The walls of the caverns shifted, becoming a perfectly spherical room. All of William's traps were instantly destroyed, and a marble pedestal rose from the ground in the center of the room with a small black box resting on top.
William approached the pedestal quickly, eyes gleaming as he fantasized about the possible loot he would receive. He picked up the black box and carefully opened the lid, revealing a small vial of blue liquid inside.
-Completed an A-Rank Trial in the Gravitas Ruins: +500 PP
-Acquired Mana Dragon's Blood Essence: +250 PP
Mana Dragon's Blood Essence? System, what does it do?
-Request requires 5 Potential Points. Yes/No?
-This is the blood essence of a Mana Dragon, as the name implies. It can be consumed by anyone to improve many features involving Mana. It will directly improve Mana Control, increase Mana Regeneration, increase casting speed, and improve the quality of your Mana, increasing the power of your spells.
The world's Cultivators today believe the Mana Dragon is extinct, making this blood essence a priceless treasure that even your Sect Master would fight for if it was discovered.
William's eyes gleamed. This was a great treasure! Perfect for someone like him with many Elements!
Can I consume this right now?
-Yes, but I would wait until you are out of the cavern.
William was about to ask why, when he saw a group of eleven Cultivators from the same Sect entering the cavern. Gary and Phillip weren't among them, so Will assumed it was a separate group not related to them. He wondered how all eleven members of a Sect managed to find each other so quickly.
One of the newcomers saw William standing near the pedestal and pointed him out to the others.
"You there, what are you doing?" the Cultivator in the lead asked warily.
William didn't want to fight right now, his Forcefield and puppets would protect him, but he was too exhausted to battle with a group of Cultivators. "I'm just looking for a trial, thought there would be one here."
The group was confused. Did this staircase lead to a trial that has already been cleared?
The leader whispered to a red-haired boy, "Didn't you say the tracking device led here? Are you sure you put it on Gary?"
"I'm sure! It leads right here; he must already be in the trial!" the boy replied.
The leader looked back at William, "I'm looking for a pair of Cultivators from the Flame Immortals Sect, did you happen to see them?"
William thought of Gary and Phillip. "Nope."
The leader could instantly tell based on William's body language that he was lying. "Where did they go?"
"I told you I've never seen them before. How would I know where they went?"
"You're lying, tell me or we will kill you."
"You'll kill me over that? Okay fine I saw them, but I don't know where they went after the staircase."
William's tone still seemed off. He looked at William more closely, seeing a small black box in his hands. It was open, but the contents couldn't be seen from his angle. "What are you holding?"
The others also noticed the black box just now. The red-haired boy's eyes widened, "That's a trial reward!"
Shit! I should have stored this earlier! William didn't expect that each trial reward would come in a black box, considering the Star Ore wasn't within one.
He turned around and threw the box into his Space Ring. "What? Trial reward, where?!?" he looked around excitedly.
"..." the Cultivators were impressed at William's horrible acting skills.
The leader also frowned, but this was a good thing. This meant that William had already done the heavy lifting by finishing the trial. All they had to do was claim the reward from his corpse and move on to the next trial!
The pieces clicked together now, Gary must be in another space clearing the trial, but this boy did it faster.
"Hand it over and we will let you go. You can even join us for more trials."
William knew they wouldn't just let him go, and he was unwilling to give up on a reward anyway. "What if I say no?"
The Cultivators were surprised. Is he confident in winning a fight against all of us, even though he's clearly exhausted?
"I'm sure your strength is impressive, but you're tired. Just give up on the treasure and consider it your bad luck. Besides, you're outnumbered ten to one."
William smirked. He pulled out the remainder of his Array Puppets and staged them in a long line. "And now you're outnumbered twenty-one to ten, still wanna fight?"
The red-haired boy backed up in fear. His voice shook, "We can't fight him, those are Perfect Array Puppets!"
"What does that mean?" the leader spoke to the boy. He wasn't familiar with the different levels of Arrays.
"It means he can fight a Nascent Soul Cultivator with those puppets alone! If he is a Perfect Array Master, he can easily control ten at once. As long as he has Mana, we will be crushed in an instant!"
"What?!? Are you sure he can actually control them and he's not just bluffing?" the leader asked.
The last words of the leader were loud enough for William to hear. He controlled two puppets to approach the group in unison and had them launch a swift palm strike.
The Cultivators jumped back from the puppets, but the attacks continued forward, slamming two of them to the ground and breaking their protective amulets.
The leader quickly bowed to William, "We will leave, sorry for bothering you!"
Will I be in trouble if I let them go? William asked the System for one point.
Nothing you can't handle.
William nodded. He tried to sound like a powerful old Cultivator. "Be on your way then, and don't bother me again."
The group of Cultivators quickly fled the caverns the way they came. William didn't bother to ask what Sect they were from, just in case the Sect Master's order kicked in and forced him to kill a bunch of innocents.
He rested for a moment, then decided to absorb the Mana Dragon's Essence now before anything else happened.
A refreshing feeling washed over William, cleansing his veins of the old Mana and replacing it with an even cleaner version, devoid of impurities. The process lasted for roughly ten minutes, which was a lot shorter than William expected, but the outcome was phenomenal.
-Absorbed Mana Dragon's Essence: +100 PP
William called some Mana to his fingertips, instantly unleashing a giant fireball that was almost fifty percent larger than before. He checked his Mana, surprised to see that his Mana Reserves had nearly doubled from 400 to 750, and his Mana Regeneration had increased from 75 to 225, triple the previous speed. Follow current novᴇls on noveⅼfire.net
With this, William would recover almost four Mana per minute, which was about the cost of a giant fireball spell. He could even launch two consecutive Meteor Spells without exhausting all of his Mana!
He was just thinking about upgrading his Mana Regeneration Talent, but now he wouldn't have to! William exited the caverns with a wide smile on his face, even forgetting to hold his breath when he returned to the underwater scene at the bottom of the lake.