I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 191: A Foolproof Plan

Whoosh!

Due to Aurus’s Pseudo-Animate body being positioned near the side of the alliance base, it only took Aurus less than a minute to make his way to where it was. At the instant he had arrived in front of his Pseudo-Animate body, he was left at a loss for words, unable to convey what he was seeing in front of him at the moment.

“Hoh…” After a few seconds, this was the only sound Aurus could make after seeing his Pseudo-Animate body. The appearance it took on was in the shape of a human. But what separated it from other humans was that rather than the whole body being made up of cells, what made up this body was in fact, pure energy.

This pure energy was akin to what made up Horell’s current body as a Mana Spirit, but since Aurus’s Pseudo-Animate body was a Wind Elemental, the hue of this energy was a light green. Other than that, there was also the lack of facial features on where its face was supposed to be.

It did not take long for Aurus to accept the fact that this is what his clone looked like, letting out a light chuckle as he noticed the cover he made for his private parts when the clone in front of him was still an Animate was still around the Pseudo-Animate’s waist. Noticing this, he jokingly asked himself, “Surely, since this clone of mine is made up of energy, it wouldn’t imitate that part as well, right?”

And so, with that question in mind, Aurus went ahead and used [Parallel Body Control] to move the Pseudo-Animate’s arms, grasping on the leaf cover tightly before pulling it downward. At the exact moment Aurus saw the leaf cover move downward, his sense of vision instantly focused towards a protruding rod of energy right where a certain part would normally be for a male Animate, turning speechless once more.

Although he was quite proud that this part was still the same after his clone turned into a Pseudo-Animate, he could not help but let out a slightly disappointed sigh before saying, “Why did it have to imitate that part instead of facial features? I’d rather have facial features for now before that part, to be honest.”

Either way, since it seemed that there was nothing he could do about it, Aurus decided to accept this fact as well, pulling the leaf cover up to cover the Pseudo-Animate’s rod. After that, he went ahead and checked if he could communicate with his clone like a second person like before, asking, “Can you hear me?”

Surprisingly, after hearing Aurus’s question, a rough shape of a mouth appeared on where the Pseudo-Animate’s face was supposed to be, replying to Aurus with, “Mhm, I can. Since I’m you, and you’re me, and we both have the system, we can talk with each other anywhere, anytime.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that it’s still the same,” Aurus replied to his clone’s words. He then pondered over something for a short while, focusing his sense of vision on the clone in front of him once more as he asked it, “Is your name still Argentum?”

“Hmm…let me check,” the clone replied, muttering a few commands to the system as a status screen appeared in front of it. Of course, Aurus could see this status screen as well due to him sharing perspectives with the clone, but after looking at the clone’s name through it, he commanded the system to stop sharing their perspectives.

After closing the status screen in front of it, the clone replied to Aurus’s words with a tone of certainty, saying, “Just checked. I’m still named Argentum. Well, if you think about it, why wouldn’t I be?”

“True,” Aurus replied to Argentum’s words, pondering over something yet again. A few seconds later, he asked Argentum, “Did you notice that I disabled the perspective sharing?”

“Yeah,” Argentum replied before adding, “To be honest, it’s quite nauseating to have two perspectives at the same time.”

“Indeed,” Aurus voiced out his opinion. Not long after, he asked Argentum once more, saying, “Anyways, mind if I check your status screen?”

“You’re the original body. Why wouldn’t I let you?” Argentum replied to Aurus’s question with a slight chuckle, with Aurus commanding the system to identify Argentum not long after. While Aurus was commanding the system, Argentum let out a low sigh before saying, “Anyways, don’t set your expectations too high. I still have a decent amount of skills, but my stats are pretty shit now.”

“How shitty can it be?” Aurus replied optimistically. It did not take long for the system to respond to his command, a slightly corporeal screen appearing in front of his field of vision that laid out Argentum’s stats in front of him. After taking a short glance through it, he could not help but look at Argentum before sighing. He then went ahead and said, “It seems you were right. I apologize for only using around 5000 FP to make you back then.”

Ding!

________

[Argentum] (Level 1/10)

Experience: 0/100

Species: Wind Elemental

Existence Level: Pseudo-Animate

Grade: Normal

Power Baptism: None

—————

[HP]: 1/1

[MP]: 5/5

—————

Stats:

Vitality – 1

Strength – 1

Defense – 1

Agility – 1

Intelligence – 1

________

“Every stat is at the lowest possible number.” As Aurus muttered this, he pondered as to why this was the case, getting to the conclusion that Argentum’s stats was related to the amount of FP he had used. And since a single stat point for a Pseudo-Animate was a thousand points for an Inanimate, it made sense that Argentum would only have a total stat amount of 5.

“I seriously apologize for only using over 5000 FP to make you back then,” Aurus apologized once more, to which Argentum let out a light chuckle in response. This chuckle could not help but make Aurus confused, wondering what was so funny. Eventually, Argentum stopped laughing, satiating Aurus’s curiosity as he replied, “Since we share memories, I see what you’re planning to do with me. To be honest, I agree that it’s the best choice as well. Imagine your clone becoming a Super Animate, wouldn’t that be cool?”

He then added, “Although you’re optimistic about that plan, it seems you aren’t optimistic enough. Think about this way. With my stats being at the lowest possible number, that means I have a greater room for improvement, right?”

“Well, that is true,” Aurus slowly replied to Argentum’s words, rummaging through his old memories as he continued to say, “I also started at the lowest possible stats, only getting to where I am right now with the current species I have, plus the skills I have…”

As he was continuing to talk, Aurus realized that he was looking at Argentum from a wrong angle at the start. Realizing this, Aurus let out a chuckle with a hint of mockery, this mocking tone pointed at himself as he said to Argentum, “I’ve been too engrossed in what I currently have for too long that I didn’t even realize the insane amount of potential a blank slate like you would have.”

“I’m not a true blank slate though,” Argentum replied with a hint of happiness as he continued, “I’m a Wind Elemental. From the name of my species alone, I’m inclined towards the Wind element.”

“So what about it?” Aurus responded to Argentum’s words as he added, “You could just master the other elemental affinities and everything would be fine once you evolve, right?”

“Wouldn’t that make the Power Baptisms harder though?” Argentum asked him, rummaging through their shared memories of Power Baptisms.

Power Baptisms in ISE were akin to the Existence Tribulations, but only to a certain extent. Unlike Existence Tribulations, Pseudo-Animates could undergo Power Baptisms, with the difficulty of a Power Baptism being related to the amount of power a Pseudo-Animate has. Of course, the higher the power when undergoing a Power Baptism, the greater the increment in terms of power a Pseudo-Animate would obtain.

“Why worry about those things, Argentum?” Aurus replied to Argentum’s question before adding, “And I thought you were the one who was more optimistic than me.”

“If you’re going to become a Super Animate, you should become the strongest Super Animate possible,” Aurus continued talking before saying, “You’re armed with the knowledge of ISE from the Inanimate existence level to the Divinity existence level. You know a lot of inheritances, dungeons, and certain places where you could amass tons of experience and skills that would boost your power even further. In front of all of that, a Power Baptism is merely a speck of sand!”

Listening to Aurus’s words, Argentum let out a sigh, the aura radiating from him being that of slight disappointment, which was directed towards himself. After a few seconds, this aura soon changed to that of slight elation as he said, “You know what? You’re right. I have access to all of those memories, so I’ll utilize them to the fullest!”

“That’s the clone I know!” Aurus replied with a chuckle before pondering over something. At the instant he had pondered over this, the aura radiating from Aurus had abruptly changed to that of slight worry. Noticing this, Argentum asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I just remembered that I was planning to introduce you to Herellia and Horell,” Aurus answered Argentum’s query with a tone of slight disappointment. He then added, “With your current stats, I don’t know how I could tell them how you did all of those things.”

“I see…” Argentum said after listening to Aurus, pondering over the possible ways he could help his original body out. Fortunately, it did not take long for Argentum to come up with a solution, telling Aurus, “I think I have an idea of what you can do.”

“Hmm?” Hearing Argentum’s words, Aurus’s interest was piqued, prompting him to ask Argentum, “What do you have in mind?”

“I don’t know if the system allows this but…can’t you like transfer your unused experience points to me?” Argentum suggested.

Aurus then replied, “How would that help me with this proble—oh.”

Realizing what Argentum was trying to convey, Aurus acceded to Argentum’s request, commanding the system not long after, “System, transfer all of my unused experience points to Argentum.”

Ding!

‘508,732,464 experience points have been transferred to the user’s second body, Argentum.’

‘Due to the difference in existence level, the number of experience points have been divided by 1,000 as a Pseudo-Animate is a thousand times stronger than an Inanimate.’

‘508,732 experience points have been successfully transferred to the user’s second body, Argentum.’

“Well then.” Receiving a notification from the system that the experience points were successfully transferred to him, albeit at a lower value, Argentum could not help but say this as he expected the experience points to be transferred in full. He then looked at Aurus and said, “It seems that there’s a conversion rate, just like our stats.”

“Indeed,” Aurus replied as he pondered over what things would be affected by the conversion rate. “Stats are surely affected by the conversion rate, and by the looks of it, experience points are affected by the conversion rate as well.”

“Would Genesis and OS Points be affected by this as well?” Aurus wondered, eventually concluding that it might not be the case.

“Speaking of Genesis and OS Points…” With this in mind, Aurus looked at Argentum and asked, “Do you have access to the Soul Enchantment and Genesis Tree System?”

“Let me see…” Hearing this, Argentum went ahead and commanded the system in his mind to open up these features, only to get a reply that only the original body has access to it. He also tested if he had access to the Ally and Friend List system, letting out a sigh of relief that he had access to it.

“Soul Enchantment and Genesis Tree seems to be exclusive systems just for you, original body,” Argentum replied before adding, “I do have access to the Ally and Friend List system though.”

“Good to know,” Aurus replied to Argentum’s findings before adding, “Anyways, are you going to use the experience points now?”

“Yeah,” Argentum replied to Aurus’s words with affirmation, softly commanding the system, “System, use all of the unused experience points to max out my level.”

Ding!

It did not take long for the system to act upon Argentum’s request as a great mass of Wind energy particles started to appear around Argentum’s surroundings, hastily congregating to where he was as the aura he radiated gradually grew stronger and stronger. Alongside this was the feminine-sounding voice of the system resounding in his mind, saying, “4,500 unused experience points have been consumed.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Not long after, a small tornado surrounded Argentum, as if all of the Wind energy particles were funneling their way towards his body. Eventually, after about half a minute or so, this tornado had disappeared, revealing Argentum with an aura that was multiple times stronger than his previous aura.

“Congratulations! You have leveled up to Level 10.” After the tornado had disappeared, the system’s voice resounding throughout his mind once again. It then asked him, “You have reached the maximum level and have met all of the necessary requirements needed to evolve to a higher grade. Would you like to evolve?”

Argentum pondered over this question for a bit before ultimately replying in his mind with, “Postpone the evolution for now.”

“As you wish, User.” After the system had said this, the system’s voice had disappeared in his mind, prompting him to look at Aurus, who was looking at him with an aura of happiness.

“Your strength has increased considerably,” Aurus said.

“But…” Not long after, the aura around Aurus had changed into that of slight disappointment as he radiated his aura to the fullest extent, letting Argentum know the difference between his current strength and the original body’s strength.

“It is still not enough.”

“Baby steps, Aurus. Baby steps.” In response to Aurus’s words, Argentum let out a chuckle as he replied. He then added, “This is just the first step of my idea. I’m just about to move onto the second step.”

“Hoh?” Aurus’s interest was piqued yet again by his clone, prompting him to ask Argentum, “What’s the second step?”

“Hehehe.” Argentum lightly laughed as a certain thought crossed his mind. “It’s very simple but very effective.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense, Argentum,” Aurus said before adding, “Just tell me.”

“Alright then,” Argentum replied, taking in a deep breath of air as two small holes appeared on where his nose was supposed to be.

“The second step of this idea is to…”

“To…?”

“Not introduce me to Herellia and Horell for now.”

“…”

“What do you think?”

“…”

“Well?”

“Well…that does make sense.”