I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 372: The Tempest Helios Statue

“Did I clear the first trial?” Although Argentum asked Helios that question in his usual polite manner, to Helios, it seemed like Argentum was mocking him, telling him that the trial he had given to him was incredibly easy to clear. To him, it was as if his words were grating on his ears.

Naturally, with that kind of thought process, Helios could not help but slightly frown, though he hastily hid it as he knew that Argentum wasn’t mocking him at all. How could his fan mock someone like him, the great Tempest King? And so, suppressing all urges to come down to the arena and show Argentum who’s boss, Helios silently took in a deep breath as he slowly nodded, responding with indifference, “Indeed. You have cleared the first trial.”

Of course, thinking of himself as the greatest existence in the world, he made sure to add a few words that would make Argentum’s feat seem like nothing. “Nevertheless, the manner in which you have eradicated those 10,000 copies were quite all over the place. At most, the performance you were able to give me only made me briefly chuckle in excitement at most. But since I am the almighty and magnanimous Tempest King, I shall let this pass and allow you to go through the next trial.”

Hearing that, Argentum could not help but scratch his head as he shifted his vision to Rosalia. Surprisingly, Rosalia was also scratching her head as she gave Argentum a shrug, non-verbally telling him that he was always like this. Knowing that he had to change his impression of Helios, Argentum gave a light nod before going silent.

“As you have consumed quite a bit of energy during the first trial, this divine being shall allow you to rest for quite some time before the next trial begins,” Helios said not long after as he snapped his fingers, conjuring a magic circle under Argentum that allowed more energy to enter his surroundings. Seeing this, Argentum could not help but be surprised that Helios had access to such spells, wondering if he could create something like this through his Sage’s Magic skills.

As Argentum closed his sense of vision and allowed his energy to replenish, Helios could not help but look at Rosalia and say, “I wasn’t expecting him to clear the trial that easily. Even though I lowered the defenses of those copies to a quarter of this divine being, it would still take someone a lot of time to break through even one.”

Hearing how Helios was trying to strike up a conversation with her, Rosalia could not help but awkwardly chuckle as she responded, “Well, that’s Argentum for you. He wouldn’t have known Felix and the others if he didn’t have something interesting to offer.”

“Since you brought up that topic, who was the first one Argentum met among them?” Helios soon asked, to which Rosalia hastily sent a few messages to Felix and the others through multiple strands of energy. Not long after, she made it seem like she pondered over the matter for a bit before saying, “If I remember correctly, Eleanor was the first one to meet up with Argentum, while Felix is the second.”

“After that would be Melzarin, then me, then you,” Rosalia continued, prompting Helios to nod as he said, “Well, it’s no surprise that he hasn’t met Lucius and Tyrphon yet. Judging by the skills he used to destroy those copies, he only has control over the four foundational elements.”

As Helios mentioned the names Lucius and Tyrphon, Rosalia could not help but slightly shudder, wondering why Helios would bring such names up out of nowhere. Unfortunately for her, Helios did not go in-depth into the topic, prompting her to place the thought at the back of her head.

Looking at Argentum from time to time as he recovered his energy, another question popped up in his head, deciding to ask Rosalia once more. “Now that I think about it, this divine being doesn’t know of his existence level. I know he’s a Pseudo-Animate from his appearance alone, but what level is he at exactly?”

Sending a few more strands of energy towards Eleanor and the others, Rosalia eventually got her answer as she also looked at Argentum, referencing what she had heard from the others with what she was looking at right now. Lightly coughing, she responded, “If I remember what Eleanor and the others told me, he used to have a different appearance while he was still at the Normal-grade Pseudo-Animate level. With that, there’s a high chance that he’s now at the Magic-grade Pseudo-Animate level.”

“Huh?” This time, Helios could not hide his shock anymore, with his aloof facade nowhere to be seen at this point. From what he had just seen, the level of power Argentum had shown was way beyond what his current existence level dictated. With that, he could not help but see things for himself as he sneakily sent a few strands of energy towards Argentum, making sure that he did not notice them.

As for Rosalia, she could not help but lightly frown at what Helios was trying to do, but after recalling those strands back as he muttered that Argentum was indeed a Magic-grade Pseudo-Animate, that frown hastily disappeared.

Nevertheless, with this new piece, Helios could not help but wonder what he could do to make the trials harder. Although he was happy that his fan was quite powerful, he was more displeased with the fact that his trials were easily cleared. If his trials were cleared without a problem like some pushovers, then what did he, the great Tempest King, the supreme owner of the Heaven’s Gust Inheritance, would be?

Wouldn’t he be a lousy inheritance owner?

Of course, this train of thought was only possible due to Helios’s personality, even if this kind of situation rarely happened. To him, if he was the greatest existence in the world, then he thought that he should have the greatest inheritance in the world, with his trials being the greatest as well.

With that, he pondered over the next trial Argentum was going to take. Eventually, he had come up with a good one as he decided to restrict Argentum’s freedom over the elements quite a bit. As a light yet scheming smile briefly appeared on his face, Helios removed the magic circle that helped Argentum gather energy, prompting Argentum to stand up and look at Helios with a hint of curiosity towards the next trial.

Not long after, the landscape at the center of the arena was quickly replaced as a layer of leaves soon appeared on the ground Argentum was going on. While he was still wondering as to why there were leaves on the ground, another layer of leaves soon appeared on top of it, then another layer, and another until five layers of leaves could be seen on the ground surrounding Argentum.

At this point, the crowd of beings made out of wind let out a raucous cheer as Helios announced the next trial Argentum was going to take. With a tone of pride and confidence in his voice, he then said, “The second trial you shall go through is called…the Tempest Helios Statue!”

As a proud smile could be seen on his face, he explained the mechanics, saying, “In this trial, you must use the leaves on the ground to create a statue that bears likeness to the figure and face of this divine being right here, the great Tempest King, Helios Gustav.”

He then continued, making sure that his next instructions weren’t made on the spot. “To make sure that the statue you create would bear the most likeness, this trial shall limit you, the trial taker, to the usage of only the Wind element. If this divine being right here catches you using another element, I would not hesitate to fail you and reject your offer. Does this supreme being right here need to repeat what I said?”

“No need, Tempest King. This lowly being right here has committed your words to memory,” Argentum replied, making sure to please Helios while doing so.

Seeing that Argentum did not forget his place, Helios let out a brief snort as he announced the start of the trial, saying, “The second trial begins!”

Unsurprisingly, the crowd of beings made out of wind let out wave after wave of cheers, some encouraging and some discouraging within the mix. Of course, since the crowd was only here to bring a bit of life to the arena Helios had made, Argentum wholly ignored the existence of the crowd as he pondered over how he was going to create a statue of Helios using the leaves covering the ground.

As he looked at the statues of Helios adorning the pillars surrounding the arena walls, Argentum soon noticed that the leaves took on various shades of skin, with one layer of leaves even taking on a dark color. With that, he could not help but think that there was a hidden condition to this trial. He had a feeling that if he did not emulate Helios’s current appearance as much as possible, he would fail.

With that, he decided to do a few test runs, checking to see if his control over the Wind element was good enough to do what Helios tasked him to do. Surprisingly, just as Argentum infused a bit of his mana on the surrounding air, a small gust of wind was formed, which Argentum willed to move to the right.

Normally, the direction of the wind would be random if one tried to control it, but for Argentum, the direction of the wind moved accordingly to his thoughts, giving Argentum a slight shock as he wondered why it was happening. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to recall that his affinity with the Wind element had reached the True Element level. In other words, it was no problem for him to control the wind according to his needs.

And so, knowing his level of arts and crafts, or to be more exact, Aurus’s level of arts and crafts in the past life very well, Argentum went ahead and infused a lot of his mana into the surrounding air as he used the wind to cut up all of the leaves within a certain radius into small squares. Although Aurus wasn’t very good at arts and crafts, there was one thing he slightly excelled at among the various mediums.

Collages!

Indeed, he was going to create a three-dimensional collage out of the small squares, trying to emulate Helios’s appearance as much as possible. Of course, Helios was wearing clothes right now, so Argentum had the artistic freedom to try and extrapolate Helios’s muscular figure underneath the clothes.

With a few quick gusts of wind, the statue that was made out of leaves was gradually being built from the bottom up. Unsurprisingly, Helios could not help but be at a loss for words once more as he noticed that Argentum wasn’t having a problem with the trial yet again. With that, the frown on his face this time around persisted for a bit longer before disappearing, a sign that Helios was becoming more and more dissatisfied with this fan of his that seemed to make his difficult trials look easy.

As for Rosalia, she could not help but look at the process in earnest before her face turned slightly red as she muttered, “He even captured that…”

Soon, she looked at Helios for a bit, gazing slightly downwards before looking back at the statue and muttering, “He definitely made it a bit bigger.”

“Huh?” Of course, Helios, who was in the midst of pondering over what he could do to take Argentum down a peg or two, did not notice what Rosalia was doing.

Eventually, Argentum was finished creating the statue using the small squares, satisfied with what he had done given the level of arts and crafts Aurus had proficiency over. In any case, it was still a sight to behold.

Although he couldn’t capture each and every detail on Helios’s face or body, he was still able to capture enough details to let anyone who was looking at it know that he was basing his statue off of Helios’s appearance.

Of course, seeing that he was done, Helios stepped down from the area he was in and appeared beside Argentum, looking at the statue he had made. With just one glance, he had instantly fallen in love with the statue, using his own proficiency over the Wind element to make sure that the statue was incredibly sturdy.

After that, he kissed the statue Argentum made on the face a few times before looking at Argentum with a hint of anger in his eyes. Not long after, he said succinctly, “You passed the second trial.”

He then used his proficiency over the Wind element to carry the statue made out of leaves with him back to where Rosalia was, caressing it from time to time and planting a few smooches on it here and there as he muttered, “Damn you…although I hate you for making my trials easy…you have captured this divine being’s likeness in its entirety.”

As for Argentum, he could only utter out a sound in confusion after seeing what Helios had done to the statue he made.

“Eh?”

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