Chapter 221 - How to Survive the Heat

At the very instant Argentum went ahead and took a step inside the Inferno Plains, what greeted him first and foremost was the intense heat that circulated around the area. In an instant, Argentum felt like he was being burned alive, with every subsequent move he made hastening this burning feeling.

Concurrent to the burning feeling he felt was great pain. It was a type of pain that did not just stop at the outer layers of his body, but even the insides of his body were not spared from this body. If he were to gauge the level of pain he was feeling right now, then it was close to the peak, only being beaten by the pain he felt from being hit by a red lightning bolt. And that was just the first red lightning bolt he had to withstand.

"Ah, shit!" Argentum could not help but shout as he tried to endure the pain while traversing the region. Although he was feeling intense pain right now, there was something he had to do in this region that was more important than what he felt. That was because this thing that he had to do would be one of the deciding factors as to whether he would be able to become an even stronger Super Animate, or become a normal Super Animate.

"Agh! That's hot! That's hot!" Nevertheless, he still could not help but curse out every once in a while as he looked at the small map he had up on a part of his vision. Since he had now reached the first stop in his map, which also housed a few of the subtasks he had to fulfill to become a strong Super Animate, he zoomed into this specific region in his map, allowing him to get a better view of the shortest and most efficient path he had to take to achieve all of the goals he had in mind for this area.

Ding!

Around a couple of minutes after Argentum had entered the Inferno Plains, just as it seemed that his mind was becoming to the feeling of constant pain, a notification sound resounded in his mind, breaking his concentration as he let out a shout of pain. Of course, he hastily muffled this shout of his, knowing very well that he was now inside a part of the region that housed quite a decent amount of beings, which would definitely be alerted by his shout. He was still walking through the Inferno Plains a while ago, so he could afford to shout while not alerting the beings that live in this area.

"Damn system notification," Argentum muttered under his breath as he took in a deep breath, focusing his concentration once more to ignore the constant pain that he felt all over his body. After doing so, he then went ahead and opened up the notification screen in his mind, wondering what kind of notification he had received from the system. Was it related to the Inferno Plains? In one way, it was.

'You have received 1 HP damage' was the latest notification Argentum had received from the system, instantly putting him in a befuddled state. The first thought that came to his mind was whether he had offended some being in here by accident, eliciting a sneak attack from them. As for the second thought, he wondered whether he had stepped on some pointy rock by accident, and since he was putting all of his concentration on ignoring the pain he felt, he obtained a bit of damage.

Eventually, he placed the matter in the back of his head, thinking that it was just something that happened out of the blue. Activating [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation] to restore his HP back to full capacity, he then continued to move through the Inferno Plains' terrain at his high speeds.

Ding!

Surprisingly, after another couple of minutes, Argentum received yet another notification from the system. But this time, his concentration was not broken as he had now allocated a part of his attention towards the system at all times. Unfortunately for him, after reading through the notification he had received, his concentration was broken for a short while, bombarding him with pain once more.

"Another damage notification?" Argentum said to himself, now thinking that something fishy was going on. Although the amount of damage he had obtained was not a lot, it was the same amount of damage he had received from before, being 1 HP. He could say that it was just a fleeting occurrence if it happened once, but now that it happened twice, Argentum could not help but think that something was going on.

Then again, he had no idea where to start in finding the reason for the damage he was taking, so he went ahead and activated [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation] once more, making a mental note in his mind regarding these two notifications he had received. After that, he then went back to moving through the Inferno Plains once more in search for the specific location he needed to go…only for him to obtain a notification a couple of minutes later yet again.

Ding!

"That's gotta be another damage notification," Argentum said to himself, feeling that it was incredibly likely. At this point, he truly believed that there was a great reason as to why he was taking a small amount of damage every once a while. And fortunately, at the very instant he was reading through this notification he had received, he finally found out the reason why he was taking a bit of damage.

'Critical! You have received 3 HP damage from the Inferno Plains' atmosphere!'

"Heh…" This was the first sound to come out of Argentum's mouth after reading through the notification, only for him to read through the notification a few more times, eventually shouting, to which he softened soon after, "So that's why!"

"Wait…that's the reason why?" Argentum soon asked himself this question, pondering over the reasons why he was taking damage from the atmosphere of the Inferno Plains. It did not take long for him to get to an answer as he said, "Ah. I forgot that I'm a Wind Elemental."

Since Argentum shared memories with Aurus, it did not take long for Argentum to rummage through the memories of ISE, specifically how the elements interacted with one another.

It is said that in ISE, there are over thirty elements at the very least, but most of these elements are variants of the four fundamental elements. Fire, water, earth, and wind. These four elements are said to be most common elements found in the world of ISE, but are also the strongest when honed to the peak.

Of course, these four elements interacted with one another in a cyclical manner, with one element triumphing over the other by a certain degree. Fire is stronger than wind, wind is stronger than earth, earth is stronger than water, and water is stronger than fire. That's how it went. It's said that a person with a superior element would deal 50% more damage against those with an inferior element, while those with an inferior would deal 30% less damage against those with a superior element, but Argentum used to not know if that rule still applied in this world, since this world was not a game anymore.

Now, Argentum knew that the same rules applied in this world, making him lightly chuckle as he thought about the plan he had formulated in his mind back in Tempest Cliff. It seemed that the plan he had made would actually work out in the end.

Stopping in his tracks, Argentum went ahead and sat down on the ground, saying the usual lines of "Hot! Hot! Hot!" as he acclimated himself to the scorching heat of the ground. After activating [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation] to heal his HP up back to maximum, Argentum soon pondered over what he needed to do in this area.

"Well, of course, that's a given," Argentum said not long after to himself as a thought surfaced in his mind. "Although it would allow me to increase the mastery level of [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation] every so often, in the long term, it would become incredibly annoying."

"I need to get [Flame Resistance]," Argentum soon muttered, making up his mind as he stood up not long after while radiating an aura of slight excitement. Just as he was about to start moving to get the [Flame Resistance] skill he wanted, he soon asked himself, "Wait a second…how do you get [Flame Resistance] again?"

"I'm pretty sure the place I'm heading to would have such a skill on hand," he started to think out loud as he pondered over the query. "But the environment surrounding it is significantly worse than what I'm currently in right now. I'm pretty sure I'll die before I even get to that place."

"Are there any other ways to get [Flame Resistance], Argentum?" Argentum asked himself not long after, rummaging through the memories of ISE, surprisingly finding an answer after a few minutes later, prompting him to replenish his health after he found the solution he was looking for.

"It seems I'm going to have to go on a detour," he muttered with a chuckle as he looked at the map he had and placed a marker on a certain part of the Inferno Plains. This place was not far away from the place he needed to go to, plus it did have the thing he needed to obtain [Flame Resistance], so he did not hesitate to activate all of his movement boosting skills and spells and dashed towards the area in an instant.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

As he dashed towards the area he marked on his map, he could not help but look back at the memory he found in his mind, muttering to himself, "Although the original body only did it in areas where he had the advantage, I'm pretty sure the same principle applies, right?"

The solution that Argentum had obtained from rummaging through his shared memories was in fact, quite logical when thinking from a game perspective. He just needed to kill monsters that resided in that area, obtaining loot that was local to the area. In other words, he had to kill the native beings of Inferno Plains to obtain the [Flame Resistance] skill.

In the memory, Aurus had to kill at least a thousand of those monsters in order to get the skill, to which Argentum hoped that it would not happen to him since time is of the essence when improving strength as fast as possible. Alongside this, Argentum could not help but wonder if these native beings also dropped equipment, just like in ISE.

Well, it was ultimately something he would have to find out himself.

…

It took around four hours for Argentum to reach the area he marked on the map, the moon hanging in the sky now close to its peak. Surprisingly, even though it was somewhat late at night, the Inferno Plains was still bright, which was all due to the flames and lava that was prevalent across the area.

Taking in a deep breath at the very instant he was finished running, Argentum soon took in a good look of the area, wherein he could see a vast area thanks to his [Keen Vision] skill. He then lightly smiled as he muttered, "Fortunately, I can still rely on my memories for places like these. The bane of all starting close combat players of ISE, but is well received by all of the mages in ISE. Not only that, they're the weakest beings in the Inferno Plains."

"The [Fire Slime]."

Boing! Boing! Boing!

Akin to a huge piece of red gelatin, these Fire Slimes moved about in a hopping manner, their bodies jiggling every time they landed. Not only that, if only looked closely, one would see a solid red orb inside these slimes. To everyone in ISE and Argentum, these red orbs were the things they needed to hit in order to kill them without a problem since the red orbs were their cores.

"Hmm…which one of these slimes would become my first target?" Argentum muttered to himself as he let out a low chuckle, taking into consideration the auras they radiated. Although all of these slimes were at the lowest rank of the Animate existence level possible, there were still some slimes that exuded an aura a few times more powerful than their other slime brethren.

Healing his HP with [Grand Breeze Rejuvenation], Argentum eventually found a suitable first target, which was a slime that was not that far away from where he currently was. Not only that, but this certain slime was also a decent distance away from the other slimes, allowing him to focus on attacking this slime without alerting the other slimes in the process.

"You know what? Now that I think about it, this is also a way to test how strong I've become after the grind," Argentum said to himself with a chuckle as he activated [Zephyr Ascendance+], increasing his stats by a few times. Not long after that, Argentum then activated [Lower Tempest Magic+], conjuring what seemed to be a blade made out of condensed Wind energy particles.

After that, he went ahead and made sure that the blade would hit the red orb inside the slime, calculating its trajectory in his mind before going ahead and firing it.

"[Lower Tempest Magic: Zephyr Cleave]!"

Whoosh!

At the very instant he shot the wind blade towards the slime, it was only then did it occur to Argentum that the power behind the blade might not be enough due to the elemental disadvantage. Fortunately, just as he focused his sense of vision towards the blade nearing the core of the slime, expecting that the blade would only be able to critically injure the slime rather than kill it…

Swish!

Akin to slicing through butter, the wind blade split the red orb inside the slime in two without a problem. Not only that, but the gelatinous body of the slime had been split into two halves as well, eliciting an expression of disbelief from Argentum as a notification sound resounded in his mind.

"Eh…?"

Ding!

'Congratulations! You have obtained the passive skill [Incredibly Inferior Flame Resistance]!'

"…"

"…"

"…Eh?"