I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 319: Heading to the Northwest

Whoosh!

Appearing outside the abandoned building that served as the entrance to the Flame Spirit Inheritance, Argentum took in a deep breath as he adjusted to his surroundings. Soon after, he commanded the system in his mind to bring up a map of the surrounding areas. Naturally, a notification sound accompanied his requests, revealing a decently sized holographic screen in front of his field of vision soon after. In it contained a great portion of the territory that made up the Inferno Plains.

Of course, he commanded the system to zoom out on the map, revealing some of the areas that surrounded the Inferno Plains. In fact, at the very top edge of the screen, he could even see a bit of the Azure Shores where Felix’s inheritance was. Surprisingly, that amount of magnification wasn’t enough to Argentum, commanding the system to zoom out once more, specifically asking it to zoom out at a magnification that would allow him to view around 30% of the continent he was in.

Whoosh!

Accompanied by the faint sound of wind in order to immerse Argentum into the map, the system acquiesced to his request, allowing him to view a decent portion of the continent he was in, though it was mostly the upper region of the continent. Scratching his head for a bit as he pondered as to where the Desecrated Inheritance was located, he then told the system to bring up the names of areas on the map. Unsurprisingly, with the area names now on the large map, he would now be able to navigate through the areas even better.

“As expected, Tempest Cliff is situated near the west of the continent,” he muttered to himself as he also used this time setting a marker to where the Desecrated Inheritance was to get a better sense of where he was at the moment. The Inferno Plains was situated at the northwest region of the Tempest Cliff, separated by a couple of areas. On the other hand, the Azure Shores was situated at the north-northeast region of the Inferno Plains, though the distance between the two was at least three times larger than the distance between the first two.

Eventually, his sense of vision landed on the area where the Desecrated Inheritance was, a place that had a name which perfectly fit the inheritance it housed: The Desecrated Terran Ruins. From its name, one could get a basic idea of what it contained, giving anyone the idea that it was an area that housed multiple ruins that eroded with time.

Well…let’s just say that the eroded ruins are considered the tip of the iceberg in this area.

While looking at where the Desecrated Terran Ruins was located, Argentum could not help but let out a light chuckle as he murmured to himself, “From this angle, it’s like I’m looking at the tip of a bean.”

“In any case, I should really head to the ruins as soon as possible,” he soon added, looking at the position of the sun for a bit before setting a marker on the map. After confirming that the marker was set to the Desecrated Terran Ruins, he then closed the screen in front of him before activating all of the movement speed boosting spells he had in his arsenal.

“At my current speed, I might be able to arrive at the place at around dawn,” he muttered as he calculated his estimated time of arrival, taking into consideration that it was now currently late afternoon. Without hesitation, he then directed all of the strength in his body towards his feet before zooming off in the direction of the Desecrated Terran Ruins.

…

Of course, Argentum wasn’t someone who liked to waste time while heading towards a certain place after knowing it would take him quite some time to arrive there. With that kind of mindset, it wasn’t surprising for him to grind his skills while his feet were still moving. During this journey, he decided to focus on the passive skills he had that enhanced his senses, thinking that it was a great advantage to be able to obtain more information through one’s senses.

This monotonous process continued on for around seven hours, with the moon even replacing the sun’s place by the time Argentum took a break. Sitting down on the ground while lying on a large boulder to rest his feet, he took in a few deep breaths as he summed up the progress he had made while grinding his passive skills.

“Since I’ve only been grinding these things for less than half a day, they’ve only reached the Adept level, though they’re not that far from reaching the Expert level,” Argentum muttered to himself as he allowed his senses to work at its full extent, getting a better feel of his current surroundings.

He subconsciously nodded afterward, radiating an aura of satisfaction as he continued to talk to himself, saying, “If I keep this pace up, I might be able to reach the Artisan level for all of these skills, or perhaps, even Master level.”

Rustle…rustle…

Just as he was about to get back to traveling to the Desecrated Terran Ruins, his newly amplified sense of hearing could not help but hear faint rustling sounds from a small forest that was not too far away from him. At first, he thought that these sounds came from grazing beasts so he paid it no heed. But then, the rustling sounds gradually became louder, as if it was heading towards his direction. At that point, Argentum decided to use all of his senses to their fullest extent, focusing it in the direction of the rustling sounds.

And when he did just that, he could not help but radiate an aura of confusion, as well as slight surprise. Wondering if he had seen wrongly, his sense of vision focused on the sight of a hazy blue silhouette that seemed to look like a blur even when he tried his hardest to make out what it was. Fortunately, after a few passes of the blue silhouette darting through the forest, he finally had an idea as to who the blue silhouette was, prompting him to ask, “Felix…are you following me?”

“Urk.” Hearing that question, the blue silhouette let out a sound as it stopped darting around. Letting out a sigh, it then got out of the trees and shrubs, showing his blue body that blended into the background in front of Argentum. Scratching his head in slight confusion, he looked at Argentum in front of him and said, “I’m surprised you were able to see me even when I was moving too fast.”

“It’s more like you wanted me to notice you, and that’s why you moved too fast,” Argentum said in response to Felix’s words, prompting Felix to move as if he took a punch in the gut before letting out a short cackle. Soon after, he took in a deep breath as he asked, “Was it that obvious?”

“What do you think should be my answer to that question?” Argentum replied to Felix’s question with a question of his own as he pondered over Felix’s appearance at this moment. Although he didn’t have a clue as to why Felix appeared in front of him at first, it did not take long for him to connect the dots as he radiated a solemn expression towards Felix before asking, “Did Eleanor send you?”

“Bingo,” Felix responded with an aura of glee radiating from him, which turned into slight disappointment as he let out a sigh. Unexpectedly, after hearing Felix sigh, Argentum let out a sigh as well as he murmured, “Why do I feel like this was bound to happen as long as Eleanor got involved?”

“She just cares about you, that’s all,” Felix replied, only to add a few more words with a slightly tired tone to it as he continued, “Though I’d rather have her not butt into other people’s lives every so often.”

“Do you hate the owner of the Desecrated Inheritance as well, Felix?” Argentum could not help but ask, recalling how Eleanor told him that Felix disliked the guy as well. In response, Felix scratched his head as he recalled his memories with the Desecrated Inheritance’s owner as he slowly replied, “Well…it’s not really to the point of hating him. At most I just dislike him for what he did. That’s all there is to it. Other than that, he’s a good guy in my books.”

“What he did?” Argentum focused on this certain portion of Felix’s statement as he continued to question him, “What did he do?”

“I don’t know what the motive behind it was, but after meeting with Eleanor, he decided to get cocky around her, assert dominance, brag about stuff that isn’t normally talked about, and so on,” Felix replied, taking a small breath before continuing, “Surprisingly, that guy doesn’t act that way around me. At most, only a small sense of pride could be felt from him. Then again, he’s stronger than both me and Eleanor, so I know why there’s that air to him.”

“Hmm…” Argentum hemmed and hawed over Felix’s words for a bit, feeling that there was something unusual about the owner of the Desecrated Inheritance. Unfortunately, he could not put his foot as to what was wrong with the guy, so he chalked it off as the guy probably having a neurotic episode, placing the thought at the back of his head after that.

Not long after, he stood up and took a look at the sky, noticing that it was getting deep into the night. Knowing that he still had to trek a great distance in order to arrive at the Desecrated Terran Ruins, Argentum looked at Felix as he activated his movement speed boosting spells and asked, “So, what are you gonna do now that I found out you were spying on me?”

Unsurprisingly, Felix shrugged his shoulders as he replied with an air of indifference, “Eh. I could head back, or I could come with you to the Desecrated Terran Ruins. Either way, I’ll still tell Eleanor the opposite of what she wants to hear from me. If she hears from me that you went to the Desecrated Inheritance, she definitely won’t hesitate to go all out on the owner of the Desecrated Inheritance.”

“Seriously? Does she want the guy off the face of this world or something?” Argentum seriously felt that something weird was going on with Eleanor, though he still could not put a finger on what was wrong. Nevertheless, he and Felix couldn’t care less about the reason why she was like that, knowing that her relationship with that being wouldn’t affect the two of them at all.

“Hmm…” As he redirected all of the strength in his body towards his feet, Argentum pondered as to whether he would have Felix join him on his journey to the Desecrated Terran Ruins or not. In the end, he deactivated all of the movement speed boosting spells on his body as he looked at Felix and asked, “Would you mind if you helped me travel to the Desecrated Terran Ruins?”

In response, Felix let out a faint aura of glee as he replied, “That’s not a problem to me at all.”

Soon after, Felix released a great amount of energy through his fingers, enveloping the two of them as he then used this energy to propel both of them in the direction of the Desecrated Terran Ruins. It was no surprise that the speed at which they traversed the distance between where they were and where they wanted to go was miles apart from the speed at which Argentum was traveling.

And so, by the time the moon had reached the peak of the sky, both Argentum and Felix were near the Desecrated Terran Ruins, continuing to zoom across the landscape in the air as the two of them chatted about things that ranged from they were going to do after this journey was done, to what they could improve upon in terms of combat power and whatnot, though they did not go too in-depth into the latter.

A few minutes later, the two of them were finally hovering near the boundary that separated the wilderness and the area that is the Desecrated Terran Ruins. Reducing the amount of energy surrounding the two of them to gradually descend to the ground, Felix looked at Argentum and said, “Although I know you won’t die in that place, remember to still be careful.”

“Don’t worry, Felix. I know what I’m doing,” Argentum replied, letting out a light chuckle soon after. “If I wasn’t, then I wouldn’t have come here in the first place.”

“Well, I hope you get what you need from the inheritance and I definitely hope it helps you out in the Origin Trials,” Felix said in response as he let out a light chuckle as well. After that, he turned around and summoned all of the energy in his body, releasing it in one large burst as he headed in the direction of the Inferno Plains at a speed far greater than what the two of them were traveling on.

“Guess he was holding back in consideration of me,” Argentum lightly laughed as he muttered before turning his head to look at the direction of the Desecrated Terran Ruins. Though he could not see the insides of the area as tons of dust was flying in the air, he knew that all of it would change once he stepped foot into the Desecrated Terran Ruins.

“Well then.”

“I should go and do what I came for.”