Chapter 219: The First Baptism

"System, use the energy that I've amassed to undergo a Power Baptism," Argentum said with a slightly elated tone as he commanded the system, the war of thoughts in his mind finally over. Surprisingly, a few seconds later, he let out a sigh, somewhat regretting the impulsive decision he had just made in his mind.

Of course, there was nothing wrong with experiencing a Power Baptism in order to prepare for it in the future. If he cleared this Power Baptism, either through sheer luck or through the massive grind he had done for his skills, then it would help him get to Verdant Breeze Town at a faster pace while having ten times the original strength. If he did not clear this Power Baptism, even failing to get through the early stages of it, then it would allow him to set a goal of strength in his mind, giving him great confidence and courage in attempting the Power Baptism the next time.

The reason as to why he was somewhat regretting the decision he had just done was because his mind was heading towards a pessimistic direction, feeling that he had a low chance of successfully clearing this first Power Baptism. It did not take long for Argentum to shake these pessimistic thoughts off from his mind and replace it with optimistic ones, thinking that he had a chance to actually succeed in this Power Baptism. But even though he tried his best to shake the pessimistic thoughts away, they continued to come back and cling on, slightly intensifying as his elation to attempt the Power Baptism had turned into slight anxiety.

In the end, he let out yet another sigh, saying to himself, "Haah…fine. Let the pessimistic thoughts fester, it would allow me to be vigilant while attempting it anyway."

Rumble…rumble…rumble…

Around a minute after he had commanded the system to start the Power Baptism, loud rumbling sounds resounded throughout the area, originating from somewhere way up above Argentum's head. Hearing these sounds, he decided to focus his sense of vision upwards, instantly feeling dread as he sensed the aura coming from up above.

This aura originated from a bunch of clouds that had just manifested. In other words, these clouds were brought about by Argentum's commands, with all of them taking on a dark gray color. In terms of appearance, these clouds almost blended in with the night sky, if not for the fact that these clouds held what seemed to be lightning bolts of the color red, radiating an intense aura of destruction and tyranny.

Ding!

While Argentum was looking at the clouds filled with red lightning bolts, a notification sound resounded in his mind as the system's feminine-sounding voice came after it soon after. As he listened to the system's voice, multiple thoughts started to propagate in his mind, with some related to the Power Baptism, and some related to him.

"User, you are going to attempt your very first Power Baptism, so the system shall tell you what will happen in this Power Baptism," the system's voice said in Argentum's mind before adding, "If you direct your attention towards the sky, you would be able to see a mass of clouds with red lightning bolts. That is your Power Baptism. Well, to be more exact, the vessel of your Power Baptism."

"Since this is the first Power Baptism, the user only has to withstand the power of three red lightning bolts striking on their body, with the power of each consecutive bolt gradually intensifying every time the user withstands it. Of course, that does not mean that the user should underestimate the power of a single red lightning bolt. Even an X-grade Inanimate with a lot of acc.u.mulation would be vaporized under the power of the first red lightning bolt," the system continued to explain the mechanics of the Power Baptism.

"In terms of rewards, for every red lightning the user withstands, the conversion factor of the user gradually increases, eventually reaching the multiplier of 10 once the user withstands all three red lightning bolts. Do note that all subsequent Power Baptisms after this first one would have more and more red lightning bolts to withstand. Not only that, but in the off chance that the number of red lightning bolts is too numerous, the user must withstand purple lightning bolts, which hold far greater power," the system added.

"Of course, that's in the future for the user. For now, this system wishes the user good luck in clearing this first Power Baptism," the system said after it was finished explaining the mechanics of the Power Baptism, leaving Argentum with a feeling of greater dread and regret.

"Haah." Argentum could not help but let out a sigh as a way to release some of the dread and regret he felt as he muttered, "I should've postponed the Power Baptism to a time tomorrow morning. Red lightning bolts in the middle of the night would surely attract the attention of the Animates."

Never did it occur in Argentum's mind that Power Baptisms would be based on lightning bolts. Then again, recalling what he knew about Power Baptisms from his past life, he realized that all of the players he met and talked with him about Power Baptisms did not tell him what they looked like. They only told him about its difficulty.

"Should I laugh or should I cry in this situation?" Argentum asked himself as he looked at the clouds way up above his head before taking in a deep breath. After looking at it for a bit, he came to a conclusion in his mind, saying, "If I succeed and Animates catch wind of this, I'll run away from this area as fast as possible. If I don't succeed and Animates catch wind of this, then I'll morph into another form before running away from this area as fast as possible."

"No, wait. I should morph into another form as well if I succeed," Argentum soon added before letting out a sigh, setting his mental condition to its peak before commanding the system, "Let's start the Power Baptism."

Ding!

"The user's first Power Baptism has now begun," the system's voice resounded in his mind not long after his command, slightly surprising Argentum that he could control when the Power Baptism would start. To be honest, he was expecting the Power Baptism to start at a random time.

Nevertheless, this did not distract him from what he had to do, which was to withstand the power of three red lightning bolts.

Rumble…rumble…rumble…

Signaling the start of the Power Baptism, loud rumbling sounds resonated from the clouds up above Argentum's head. In actuality, the loudness of the rumbling was even heard from many kilometers away, prompting some Animates in villages far away from where Argentum was to look up at the sky and ponder whether there was going to be a thunderstorm tonight.

Listening to the rumbling of the clouds, Argentum went ahead and activated [Tempest Awakening], which was used to be [Mana Awakening] before being fused with one of the skills Aurus had obtained from the Tempest Cliff Inheritance. In an instant, the power circulating within Argentum's body had been increased to around double or triple its original value, with the amount of MP Argentum had slowly trickling away in the process.

He then went ahead and used a great amount of MP to activate [Wind Mana Barrier], conjuring a faint green barrier that enveloped every part of his body, which hovered a few centimeters off the surface of his energy skin. Just as he thought he was fully prepared for the onslaught of the first bolt, a certain skill's name surfaced in his mind, prompting him to activate it as he muttered, "[Tempest Mana Domain]."

Whoosh!

[Tempest Mana Domain] used to be called [Great Mana Domain] before one of the skills Aurus had obtained from the Tempest Cliff Inheritance had fused with it. Unsurprisingly, after being fused with another skill, the boost it gave to Argentum in terms of MP capacity and regeneration rate had been significantly increased, with light green motes of light coming out of Argentum's body and entering it not long after every once in a while.

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Rumble…rumble…rumble…

After he was finished activating all of those skills, the clouds coincidentally created another rumbling sound as the red lightning bolts that seemed to frolic about had congregated at the center of the clouds. Sensing a change in the atmosphere surrounding him after this happened, Argentum raised his head once more to look at the clouds, fear filling up his body once more. To him, it seemed that the aura of destruction and tyranny that he felt from the congregation of red bolts had become palpable.

Bzzt…bzzt…

A few seconds later, sparks started to come out of the red ball of lightning as the power Argentum felt from the red ball had greatly increased. At this moment, Argentum had a great feeling that even with the preparations he had made before the bolt struck, it would just be akin to a sheet of paper. In other words, the defense Argentum had conjured seemed to be nothing in front of the power of the lightning bolt that was acc.u.mulating.

And it was still gradually increasing.

"[Lesser Wind Magic: Wind Bolt]." Not wanting to accept that the defense he had conjured was lacking, Argentum went ahead and activated his offensive magic as he thought about the saying, 'The best defense is a good offense.' Surprisingly, he was able to conjure around 5 wind bolts from the spell before the amalgamation of red lightning bolts in the sky had finally made its move, a dense red lightning bolt striking down not long after.

Crash!

For some reason, even though normal lightning bolts moved at the speed of light, this red lightning bolt moved at what seemed to be a few times beyond the speed of sound, barely allowing Argentum's sense of vision to visually track where the lightning bolt would strike…which was his body.

"Fire!" Argentum shouted without hesitation as he moved the 5 wind bolts he had conjured towards the raging red lightning bolt, with all of them exploding at the very instant they had collided with the tip of the lightning bolt. Surprisingly, these 5 wind bolts were able to lessen the power stored inside the red lightning bolt. Unfortunately, the amount that was lessened was so minuscule that it was better to say that it did not lessen in power at all.

Other than that, these 5 wind bolts were able to delay the lightning bolt's striking by a bit, giving Argentum a really small frame of time for his mind to work on overdrive, eventually shouting, "[Wind Weapon]!"

Whoosh!

In an instant, a broadsword appeared in each of Argentum's hands as he grasped on them tightly, deciding to use his body's strength to try and deflect the power of the lightning bolt. [Wind Weapon] was the only skill Aurus had obtained from the Tempest Cliff Inheritance that did not fuse with other skills since it was a skill that allowed Argentum to create weapons out of Wind energy particles.

Swoosh!

It did not take long for the lightning bolt to finally reach Argentum's body, colliding with the barrier that he had conjured…only for the latter to shatter in an instant. Noticing that his first line of defense had been broken, Argentum gripped on his broadswords a bit more tightly as he used these two broadswords as a shield, positioning them in a cross pattern over the top of his head.

Crash!

Unfortunately, probably because [Wind Weapon] wasn't one of the skills he greatly grinded, or because the amount of power behind the red lightning bolt was just too great, the two broadswords that Argentum tightly held broke in an instant, dissipating into thin air as the red lightning bolt had finally hit Argentum's body.

"Argh!" At the very instant Argentum's body had direct contact with the lightning bolt, he instantly felt immense pain circulating all over his body, with the amount of pain he felt gradually intensifying with every microsecond that passed. On the outside, it felt like bullet ants, killer wasps, and other dangerous insects were attacking the surface of his body a million times with every passing second. As for the inside, it felt like he had eaten a thousand of the hottest chili peppers that existed in his previous life…every second.

Although he wanted to endure the onslaught of the lightning bolt so badly, he was, of course, brought to the reality that the power he had was not enough to withstand such a trial just yet. Without hesitation, he shouted amidst the pain he felt, "System, stop the Power Baptism! I give up!"

Whoosh!

Not long after Argentum shouted those words, the feeling of pain Argentum felt had dissipated like a fleeting wave as the red lightning bolt that seemed to connect him to the mass of clouds in the sky had dissipated as well. Not only that, but the mass of clouds that housed the dangerous red lightning bolts had also disappeared, making it seem like nothing had happened within a certain vicinity around Argentum.

Of course, the sensation of pain and the feeling of powerlessness Argentum had felt was not an illusion at all, activating [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation] to heal the wounds that Argentum had obtained from the onslaught of the lightning bolt. Afterward, he let out a long sigh as he looked up at the sky, saying, "I should've really postponed this Power Baptism for later."

"But now that I've gotten a taste of it…" Argentum continued to mutter before letting out a chuckle. "I really want to clear the first Power Baptism as fast as possible!"

Without hesitation, he went ahead and activated his polymorph skill, transforming into a speck of black sand as he opened up a map through the system. After confirming where he currently was, he adjusted his current position before moving towards a certain direction at the fastest speed he could muster while making sure to grind all of the skills he had.

"I should really grind all of the skills I have," Argentum said to himself. "I should also grind all of the skills I got from the humans a while ago. I feel like they're going to be helpful in Verdant Breeze Town."

"Hmm…"

"Should I evolve to the next grade as well?"

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