Chapter 192: Shortcuts and Solutions

"Don't introduce me to Herellia and Horell for now. That's the second step," Argentum said to Aurus without hesitation while radiating an aura of slight happiness.

"…" After hearing this, Aurus was left at a loss for words. He was at a loss for words since for him, it was an incredibly stupid idea. As for Argentum, he interpreted Aurus's silence as Aurus thinking that he, Argentum, was an incredible genius.

Of course, after the silence between the two had lasted for a minute, Argentum felt that something was off. Nevertheless, he continued to think that Aurus was probably praising him in his mind, asking Aurus, "Well? What do you think?"

"…" In response, Aurus radiated an aura of indifference as he continued to maintain silence. It was at this moment that Argentum realized that Aurus was not thinking of him as a genius. Realizing this, he could not help but ponder about it himself, thinking, 'By not introducing me to Herellia and Horell, it would save him the task of needing to make up a reason as to why I'm weak, right?'

'That would be the most logical thing to do, right?'

'Right?'

"Well…that does make sense." Eventually, Aurus muttered out a few words to Argentum, words that were related to the idea Argentum had thrown at him a while ago. He pondered over Argentum's idea while maintaining silent, thinking of ways on how to make the idea even better. To him, it was just a stopgap solution. Of course, he could go ahead and hide Argentum from Herellia and Horell to the ends of time, but to him, that would sour the friendship they had.

"I've already indirectly mentioned you as a trump card to Herellia, so I can only delay my introduction. If I don't introduce you to her and Horell, that would make me look like I'm still on guard against the alliance," Aurus muttered a few seconds later as he let out a low sigh, looking at Argentum, who was radiating an aura of glee.

"Don't worry, Aurus. You just have to delay my introduction for around two weeks," Argentum replied, with Aurus radiating an aura of affirmation as he thought that two weeks wasn't too long of a time. Nonetheless, he could not help but become curious as to why Argentum decided to delay the introduction for a fixed amount of time. He soon asked Argentum about this, to which Argentum let out a light chuckle, which gave him the air that he had a well-connected plan in mind, as he replied.

"The reason why I set it at two weeks is that I have full confidence that I can enhance my power to a level greater than yours within that time," Argentum said with an aura of optimism about him. He then continued, "It has something to do with the third step of my idea?"

Hearing the words 'third step', Aurus could not help but ask Argentum, "How many steps are there in your idea?"

"Hmm…" Argentum pondered over Aurus's question for a bit, placing his glowing index finger and thumb under his glowing chin. After a few seconds, he shrugged his shoulders as he replied, "So far, four. I'm pretty sure I'll add more steps as time passes though."

Listening to Argentum's words, Aurus could not help but let out a sigh before saying, "Even though I'm you and you're me, it's like we're two different entities. Does it have something to do with us splitting our soul in two?"

"I'm not sure, but you do give off the aura that you're always thinking too deep into things," Argentum replied. "Perhaps, that may be the case."

Not long after, he asked Aurus, "Does it have something to do with you upgrading the system's OS? Back then, you weren't like this."

"It might be," Aurus replied as he pondered over it, coming up with a possible conclusion a few seconds later as he added, "It might have something to do with [Parallel Body Control]. Back then, I could only control one body at a time."

"Probably," Argentum replied as he scratched his head. After a few seconds of silence between the two of them, Aurus then asked him, "Oh yeah. What's the third step of your idea?"

In response, Argentum flashed a glowing grin as he responded, "Well, I'll follow your footsteps, original body. It's just that I'm doing at a higher difficulty."

"I'm going to go and clear a dungeon."

"A dungeon, you say?!" Aurus replied with shock as he heard Argentum's words. In his memories, although dungeons in ISE would provide players with a ton of experience points and skills, and sometimes even equipment, all dungeons are made for Animates!

"You do know how hard a dungeon is, right?" Aurus asked Argentum before continuing, "The easiest dungeons can only be cleared by Rank 0 Animates at the very least! At your current state, you don't even have a tenth of a Rank 0 Animate's power!"

"Of course I know," Argentum replied before adding, "You're just misinterpreting what I said."

"Huh?" Hearing this, Aurus radiated an aura of confusion. Of course, after listening to Argentum's next words, Aurus realized that he was probably overreacting.

"I'm not going to clear a dungeon made for Animates. I'm going to clear a 'dungeon' perfect for Pseudo-Animates."

"By 'dungeon', you mean…?" Although Aurus had an idea as to what Argentum was hinting, he asked to make sure. Fortunately, they were thinking the same thing as Argentum grinned, "Indeed. I'm going to go loot some skills from Animate towns."

"I almost forgot about that…" Aurus let out a sigh of relief. Since he was a long-time player of ISE, he knew that there were two types of dungeons. The first one was the one he remembered vividly, the dungeons made for Animates, filled to the brim with monsters, yet hold immense rewards at the end. As for the second one, since he had not gone through the Pseudo-Animate route and only heard of it through other players, he was less familiar with it.

The more correct term for the second dungeon was town looting, which was fondly called by Pseudo-Animate players as dungeon looting. Although they weren't up against monsters like the Animates, they were instead up against the surveillance of Animates. Animates always sought Pseudo-Animates, mostly due to them being rare materials that could be sold for a high price, or materials that could be transformed into legendary weapons.

Of course, since they weren't killing any beings while looting towns, they did not gain any experience, unlike the Animates. But in exchange, the number of skills and loot they would obtain from a single looting session was enough to make Animate players green with envy.

"Which town are you planning to loot, then?" Aurus asked as he commanded the system to bring up a map, slightly surprised that the map that had unfurled in front of him was more detailed than before. As for Argentum, he opened up the map as well, commanding the system to highlight the nearest towns within a certain radius not long after. After a couple of minutes, Argentum let out a grin as he pointed towards a certain town quite some distance from the alliance base.

"This is the town I'm going to go loot," Argentum said while pointing. He then muttered, "Verdant Breeze Town, a town situated beside the Greater Tempest Cliff. I'll have to cross the Inferno Plains and the Azure Shores to get to it. With my current speed, it would probably take me close to less than a week to get there."

Hearing Argentum's words, Aurus commanded the system to highlight the towns on his map as well, easily finding the Verdant Breeze Town Argentum was talking about. While looking at it, he could not help but notice that there were a few towns near the Tempest Cliff, but he chose the farthest one from it. With this in mind, he asked him, "Why'd you choose such a faraway town?"

In response to this, Argentum scratched his head as he replied, "Well…think of it as Step 3.1."

"I'm going to go get the elemental affinities for Fire and Water along the way. That's why I chose it."

"I see…" Aurus said with slight reluctance, thinking that it would be better if Argentum was closer to where he was so he could teleport to him at any time. In the end though, he let out a sigh and stopped thinking about it, remembering that he wanted Argentum to become the strongest Super Animate possible.

"Good luck on your travels, then," Aurus said a few seconds later. Just as he said this, a thought flashed in his mind, prompting him to ask, "Oh, right. Could I check the skills you have right now before you head to Verdant Breeze Town?"

"Sure, go ahead." Just like before, Argentum did not mind Aurus's request, with Aurus commanding the system to identify Argentum one more time.

Ding!

It did not take long for the system to respond, a small screen listing Argentum's skills in front of Aurus a few seconds later. After looking through the skills Argentum had, he could not help but ask him, "Are you really sure these skills you have right now are enough?"

"Go big or go home," Argentum replied.

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Active Skills:

[Lesser Wind Magic Lv. 1]

Passive Skills:

[Lesser Wind Affinity Lv. 1], [Lesser Mana Affinity Lv. 1], [Clouded Mana Core Lv. 1], [Boundless Potential Lv. 1], [Spirit Resonance Lv. MAX]

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"Are you really sure you want to go to Verdant Breeze Town?" After looking through Argentum's current skills, Aurus could not help but think twice about his decision. "Although [Boundless Potential] does look like a skill that would help you out, you still cannot hide the fact that your affinities and level of mastery over magic is weak. Can't you postpone your departure to a time where your skills are at a decently higher level?"

"Or…I could just grind my skills along the way while I make my way to Verdant Breeze Town," Argentum refuted Aurus's words as he added, "You absorbed the Transcending Comprehension Leaf."

At this point, Aurus was awakened to the fact that Argentum had thought about his idea multiple times in his head, the goal of which was to become as strong as possible, as fast as possible. Realizing this, Aurus muttered to himself, "How could I be so fickle-minded…"

After that, he let out a long sigh before an aura of support and elation radiated from Aurus as he said, "Alright then. It seems you've thought about this quite a lot. I should learn a thing or two from my clone from time to time."

"Don't be so harsh on yourself," Argentum replied with a light chuckle. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for your choices."

"True," Aurus replied before chuckling as well. Not long after, he then said, "But still, I can't help but worry that something bad might happen to you. As a Pseudo-Animate, you're more prone to being caught by Animates and turn you into some piece of equipment."

It was then…that a certain skill Aurus had came to mind.

"Unless…" With this in mind, Aurus's worries were washed away, replaced with a feeling of confidence and excitement for what Argentum would accomplish. "Argentum, I have no clue if this would work on you or not, but it's still worth a shot."

"Hmm?" Hearing Aurus's words, Argentum could not help but be confused. Of course, it did not take long for Argentum to get what Aurus was saying, with Aurus muttering the name of a skill not long after.

"[Wisdom Transfer]."

Whoosh!

It did not take long for a screen to appear in front of Aurus's field of vision, listing down all of the skills he had. To be honest, he was quite shocked after looking at the screen because, unlike Fenrir and Charisa, even more skills could be passed onto Argentum than he thought, even though he was a Pseudo-Animate!

Just as Argentum was about to ask what skills Aurus was going to transfer to him, Aurus went ahead and commanded the system, "Transfer all of the skills that could be transferred to Argentum."

Ding!

Not long after, Aurus obtained a notification from the system as the system's voice resounded in his mind, saying, "All transferable skills shall be transferred to Argentum. Due to the difference in existence level, the transferred skills shall have their efficacies and grades diminished."

'That's the least of my worries,' Aurus thought to himself as he laughed inwardly. As long as Argentum had more skills at the start of his journey, it was akin to giving him a headstart in becoming someone strong! But surprisingly, another notification resounded in his mind, shocking him as he muttered, "Eh?"

"Thanks to the grades of the transferred skills, the penalty has been nullified," the system said.

"All transferable skills have been successfully transferred and adapted to Argentum's body."

Ding! Ding! Ding!

While Argentum was still in shock as to what Aurus had said, he was snapped back to reality by the multiple notifications he had received quite some time later. Although he knew that these notifications were related to the skills Aurus had transferred to him, he did not know how much it was, prompting him to check how much skills he had obtained.

Whoosh!

"[Infinite Primordial Morph] has been transferred to the user. Due to the limitation of the skill of the user that transferred the skill and the body of the current user, it has been adapted to [Hundred Facade Polymorph]."

"[Heavenly Spiritas Revival] has been transferred to the user. Due to the limitation of the skill of the user that transferred the skill and the body of the current user, it has been adapted to [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation]."

"…"

"…"

"[Grace of the Divine Tempest] has been transferred to the user. Due to the limitation of the skill of the user that transferred the skill and the body of the current user, it has been adapted to [Blessing of the Great Wind]."

A total of six skills had been transferred to Argentum, with most of them taking care of the areas that Argentum was lacking. After reading through the notifications, Argentum went ahead and looked through all of the descriptions of the skills, making him look at Aurus with an aura of gratitude radiating from him.

'With these new skills, I could rest assured that I'll be able to clear a dungeon safely! I might even get more from it!' Argentum thought as he closed the screens regarding the skill descriptions not long after. 

Taking in a deep breath, Argentum looked at Aurus and said, "I guess I'll be leaving then. See you in two weeks?"

"Yeah, see you in two weeks," Aurus said as he radiated an aura of concern. Noticing this, Argentum let out a sigh inwardly as he turned around to head towards the direction where Verdant Breeze Town was.

Whoosh!

Just as he was about to start moving, he heard the faint sound of wind coming from his back, prompting him to turn his head around to see what made that around. Surprisingly, he looked back and noticed that Aurus was gone. He could not help but think that Aurus had finally gone back to the alliance base, making him let out a sigh of disappointment inwardly.

But then…he heard a voice coming from beside him.

"You know what? Your idea has inspired me a bit before I go and evolve to X-grade."

"How about I go on an adventure as well?"

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