Infinite Potential System

William was sad upon leaving the treasure trove of Greater Fire Shards behind, electing to return later when the time was right. It didn't matter how long he stayed anyway; the cave was so large that it would take decades to extract everything by himself.

I would rather not spend ten years mining, though. William thought as he tunneled through a pile of rubble. He layered Ice Magic on the surface of the tunnel, temporarily reinforcing the walls so it wouldn't collapse until after they had passed through.

Carl returned to his previous assignment of barricading their rear, the short rest enough for him to recover about half of his Mana Reserve. He still couldn't use many Mana Regeneration Pills since the impurities of the pill hadn't been expelled yet, though.

With William by his side, it didn't matter that he couldn't recover his Mana. If anything, Carl felt much safer than he normally would, even compared to being escorted by Nascent Soul bodyguards.

Seeing William so calm after causing the death of a Soul Formation Cultivator, and even mining rare minerals under the noses of an entire branch of the Thieves' Guild, Carl was convinced that nothing could faze his friend.

He was reminded of the other hideout they visited near Blue Moon City, which had relatively few thieves compared to this one. Because of the small number, Carl had underestimated William's power, but now that he thought about it, didn't Will control the entire situation by himself?

Carl smiled. He was quite lucky to have found a friend like William. It was good choice to follow him out of the Five Elements Sect.

William looked over to see a slight smile on Carl's face.

"What is it?" he asked, to which Carl shook his head.

"It's nothing." Carl replied while casting another Earth Wall Spell.

William nodded and burst through the other side of the tunnel into the next open area. The thieves must have communicated with each other to group up, because he suddenly sensed four hundred presences just a few hundred meters ahead.

He looked to the left to see a familiar Array lit up on the other side of the collapsed rock, just like the door to the previous hideout. It had tricked his Life Sense Spell into thinking there were only a few enemies, when they had actually grouped up in the same area to meet him.

Damn it! Another one of those Arrays, I should have expected this!

William hastily raised a wall of ice to block the first wave of attacks, but it was too weak to withstand the combined force of all the thieves and shattered instantly. His Forcefield that had recovered during their break was shattered once again, and he was blasted back into the tunnel from the force of the attacks.

William wrapped Carl in a ball of Darkness Mana and hid him inside a shadow within the tunnel.

"Hide, and don't let the tunnel collapse on you. I'll be right back." William said before amplifying his speed with the Light Element and dashing out of the tunnel. The Starmetal Longsword was already in his hands, its blade reaping the lives of one thief after the other.

-Killed a Human: +5 PP

-Killed a Human: +5 PP

-Killed a Human: +5 PP

He sliced a path through the enemies, then dashed into the center of the group so they couldn't recklessly use their Magic.

Find joy at m-vl_em|p,yr

More Potential Points came in waves as William performed a spinning slash attack, beheading four of the closest thieves and creating a deep cut on the chest of a fifth. The only survivor stumbled backwards in fear, his eyes widening in shock as he slipped on ice and was impaled by a spike that appeared behind him.

-Killed a Human: +5 PP

William's Forcefield had slightly recovered, so he raised it once again, just in time for a Golden Core thief to shatter it from behind with an enchanted dagger aimed for the back of William's neck. Coated on the dagger was a pale green liquid that emitted a light stench, likely poison.

The dagger pierced through William's skin despite the SS-Rank Talent that could defend against attacks in the early Soul Formation Realm, spreading its poison throughout William's body at high speed.

William paused for a moment, slightly affected by the poison as it coursed through his body. The thief grinned in delight at his sneaky move, but then his eyes widened as a hole appeared at his throat and blood gushed out.

The thief fell to the ground while choking on his own blood, unable to determine how or when he had been attacked. It only took a few more seconds before the blood loss forced the man to take one last shallow breath, but to no avail as there was no air to take into his lungs.

-Killed a Human: +5 PP

The other thieves that were about to take advantage of William's motionless state suddenly stopped, afraid to attack when they couldn't see how their companion had died.

On the other hand, William's A-Rank Poison Resistance detoxified the paralyzing poison, allowing him to regain his range of movement. He looked over at the thief that had attacked him, interested to see that the man wasn't paralyzed like he had been.

So, the Attack Reflection Talent didn't reflect the poison, only the physical damage. Interesting...

William took the interesting dagger that managed to pierce his defenses and stored it in his Space Ring. The System didn't issue out any rewards immediately, so William assumed it was somewhat valuable and became slightly excited.

He attacked with more fervor, hoping that some of the other thieves would bring out rare treasures and such from their Space Rings, possibly even a Pheonix Feather or two. It would be nice if they threw Tier 10 Pills at him, or some more Starmetal Ore while they were at it.

-Are you done fantasizing? You realize you're fighting hundreds of Cultivators that are two or three Realms above you, right? Do you really have time to think about this when your friend could die at any moment?

Just let me have my fun, okay? William replied with a light smile on his face. He knew Carl was stronger than he looked. Golden Core enemies wouldn't kill him so easily, and Will was watching every Nascent Soul thief in the area.

If they moved towards Carl, so would he.

A few minutes after the start of the battle, William had killed roughly fifty thieves, but the remainder were much harder to deal with.

They would group together and protect themselves with defensive Spells when William was attacking, while another group from behind would commit to attacking from long-range.

After seeing William's Light, Ice, and the occasional burst of Time Magic, they were accustomed to William's movements and could almost predict what he would do next. It was obvious that these people had been fighting their entire lives, and weren't mere pushovers that William made them out to be.

"Give up now, you're not getting out of here alive." one of the thieves shouted from afar.

William looked at the speaker with a mischievous smile on his face, "Oh, getting a little cocky now? You think you've seen everything I have to offer?"

"Let's see how you deal with this!" William shouted as he raised his hands in the air dramatically, wisps of dark-colored Mana wrapping around the bodies of the thieves he had killed.