I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 374: The Art of Persuasion

In any case, with the trial now over, Rosalia had no more reason to sit by the platform where Helios watched Argentum undergo through his trials. With that, she hastily headed down to where Argentum and Helios were, the center of the mini-arena Helios made.

Whoosh!

By the time Rosalia had arrived where Argentum and Helios were, she could not help but look at the two of them, noticing that both of them were grinning from ear to ear with glee. Of course, such a sight would normally frighten a bystander, but Rosalia only looked at this with confusion visibly written on her face, wondering how it had come to this point.

And so, to satiate her curiosity, she went ahead and sent a strand of energy to Argentum, asking him, “What’s making you two grin so widely out of nowhere?”

In response, Argentum shifted his sense of vision towards Rosalia before sending a strand of energy back, saying with a slightly bitter chuckle, “I think I went a bit too overboard with my compliments. Now, he thinks that I live for the sole purpose of seeing him.”

“And how were you able to pull that off within such a short manner of time?” Naturally, Rosalia could not help but have her eyes widen as she asked in response. “I may have taken my time getting here, but that’s still around 10 seconds, you know?”

Scratching his head, Argentum then extended out his right arm as he pointed at the ground of the arena. Soon, a great mass of Wind energy particles condensed around the tip of his finger before hastily manipulating itself to form an image of Helios’s face. Naturally, such a sight brought pride and joy to Helios, who loved seeing images of himself whenever he could.

Then again, Rosalia was sure that Argentum didn’t do anything like that while she was making her way to where they were. With that, she asked once more, “Did you really do something like that while I made my way here?”

“I guess you can call it a variant of it,” Argentum responded as the image of Helios disappeared, eliciting a small frown of sadness to appear on Helios’s face. Fortunately, this frown didn’t last long as Argentum gathered a large mass of Wind energy particles again before allowing them to burst and form an image of Helios that disappeared within seconds. Unsurprisingly, a smile of pride and joy appeared on Helios’s face once more, though this time, he could not help but clap at the show Argentum had given him.

“As expected of my biggest fan. To have someone like you who would live and die just to see the satisfaction of this divine being right here, I would like to say to the heavens that I am grateful that someone like you has appeared in my life,” Helios said as he clapped, prompting Argentum to let out a bitter smile as he looked at Rosalia…or at the very least, that was what his aura made her feel.

In response, Rosalia could not help but let out a light sigh as she shrugged her shoulders, thinking to herself, ‘You brought this onto yourself, so don’t ask me for help getting out of it.’

After saying those words of praise towards Argentum’s show of proficiency towards the Wind element, which superbly pleased Helios, Helios then returned to the original topic he and Argentum were on before they entered the Heaven’s Gust Inheritance. Clearing his throat to catch the attention of the two, an indifferent expression soon appeared on his face as he looked at Argentum and said, “As stated before, you need to fulfill a condition of mine before I can agree to your offer. Now that you have fulfilled that condition, I, the great Tempest King, shall do whatever I can to help out in the development of your town, namely in the production and selling of the potion recipe you gave me.”

“Speaking of which, since you know Felix and the others, are they benefactors of your town as well?” he soon asked, to which Argentum nodded as he replied, “Yes. Just like you, great Tempest King, they produce potions that have the same effect, though they focus on another element.”

“If my assumptions are correct, Eleanor’s concocting the Heaven’s Fire Potion and Felix is concocting the Heaven’s Water Potion. Is that correct?” Helios asked, prompting Argentum to nod.

“Since I presume that I’m the only one you’ve offered the recipe to the Heaven’s Wind Potion to, who’s in charge of producing the Heaven’s Earth Potion? Is it Rosalia or Melzarin?” he asked yet again.

Surprisingly, it was Rosalia who responded this time around, saying with a hint of pride, “I’m the one concocting those potions, thank you very much.”

Seeing how proud Rosalia was to concoct those potions, Helios shrugged his shoulders as he said, “Well, go figure. Melzarin didn’t really strike me as someone who could concoct a potion like that, much less do it well like Felix and the others.”

Just as Helios said that…

“Achoo!” Out of nowhere, Melzarin let out a sneeze inside his Desecrated Inheritance, even though he was in his skeleton body. Nevertheless, he found it weird that he would sneeze all of a sudden, which prompted him to ask himself, “Is someone talking about how great of a being I am?”

In any case, Helios now knew who concocted which type of potion, allowing him to ask something else. “If my assumptions are correct once again, by becoming the benefactor of your town, that means we would have to share a part of the profits with you, is that correct?”

“That would be the case, yes. In exchange, you would be able to use the potion for yourself whenever you want and even earn money in the process,” Argentum responded, forgetting to flatter Helios in the process.

Fortunately, Helios ignored that as his mind was currently focused on business. Rubbing his chin as he pondered over something, he then asked Argentum, “How much of the profits are they giving you?”

“Half of it,” Argentum succinctly replied.

“In that case, I’ll give you 30% of the profits I obtained from selling the Heaven’s Wind Potion,” Helios said not long after with a tone of confidence and determination. Of course, Argentum wasn’t expecting Helios to show such an expression. It was as if he was saying to Argentum that his 30% was better than the others’ 50% cut.

Surprisingly, Rosalia backed up Helios’s confidence as she said to Argentum, “Don’t underestimate this cut, Argentum. Even though it’s only around half of our share, you’d still obtain more than double the amount of gold coins than you would from one of us.”

“Is he really that good in marketing?” Argentum could not help but find it peculiar, wondering how such a narcissistic man was great in that area.

As for Helios, he puffed his chest as he responded with pride, “But of course. I, the Tempest King, am the best when it comes to marketing items and services!”

Soon, this pride disappeared as he continued, “Also, if you think about it, how would I be able to afford the massive amounts of paintings, statues, and carpets with my image on it if I did not have methods to earn a lot of money? I may be the great Tempest King, but money is a far greater being than me.”

“Hmm…” As he listened to Helios’s words, he could not help but think up of an idea that would allow him to obtain more gold from the selling of the potions, though he wasn’t sure if the others would like it.

Nevertheless, he still brought it up since it would allow him to be more free when it came to projects. With that, he looked at Rosalia for a bit before asking Helios, “Although I’m not sure if this is too much to ask of you, is it possible for you to also be responsible for selling half of the potions Felix and the others concoct?”

Wanting to assure that Helios would accept his proposal, he then continued, “Of course, I’m sure that someone like you, the great Tempest King, would be able to handle this without a problem for you are powerful yet kind at the same time, am I not wrong?”

Unsurprisingly, a grin appeared on Helios’s face as he heard those words, responding with a cackle as he replied, “As expected of my biggest fan! Indeed, it would not be a problem for me to sell half of their produced items.”

“Though, I’ll have to follow the cut they gave you since I, the great Tempest King, won’t do something without gaining something in exchange. The remaining 50% from selling their products would go towards me. Also, make sure that they’re fine with distributing part of their produced items to me from time to time,” he continued, a solemn expression replaced his previous proud grin.

With that, Argentum looked at Rosalia, to which the latter shrugged her shoulders and responded, “Well, I don’t really have a problem with sending some of the Heaven’s Earth Potions I make to Helios from time to time. As for Felix and Eleanor, you’ll have to ask them about that. Though, I don’t think they would have any reason to refuse it.”

“Alright, then. Once we leave the inheritance, I’ll make sure to ask Felix and Eleanor about this,” Argentum said as he nodded in response to her words.

“In any case, that matter has been settled for the most part,” Helios said before squinting his eyes as he gave off a serious aura. “Now, for the other part.”

“As I’ve mentioned before, since you have gone through my three trials, which only takers of my inheritance would normally go through, you have one chance to request anything from me, whatever it may be. May it be a rare item, or a statue bearing great likeness to my figure and appearance, I will try and fulfill it as I am a magnanimous and benevolent being.”

Hearing those words, Argentum could not help but go silent as he pondered over what he should request to Helios. Of course, in actuality, he already had an idea as to what he should request from him. Just like what he had obtained from Eleanor, Felix, and Melzarin, it was no surprise that he was going to use this chance to request anything from Helios to become a partial owner of the Heaven’s Gust Inheritance.

From the size and the aura the inheritance let off alone, it wouldn’t be surprising if it was a large-sized inheritance, the same level as Melzarin’s inheritance. With that, even a small share over the inheritance would be enough for him to undergo a tremendous boost in power, increasing his combat prowess to a level beyond what he could currently achieve.

After pondering in silence for a bit as a formality, Argentum then looked at Helios with an aura of determination surrounding him as he soon said to him, “I would like to use this one chance of mine to request becoming a partial owner of your Heaven’s Gust Inheritance.”

“Declined.” Unsurprisingly, Helios rejected the request at the very instant Argentum was finished talking. “Do you know how long this divine being had taken in order for the Heaven’s Gust Inheritance to reach its current size? An incredibly long time, I can tell you that.”

He then continued, “Although you are my biggest fan, I’m afraid I cannot accept this request of yours. The Heaven’s Gust Inheritance is a large-sized inheritance, which means that even giving away a small share of it would impact my combat power quite a lot. In fact, even sharing something as low as 5% to someone like you would reduce my capabilities by 30%.”

As he listened to Helios’s words, Argentum was not dismayed by that. In fact, he felt quite the opposite as he could not help but inwardly grin, thinking that he could use that part of Helios’s personality to his advantage.

“Really? Well, that’s too bad, I guess,” Argentum said not long after in a slightly melancholic tone as he gave off the feeling that Helios would regret not accepting it as he continued, “If you had accepted, I wouldn’t have minded creating a statue bearing your likeness like what I did back then in the second trial, but at greater quality and size. Perhaps, its height would have even reached the ceiling of this room we’re in.”

Hearing how Argentum was planning to make a statue of him if he had accepted the request, Helios could not help but feel a pang of regret, though he restrained himself since he knew that this choice would affect him. Unfortunately, he let his narcissistic side get the better of him as Argentum continued to talk.

“Well, I also wouldn’t have minded placing this statue at…let’s say the center of the town I’m managing. Perhaps turning it into a central landmark that people would flock to and admire every time they pass it wouldn’t be impossible as well.”

Argentum then let out a sigh as he said, “Unfortunately, the great Tempest King has declined my request, so I have no choice but to scrap this idea—”

“W-wait a minute, Argentum. It’s not like there’s no chance for us to come to a compromise, right?” Just as Argentum had expected, Helios would take his bait, hook, line, and sinker.

Once again, flattery works wonders.

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