Two more days passed.
William was currently finishing up a match with Yamato, the now Rank 10 Disciple on the Ranking Board. Yamato used various spells of the Plant Element to restrain William every time he tried to enter close combat.
William was actually quite impressed with Yamato's skill, who was an F Rank Plant Manamatus when he was younger. He always used the most precise amount of Mana to counter William's attacks, and once again the Meteor Spell was rendered useless when Yamato raised a large barrier made of wood amplified by a series of Basic Arrays.
William would have countered with the Plant Element of his own, but the Sect Master specifically ordered William not to use any more Elements that the world hadn't already seen.
The fight ended after a few minutes of back and forth when Yamato ran out of Mana. Other than Hanzu, Yu Ren, and of course William, none of the Outer Core Disciples had combat strength in the Golden Core Realm.
William had been out of Mana for a while, but Yamato didn't have the physical ability that William did, so he was forced to admit defeat. The Elder declared William's victory, and he maintained his position at Rank 1
The following day, Hanzu challenged William to another fight. Without the monthly ticket to the Gravitas Ruins, Hanzu's growth was limited. He was strong, but not strong enough to secure a spot among the Inner Core Disciples, so his only option was to hoard the number one spot in the Outer Sect.
The match between William and Hanzu was completely different from before. Hanzu noticed that William could sense his underground movements, so he avoided using that technique during this fight. He relied on his Gravity Magic to repel all of William's large attacks, while launching Earth Spikes at William when he saw an opportunity.
Unfortunately, Hanzu was doomed to fail again. William didn't have to use any Mana and could rely on his physical abilities to fight with Hanzu at close range.
William's reaction time at long-range was too good for Hanzu to land an Earth Spike, and even if Hanzu did manage to land a hit using the Gravity Magic to slow him down, William's Hard Skin and Regeneration Talents would render his efforts completely useless.
It was quite frustrating to fight with William on the same level. Hanzu forfeited the fight, accepting that William was probably invincible in the Core Formation Realm and below. It might even take a genius in the Golden Core Realm to take him down.
After Hanzu's second fight, no one challenged William again for the remainder of the month. Many of the disciples in the top 100 that held grudges from William's first lecture with Elder Wen had already chosen to give up on revenge when he defeated Yu Ren.
He managed to hold onto the Rank 1 position, earning 100 Mana Stones and his ticket to the Gravitas Ruins. Additionally, William qualified to become an Inner Core Disciple without taking a test if he chose to do so.
William returned to his residence, where the Sect Master was already waiting.
"Good job. Here is your ticket to the Gravitas Ruins and the Mana Stones I've set aside." he handed William the Mana Stones and a token with what appeared to be a bacteria symbol engraved on it. It was an odd-looking token, but William didn't worry too much about the details.
-Gained a Ruins Token: +250 Potential Points
250 Potential Points for just this?!? I'm definitely going to abuse this later! William exclaimed in his mind.
The Sect Master continued talking. "Make sure you bring that token back. You can only use it while you are in the Ruins. If something happens to it, we cannot acquire another without the help of someone much more powerful than I."
William was surprised. "There are still people more powerful than you, Sect Master?"
"You don't need to know about these things. Just enter the Gravitas Ruins and acquire something for me." he gave William a series of instructions on where to go first and which trial to take. His explanation made William realize why the Sect Master was relying so much on him.
William was truly the only person with a chance of clearing the trial. He wondered what kind of person would create such a brutal test that was clearly impossible to the majority of the world. Maybe it was the secret inheritance of a powerful Cultivator!
"Do you have two months' worth of food like I asked you to?" Gu Dianlong inquired.
William nodded, "Yes, Sect Master."
"Good. You'll be entering the Ruins tomorrow. I will retrieve you and the other Inner Core Disciples in the morning. Do not create conflict amongst yourselves while inside. The last thing I want is for you to be killed because you pissed off one of our own." he warned. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on nοvelfire.net
Gu Dianlong created a portal and left the room without another word. William laid down on the bed while scrolling through his System Panel.
With the last few weeks of activity, William had a total of 1349 Potential Points. He planned to save them until he entered the Gravitas Ruins, but that didn't mean he couldn't plan his upgrades ahead of time.
There were so many upgrades to choose from this time. With a thousand Potential Points, he could upgrade any Talent except for Atticus' Rank. He could even choose to raise his Fire Affinity to S Rank if he chose to, but then he would instantly return to being poor.
He looked at his Manamatus Title, which read 11/25 Elements towards the next upgrade. Considering he earned five hundred Potential Points for upgrading the Title from Legendary to Mythic, then another thousand as a first-time bonus, William assumed the next upgrade would give him an even more exaggerated boost.
The only problem was the requirement. First, William would need to gain 14 more Elements. That means he would at least have to spend 2,450 Potential Points in the Talent Shop. Of course, his math was assuming William wouldn't receive any rewards of nothing. If he was unlucky, William might end up spending over four thousand Potential Points just to upgrade his Title.
Another downside was that spending points on the Talent Shop seemed to not progress the System towards its next rankup, but that couldn't be helped. A quick explanation from the System revealed that certain functions would spend too much of the System's energy, such as the Ask Function and the Talent Shop.
Let's just go with one for now. System, purchase a Random Magic Talent.
-Talent Purchased: Chaos Affinity
-Chaos Affinity Acquired: +1 Potential Point
-Acquired your first Legendary Element: +100 Potential Points
What a steal, maybe I should buy a lottery ticket!
William was ecstatic. His luck turned out to be quite good today, the Legendary Element essentially refunding the cost of the purchase with its first-time bonus.
It was hard to explain how the Element felt, but it was almost as if William's body had become hazy and unstable. The Elements in his body that were previously well aligned and orderly became disorganized when the Chaos Element was introduced. William tried to use his Fire Mana, but it wouldn't listen to his commands.