I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 283: Decadence of the Five Hyacinths

“Power Baptism?” Horell repeated Argentum’s words a few times, only for an aura of contemplation to radiate from him. Not long after, this aura was soon replaced with confusion as he asked Argentum, “What’s a Power Baptism?”

Hearing Horell’s question, Argentum could not help but look at him as if he was looking at the only person he knew that knew everything, but in actuality, only knew superficial things about those topics. With a slight aura of disbelief radiating from him, he went ahead and asked him, “Do you really not know what a Power Baptism is?”

In response, Horell went ahead and rummaged through the memories in his mind, wondering if he did know what it was. After a while, he focused his sense of vision towards Herellia before sending a few strands of energy between them back and forth. Eventually, the passing of energy strands between the two of them was finally over, prompting him to look back at Argentum before shaking his head left and right as he replied, “Unfortunately, I do not.”

“Are you serious…” Argentum muttered as a response to Horell’s statement, only for him to let out a soft sigh not long after as he compiled and organized the knowledge he had regarding Power Baptisms in his mind. He then pondered on how he was going to start explaining what a Power Baptism was, with a thought related to it surfacing in his mind not long after as an aura of enlightenment surrounded him.

Imitating the sound of one clearing their throat to attract Horell’s attention, and unintentionally, Herellia’s, Argentum looked back at Horell and said in a solemn yet serious voice, “Before I go ahead and explain what a Power Baptism is, I assume you know what an Existence Tribulation is.”

Horell could not help but lightly nod as he heard Argentum mentioned the term ‘Existence Tribulation’. Taking in a deep breath, he then went ahead and explained what he knew regarding Existence Tribulations as he replied, “I indeed know what an Existence Tribulation is. It’s the trial an Inanimate has to undertake if they want to reach a higher level of existence. In other words, it’s the trial I underwent to obtain my current form.”

Argentum subconsciously nodded at his words since what he said could be considered as the most basic explanation of what an Existence Tribulation is. Telling Horell that his answer was exactly what an Existence Tribulation was, he then continued with his explanation on what a Power Baptism is, saying, “If I were to simplify it as much as possible, think of Power Baptisms as just weaker Existence Tribulations for Pseudo-Animates.”

“Weaker Existence Tribulations?” Herellia could not help but chime in as she heard those words. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well…” Argentum pondered over what he was going to say, eventually finding the right string of words as he replied, “It is what it is, to be honest. An Existence Tribulation has multiple trials in order for one to eventually reach a higher level of existence, while a Power Baptism only has one trial in order for one to reach a higher level of power.”

“Speaking of which, could you two remind me how you two got to know Existence Tribulations again?” he said not long after as he truly forgot how they came to know of it. Although he could go ahead and rummage through Aurus’s memories once more to find the answer himself, it was far easier to just ask them one more time.

Unexpectedly, Herellia was the one who answered his question as she responded, “If I remember correctly, Horell and I were traversing through an Animate town and came across Existence Tribulations in one of their books.”

She then went ahead and looked at Horell, who nodded as if to agree with her statement as he added, “I’m pretty sure it was night time when we went there so we read all of the content in that book. Surprisingly, it tackled Existence Tribulations in great detail. I still wonder to this day as to which Animate wrote that.”

“I see,” Argentum said as he nodded in understanding. From their answers, he had inferred that the reason why the two knew about Existence Tribulations, but not of Power Baptisms was because they had entered a town for Animates. As Existence Tribulations allowed the emergence of Animates, Power Baptisms were left hidden as they were only a method to increase power for Pseudo-Animates and not for Animates.

‘Now that I think about it…’ Just as he thought that he had figured everything out as to why they were clueless to Power Baptisms, Argentum found it somewhat odd that a book containing information regarding Existence Tribulations would be found inside a library for Animates. He then thought to himself, ‘Do Animates even need information regarding Existence Tribulations? I’m pretty sure only Inanimates would benefit from such information.’

“Weird. Incredibly weird,” Argentum muttered to himself as he made a mental note that if he turned into an Animate, he would find the book Herellia and Horell read to find out about Existence Tribulations. At this point, he realized that he had gone off-track in his mind, hastily returning to his train of thought as he looked at Horell before imitating the sound of one clearing their throat.

With their attention now back at him, he finished his explanation as he told him, “In short, Power Baptisms are just small Existence Tribulations for Pseudo-Animates. One would need to accumulate a ton of energy inside their body before triggering a Power Baptism. Once one successfully clears a Power Baptism, their power would instantly increase by a factor of 10.”

“That much?!” Horell could not help but exclaim as he thought that a single Power Baptism would only increase his power by a factor of 2 or 3 at most. Never in his mind did he think that such a thing would boost his power by that much. But just as he thought that Power Baptisms were amazing, he could not help but recall the Power Baptism he underwent to transform into a Pseudo-Animate, remembering the amount of power that coursed through his body just as he finished the trials.

‘I guess that’s why Argentum calls them small Existence Tribulations,’ he thought to himself soon after before asking Argentum, “How does one accumulate energy to trigger a Power Baptism?”

“Uh…” Hearing Horell’s question, it was then that Argentum realized that he relied on the system too much when it came to Power Baptisms. From the process of obtaining the energy needed to undergo one to the initiation of a Power Baptism, most of it was all thanks to the Transcending Existence System he had. And it seemed that he was going to rely on it one more time.

“System, how does one normally accumulate energy in order to start a Power Baptism?” Argentum hastily asked inside his mind, hoping to get an answer from the system in less than instant.

Ding!

Fortunately, the system had heard his pleas, answering his question in less than an instant as a feminine-sounding voice resounded in his mind, saying, “For a being that does not have the system, the usual way for them to accumulate energy for Power Baptisms is through diverting part of the energy they consume in their day-to-day lives towards a body part of their choosing. Once a part is filled to the brim with energy, it would naturally explode, thus triggering a Power Baptism.”

“By explode, do you mean the body part would explode, or is the energy inside that part the one that’s going to explode?” Argentum could not help but ask a follow-up question as he imagined the former, leading to a gruesome sight in his imagination.

In less than an instant, the system replied, “Only the energy inside the body would explode. If it was the explosion of a body part, it would trigger something else instead.”

“Hmm…” Argentum mulled over the system’s words for a bit as he digested them, wondering what the system meant in the last part of its statement. Nevertheless, since the last part seemed to not be useful to him, Argentum placed the thought at the back of his head as he looked back at Horell and replied, “In order for one to accumulate energy for a Power Baptism, one must redirect a great portion of their energy towards a random part on their body. Once the accumulated energy naturally explodes, then the Power Baptism would begin.”

“I understand,” Horell said after he was finished processing Argentum’s words in his mind. Not long after, he then went ahead and circulated all of the energy in his body before redirecting it towards his right limb. But just as the redirected energy was about to make its way to the right forearm, Argentum prevented it from happening as he told Horell, “I’d suggest you accumulate energy outside the alliance. Although a Power Baptism is a smaller and weaker Existence Tribulation, I can tell you without a doubt that it packs a punch.”

As for Herellia, she agreed with Argentum’s words as she said, “What Argentum said. It took an incredibly long time for us to repair the alliance base after what Zelefaire did. Do you really want to repair the alliance base all over again?”

In response, Horell went ahead and disappeared in front of Argentum and Herellia’s field of vision, prompting the two to look around for a bit. Eventually, they were able to find Horell, who had just appeared near the corridor that led to the main hall of the alliance base. The two of them then looked at each other for a bit before going ahead and utilizing all of their movement speed boosting buffs and skills to head over to where Horell was as fast as possible.

After arriving at where Horell was, the three of them went ahead and moved at the same pace, heading towards a portion of the Tempest Cliff that was at least a few kilometers away from the entrance of the alliance base. Utilizing his enhanced sense of vision, Argentum looked around and checked for things that might interfere with Horell’s Power Baptism, eventually finding out that there were none in the vicinity. 

Letting out an inward sigh of relief, he then went ahead and distanced himself from Horell, but not at a level where it wouldn’t be too late for him to help him out in his Power Baptism. Noticing what Argentum was doing, Herellia decided to do the same, more or less ending up at the same place where Argentum was.

After making sure that they were far enough from Horell that they wouldn’t be hit by the trial brought about by the Power Baptism, Argentum focused his sense of vision towards Horell and shouted, “You can start now!”

Nodding in response to Argentum’s shout, Horell went ahead and closed his sense of vision, allowing him to gain increased sensitivity towards the energy circulating throughout his body. He then went ahead and allocated most of the energy to head towards his right forearm. In an instant, the energy that headed towards his forearm instantly made it look bigger, as if he had muscles on his right forearm in the first place.

Although Horell felt that the energy inside his right forearm was quite dense, it was not at a level that it would explode yet. With that in mind, he willed even more energy, which had recovered to a substantial degree, to head towards his right forearm. With this batch of energy now mixing it with the previous batch of energy, his right forearm now looked like an arm that had undergone extreme hypertrophy. Unfortunately for Horell, he did not feel the energy inside his right forearm exploding yet so he went ahead and waited for a bit more before sending another batch of energy to his right forearm.

‘Please let this be the last one,’ Horell thought to himself as he let the energy circulating throughout his body recover to a decently high level before sending most of it towards his right forearm one more time. Fortunately for him, just like what he was hoping for in his mind, after the current batch of energy had mixed in with the previous batches of energy in his right forearm, the energy that had accumulated inside it had exploded in an instant, allowing a loud and audible sound of an explosion to resound throughout the area. Surprisingly, Horell did not feel any pain from it, even though he was expecting it to hurt a lot.

Rumble…rumble…

A few seconds later, dark clouds started to manifest a few thousand meters above Horell’s head, prompting him to look up as he muttered to himself, “Is this the Power Baptism Argentum was talking about?”

With that in mind, he went ahead and looked at Argentum, only for him to see Argentum looking back at him and nodding, indirectly telling that the dark clouds above him constituted the Power Baptism he was going to undertake. Taking in a deep breath, Horell went ahead and composed himself as he did not know what a Power Baptism would have up its sleeve.

Ding!

On the other hand, Argentum obtained a notification from the system, prompting him to open it up soon after. After reading through it, he could not help but find it weird as he muttered, “Horell isn’t even a companion made by the system at all, so why is the system doing this?”

“Nevertheless, from the name of the trial, it seems to be easier than mine,” he soon added as he let out a light chuckle. “How about I go help him out to make his trial a walk in the park?”

‘One of the user’s companions has triggered a Power Baptism!”

‘With the heavens adjusting the difficulty of the Power Baptism, the decided trial shall be…’

‘The Decadence of the Five Hyacinths!’

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