William scrolled through the System Panel to check the requirements for the next Acrobatics upgrade. To upgrade it to A Rank, William would need 750 Potential Points since it was a Rare Talent. The deal didn't seem too bad when you thought about it though, since he was essentially upgrading four improved Common Talents for the price of three.
With the Acrobatics Talent gained, William checked his Potential Points and was disappointed to see he only had 232 remaining. With nothing useful to upgrade with them, William moved on to the Gold-Ranked Fire Root.
He quickly absorbed the item, his mouth and body heating up as the liquified Root entered his digestive system.
The process only took a few minutes and wasn't any more painful than the Silver-Ranked Fire Root. That being said, the results were still very impressive. The strength and his control over the Fire Element improved by another twenty percent, which was surprising since William knew the effects of each Root of the same Element that he consumed would have diminishing effects.
If he ate the Gold-Ranked Fire Root first, the improvement might have been around thirty or even thirty-five percent! Even so, the order in which the treasures were consumed likely didn't matter.
William spent the remainder of his day in the library, reading about the status of different factions within the Continent and updating his map. He managed to locate a book that spoke of the Rhio Ancient Family, so he made sure to mark their family estate just in case.
*** The rıghtful source is NoveI[F]ire.net
The next day. Five Elements Sect Battle Arena.
William entered the Arena just ten minutes before the battle was supposed to start. Unlike his battle with Kevin a few days prior, the spectator stands were completely packed. Whether it was Outer Core, Inner Core, or Elders, the entire Sect seemed to catch wind that William was fighting today.
He would be flattered, but Will knew that they were mostly all here because of his opponent that was already in position.
Miss Ren, as people knew her, was a very elegant woman. Her blonde hair was curled into springs that hung on both sides of her head, while her disciple's uniform was anything but normal.
Instead of the usual blue or pure white robes that other Outer Core Disciples would wear, hers was bright pink with a few tinges of silvery-white, a small golden cross stitched into the left shoulder that reminded William of the symbol he saw when investigating Supreme Left.
Miss Ren smiled elegantly at William, but her eyes suggested this event wasn't worth her time. She motioned to one of three Elders that would be acting as a referee for this fight, to which they nodded and approached William.
"Please take your position, Miss Ren does not have much time."
William nodded, finding their attitudes to be incredibly rude. He took his position opposite Miss Ren, while the Elder issued a countdown for the battle to begin.
"The match between William and Yu Ren will start in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...
Yu Ren released her aura, emitting the pressure of a Core Formation Realm expert right from the beginning. She gathered her Mana to her left palm, shooting out a Wind Blade the size of a small car.
William made use of his new Acrobatics Talent to do a front flip, leaping over the Wind Blade with extreme precision and rushing towards Yu Ren. He gathered Mana of the Wind Element in his palm, releasing a nearly identical Wind Blade at her.
Yu Ren's eyes widened in surprise as she didn't expect William to successfully dodge her attack, much less launch an attack of his own. She dodged the Wind Blade, then switched to the Water Element, forming a massive wave in front of her and pushing it in William's direction.
Again, William elegantly jumped over the attack, surprising both Yu Ren and the audience. That wave was six-meters tall, nearly the height of a two-story building! They watched as William copied Yu Ren's attack once again, launching a six-meter roaring wave in her direction.
-Developed a new spell: +1 PP
"Are you going to copy me the entire fight?" Yu Ren yelled out as she launched a series of Wind Blades.
"Why not?" William replied with a calm smile.
Yu Ren stopped moving and began to gather a massive amount of Mana from the surroundings. William didn't know what she was doing, but he wasn't going to stand idly by. He launched a Wind Blade at her, hoping to disrupt the spell, but the Blade was stopped by a thin veil of Mana covering her entire body.
A protective amulet! I should have known the rich girl has treasures on her!
William was beginning to regret not investigating his opponent thoroughly. Even after he learned that he was facing against a descendant of Supreme Left, somehow William still didn't take the time to research her while he was in the library.
He continued to launch spells, but the protective amulet wasn't showing any signs of damage. William decided to save his Mana to defend against whatever was coming next.
The Mana continued to converge on Yu Ren's figure until the density reached its peak. Her body began to glow with a pale-yellow light, then she lowered her head to speak some unfamiliar words in a low tone.
Her chant ended, but nothing happened. She looked up and smiled at William's expression.
This idiot has no clue what's about to happen.
Yu Ren's smile alarmed William. She's already attacked, but where, and how?
He paid a point to ask the System.
William frantically looked to the sky.
Raining down from above was a meteor. A. Literal. Meteor!
William panicked; how could he defend against this?
He gathered Mana of the Fire Element to his fingertips, using the Fire Talent to its maximum. Within seconds a fireball the size of a semi-truck was hovering over his head, which he launched at the meteor.
Sparks covered the sky as William's giant fireball and the meteor clashed. The audience was stunned at William's ability to fight against Yu Ren, who was unofficially declared the strongest Outer Core Disciple in the Sect. Even Hanzu, who was ranked first on the Ranking Board, didn't dare to battle with her.
The explosion cleared up, allowing William to see the meteor had broken up into about a dozen smaller meteors, but were still heading in his direction. There were only a few more seconds to react, so William created an Advanced Barrier Array above him, followed by a second and a third.
The meteors crashed into the third Barrier the moment it was formed, shattering it almost instantly.
Are you telling me her attack is stronger than an early Golden Core Cultivator? She's only a few years older than me!
William watched in shock as the second Barrier was destroyed when two of the smaller meteors impacted, then the third Barrier fell apart shortly after.
William had no choice but to cross his arms in front of him and expand his Forcefield to counter another meteor, but even that wasn't enough. The last meteor was a direct hit on William's chest, his arms blown away by the impact and his body thrown to the other side of the battle Arena.