Chapter 69: Great Oasis

Carl found this short break to be a great opportunity to get closer with the other disciples. Normally he wouldn't associate with the lower class, but William was incredibly strong for a non-Cultivator and Natsu and Filipe had very strange and unique abilities.

"William, that was quite the powerful move you used on my Shadog. What Rank is your Fire Magic?" Carl asked carefully.

"Uh, I've never tested it. Probably around D Rank." William lied. Carl's way of speaking was quite odd, but he didn't seem to have ill intent.

"I see I see. You're also an impressive with Arrays, who taught you how to use them? Do you have a master?"

Carl was trying to be friendly, but William was becoming uncomfortable. "I just learned them by chance."

It wasn't completely a lie, since the Talents were given at random in the Talent Shop. I suppose you could say the System was William's master. These kinds of questions made William wonder what kind of powerful being created the System. Or was the System itself the powerful being?

Carl asked another question, but William didn't hear it as he was too busy daydreaming. When Will didn't answer a few more times, Carl gave up and began chatting with Filipe.

Filipe was more open about his skills. It turned out that his Mind Vision was actually an innate ability awakened when he was three years old. It was discovered by his eight year old brother and his father, when he gave his brother a concussion during a staring contest.

Ever since that day, his family treated his ability as both a blessing and a curse. They would ask Filipe to go out hunting when he turned nine since he could just knock out all the deer, but when he came home, they asked him to put a blindfold on or keep his eyes closed.

By thirteen, he was treated like an outcast. His family started making considerable money when Filipe's older brother became a Cultivator, and they no longer needed Filipe's cursed eyes to survive. They kicked him out of the house at sixteen, where he learned to resent his family.

Now, Filipe was almost twenty and had learned to control his ability by using a thin pair of lenses that resembled contacts. With them, he could stare through a pinhole when he wanted to activate his ability.

Carl admired Filipe's creativity. The idea of a lens to seal ones own ability was ingenious. "Filipe, do you want to go to Wild Clover and talk more after we are done here? Actually, everyone should come, I'll pay for everything." he spread his hands wide in magnanimously.

William wasn't interested at first, but when Carl mentioned free food he couldn't help but to agree. The others thought the same as well, since they wouldn't receive many resources for the first month.

Filipe looked at Tia with concern, "Why are you excited about that? We can't handle Golden Core Beasts! We can't even fight Foundation Establishment Realm Beasts in the late stages."

"It's not as dangerous as you think. I've been there before and the Golden Core Beasts aren't very common. Unless you go directly into their territory, they don't care about weak Cultivators." Carl attempted to persuade the group.

William didn't care if it was dangerous. It turned out that there was in fact somewhere they could go to fight Magical Beasts, but he would need to enter the top 100 on the Ranking Board first.

Now I'm beginning to see why this Quest was labeled as Hard difficulty. If I didn't get lucky to meet this group or if I didn't win at least four battles, I wouldn't have had the chance to learn about the Great Oasis!

William slammed his fist on the table with enthusiasm. "I don't care if you're not interested. I'm in!"

Carl smiled. William would be a valuable asset in the Oasis given his Fire Magic talent. "Good to hear. I hope you can help me capture some powerful beasts."

William's approval inspired the other four disciples to join him in agreement. They shared drinks and laughed for another hour before returning to their residences.

William laid on his bed and watched Atticus slither around the room while thinking about the day's events. He had forgotten to check the Ranking Board after the lecture and request a challenge, but it wasn't much of an issue. After all, William still had 28 days on his countdown, and needed to earn more Potential Points before he challenged the top 100.

System, how much negative attention did I attract today?

-Request requires 2 Potential Points. Yes/No?

Yes.

-Today you made 146 enemies, 126 of which are new disciples. 19 are Inner Core Disciples. One enemy is at the Nascent Soul Realm.

"Wh-what!?!"