Chapter 256 - Blue Lightning Triad Tribulation (1/2)
XXXX Continent, amidst the wilderness.
Whoosh!
On the vast plains that constituted a part of the wilderness, one would see a humanoid made out red energy dashing through the plains at great speeds. Sensing the aura radiating from this humanoid, one would instantly conclude that one could not easily mess with this being. Not only that, but if one looked closely on one of the being's shoulders, one would notice that there was a speck of red sand on it, as if it had landed there for no reason.
Surprisingly though, this speck of red sand also radiated an aura that was a few notches weaker than the running humanoid. The humanoid and the speck of red sand were none other than Argentum and Blob, traversing the wilderness in order to arrive at Verdant Breeze Town.
So far, almost two days have passed since Blob and Argentum had left the Azure Shores. With Blob utilizing the route that was plotted out by Argentum, he had traversed a great distance within these past few days, only taking a few breaks in between. Unexpectedly, while he was taking those breaks, once he had replenished his energy to a considerable amount, he would extend the time of his break a bit more and fight against beings that were nearby, allowing him to enhance his stats by quite a bit.
Through this method, Blob had improved by around 10 levels or so, with the speed at which he ran being significantly faster than before. The same could be said for his offensive and defensive prowess.
And then…there was Argentum.
Although he would look at the surroundings for a bit after feeling that Blob went on a break, he would instantly go back to pondering over the skills he had and mastering his control over them. Unsurprisingly, this kind of mindset allowed him to achieve great improvements in almost all of his skills.
Throughout these past few days, he was able to improve the passive Animate skills he had to the Artisan level of mastery, increasing the efficacy and range of his senses. As for his active Animate skills, all of them had reached the Master level of mastery, thus prompting him to evolve them. Of course, he advanced them even further, stopping at the Expert level of mastery. Then again, the same did not apply to the active skills he had regarding the usage of weapons.
Regarding the other passive skills he had, almost all of them had advanced by a single grade, may it be through actively increasing their experience, or passively increasing it. The only exceptions to these skills were [Water Affinity] and [Water Resistance], which were only close to their respective maximum levels.
The skills that had obtained the most improvement were obviously the active skills he had obtained from the Tempest Cliff and the various inheritances he had entered. The first skill he put his focus towards was [Lesser Azure Magic+], the only spell-based skill he had that was not on the same level as the other two spell-based skills he had.
After it had evolved to [Intermediate Azure Magic++], he then put his focus on the Wind and Fire counterpart of the skill as well, becoming satisfied after evolving them to the next grade. Their names were now [Higher Zephyr Magic+++], [Higher Ignis Magic+++], and [Higher Algor Magic+++] respectively, with Argentum only stopping after the three had achieved Adept level.
He then focused on the Wind-based active skills he had, with all of them advancing by a grade, stopping at either the Adept or Expert level of mastery. Then again, the same could be said for the other active skills that were based on the other elements. Almost all of them had advanced by one grade and achieved either the Adept or Expert level of mastery. The only exception to that would be [Great Sapphire Wave Art++], which did not evolve and had only achieved the Artisan level of mastery.
”Haah…haah…” Letting out a sigh as he ran at his full power for a few more minutes, Blob decided to head towards a nearby boulder, making it his temporary resting place as he felt that he had almost exhausted all of his energy. Sitting down on the ground while resting his back on the large boulder, he sent a strand of his energy towards the speck of red sand on his shoulder.
'Hey, Argentum. I'm going to take a break, okay?' This was what the strand of energy contained, which prompted Argentum to stop his session of grinding before opening his sense of vision soon after.
After taking in the surroundings around them, Argentum went ahead and asked Blob, ”Do you know where we are right now? Just wanted to check if we're moving at a pace faster or slower than usual.”
”Let me recall…” Blob said in response to Argentum's words, closing his sense of vision for a bit as he put his full focus on recalling the route that Argentum gave to him. After a few seconds, he opened his sense of vision before replying, ”After I recuperate myself and run for a few minutes, we would be able to reach the Iridescent Light Forest.”
”Iridescent Light Forest,” Argentum repeated the name of the landmark Blob told him, recalling the route he gave to Blob a few seconds later. Making sure that the calculation he made in his mind was not wrong, he muttered, ”So…we're around halfway there to Verdant Breeze Town. Estimating the level of improvement Blob would make along the way, we'd probably be back at Tempest Cliff just a few days more after two weeks.”
”Alright,” Argentum responded to Blob's reply before saying, ”Go take a nice break. We'd probably reach Verdant Breeze Town after a couple more days or so. Do you think you could do it?”
”Believe in me, Argentum,” Blob replied with a light chuckle as he added, ”With the number of beings I kill every time I take a break, we'll definitely get there within two days or less.”
”Good to hear,” Argentum responded to Blob's statement, letting out a chuckle of his own as he closed his sense of vision. He was about to return to his usual grinding session.
But unfortunately for him, just as he was about to expound upon the skills in his arsenal, a random thought surfaced in his mind, occupying most of the concentration he had in mind. Seeing as it was slightly hard to push this thought away and focus on his skills, he decided to look at the thought, which had something to do with the first Power Baptism he had.
'My first Power Baptism, huh…' he thought to himself as he recalled the strength he could now unleash after clearing the Grand Blue Inheritance. 'Speaking of which, I still haven't checked the stat boost the Grand Blue Inheritance gave me.'
Whoosh!
Commanding the system to reveal the title's info in his mind, it did not take long for Argentum to realize that the Grand Blue Master's words were correct when he said that 15% of his inheritance's power would be equivalent to a greater portion of a small inheritance's power.
________
[Grand Blue Inheritance: Partial Ownership]
Description has been omitted.
> Increases all stats by 75%
________
With his curiosity regarding the stat boost of the title now being satisfied, his thoughts shifted back to the first Power Baptism, wondering if he could clear it without much difficulty after everything he had been through so far. Surprisingly, even though he had a feeling that he would be able to do it, after recalling the power of the first bolt that almost killed him, he could not help but have a slight fear towards the Power Baptism.
Rather than forcing himself to do it right now, he increased his determination that he was going to attempt his first Power Baptism after he had ransacked Verdant Breeze Town.
'Now that I think about it…can Blob undergo a Power Baptism?' With the thought regarding his own Power Baptism now gone, he thought that he could continue grinding his skills, only to find out that another thought had taken its original place. This thought was now filled with the question as to whether or not Blob could clear his first Power Baptism.
Letting out an inward sigh, Argentum focused his thoughts onto this new thought, thinking about the upsides and downsides of Blob undergoing his first Power Baptism. Unsurprisingly, the pros outweighed the cons, with the only con in undergoing a Power Baptism being the chance of being caught by an Animate.