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Chapter 159: No Other Choice

While Argentum had the thought of making a fire since he was feeling very cold in the Tempest Cliff, another fire was lit up in the eyes of a certain goddess in the Celestial Plane, her mood slightly soured due to the image that was shown on the orb in front of her.

“Although I know it was inevitable, I just can’t help but be angry while looking at it,” Kurohana muttered as she looked at the orb, the image of Aurus and his Animate clone interacting with one another quite clearly. Not long after, the image on the orb changed to that where Aurus’ clone was moving by itself, doing things that would normally be done by an Animate in an earlier age.

Looking at the image for a bit more, in the end, Kurohana could not help but let out a sigh, resting her head on her right arm, which was resting on the armrest of the chair she was sitting on, with a slightly despondent gaze. After being silent for quite a bit, she then said softly, “If he didn’t make a clone, the power of the weapon he’ll be a part of would definitely double, or even triple due to the sheer power of his soul at the moment.”

“Nonetheless, due to the meddling of some entities in my world that seem to have noticed my actions, that is now not the case,” she added as the image of an old man appeared in her mind. A few seconds later, she adjusted how she seated, sitting up straight as she shrugged her shoulders, muttering, “It’s not like I could destroy Aurus’ clone, that would also destroy the other half of his soul in the process. Plus if I was desparate enough to do so, I couldn’t even do it since the law I control doesn’t even have that killing aspect to it.”

After that, she closed her eyes for a bit, before looking at the orb one more time. At this point in time, the sight on the orb was that of Aurus’ clone wielding all of its strength to break of a few branches from a decently sized tree. Looking at the sight for a bit, her mood underwent a slight change as she changed her perspective on how she would handle Aurus’ clone.

“Hmm…although that does weaken the power of the weapon, if Aurus nurtures his clone properly, it would be able to become a god as well, which has a far stronger combat power when compared to a god level weapon. And if that clone wields the weapon version of itself, I wonder what level of power would the clone achieve.”

“For now, I just hope my manipulations work out in the end,” Kurohana muttered before continuing to look at the orb with indifference.

…

While Kurohana was watching what was happening in Erudinia through the orb…

Crack! Crack!

Slightly loud cracking sounds could be heard coming from a certain area of the Tempest Cliff. If one looked at where the sound came from, they would be able to see a decent looking man, with leaves covering his private parts, using all of his strength to break off a few small branches from a tree.

This man was none other than Argentum, who was just Aurus, but in another body. At the moment, his face was slightly flushed red due to the amount of force he exerted when trying to bend the branches off the trees he had his eyes on, only being able to obtain around five or so branches from a few trees so far.

“Nghh…” Argentum grunted as he placed one of his feet on the tree’s trunk to act as a lever point while bending the branch. Not long after, all of the muscles in both of his arms bulged as he yanked the branch downward with all of the strength he had, gasping for breath soon after as the bent branch seemingly reverted back to its previous state.

Thud!

Landing on the ground back first, Argentum could not help but look at the sky as he complained, “Oh god, why do these branches have to be so sturdy? Is it because of the harsh winds that’s blowing in this Tempest Cliff?” After that, he let out his complaints for a bit more before standing up to pick up the scant amount of branches he had broken off due to sheer luck.

Then, he ran towards an area that was near the base of the Tempest Branch Alliance, having a hunch that the time when all of the alliance members would congregate at the alliance hall was getting closer. In actuality, it was much closer than he thought, due to the long amount of time he spent trying to break off branches from trees to make a fire.

“Although I took quite a while to break off branches, I can finally make a fire,” Argentum said in glee as he sat down on the ground and grabbed two pieces of rock, smashing it against one another to sharpen one of the two rocks. While doing so, he could not help but mutter, “If I could remember correctly, using a sharpened rock, I should make a notch in one of the branches wherein another branch would enter. Then, I would have to rotate the branch at great speeds to make embers, which I could put onto some dried leaves to gradually make a fire.”

After becoming satisfied with the sharpness of the rocks, he then started to make a notch on one of the branches he broke off, only for it to fail as the pointy end of the rock broke after coming into contact with the branch rather than the opposite. At this point in time, Argentum could not help but grab onto his hair and start to pull on it in anger as he threw the rock and branch he was holding onto the ground.

“Normally, a rock would be able to make a nick on a branch, right?” Argentum started thinking out loud as if he was losing his mind. “Are you telling me that the wood of the trees here in the Tempest Cliff are so sturdy that I would need something like diamond to make a nick on these branches?”

Eventually, Argentum calmed down from his anger, looking at the branches and rocks scattered on the ground, which served as a sort of memory for his unreasonable eagerness to craft a fire in the Tempest Cliff. It was when he was looking at the branches did a thought surface in his mind, prompting him to stand up as he started to make a run for the Tempest Branch Alliance’s base.

“Wait a second. Why am I trying to make a fire if I know very well that Chonk and his army are gonna come within 12 hours?” Argentum shouted as he exerted all of his strength towards his legs. Not only that, he also activated [Sense Sharing] and [Automated Clone Control], returning the main control back to his original body, while commanding his clone to continue to run towards the base, making sure that he was not seen by any of the other Inanimates in the base.

Whoosh!

In an instant, all of the control was transferred back to Aurus, his original body, looking at the surroundings for a bit before telling Fenrir and Charisa, who were still in a state of grinding skills as of late, that he was going to go somewhere for a bit. After that, Aurus hastily teleported out of the Tower of Seclusion, even going so far as to activate the Ruler skill he had that was related to movement in order to reduce the time spent traveling towards his clone.

Fortunately, due to the two of them moving at the same time, it only took around a minute for the two to meet at an area slightly far away from the Tempest Cliff. It was an area covered with multiple trees and shrubs, allowing Aurus to be at ease, knowing that he wouldn’t be found out by the other Inanimates, even though all of them are inside the base.

Facing each other, Aurus started to hover as he commanded Argentum to sit down. Due to [Automated Clone Control], Argentum’s movements were stiff and unnatural, unlike before where Aurus consciously controlled his movements. Of course, Aurus did not mind this as he started muttering to himself, trying to recall all of his thoughts regarding the Animate existence level.

“Although having something to cover my private parts was necessary, making a fire wasn’t necessary at all. I know very well that Chonk and his army are getting closer and closer as I speak to myself, but it seems that I’ve become a bit relaxed after knowing that I have a clone that could inflict a great injury on him. Of course, a great injury would allow us to have an advantage, but his death would be better than just greatly debilitating him.”

“Hmm…” Aurus then pondered for a bit, looking at his clone every once in a while as he pondered as to how he would make his clone stronger. “I’ve more or less attained the peak of strength I could obtain with this original body of mine. The same can’t be said for Argentum though, he doesn’t have a Tempering skill to start transitioning classes.”

In Aurus’ memory, Tempering skills were skills used by Animates at the start to enhance the properties of their bodies, allowing them wield strength greater than a normal Animate, allowing their bodies to unlock more of their bodies’ potential and exert greater power, which has been split up into Ranks.

Of course, Aurus knew that he could start formulating a Tempering skill for Argentum, but he also knew that it took a lot of time for a Tempering skill to reach its peak stage, especially with the fact that a Tempering skill could be enhanced while being trained. That’s why, he was trying to find a way to enhance his clone’s strength without having to resort to the Tempering skill first. Only if those methods did not work would he go ahead and let his clone start formulating a Tempering skill.

“How about I give him equipment?” Aurus asked himself, wondering if the equipment he had made for the alliance members would be able to be worn by his clone. Bringing out the ‘Marquis of Magical Destruction’ set he crafted for himself from his inventory, he gradually brought the equipment set closer and closer to the clone’s body with his tendrils, only hearing a notification sound after the equipment set came into contact with his clone’s body.

Ding!

‘The entity cannot wear this equipment due to the difference in existence level.’

Reading through the notification screen that appeared not long after the notification sound resounded, Aurus let out a chuckle that seemed to say that he was expecting this, muttering soon after, “Well, it was worth a shot. The difference between this original body and the clone’s existence level is quite large, so it’s understandable if it doesn’t work. Then again, I’ve heard rumors back then that Animates could wear equipment made by Pseudo-Animates, albeit the strength of the equipment would be lessened thanks to the difference in existence level.”

“What can I try next?” Aurus pondered a bit more, wracking his mind to the limit as another idea came to mind a few seconds later. “Hmm…I can try imparting skills to the clone. Since the skill I impart to other Inanimates are modified by the system beforehand, surely the system would modify the skill to fit an Animate, right?”

Soon after, he opened up the skill impartation screen, setting the target to his clone in front of him. Just as he was about to impart a skill to his clone, he noticed that all of the skills in his skill list were blacked out, with a small line of text on the top, telling him that he could not impart any skills to the clone due to the difference in existence level. Seeing as that did not work as well, Aurus let out a sigh and closed the screen before looking at his clone and saying, “Since both of those didn’t work, and I don’t have any other way to enhance my clone’s strength other than those two methods, it seems that I really have to start formulating a Tempering skill.”

Just as he was about to transfer his control back to his clone’s body, Aurus received a message from a certain entity, her voice resonating with great familiarity in his mind.

“Aurus, the members have started gathering in the hall already. Although I haven’t shown myself yet, you should head to the main hall now since you’re the one giving out the equipment anyway,” this voice said in his mind. Of course, this voice came from none other than Herellia, the leader of the Tempest Branch Alliance.

Looking at his clone for a bit after receiving the message, he let out a sigh before starting to teleport towards the main hall of the alliance, muttering to himself, “Well, I still have [Sense Sharing] on, so I can see what my clone is doi—”

“Oi! Stop eating grass!”