I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 274: The Origin Trials

Closing his sense of vision while he attuned his body to the Earth energy particles, Argentum could not help but think that it was going to be a breeze after sensing that the power of the Earth energy particles in the area had increased by many degrees. Adding on the fact that he had psyched himself up before doing this, his mental condition was as high as it could ever be.

Whoosh!

With his sense of vision closed, he went ahead and conjured two tendrils out of energy, both of them sprouting from the tips of his fingers. He then went ahead and opened his sense of vision slightly as he controlled both tendrils towards the Tome of the Four Elements, which was placed in front of him, using them as fingers to flip through the pages of the tome.

After a while, the tendrils had finally reached the page regarding the skill Argentum wanted to obtain, which was [Earth Affinity]. Without hesitation, he then went ahead and used the tendrils as a way to transfer the information from the pages of the tome towards his mind, allowing him to not need to look at the tome unless necessary.

Swish! Swish! Swish!

With the tome’s pages being flipped after reaching the beginning of what seemed to be the method to obtaining [Earth Affinity], the tendrils Argentum conjured had finally obtained all of the necessary information from the tome, prompting him to close the tome not long after while the tendrils were soon dispersed.

He then closed his sense of vision once more, organizing the information he had obtained in his mind in a way that would make it easier for him to understand. Surprisingly, it did not take long for him to do so as he found out that the information in the tome was already pretty organized. With that in mind, he could not help but ponder for a bit as to whether the same applied to the other skills in the tome, to which he concluded that there was no point in thinking about it for now.

Placing the thought at the back of his head, he then went ahead and gradually willed the Earth energy particles in the area to make their way towards his body, only to be absorbed by him not long after. With every Earth energy particle he absorbed, the level of understanding he had regarding [Earth Affinity] increased at a phenomenal rate of 1% per particle.

Of course, one should take into consideration that Argentum had an innately high comprehension rate thanks to Aurus ingesting Comprehension Leaves, which was given a bigger boost due to the Heaven’s Earth Potion he had ingested before starting this session.

And just like that, about 30 minutes soon passed since Argentum had started his grind to obtaining [Earth Affinity]. Surprisingly, after this amount of time, the level of understanding he had regarding [Earth Affinity] was now at 49%, only one percent away to being halfway there.

Nevertheless, even at this level of understanding, he could not help but feel that his connection towards the Earth energy particles he absorbed now became closer. But if he were to compare it to his other elemental affinities, like [Water Affinity], even without the help of the potion that increased his elemental perception, the feeling of connection he felt from the other affinities was akin to that of brothers related by blood. As for his still progressing [Earth Affinity], it felt like he was talking to a somewhat familiar acquaintance.

‘I should have gone to an Earth-based inheritance instead,’ Argentum inwardly complained to himself as his attention was focused on absorbing as much Earth energy particles as possible. Then again, it was his choice to head towards an area filled to the brim with Water energy particles instead of Earth energy particles.

Continuing his train of thought, he thought to himself, ‘Now that I think about it, whenever I obtain skills from inheritances, the information needed to fully understand that skill is given to me, allowing me to use it naturally once I learn it.’

Although Argentum did not mention it that often, it truly did happen, with him obtaining skills in an instant since the information needed to fully understand the first part is given to him. With that in mind, he wondered if it was better for him to head towards an Earth-based inheritance first to obtain [Earth Affinity] and other Earth-based spells before heading back here to the Grand Blue Inheritance to hone his strength.

‘Oh well,’ he concluded in his mind. ‘There’s no point mulling over something that’s already in the past.’

‘Well, I could go ahead and enter an Earth-based inheritance after this since there’s still a lot of time before Aurus wakes up but…’ he thought not long after. ‘That seems like a waste of stamina, to be honest.’

After placing those thoughts at the back of his head, he then went ahead and continued to absorb the Earth energy particles in the surroundings, lasting for another ten minutes as his level of understanding regarding [Earth Affinity] had now gone past 50%, ranging around 55%.

‘I’ve absorbed quite a decent amount of Earth energy particles throughout these last ten minutes, but to think that my understanding of [Earth Affinity] has only improved by this much,’ he thought to himself, thinking that with every percent of understanding he obtained, the more Earth energy particles he needed to obtain the subsequent percent.

“Is there a faster way to do this?” he asked himself, opening his sense of vision as he soon stood up. He then went ahead and picked up the Tome of the Four Elements before placing it inside his upper torso once more. After that, he walked around the room he was in for a bit as he pondered over methods he could use to hasten his comprehension speed.

“Hmm…no…no…” At first, the thoughts he had in his mind were those that were incredibly effective, but needed him to be at the existence level of Animate to be feasible, so he went ahead and ignored them. Slowly but surely, the level of power needed went down to the Pseudo-Animate level, with the easiest method to hasten his comprehension speed eventually surfacing in his mind after five minutes or so.

In his mind, he could still remember the third trial he underwent in the Grand Blue Inheritance. He was fighting against an Earth-based Pseudo-Animate that was a grade above him. With his mind following that train of thought, he muttered to himself, “Is it even possible to do so in the first place?”

It did not take long for him to come to a conclusion, heading outside the room he was in before being greeted by the sight of Felix.

“Oh? What are you doing here, Argentum?” Felix could not help but ask as he thought that it was odd for Argentum to be out of the room since he was trying to obtain [Earth Affinity]. Taking in a short yet deep breath, Argentum replied, “I need your help on something, Felix.”

“And what would that be?” Felix asked soon after, to which recalled the idea he had in mind for a bit before asking, “Is it possible for you to summon Earth-based Pseudo-Animates and transform into Earth energy particles.”

“Huh?” Not expecting such a request to come from Argentum, Felix could not help but wonder if he had heard wrongly, asking Argentum to repeat his request. After repeating it a few more times, Felix decided to accept the fact that he was not hallucinating, and that Argentum was asking him to transform Earth-based Pseudo-Animates into Earth energy particles.

Thinking about the reasons why Argentum requested him to do such a thing, it did not take long for Argentum’s statement from a while ago to pop up in his head. With that in mind, he asked with a hint of caution, “Is it for [Earth Affinity]?”

“Exactly,” Argentum nodded as he responded. As for Felix, he scratched his head for a bit, wondering if it was possible for him to even do so. After a while, he concluded that he did not know how to do such a thing, but did not want Argentum to know that. And so, he went ahead and silently conjured a strand of his energy, which headed towards the room occupied by both Blob and Eleanor.

A few seconds later, a feminine voice resounded throughout his mind, asking him, “Why did you contact me, Felix? Can’t you hear that I’m busy teaching Argentum’s companion how to use his skills and spells properly?”

“It’s just a quick question,” Felix hastily replied, seeing that he was taking up Eleanor’s time. “Argentum asked me if I could convert Earth-based Pseudo-Animates into Earth energy particles. I just wanted to ask if that was possible.”

“It is,” Eleanor unhesitatingly replied, leaving Felix at a loss for words. The only sound he could eke out in response after that was, “Eh?”

“You’re thinking too much, Felix,” Eleanor said soon after before letting out a light giggle that resounded in his mind. A few seconds later, she responded, “To convert Pseudo-Animates into energy particles…”

“You just have to kill them.”

“I see…” Felix said with a tone of uncertainty before cutting off their connection, pondering as to whether Eleanor’s words were true or not. After mulling over it for a bit, he eventually concluded that it was indeed true, recalling the memories he had when he was still fighting against a great number of Pseudo-Animates at once. Whenever they died, their bodies would disintegrate into particles of various colors before being absorbed by the world.

Thinking about those particles, he could not help but think that they were condensed particles of a certain element since they were visible to the naked eye. Although he wondered if that would speed up or slow down Argentum’s comprehension over [Earth Affinity], he could not help but think that doing it would truly help Argentum out.

Noticing that Felix was silent for quite some time, Argentum went ahead and asked him, “So…can you do it?”

“Yeah, I can,” Felix nodded as he responded. Soon after, he gestured with his hands as strands of energy soon appeared in front of his body, conjuring into a blue magic circle that allowed five silhouettes to appear in front of both Argentum and Felix.

It did not take long for the appearance of the five silhouettes to be fully seen by Argentum and Felix, with the energy making up their bodies being a shade of light brown. Unfortunately for them, just as they were about to ask why they were summoned, a glint of blue light was the last thing they saw as their bodies were cut multiple times, transforming into multiple motes of brown light soon after.

Sensing the connection he had towards the brown motes, Argentum unhesitatingly went ahead and absorbed them while he recalled the information regarding [Earth Affinity] in his mind. After he had absorbed all of the brown motes in a matter of a few minutes, an aura of elation and surprise soon enveloped Argentum as he found out that his understanding of [Earth Affinity] was now three-fourths of the way there.

Noticing that Argentum radiated an aura of excitement, Felix could not help but ask, “Was it effective?”

“Yeah!” Argentum could not help but shout his response excitedly. He then told Felix, “If you do that a few more times, I think I’d be able to obtain [Earth Affinity] after ten minutes or so!”

Hearing Argentum’s words, Felix could not help but let out a sigh as he silently prayed for the souls that were inside the Earth-based Pseudo-Animates he would kill to have a better life.

And just like that, quite a substantial amount of Earth-based Pseudo-Animates had been transformed into motes of brown light, their method of death akin to chickens being beheaded while they were unaware. Although Argentum finally felt bad after the second batch of Earth-based Pseudo-Animates had been converted into motes of brown light, he continued with his process of understanding [Earth Affinity] as he silently prayed for those that were killed for his gain.

Eventually, after a total of 25 Earth-based Pseudo-Animates had been killed, the connection Argentum felt towards the Earth element had now achieved a breakthrough. If his connection with the Earth element before was akin to somewhat familiar acquaintances, right now, what he felt was that of a connection between good friends.

Ding!

With a notification sound resounding throughout his mind, Argentum went ahead and opened up the notification screen in his mind, radiating an aura of happiness soon after.

‘You have obtained the skill [Earth Affinity].’

Surprisingly, just as he was about to go ahead and increase his understanding of [Earth Affinity] to be at the same level as the other affinities, another notification sound resounded in his mind.

Ding!

Soon after that, the feminine-sounding voice of the system was soon heard in his mind, asking him, “You have obtained great affinities with the four foundational elements. Would you like to fuse them and obtain [Lesser Origin Affinity]? By doing so, you would be eligible to participate in the Origin Trials.”

Listening to the system’s words for a bit, he pondered as to whether he should accept the offer or not.

Unexpectedly, it did not take long for him to come to an answer as he replied in his mind with…

“No.”

“Well, to be more exact…”

“Not yet.”

——–

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