Chapter 364: Establishing One's Status

After the two of them talked about a few more things regarding what they would do tomorrow while announcing the changing of the town's leader, Delmann and Argentum went their separate ways, heading towards two rooms inside the manor. Since Argentum told Delmann that he would be leaving the town from time to time to do his own things, he told Delmann that he didn't really need a room for himself.

Nevertheless, Delmann insisted that he had a room, quite adamantly at that. In the end, Argentum gave in to Delmann's persuasions and occupied a room at the top floor of the manor. After closing the door to his room, he then let out a sigh before deactivating [False Visage of the Animate], returning his figure to that of a gray humanoid.

Soon after, he took a look out of the large window inside his room, allowing him to get a good view of a great portion of Verdant Breeze Town at night time. Although it was dark for the most part, the illumination brought by the moon was enough for him to feel that the town was quite peaceful at night time. Though, while looking at the streets, he could not help but think that starting a streetlight project wouldn't be a bad thing.

After that, he decided to sit cross-legged on the only bed in the room as he pondered on what he could do to pass the time before he and Delmann had to announce the changing of leaders. In the end, he decided that increasing his strength would probably be the best for him to pass his time. Of course, he could not use his offensive skills since he knew that it would definitely destroy this room, or perhaps even the manor, with his current stats.

With that, he focused his attention towards his passive skills. Though, after a while, he thought that there was no point in enhancing his passive skills, given how they were at a pretty high level even though he hadn't grinded them after a long time. Or at the very least, he hadn't found a reason to grind them to a higher level yet.

As for the passive skills he had that were replaced due to him reaching the True Element level of understanding towards a certain element, their base effects were still more than powerful enough for him to not do anything, thus prompting him to think that he would just enhance them once he was close to evolving.

"Now that I think about it, I can actually evolve at any time," Argentum muttered to himself, recalling that he had invested a great portion of his unused experience points towards raising his level up to the maximum. Nevertheless, he thought it was a bad idea to evolve at this moment, especially with the fact that his skills haven't reached their limits yet. On top of that, he could still obtain more skills to grind if he went out, it's just that he thought that developing Verdant Breeze Town was of greater priority.

"Well, that just leaves me with the things I've only obtained recently." With those thoughts, he eventually focused his attention towards the skills he had obtained that focused on the element of Lesser Origin.

Ever since he had left the Origin Pantheon, or better yet, ever since he had obtained [Lesser Origin Affinity], he hadn't touched any of the skills related to Lesser Origin at all, may it be passive or active. Although he did have multiple chances of doing so before he went to Verdant Breeze Town, the thought of using them didn't pass through his mind at all. And now that he was thinking about it, he could not help but wonder sometimes if he was thinking correctly.

Nevertheless, he knew that he would eventually use them, so he didn't really regret the decisions he had made so far. Though, with only a few minutes having passed by after he had entered his room, he was quite bored out of his mind right now, wanting to occupy himself while waiting for his time to show himself to the world.

And with that, he looked at the two passive skills he had that were related to Lesser Origin: [Lesser Origin Affinity] and [Lesser Origin Core]. [Lesser Origin Affinity] was the same as any other elemental affinity skill he had in his skill list. As long as he increased its level in it, he would have better control over the element of Lesser Origin.

As for [Lesser Origin Core], now that he thought about it, it encompassed not just Lesser Origin. Although he had obtained the skill from the Origin Pantheon, which needed someone to comprehend the element of Lesser Origin at the very least, he had a feeling that enhancing this skill would not just increase his control and proficiency over the element of Lesser Origin, but over the four foundational elements as well. As to whether this increase in proficiency translated to damage or anything else, it was still better than only experiencing an improvement in one area.

And so, Argentum closed his sense of vision as he focused on the silver orb that resided in his body that was radiating a similar energy to the one making up his body. Of course, if one examined closely, there was a slight qualitative change between the energy radiated the core and the energy making up his body. Ignoring that, Argentum went ahead and tried to increase the level of [Lesser Origin Core].

Within the first few minutes, Argentum felt like nothing was happening. Then again, he did not know what Lesser Origin felt like, unlike the four foundational elements he had been familiar with all this time. Fortunately, this stalemate did not last long since after an hour had passed, a change started to occur within him…as well as his surroundings.

Whoosh!

Although it was unknown as to what caused it, multiple motes of iridescent light started to condense around Argentum before entering his body, causing him to feel pleasure wash over his body with every mote of light he absorbed. At times, he would even feel like he could enter a higher plane of existence, which was only something he felt while creating his Lesser Origin Core back at the Origin Pantheon.

And so, time passed as the level of his [Lesser Origin Core] increased. Surprisingly, as his [Lesser Origin Core] improved in level, his [Lesser Origin Affinity] would improve as well, leveling up at the same rate as the former. Though he was quite surprised to see this happening, it wasn't like he didn't understand what was happening. He was controlling the element of Lesser Origin to nourish his Lesser Origin Core, which meant that his understanding and control of Lesser Origin would naturally improve with time.

Eventually, the sun was now up at the sky, prompting Argentum to stop grinding both skills as he let out a sigh of wonder and awe. Thanks to the All-encompassing Comprehension Leaf that Aurus had ingested in the past, the speed at which his [Lesser Origin Core] and [Lesser Origin Affinity] had improved was definitely fast, though for some reason, it was around a fifth of the speed as him improving any other skill. Nevertheless, both skills had reached the maximum level they could achieve at the B-grade Mortal level, which surprisingly gave Argentum an additional ability.

By allowing the element of Lesser Origin to circulate throughout his body, the Lesser Origin he was circulating would resonate with the world, allowing his senses to expand beyond the limits of what his enhanced senses could reach, basically allowing him to sense everything around him within a certain radius. For some reason, he could not help but think of Aurus's [Soul Perception] skill as they had the same function.

Nevertheless, Argentum knew that the two were still different, with one reliant on the power of one's soul, while the other was reliant on Lesser Origin. With that, Argentum decided to call this new ability of his 'Origin Sense', given how it was powered by Lesser Origin.

Not long after, a knock on the door to his room could be heard, instantly prompting Argentum to activate [False Visage of the Animate] as he returned to his previous appearance. After that, he opened the door to his room, seeing Delmann look at him with a smile.

"It's time for us to show ourselves to the world, Sir Argentum," Delmann said half-jokingly. In response, Argentum replied with a chuckle, "You could say that this is our first step to establishing ourselves as a future kingdom."

After that, they headed out of the manor before heading towards the center, both of them nodding to the town's guards they met every once in a while.

…

Arriving at the town center, they noticed that a great portion of the townspeople were already surrounding the makeshift stage the guards had constructed for the two to stand on. Naturally, the townspeople were quite curious as to what was going on, given how the guards had only told them vague things. Eventually, the answer to their questions had arrived as Delmann and Argentum walked up the makeshift stage, facing the townspeople who were chattering just a while ago.

Unsurprisingly, once they noticed that their town leader had walked up the stage with another person, they knew that something important was about to be announced. After all, they still did not forget the fact that their current town leader was chosen after the previous town leader was killed. Then again, none of them did not grieve for the death of the previous town leader as that leader did not care about them in the first place.

As for Delmann, their current town leader, he was someone from this town, so he knew very well that interacting with the townspeople was of utmost importance. That was also the reason why everyone had gone silent the very instant Delmann and Argentum had appeared on top of the makeshift stage.

Clearing his throat to attract everyone's attention, Delmann then stepped forward as he said, "Good morning, everyone. I'm sure you've all heard from the guards that I have something important to announce to all of you."

"Well, this announcement has something to do with the person beside me," he continued before recalling the incident from back then. "Does everyone still remember the time when Irren was killed? Although I'm sure all of you know of this, I'm sure that no one knows that the one who did it was someone not from this town."

With those words, the townspeople could not help but look at Argentum with a hint of curiosity. As for those that were more intelligent, they connected the two dots as they looked at Argentum with a hint of awe and reverence. After all, their previous town leader was so strong that no one could contest them. With that, he ruled the town in a corrupt manner, though he made sure that it did not look like that on the outside.

Seeing as their interest was piqued, Delmann then lightly smiled as he continued, "If your thoughts are the same as mine, then yes. This person beside me is one of those people that helped remove Irren's corrupt hands over this town. Would you please introduce yourself, benefactor?"

In response, Argentum stepped forward and nodded as an amicable smile soon appeared on his face. He then went silent for a bit to make sure everyone's attention was on him before saying, "My name is Argentum. My last name is something that's useless to know since I want everyone to call me by my first name."

He then let out a light chuckle as he continued, trying to make the conversation more casual, "As said by Delmann, I was one of those people who helped stop Irren ruling over your town. I've heard from Delmann that Irren had ruled over this town back then with only him in mind, not caring about you guys at all."

"That's why I'm here today to change all of that," he said before looking at Delmann. Knowing what Argentum was trying to imply, Delmann continued where Argentum left off and said, "From this day onward, I shall step down from the position of town leader. Sir Argentum right here shall be Verdant Breeze Town's leader, while I shall become his right hand, the vice leader of the town."

Surprisingly, rather than hearing loud cheers from the townspeople after that announcement, an eerie silence instead covered the surroundings as all of them looked at Delmann and Argentum with slight confusion. As for the two, although they weren't expecting such eerie silence to come after their announcement, it wasn't as if it was a surprise to them, given how they were ruled by such a corrupt leader before Delmann.

Eventually, one of the townspeople stepped forward and looked at Argentum with a hint of doubt still on his face. Taking in a deep breath as he mustered his courage, he then asked Argentum, "How can we be so sure that you wouldn't treat us the same way like Irren?"

In response, Argentum lightly smiled as he let out a playful chuckle.

"Well, the answer to that is very simple."

"I won't."