Infinite Potential System

Riyald looked at William with a bit of confusion, but he continued explaining the workings of the Space Element anyway.

Even though he didn't have the Space Affinity himself, the man had lived a long time and picked up many skills, both from his enemies and general understanding of the world.

When he finished, he looked back at William with a smile. "I hope this was beneficial to you, Disciple William. Now that you understand more about Arrays and the different layers of space, I hope you can be successful in your experiment."

William nodded, "Thank you, Master. When should I meet with you again?"

Riyald pulled his hand out from under his robe to look at a black wristwatch that had four spinning hands, unclear if they were to tell time or for another purpose. He nodded to himself, then looked back at William.

"Give me two weeks or so. If everything goes well, you can meet me at the same time and place."

William nodded. He bade his Master farewell, then returned to his room. Or at least, he would have if not for the five crossbows that were hidden behind the walls outside his room.

When the hell did he even place these?!?

***

Fria's bright blue eyes fluttered open as she completed a successful night of Cultivation. She had improved to the very peak of the Core Formation Realm and felt much stronger than she did just a few weeks ago.

Not only this, but Fria had cleared a few trials in the Labyrinth of Tears recently, earning a few Soul Stones that improved her Soul Strength above one hundred points. Combined with her Cultivation Technique, Fria's combat power had increased to the middle stages of the Nascent Soul Realm.

I'm not going to catch up to him like this...I need more Soul Strength!

Her head was filled with a multitude of emotions as her ambition urged her to catch up to the young NPC that took on thousands of Cultivators around her level with nothing but his own strength.

Others might wonder why Fria was competing with an S-Rank NPC, but she didn't think of it that way. Fria had been competitive ever since the first VR game was released, and while she didn't mind losing, she didn't like the thought of an NPC securing all the good loot while she was left hanging.

Fria got up from her enhanced Cultivation Mat, which sped up her Cultivation speed by two hundred percent, then rolled it up and tossed it into her Space Ring.

She popped a Tier 1 Saturation Pill in her mouth, then walked west towards a faraway trial tower, her eyes shining in anticipation as she prepared for a series of tough battles.

***

Meanwhile, in the Five Elements Sect.

Charlotte had just broken through to the ninth level of the Qi Refinement Realm and was currently preparing herself for the Foundation Establishment Tribulation that she would take at the end of the month.

Since entering the Five Elements Sect, Charlotte's Cultivation speed had increased quite a bit, although it wasn't anywhere near enough to fill the gap between her and William's strength.

Charlotte formed fists with her hands and raised them to her forehead, clenching her teeth in frustration despite the recent Cultivation progress. Blood pooled in her mouth as she accidentally bit into her cheek, but she was too distracted by her thoughts to notice.

I'm not strong enough to protect myself...how can I protect him?

Just under a month ago, she had experienced the consequences of weakness when the group of Cultivators she was assigned to encountered a Magical Beast tide, resulting in the death of three young Disciples that were less than twenty years old.

If they hadn't spent most of their energy protecting her, each of these young men and women would still be alive, and Charlotte wouldn't have failed her mission.

It didn't matter that Charlotte was a healer; she felt that it was also important to have some ability to defend herself. She couldn't allow others to defend her when she was also capable!

If only I was stronger...If only I was a better healer, or a better fighter...

***

"Fuck, this is so difficult..." William heaved a sigh as his head hit the pillow. His eyes were tired from staring at the Runes on the Wind Dial for so long, and his fingers were in pain from replicating Arrays for hours without rest.

Master Riyald had helped William to understand how the band of the Dial worked, but there were many more pieces that he had to reverse engineer one-by-one.

For example, there was a pair of lugs that connected the band to the main dial of the wristwatch, which seemed to use a complex Array Formation to funnel all of the Wind Element Mana into a storage space within the case of the wristwatch itself.

This was the difficult part, where William would have to take the wristwatch apart in order to better understand its inner workings. He was a bit nervous, but the System had his back.

Even so, William decided to get some rest before continuing with his work.

The next morning, William ate a quick breakfast and checked on Atticus. The snake was coiled on the ground, where William had placed him the previous night while he conducted his experiments.

The Artifact Spirit said it would take a few days for him to adapt to the Blood Refinement Pill, so William wasn't concerned with its condition.

William returned to the wristwatch and placed it on the ground face-down, then used a strand of Wind Element Mana to carefully press on the release mechanism located on its back.

With careful movements, William removed each part of the wristwatch one-by-one until they were laid carefully on the ground.

The System notified him a few times when he would cause damage to the watch, but thankfully William was able to catch himself each time he made a mistake.

Without the Arrays connected together evenly, the wristwatch ceased functioning. If William couldn't piece it back together, the Wind Dial would be lost forever.

Let's just hope I don't mess this up. William thought as he began inspecting each individual array of the hands and other smaller pieces.

He marveled again at Riyald's masterful work. William wondered how a single person without the help of a System could possibly make one of these devices, much less nearly a dozen of them.

If William knew that Riyald created the Wind Dial in just a week, who knew how he would feel.

Two days passed before William completed his inspection of the Wind Dial's Arrays. He pieced the wristwatch back together after confirming that he had copied down each Array, but he wasn't ready to recreate the item just yet.

While William knew how to rebuild the Arrays on the wristwatch, he had no idea how to solve the problem he initially encountered.

William didn't want another wristwatch, he wanted something that he could wear that encompassed all of the Elemental Affinities he had acquired thus far.

Just as he went to draft out a plan for a new Artifact, William's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of rustling scales. He peered in the corner of the room to see Atticus waking up from his nearly four-day slumber.