Wait a minute...what does this mean for my Domains?
William asked the System to do the math for him this time, since it would solve simple math problems for free.
-Each of your Domains will cost 10 Mana to open, then an additional one Mana per second until it is closed. Your Mana Regeneration is 48.8 Mana per minute while in combat if holding the Mana Gathering Staff, meaning you will lose 11.2 Mana each minute not counting the initial opening cost that a single Domain remains open.
William already knew the first part, but the System reiterated it anyway.
System, how long would it take for me to run out of Mana if I had all five Domains open?
-With five Domains open, you will lose 50 Mana immediately, then 56 Mana per minute. At this rate, you will run out of Mana after 36 minutes and 36 seconds.
Half an hour with all of my domains open! William was overjoyed. He wished he could use his Domains in the Gravitas Ruins. If he could, he would have wiped the floor with those Cultivators after receiving his Mana Regeneration upgrade.
He opted not to upgrade his Magic Talents to S-Rank yet, since he wouldn't be able to use the Domains anyway. Instead, William focused on increasing his strength as fast as possible, since he had both the Enslavement Array to deal with and the threat of all the families of the Cultivators he just killed.
William wasn't naive enough to think that the Cultivators had died without resistance. Many of them were probably nobles, members Ancient Families, or the like. If it was anything like that token William found in the Space Mage's Space Ring while he was in Blue Moon City, William had probably made an incredible number of enemies.
While there were probably plenty of Cultivators with little backing, to enter the Gravitas Ruins was an incredible challenge, and not something a normal person could achieve. It was better to be safe than sorry.
System, upgrade my Arrays Talent.
-Mind Talent too low. Upgrade your Mind Talent to SS-Rank first.
Ugh. William somewhat expected this since it had happened last time.
System, upgrade my Mind Talent to SS-Rank.
Effects: Mental Capacity increased by 500% >> Mental Capacity increased by 2000%
S-Rank Bonus Effect replaced with SS-Rank Bonus Effect.
SS-Rank Bonus Effect: High resistance to enemy memory-related and mind-restricting abilities
Next rank up: 15000PP
With a four-times increase to William's Mental Capacity, he no longer felt like he had a headache from all the Arrays he had learned in the simulation. He knew this wouldn't last, since he planned to upgrade his Arrays immediately following this, but it was a good breath of fresh air.
William also noticed that even though the Enslavement Array was still present on his body, he could now completely resist its orders, meaning the Sect Master couldn't force him to give up his treasures no matter how hard he pushed William.
This put William's mind at ease, since he had been worried this whole time about the Sect Master giving him an unreasonable order or asking him to give up all the treasures, which he had spent an entire month earning.
William's next plan was to remove the Enslavement Array entirely, since it could be used to track his location. But for that, he would need to find Glen and get his help.
System, what was the previous S-Rank Effect from the Mind Talent?
-The previous effect only provided a low resistance to memory-related abilities.
William nodded his head. This was probably the reason why he was able to remember Su Yanyu's face when he had first upgraded the Mind Talent to S-Rank.
He moved on, asking the System to upgrade his Arrays Talent to SS-Rank since he had met the Mind Talent requirements.
Effects: Learned Rune Compression and Stacking >> Learned Complete Arrays
S-Rank Bonus Effect replaced with SS-Rank Bonus Effect.
SS-Rank Bonus Effect: Simulation of one hundred years of experience with Arrays.
Next rank up: 10000PP
William's mind suddenly blanked as his consciousness was sent to another unknown location. He couldn't control his body at all, but it started moving on its own after a few seconds of pause.
William's Mana seemed to be exhausted like normal as he suddenly weaved a Perfect Rune together the same way he normally would. This Rune didn't have any specific properties, which one might call a blank Rune.
Once the Rune was formed, William made sixteen Perfect Runes of the same type, stacking them together like pieces of paper.
Improved Perfect Runes? I already know this... William was somewhat bored at his own movements, but he knew the simulation wasn't done yet. He just wanted it to get to the good part right away.
He didn't have to wait long.
His body moved on its own as he set aside the sixteen stacked blank Runes, baffling William.
How did the Runes not fall apart instantly? They don't have a purpose and there's no Mana funneling into them!
A burst of knowledge suddenly filled William's brain, explaining the process in simple terms that he could understand. It turned out that since the Rune was made out of Perfect Arrays that were not imprinted with a specific function, they could remain idle for a few minutes while other Runes were prepared.
This was important because there was a limit to how many Runes an Array Master could manipulate at once. Even the best Array Masters would have trouble manipulating more than 16 Runes at one time for a single Array.
William continued to pay attention to his movements, watching as he weaved another set of 16 blank Runes. The second set was also set aside, followed by a third set.
Once the fourth set of 16 Runes was created, William waved his hands, releasing four thin tendrils of Mana at the same time that attached to the bottom layer of each stack of blank Runes.
Since all 16 blank Runes were interconnected in the stack, they could all be moved at the same time with the same amount of effort it would take to manipulate four Runes. The simulated William drew all 64 blank Runes together, at the same time forming a single Perfect Barrier Rune. This would give the 64 blank Runes their purpose, and act as the core.
Since he was in a simulation, William didn't earn any Potential Points for this yet, but his simulated self had just created the first Complete Rune, which was one level above Perfect Runes.
The simulation continued for a hundred years as promised, albeit sped up immensely. William didn't truly feel as if a hundred years had passed, and his mind wasn't able to wander to topics other than mastering the Arrays in front of him, so he didn't truly mature by a hundred years, rather gained the experiences similar to one that had spent a hundred years practicing on Arrays.
Not only did this include the ability to create Complete Runes and Complete Arrays, but it also taught William specific Arrays that he could create with these Runes, just like it did with the S-Rank Arrays Talent.
William exited the simulation, his mind feeling somewhat cramped, but there was no constant headache. It seemed that even though he had learned a lot from the simulation, the content itself wasn't incredibly complex other than the creation of Complete Runes.
William had learned how to disable the Enslavement Array with his most recent upgrade, and even remove it if he so wished, but the process would be very time-consuming, so William still opted to go with Glen's plan.
He looked at his System Panel, searching for other Talents to upgrade with his just over 21 thousand Potential Points. First, he spent 2700 Potential Points upgrading his Lightning and Water Elements to S-Rank, just to even out the basic Elements.
This move led to a pleasant surprise in the form of a title upgrade, which reassured William that his choice was the correct one. Official source ıs novel{f}ire.net
--Upgraded Title: +50 Potential Points
-Seven Colored Mage (Epic -> Legendary): You've acquired seven Common Elements and raised them all to S-Rank. Spells are 20% more Mana Efficient.
With the additional 10% bonus to his Mana Efficiency, each of his Domains should now cost 9 Mana to open instead of 10, and 54 Mana per minute instead of 60. It didn't seem like much overall, but the effects were obvious once it was put into practice.
If William could hold five Domains open for a bit over 36 minutes before, he could now do so for a bit over 38 minutes, which was a big deal in a fast-paced battle!
With all of his basic Elements upgraded, William moved on to a few other Talents that he had been meaning to upgrade for a while. Both of which were still at the lowly D-Rank and deserved some attention.