I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 236: Heading to the Azure Shores

“Huh?” This was the only sound that came of Argentum’s mouth after listening to what Eleanor was saying. After that, he processed her response inside his mind, eventually formulating a proper response as an aura of fear radiated from him. He then asked her in a stupefied tone, “Are you serious, Eleanor? The Grand Blue Inheritance has a 99.9% death rate?”

“How could I not lie?” Eleanor responded to Argentum’s question before adding, “That’s the reason why I asked you what inheritance you were heading to do in the Azure Shores. Anyways, I’ve got a few long-lasting experiences from that inheritance that they feel more like traumas rather than proper memories.”

“Since you’ve undergone the Grand Blue Inheritance back then, could you please shed some light on the trials and other miscellaneous things regarding the inheritance, Eleanor?” Argentum asked her not long after she finished talking, a thought filled with doubt gradually forming inside his mind, screaming at him to not enter the Grand Blue Inheritance at all.

“Are you sure you want to know?” Eleanor could not help but ask him, to which he nodded in response. After that, she let out a long sigh before saying, “I guess I’ll tell you all I know regarding the Grand Blue Inheritance then. But don’t tell me after I’m done narrating that you’ve decided to not head to the Grand Blue Inheritance, okay?”

Argentum hastily nodded at her words, inwardly thinking to himself that he was going to avoid entering the Grand Blue Inheritance altogether, choosing another inheritance in the Azure Shores that would offer the same rewards instead without the high death rate.

Noticing that Argentum went silent, Eleanor inwardly laughed as she had an idea on what Argentum was thinking. Nevertheless, she pretended that she did not know what was going on inside his head as she said in a slightly horrified tone, “First of all, the Grand Blue Inheritance is composed of 10 trials, with each trial being exponentially harder than the previous one. I was lucky that I was given the choice to escape the inheritance at around the 6th trial. If I wasn’t given that choice, I might have been dead by now.”

Listening to Eleanor’s explanation, a feeling of dread filled Argentum’s body, making him rethink his decision of heading towards the Azure Shores to enter the Grand Blue Inheritance. Alongside this, the seed of doubt in his mind gradually became larger as he continued to listen to Eleanor speak.

“To be honest, the first trial was already incredibly difficult,” Eleanor said, letting out a sigh as she radiated an aura that she was reminiscing those times. Taking in a deep breath, she continued, “Although the mechanics of the first trial were hazy to me, I could still vividly remember its difficulty.”

“I presume that even a peak Rank 1 Animate would die from the sheer difficulty of this first round,” she added, sensing the intense fear that was radiating out of Argentum at this moment. As she noticed this, in her mind, she could not help but think, ‘He’s gonna ask me regarding the different inheritances in Azure Shores sooner or later.’

With that in mind, she inwardly laughed as she continued to speak in a slightly horrified tone, telling Argentum even more of her experiences regarding the Grand Blue Inheritance.

“You know, I wouldn’t recommend someone at your level to head to the Grand Blue Inheritance,” Eleanor said. “You might get lucky in these first few trials, but what if your luck runs out? Who else would you blame in that situation but yourself?”

“Uh…” At this point, the fear Argentum felt had reached the level of fear he had felt inside the Flame Spirit Inheritance when he had just badmouthed Eleanor. Mustering up his courage, he timidly asked her, “Um…can I uh…can you tell me about the uh…other inheritances in Azure Shores…?”

“Hoh?” Eleanor uttered as an aura of slight fury radiated from her before saying, “Didn’t you agree that once you heard about my experiences from the inheritance, you wouldn’t opt to head into another inheritance instead? Are you breaking our agreement?”

“Well, I…er…” Argentum said in a stuttering manner, not knowing what to say in response to the words. Just as he found the right words to say though, Eleanor started to laugh loudly, confusing Argentum as the intense fear he felt subsided, prompting him to ask her, “What’s so funny?”

“Your reaction,” Eleanor responded to his question as she continued to laugh. At this moment, Argentum felt intense confusion rather than fear since he did not know what made Eleanor laugh. Fortunately, she stopped laughing after quite some time, letting out a sigh as she said, “And I thought I couldn’t make you become fearful for the safety of your life again. Everything I’ve said about the Grand Blue Inheritance has been fake.”

“Huh?” Argentum could only utter this sound in response to what she had said, taking quite a long time to process the words she had said in her mind. After fully processing it, he focused his sense of vision towards her and asked with slight uncertainty, “So…everything you said so far…was fake?”

“Yep, as fake as it could be.” Eleanor nodded in response to Argentum’s words. Hearing those words, Argentum could not help but let out a huge sigh of relief as he asked with a hint of infuriation, “Why did you have to scare me though?”

“Well, why not?” she responded to his question in a slightly teasing note, letting out a light chuckle afterward. At this moment, Argentum could not help but become dejected as he realized that he fell for lies, sitting on the hot ground in a cross-legged fashion. Eleanor looked at the dejected Argentum for a bit before feeling slight remorse for her actions, deciding to come closer to Argentum before placing her hand on his shoulder as she apologized.

“Alright, I apologize for what I’ve done,” Eleanor said as an apology before adding, “I won’t do something like this ever again.”

“How can I be so sure that you would keep your word though?” Argentum asked her, still in a dejected mood. This question made Eleanor ponder over the answer for a bit, eventually coming up with a good one a few seconds later as she answered, “I’ll seriously tell you everything I know about the inheritance, plus I’ll even tell you some tips to make the clearing process easier.”

As his sense of hearing perked up from the word ‘tips’, Argentum focused his sense of vision towards her as he asked her one more time, “Promise?”

“I promise,” Eleanor said in a solemn tone, prompting Argentum to let out a sigh as he stood up, facing Eleanor. Scratching his head, he then went ahead and asked her, “So…are you truly going to tell me everything you know about the inheritance?”

“Yeah.” Eleanor nodded in response to his words before adding, “First off, although I did say that the Grand Blue Inheritance has a 99.9% death rate, in reality, it isn’t that far off, having a death rate of 80 percent.”

“80 percent…” Argentum could not help but repeat this in his mind a few times, eventually calming himself down as he reassured himself, thinking that a 1 in 5 chance of survival was far better than a 1 in 1000 chance of survival.

“As for the number of trials the inheritance has, at the time I took it, it had a total of 5 trials,” she continued explaining the mechanics of the inheritance before adding, “Oh, right. Unlike what I did for you in my inheritance, the master of this inheritance is more or less impartial, giving every inheritor the same type of trials.”

“Shouldn’t it be like that in the first place?” Argentum could not help but ask her, to which Eleanor responded, “Want me to turn you into a pile of ashes?”

In response to that, Argentum went silent as she continued to explain what she knew regarding the Grand Blue Inheritance, only for her to be interrupted by Argentum as a thought regarding the previous statement she said popped up in his mind, prompting him to ask her, “So…you’re telling me that the master of the Grand Blue Inheritance is alive as well?”

“Indeed, he’s still alive.” Eleanor nodded in response to his question before adding, “And that’s what you’ll be relying on to make the clearing process easier.”

“Hm?” Hearing that the fact that the master was still alive would help him out, he could not help but become confused as to how that would happen. Fortunately, it did not take long for Eleanor to explain the reasoning behind it, telling him, “To be honest, the master of the Grand Blue Inheritance and I have been friends for a long time already.”

“I see…” Argentum said in response to Eleanor’s words, only for him to realize what Eleanor was trying to imply. Though he was unsure as to whether or not his train of thought was correct, he went ahead and asked her, “In other words, you want me to inform the master of the Grand Blue Inheritance beforehand that I’m related to you?”

“Well yes, but not in a straightforward manner. That would just make him more suspicious of you,” she succinctly replied to his question as she added, “The two of us have a code word that we’ve decided to come up with in the off chance that we ever have students we want to make stronger.”

“Oh?” At this moment, Argentum’s interest was piqued. He then asked her, “Could you tell me the code word, Eleanor?”

“Well, that’s what I plan to do in the first place,” Eleanor said in response to Argentum’s words, letting out a light chuckle as she went closer to him, using her energy to scan for any beings near them. After making sure that there were no beings near them, she then cupped her hands around her mouth as she whispered near Argentum’s sense of hearing, informing him of the code word…or rather, code phrase.

Hearing it for the first time, Argentum could not believe that this was the code phrase the two have agreed upon. It took Eleanor a few repeats in order for Argentum to commit the code phrase into his memory, slightly feeling embarrassed for Eleanor as he asked her, “Are you seriously sure that that’s the code word?”

“That’s what we’ve agreed upon, trust me on this one,” Eleanor responded with an aura of confidence surrounding her. She then added, “As long as you say the code word before you start the inheritance, you would have a 50% chance of clearing the whole trial while the quality of the rewards you get will be enhanced as well.”

“Eh? Are you serious?” Argentum could not believe that a code phrase like that would increase not only his survival rate, but the quality of his rewards as well. At this point, he made sure to never forget the code word Eleanor told him again and again since it seemed that he would rely on this quite a lot.

“Yeah, I’m not lying to you on this one,” Eleanor responded with the same aura of confidence surrounding her. Scratching his head, he then said, “Alright then, if you say so. I guess I’ll go ahead and head to the Azure Shores then.”

“Don’t die, okay?” Eleanor responded to his words with words of concern. She then added, “If you die, then I’ll become weaker.”

“You can just teleport to me at any time though,” Argentum said in response to his words before letting out a light chuckle. He then added, “I’ll try my best to not need your help.”

And with that, Argentum went ahead and opened up a map through the system, marking the path he would have to take in order to get to the Azure Shores as fast as possible. Just as he was about to set off for his departure from the Inferno Plains, Eleanor could not help but tell him, “I’d suggest you use [Flame Companion] right now. I’m definitely sure that you’ll come across some native beings in these plains along the way.”

She then added, “Use your powers to get them to near death and let your companion deal the final blow. You might not know this, but it gains twice as much experience as long as the enemy it has defeated is of the same element.”

In response to this, Argentum went silent for a bit as he stayed in place, pondering about her words for a bit. It took around a minute or so of pondering for Argentum to respond to her words, saying, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“I’ll be leaving then,” he said not long after as he raised his arm, waving it left to right to say goodbye to Eleanor.

And so, under the dim rays of the moonlight far away from the peak, Argentum had officially done all he needed to do in the Inferno Plains, now off to head towards the Azure Shores, armed with the newfound powers he had obtained from the Flame Spirit Inheritance.

As for Eleanor, she looked at his fleeting silhouette for a while before muttering to herself with intense concern, “You better stay safe, Argentum. Don’t die on me, okay?”

Whoosh!

After that, she turned around and hastily went back to the abandoned building, heading inside the Flame Spirit Inheritance. And just like that, it was as if nothing had happened in the inner area of the Inferno Plains in the first place.