William's ability to use Magic was restored, allowing him to heal his more serious injuries with the Life Domain. His broken ribs were mended back together, and the air returned to his collapsed lung, easing his breathing once again.
I almost died there...it seems I rely on my Magic and Arrays too much. William thought to himself.
He was glad that he didn't have any Array Puppets out when he entered the trial, because they would have been rendered useless by the restrictions. Worst case scenario, the Minotaur would break all of them during its rampage, wasting much of William's precious time and energy.
He collected the black box from the pedestal, then laid out all 39 boxes in a row. He touched the Luck Pendant on his chest, ensuring it was active even though he knew it wouldn't raise his chances of getting better treasure. It was more of a superstition.
William ran by each of the boxes, flipping them open with a swish of his hand. The room filled with light of various colors, overwhelming William's senses with Mana, Spirit Qi, and Soul Energy as the System called the aura that came from Soul Stones.
-Detected the Host has acquired an immense number of treasures. Calculating Potential Point rewards...
-Acquired the following:
-Soul Stone x7: +700 PP
-Mana Dragon's Blood Essence: +250 PP
-Tier 10 Blood Refinement Pill: +500 PP
-Beast Core x7: +1400 PP
-Epic Longsword: +50 PP
-Starmetal Bow: +500 PP
-Twin Starmetal Shortswords: 1000 PP
-Starmetal Shield: +500 PP
-Blacksmith's notes: +5 PP
-Book of Forging: +5 PP
-Book of Alchemy: +5 PP
-Mana Stone x5600: +0 PP
-Star Ore x25: +1250 PP
William counted out the item rewards, realizing the number didn't quite add up to 39. He found the reason why, however, when he went to store the items from the boxes into his Space Ring. Many of the boxes contained multiple pieces of Star Ore, which explained why the count was off.
His eyes widened when he saw the number of Mana Stones that spewed out of a few black boxes, wondering how they even fit in such a small box in the first place.
I'm a millionaire! William rejoiced in his mind.
Since each Mana Stone was worth a thousand Gold Coins, William could say that including his previous holdings, he had 6.84 million Gold! If he remembered correctly.
Of course, that was still a far cry from the richest bidders at the Night Market, who would easily spend over nine million Gold Coins on a dragon's scale. William wondered how much some of the treasures currently in his possession were worth, but he would probably never have a chance to auction them off.
Nor would he. He was a loot goblin after all. What's the point of earning a treasure if you're just going to sell it off? Better to hoard everything no matter how useless it seemed.
His loot goblin tendencies had spread violently during this trial. After clearing the thirtieth floor, he had stored all of the poison-tipped arrows from the crossbows in a Space Ring.
He was only waiting until he could find a suitable jar to store the mysterious corrosive liquid, then William would go back and collect that as well!
Who knows, maybe it would be useful? A common phrase unique to hoarders.
William checked the System Panel.
POTENTIAL POINTS: 6656
I have enough to upgrade Atticus once again, but sadly I can't do that here... William felt bad for the snake. It had remained on his shoulder throughout every trial, using Illusion Magic during dangerous situations to hide in an illusory dimension all the while.
Even the restrictions weren't strong enough to disable the Mythical Rat Snake's concealment, as long as it didn't take the initiative to show itself.
Wait...doesn't that mean I CAN upgrade him? He asked the System, who gave confirmation.
He was excited at first, but William realized it still wouldn't be of any benefit right now. The snake would still have to hide itself from the Gravitas Ruins, so even if it was raised to the Golden Core Realm, Atticus wouldn't be able to help at all.
"Sorry little buddy, I'll make sure to take care of you later." William patted the snake on the head while scrolling through the System Panel. It seemed his best option would be to purchase more Talents, but first there was one more thing to do.
System, upgrade my Attack Reflection to S-Rank.
Attack Reflection: (A --> S)
William found the Attack Reflection Talent to be incredibly useful. It was an almost perfect counter to physical attack-oriented Magical Beasts and Cultivators and was one of the few Talents could even activate while William was sleeping!
If there was anything that William would be afraid of in the future, it would be assassination attempts! History in his old world had proven that the most powerful leaders didn't die valiantly in battle, rather were assassinated.
Of course, most of them were dictators, but that was beside the point.
Just as William was about to move onto the Talent Shop, another System message entered William's view.
-DETECTED SYSTEM UPGRADE--
--UPGRADING. PLEASE WAIT--
--UPGRADE SUCCESSFUL--
SYSTEM RANK: (D- --> D)
-528 Extra Potential Points added to progression towards the next System Rankup.
Next rank up: 49472PP
*New features available:
-One additional farm slot
-Companion Beasts now hatch at E-Rank automatically
-System has reached version 1.8.
-Rare Talents are even more likely to appear.
-System will now display the description of each Talent when upgraded, giving detailed information on the Talent's new effects.
Another farm slot and a Companion Beast improvement? Thanks, but no thanks. The System seemed to want William to use the Companion Beast function quite often, as if he was in a beast-taming world, but William wasn't as interested.
Atticus was a nice addition, and he was quite attached to the little guy, but he would feel cruel sending it into a battle where it had a good chance of dying.
If William was going to use the Companion Beast function, it would have to be much further in the future. For now, he would focus on his own improvement.
William didn't mind the Potential Farm, as it was a nice additional three Potential Points per day, but the Gravitas Ruins were earning him much more per day than that.
Who can say no to passive income though? System, purchase a Potential Farm.
It was only a hundred Potential Points anyway, why not? Read full story at noⅴelfire.net
The Potential Farm appeared in William's mind again, another acorn sprouting just a few meters next to the first one that was still just a sprout.
--Potential Farm Purchased--
He checked the Farm Menu to see the changes.
-Purchase Potential Farm: 100 PP
-Potential Farm: F (1000PP to next rank)
-Potential Farm: F (1000PP to next rank)
That should mean 6 Potential Points per day, sweet! A month from now, the Potential Farms would become pure profit!
William returned his attention to the Talent Shop. He had 3556 Potential Points remaining; it was time for a shopping spree!