William woke up feeling refreshed and ready to take on the final Array. His Mana had fully recovered, and his Forcefield was in perfect condition.
He placed Atticus down in the Arrays since it was too dangerous for the little snake. Atticus was only at the Core Formation Realm and would be instantly obliterated by a Perfect Array if something went wrong.
Atticus gave William a sad look. It knew that Wiliam was just trying to protect it, but still felt bad for being so weak. Atticus had only joined Will in battle a few times soon after its birth, quickly losing value after reaching the five thousand Potential Point roadblock.
As William approached the tenth Array, Atticus slithered after him. The Perfect Lightning Array began charging up.
"I told you to stay back, it's too dangerous." William scolded.
The snake shook its head. Even though it was a companion beast and forced to follow William's orders, as a Mythical Beast, Atticus was able to resist slightly. This time it was going to be useful!
As William walked back to Atticus, the hazy Mana of the Illusion Element wrapped around him. The Illusion Mana increased in thickness until the Perfect Lightning Array lost its target and went idle. Atticus gave William a slightly defiant look, adamant to not leave his side.
William didn't know how the Mythical Rat Snake had become so attached. Perhaps William could be considered its parent, since he was present when it hatched from the egg? He also spent all of his time over the last month with the snake.
He picked up Atticus and placed it on his shoulder. If the snake wasn't going to leave, William would place it in the next safest place, within his Forcefield.
With the Lightning Array inactive, William didn't have to worry about taking damage while trying to disable the Barrier. He was more worried about Atticus running out of Mana, since he know knew how taxing the use of the Illusion Element was.
He worked quickly, his fingers twitching as he probed the Perfect Array Formation. He had learned from before how the Array would conceal its true functions, so William was able to disable that first.
Once the true Array surfaced, William's jaw dropped in shock. Not just three or four Arrays were present this time. He counted with his fingers.
"One, two, three, four, five, six...ten, eleven, twelve!"
Twelve Arrays?!? William was dumbfounded.
Each of the Arrays appeared to be spinning, always changing their position within the Array. The phenomenon was caused by a Perfect Cycling Array nestled deep in the Formation that couldn't be reached unless William disabled the Barrier.
He could split the Formation into four parts of three Arrays each.
The Core contained the Cycling Array, Barrier Array, and Absorption Array. Its purpose lied in the main defensive functions of the Barrier.
Surrounding the Core were three identical sets of Cycling, Locking, and Mana Transfer Arrays on what William would label the Shell. He named it this way because every Array need to be cracked on the outside in order to disable the Core.
William thought about upgrading his Arrays Talent to S Rank at this point. The Array was clearly more advanced than the others and would take a long time to disable.
-The Host is being watched; a quest will be issued.
System Quest: The Host is close to clearing a trial that remained unclaimed for over ten thousand years and has attracted the attention of a powerful Cultivator with good intentions. Impress the Cultivator by completing the trial without revealing the presence of the System.
Rewards: 1000 Potential Points, Unknown Cultivator's Support
William's eyes shone. A thousand Potential Points was an enticing reward, not to mention another backer that was probably the trial creator. Someone like that had to be even more powerful than the Sect Master!
He refocused on the Array. I can do this, It's just a little complicated.
His mindset was much like a college student during a math exam. Just throw answers at the problem until one of them makes sense!
He started with the Arrays of Cycling in the Shell of the Formation. William couldn't place Runes into the other Arrays, because they were spinning too fast and would shatter his Rune before it could integrate into the Array.
The Array of Cycling was no exception, also moving at high speed in the Formation, but William had an idea. He created a Basic Rune of Slowing and inserted it into the Cycling Array as fast as possible. The Basic Rune shattered as expected, but because it was a Basic Rune, it didn't require as much effort to keep it stable.
William tried again, this time successfully. The Basic Rune attached itself to a Perfect Rune of Stability that made up the Cycling Array, slowing it down just barely.
William spent an hour slowly adding Runes of Slowing to the Array, eventually transitioning to Intermediate Runes when it had slowed down enough.
Another hour passed and the Array was still moving, although at a snail's pace. At this speed, William was finally able to disable the Array with a Perfect Rune of Dispersion that forced the Array to Disperse every Rune attached to it.
Over a hundred Runes of Slowing crashed into the Locking Array, causing it to fall into disarray. The Array quickly fell apart. With just a few minutes, William disabled the Mana Transfer Array.
One down, two more to go until I reach the Core. William wiped the sweat away from his face.
This was the most he had ever struggled with Arrays. Usually it was incredibly easy, or he just needed a moment to understand the functions of an Array. This one required incredible patience and a lot of trial and error.
He repeated the same actions for the second and third set of Arrays, revealing the Core of the Array after almost four hours had passed. He disabled each set faster than the last, using his experience to speed up the process.
Atticus had already run out of Mana an hour ago, and the Lightning Array was currently pelting his Forcefield with lightning strikes. His Forcefield once again filled with cracks, so William was forced to divert his attention and create a Perfect Barrier Array to buy himself half an hour of time.
William was quite annoyed at the incessant Array, but there was no way for him to disable it since it was embedded in a wall behind an even more complicated Array than the one in front of him. The creator of the trial probably didn't intend for anyone to disable the Lightning Array.
He layered two more Perfect Barrier Arrays on top of the others but didn't increase the amount further. He only had around half of his Mana left, and the Core was still open. Updates are released by novel✶fire.net
He looked backwards to see the group of eleven Cultivators still working on the trial. They were somewhat impressive as they had just cleared the third Array and were currently working on the fourth, but William could tell based on their speed that they probably wouldn't make it to the sixth Array.