Infinite Potential System

Help? What kind of help does he mean? the four Magical Beasts thought in unison.

They hadn't spent much time with William so they couldn't be sure, but they were fairly confident that there were no Magical Beasts that were as powerful as them on the entire Continent, and gaining the support of Beasts from other Continents was even more difficult.

Was William implying that they should all team up with other humans?

William noticed their confused expressions and shook his head with a slight smile, "I'll show you what I mean later, for now let's just find this person."

Little Tiger led the way to the tunnel he had destroyed, which William could tell with his Navigation Talent that it was still partially extracted. The only thing missing was the exit, which they promptly dug open.

William climbed in while the Magical Beasts stayed behind to guard the area, their large frames much too big to fit inside a tunnel made for a human.

The cramped entryway forced William to duck his head as he crawled at a slow pace, but he eventually sped up after crossing roughly fifteen kilometers underground.

The tunnel became wide enough to stand in, while sloping further and further underground until he was at a 45-degree angle, at which point he could lie down and slide to the bottom much like he did with the Thieves' Guild hideouts.

Roughly an hour later, William's Life Sense picked up a few traces of vitality, to which he immediately focused on them with his Mana Mode vision. It was a group of three Cultivators in the Golden Core Realm and one in the Nascent Soul, which was very out of place considering the dangerous environment they were in.

He enabled the invisibility effect of the Stealth Talent immediately, opting not to take any chances and get as close as possible while tailing the group. The Illusion Element probably could have done the same job, but it wasn't as foolproof as the true invisibility.

"How much further, Team Leader? We've been in here for days now." one of the Cultivators complained.

"Does it matter? Keep quiet before you get us caught." the Leader reprimanded, forcing the complaining subordinate to close their mouth.

They continued forward until they reached a location that William had already passed a few minutes before discovering the group. It was an unsuspecting alcove that seemed more like a natural formation than anything man-made, so William had only given it a short look-over before moving on.

The Team Leader stopped the group, then looked at the ground near his feet and muttered a few words while waving his finger back and forth. It was a tiny Basic-level Array, meant for communication, but these were usually attached to communicators and not to human body parts.

When the Leader's finger hovered over a certain spot on the ground, a small golden symbol lit up briefly, then a voice rang out from the Leader's finger.

"Name?"

"Team Leader Jericho."

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"Purpose?"

"Returning from Mission."

"Granted. Standby." the voice replied before hanging up the call,

Moments later, William suddenly sensed a fluctuation of Space Mana as a small portal opened inside the room. The group of four didn't waste any time entering the portal, so William stepped in behind them just in time for it to fully close.

Damn, could they be any faster with the portal? What if one of their people died? William complained inwardly as he arrived on the opposite side.

He was now inside of a massive auditorium-styled building, with dozens of halls going in every direction and a huge set of stairs that led further downward.

The underground structure was even more elaborate and refined than when Briar and Jenny first entered, having undergone a lot of work since Retribution's successive recruitment efforts.

Even the amount of decorum had increased, the simple chairs and desks replaced with padded furniture and ornate tables that made one feel they had been sent to a mix between the Victorian and Gothic eras.

With his Navigation Talent, William mapped out the entire structure in a few minutes, but he could see that the Talent was somehow blocked from inspecting a few areas, which had never happened before. It made him curious to explore, but William didn't want to spook anyone just yet.

He had come here for a purpose, not to wantonly kill people.

-I know you want to kill people, you bloodthirsty animal.

I do not! I just think it wouldn't be a bad thing to earn some Potential Points along the way.

-In the form of killing people. Are you a psychopath?

Of course not! I'm... huh.

William couldn't defend himself this time, since technically the only reason he wanted to kill was for Potential Points. It always felt different, though, in this World. Because he didn't belong to Efretta originally, William didn't really treat these people the same he would in his own World.

Other than his closest friends and a few others, William felt the rest were more like stepping stones or obstacles. They weren't treated the same.

But this method of thinking had always been wrong, William just never acknowledged it. At first it was because he needed more Potential Points as soon as possible and he had accepted that he was in a Cultivation World and only the strong survive while the weak are treated like garbage, but now...

That wasn't the case anymore. He already is one of the strongest, there was no longer a need to fight tooth and nail or kill mercilessly for a mere 5 Potential Points. Was it possibly the Humanity statistic that made him feel this way, or something else?

System, have I become like this because of my Humanity? William felt he needed to ask.

-Not entirely. Your Humanity is chance-based. When something happens that requires you to make a decision on killing or not killing people, torturing or not, your Humanity becomes the deciding factor that can make you want one option more than the other.

-In the end, though, it's always been your choice. If you continue to lose Humanity, the number of decisions you'll have to make will go up, and the chances of you wanting the negative ending will increase greatly.

William understood, though he didn't like the way the System said "not entirely". In his opinion, it was obvious that the Humanity value was the entire reason why he was like this.

-Don't forget that you unlocked the Humanity statistic because you killed someone of your own accord. How could you have been influenced then?

The System is right... I need to be more careful about my thoughts and feelings when I'm around potential enemies. William self-reflected.

If he could help it, William would rather opt to choose the positive option no matter what and hopefully increase his Humanity some more. If he didn't take control of these violent emotions, he might find himself regretting it later.

The Navigation Talent finished scanning the entire area outside of the same few blocked regions, but William had found his target with Mana Mode.

At the bottom of Retribution's Headquarters and seated in front of a group of people in a large meeting room, Gu Dianlong's weak Mana signature was detected, the Enslavement Array fully restored and even more elaborate than before.