Upon hearing the Cultivator's words, the others began to panic. If William couldn't be hurt by physical attacks, how could he possibly be killed? His ability was too overpowered!
"Don't panic, it doesn't seem to work against Magic!" someone pointed out.
The others already knew this, but it didn't ease up the situation that much. Even after a few hours, William hadn't taken a single hit. His Spirit Aura, which only Golden Core Cultivators and above should be able to use, had so far blocked every attack.
It was covered in cracks now, but the recovery speed wasn't slow. If they didn't continue to attack the Forcefield, William would recover until he once again would be invincible against their moves.
The Cultivators were extremely disheartened, but they could tell that William was getting tired so they continued attacking.
On William's end, he was currently plotting how to draw out the leaders who had increased their vigilance in response to his killing of the bald-headed man. Their Sect members had surrounded them, or they were covered in Elemental shields of Earth, Ice, or Wood.
It seemed to be a counter to William's Space Element.
He launched consecutive fireballs at a leader that was surrounded by a wooden dome, hoping to exhaust its vitality first then set it ablaze, but the group of Cultivators protecting him countered William's fireballs with a few dozen Earth Walls.
"Tch!" William cursed. He continued sending fireballs forward, breaking Earth Wall after Earth Wall until the group of Cultivators was exhausted and couldn't keep up. The rıghtful source is novel[f]ire.net
His fireballs were incredibly cheap on Mana, and William could launch multiple per second, so the leader was eventually consumed by flames much to the other members' dismay.
The wave of attacks exhausted William's Mana, but it saved stamina which would be needed for his escape.
William launched more fireballs at another leader, eliminating them in just under ten minutes. He moved on from one to the next, crushing the Cultivators' hopes of protecting their leaders.
The leaders themselves began to wish they hadn't worked so hard to become the leader amongst their group. If they hadn't, they probably would have been spared, right?
"Hey, you. Would you like to be the leader?" one of the leaders asked his fellow Sect member.
"Uh, no that's okay..."
Six hours passed, and there were still over a thousand Cultivators remaining. All of the leaders except two were dead, which was more than enough for their plans to fall into disarray.
William was too tired to continue fighting, so it was time to make his escape. He hadn't given up on absorbing the Cultivators' Mana, but he would need to save that for another time.
William checked the status of his Mana Gathering Staff.
[46/50 Mana Absorbed]
So close! Maybe I'll just grab a few more...
William hadn't had many chances to absorb the Cultivators' Mana, even though he, his Array Puppet, and his Arrays had single-handedly killed almost two thousand Cultivators.
He couldn't even take the time to loot their treasures! A group of around a hundred Cultivators was running around, collecting the loot from each of William's kills as if it was Christmas, ignoring the fight completely!
The moment William came close to a dying Cultivator, he would be bombarded with spells for leaving the safety of his Arrays. Even with two-thirds of their members dead, a thousand Cultivators were more than enough to overwhelm William with spells. The situation hadn't changed!
He gave up on collecting more Mana, opting to make his escape now.
William teleported with the Space Element to the entrance of the courtyard, amplifying his speed with an Array to leave as quickly as possible.
The Cultivators were stunned at how quickly the situation had turned around. They tried to chase after William, but his speed had reached the middle-stages of the Nascent Soul Realm, even with a normal Perfect Array.
They had no chance of catching up and had lost track of William within minutes. A few Cultivators with sensory-type abilities focused on tracking were able to follow behind, but if William spent over an hour running, they wouldn't catch up for days!
This was the difference in speed between a Nascent Soul and Core Formation!
With a few dozen flashes of the Space Element, William was even further away than they expected, having returned to the underwater cavern where he took on his first trial in the Gravitas Ruins.
Since it was already cleared, and was in a very obscure location, William felt this would be a perfect place to recover.
William sat down cross-legged and checked the System Panel while his Mana recovered.
POTENTIAL POINTS: 35130
He previously had around 27 thousand Potential Points, but with the slaughter of almost two thousand Cultivators, William had gained an additional 7 thousand or so.
The Array Puppet's kills didn't give him Potential Points, and there were a few occasions where betrayal would lead to the death of Cultivators without William's involvement.
Despite this, William was more than happy enough. He had only lost around three thousand Potential Points, but there was much to gain from this, especially when he didn't lose Humanity points during the entire exchange since the Cultivators were hostile towards him!
Hmm...what to upgrade first? He scrolled through the list of Talents, but changed his mind when he remembered something.
I still have loot! William opened up his Space Ring, bringing out the fourteen items other than the Tower Token that he gained from the gold box first, then opening the two silver boxes he received in the earlier 100 floors.
He laid everything out, then organized the System Messages until it listed his gains from the gold box first and in a more readable order.
-Acquired Element Root: Points Claimed
-Acquired Enchanted Starmetal Dual Blades: Points Claimed
-Acquired Greater Beast Core: Points Claimed
-Acquired Mana Uraninite Ore: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Bow: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Chakram: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Glaive: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Greatsword: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Javelin: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Shield: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Staff: Points Claimed
-Acquired Starmetal Sword: Points Claimed
-Acquired Tier 10 Blood Refinement Pill: Points Claimed
-Acquired Time Dial: Points Claimed
William had gained the Potential Points from the items in the gold box already, so the System read "Points Claimed" for each item instead.
William had received a Starmetal Glaive, which was better than the Epic Glaive he had lost before. He also noticed that he had received both a second Starmetal Bow and Starmetal Shield, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
He could give a second Array Puppet the Starmetal Bow, which would give him another ranged Puppet.
Enchanted Starmetal Dual Blades? William assumed the item was even better than regular Starmetal, but he spent ten points to figure out its specific information.
Enchanted Starmetal Dual Blades (Legendary Dual Blades): A pair of Starmetal Dual Blades that have been enchanted with powerful effects. To maintain the effects of the enchantments, the Dual Blades must be refilled with Mana.
Enchanted Bonuses: (Cost 1 Mana per attack)
+20% Holder Movement Speed
Stored Mana: 5000/5000