Chapter 344: One Step Closer (1/2)

XXXX Continent, Inferno Plains.

Whoosh!

”Haah…haah…” Under the rays of sunlight only found in the early morning, a Pseudo-Animate radiating three colors at once could be found in front of an abandoned building at the inner region of the Inferno Plains, seemingly catching its breath even though it had no need for stamina. Nevertheless, this Pseudo-Animate was none other than Argentum, who had exhausted an amount of energy far beyond what his body could normally hold.

Fortunately, it did not take long for him to return to normal as he allowed the energy flowing throughout his body to balance out. While doing so, he could not help but mutter, ”Although a journey like that would normally take me days to trek back and forth, it's still surprising that I could actually reach this place in a matter of hours.”

”I wonder how long it'll take me to reach a level where I could do something like that?” he continued to mutter as he pondered over something for a bit. Soon after that, he focused the energy in his body towards a certain point, forming a sigil that allowed him to be recognized as an owner of the Flame Spirit Inheritance. Normally, Eleanor would be the one forming the sigil to allow Argentum to enter the inheritance. But since Eleanor was away at the moment, Argentum had to create his own sigil, which was taught to him through the spirit contract they made.

Utilizing this sigil, it did not take long for Argentum to appear in the room where Eleanor usually looked over the inheritance. Taking a quick look around, he then went silent for a bit as he stood in place, wondering what he needed to do before he would go ahead with his plans of increasing his understanding of the Fire element to the True Element level.

Around half a minute or so later, he then sent a bit of energy into the sigil he had created, allowing a corridor that connected to one of the other rooms in the inheritance to form. Using his enhanced senses, he could see a familiar silhouette at the very end of the corridor, sitting in front of a desk as it held what seemed to be a brush. Lightly chuckling from the sight, he then walked through the corridor in a leisurely manner, making sure to not disturb the silhouette.

Thankfully, by the time he had arrived at the other side, closing the corridor behind him, the silhouette had let go of the brush it was holding, looking at Argentum with an expression of slight surprise as it said with a tone of glee, ”Argentum, you're back!”

Not long after, it noticed how overboard its reaction was, prompting a faint shade of red to appear on its face as it let out an awkward chuckle. This silhouette was none other than Herellia, who Eleanor had taken under to learn everything that a new Animate should need to know. Even though Eleanor left Herellia off on her own in this inheritance, she still gave her something to do, which in this case, was to practice her writing skills.

Radiating an aura of slight glee, he looked at Herellia before looking at the parchment filled to the brim with symbols, some large and rough, some small and smooth. Naturally, Argentum knew that Herellia was trying to improve her proficiency with the alphabet of the continent they were in, making him ask her, ”Eleanor told you to practice writing before she left?”

”Uh-huh,” Herellia said in response, lightly nodding. After that, she wrote a few more symbols that corresponded to the various letters of the alphabet before placing the brush she used for writing beside the parchment. Stretching out her arms, she then stood up before grabbing a glass of water from a table near her. After making sure that she drunk enough to fulfill her needs for the day, she let out a sigh of satisfaction before sitting in front of the writing table once more.

”How did your journey go?” Herellia asked with eyes beaming with curiosity. Ever since she had become an Animate, she could not help but feel that her current life had become boring compared to her previous life of being the leader of an alliance. Nevertheless, Eleanor told her that it would only take her another week or two to know everything she needed to know before she could do anything she wanted.

Of course, Eleanor made sure to include fighting in the things she had to relearn, shocking her as she noticed that the amount of power behind every move she made was multiple times stronger than even a hundred attacks in her Inanimate form, without taking buffs into consideration. Unsurprisingly, combat training was the only thing she looked forward to while she was here in the Flame Spirit Inheritance.

”It went well,” Argentum briefly responded, though his response elicited a light frown to pop up on Herellia's face. At first, he was confused as to why Herellia would react like that. Fortunately, with the help of Aurus' memories, he knew what Herellia was trying to achieve, prompting him to let out a peal of laughter as he said, ”Alright, alright. I'll tell you what happened.”

And just like that, he narrated everything that he had witnessed throughout this journey of his to the Desecrated Inheritance, as well as the Supreme Terra Firma Inheritance. While doing so, he also wondered if he should hide a few things from her like how Eleanor went berserk. In the end, he decided to spill everything since Herellia had been with him ever since his original body had joined the Tempest Branch Alliance…though he did omit Eleanor going berserk.

By the end of his narration, Herellia looked at Argentum with an expression of awe as she could not help but imagine herself going through the same situation. She then closed her eyes for a bit, subconsciously nodding from time to time. After a while, she opened her eyes once more, a light smile on her face as she said, ”Thanks.”

”That's what companions are for,” Argentum said in response, which surprisingly prompted Herellia to say, ”Ah, right. What brings you here all of a sudden?”

”To consolidate my power, of course,” Argentum hastily replied, remembering that he had not told Herellia of his goal of achieving Lesser Origin. Although there was nothing wrong with him telling her what Lesser Origin was, he thought that it would just confuse Herellia even more.

Nodding in understanding from his statement, Herellia then took a deep breath before picking up the brush once more as she grabbed a new piece of parchment from under the table. She then gestured with her hands for Argentum to go do his own things as she said, ”Alright, you go do that while I continue practicing my writing.”

”Alright, then.” Argentum scratched his head for a bit in slight confusion before infusing a bit of energy into the sigil, allowing the corridor that connected Eleanor's room to Herellia's room to be opened once more. Just as he was about to turn and leave, Herellia said out of nowhere, ”Speaking of which, if you plan to meet your other companion along the way, I think now's not the right time. At this time, I think he's still undergoing combat training.”

”Got it,” Argentum nodded before walking through the corridor back to Eleanor's room, closing the corridor behind him once he stepped foot into the place he had first appeared. He then made his way to the center of the room before sitting down cross-legged, commanding the system to open up his inventory a few seconds later.