Unknown Disc Fragment? How can you give me Potential Points when you don't even know what it's for?
-The current System Rank cannot determine the value of the item, but it can sense its Energy Value. Points are awarded based on this.
Energy Value? What is that?
-You don't need to know this.
-It's useless to you.
I want to know though. William used the Ask Function.
-Request requires 1 trillion Potential Points. Yes/No?
Okay you did that on purpose!
William gave up on arguing with the System. He stored the Unknown Disc Fragment in this Space Ring, then continued forward with the trial. He had cracked five Arrays now, so he was halfway done.
The sixth Array was built the same as the fifth one, still at the Advanced level. The main difference was that there were now forty Mana Stones powering the Array. It seemed that the creator was worried that Cultivators would just brute force their way through the trial.
William easily disabled the Array, earning another 40 Mana Stones. The trial creator gave him a second reward, which was another Unknown Disc Fragment. At this rate, he should get a third fragment after cracking the ninth Array.
He rushed to the seventh Barrier Array, which now partnered with an Advanced Lightning Array to attack him. William's Forcefield showed some slight cracks while he studied the Barrier, but the cracks healed as soon as they appeared. The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the novel•fire.net
If he hadn't raised the level of his Forcefield Talent earlier, it definitely wouldn't have held on. But now his A Rank Epic defensive Talent should even hold for a small amount of time against a Nascent Soul Cultivator.
William's initial inspection of the Array revealed it was at the Perfect level but wasn't much more than a simple Barrier. He easily disabled it using a Perfect Rune of Instability, but he could have done the same with an Advanced Rune if he was willing to spend half an hour waiting.
He stepped past the Array and opened a small chest that contained around a hundred Mana Stones. He stored both the Mana Stones and the chest inside his Space Ring, then continued to the eighth Array.
Another Perfect Array, but higher difficulty. This Array reacted much like the Advanced Arrays from before, compressing all its defense to a single point where the attack landed. William tried to take advantage of this by using his Fire Domain to attack the entire Array, but it failed.
His attack instead revealed that even the Runes of the Perfect Array were concealed by Arrays that masked their purpose. What appeared to be a Perfect Rune of Compression was actually a Perfect Rune of Dispersion and a Perfect Rune of Absorption. His attack with the Fire Domain only served to make the Array stronger and even more stable.
William cursed. Now he would need to spend even more effort to disable this Array.
He created a few Arrays to disable the illusion, revealing the true purpose of the entire Array. With a lot of effort and over an hour of work, William finally managed to disable the nested Perfect Array.
Despite the work, William wasn't upset. Instead, this trial had given him many new ideas on how to use his Arrays. Even though he was a Perfect Array Master, he only had the basic information dumped into his brain. Other than creating Runes and making them work together, William didn't know much else.
He collected 250 Mana Stones and another chest for their storage.
The ninth Array was even more complex than the eighth, making William seriously wonder who the trial's creator expected to clear this. He wouldn't be surprised if the furthest anyone got was the third or fourth Array.
And to think this isn't even the impossible trial that Sect Master Gu talked about.
William didn't fall for any traps this time. He probed the Array with some Mana, testing to see what effects each movement had. As expected, if he were to launch an attack at the Array it would only become stronger.
Not only that, but his attack would be replicated and launched back at him. Unless it was a Domain of course, since according to the System they couldn't be replicated unless the creator of the Array also had an S Rank Affinity for the appropriate Element.
William wasn't willing to find out if the creator was an S-Rank Fire Mage. He disabled the first part of the Array that would launch duplicate spells at the attacker, but the remainder of the Array was still functional.
Next came the Runes that concealed the Array's functions, allowing William to finally see the Barrier Runes. William spent an hour disabling one Rune at a time, ensuring not to make any mistakes lest the Array reform itself.
-Disabled your first Array Formation: +100 PP
An Array Formation? You're telling me the last Array didn't even qualify? William wiped the sweat away from his face.
As expected, the familiar black box appeared in William's hands, containing his third Unknown Disc Fragment.
You've done well to clear nine Arrays guarding this trial. Consider it complete. The unknown man said amiably.
This time, William had a feeling he could respond.
"What about that one?" he pointed to the tenth Barrier in the distance.
Try if you'd like. The man said nothing more. It seemed the trial creator didn't believe anyone could clear the entire trial. Perhaps the purpose was only to give out the Disc Fragments.
William collected another 250 Mana Stones and the storage chest, then approached the tenth Array.
He entered the 100 meter-mark but quickly jumped backwards as a massive lightning bolt extended from one of the walls and struck the ground at his feet. There was another Lightning Array, but this time it was at the Perfect level! The lightning bolts chased William back to the 250-meter mark before subsiding without a trace.
William's Forcefield was covered in cracks from the previous Array, so he backed up and sat cross-legged at the point just after the ninth Array.
I need to recover my Mana first. I still have over a day until I need to return to the desert anyway.
William looked behind him to see a group of eleven Cultivators enter the trial grounds. He was quite far from the group and every Array except the ninth had reformed, but William created an Advanced Concealment Array to hide his presence just in case.
He wasn't hungry due to the effects of his pills, so William rolled out some bedding and went straight to bed. His Mana regenerated at a rate of 225 Mana per hour, but it still wasn't enough considering William's Mana reserve was 1500 now.
He thought about consuming the second Mana Dragon's Blood Essence right now, but the effects would be slightly diminished, and it would take longer to absorb. It was better to sleep now, then use it when he awoke for a chance at better effects.
If anything, this trial was probably the safest place for William to sleep. Surrounded in powerful Arrays and underground, William felt incredibly secure. He gave one last look at the group, asking Atticus to keep an eye on their movements just in case they happened to have an experienced Array Master.