Chapter 287: The Higher Boundary

"Should I go ahead and enhance my understanding of the Wind element even further?" Argentum muttered to himself in a questioning tone after pondering on what he could do next for a while. Just as he thought that it was the most logical thing to do in this situation, given the current circ.u.mstances, a thought related to the idea surfaced in his mind. With that, he muttered, "I do need more Heaven's Wind Potions if I want to maintain a high rate of improvement though."

Although he was more or less fine with the idea of not using the potions, which boosted his perceptivity to incredibly high levels, to improve his rate of improvement when it came to understanding elements, at this point, he was not used to the idea anymore. Thanks to the last two sessions he had with the effects of the Heaven's Element Potions, he had a feeling that it would take him a long time to achieve the same level of improvement a session boosted with the help of a potion brought.

"I do have the recipe to concoct the Heaven's Wind Potion, but I don't have the materials needed to make one," he said to himself not long after as he recalled the ingredients needed to craft a batch of Heaven's Wind Potion, which was enough to fill about 10 flasks according to the number of materials used up. He then rummaged through Aurus's memories to see if he had any spots where he could farm the ingredients for the potion, to which he soon found the locations for half of the ingredients after about ten minutes or so of rummaging.

Unfortunately, after that, he seemed to be stuck at a dead-end, with only the previous locations he found in Aurus's memories being the only places where he could gather specific ingredients for the potion. He then checked the remaining ingredients that did not have a location on the recipe, eventually noticing that all of the ingredients that did not have a location in Aurus's memories needed one to be at the Animate existence level at the very least.

"Would Tempest Cliff have those kinds of items?" he muttered to himself in contemplation, thinking that it was highly unlikely for a place where the strongest being was a Rank 1 Animate…which had already died. Then again, he could not help but feel at ease as the locations of about half of the ingredients needed to concoct the Heaven's Wind potion were concentrated within the multiple portions of Tempest Cliff, with only some of the ingredients being located in other places that only had a Pseudo-Animate ruling the territory.

After collecting all of that information, Argentum thought that he would be better off not concocting the Heaven's Wind Potion as it would surely take up the majority of the week he allocated to him and the others. Perhaps, the time he took to collect might even last longer than a week, which was something he did not want to happen. But just as he was about to truly call it quits, a location soon surfaced in his mind, giving him the thought that finding the remaining ingredients there had a high chance of happening.

"The Tempest Cliff Inheritance," Argentum muttered the name of the location in his mind as he recalled who had made the inheritance in the first place. "Kevin is an Animate, so surely he would have resources at the Animate level in the inheritance, right? Naturally, the resources would also be inclined towards the Wind element. I feel like I have a better chance of finding the items there instead of heading out to Animate territories where there is the chance of me being captured."

Just as he was about to set his mind on entering the inheritance to obtain those items, he then remembered a piece of crucial information, finally making him give up on the idea of enhancing his understanding of the Wind element in the meantime.

"Ah, right. I don't have any control over the inheritance," he said to himself with a sigh of slight frustration. Scratching his head for a bit, he then asked himself the same question from before once more, "So, with that out of the equation, what should I do next?"

And just like that, he started thinking out loud unlike before, allowing everything to come out of his mind unfiltered as he weighed the pros and cons of each thought.

"I could go ahead and grind my skills out throughout the whole week, which would give me a great increase in power for sure, but I need to achieve the element of Lesser Origin as fast as possible. Enhancing my skills can wait, plus they're already more than enough for my current needs."

"Hmm…I could go ahead and head towards the Inferno Plains and enhance my understanding of Fire. I could also go and meet up with Blob while I'm there…ah, right. I gave the Heaven's Fire Potion before I underwent that session to enhance my understanding of Water. Wait a second, I did give Eleanor the recipe to concoct the Heaven's Fire Potion, but I feel like she hasn't acc.u.mulated the ingredients yet, knowing her personality."

"Speaking of Eleanor, I should remind her to increase my control over her inheritance."

"How about I improve my understanding of the Earth element? I could go ahead and head towards an Earth-based inheritance along the way while improving my affinity with the Ear—ah. I almost forgot. I used the Heaven's Earth Potion to unlock [Earth Affinity] while I was in Felix's inheritance. With the closest Earth-based area being even farther away than the Azure Shores, I should put the priority of improving my understanding of the Earth element as last."

He then continued to ramble on as the thoughts flowed out of his mouth. Fortunately, after rambling for about 20 minutes or so, his rambling had finally ceased as a feasible idea surfaced in his mind. Making sure that he had the right idea in mind, he recalled the idea while muttering, "I guess the best option for me would be to focus on enhancing my understanding of the Water element for now. Unlike Eleanor, Felix had a lot more time to understand the recipe, as well as collect the ingredients needed to concoct the Heaven's Water Potion. At the very least, he would have around 10 flasks of the stuff lying around, factoring in the difficulty of concocting the recipe. I guess that's enough for me to enhance my understanding to the True Water level?"

"Either way, my mind has been set," he soon muttered to himself as an aura of firm determination radiated from him as he activated all of his movement speed boosting buffs without hesitation. Thanks to the boost in effectiveness brought about by enhancing his understanding of the Wind to the Animate level, the speed boost brought about by [Zephyr Burst] and the other spells had increased to a great extent as well. With all of it now activated, he had a feeling that he would crash into the wall if his legs even made the slightest movement.

Just as he was preparing to head towards the Grand Blue Inheritance, Argentum could not help but think about Horell and Herellia before shrugging his shoulders as he said, "Eh. What don't they know won't hurt them. I'll just make sure to head back to the alliance before the one-week deadline I set is up."

Whoosh!

And with that, unbeknownst to Herellia, Horell, and even the six, Argentum went ahead and made his way towards the Grand Blue Inheritance, relying on the map function of the system to make sure that he got there at the shortest time possible…and man was it really short. Unlike before, which took him about three days to arrive at the Tempest Cliff from the Grand Blue Inheritance, this time, it only took him around eight hours to arrive at the Azure Shores, with the moon just starting to peek out of the horizon!

Naturally, he did not stop running once he had arrived at the boundary separating Azure Shores from the wilderness, making his way towards the inner portion of the area. Only when he arrived at the ice castle that housed the Grand Blue Inheritance did he stop as an aura of elation radiated from him while he asked himself with a light chortle, "I wonder how fast I need to run to make it look like I teleported."

Nevertheless, remembering what he came to the Grand Blue Inheritance for, he placed the thought at the back of his head as he circulated the energy inside his body, forming a connection with Felix as the contract they established was awakened.

"Hm?" Not long after, a familiar voice soon resounded in his mind as the voice asked, "Why'd you contact me, Argentum?"

"Can I enter the Grand Blue Inheritance?" Argentum responded to his question with a question of his own. Just as Felix was about to ask as to where he was, Argentum was one step ahead of him as he soon replied, "Also, I'm already in front of the castle."

"…" Hearing Argentum's last statement, Felix was left at a loss for words as he did not expect Argentum to appear in front of his inheritance all of a sudden. At most, he thought that Argentum was just letting know that he was on his way to his inheritance, giving him some time to prepare. Nevertheless, since Argentum was a partial owner of the inheritance, he was soon transported to where Felix was while the latter let out a sigh of slight acceptance.

Whoosh!

A few seconds later, Argentum appeared in front of Felix, who was sitting on a chair made out of his energy. After undergoing the usual greetings and pleasantries, Felix took the initiative to steer the topic towards the reason why Argentum was in his inheritance for no apparent reason. Imitating the sound of one clearing their throat, Felix looked at Argentum and asked, "So…what brings you to my inheritance?"

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While Argentum looked around the room, eventually noticing that the two rooms made for him and Blob a few days ago were still there, he went ahead and replied to Felix's question with a question of his own, asking, "Have you concocted a Heaven's Water Potion yet?"

"Uh…" At first, Felix found it peculiar for Argentum to ask about such a thing, but then remembered that he was the one who gave him the recipe. With that in mind, he nodded and responded, "Yeah. Due to the amount of time that has passed, I've only made around 70 or so flasks of the stuff."

Hearing that Felix had already made 70 flasks, Argentum could not help but become inwardly shocked as Felix's speed of creating the potions. Not only that, but he was also curious as to how he could make quite a decent number of batches within a few days. Nevertheless, he kept these thoughts in his mind for now as he told Felix, "Can I grab some of your flasks? I want to increase my understanding of the Water element."

"Hmm…" Felix pondered over the question for a bit, thinking that there was nothing wrong with Argentum taking some of his flasks as he thought of it from the perspective of investing in a being. But from another perspective, he could not help but feel like he was losing out, prompting him to ask Argentum, "What do I get in exchange?"

"Hmm…" In response, Argentum hemmed and hawed over the question. He thought that it was reasonable for Felix to ask for remuneration as he was the one who collected the ingredients, as well as concocted them. Eventually, he found a suitable item to exchange the flasks with, replying to Felix's question with a tone of slight confidence, "I'll give you the information you need to achieve the peak Animate level of understanding of the Water element."

"Deal," Felix said without hesitation as he radiated an aura of expectation and elation. The two of them then went ahead and made the transaction, with Argentum sending the information he had in his mind regarding [Animate Water Affinity]. After that, Argentum asked Felix if he could use the rooms he made a few days ago as a place where he could improve his understanding of Water silently, to which Felix replied that he had no problem with it.

Whoosh!

Soon after, Felix snapped his fingers, opening up a rift that allowed all of the Heaven's Water Potions he had crafted to drop on the ground. With a light chuckle, Felix looked at Argentum and said, "I might go into seclusion as well, so feel free to use around 80% of the Heaven's Water Potions I've summoned. I think I'll only use a few of them for now anyway."

"Thanks," Argentum said in response to Felix's words before going ahead and conjuring tendrils to grab ten of the potions at once before heading towards the room where he stayed before. This time, he brought out the Tome of the Four Elements in front of him and did not use any tendrils to read through the tome at all. Since he still had the information from the time regarding [Water Affinity] in his mind, he could go ahead and dive into the world of improving his understanding.

And so, Argentum went ahead and popped a Heaven's Water Potion into his upper torso, allowing his perception of the Water element to increase. After two hours, he would then pop in another Heaven's Water Potion, allowing him to continue comprehending the intricacies of the Water element.

Eventually, there came a time when the amount of Heaven's Water Potions he had on hand was starting to dry out, prompting him to conjure long tendrils that grabbed ten more Heaven's Water Potions from Felix's room, allowing him to continue his comprehension session without being distracted that much.

And just like that, Argentum's understanding of the Water element improved at a very fast rate. After he was finished consuming the first potion, his understanding of the next level had increased to 40%, a decent improvement from the 25% understanding he had before he left the inheritance. But after that, his rate of improvement gradually slowed down, needing him to consume more and more potions as time passed by.

By the time Argentum was finished consuming his tenth potion, his understanding of the next level was now at 60%, making him a little bit disappointed at the rate of improvement, but not demotivated to continue with his comprehension spree. As thoughts of giving up surfaced in his mind, he would always think about how it would be far slower for him to achieving this current level of improvement if he did not have the Heaven's Water Potions on hand, psyching him up to continue improving his understanding of the Water element without caring about the number of potions he consumed.

Finally, by the time the effect of the 56th potion had worn out, an intrinsic change occurred in Argentum's body, as well as his aura, sending out a shockwave of energy throughout the inheritance that gave off an all-encompassing feeling. At times, this feeling would turn cold, it would also turn violent at times, but after sensing the feeling for a while, one would feel like they were enveloped in water. For those who were more perceptive, they would even feel like they have become water itself.

"I've finally done it," Argentum opened his eyes as an aura of immense elation radiated from him. Without hesitation, he stood up and lightly stretched his body as he placed all of the empty flasks he had used inside the system inventory. While stretching, he muttered, "5 days and 56 potions. I've finally achieved [True Water Affinity]."

Ding!

Just as he was reveling himself in the pleasure brought about by achieving something like this, a notification sound resounded from his system, prompting him to stop stretching as he opened the notification screen in his mind. After skimming through it for a while, he pondered over something for a bit and soon muttered, "Although it's a bit detrimental in the short-term, it's highly understandable."

"I wonder what kind of effects it would bring in the long run?"

'[Animate Water Affinity] has been upgraded to [True Water Affinity]. Due to the inherent limits brought out about by the upgraded skill, [True Water Affinity] has replaced [Animate Water Affinity] while regressing down to C-grade Mortal level.'

'Thanks to [True Water Affinity], [Water Resistance] has been upgraded to [True Water Resistance], regressing down to C-grade Mortal level.'

'Due to the user understanding more of the Water element thanks to [True Water Affinity], all active Water-based skills and spells have been considered as incredibly inferior, prompting the system to fuse the multiple skills as one with the help of [True Water Affinity].'

'The active skill [Sage's Water Magic] has been created. Due to the properties of the skill, the user is now able to create their own Water-based skills and spells, using this skill as a basis. Improving the grade and level of the skill would allow the user to craft more complex and powerful spells.' 

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