance to where he was right now.

“It’s time to do a blanket search!” he shouted to psych himself up before going ahead and channeling all of the energy inside his body towards his legs. In less than an instant, a great distance was already covered by Argentum. In tandem with enhanced vision, it would surely not take long for him to find out where Herellia currently was.

…

In another part of the small ecosystem, Herellia and Horell were conversing with one another, with Horell letting out an aura of immense shock as he could not believe what he had just heard.

“You’re telling me…that I was basically fighting against Aurus?!” Horell said out of sheer shock. In his mind, he truly thought that Argentum was an intruder wanting to break the peace of the alliance, thus he decided that the best way to resolve this problem would be to fight against him. But to think that Argentum was actually Aurus’s clone…

With that in mind, Horell could not help but radiate an aura of immense guilt. He then focused his vision on Herellia and asked her, “Do you think he’ll bear a grudge for what I’ve done?”

“Who knows?” Herellia replied to his question in an instant, her tone being that of uncertainty. She then added, “We’re familiar with Aurus’s personality, so we know how he would react. But in Argentum’s case, although he’s Aurus’s clone, we’re not sure if his personality would also be the same as Aurus.”

“I’d just go with the safe route and apologize to him once he appears,” Herellia continued, to which Horell could not help but agree with as he replied, “Yeah, once he appears, I’ll make sure to apologize to him in an insta—”

Rustle…rustle…whoosh!

As if the heavens above were answering Horell’s prayers, the two of them heard some loud rustling, only for the silhouette of Argentum to appear in front of the two not long after. Just as they thought that Argentum was about to stop where they were, he continued with his dashing, going past the two as they were left at a loss for words at the sudden occurrence.

“Eh?” the two of them simultaneously uttered as they looked at each other with auras of confusion, wondering if what they saw was real or not. Fortunately for them, it was indeed real as Argentum’s voice resounded not long after, saying, “Ah. I’ve gone past them.”

Rustle…rustle…

After a few more seconds, Argentum had finally arrived in front of the two, albeit the aura surrounding him was that of slight embarrassment as he knew that they were looking at him in a slightly confused manner. Letting out an awkward chuckle to relieve the atmosphere in the surroundings, he then greeted the two as he said, “Uh…let’s forget that that happened.”

“Sure,” Herellia concisely said in response to his words, eliciting a light nod from Argentum. On the other hand, Horell dashed towards Argentum before going ahead and hugging one of his legs, surprising the latter.

“What are you doing, Horell?” Argentum could not help but ask as he found the current situation to be weird. In response, Horell said in a pleading tone, “Argentum, please forgive me for what I’ve done earlier! I didn’t know you were a clone of Aurus! If you told me that from the start, then I would have let you in!”

“Well…” Listening to Horell’s pleas, Argentum pondered over what he should say. He then thought to himself, ‘If I think about it for a bit longer, I’m pretty sure that the outcome would stay the same if I told him I was Aurus’s clone.’

In the end, he thought that there was no point mulling over what had happened in the past and said, “Alright, alright. I forgive you, so can you please stop hugging my leg?”

Hearing that he was forgiven, Horell hastily let go of Argentum’s leg as he let out a light giggle since he felt that there was no more guilt weighing on his body. After that, Herellia focused her sense of vision towards Argentum and asked him, “So, what made you come here?”

“You told me a while ago that you had something to say to me,” Argentum responded in a solemn tone. In response, Herellia pondered over Argentum’s words before finally recalling what she wanted to say to him a while ago. She then went ahead and told him, “I finally remember. I wanted to ask you if you could help me out on my Existence Tribulation.”

“Eh?” Argentum could not help but utter after hearing such a request out of the blue. He then went ahead and rummaged through Aurus’s memories before he underwent his evolution process, finally recalling that Herellia requested Aurus to help him out with her Existence Tribulation, as well as obtain an All-seeing Comprehension Leaf from the Area 52 Inheritance. With that in mind, he pondered over his choice of words for a bit before asking her, “Is it because Aurus is still in the process of evolution?”

“Well, that’s one part of the reason why,” Herellia responded to his question before adding, “The other reason why I wanted you to help me out in my Existence Tribulation is because of your existence level.”

“Makes sense,” Argentum replied as he shrugged his shoulders in slight nonchalance. He then went ahead and asked her, “When are you going to undergo your Existence Tribulation?”

“To be honest, any time is a good time for me to undergo,” Herellia said, telling Argentum that she did not care about the time that much. She then added, “Though, I should make sure that I should undergo the tribulation as far away from the alliance as possible.”

“Hmm…” Listening to her words, Argentum mulled over it for a bit before asking, “Are you going to do it right now?”

“Well…I don’t see why not,” Herellia said in response to his words with slight nonchalance. But just as she was about to head towards the main hall of the alliance with Horell and Argentum in tow, Argentum stopped her from doing so as he said, “I think we should prepare a bit more for your tribulation. Who knows what trials are in store for your tribulation?”

“Hmm…” Herellia pondered over Argentum’s words for a bit and thought that it would be better if she did prepare for the tribulation. With more preparations, the chance of her succeeding in her tribulation would be higher, which was a good thing. She thought about what she could prepare to make sure that her chances of succeeding the tribulation would become higher, but after a while, she realized that she did not know anything about it other than the fact that passing through it would allow her to evolve to a greater form.

With that in mind, she went ahead and looked at Argentum and asked him, “What do you think would be good things to do in preparation for the tribulation?”

“Well…” Argentum went ahead and recalled all of Aurus’s memories regarding Existence Tribulations before compiling and organizing them into a list. He then took in a deep breath before responding, “First off, when preparing for an Existence Tribulation, one must have helpers that have decently high combat power.”

“In that case, the first thing to do when preparing for your tribulation has something to do with Horell,” he said not long after, pointing towards a confused Horell after that. In response to his words, Horell could not help but ask, “What are you trying to imply? Are you saying that I’m too weak to become a helper?”

“Pretty much,” Argentum said without hesitation, making Horell feel bad for himself as a dejected aura radiated from him. But then, after hearing Argentum’s next words, Horell could not help but become invigorated with energy.

“Fortunately, there’s a way to increase your power pretty easily,” Argentum said not long after, prompting Horell to ask him, “And what would that be?”

In response, Argentum let out a playful chuckle as he said, “Two words.”

“Power Baptism.” 

——–

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!