Chapter 191 - A Foolproof Plan (1/2)
Whoosh!
Due to Aurus's Pseudo-Animate body being positioned near the side of the alliance base, it only took Aurus less than a minute to make his way to where it was. At the instant he had arrived in front of his Pseudo-Animate body, he was left at a loss for words, unable to convey what he was seeing in front of him at the moment.
”Hoh…” After a few seconds, this was the only sound Aurus could make after seeing his Pseudo-Animate body. The appearance it took on was in the shape of a human. But what separated it from other humans was that rather than the whole body being made up of cells, what made up this body was in fact, pure energy.
This pure energy was akin to what made up Horell's current body as a Mana Spirit, but since Aurus's Pseudo-Animate body was a Wind Elemental, the hue of this energy was a light green. Other than that, there was also the lack of facial features on where its face was supposed to be.
It did not take long for Aurus to accept the fact that this is what his clone looked like, letting out a light chuckle as he noticed the cover he made for his private parts when the clone in front of him was still an Animate was still around the Pseudo-Animate's waist. Noticing this, he jokingly asked himself, ”Surely, since this clone of mine is made up of energy, it wouldn't imitate that part as well, right?”
And so, with that question in mind, Aurus went ahead and used [Parallel Body Control] to move the Pseudo-Animate's arms, grasping on the leaf cover tightly before pulling it downward. At the exact moment Aurus saw the leaf cover move downward, his sense of vision instantly focused towards a protruding rod of energy right where a certain part would normally be for a male Animate, turning speechless once more.
Although he was quite proud that this part was still the same after his clone turned into a Pseudo-Animate, he could not help but let out a slightly disappointed sigh before saying, ”Why did it have to imitate that part instead of facial features? I'd rather have facial features for now before that part, to be honest.”
Either way, since it seemed that there was nothing he could do about it, Aurus decided to accept this fact as well, pulling the leaf cover up to cover the Pseudo-Animate's rod. After that, he went ahead and checked if he could communicate with his clone like a second person like before, asking, ”Can you hear me?”
Surprisingly, after hearing Aurus's question, a rough shape of a mouth appeared on where the Pseudo-Animate's face was supposed to be, replying to Aurus with, ”Mhm, I can. Since I'm you, and you're me, and we both have the system, we can talk with each other anywhere, anytime.”
”Well, I'm glad to hear that it's still the same,” Aurus replied to his clone's words. He then pondered over something for a short while, focusing his sense of vision on the clone in front of him once more as he asked it, ”Is your name still Argentum?”
”Hmm…let me check,” the clone replied, muttering a few commands to the system as a status screen appeared in front of it. Of course, Aurus could see this status screen as well due to him sharing perspectives with the clone, but after looking at the clone's name through it, he commanded the system to stop sharing their perspectives.
After closing the status screen in front of it, the clone replied to Aurus's words with a tone of certainty, saying, ”Just checked. I'm still named Argentum. Well, if you think about it, why wouldn't I be?”
”True,” Aurus replied to Argentum's words, pondering over something yet again. A few seconds later, he asked Argentum, ”Did you notice that I disabled the perspective sharing?”
”Yeah,” Argentum replied before adding, ”To be honest, it's quite nauseating to have two perspectives at the same time.”
”Indeed,” Aurus voiced out his opinion. Not long after, he asked Argentum once more, saying, ”Anyways, mind if I check your status screen?”
”You're the original body. Why wouldn't I let you?” Argentum replied to Aurus's question with a slight chuckle, with Aurus commanding the system to identify Argentum not long after. While Aurus was commanding the system, Argentum let out a low sigh before saying, ”Anyways, don't set your expectations too high. I still have a decent amount of skills, but my stats are pretty shit now.”
”How shitty can it be?” Aurus replied optimistically. It did not take long for the system to respond to his command, a slightly corporeal screen appearing in front of his field of vision that laid out Argentum's stats in front of him. After taking a short glance through it, he could not help but look at Argentum before sighing. He then went ahead and said, ”It seems you were right. I apologize for only using around 5000 FP to make you back then.”
Ding!
________
[Argentum] (Level 1/10)
Experience: 0/100
Species: Wind Elemental
Existence Level: Pseudo-Animate
Grade: Normal
Power Baptism: None
—————
[HP]: 1/1
[MP]: 5/5
—————
Stats:
Vitality - 1
Strength - 1
Defense - 1
Agility - 1
Intelligence - 1
________
”Every stat is at the lowest possible number.” As Aurus muttered this, he pondered as to why this was the case, getting to the conclusion that Argentum's stats was related to the amount of FP he had used. And since a single stat point for a Pseudo-Animate was a thousand points for an Inanimate, it made sense that Argentum would only have a total stat amount of 5.
”I seriously apologize for only using over 5000 FP to make you back then,” Aurus apologized once more, to which Argentum let out a light chuckle in response. This chuckle could not help but make Aurus confused, wondering what was so funny. Eventually, Argentum stopped laughing, satiating Aurus's curiosity as he replied, ”Since we share memories, I see what you're planning to do with me. To be honest, I agree that it's the best choice as well. Imagine your clone becoming a Super Animate, wouldn't that be cool?”
He then added, ”Although you're optimistic about that plan, it seems you aren't optimistic enough. Think about this way. With my stats being at the lowest possible number, that means I have a greater room for improvement, right?”
”Well, that is true,” Aurus slowly replied to Argentum's words, rummaging through his old memories as he continued to say, ”I also started at the lowest possible stats, only getting to where I am right now with the current species I have, plus the skills I have…”
As he was continuing to talk, Aurus realized that he was looking at Argentum from a wrong angle at the start. Realizing this, Aurus let out a chuckle with a hint of mockery, this mocking tone pointed at himself as he said to Argentum, ”I've been too engrossed in what I currently have for too long that I didn't even realize the insane amount of potential a blank slate like you would have.”
”I'm not a true blank slate though,” Argentum replied with a hint of happiness as he continued, ”I'm a Wind Elemental. From the name of my species alone, I'm inclined towards the Wind element.”
”So what about it?” Aurus responded to Argentum's words as he added, ”You could just master the other elemental affinities and everything would be fine once you evolve, right?”
”Wouldn't that make the Power Baptisms harder though?” Argentum asked him, rummaging through their shared memories of Power Baptisms.
Power Baptisms in ISE were akin to the Existence Tribulations, but only to a certain extent. Unlike Existence Tribulations, Pseudo-Animates could undergo Power Baptisms, with the difficulty of a Power Baptism being related to the amount of power a Pseudo-Animate has. Of course, the higher the power when undergoing a Power Baptism, the greater the increment in terms of power a Pseudo-Animate would obtain.