Infinite Potential System

-Defeated an Ascension Realm Skeletal Dragon: +10000 PP

Ten thousand Points for an Ascension-level creature seems kind of low... William complained inwardly as he stored the remainder of the Skeletal Dragon's bone dust.

He also realized by now that the peak Magical Beasts he had hatched to protect the World were mostly useless against an Ascended creature. If more of them formed while he was absorbing the World Cores, William probably would have to do most of the fighting himself.

That said, his Companions would be useful enough to deal with the normal Beast Tides, at least.

Other than wasting some of the Heavens' energy, William felt like he hadn't achieved much. For a being as powerful as the Heavens, would sending down a single creature really be a huge loss? William didn't think so, but the System said otherwise.

-It's not the level of the beast that matters, it's the fact that they have to prevent it from being forced into Ascension. Halting the movements of an Ascension Portal is not cheap.

I get that, but there are Ascension Portals all over the place lately. How can a single portal make a difference?

-The Heavens CAN make an Ascension Portal, but they don't do it often. Normal Ascension Portals are just an automatic response of the Realms when they discover a being too powerful for the World, while the Heavens can artificially create one with a lot of energy to force one to Ascend to a certain location.

William understood what the System was saying. So, to stop the automatic portal, the Heavens have to use the same amount of energy they would as if they were making their own? On top of the energy spent to send the being down in the first place?

-Exactly. Ascended Cultivator Juhi was helped in the same way.

So, he colluded with the Heavens to target me?

-Not really. He paid them so he could Descend, with the intention of collecting Magical Beast materials. He was after Atticus' heart. The fact that he made a move on you was already breaking the rules of their agreement, but the Heavens don't care much about those matters.

Just remembering Juhi's attempt to take Atticus' life made William want to destroy a Continent, but he held himself back for the sake of the System Quest. The pair of Golden Eyes receded without another word, so William and Fria had nothing left to fight.

He approached the first group of Lesser Karma Veins and sat down cross-legged in front of them, their subtle pink light and unusual shape just a few meters away from William's face.

System, can you absorb these five all at once? William asked.

-Absorbing Karma Veins...

A few minutes passed as the pink light was grouped together in strands from all directions and sucked towards William's body. With a light whooshing noise, all five strands intertwined and entered William's chest at the same pace.

-Absorbed Lesser Karma Vein (x5): +25 Potential Points

-Host does not have the Karma Affinity. Acquiring...

-Failed

-Failed

-Failed

...

-Failed

-Failed

-Karma Vein too weak. Other Elements are suppressing Karma.

They're suppressing the Karma Element? Well, you did tell me that only the Superior Veins would grant me the Affinity. William opted to ignore the failure messages for now.

He moved on to the next group, absorbing each Lesser and Standard Vein with no change from before. Once he was finished, William pressed forward to absorb the Greater Karma Veins so Fria would have more Magical Beasts to fight.

Surprisingly, William found that only after absorbing four Greater Karma Veins did a Beast Tide form, rather than the usual three. Not only this, but the number of Magical Beasts that the Heavens sent was merely a tenth of what it was before.

So, the Heavens really are using a lot of energy. If I'm fast enough, I might be able to unseal the World before the Heavens can react!

Thinking this, William urged the System to absorb the Veins faster, to which it ignored his request.

-I'm already absorbing them at the fastest rate possible. If you want me to absorb them faster, upgrade the System.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Damn it, you know I don't have enough Points... William complained.

POTENTIAL POINTS: 41,635,982

SYSTEM RANK: A (86,962,836PP to next rank)

Even if he was the one killing all the Magical Beasts instead of Fria, he still had 45 million Potential Points to earn before he would have enough. On top of that...

What the hell would I even spend almost 87 million Points on?

Either he would have to save up for 100 million Points and upgrade a Potential or Element Farm to A-Rank, or William would spend 40 million on the four remaining C-Rank Element Farms and only meet half of the requirements.

Until he Ascended, William guessed that there was almost no way to upgrade the System again unless he spent large amounts of Potential Points on random Talents and upgraded them to X-Rank.

He continued allowing the System to absorb the last Greater Karma Vein, finally unsealing the Superior Vein after two days. Alongside the Superior Chaos Vein, this was the second Vein that was fully exposed, ready to be absorbed at any time.

System, should I absorb it now or wait until later?

-It's up to you. Why would you ask for my opinion?

Because I trust you and you're the System, why else? Which will have lighter consequences?

William's flattery didn't seem to work, as the System still requested 800 Potential Points for an answer.

-Neither. They're both the same.

Really? You charge me for that?

-Never pass up on an opportunity to gain loot. You taught me that.

That's fair. You're becoming like me, System!

-Gross.

What do you mean gross? Well anyway... If the decision doesn't matter... Let's get the Karma Affinity!

-Absorbing Superior Karma Vein...

Streams of pink light entered William's body at a rapid pace, causing slight discomfort despite his pain resistance. If any other peak Cultivator tried to absorb a Superior Vein, the intense feeling of an Element ravaging their insides would probably lead them to pass out. It was yet another reason why no Superior Veins had been absorbed up to today.

Five days passed, yet William was still in the exact same position. Fria had wiped out the horde of Magical Beasts two days prior, but she could sense that William was in a complicated state, so she opted to protect him to the best of her ability.

Using her SS-Rank Array Talent that she learned by chance and upgraded, Fria covered William's body with Complete Arrays that became a complicated Concealment Formation that duplicated William's aura and dispersed it across the Continent. Even if the Heavens were to send a Beast Tide directly to William, they wouldn't be able to locate his real body for days.

Six more days went by, but there was still no response from William. The pink light from the Superior Karma Vein was slowly flickering at this point, but everyone's attention was on the sky, which reflected the same pink light as the Karma Vein.

Another day passed, and suddenly the pink light faded away, and a few rare individuals with the Karma Affinity found themselves unable to cast their Magic. As they investigated the problem, many came to a shocking discovery.

Across all of Efretta, the Karma Element was no more.