BXBX NOVEL Chapter 238: How to Raise a Companion
Chapter 238: How to Raise a Companion
“I would like to have Blob be the name of this Flame Companion,” Argentum said without hesitation after pondering over it for a while. Although the name he chose was quite straightforward due to the fact that his Flame Companion currently looked like a blob, he could not help but laugh inwardly whenever he thought about fighting against someone, only for him to summon Blob. In his mind, a name like that would stupefy anyone he was up against.
Then again, he did slightly feel bad that this Flame Companion of his had such a mundane name, but he was pretty sure that if this Flame Companion of his put in enough effort, the name Blob would definitely shock the world, just like how Argentum imagined that his name would shock the world once he became a Super Animate.
Ding!
As the system received Argentum’s response, the holographic screen over the blob of fire soon disappeared as a few white particles manifested around it. Soon after, these few particles were absorbed by the blob of fire, increasing the intensity of its flames by quite a bit as Argentum felt a faint aura of vitality coming from the blob of fire. After a minute or so, this aura of vitality had stabilized to a certain point, which was accompanied by a notification sound resounding in Argentum’s mind.
‘Your Flame Companion, Blob, has been created.’
Reading through the notification he had received, only for him to close it up after finding out that it was just informing him that his Flame Companion was created, Argentum then looked at the blob of fire in front of him, which slightly hovered off of the ground by a few centimeters or so. If it wasn’t for the fact that Argentum that this companion of his was created by the system, he would have thought that this blob of fire in front of him was a weak Fire-based Pseudo-Animate spirit.
After looking at the blob of fire for some time, the blob of fire started to gradually move, inching closer and closer towards Argentum. This phenomenon slightly shocked Argentum for a split second, but he soon understood why the blob was doing it. In his mind, he thought that this blob had considered him as a master or benefactor in some way or another.
Eventually, the blob of fire stopped just a couple decimeters away from him, its flames slightly intensifying as Argentum noticed that in the center of its body, a white energy was being formed. He could not help but focus his attention on this white energy and ponder to himself, ‘What’s this blob going to do with the white energy?’
Fortunately, the answer to that question came not long after the white energy inside the blob of fire was soon shot towards Argentum, filling his mind with bits of information regarding the blob of fire. Not only that, but the white energy the blob of fire shot out had also formed a connection between the two of them, allowing a childlike voice to resound throughout Argentum’s mind not long after.
“Are you…my creator?” Hearing this question resound in his mind, Argentum opened and closed his sense of vision for a few times before looking at the blob of fire in front of him. As he looked at it, he sensed that it was radiating an aura of slight curiosity, prompting him to think that the one who asked this question…was actually the blob of fire he had made?
“Y-yeah, I am.” Surprised that a companion he had just made was able to converse with him, Argentum replied back with a slight stutter as he pondered over the reason why this newly made companion of his was able to do so. It did not take long for him to come up with the thought that since he was a Pseudo-Animate, then that meant that the beginning level of his companions would be at the Pseudo-Animate level as well, which was more than enough for a companion to start conversing with other beings.
Hearing the response of Argentum, the blob of fire radiated an aura of happiness as it replied, “I see! It’s nice to meet you, Creator! My name is Blob!”
As Argentum continued to look at Blob while listening to the voice that resounded in his mind, he could not help but think that Blob was a child in a few ways, making him lightly chuckle in glee as he responded, “Nice to meet you as well, Blob. I may be your creator, but you can just call me Argentum.”
“Ar…gen…tum?” Blob repeated Argentum’s name as a response, to which he responded with, “Yes, Argentum. Is that fine with you?”
“If that’s what Argentum wants, then that’s what Blob will do!” Blob said in a cheerful tone. In response, Argentum let out a small giggle as he felt that creating a companion would make his future adventures less boring. Of course, he did not let this distract him from the fact that he made Blob right now so its combat power would be higher in future situations. Sure, Blob would become a burden at the Azure Shores, but it wouldn’t be a burden in other places.
Taking in a deep breath to reorganize his thoughts, he then went ahead and asked Blob, “Is it fine if I check your stats, Blob?”
“Ah?” In response, Blob radiated an aura of slight curiosity, wondering why its creator asked it for its permission, even though its creator was the one who made it. Nevertheless, it responded with, “Go ahead, Argentum! You can check my stats whenever you want to!”
“I see.” Argentum let out a light laugh as he said, “Glad to know.”
“System, identify Blob,” he said after obtaining Blob’s consent, a notification sound resounding in his mind not long after as a holographic screen appeared in front of his field of vision, detailing Blob’s stats.
________
[Blob] (Level 1/10)
Experience: 0/100
Existence Level: Pseudo-Animate (Normal)
Species: Inferior Flame Spirit
—————
[HP]: 1/1
[MP]: 1/1
—————
Stats:
Vitality – 1
Strength – 1
Defense – 1
Agility – 1
Intelligence – 1
________
“It looks just like my stat screen when I started out,” Argentum muttered to himself, pondering how much of an increase in stats maxing out the [Flame Companion] skill would give if he made a new companion. He also pondered as to how he would increase the experience of the [Flame Companion] skill, but decided to put it in the back of his mind as he closed the holographic screen in front of him, focusing his sense of vision towards Blob yet again.
“Why did you check my stats, Argentum?” Blob asked him after noticing that he was not preoccupied with something anymore. In response, Argentum said to it, “I just wanted to see how strong you were before fighting against those Fire Slimes right there.”
As he said this, Argentum pointed towards the Fire Slimes that roamed around the area they were currently in, instantly instilling a sense of fear within Blob as it shouted at Argentum, saying, “You want me to fight them? But they’re too strong! I’m incredibly weak! I can’t deal damage to them!”
“That’s why I’m here to help you out,” Argentum said as he chuckled, radiating an aura of confidence. Sensing this aura of confidence radiating from its creator, Blob’s fears were gradually suppressed as it asked him, “How are you going to help me out?”
“By bringing them to near death,” he responded succinctly. He then added, “The reason why I want you to fight against them is because I want you to become stronger. You also want to become stronger, right?”
“Of course I do, Argentum!” Blob replied to his question before adding, “I would be glad to fight by your side but it’s just that…”
Continuing with its statement, an aura of slight inferiority emanated from it as it continued, “I’m still too weak.”
“You won’t be weak for long, Blob. Trust me,” Argentum said to bring Blob’s morale up. Surprisingly, those words were enough to return Blob to its original self. Seeing that, he went ahead and started to move towards the Fire Slimes, gesturing Blob to follow him, to which it did.
While the two of them were heading towards the Fire Slimes, making sure that the first one they went up against was far away from the others, Argentum could not help but ponder over something. After some time, he found out that he could not come to a conclusion, prompting him to ask the system on this one.
“System, is it possible for me to allocate Blob my unused experience points just like in the Ally feature?” This was the thought that was plaguing his mind right now. If he was able to do so, then it would just be a matter of allocating enough points for Blob to grow strong enough before going ahead and allowing it to fend off for itself.
Ding!
It did not take long for the system to respond to his question, the system’s feminine-sounding voice resounding in his mind as it said, “Due to the user’s companion being made from a skill and not from the system itself, the user cannot allocate unused experience points towards the companion.”
“I guess it was worth a shot,” Argentum muttered to himself as they continued to traverse the area for a stray Fire Slime, eventually finding one after a few minutes or so.
The two of them stood quite a distance away from this stray Fire Slime, making sure to not alert it of their presence. Looking at the Fire Slime in front of it, Blob could not help but compare its size to the Fire Slime’s, pondering as to how it would be able to deal damage to such a large creature. On the other hand, Argentum ignored Blob’s internal queries for now as he focused his sense of vision towards this Fire Slime, prompting a screen to appear in front of his field of vision not long after.
Only taking a short time to skim through it, Argentum could not help but imitate the sound of a being clicking their tongue as he thought, ‘So I was actually dealing too much damage to it, huh?’
________
[Fire Slime]
Existence Level: Animate (Rank 0)
————
[HP]: 1/1
________
Although he could not check its stats, Argentum was incredibly sure that its defense leaned more towards the physical side rather than the magical side, allowing him to deal tons of damage to its core through an elementally disadvantaged spell.
He then started to mutter to himself, thinking out loud as he said, “Due to the difference in existence level, I must treat the Fire Slime’s HP bar as 100 points instead of 1. I shouldn’t use [Zephyr Ascendance+] and the stronger spells of [Lower Tempest Magic+] and [Lower Blaze Magic+] since that would just kill the Fire Slime in one shot, thus rendering it this outing to be useless.”
With that being said, he then went ahead and pondered over the remaining portion in his mind, which prompted Blob to look at him with slight curiosity, wondering what its creator was currently thinking about. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to finish formulating a strategy in mind to whittle down the Fire Slime’s HP to a level where Blob would be able to kill it in one shot.
Thinking that there was a great chance for this strategy to be feasible, Argentum looked at Blob and said, “Stay here for a while. I’ll give you a signal on when to attack the Fire Slime, okay?”
“Alright, Argentum,” Blob said with a tone of slight uncertainty. “Are you really sure I can fight against something like that?”
“I’m sure,” Argentum responded with a tone of slight elation and expectation. “Just make sure to aim for the red orb in its center.”
“If you say so, Argentum,” Blob said in response to his words, only for Argentum to hastily dash towards the stray Fire Slime he was eyeing a while ago.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In a matter of a few seconds, Argentum was able to decrease the gap between the two of them as he raised his right hand, conjuring a ball of fire not long after. Unsurprisingly, this action of his attracted the attention of the Fire Slime, incurring its wrath as it went ahead and leaped to its fullest extent, wanting to crush Argentum with the weight of its body.
Seeing that the Fire Slime took the initiative to leap and crush his body, Argentum radiated an aura of slight elation and glee as he adjusted the position of his right hand, making sure that the fireball in his hands would collide with the Fire Slime’s core.
At the very instant the Fire Slime’s body collided with Argentum’s fireball, he shouted, “[Lower Blaze Magic: Fire Ball]!”
“Burst!”
Fwoosh!
In an instant, the fireball Argentum was holding exploded, dealing a lot of damage to the Fire Slime as its momentum was abruptly halted and even reversed, flinging the Fire Slime closer to Blob.
Ding!
‘You have dealt 99 HP damage to [Fire Slime]!’ Obtaining a notification that the Fire Slime only had 1 HP left, Argentum could not help but let out a chuckle as he thought, ‘I guess luck is on my side!’
“Blob, go and attack the Fire Slime!” Just before the Fire Slime could land on the ground and retaliate from his attack, Argentum shouted at Blob, to which Blob hastily responded, “Alright, Argentum!”
Whoosh!
Since the trajectory of the Fire Slime was heading was somewhat close to where Blob was, Blob only adjusted its position by a bit as it sent out a small ball of flame towards the red orb inside the Fire Slime, just like how Argentum instructed it to do so.
Fwoosh!
At the instant the two collided, the gelatinous body of the Fire Slime instantly transformed into a puddle as the red orb inside it shattered into pieces. On the other hand, after the Fire Slime died from its attack, Blob instantly felt like it had grown a few notches stronger as its size swelled by a few notches as well.
Ding!
‘Blob has dealt the last blow to [Fire Slime].’
‘Blob has obtained 1000 XP.’
‘Blob has leveled up to Level 5!’