Chapter 196 - The Road to Power (1/2)
XXXX Continent, outside the Tempest Cliff.
”Haah…is this what the original body felt while he was wandering throughout this world alone?” A being made out of pure green energy could not help but mutter to itself as it dashed through the terrain at its maximum speed, startling those who were lucky enough to get near the being. This being took on the shape of a human but it did not have facial features…yet for some reason, it emulated a part that was not even needed for its existence level, being covered up with two large leaves wrapped around its waist.
This being was none other than Argentum, who already felt bored after only leaving the Tempest Cliff for around 20 minutes. Nonetheless, he continued to run towards Verdant Breeze Town since that's what he promised to his original body, Aurus.
At the moment, he was recalling the plan he had in mind which composed of the things he would do while on his way to Verdant Breeze Town. Concurrently, he was also wondering how his original body was able to withstand such boredom for a long amount of time before meeting Herellia and the others. Surprisingly, rather than focus on the plan he had in mind, he decided to look through the shared memories of both him and Aurus, specifically searching for the things Aurus had done while he was still alone.
”…” After looking at what his original body had done to stave off boredom in the start, Argentum was left at a loss for words, wondering if there was a part of his original body that had already gone insane thanks to it. It was then that he made a promise to himself that he would not lose his mind like his original body while traveling to Verdant Breeze Town…no matter how boring it may be.
”But how am I going to do that…” Just as Argentum asked himself this question, the other thought that was simultaneously going on in his mind a while ago had surfaced as if it was the answer to his question, which Argentum was surprisingly happy to remember.
”Right! Unlike my original body, I have multiple skills I could grind while I'm on my way to Verdant Breeze Town,” Argentum said to himself in glee as he added, ”Not only that, I also have to obtain some skills from the areas I have to pass through as well!”
As he said the last statement, an aura of seriousness emanated from him as he placed his index finger and thumb under his chin while running, going over through his memories as he muttered, ”I know how to obtain those skills when I'm an Inanimate or an Animate. How am I going to obtain that as a Pseudo-Animate though?”
Eventually, he stopped thinking about this question as he let out a light chuckle before saying, ”I'm far from that area so I shouldn't think about it for now. I should do what I can currently do, which is to grind my skills like crazy!”
”System, open up the skill list,” Argentum commanded the system in his mind, to which system promptly responded by showing a small holographic screen in front of Argentum, taking into consideration that he was currently running.
Ding!
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Active Skills:
[Lesser Wind Magic Lv. 1], [Hundred Facade Polymorph Lv. 1], [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation Lv. 1], [Mana Barrier Lv. 1], [Great Mana Domain Lv. 1], [Mana Awakening Lv. 1]
Passive Skills:
[Blessing of the Great Wind Lv. 1], [Lesser Mana Affinity Lv. 1], [Clouded Mana Core Lv. 1], [Boundless Potential Lv. 1], [Spirit Resonance Lv. MAX]
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As he looked at the skills on the screen that had appeared in front of his field of vision, he would command the system to show its description, allowing him to formulate a plan that would let him improve his skills at an insanely fast rate. Of course, calling it the formulation of a plan was more or less an exaggeration, in actuality, he was organizing the skills on his list, prioritizing those that had a lower grade first before those with the higher grades.
”By the looks of it, the lowest skill grade on my list is the C-grade Mortal level, which consists of a single active skill, and three passive skills. As for the highest skill grade on my list, that would be the A-grade Mortal level, which consists of all of the remaining skills on my list, except for [Spirit Resonance], which has no grade and level whatsoever,” Argentum muttered as he thought out loud while running, sparing some of his consciousness towards the terrain in front of him.
”C-grade Mortal level skills have a maximum level of 10 for a Pseudo-Animate, which is 7 levels higher than on the Inanimate existence level. As for A-grade Mortal level skills, they have a maximum level of 30, which is 20 levels higher than on the Inanimate existence level. From that…I have no problems with what I'm going to prioritize then,” Argentum continued to mutter before a grin appeared on his featureless face, raising his left arm as a ball of mana manifested a few centimeters away from his palm as he continued to run.
He then threw this mana ball towards a nearby tree as he shouted, ”[Lesser Wind Magic]!”
”[Wind Ball]!”
Whoosh! Bang!
Just as the mana ball was about to collide with the tree, the ball had undergone an abrupt change, instantly radiating an intense aura of Wind before truly hitting the tree, creating a large crater on its trunk as it made multiple lacerations on it as well.
Ding!
”[Lesser Wind Magic] has leveled up.”
”[Clouded Mana Core] has leveled up.”
”[Blessing of the Great Wind] has leveled up.”
As a notification sound resounded throughout his mind, the system went ahead and announced the notifications he had gotten from that attack, slightly shocking him as he expected only the first skill, [Lesser Wind Magic], to level up. But then, relying on the shared memories he had, he eventually realized why three skills had leveled up instead of one, prompting Argentum to stop in his place as he pondered over something.
In his mind were multiple thoughts related to the skills he currently had. At this moment, he was pondering over what he could do to increase the speed of improvement of his skills after remembering this fact, and not only rely on the original body's absorption of the Transcending Comprehension Leaf to increase his speed of improvement.
After a few minutes of pondering over what combination of skills could be used to improve as many skills as possible with one move, an optimal combination was soon realized in Argentum's mind, making him let out a sigh as he chuckled at the same time.
”By doing this, am I considered a masochist?” He could not help but ask himself this question as he looked at the terrain in front of him before continuing to run once more. He then went over the optimal combination of skills in his mind before taking a deep breath of air as he prepared himself for what he was going to do.
”If only I had as much energy to use just like the original body,” Argentum muttered before adding, ”Making sure that all skills activate with the least amount of energy is quite hard. Nonetheless, by doing this, I'll be able to increase my maximum energy capacity.”
”First off…”
”[Great Mana Domain]…”
”[Bare-bones]!”
Whoosh!
At the instant he muttered the name of this skill, a faint blue light had covered his body, increasing the regeneration rate of his energy while increasing the maximum amount of energy he could hold well. Unfortunately, due to the method of activation Argentum had used, only a small boost had been applied to Argentum. Nevertheless, after seeing that it was successful, Argentum chuckled as two notifications resounded in his mind, telling him that [Great Mana Domain] and [Clouded Mana Core] had both leveled up.
”If the 'Legendary Tinkerer' knew that [Bare-bones] could actually work with any skill one had, he'd surely be at the Divinity existence level by now,” Argentum said as a certain memory surfaced in his mind while he was about to activate another skill.
…