Chapter 313 - Downsides of Being Human (1/2)

”It seems it has begun,” Argentum could not help but mutter as he looked at Herellia's current plight. For someone like him who had access to Aurus's memories, the condition in which an Animate would clutch their hands around their stomach as a soft growl could be heard was all too familiar to him. On the other hand, listening to his words, Horell could not help but ask him in a panic, saying, ”What do you mean it has begun? Shouldn't you help Herellia out?!”

”Calm yourself, Horell. There's no point panicking over something that could be solved easily,” Argentum looked at Horell as he responded, allowing the calm aura that he was exuding to extend towards Horell. Surprisingly, the aura he had exuded had helped Horell calm down, prompting him to take in a few deep breaths as he apologized not long after.

”So, what should we do?” Horell asked Argentum once again, this time, in a calm manner. At this moment, a light chuckle resounded from the latter as he replied, ”Well, if you mean 'me' by saying 'we,' then I'm going to have to do two things.”

”First off, let me conjure something,” he added not long after as he soon fiddled with the spell creation feature of [Sage's Water Magic]. Inwardly chuckling at what he was doing due to its hilarity, he could not help but think to himself, 'To think I'm going to have to discard one of my True Water spells for one that allows me to conjure a water ball. It's like giving a stick to a soldier.'

Nevertheless, that feeling only lasted for a fleeting moment as he soon created the spell he needed to help Herellia out. Not long after, he started to mutter the incantations needed for the spell to be activated as a cyan magic circle manifested in front of him. Gradually, droplets of water started to appear from the magic circle, eventually transforming into a large ball of water that hovered around half a meter off the ground.

Swoosh…

Utilizing his control over the water ball, Argentum removed a small part of the water from the ball before moving it towards Herellia. While doing so, he replenished the lost water from the ball through the conjured magic circle, converting his energy into more droplets of water.

”Hey, Herellia,” Argentum said to Herellia to catch her attention. In response, Herellia looked at Argentum with a slightly pained expression as she instantly noticed the blob of water hovering in front of her face. She then asked her, ”Why is there water in front of me?”

”Drink it,” Argentum succinctly responded while Herellia tilted her head in confusion, wondering what Argentum meant by 'drinking.' As a newly evolved Animate, she was still unfamiliar with most of the functions and features that came with ascending to the Animate level, which Argentum fortunately noticed after seeing Herellia tilt her head in confusion.

Coming closer to her, he slowly moved the blob of water towards her mouth as he instructed her, ”Open your mouth.”

Knowing that Argentum didn't want to harm her in any way, Herellia did what she was told, opening her mouth as Argentum manipulated the blob of water to enter her mouth. In an instant, a refreshing sensation covered the entirety of her mouth's insides. However, she still had her mouth open all this time.

”Now close your mouth,” Argentum said after that, not minding the fact that he was teaching Herellia how to drink water step-by-step. Although ISE did not go too in-depth into this dilemma according to Aurus' memories, Argentum knew that tons of books were written about this problem in the various libraries Aurus had gone to in the past.

Seeing Herellia obediently close her mouth, Argentum subconsciously nodded as he then said, ”Now, swallow the water.”

At this moment, Herellia was about to ask how she would do that, but soon remembered that her mouth was filled with water, which was the place where her voice originated. The pain she felt from her stomach had slightly subsided as she focused on trying to swallow the water. After a minute or continuous rummaging through her memories and sheer trial, a vocal gulping sound could be heard coming from Herellia as the water in her mouth had gone through her esophagus, landing in her stomach.

With that, the pain inside her stomach had been totally removed, which made Herellia look at Argentum as if he was some sort of savior. Noticing the way Herellia was looking at him, Argentum scratched his head as he told her, ”Just so you know, what you just did is a temporary fix for your problem. I'll still have to do one more thing to make sure that it would take quite some for the problem to arise.”

”Horell.” After telling Herellia what he had to say, he then shifted his focus towards Horell as he said, ”Take control of the water ball I conjured. If Herellia does that again, just remove a decent portion of water from the water ball and give it to her, okay?”

”Alright,” Horell replied as he nodded. He then conjured multiple mana tendrils, sending it towards the water ball to take control over it and make sure that it was still hovering off the air. Seeing that Horell's control over the water ball he had conjured was now more or less stable, Argentum went ahead and bid farewell to the two of them as he activated all of his movement speed boosting spells before heading in the direction directly opposite the path that led to the Verdant Blossom Breeze Alliance.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

As he started to run, he commanded the system to bring up a map of Tempest Cliff and the area surrounding it, pondering over the location he would stop at. Eventually, he made up his mind, setting a marker on a location a couple of kilometers away from the Tempest Cliff's borders.

…

With his understanding of the Wind element at the Animate level, it only took a few minutes for Argentum to arrive at the place he had marked, taking in a deep breath as he made sure that he was in his peak condition. He then utilized his enhanced senses to search for a particular thing in the area.

”Hmm…what's a good first animal to kill and cook?” Argentum muttered as he hummed a small tune, moving here and there every once in a while to get a better view of the surroundings. At this point, it was quite obvious as to what Argentum was doing. Herellia was experiencing hunger, so Argentum was going to catch an animal and cook it to satiate her hunger.