I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 239: The Path Taken

Ding!

‘Blob has dealt the last blow to [Fire Slime].’

‘Blob has obtained 1000 XP.’

‘Blob has leveled up to Level 5!’

As notifications regarding Blob and its last blow to the Fire Slime resounded in his mind, Argentum could not help but radiate an aura of elation as he focused his sense of vision towards Blob, slightly surprised that leveling up also affected Blob’s appearance as well.

It was a given that the aura radiated Blob would grow by a few large notches after increasing its level to Level 5. As for Blob’s appearance, it wasn’t mentioned by the system that levels would affect it as well. Nevertheless, Blob’s appearance has indeed changed, transforming into a slightly larger blob where the origin of its flames became more solid. At this point, Argentum felt that Blob now had a bit of mass.

Of course, the one that was most surprised was Blob itself. Radiating an aura of shock after realizing that it had dealt the blow that would ultimately kill the Fire Slime for good, Blob could not believe that it actually did that. Soon after, it then felt that a great amount of energy was coursing throughout its body, increasing its size to a considerable degree while it felt that it could summon more strength from its body.

After the transformation from the level up was over, Blob went ahead and moved its body, trying to gauge how much strength it now had when compared to before. Finding it that the amount of strength it now had was over 5 times as much as its previous strength, Blob could not help but focus his sense of vision towards Argentum, who was slightly far away from it, and say, “Argentum! I did it!”

“Yeah, you did,” Argentum replied to Blob’s words as he let out a gleeful chuckle. He then made his way to where Blob was before asking it, “Do you feel that you have more strength to fight against the Fire Slimes?”

Blob pondered over his question for a bit before saying with a solemn tone, “I do feel that I have more strength, Argentum. But when I compare it to the strength the Fire Slime exuded, even though it was already at the brink of death, I still feel like the current strength I have is nowhere near enough.”

“Little by little.” Argentum laughed as he felt slightly surprised that Blob would become serious all of a sudden. “You’ll eventually see yourself killing these slimes with a single attack of yours. Don’t you want that to happen as well?”

“Of course I do!” As if it was a 180 degree turn, the solemnity Argentum felt from Blob was instantly replaced with glee and expectation as it replied. But just as Argentum thought that Blob was back to its old self, it added a few more words in its previous solemn tone, saying, “Then again, I can’t help but feel bad that I’m relying on your strength to grow my strength, Argentum.”

“You don’t have to worry about it, Blob,” Argentum replied to his words after pondering over what the best response would be. “Think of it as me nurturing you. Once you become strong enough, you can fight against on your own and increase your strength even further without me helping you. By then, wouldn’t I be the one relying on you because you’re incredibly strong?”

Blob could not help but ponder over Argentum’s words for a bit before letting out a chuckle. It then said, “I guess I’ll treat it that way then!”

After that, the two then went ahead and moved towards another part of the area in order to find another stray Fire Slime. Due to Blob leveling up, the time it took for them to find such a Fire Slime had significantly lessened, only taking around a couple of minutes for them to find one. At the instant they found one, Argentum told Blob to keep doing what it was doing, to which Blob radiated an aura of affirmation as a response.

Whoosh!

Just like before, Argentum went ahead and attracted the attention of this Fire Slime through the usage of [Lower Blaze Magic+], conjuring a fireball that made the slime leap towards him in order to crush his body. Of course, Argentum wasn’t going to have any of that, repositioning his raised hand with the fireball to collide with the core of the Fire Slime.

“Burst!”

Bang!

Unfortunately, rather than obtaining a notification from the system that the Fire Slime was at critical death and seeing the Fire Slime being flung towards where Blob was, his sense of vision was instead filled with the sight of the core of the Fire Slime shattering into pieces as the gelatinous body of the Fire Slime burst into pieces as well.

Ding!

With an aura of disbelief radiating from him, a notification sound resounded in his mind, to which he promptly opened soon after as he let out a sigh. He then muttered to himself, “I guess you can’t help this from happening.”

After that, he went ahead and moved back to where Blob was as he read through the notification he had received.

‘Critical! You have dealt 198 HP damage to [Fire Slime].’

‘You have obtained 500 XP.’

Just as he made his way to where Blob was, Blob radiated an aura of curiosity as it focused its sense of vision towards Argentum.

“What happened to the Fire Slime?” it asked Argentum. In response, Argentum took in a deep breath before saying, “I dealt a critical hit to the Fire Slime.”

“Oh?” After hearing Argentum’s words, it radiated an aura of awe before saying, “Argentum is actually this powerful? Amazing!”

Hearing Blob’s response, Argentum was at a loss for words. At first, he thought that it would be slightly disappointed since in a way, he stole the experience it would get from killing the Fire Slime. But then, he remembered that Blob was a companion he made from a skill. It would be highly unlikely for a companion like it to harbor negative emotions towards Argentum. Of course, that did not mean Argentum was going to abuse this.

“Let’s move onto another slime,” Argentum said not long after to snap Blob from its awe, which worked. After that, they went ahead and moved onto another part of the area filled with Fire Slimes, eventually finding one after another few minutes or so. Fortunately, this time, everything went as Argentum expected, with the Fire Slime being flung towards Blob through his fireball, while Blob would deal the final blow, allowing it to obtain experience.

And so, the two continued to do this for quite some time, increasing Blob’s level and strength with every Fire Slime they killed. Eventually, the two had come across their sixth stray Fire Slime, with Blob once again dealing the final blow to it.

Ding!

After seeing Blob land the final blow on the Fire Slime they found, a notification sound resounded in his mind, which made Argentum unhesitatingly open the notification screen in his mind soon after. Reading through the notifications he had received for a short bit, he then closed it not long after before making his way to where Blob was with an aura of intense glee and excitement.

‘Blob has dealt the last blow to [Fire Slime].’

‘Blob has obtained 1000 XP.’

‘Blob has reached the MAX level!’

Surprisingly, just as Argentum had arrived in front of Blob and was about to initiate the conversation, Blob was the one who initiated the conversation instead, saying to him in a gleeful tone, “Argentum! I’ve become really strong now!”

“You indeed have,” Argentum replied to its words in a slightly happy tone. He then asked Blob, “Have you reached the max level, Blob?”

“I don’t know what that means, but…” Blob said in response to Argentum’s words with slight uncertainty before continuing with a gleeful tone, saying, “What I do know is that I feel like my strength has reached a limit, but I feel like I could break through this limit at any time!”

“That’s good to hear!” Argentum responded to Blob’s words before letting out a cackle. After that, he noticed the aura of slight uncertainty radiating from Blob after its response, prompting him to ponder over it for a bit. Thinking that it might be related to its evolution, which it meant by it breaking through its limit at any time, he then asked him, “What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with breaking through your limits?”

“There’s no problem with that all,” Blob said as it radiated an aura of denial. “It’s just that…I have three paths of power to choose from.”

“Oh?” Argentum was slightly intrigued by this, remembering that Aurus’s Allies weren’t like that, only having a single path of evolution they could take. It was then that he remembered that Blob was a companion made from a skill and not from the system, which meant that Blob was different from them.

Nevertheless, he wanted to help Blob out so he asked it, “Could you let me see the choices you have?”

“Sure,” Blob replied succinctly in response to Argentum’s words before a mass of energy started forming at the center of its body. This mass of energy was then shot out towards Argentum’s body, bringing along an influx of information which Argentum processed in his mind. After doing so, he then asked the system if it could show the information he had just received through a holographic screen, to which the system instantly complied with as a holographic screen appeared in front of his field of vision not long after.

Whoosh!

‘I’m more used to see information in this manner,’ Argentum thought to himself before putting his full focus on the choices Blob had when it came to evolving. Surprisingly, the choices Blob had were akin to the choices Aurus had when he was evolving from C-grade Inanimate to B-grade Inanimate from his memories. Of course, that was excluding the Special class he had access to.

________

Possible evolution paths:

[Lesser Flame Spirit of Power]

[Lesser Flame Spirit of Defense]

[Lesser Flame Spirit of Magic]

________ 

From the names alone, Argentum already had a hunch on what these paths entailed. He did not need the system to bring up the specific information of each class because of it. He then muttered to himself, thinking out loud, “A path of becoming specialized in close-combat, a path of becoming specialized in defense, and a path of becoming specialized in ranged magical warfare.”

As he pondered over these three choices some more, Argentum soon realized that he could not choose the ideal path for Blob to choose. If these choices were his own evolution choices, then it would be a different matter since he had an idea on what path he had. Indeed, the reason why he could not choose Blob’s ideal path was because he did not know what kind of path Blob wanted to take.

Closing the holographic screen in front of his field of vision, Argentum noticed that Blob was looking at him with slight expectation. In response to it, he only let out an awkward chuckle as he said, “I’m sorry for getting your hopes up for a bit. It seems I cannot make a choice for you on what evolution path you want to take.”

“I see…” Blob said in response to his words in understanding, before going ahead and pondering over something for a bit. After sometime,it looked at Argentum and asked it, “Well, could you guide me on what’s the best path to take instead?”

“Guide…” Argentum muttered this word before letting out a light chuckle. Although he was not able to choose a path for Blob since he did not know what it would like to become, he was fine with guiding Blob to make a decision. In other words, he was fine with making Blob realizing the path of power it wanted to traverse.

“First off, what kind of power do you want to have?” Argentum asked Blob. He then added, “Do you want to use a power that allows you to deal damage to others with your body, or do you want to use a power that allows you to protect others with your body? Perhaps you want a power that allows you to deal damage from afar?”

“Hmm…” Blob pondered over Argentum’s words for a bit before saying, “To be honest, I don’t know. All of them seem like a good path to take. How about you, Argentum? What path did you take?”

“The path that allows me to deal damage from afar,” Argentum unhesitatingly replied. “With such a power, I could protect those precious to me, as well as kill those commit great evils while being far away from them.”

“I see,” Blob said in response to his reply, maintaining silence for a bit. After some time, it could not help but let out an awkward chuckle, saying, “It’s actually hard to choose a path to take. I just realized.”

“Take your time. No rush,” Argentum said in response to Blob’s words, feeling that Blob might feel constrained in its choices with Argentum around. While looking at Blob, a thought surfaced on his mind, thinking that it would be a good question that could guide Blob in its choice.

“Here’s another question, Blob,” he said to attract Blob’s attention. “What do you want to do?”

“Well that…” Blob replied, only for it to stop midway as it pondered over it. After a minute or so, Blob then said, “I would like to be of use to Argentum and stay by your side. Is that…a wrong answer?”

“There’s no wrong answers.” Argentum chuckled in response. “I kind of appreciate that you feel that way, Blob.”

In response to his words, Blob radiated an aura of happiness as it continued to ponder over it. Eventually, around ten minutes or so have passed. At this moment, an aura of conviction and determination radiated from Blob as it focused its sense of vision towards Argentum.

Noticing this, Argentum radiated an aura of slight expectation, asking it, “Have you made your decision?”

“Yes,” Blob replied. “I’ve chosen—”

Just as Blob was about to tell Argentum its choice, he interrupted it by saying, “Don’t tell me your choice right now. Tell me after you evolve.”

At first, Blob was quite confused as to why Argentum did not want it to be said, but then, it realized after a moment of pondering, letting out a chuckle as it said, “Alright then. I’ll go and evolve now.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

After that, a great mass of Fire energy particles started to manifest around Blob’s body, intensifying the aura that it was radiating from the start. Fortunately, they were quite far away from the other Fire Slimes so Argentum did not have to worry about alerting them.

Ding!

As he continued to look at Blob’s evolution, a notification sound resounded in his mind, prompting him to open up the notification screen soon after. He then went ahead and skimmed through it, radiating an aura of slight shock, which was soon replaced with glee as he muttered, “So that’s your choice, huh.”

“I respect that.”

‘Blob is in the process of evolution!’

‘Blob has chosen the path of…’