Chapter 240 - The Synergistic Duo

Ding!

'Blob is in the process of evolution!'

'Blob has chosen the path of [Lesser Flame Spirit of Defense]!'

Skimming through the notifications he had received from Blob's evolution process, Argentum radiated an aura of slight shock as he did not expect Blob to choose that path at all, which gradually transformed into an aura of glee as he muttered, "So you've chosen that, huh."

"I respect that," he continued to mutter as he looked at Blob gradually evolve to the path he had chosen. The mass of Fire energy particles that had surrounded him at the start of his evolution process had now become Blob's arms and limbs. Not only that, but the Fire energy particles had also helped Blob form a torso that would help him control these arms and limbs. The only thing that would be connected to Blob's previous form would be his head, which still moved like a blob of fire, hovering over his torso.

Fwoosh!

After his head was formed, Blob's evolution process was over, focusing his sense of vision towards Argentum as he said, "I've evolved, Argentum!"

"Yeah, I can see that," Argentum said in response to his words, a slightly gleeful tone enveloping every word. With an aura of glee still emanating from him, although he knew what path Blob already chose, he still decided to ask Blob, "So…what path of power did you choose?"

"Er…I chose the path of sacrificing my body to protect others," Blob said, at first with a confident tone before finishing with an uncertain one. He then asked in a slightly meek tone, "Did I…make the wrong choice?"

"Well…" In response, Argentum intentionally delayed his words as he spoke with a mysterious tone, making Blob radiate a slightly nervous aura. "Do you regret choosing the path you've taken?"

"Do I regret choosing the path I've taken?" Blob repeated the question Argentum asked him a few times in a mutter, pondering over the answer for a short while. Eventually, he firmly focused his sense of vision towards Argentum before responding in a slightly meek tone, which became confident not long after, "I…don't really regret choosing this path at all. In fact, why should I regret choosing this path?"

"I see," Argentum said in response to Blob's words. He then moved around the area for a bit before continuing with his words, saying, "If that's what you feel, then you haven't made a wrong choice at all."

"I do wanna ask though," he soon added after telling Blob that he did not choose wrongly. "What made you choose that path?"

"Hmm…let's see…" Blob pondered over Argentum's question once more, this time taking slightly longer than usual. At first, an aura of confusion radiated from him, as if he had no clue as to why he chose it in the first place. But as time passed by, the confusion surrounding him was gradually replaced with understanding, and soon, conviction.

"I finally remembered why," Blob said before letting out a light giggle. "The reason why I chose this path was because I wanted to protect you."

"Protect me?" Argentum could not understand why Blob would need to protect him. He had more strength than him and was also the one who helped him evolve into his current form. "Why is that?"

"Well," Blob started to explain. "I know very well that Argentum thinks that he's far more powerful than me, which is true. I have a feeling that my current form is still not enough to be on par with you, and I accept that. But then, I thought about the synergy between us, the power we could showcase regarding the different paths of power I could choose from."

"Of course, I discarded choosing the path of magic since you're already well-versed in the path of magic, Argentum," Blob continued. "From my perspective, it's quite useless for me to attack with magic since you can already deal a lot of damage with your magic."

At this point, Argentum intervened as he asked him, "But if you just grind a bit more, then that'll allow you to dish out more damage than me, right?"

"Well yes, but…" Blob responded with a hurried answer before being interrupted as he pondered, only to continue his response a few seconds later by saying, "Wouldn't that just make us both bad at defense?"

"They do say that a good offense is the best defense," Argentum refuted. "I don't see anything wrong with that."

"That may be true, but if we both fought against an enemy that was way above our league, we'd both die under one hit," Blob replied to Argentum's argument. He then added, "This was one of the reasons why I discarded the magic choice, to be honest."

"As for the path of close-combat, though it would allow me to defend you from hits while still being able to dish out a lot of damage, I discarded the choice as well." After Blob was finished explaining the reasoning as to why he discarded the path of magic, he then moved onto the path of close-combat. "The situation is just like the path of magic. Though I would be able to survive longer with the higher defense brought about by being focused on close-combat, that would only allow you to have a small time frame to escape from the clutches of the enemy I mentioned a while ago. In the end, you'd still die."

Just as Argentum was about to interrupt Blob from continuing with his explanation, Blob took the initiative to continue explaining his train of thought, finally talking about the reason why he chose the path of defense. "And so, I was only left with the path of defense. By taking on the path of defense, I would be able to buy you a lot of time to prepare some sort of ultimate spell, which would allow you to kill the said enemy from before."

"Well…" Argentum pondered over what he was about to say but decided to stop. He then let out a short sigh before saying, "…you're not wrong."

In actuality, the reason why Argentum was throwing out these arguments was to make sure that Blob truly thought of his choice through. Of course, he had no qualms with Blob choosing the path of defense in the first place since he did say to himself that he would allow his companions to choose for themselves.

"Can I check your stats?" Argentum soon asked him, to which Blob agreed not long after. Argentum then went ahead and commanded the system to show Blob's stats, slightly surprised by how much of an increase in stats a single evolution gave to Blob.

________

[Blob] (Level 1/20)

Experience: 0/200

Existence Level: Pseudo-Animate (Magic)

Species: Lesser Flame Spirit of Defense

—————

[HP]: 40/40

[MP]: 15/15

—————

Stats:

Vitality - 20

Strength - 15

Defense - 25

Agility - 25

Intelligence - 15

________

"To think that my companion would reach the Magic-grade Pseudo-Animate level before me," Argentum could not help but say as he looked at the holographic screen that appeared in front of his field of vision, letting out a light chuckle. He then went ahead and closed the screen in front of him before focusing his sense of vision back to Blob.

He mulled over what he was going to say to Blob for a bit, eventually finding the right words as he said to Blob, "I guess our strategy of killing these Fire Slimes will now change."

"Indeed, it will," Blob said before letting out a light giggle. In response to this, Argentum went ahead and moved through the area once more, with Blob eventually realizing what Argentum was trying to do a few seconds later, dashing at his maximum speed before shouting, "Hey, wait for me!"

…

After a few minutes or so, the two of them found a stray Fire Slime, making sure that they were a decent distance away from it as they did not want to alert the slime as usual. With Blob beside him, Argentum went ahead and asked him, "So, how are we going to kill this Fire Slime?"

"Don't you have a strategy already, Argentum?" Blob could not help but ask, to which Argentum radiated an aura of affirmation as he replied, "Of course I do. I just want to see if you can create a strategy as well."

"Is that the case?" Blob radiated an aura of slight curiosity before being replaced by contemplation. After some time, he looked at Argentum with an aura of slight uncertainty as he told him his strategy. "I don't know if this is the strategy you have in mind, but…"

"You want me to attract the slime's attention while you shoot at it from afar until it dies," Blob said, to which Argentum replied, "Good strategy, but how are you going to get stronger from just defending its attacks? You need to obtain its precious experience as well."

"Ah…" Listening to Argentum's suggestion, Blob realized that he had forgotten that part of the fight, mulling over his strategy for a bit before telling Argentum, "I ask you to stop attacking the slime just when it's on the brink of death, then I go ahead and deal the last blow?"

"Exactly," Argentum said with a gleeful tone. He then looked at the stray Fire Slime that was not far away from them and uttered, "Let's go and do it your way, Blob."

"Alright, Argentum," Blob replied to his words before going ahead and dashing towards the Fire Slime at his fullest speed, stopping at the very instant he had attracted the Fire Slime's attention.

Boing!

Just as he was about to land a hit on the Fire Slime, making sure that its attention was focused on him, the Fire Slime went ahead and leaped upwards, eliciting an aura of glee to radiate from Blob as he focused his sense of vision back at Argentum, who already had a fireball conjured beforehand, and shouted, "Argentum! Fire!"

"[Lower Blaze Magic: Fire Ball]!"

"Burst!"

Whoosh! Bang!

As if it was ordained by the heavens, the fireball Argentum threw had squarely hit the core of the Fire Slime before exploding, sending the Fire Slime away from Blob afterward. In response to the Fire Slime flying, Blob went ahead and dashed towards the direction where the Fire Slime might fall, going ahead and using his maximum speed to make sure that he had arrived there first before the Fire Slime would fall.

Fortunately, thanks to his evolution to the Magic-grade, Blob was able to arrive at the area where he thought the Fire Slime would land, adjusting his position to make sure that his body would collide with the core of the Fire Slime. Just as the Fire Slime was about to land to the ground, Blob went ahead and clenched his fist before channeling all of his strength towards this fist, prompting the core of the Fire Slime that had barely landed to shatter into pieces.

Bang!

With the core of the Fire Slime now shattered, the gelatinous body of the slime lost its form, turning into a puddle of viscous fluid as the aura surrounding Blob had slightly intensified while his size had grown by a few notches.

Ding!

On the other hand, Argentum obtained a few notifications from the system after the core of the slime had been shattered. Of course, since Argentum had obtained these types of notifications for quite some time already, he just hastily skimmed through the last notification he had received, finding out that Blob had now reached Level 3.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

This time, instead of Argentum coming closer to Blob, it was Blob who came closer to Argentum, radiating an aura of glee and pride as he let out a cackle, saying, "My strategy worked, Argentum! Are you proud of me?"

"Sure, sure. I'm proud of you," Argentum said in a gleeful tone, letting out a cackle of his own afterward. After that, he looked at the position of the moon, noticing that it was already at the peak of the sky. He then pondered over a few things before thinking to himself, 'I'll just head to the Azure Shores once the sun appears.'

'For now, it wouldn't be bad to focus all of my strength in nurturing Blob here. It would definitely be useful in the long run.'

"Let's go and fight some more Fire Slimes," Argentum said to Blob before adding, "We'll fight Fire Slimes until dawn appears!"

"Eh? That long?" At first, Blob could not believe what he was hearing, thinking that Argentum was slightly crazy. But then, he thought about it for a bit before letting out a cackle. He then said, "Then again, fighting against Fire Slimes feels nice! Sure! Let's go, Argentum!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

And with that, the two of them went ahead and moved through the area filled with Fire Slimes once more, finding more stray Fire Slimes to pummel and beat up as Blob's strength gradually increased with every kill.