Standing on a hill just a few hundred meters away from William and Fria, a dark-haired Cultivator at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm was typing with fervor on the forums.
His name was Jayred, and he was currently the number six player in Otherworld Prime. Despite his low Cultivation level, the boy had managed to secure a ticket to the Gravitas Ruins because of his small Sect that was only allotted three tickets per month.
Because of his status as a Darkness Element Manamatus, he was able to defeat his opponents one-by-one just a few weeks after entering the game, earning the attention of his Sect Master and a chance to enter the Ruins.
His eyes gleamed when he saw William's information on the System Panel, but the number two player, Fria, was right next to him. Knowing he probably wouldn't have a chance to recruit the S-Rank NPC, Jayred decided he would increase the competition while also earning some money.
2s ago: William is now classified as an S-Rank NPC, and even has a Domain of the Life Element! Pay me a hundred Gold Coins and I'll tell you everything I know! [0 Views]
William and Fria both felt something odd about leaving the other's presence.
William considered the option that it was Fria, but that was impossible. How could it be her when the girl obviously didn't recognize his face? Her hair and eyes were the same, but that was it. Her attitude did not match the loving older sister that always asked him for money.
Fria felt William was oddly familiar, and unconsciously felt sad. The tears were still streaming down her cheeks, but she didn't know why. Of course, It was impossible that she knew him, since William was an NPC. Maybe he just reminded her of someone else, a sad memory long forgotten...
Both shook their heads. They barely knew each other, there was no problem with going somewhere else. It was a Ruins after all, and neither one was willing to give up their rewards to a stranger.
William left the desert, returning to the Labyrinth of Tears after a few hours of walking. Before he entered the maze, William weaved together multiple Arrays to conceal his position so he could rest.
Not only had he surpassed the limits of his stamina, but William also drank too many Mana Regeneration potions for it to be considered healthy. There was a great deal of work to be done before he could continue with the trials. Fresh chapters posted on NoveI-Fire.ɴet
The only consolation was that his Regeneration Talent ensured he was completely uninjured.
William rested for nearly twelve hours, spending most of it asleep even though it was still midday. His time in the Array Trial had messed up his sleep schedule, so when William woke up it was just past midnight.
System, is someone still watching me?
Perfect. System, upgrade my Stamina to S Rank.
Usually every Talent had an extra special effect when upgraded to S Rank, but this time the effects weren't obvious. Other than feeling less exhausted, there were no immediate changes to William's body.
William felt many of his physical abilities were lacking, so he decided to upgrade his Strength and Reflexes Talents to S Rank as well, costing another 2500 Potential Points. The improvements were very straightforward but had various obvious special effects.
His Strength Talent didn't just increase his physical ability to the peak of the Golden Core Realm, but also gave him incredible control over his attacks. He could now precisely adjust the strength of each attack, allowing him to avoid overexerting himself when it wasn't necessary.
Additionally, his S Rank Reflexes Talent had a passive effect that seemed to slow time whenever William detected something threatening. It wasn't Time Magic, rather his thinking speed increased dramatically. As a mosquito flew by William's face, everything slowed around William including himself, allowing him to touch one of its wings if he wanted to.
The only drawback was that the new passive effect was only active sometimes, and only allowed William to react more easily to his surroundings. Even if he saw the attack coming, he would still need to be fast enough to dodge.
That thought brought William to upgrade the Acrobatics Talent, which was currently B Rank. Since it was a Rare Talent, the cost to reach A Rank was 750 Potential Points, and to reach S Rank would be a whopping three thousand!
It was an expensive upgrade, but William went through with it anyway. 3750 Potential Points went into the System, but from it, William's Speed reached the Nascent Soul Realm even without the assistance of an Array. If he had these upgrades before, William might have been able to fight with the Ancient Gravitas Mummy by himself.
At least, until it awakened its Magic Staff. Even now, William felt that he wasn't nearly strong enough to take on such an enemy.
The Nascent Soul Realm is much stronger than I thought...even with S Rank Talents, I can barely keep up. William thought to himself. He was unaware that the Ancient Gravitas Mummy's Cultivation was actually suppressed to the Nascent Soul Realm and was much stronger than the average Nascent Soul Beast.
William knew he had to improve his strength even further if he wanted to secure more benefits for himself. He was very lucky to complete the System Quest earlier, but he doubted that was the most difficult trial in the Gravitas Ruins.
Not to mention, the masked girl that fought with him was incredibly powerful. If she was his competitor in the trials, William would have to be stronger. If the two got into a fight, William wasn't sure he could win against those massive sword strikes she launched before.
System, upgrade my Array Talent. He had been waiting for this moment since near the end of the Array Trial.
William's brain was flooded with incredible amounts of information. He learned of many new Runes that he hadn't heard of or seen before, and how to apply each and every one to his Arrays.
It wasn't just basic information this time, but real instructions. His mind entered a simulation where a copy of himself created Arrays for hours, which turned into days, weeks, months, and finally years.
The number of Arrays William knew multiplied by hundreds of times, and the speed at which he could form Runes also greatly increased. If he wanted to create a Perfect Barrier Array now, William could do it in just under two seconds, and Advanced Barriers were nearly instantaneous.
While his Runes were still at the Perfect level, William learned a new method of application, which allowed him to double, triple, or even quadruple the power of each Rune in an Array.
It was a form of compression. Much like how Arrays were made more stable by adding more Runes of Stability, William could make Runes more powerful by layering two of the exact same Rune on top of each other like stacking pieces of paper.
The actual application was much more complicated, requiring a fine control over Rune particles, but William could use this method to create Arrays with even more Runes than before.
If the most Runes William could apply to a Perfect Array was previously 7 or 8, the number had now reached a whopping 28 to 32!