I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 318: Going Against Recommendations

As Argentum introduced Herellia to Eleanor, Herellia was left at a loss for words as she did not expect to see such a beauty in what seemed to be a desolate place for Animates. In front of her was what one would normally consider a beauty that could make nations fall for them.

Just like her Pseudo-Animate form, her figure had the curves on all the right places, exuding a motherly aura in the process. Combined with her auburn hair that had red highlights at the very tips, as well as brown irises and a face that was pleasing to look at, Eleanor currently looked like a fairy on mortal soil.

Argentum, on the other hand, thought differently about Eleanor, though he had to admit that her current form was quite beautiful. Nevertheless, he had an inkling of an idea as to why Eleanor was doing this, prompting him to use the connection they had with one another through the contract as he sent his energy towards it. Not long after, the two of them were connected in mind, allowing him to ask her, “So…what made you do something like this, Eleanor?”

“What? Wouldn’t it be weird for a body made out of flames to be greeting a human?” Eleanor hastily responded in a slightly sad tone, though on the outside, she was still looking at Herellia with a smile. She then got closer to her and extended her hand out for Herellia to shake. With a gentle tone, she then said to her, “My name’s Eleanor. I’ve become acquainted with Argentum in his journey. It’s nice to meet you.”

Surprisingly, Herellia lightly blushed as she looked at Eleanor’s light smile in a slight daze. Fortunately, she came back to her senses not long after as she grasped Eleanor’s extended hand and shook it as she replied, “It’s nice to meet you as well, Eleanor. My name’s Herellia. Please take good care of me.”

“Herellia…quite a good name,” Eleanor could not help but say with a light chuckle as she soon added, “Don’t worry, Herellia. I’ll make sure to take good care of you.”

In response, Herellia could not help but lightly smile as a response to Eleanor’s words, which inadvertently made Eleanor scream her heart out through the connection she had with Argentum, “Ahhhhh! She’s definitely my type!”

“Glad to hear that,” Argentum lightly chuckled in response to Eleanor’s words, incredibly glad that Eleanor had taken a liking to Herellia. At this moment, he went ahead and patted Herellia on the shoulder before looking at Eleanor and saying, “Eleanor, I hope you teach Herellia everything she has to know as an Animate, okay?”

“I definitely won’t hold back,” Eleanor lightly nodded with a giggle as she focused her vision towards Herellia and said, “Herellia, dear, could you head to one of the rooms in this place for a while? Argentum and I have to talk about something for a bit.”

“Ah, I see.” Herellia looked at Eleanor, then at Argentum for a bit, thinking that she had figured out what they were going to talk about as she nodded. Ignorant to what was going on in her mind, Eleanor snapped her fingers soon after, opening up a corridor on one of the walls, which led to a room that was decorated with the necessary amenities an Animate would need throughout their life.

At first, Herellia lightly shuddered at the fact that Eleanor had the ability to do something like this. But after she thought about it for a while, it soon made sense in her mind, thinking that Eleanor was a strong Animate. As Herellia headed to the other room through the corridor, Eleanor and Argentum looked at each other for a bit in silence as the connection between them was cut off.

“How did you get to know her, Argentum?” Eleanor asked Argentum as she reverted to her original Pseudo-Animate form. In response, Argentum went silent for a bit as he recalled how Aurus had come to know Herellia. Of course, he wasn’t going to tell Eleanor that he was the second body of another entity, since that fact was better off known by only a select few.

And so, Argentum went ahead and narrated a shortened version of Aurus’ meeting with Herellia. While narrating, he omitted the parts regarding the two of them having a system, as well as the inheritances he had a claim on. After listening to Argentum’s narration, Eleanor lightly nodded as she said, “Quite an interesting story, to say the least…though there’s something that’s been bugging me.”

She then squinted her eyes in suspicion as she asked him, “At first, I wasn’t sure, but after sensing her aura for a while, I think there’s something special about her. Perchance…”

“Is she an Awakened?”

“To be honest, I’m as clueless as you are,” Argentum replied with a light sigh. Although he slightly regretted the fact that he did not check her status through the system at the very instant she was finished evolving, he had a decent level of confidence that Herellia was an Awakened, considering the fact that her Existence Tribulation allowed her transitional evolutions to be enhanced twice.

But since he had not made it certain through the system yet, it was better for him to not say it, which led to the current situation. Feeling that nothing was off, Eleanor did not pursue the matter any further as she said to him, “If you want to, I could check if she’s an Awakened or not.”

“Eh, it doesn’t really matter that much to me,” Argentum replied as a thought surfaced in his mind related to the Flame Spirit Inheritance. With this thought in mind, he then told her, “Speaking of which, you still haven’t given me the additional share on the inheritance after I gave you the recipe for the Heaven’s Flame Potion.”

Surprisingly, Eleanor radiated an aura of slight annoyance as she responded, “Do you really want that additional share? Can’t you just write it off as payment for me taking care of Herellia and helping her adjust to her new existence level? At most, it would only boost your power by a small degree, right?”

Unexpectedly, Argentum thought that her words had sense to them, recalling how Eleanor told him that he did not need to give anything in exchange for taking care of Eleanor. Hearing that the small share of the inheritance was his payment for Eleanor taking care of Herellia, he shrugged his shoulders as he said, “If you put it that way, then I won’t pursue the matter any further. Just think of it as payment.”

“…eh? You serious?” Rather than lightly nod in agreement to Argentum’s words, an aura of surprise instead surrounded Eleanor, as if she was looking at a different being. She then murmured to herself, “I just said that as a joke, but who knew you’d actually accept it…”

Of course, Argentum, who had highly keen senses, heard her murmur, prompting him to let out a sigh as he scratched his head. Not waiting for Eleanor to ask him if he still wanted his share, he went ahead and told her, “I’m a man of my word. Just let it be.”

“On the other hand, I’m still going to pursue something else,” he added, prompting an aura of curiosity to radiate from Eleanor as she asked, “And what would that be?”

“Heaven’s Flame Potions,” Argentum replied in a solemn tone before asking, “Have you made some?”

In response, Eleanor nodded as she released a strand of her energy, which headed towards a corridor that she had just opened. Not long after, the strand of energy had come back to where the two of them were, but it brought along over a dozen flasks, surprising Argentum.

“Since you supplied me the recipe for the Heaven’s Flame Potion, it makes sense for you to ask for some potions from me,” Eleanor said as she manipulated the energy to place the flasks she brought in front of Argentum. Every flask in Argentum was filled to the brim with red viscous fluid, which faintly emanated the aura of the Fire element.

“Would 20 flasks be sufficient for you?” she then asked him, to which Argentum nodded as he soon commanded the system to store all of these flasks in front of him inside its inventory. Soon after, the flasks disappeared in front of the two without a trace, making Eleanor take a few steps back in surprise as she was not expecting the flasks to disappear like that all of a sudden. Although she was curious as to how Argentum was able to do that, she knew that it was better to not ask secrets, moving onto another topic.

“So, what are you going to do now that Herellia’s here?” she asked, to which Argentum succinctly answered, “I’m going to head to an Earth-based inheritance.”

“Ah, right. How’s Blob doing?” Just as he was about to talk about the place he had in mind, he remembered that his companion was in the Flame Spirit Inheritance, prompting him to ask Eleanor if he was well. In response, Eleanor lightly smiled as she replied, “He’s doing great, though he’s currently undergoing secluded training. Who knew he would also have the ability to learn things within minutes?”

‘Well, I guess I have to thank Aurus for that,’ Argentum thought to himself as he lightly chuckled at Eleanor’s words. Fortunately, she did not dawdle on the topic regarding Blob for long, returning to Argentum’s previous statement as she asked, “So, which Earth-based inheritance are you heading to?”

“The best one out of them, of course,” Argentum replied with a tone of confidence as he added, “Of course, that inheritance is none other than the Desecrated Inheritance.”

Unexpectedly, rather than be happy for Argentum that he was choosing an inheritance that sounded like it would offer him the highest benefits, Eleanor could not help but radiate an aura of slight disappointment as she asked him, “Oh, come on. Did you really have to choose that inheritance?”

“Hm? What’s wrong with it?” Argentum asked soon after, not expecting her to be against his choice of inheritance. Without delay, Eleanor responded, “Well, the Desecrated Inheritance as a whole isn’t really my problem. It’s got great rewards and a great environment when it comes to practicing the Earth element.”

“What I don’t like about it is the being that owns it,” she soon added, prompting Argentum to ask her, “Is there a reason why you don’t like the being?”

“The guy’s very fickle-minded, incredibly competitive for no apparent reason, extremely arrogant, and…” she hastily replied to his question, only to notice that she was engrossed in her own thoughts. In the end, she lightly coughed as she said, “In short, the owner of the Desecrated Inheritance is pretty bad. Even Felix has bad relations with him.”

“Really?” Although Argentum was in disbelief that Felix had a bad relationship with the owner of the Desecrated Inheritance, the solemn aura surrounding Eleanor at this moment meant that she was not kidding when she said it. With a light sigh to regain his composure, he then asked her, “Let’s say I don’t choose the Desecrated Inheritance. What other Earth-based inheritance would you recommend me?”

“I’d highly recommend the Supreme Terra Firma Inheritance in that case,” Eleanor replied to Argentum’s question with eagerness, which was weird at first, but soon became understandable as Argentum knew that she was actively trying to remove the idea of heading to the Desecrated Inheritance in his mind.

“Not only does it offer rewards that are better than that accursed inheritance, the environment it has when it comes to training the Earth element is also incredibly great. Plus, the being that owns the inheritance is considered my life-and-death companion,” she continued to persuade Argentum. “If you want, I could tell her to reduce the difficulty of the trials you’d undergo.”

“Let me think about it for a bit,” Argentum said in response to Eleanor’s words as he went silent. To Eleanor, it looked like he was thinking about her offer. But to Argentum, it was just a way to make it seem like he was contemplating over her words. In actuality, he was set on heading to the Desecrated Inheritance, though he did think about heading to the Supreme Terra Firma Inheritance Eleanor mentioned at first.

In the end, the reason why he chose the former over the latter was due to his proximity to the inheritance, taking Aurus’ time of awakening in consideration. The Desecrated Inheritance was situated in a location slightly farther away than the Azure Shores, though it was still possibly to head to it and back to Tempest Cliff at his current level within a couple of days.

On the other hand, the Supreme Terra Firma Inheritance was situated at the south of the continent, which meant that it would take a long time for him to get back to Tempest Cliff, although the rewards they offer are comparably the same.

Taking in a deep breath before letting out a sigh, he went ahead and looked at Eleanor. Thinking that this was a sign that Argentum had made up his mind, Eleanor eagerly asked her, “So…have you made your decision?”

“Yeah,” Argentum replied as he nodded. Before Eleanor could ask what inheritance he had chosen in his mind, Argentum interrupted her from doing so as he told her, “The inheritance I’ve chosen will definitely not disappoint you.”

Hearing this, Eleanor was about to say something at first, but then decided not to. Instead, she told him with a nod, “I see. Well, good luck.”

“Thanks,” Argentum said as he radiated a faint aura of glee. Before he disappeared in front of Eleanor’s field of vision, he went ahead and told her, “Take good care of Herellia for me, okay?”

Whoosh!

And just like that, Argentum disappeared from her field of vision, leaving Eleanor to herself as an aura of glee surrounded her. Not long after, an aura of curiosity and suspicion surrounded her as she muttered to herself, “I got to ask Felix to spy on Argentum.”

“I have a feeling he’ll definitely go to that place.”