I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 193: Personal Assistant

“How about I go on an adventure as well?” Aurus said as he hovered beside Argentum, who was running at his maximum speed. Hearing Aurus’s words, Argentum hastily concluded that his original body was going to join him on his adventure to Verdant Breeze Town, possibly obtaining the same elemental affinities on the way.

With this in mind, Argentum asked Aurus with a slightly eager tone, “Are you perhaps planning to join me on my journey to Verdant Breeze Town?”

“Eh?” Aurus heard Argentum’s question, radiating a slightly confused aura, which he concealed not long after. He then pondered as to why Argentum would ask him such a question like that, realizing that the words he said gave off that sort of vibe. It did not take long for him to respond, “You’re mistaken, Argentum. I’m going on a separate adventure from you. An adventure that would solidify my foundation even further before I become an X-grade Inanimate. Plus, if you think about it, you’re at a higher existence level than me. Wouldn’t I just get killed if I join you?”

“Lies. You’re way stronger than me,” Argentum pouted as he responded before responding, “You just don’t want to see my face, right?”

At this moment, Aurus let out a sigh as he wondered if the splitting of his soul gave Argentum the part of him that was stubborn. He thought up of a way to appease his clone’s emotions, eventually saying, “I’ll accompany you until we reach the boundary of Tempest Cliff. Does that sound good?”

“Yes, it does!” Argentum said in response to Aurus’s query, letting Aurus let out an inward sigh of relief.

Since the time taken by the two to travel from the alliance to the boundary of Tempest Cliff was limited by Argentum’s maximum speed, which was not that low, mind you, it took them about thirty minutes or so to reach it, talking about some stuff along the way regarding their plans in the future, as well as possible ideas that could hastily increase their strengths.

Unfortunately for Argentum, times of happiness were bound to end eventually, with the two of them at the boundary of Tempest Cliff. At the instant they had arrived, Aurus looked at Argentum and said, “It seems we’ve reached the boundary. Let us part ways here, Argentum.”

“Alright then,” Argentum let out a low sigh as he said reluctantly. He then waved his hands as he said to Aurus, “See you in two weeks then.”

“See you in two weeks,” Aurus replied not long after. He then added, “May you come back stronger than ever.”

Hearing those words, a light smile crept upon Argentum’s face before turning around to face the direction where Verdant Breeze Town was. A few seconds later, a distance of about ten meters or so were made between Argentum and Aurus as Argentum had officially started his journey towards Verdant Breeze Town.

“As long as he doesn’t have any dumb moments, if he’s in danger, he’ll remember to communicate with me with [Mental Communication],” Aurus muttered to himself as an aura of excitement radiated from him. “I guess Argentum’s spirit of adventure has rubbed off onto me…though I’ll just go to places I’ve been to before.”

“Speaking of which…I should let Herellia know where I currently am,” Aurus said not long after, realizing that he had only told Herellia that he was in the Tower of Seclusion a long while ago. In the off-chance that she needed him for something and went to the Tower of Seclusion to find him, only to find out that he was not there, Aurus had a feeling that she wouldn’t hesitate to use all of the manpower in the alliance to scour the whole Tempest Cliff just to find him.

With that in mind, he utilized the Alliance portion of his system to contact Herellia, surprisingly connecting with her not long after.

“What’s up, Aurus?” At the instant the two had connected, Herellia was the first one to talk, asking why Aurus had connected with her.

“I just wanted to tell you that I’m not in the Tower of Seclusion anymore,” Aurus replied to her query as he added, “I’m currently outside the alliance.”

“I see why you called me then,” Herellia responded to his words not long after. She then asked him, “What are you doing outside then?”

“I’m going to go to that inheritance to grab a few more Comprehension Leaves,” Aurus answered her last statement, deciding to not hide it from her.

A moment of silence ensued after Aurus’s reply, taking a while for Herellia to respond with, “I see. Good luck on obtaining more Comprehension Leaves then. Also, remember that the maximum comprehension multiplier is 30 times the normal comprehension speed.”

“Although I’m quite curious as to how you know that, I have a feeling that it’s because you absorbed a lot of Comprehension Leaves yourself,” Aurus replied before lightly chuckling. “Anyways, thanks for the heads-up, I’ll be on my way then.”

“Have a safe trip.” These were the last words Herellia uttered before the connection between the two of them had been cut.

After cutting off the connection, Aurus pondered over his plans of solidifying his foundation after being inspired by Argentum, thinking out loud for a bit.

“Well, that solves the problem of the unlikely chance that Herellia would try to find me. I wouldn’t be so unlucky for her to try and find me while I’m inside the Tempest Cliff Inheritance, right?”

The plan he had in mind to solidify his foundation was incredibly simple. Nevertheless, this simplicity was extremely effective. It was only composed of four steps. The first step was for him to go to the Tempest Cliff Inheritance and learn all of the skills that he had not learned yet from the bookshelves in that room filled with skills.

After that, he would go ahead and fuse all of the skills that are of the same category into a greater skill, which he considered as a substep rather than a step in his plan.

The next step after that would be him going to the inheritance where he had obtained his Ruler of the Void title, trying to get more Comprehension Leaves to increase his comprehension speed to the limit. It would not only help him out in the future, but it would also help Fenrir, Charisa, Argentum, and even the future Allies he would summon. While thinking about this second step, he remembered that he had become the owner of the Tempest Cliff Inheritance, obtaining a title that had significantly increased his stats.

With this in mind, he decided to make becoming the owner of the Comprehension Leaf inheritance an optional substep in his plan. If he achieved it, good for him. If not, then there was not much of a problem.

After maxing out his comprehension speed, the step after would be to enhance the other parts of his system as much as possible. The Soul Enchantment System, the Genesis Tree System, Fenrir, and Charisa, he would try to get them to the highest level possible with the current resources he had.

“Ah, right. I should ask Argentum to transfer back the unused experience points to me,” Aurus muttered as he thought deeper about the third step of his plan. Not long after, he made a mental note of it.

As for the final step, it was none other than to evolve to X-grade Inanimate. In actuality, he decided to make evolving to the X-grade the fifth step, but he could not help but be wary about the fourth step he added, which was to grab the other elemental affinities before evolving.

‘If I add other elemental affinities haphazardly before evolving, wouldn’t that result in a weaker evolution?’ This was the thought Aurus had in mind while thinking about it, postponing the fourth step when he had become an X-grade Inanimate.

And so, after going over the plan in his mind, Aurus went ahead and disappeared from the boundary of Tempest Cliff, teleporting his way to the Tempest Cliff Inheritance with all of his movement buffs enabled.

…

Whoosh!

After about a few minutes or so, Aurus had appeared in the center of the Tempest Cliff Ruins once more, appearing on top of the magic circle that led both him and Herellia back then to the entrance of the inheritance. Utilizing the system, he commanded the inheritance to let him in, which the inheritance hastily did at the instant he was finished commanding.

Swoosh!

At the instant he had arrived, he could not help but look at his surroundings with an aura of nostalgia radiating from his as he muttered, “Looking at this jade green hall sure brings back good memories of struggle…no, wait. I didn’t really struggle that much.”

After saying this, he then commanded the inheritance to open the path that led to the skill room, an ever-familiar corridor appearing on one of the sides of the jade green hall not long after. Of course, with Aurus being able to teleport, it only took Aurus one teleportation to arrive at the skill room, looking at the plethora of skill books that were in front of him.

As he looked at the multiple bookshelves in front of him that were filled to the brim with skill books, he could not help but wonder if there was a way for him to learn all of these skills through a faster method other than learning them one by one. With this in mind, he asked the system about it as well, and surprisingly, he had received a reply.

Ding!

“The user can utilize its expertise of manipulating their soul to learn more skills at once,” the system’s voice resounded in his mind, slightly surprised at the answer it had received. The question he had given to the system was normally something the previous version of the system wouldn’t have answered, and yet, it had answered this problem without a problem. A few seconds later, it then gave an answer that surprised him.

“Not only that, but the user can also opt to transform the system into a personal assistant, which would help out in learning skills as well.”

“A personal assistant can do that?” Aurus questioned himself, deciding in the end that there was no harm in trying. He then told the system, “System, transform into a personal assistant.”

“As you wish, User,” the system’s feminine-sounding voice resounded in his mind before being replaced with a monotonous voice.

“The Transcending Existence System is now on Personal Assistance mode,” the monotonous voice resounded in his mind as a white ball of light manifested on the left shoulder of his glowing wooden sculpture body. It resounded in his mind once more as it asked him, “What would you like to be called, User?”

“Eh? You can actually change how you’re called?” Aurus could not help but mutter in slight shock, only for the monotonous voice to respond with, “The user has opted to be called ‘Eh? You can actually change how you’re called?’ Is this what you’d like to be called?”

“No,” Aurus briefly replied, to which the monotonous voice followed not long after. He thought about it for a while, letting out a sigh of defeat at the end since all of the names that came to his end were bordering on the edge of the dark phase. If anyone other than him heard his system say that, he would surely be embarrassed to death. And so, in the end, he replied, “Call me…Master.”

“The user has opted to be called ‘Master’. Is this what you’d like to be called?” the monotonous voice replied to Aurus’s words not long after, to which Aurus confirmed a few seconds after being asked.

“Would you like the personal assistant to take on the appearance of a male or a female?” the monotonous voice asked yet again, to which Aurus unhesitatingly chose the latter.

“To be more specific, what appearance would you like your personal assistant to have?” Hearing this question resound in his mind, Aurus was at a crossroads. In his previous life, he had multiple favorite tastes when it came to women. With that in mind, he then held a tournament in his mind of what the best female appearance would be when it came to a personal assistant, letting out a sigh in the end as he muttered, “A kind older sister…that’s extremely beautiful and is also wearing a maid dress.”

Surprisingly, those specifications were more than enough for the monotonous voice to reply, “The customization of the user’s personal assistant has been completed. The system has decided to take inspiration from the user’s past memories for some aspects. The user can opt to customize the personal assistant at any time.”

After that statement, the white ball of light had undergone an abrupt change, taking on the appearance of a kind older sister with silky black hair with a body that would make men fall in love at first sight, which is complemented with an exquisitely designed maid dress that accentuated her figure quite nicely. Of course, this personal assistant had only mimicked the appearance of a human, being multiple times smaller than a regular human.

“Nice to meet you, Master!” At the very instant the maid started talking, a voice that would easily lull a person to sleep, as well as warm a person’s heart, was heard by Aurus, making him feel grateful that he was reincarnated as a stick yet again. “I currently don’t have a name yet, so what would Master like to call me~?”

“Hmm…” To be honest, he was expecting for the system to name itself, but he did not mind it all, thinking that this was also a part of customizing the personal assistant, eventually replying with, “Since your full name is the Transcending Existence System, I’ll morph the first word into Theresa. How does Theresa sound?”

“Theresa…” the personal assistant pondered over the name Aurus gave it, only to become elated soon after as it said, “I like it, Master~! Theresa shall be at your service~!”

‘Heavens…Kurohana…thank you for giving me this gift,’ Aurus shouted out loud in his mind, feeling that the grind he was going to do would be more fun with Theresa around.

A few seconds later, Theresa went ahead and asked him, “What would you like me to do, Master?”

“Do you see the multiple bookshelves in front of me?” Aurus asked Theresa not long after, to which it replied, “Yes, I do. What do I do with them?”

“Could you go ahead and number them? Oh, and also, could you separate the content of the three bookshelves into offensive, supportive, and defensive skills?” Aurus soon replied to its question, to which it replied, “As you wish, Master~!”

Whoosh!

After it was given a command, Theresa went ahead and split itself into multiple smaller Theresa, slightly leaving Aurus at a loss for words, only for him to chuckle not long after as he said, “It seems…this plan of mine wouldn’t be so boring after all.”