He stored the Ascension Dragon Tears in his Space Ring after discovering it could only be consumed by a Nascent Soul Cultivator or higher.
William spent half an hour creating another improved Perfect Lightning Array, taking his time to make sure all the functions were stable before storing it into his Array Wheel.
He discovered that once he activated an Array, it couldn't be stored back into the Array Wheel and would need to be re-created.
By this point in time, it was already quite late at night, so William decided this would be a good place to rest. He raised a few Detection and Barrier Arrays to ensure there were no problems overnight, then made a quick meal for Atticus before going to bed.
When he woke up, there were still no nearby Cultivators. He assumed it was because of Flame Dragon Uri, who was an incredible deterrent to anyone on the second floor.
A few might have passed the dragon, but they had yet to arrive on the fourth floor. William didn't plan to wait for anyone, so he stood up and walked towards the staircase.
The moment William stepped onto the fifth floor, a voice resounded both in his mind and on the floor.
A challenger has entered the fifth floor...
A separate phrase from the same Cultivator entered William's mind just a moment later.
Welcome to the fifth floor. Prepare yourself for the trial of sense.
"Oh great...Way to announce it to the whole world." William complained out loud. If the Cultivators weren't sure if William was still alive before, they definitely knew now.
He continued grumbling in his mind while inspecting the surroundings. It was a flat expanse of rock and dirt, with no grass to be found. In the center was a massive mound of dirt that stretched twenty meters into the air, while similar mounds that were much smaller in size were scattered throughout the fifth floor.
His Life Sense told William that there were Magical Beasts under each mound, their vitality signatures extending deep underground in a wavy line.
Worms...Not quite my favorite, but it shouldn't be too difficult.
William used his memories of his old world to think of how to deal with worms. From what he knew, there were many species of worms that acted in slightly different ways. One of the similarities between different species, however, was their reaction to rainfall.
Wet soil was more difficult for worms to dig through, which would force many worms to the surface instead. William thought about doing this, but he would need to make other preparations first.
While the worms would be forced to the surface by the rain, they might slide faster on the wet ground than they would normally. It was a trade-off, but William could fight better against an above-ground enemy.
He stayed on the staircase, making sure not to fully step into the fifth floor, lest the worms sense the vibrations he made while moving.
He weaved a large amount of Mana into three Perfect Arrays that would quickly flood the room with water, then used the Plant Element to create a raft that would float on the surface of the water.
With these two tasks complete, William decided to go for one of his go-to methods of eliminating Magical Beasts. He created another set of Arrays that would fill the water with salt, and added a Perfect Lightning Array that wasn't stored in his Array Wheel for his signature move.
William activated the first set of Arrays, setting them to function until all of the Array's stored Mana was used up. He then stepped on the raft, and watched silently as the worms flailed about in the water unsure of what was happening.
All of the worms were much too big to drown, their bodies reaching towards the ceiling as they tried to avoid the sudden flood. When the salt was added and the Lightning Array activated, William could see the worms convulsing as hundreds of tiny bolts of lightning struck their bodies one by one.
The smaller worms died in just a few minutes, while the largest one was eventually killed off after around half an hour. The Lightning Array had exhausted all of its Mana much earlier, around the ten-minute mark, but William just replaced it with his own Mana, launching lightning spells of his own while he was at it.
The largest worm's lifeless body floated on the surface of the water, William unsure if the Magical Beast was at the Golden Core or Nascent Soul Realm. While its defenses and health were quite high, the worm itself didn't seem very strong. Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn n0velfire.net
He laughed a bit, knowing that this trial wasn't meant to be completed in such a manner, and probably would have been a bitter fight to the death if any other Cultivator had come.
William swam underwater to collect the black box from the pedestal in the center of the room, then moved on to the sixth floor immediately.
He was worried about spending too much time in the trial grounds, so William decided he would check the contents of the black boxes every ten floors unless he severely needed Potential Points.
Trial after trial, William completed each with ease. Sometimes he would follow the rules and clear the floor as the trial's creator had intended, while other times he found an easier method using his superior Talents and Magic Affinities.
On the eighth floor, William cleared a trial that required one to patiently infuse Mana into a crystal one Element at a time. It was probably meant to be completed by a large group of Cultivators with over ten Elements between them all, but William was able to finish it by himself.
Of course, he had deliberated on showing more than five Elements, but the System confirmed that he would be in no imminent danger as long as he didn't reveal any more Domains, and kept the Elements of higher rarity than Rare to himself.
This meant that he shouldn't use the Space, Time, or other Elements of the sort while the creator was watching, lest he wanted to attract even more attention. If that happened, it would become even more difficult to upgrade his Talents while in the Gravitas Ruins.
On the tenth floor, another announcement was made within the tower, notifying every Cultivator in the area that someone had reached the tenth floor.
To the Cultivators, it was immediately obvious who had achieved such a feat. Some Cultivators began gathering in small groups involving different Sects or even making alliances to take down William and share the loot the moment he exited the trial.
At this point, killing William would be more profitable than attempting the trial tower itself! Their reaction was not out of the ordinary.
To say these Cultivators were nervous was an understatement. Anyone that could clear successive trials at this pace by themselves was not a pushover. They had seen firsthand what his Array Puppets could do.
Everyone took the threat of William incredibly seriously as they called over their other Sect members from other locations within the Gravitas Ruins, some spending hours devising strategies and creating Arrays that might give them a fighting chance.