Infinite Potential System

Chapter 397 Threads

As the System foretold, William's body promptly exploded roughly halfway through the upgrade process. The Mana that had been forced out of his body dispersed all of its energy evenly throughout the World, not returning to William until after the Talent upgrade was completed.

Other than the initial scare from the System and wave after wave of Mana fluctuations that shook the World, there really wasn't much damage. Many of the Magical Beasts under William's control were also targeted by the rampant Mana, but it wasn't as damaging to a living body as it was to the environment.

Seeing that his friends and Magical Beasts were safe, William heaved a sigh of relief.

Alright, System. I guess you get a pass this time.

-Don't I always? I clearly answered your questions.

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Well... yes. But it's almost as if you want me to die sometimes. William complained.

-I wouldn't wish so much misfortune upon my Host. Besides, you probably will die anyway.

Hearing the System's last words annoyed William. How do you know? I'll show you!

-Show me then.

The System's words ended at the same time as his Talent upgrade, a new set of notifications filling William's screen.

———

Talent Merger Complete

Mana Dominator (Legendary): (X)

Effects:

-Recover 32000 Mana per hour

-Mana Efficiency +20000%

-Mana Control +20000%

-Maximum Capacity of Mana Reserve +20000%

X-Rank Bonus Effects:

-Mana Lord: All Mana within one meter of you is slightly more susceptible to your control, allowing you to manipulate even Elements you do not have an Affinity for. Can be used when upgrading your Elemental Affinities.

-Mana Siphon: The ambient Mana will assist your Spells within their cast range by five percent of the Spell's total cost. If the ambient Mana is of higher quality than the Host's, the Spell's power will be slightly increased.

-Calm Recovery: Mana Regenerates eight times as fast out of combat.

Next rank up: Ascend to unlock the next rank's requirements.

———

Upon seeing that his Mana Reserves were affected by such a large amount, William hurriedly opened his Status Panel.

INFO: ( - )

-Name: William

-Race: Human

-Birth Age: 22

-Real Age: 1218

-Lifespan: 18000 Years

-Cultivation: Soul Formation 1 (0/10000000)

-Heavenly Mark: Heaven's Aura, ???

STATUS: ( - )

-Health: 6m/6m

-Mana: 2.96m/2.96m

-Fame: 145

-Humanity: 53

-Ascended Value: 1

-Attention: 70

-Soul Strength: 365985

-Cultivation Base: 0/50000000

William couldn't believe his eyes. From the original measly fourteen thousand or so Mana, William's Reserve had increased by such a dramatic amount. Considering how much his Mana Efficiency had improved, William wondered if expending all of his Mana at once was even possible.

I can easily use all my Territories at once at this rate! I could create my own Continent right now! William exclaimed.

He refrained from doing so right away as that might affect the System Quest somehow, but William was extremely tempted to follow through.

"There will be time for that later. Let's not get distracted." William scolded himself out loud as he scrolled through the System Panel. While he wanted to look at the information of all his new Talents, he had yet to gain all the Elemental Forms.

System, spin another one hundred Random Talents. William still had no intention of using the Random Passive Talent option until the other was overly expensive.

-131750 PP

-Spinning Talents. Please wait...

William's use of the System was relatively limited during the continuous Talent Shop purchases, but he was still able to view the descriptions of some of the most interesting Talents. The Heaven Bruising Talent was first on the list, since it was Legendary-Ranked and also a Passive Talent, like many of his other best Talents.

According to its description, the Heaven Bruising Talent increased William's damage towards Heavenly Tribulations, allowing him to disperse them more easily. He initially didn't think it was a very useful Talent since dispersing Tribulations would only anger the Heavens and force them to send stronger ones, but then...

Isn't the Ultimate Tribulation the best they can do? Even the Eternal Tribulation above me right now can't do anything to me... William realized.

While waiting for the System to spin for more Talents, William decided to make use of the A-Rank Heaven Bruising Talent. He controlled a large amount of Space Mana on his fingertips and shot it into the sky, scattering the Eternal Tribulation into many directions.

The clouds reformed, but William could tell at a glance that their strength had grown weaker by a small amount. He spent the next thirty minutes continuously targeting the Tribulation with different Elements, finding Earth to be the best counter.

By the time the Talent Shop purchases had been completed, William had almost entirely dispersed the Eternal Tribulation, with only a small cloud roughly half a kilometer in size remaining. If the Heaven Bruising Talent was X-Rank it probably would have only taken a few strikes to destroy the Tribulation, but William wasn't able to upgrade it while the System was spinning Talents.

Regardless, even the A-Rank Talent was quite effective, and William was more than satisfied with its effects.

As expected of a Legendary Talent. Even though it only has one effect, it's much more useful than something like Knitting or Herb Gathering. William smiled.

-Talent Purchased: Nothing

-Talent Purchased: Nothing

-Talent Purchased: Nothing

...

System, can you list out the unlocked Talents in a more precise way?

-Fine.

-Talents Purchased (x81): Nothing

-Talents Purchased (Common): Hearing Protection, Jeweler, Restriction Resistance, Unstable Elements, Glazier, Masonry, Polarity Resistance, Illusory, Carving, Awareness, Stone Skipping, Soul Bound, Resist Karma, Resist Fate, Resist Disorder

-Talents Purchased (Rare): Lockpicking, Bodyguard, Tracking

-Talents Purchased (Epic): Dream Stealer

-Requirements met for a Talent upgrade.

Please raise Heat Resistance, Shockwave Resistance, Cold Resistance, Stable Footing, Paralysis Resistance, Root Resistance, Gills, Vitality, Blind Resistance, Sleep Resistance, Slow Resistance, Charm Resistance, Hearing Protection, Poison Resistance, Curse Resistance, Blessing Resistance, Aging Resistance, Blood Bound, Soul Bound, Summon Resistance, Restriction Resistance, Awareness, Polarity Resistance, Unstable Elements, Illusory, Resist Disorder, Resist Karma, Resist Fate Talents to the same Rank.

-Detected Vitality is a SubTalent of Ascended Recovery. Skipping Vitality requirement.

Finally! I got all the resistances! William exclaimed out loud as he looked at the much more condensed version of the previous System notifications. Of the 19 Talents that he earned, most of them were Resistances, while the rest were still relatively useful.

Other than Carving, which was a Trade Talent that allowed him to carve wood, stone, or ice into beautifully designed sculptures or totems, and Stone Skipping, which simply allowed him to better skip rocks over water, the others had some form of practical use.

William didn't know what the Ascended Realms were like, but he assumed that his current strength wouldn't be enough to get him out of every situation. He might find himself using the Lockpicking Talent at some point.

With a whole slew of new Talents in his Status screen that made William feel dizzy and a pending Talent upgrade for his Resistances, William gave one last request to the System.

System, upgrade all of my Resistances related to the Talent upgrade to X-Rank.

-1.27 million Potential Points will be spent, but you won't be able to merge the Talents unless you can Ascend all of them to match the Heat Resistance Talent. Confirm?

Ahh, shit. I forgot about that! William slapped himself in the forehead. After seeing that he had the Sun Bomb Flower already, William had jumped the gun and proceeded to upgrade his Heat Resistance Talent without thinking about it.

-It's no matter. Even if you could merge the Talents, the requirements to Ascend the resulting merged Talent would be so incredibly high and stringent that you would likely fail to Ascend it for a very long time. This way may work out better for you, which is why I didn't issue a warning beforehand.

Hearing the System's words made William feel a lot better. He decided to trust the System, which seemed like it did it's best to bypass its own rules just for his sake.

In that case, I'll forget about it for now. That said, yes. Upgrade the Talents.

The System upgraded William's Talents incredibly quickly, each taking only a few seconds while he hardly felt a thing. At the end of the upgrade, William didn't feel much different than before, but the World around him had completely changed.

He wasn't sure whether it was the Fate, Karma, Order, or a combination of many Elements, but William could now see that the entire World was covered in a bundle of reddish pink threads enveloped by a bluish-purple aura, turning the sky magenta.

As he peered further, William noticed that many of the threads above actually branched off and trailed towards the ground, each leading to an individual. From them, the threads branched off once more into even smaller threads, poking into one another and branching dozens of times after that.

The more William looked, the more he could see these tiny threads that almost seemed to encapsulate the entire World. He tilted his head downwards, noticing a bundle of threads poking out of his own chest and leading towards places incredibly distant from his current location.

Are these...?

-Indeed. What you are seeing are the threads of Karma, enhanced with Fate. Each individual you have interacted with, whether it be a simple passing on the street or extreme intimacy, is tied to you through these threads. They're tied to everyone.

Tied to everyone, including me and my friends? Even with your support? William continued to stare at the group of threads attached to his chest. With his Resist Fate and Resist Karma Talents fully upgraded, William could even identify which individual his threads were attached to.

But there was one individual thread that was much larger than the rest, and its name was written out clear as daylight.

"Fria."