Three days later, William still hadn't solved his problem with the Wind Dial. The issue had bothered William so much that he hadn't even spent any time Cultivating.
It was pretty wasteful considering his Cultivation Talent was now SS-Rank and his Cultivation speed was four times faster than the previous upgrade.
He fully understood each of the Wind Dial's functions, and even had the ability to recreate every Array Formation, but something was keeping William from developing an item capable of producing the same effect.
He had plenty of options to create larger items, but to make something even smaller than the wristwatches while keeping the same effects...it was impossible with William's current ability!
Scratch that, I think even upgrading my Arrays Talent wouldn't help much here. There's a limit to how small an Array can be, and Master has clearly stretched that limit to the maximum.
William redoubled his efforts to come up with an idea, but he was suddenly interrupted by a knocking on the door.
A muffled voice came from the other side, clearly affected by the sound-proofing Arrays William added, "Your meeting with Master Riyald is supposed to start in five minutes. Are you ready, Disciple William?"
William rushed out the door to see Sir Reynolds waiting for him on the other side of the door. Although William knew the Artifact Spirit could hear and see everything going on in his room, he was touched by the Spirit's obvious gesture to show that he cared about William's privacy.
"Thank you for reminding me, Sir Reynolds. I will go over there right now."
Sir Reynolds peeked inside William's room while the man passed by "Ah...indulged in your experiments, huh? It seems Master chose a fit Disciple to pass on his knowledge."
William didn't bother responding and ran to the laboratory at high speed, effortlessly dodging the various traps that sprung from the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Rather than becoming annoyed this time, William found the event somewhat fun and challenging. It was a great way to keep his battle instincts sharp.
Maybe he's not such a fool after all...he knew I would be spending a lot of time in my room. What person wouldn't relax a little after spending time in a safe environment?
"You're a minute late, Disciple William." the white-haired man said with an annoyed tone. Riyald didn't like to be kept waiting, especially when his experiments took so much of his time already.
"I'm sorry, Master. I was working on the Dials." William said honestly as he raised his head to look at the old man.
His eyes widened slightly in surprise when he noticed his SS-Rank effect from the Cultivation Talent was active, revealing Riyald's Cultivation to be at the peak of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm. Riyald had already mentioned his Realm before, but actually being able to see it was different.
"And how goes your progress?"
"I've learned the Arrays, but creating a similar item is difficult. I need more time." William replied.
Riyald nodded his head. William's progress was impressive, but he knew the boy would struggle at this point. After all, these Dials were already one of Riyald's masterpieces. For his Disciple to improve them only a week after arriving would be a stain on his reputation.
"Well, keep working at it. I don't have any advice for you concerning the Arrays, but perhaps you have noticed something about the wristwatch itself?"
"Master, are you talking about the material?"
Riyald's eyes gleamed with delight, "As expected of you, Disciple William. I'm glad that you noticed this. What about the material?"
"It's made of Starmetal, the same item that is rewarded for completing your trials." William didn't have much else to say about the material.
"Quite so. Do you know why so much Starmetal is given out as a reward?" the old man asked.
William shook his head.
"It's because Starmetal is one of the most valuable materials for blacksmithing. Have you read my book?"
William scanned his memories, realizing that he had indeed read a book about blacksmithing. He nodded his head.
"Good, then you should already know the minute details regarding Starmetal. I hope you consider using Starmetal for whatever Artifact you decide to create. Now...let's get into the main topic, Magic." Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by N0v3l.Fiɾe.net
William didn't expect his Master to suddenly switch the topic to this. He waited for the old man to explain, but even after a few minutes passed, nothing was said.
"Aren't you going to ask why Magic?" Riyald asked after noticing his Disciple wasn't speaking.
I was thinking it, do I have to outright say it? William cursed inwardly.
"Well now I don't want to tell you." Riyald crossed his arms noticing William's uninterested expression.
"..." William wondered who the special one was, him or his Master.
Do you really need to get involved in this too, System?
"Ok fine I'll tell you." Riyald gave up on trying to force an apology from William, who clearly wasn't interested in playing his little game. "You have multiple Domains, correct?"
"...how did you know?" William scanned his memory but didn't have to think back far to remember the caverns where he first unlocked the Domain of each Element.
But the System said no one was watching...
-The System said no powerful Cultivators were watching. Perhaps the Artifact Spirit noticed something.
Riyald's next words answered William's question, "Sir Reynolds told me, but I have yet to see it for myself. It's good of you to hide your talents from others, it tells me you understand that too much talent can be a bad thing."
William calmed down, noticing that Riyald's impression of him hadn't changed, "Yes, Master. I have a few Domains."
Riyald uncrossed his arms and pulled out an Affinity Orb from his Space Ring, "Are you sure?"
"Eight..." William sighed in defeat.
Riyald put the Affinity Orb away, "That's quite impressive, young man. Other than you, I believe the most Domains I've seen on an individual was four, and that was a very long time ago, when I was still in the Nascent Soul Realm.
I wouldn't be surprised if that monster Ascended in the last thousand years, despite the fact that he is much younger than I am."
William was surprised to hear that another person had so many Domains. As far as he knew, Supreme Left only had one S-Rank Elemental Affinity, meaning he only had one Domain. Other than Supreme Left, William had faced that Ice Mage in the trial tower that had a Domain.
Besides those two individuals, William guessed there were probably less than a dozen living Cultivators that could use a Domain, considering the younger Cultivators' responses when they saw William's Life Domain.
While Riyald was talking, one specific phrase piqued William's interest, "Ascension?"
It was a phrase he had read in some books but didn't have a great understanding of.
"Yes, Ascension." Riyald called some Mana of the Plant Element to create a chair and table similar to his previous meeting with William. He sat down in his chair, beckoning William to do the same.
"I was going to talk about your Domains, but it seems we are bound to go off track while your mind is preoccupied with the idea of Ascension. Sit down and let me explain it to you."