Chapter 222: To Live is To Grind

Ding!

'Congratulations! You have obtained the passive skill [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance]!'

"Eh?" Listening to the system's voice resound in his mind, which was accompanied by a notification sound, Argentum was left at a loss for words as an aura of disbelief covered his body. It took around half a minute for Argentum to come to his senses as he read through the notification he had just received one more time, making sure that the system was not fooling him.

"To think that I got the skill on the first try…" Argentum could not help but mutter in disbelief after confirming that he had truly obtained the skill, opening up the skill's description not long after as he excitedly skimmed through its contents.

"Just as I remembered it. 100% increased resistance against the Fire element." Argentum let out a light chuckle as he closed the screen filled with the description of the skill not long after. Just as he was about to head towards the original location he had in mind, a thought filled with doubt soon surfaced in his head, prompting him to ask himself, "Wait a second…did I really get the skill I needed?"

This thought filled with doubt, which now had a hint of anxiety added in it, urged Argentum to open up the description of the skill he had just obtained once more, making sure to read through every word that filled the screen that appeared in front of his field of vision. After glossing over the words a few times and finding no fault in it, Argentum let out a sigh before saying, "Oh boy. Was it the word 'Incredibly' that made me think that I got the skill I needed on the first try?"

Ding!

________

[Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance] (Lv. MAX)

Grade: Unevolvable

A skill that increases the user's resistance to the Fire element. Unfortunately, the increase in resistance is so low that the user would be better off saying that it did not have increased resistance towards the Fire element at all.

> Increases the user's resistance to the Fire element by 1%

Note: Fuse this skill with 4 more copies of the same skill and watch it upgrade to a higher level.

________ 

"I actually mistook the percent sign for two zeroes," Argentum said to himself not long after before adding, "Plus it can't be leveled up or evolved…"

"And that note at the end…" Argentum continued as his sense of vision focused on that last string of words.

Mulling over the note at the end for a bit, it did not take long for Argentum to somewhat realize what he needed to do to obtain the skill he needed. Taking in a deep breath, Argentum felt that he was going to do something boring after realizing the strength of the skill he had obtained. In his mind, it seemed that that process would be natural, but if possible, he did not want to do more of it.

Thinking optimistic thoughts, Argentum let out a slightly forced chuckle before asking himself, "Surely I wouldn't need to kill a lot of Fire Slimes just so I could have the proper [Flame Resistance] skill, right?"

Even though he asked himself this question, he had a feeling that it would definitely be the case, needing him to kill a lot of Fire Slimes just so he could obtain what he needed. Scratching his head, he continued to hope that he did not need to kill a lot of Fire Slimes. He would only accept it once he obtained the same skill from another Fire Slime.

And so, he went ahead and used his sense of vision to locate a stray Fire Slime, eventually finding one about a few seconds later. Now knowing that his attack would be able to kill a Fire Slime with one hit, Argentum let out a sigh as he aimed the wind blade he had conjured towards the core of this stray Fire Slime, muttering to himself, "Please don't make me grind even more…please don't make me grind even more…"

"[Lower Tempest Magic: Zephyr Cleave]!"

Whoosh! Swish!

Just like the first Fire Slime he killed, the core of the second Fire Slime had been split into two halves, with the same happening to its gelatinous body as a notification sound resounded in his mind. Hearing this notification sound, Argentum went ahead and hastily opened the notification, hoping that his worst nightmare would not come to fruition.

Ding!

'Congratulations! You have obtained the passive skill [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance]!'

'You only need 3 more copies of [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance] to upgrade it to the next tier!'

At this moment, Argentum had a feeling that it was inevitable for him to kill a lot of Fire Slimes, but he still tried to deny the fact that he had to do it, letting out an awkward chuckle as he muttered, "I guess I'm lucky to get it twice, huh?"

"Surely I wouldn't get the same skill after killing a Fire Slime three times in a row, right?" Argentum asked himself in a tone of slight uncertainty, using his sense of vision to find another stray Fire Slime. After finding another one, he then went ahead and conjured another wind blade, firing it towards the Fire Slime without hesitation as the Fire Slime was soon split into two halves.

Ding!

Hearing the notification sound in his mind, Argentum could not help but radiate an aura of slight fear and expectation, hoping that he did not get the same skill three times in a row. If he got the same skill one more time, then Argentum would have no choice but to believe that this was the only way for him to enhance the [Flame Resistance] skill he currently had. Unfortunately for him, his worst nightmare had come to fruition.

'Congratulations! You have obtained the passive skill [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance]!'

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'You only need 2 more copies of [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance] to upgrade it to the next tier!'

"…" Argentum was left at a loss for words after seeing the same notification the third time, letting out a long and disappointed sigh after a few seconds. Not long after that, he then let out another sigh as he activated [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation], muttering to himself, "I guess I have no choice, huh. If only there was a third way to obtain [Flame Resistance] in the fastest way possible. Unfortunately, there's none."

"Sometimes, with tasks like these, I wonder whether I'm in a real world or if I'm just inside ISE," he soon continued to voice out his complaints, eventually calming down after he let all of it out.

"How many Fire Slimes do I have to kill?" Argentum asked himself this question around half a minute later before activating all of his movement boosting spells and skills to head towards the Fire Slimes. Since he needed to kill a lot of Fire Slimes to improve his [Flame Resistance] skill, then he was going to do in the fastest way possible.

Fighting against them head-on…or at least, at a closer distance.

"[Zephyr Cleave]!"

"[Zephyr Cleave]!"

At the very instant he was in the area where most of the Fire Slimes were located, Argentum unhesitatingly went ahead and fired out two wind blades towards two unaware Fire Slimes, hastily ending their lives as notification sounds resounded in his mind. He then went ahead and opened up the latest notifications he had received, inwardly letting out a long sigh as he muttered to himself in slight annoyance, "For every upgrade, the number of Fire Slimes I have to kill increases…huh."

Ding!

'Congratulations! You have obtained the passive skill [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance]!'

'Congratulations! Your 5 copies of [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance] have fused as one and formed [Superbly Inferior Flame Resistance]!'

'You only need 3 more copies of [Superbly Inferior Flame Resistance] to upgrade it to the next tier!'

After reading through it, he then went ahead and continued cleaving through Fire Slimes left and right, eventually optimizing his methods of killing the Fire Slimes, allowing him to kill more slimes with every move he made. In his mind, he could not help but think of the last notification he had received from the system, the one that mentioned how many copies of the same skill he needed to upgrade it to the next tier.

Argentum was quite familiar with such a mechanic back in ISE, transforming quantity into quality. Some of the equipment Aurus used to own in their shared memories had undergone a similar strengthening process as well, needing him to obtain multiple copies of the same inferior equipment in order to create a single piece of superior equipment.

As this memory surfaced in his mind, Argentum could not help but mutter to himself, "Now that I think about it, I might need to kill around the same amount of beings Aurus needed to kill in order to obtain skills from them. I wonder why this is the case in this world, transforming quantity into quality instead of relying on chance to obtain the skill one needed…ah. I see."

It soon clicked in Argentum's mind that this method of obtaining skills seemed to serve a greater purpose than he thought, making beings think that as long as they put in enough effort, their skills would be honed to a greater level. After about five minutes or so, Argentum had killed enough slimes for [Superbly Inferior Flame Resistance] to upgrade to [Greatly Inferior Flame Resistance], with the former having a 3% increase while the latter had a 5% increase in resistance.

Since Argentum did not need to do anything different when it comes to killing the Fire Slimes, he went ahead and let his body move on his own as he pondered over other things in the meantime. The first thought that popped up in his mind while pondering was surprisingly related to Aurus and the Inferno Plains, well…to be more exact, the Inferno Grounds.

With Argentum and Aurus sharing memories, that meant that Argentum also had access to Aurus's memories in this current life of his, which allowed him to have some sort of reference on what he was going to do in this world. While rummaging through these somewhat recent memories, the memory of Aurus passing through the Inferno Grounds without being damaged by the atmosphere soon surfaced, which prompted him to wonder as to why that was the case.

The first answer that appeared in his mind was that he had Charisa with him, an Ally that was inclined towards the Fire element, which might have given Aurus the ability to negate the damage of the Fire element on his body. Just as he was satisfied with that answer, he then remembered that Charisa was not summoned yet by Aurus at that time, with Fenrir being the only Ally Aurus had.

He then pondered over it a bit more, thinking that Aurus's ability to ignore the damage from the Fire element might have come from the blessing he had obtained from Kurohana, the Greater Goddess of Reincarnation. Surprisingly, Argentum and Aurus also shared those memories, allowing Argentum to know of this matter. But then, after finding out the blessing Aurus had received had no relation to the elements at all, Argentum discarded the idea, proceeding to ponder even more over the question.

Unfortunately, even after about twenty minutes or so of pondering, Argentum was not able to formulate a plausible answer in his mind, making a mental note in his mind that he would ask Aurus about this matter once he was finished evolving. Coincidentally, around this time, Argentum had amassed enough copies of the skills yet again to upgrade [Greatly Inferior Flame Resistance] to [Slightly Inferior Flame Resistance], increasing Argentum's resistance to flames by 10 percent.

After checking the description of the newly upgraded [Flame Resistance] skill, he soon went back to pondering about stuff, this time concerning the [Flame Resistance] skill he was currently grinding.

He thought that since there was a [Flame Resistance] skill, then there would be resistance skills for the other elements as well. With that in mind, he then wondered if he could be invulnerable to every element in existence in the world of Erudinia, eventually concluding that it was theoretically possible if he had the time to grind all of them to a level wherein he would not just resist the damage of the elements anymore, but nullify their effects altogether.

'After I'm done with what I need to do here in Inferno Plains, I think I'll go grab [Water Resistance] in Azure Shores alongside the things I need to do there,' Argentum thought to himself, only for a thought to pop up in his mind all of a sudden, making him think of a what-if situation wherein he needed to do the same thing he was doing right now in order to obtain the proper [Water Resistance] skill.

With that in mind, Argentum could not help but think that it was possible, which an optimistic thought negated not long after, making him let out a sigh of relief as he thought, 'Ah, right. Unlike the Fire element, there's no elemental disadvantage against the Water element. I think I'll just grab [Water Resistance] through the place I have in mind once I reach the Azure Shores.'

After that, he then went ahead and continued to ponder over other things to pass the time as his body was slaying Fire Slimes on autopilot. Around this time, it dawned on him that he would have a lot of unused experience points after he finishes grinding for the proper [Flame Resistance] skill. Even though these Fire Slimes were the weakest Animates in the Inferno Plains, thus only giving a scant amount of experience points, due to the difference in existence level, what would be a scant amount for Animates would be a lot to him.

Taking an estimate as to how much unused experience points he would have by the end of this impromptu grinding session, Argentum then went back to ponder over things, eventually coming to the topic of loneliness. Although he was distracting himself from how lonely he felt by busying himself with tasks such as grinding and pondering over other things, in actuality, he was quite lonely, just like how Aurus was at the start of his journey after looking through his memories.

"All for the sake of becoming a Super Animate" was what Argentum would say to himself whenever he was close to faltering, using it as a way to motivate himself to achieve his goals. To be honest, the goal he had in mind was quite blurry now. He wondered if his current goal was to become a strong Super Animate, or to make Aurus look at him in a better light. Either way, both of those goals spurred on him in this journey of his, wanting to see Aurus's reaction by the time he woke up.

Eventually, while pondering, an hour had soon passed, with the moon now at the peak of the sky. At this moment, Argentum finally had enough copies of the same skill to upgrade [Slightly Inferior Flame Resistance] to [Inferior Flame Resistance], increasing Argentum's resistance to the Fire element from 10% to 15 percent.

It was also around this time that Argentum muttered to himself in a slightly melancholic tone, "Sure, doing this increases the mastery level for [Lower Tempest Magic+] and [Zephyr Ascendance+] but…"

"When will this grind end?"

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