Infinite Potential System

William queued up the completed Starmetal Shoulder Guards with the System, then spent a few hours routing the Mana to the other Artifacts.

He also routed the Starmetal Batteries to the Tribulation Transcendence Protective Amulet. Compared to how long it took William to recharge the item before, it would now take just 6 minutes!

-Finished evaluating Artifact quality...

-Invented a new Artifact: +25 PP

-Invented an Epic Artifact: +50 PP

-Duplicate Artifact x1. No Points awarded...

———

Starmetal Shoulder Guards (Epic Artifact): An Artifact designed by a powerful Array Master with the inclusion of other trades. Has incredible defensive ability but requires a large amount of Mana to recover.

Effects while worn:

-Defensive Ability: 100% resists tearing, cutting, piercing, slicing up to the Soul Formation Realm. Fireproof, waterproof, freezeproof, shockproof, crushproof, anti-corrosive up to the Soul Formation Realm. Above the Soul Formation Realm, these effects are reduced in strength by 20% per Realm at the cost of 3x Mana consumption.

-Defensive Barrier: Activates a Barrier around the wearer that spends stored Mana to resist attacks. When Mana Storage is empty, the item slowly loses durability.

-Automatic Repair: Automatically repairs damaged Arrays and material at the cost of 20 Mana per second spent repairing.

Mana Storage: 2000/50000

Durability: 5000/5000

———

William nodded and equipped the two shoulder guards. Their effects were exactly as intended, so he wasn't surprised at all by their effects.

The moment the shoulder guards were equipped, he noticed a problem with the number of Artifacts he wore. The Mana from the Starmetal Batteries was being distributed evenly, instead of prioritizing one Artifact and then moving onto the next.

William spent a few hours trying to figure this out, but eventually decided to just put a limiter on the shoulder guards so they could only recover so much Mana per second. This way, he wouldn't have to worry about the Cloak's functions ceasing when he was being constantly attacked.

Now that that's done...where was I?

"Oh right, speed."

William used eight more Starmetal and a moderate amount of cotton cloth to create a set of boots that would replace his old shoes. He didn't have a great way to create gel as padding for his feet, so William hoped that more cotton would do.

The boots were surprisingly more comfortable than his old shoes, so William didn't bother to find a better material for padding. He didn't mind needing to replace the cotton every few weeks until he found out how to make gel.

He spent an entire day adjusting the Arrays on the Starmetal Boots, struggling to find a suitable speed setting that his reaction time and reflexes could handle. Too slow and building the boots would be a waste of time, while too fast meant William would run into everything he saw.

He eventually found a good middle-ground and registered the Starmetal Boots as an Epic Artifact, earning another 75 Potential Points in the process.

Their functions weren't too exaggerated and not worth the appraisal, but he did it anyway. At the cost of two Mana per second, William could increase his speed by 40%, which would place him at close to the peak of the Soul Formation Realm.

William guessed that he could probably outrun any Soul Formation Realm expert that didn't have the support of a speed-based Element, which was perfect considering he was about to go out of the Gravitas Ruins.

He didn't care if his preparations were overkill for a simple herb-gathering mission, William only wanted to survive long enough to reach the peak of the world. After that, it didn't matter how reckless he was, all was naught before overwhelming strength.

William counted out his Artifacts one by one.

"Luck Pendant, Tribulation Transcendence Protective Amulet, Starmetal Boots, Starmetal Shoulder Guards, Starmetal Batteries, Illusionist's Cloak, Artifact Belt. No, let's rename that one to Element Belt."

With seven unique Artifacts covering his body, William now felt like a miniature God!

He didn't say so out loud, lest he anger some primordial being, but William truly felt like it. Who else at the Foundation Establishment Realm could say they had combat strength in the Soul Formation Realm, much less well above it?

And yet...it's probably nothing much compared to the Heavens...

William frowned, inspired to Cultivate after ruining his own mood. He sat on the bed and spent the next few days Cultivating in silence, determined to increase his strength further before going out.

Before William knew it, two weeks had passed.

The second batch of challengers had entered the Gravitas Ruins five days prior, most of whom were focused on the Western Tower, which was the only trial tower that hadn't been cleared.

William was able to see all of this from an Orb that he borrowed from Riyald, which displayed a camera-like view of different areas of the Gravitas Ruins.

Leading the exploration of the Western Tower was a much stronger Fria, joined by a group of nine other talented Disciples from her Sect.

Her peers weren't much weaker than her old self, all of whom had combat power at the peak of the Golden Core Realm, while two of the nine were able to fight against Magical Beasts in the Nascent Soul Realm by themselves.

William was both surprised and confused when he saw the other Cultivators. It wasn't just Fria's group, but there were hundreds of Disciples that had strength in at least the late stages of the Golden Core Realm, while around a dozen rare ones were just like Fria.

Seeing a few other Disciples fighting toe to toe with powerful Magical Beasts in the Nascent Soul Realm and clearing trial after trial, William became slightly concerned.

Where did they come from? The group I entered with would be like children in front of these people!

With a group like this, it would only be a matter of months before the entire Gravitas Ruins was cleared. William doubted his old self would last more than a few minutes if he had to fight three thousand Cultivators at this level.

It's not worth thinking about. I'm sure Master is already aware of this, but I'll let him know just in case.

William checked his Cultivation while he walked to the laboratory.

He had spent almost every moment since finishing the Artifacts on Cultivation, and his Cultivation Base was now at 60800 Spirit Qi.

William could break through to the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm at any point now, but he wanted to fill up his Cultivation Base first.

"Disciple, what brings you here today? How was your Cultivation?" Riyald nodded at his Disciple from atop a ladder that stretched to the ceiling. He quickly shut a ceiling panel in an attempt to hide what he was doing, but William could tell with a glance that he was trying to conceal another crossbow.

William looked at his Master with undisguised contempt, "You're not adding more traps, are you Master?"

"W-What? Nooo of course not." Riyald waved his hand with an innocent smile on his face.

He jumped down from the ladder with a youthful vigor that didn't match his age, then clasped his hands as he looked at William seriously, "Are you already at the peak of the Realm? You're leaving soon...aren't you?"

William shook his head, "Not yet, but soon. Is that still alright with you?"

Riyald nodded, "I feel more at ease seeing those new Artifacts you created. Splendid work, my Disciple."

"Thank you, Master." William replied before relaying the information he had on the Disciples in the Gravitas Ruins.

"You're right, I already knew of this," Riyald sighed and lowered his head slightly. It seemed his plans to farm for the Soul Cultivation Technique would be delayed a bit this month.

He looked back up at William, "Disciple, I hope you'll accept a gift from me before you leave."