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Chapter 320: Venturing Through Dust

Swish! Swish! Swish!

At the very instant Argentum took a few steps inside the Desecrated Terran Ruins, the first feeling that washed over his body was the feeling of being pushed down on all sides. No matter whether he leaned, squatted down, or did any other movement, there would be the feeling of a somewhat heavy weight over his body. Of course, since he was a Pseudo-Animate, that was the only downside he got from the area. If he was an Animate, then he would have brought some goggles as the dust inside the area was notorious for blinding people, both temporarily and permanently.

Trying to ignore the feeling of being weighed down with every step he took, he went ahead and used all of his movement speed boosting spells in order to speed up his journey to the Desecrated Inheritance. Surprisingly, once he did this, the feeling of being weighed down had intensified by a few degrees, making it feel like he was stepping on quicksand. Then again, the distance he traversed under this feeling was still around the same, though it was still distracting and uncomfortable.

Deciding to put an end to this, Argentum deactivated all of the spells on his body after he moved about a hundred meters into the area. After that, he sat down on the ground and commanded the system to bring up a map of the area he was in. It did not take long for him to set a marker at the center of the Desecrated Terran Ruins, as that place was where the Desecrated Inheritance was located.

After double checking that the marker was set in place, he then closed the screen in front of his field of vision before pulling up his skill list, focusing his attention towards one of the skills he had learned while he was inside the Verdant Blossom Breeze Alliance.

While recalling about the skill, he could not help but recall the 6 companions Aurus had beside him, prompting him to mutter to himself, “I totally forgot about telling them that I was going to go on a journey. I should always remember to do that.”

He then placed this thought at the back of his head as he returned his focus on one of the passive skills he had on list, namely the [Earth Affinity] skill which he had obtained after consuming the Heaven’s Earth Potion. Although it would’ve allowed him to reach the Animate level of understanding if he were to use the potion here, he still thought that his current progress regarding Earth element was okay. Of course, that was taking into consideration that he had inherited Aurus’ insanely high comprehension speed.

Taking in a deep breath as he attuned his body to the surroundings, he soon went ahead and allocated all of his time to raising the level of [Earth Affinity]. Since it was around midnight, to him, it was the perfect time to be focusing on grinding up skills as there was more or less no distractions at this time, especially in a place like this.

And so, as minutes and hours passed by, his understanding of the Earth element gradually became deeper and deeper as he felt more and more connected with the Earth energy particles in the area. In fact, while enhancing the skill, he could not help but ponder to himself why there was an overabundance of Earth energy particles in the area. Though it was beneficial for him since it meant that the effects of the Heaven’s Earth Potion would be boosted once he consumed it, he still felt that it was a bit odd.

By the time he stopped grinding [Earth Affinity], it was already late in the morning. Opening up his sense of vision as he stood up to lightly stretch his body, he felt that the weight pushing down on his body had now become multiple times lighter, to the point where he could even ignore it if he wanted to. 

Naturally, that was due to the fact that his [Earth Affinity] had now reached the S-grade Mortal level. If he put in a bit more time into it, it wouldn’t be impossible for him to reach the X-grade Mortal level for the skill. But since he found out that achieving the True Element level of affinity for an element would reset his progress back to zero, this was more than enough for him right now.

Astonishingly, rather than head deeper into the Desecrated Terran Ruins after raising [Earth Affinity] to S-grade Mortal level, he instead sat down on the ground once more as he made himself comfortable. After that, he opened up his upper torso, revealing the Tome of the Four Elements, something he hadn’t used for a while.

Rather than placing it on the ground and opening it as usual, Argentum went ahead and conjured tendrils on his upper torso, using four to hold the book up as he conjured another two to flip through the pages of the book. It did not take long for him to arrive at the portion where the book focused on the Earth element, using his tendrils to absorb all of the information written regarding certain skills he wanted to learn that leaned towards it.

After making sure that the information he had obtained from the tome was imprinted in his mind, he then opened up his upper torso and placed the tome back as he dispersed the tendrils he had conjured. Sealing his upper torso shut to make sure that the tome doesn’t fall, he then closed his sense of vision as he now used his heightened affinity towards the Earth element to make the learning process of the two Earth-based skills he had in mind easier.

Unsurprisingly, the two Earth-based skills he chose were [Earth Resistance] and [Lesser Earth Magic]. Adding on [Earth Affinity], it made up the basic combo an elemental mage would have in terms of skills. Since he had a feeling that he would obtain more Earth-based skills from the Desecrated Inheritance, he decided that learning these two would be enough for him to be prepared for the trials that came along with the inheritance.

And with that, he had successfully learned both [Earth Resistance] and [Lesser Earth Magic] as it had just become afternoon. Opening his sense of vision after obtaining notifications that he had learned both skills, he then stood up and lightly stretched his body once more, subconsciously radiating an aura of slight glee as he noticed that the heavy feeling pushing down on his body had disappeared after he learned [Earth Resistance].

“Although I could invest more time into enhancing these two skills, having low-leveled skills would definitely offer me a greater selection of trials to choose from,” Argentum muttered to himself as he recalled the trials Aurus had undergone through the Desecrated Inheritance in the past, the difficulty of those trials being correlated to the level of Earth-based skills he had.

With nothing holding him down, he went ahead and activated his movement speed boosting spells once more, this time feeling a sense of satisfaction from feeling as light as a feather. Not even a few seconds later, he was far away from where he was grinding his skills, dashing towards the center of the Desecrated Terran Ruins without hesitation.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

While making his way to the Desecrated Inheritance, whenever he found a skeleton lying near some ruined walls or pillars, he would go ahead and snatch their femur bones before placing them into the system’s inventory. Naturally, Argentum felt that it was weird at first, but after looking through Aurus’ memories regarding the inheritance, he knew that these femur bones he collected would serve a purpose later on.

Not only that, but collecting the femur bones also made Argentum realize what kind of place the Desecrated Terran Ruins was. Although he already had an idea as to what it was like thanks to Aurus’ memories of it, experiencing it firsthand was still better than obtaining information of it from another person.

From the name itself, the Desecrated Terran Ruins was littered to the brim with ruins. These ruins ranged from incredibly dilapidated buildings, to pillars where only the base could be seen, to even houses that seemed to have been hit by a meteor. Of course, that wasn’t all.

Since it had the word ‘Desecrated’ on its name, that meant that the area was actually a large graveyard, with the buildings, pillars, and all that making up a great portion of the mausoleums. Only a scant few of those housed living people in the past, where all of the people who tended to the graveyards lived in. Naturally, these mausoleums were ransacked by grave robbers in the past, giving it the name it currently had. If not for that, then it might have been called the Ruined Terran Graveyard, or the Terran Graveyard Ruins.

…

By the time Argentum had reached the central area of the Desecrated Terran Ruins, the sun was already around half an hour to setting down. Nevertheless, since there was still light, Argentum could not help but feel proud as he looked at the large building in front of him. To be honest, it would be more accurate to call this place a large and empty mausoleum as it was devoid of furniture. On top of that, it was the only building in the area to remain standing, even after everything that happened, which caused the other mausoleum to turn into ruins.

Of course, Argentum didn’t mind that as he commanded the system to bring out all of the femur bones he had collected from the skeletons he came across. Unsurprisingly, a cacophony of sounds where bone hit bone resounded throughout the area, only stopping when the pile of bones in front of him had reached a height where it could reach his kneecaps…if he had them anyway.

“141 femur bones…” Argentum muttered to himself, recalling the odd one out that only had one femur bone instead of two. Soon after, he went ahead and got to work as he grabbed a small portion of the femur bones he collected before dropping it inside the mausoleum. He then rearranged the bones into a small circle while 5 femur bones were arranged into an asterisk at the very center. While doing so, he tried to recall how the bones were arranged in Aurus’ memories as he continued to grab more femur bones from the pile outside, forming more concentric circles around the original circle he made.

Once the bones he had obtained ran out, 5 concentric circles of varying sizes surrounded an asterisk made of femur bones, allowing an aura of satisfaction and seriousness to radiate out of Argentum’s body as he then tried to recall what he had to do next in order to officially enter the inheritance.

The truth was, the arrangement of femur bones he just did could be consider as the first key to entering the inheritance. There was a total of 3 keys one needed in order to enter the Desecrated Inheritance, and he had already fulfilled two of them, with the second key being Earth-based skills. As for the final key, it was an incantation that could only be obtained by the fated.

But since Argentum had access to Aurus’ memories, he had access to this incantation as he muttered to himself in slight embarrassment, “Do I really have to say this?”

Letting out a loud sigh to remove all of the embarrassment he was feeling, he then took in a deep breath as he tried to maintain a solemn aura around him. Making sure that he was as composed as he could ever be, he then extended his hands towards the asterisk at the center as he stood outside the concentric circles. Soon after, a faint brown glow could be seen emitting from his palms as he then said in the most solemn tone he could ever muster.

“Oh, supreme being blessed and cursed by both heaven and hell, heed my words as my offering of femur bones shall be the connection guiding me to the truth.”

“Let me bask in your corrupted light, learning of both desecration and ruination as mountains and rivers move with the passing of time.”

“I beseech Lord Calcifas of the Evernorth Desert to please accept my pleas and let me into your heavenly eden.”

“In your name, I solemnly pray…”

“Calcifas the Great, may your bones be unbreakable!”

Whoosh!

After he was finished with his incantation, the femur bones he placed on the inside of mausoleum started to glow a faint purple, which would then change into a faint brown light from time to time. At first, the change between the two colors took some time, but as time went on, the frequency at which they changed became more and more frequent, to the point that the two colors started flickering on the bones at the same time.

Bang!

Eventually, the flickering had reached its limit as all of the femur bones shone of brown and purple light simultaneously, heading towards Argentum’s palms, which currently shone with brown light. Using that as the medium, the brown and purple lights soon covered his body as he felt space distorting around his body.

Sensing this, he couldn’t help but radiate an aura of astonishment as he muttered to himself, “It…worked?”

“Haha…it worked! It actually worke—!”

Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t finish his last statement as he was then sent to another space.