Infinite Potential System

The Cultivators began to panic. No one expected a Nascent Soul Realm Beast to spawn, but they were still unwilling to give up on the treasure. They had the same thoughts as William, hoping to hide from the Beast until there were only a hundred people left.

The Mummy leaped forward, instantly arriving at a random position in the sand. William watched with confusion as it sliced its greatsword a few times, but a scream followed by a spray of blood through the sky helped him understand.

A set of Arrays shattered, and a headless body appeared. The Cultivator's skin dried up as the Mummy absorbed its Mana.

William lost his patience at this moment. He called the surrounding Mana of the Fire Element to his fingertips, creating a Meteor Spell in the sky that was four times larger than the one he used in the fight against Yu Ren.

The moment the Mana approached William's position, the Mummy reacted. It turned its head to locate the Cultivator that was calling the Mana, but it was confused to find no one. It was only when the Meteor was fully formed that the Mummy noticed an irregularity at a certain point in the sand.

The Mummy showed a somewhat hesitant expression upon seeing the Meteor Spell, but quickly came to a decision. Whoever was controlling this Spell could probably contribute quite a bit of Mana to its Staff.

It started running toward William with its greatsword raised, both to avoid the Meteor and to attack an unknown enemy that posed a serious threat to its awakening process. The Meteor barreled downward after the Mummy, but it was barely too slow to keep up with the bandaged creature's speed.

"Slow!"

William shouted out loud as he reached out his hand to the Ancient Gravitas Mummy. Mana of the Time Element rushed up his arm and shot out at incredible speed, wrapping around the Mummy and slowing its movements a small amount.

The Time Element was only E Rank, but it seemed to be enough. The Mummy felt its legs were much harder to move, requiring twice the amount of energy compared to before. Its speed slowed to the Peak of the Golden Core Realm and was crushed under the giant Meteor Spell, the surrounding sand turning to glass under the impact and high heat.

No creature could have possibly expected William to have the legendary Time Element, which was known for instantly turning around the situation in a close fight. The Ancient Gravitas Mummy had lived for many years, but it had only seen about a dozen Time Mages in its lifetime.

This wasn't to say the Mummy was stupid though.

William noticed there was no System message, which meant the Magical Beast was still alive. He called the surrounding Mana a second time, hoping to bury the Mummy before it could climb out of the glass pit.

A second Meteor was formed, the same size as the last. William added the Wind Element to the mix, forming a wind current around the Meteor that allowed it to fall almost twice as fast as before. William backed up a few thousand meters to avoid being hurt by his own spell.

A roar sounded from within the pit, the Mummy's tone more annoyed than angry. Amidst some dust that was kicked up before, William could make out the Mummy's greatsword that was shining a bright light.

The Mummy swung its greatsword with incredible speed and precision in the direction of the Meteor, releasing a series of sword strikes that split the Meteor into thousands of tiny pieces.

The Wind Mana that was previously supporting the Meteor was also sliced up, returning the now small Meteors to a speed that the Mummy could avoid as long as it wasn't slowed. William tried to slow the Mummy with the Time Element a second time, but the Magical Beast had already planned for this and dodged to the side when it saw the ray of Mana approaching its position.

The Time Element was powerful, but William's proficiency was obviously quite low. The Mummy had more than enough time to dodge an attack at that speed, and as long as it was careful it would never be affected by the Time Element again.

William frantically dashed away from the Mummy, activating his Forcefield as he sensed a threat. He turned around in a panic as the Mummy covered in burns brought down its heavy greatsword to strike at one of his shoulders.

The greatsword slammed against the Forcefield, only rebounding after a series of small cracks formed on the veil. The cracks began to slowly heal at a speed visible to the naked eye, quickly returning the Forcefield to perfect condition.

The glow in the Mummy's eyes changed, expressing its confusion and surprise.

"You have a powerful Spirit Aura, young one." the Mummy spoke out loud from a mouth hidden by bandages.

It was William's turn to be surprised. He didn't expect to see a talking Magical Beast. It made sense though, after seeing how intelligent the creature was. This fight would be much more difficult than the other trials, and not because the Mummy was in the Nascent Soul Realm.

If it was just that, the second Meteor probably would have killed the Magical Beast.

William needed to come up with a strategy that could deal with the Mummy, but nothing came to mind immediately. He formed an improved Perfect Array of Speed that he learned from the System and the Array Trial to boost his own speed to the Nascent Soul Realm.

He ran away from the Mummy at high speed while forming Perfect Barriers to defend against its attacks, but the process seemed somewhat hopeless. After a few minutes of this chase, the Mummy became fed up with William's game of cat and mouse. It turned around and headed back to the Array of Speed, hoping to destroy it and reduce William's speed that somehow currently matched its own.

William saw what the Mummy was doing and took the chance to call Mana of the Fire Element to his fingertips. He formed a giant fireball and launched it at the Mummy, but it seemed to sense the attack even though it was turned around, raising its staff as a forcefield similar to William's own deflected the fireball with ease.

The Mummy continued towards the Speed Array uninhibited, swiftly destroying the Array with a few swift sword strikes. It returned its attention to William while revealing what seemed to be a smile based on its eyes, but they changed to anger as it noticed William had just finished creating another Perfect Array of Speed and was currently sprinting away.

It had to admit that William was incredibly talented in Arrays. Not only were the level of his Arrays high, but he could form even the complicated Perfect Arrays within just a few seconds.

William could thank the System, his creation of the Array Puppets, and his many hours of practice with Perfect Arrays while in the Array Trial. With A-Rank Arrays, William always had the capability to do this, but he wasn't experienced enough until now.

Thinking of this reminded William of the Array Puppets still stored in his Space Ring. He previously brought out all twenty Puppets during his first trial to scare a group of Cultivators, but he was only skilled enough to control two at a time.

The amount of focus required to control both himself and puppets was immense, and even after raising his Mind Talent to S-Rank, he could only control a total of five at once.

He brought five Perfect Array Puppets out of his Space Ring, controlling two of them to block one of the Mummy's sword strikes that was targeting his second Array of Speed. The Mummy looked up to see three more Puppets defending William while the other two went on the offense, once again surprised at William's skill.

The Mummy struck one of the Array Puppets with its greatsword, but two Arrays lit up on the surface of the Puppet's body the moment before the strike connected, absorbing most of the impact damage, the remainder easily defended by the wood that was reinforced by William's Plant Element.

A long scratch appeared on the Array Puppet's body, but another Array lit up, healing the damage caused previously. The Mummy made a mental note on the locations where Arrays lit up, planning to destroy them first.

The second Puppet wasn't idle, slicing downward with a Mana-covered hand that had become as sharp as a sword and cutting apart some of the bandages covering the Ancient Gravitas Mummy's left arm that was holding the staff.

William continued sending Mana to the Array Puppets while they fought, opting to send in a third Puppet to target the Mummy's back while it was distracted by the first two.

Even during an intense fight with two Array Puppets, the Mummy still held the upper hand, even sparing a glance at William from time to time. It noticed that there were only two Array Puppets guarding William now, revealing a trace of concern as it searched its immediate surroundings.