Chapter 123: Tower

-Discovered an Element Root: +100 PP

-Completed a C-Rank Trial in the Gravitas Ruins: +100 PP

"Only a hundred points, are you kidding me?" William had just spent 380 Potential Points, only to receive a small piece of ice.

After thinking about it, William realized he couldn't complain too much. After all, his Cold Resistance upgrade was permanent, and he even gained an Element Root that would raise the Affinity of his Ice Magic.

Of course, he could have avoided spending his Potential Points if he just spent some of his Mana wielding the Fire Element. He also could have raised his Ice Affinity, which would probably increase his resistance to cold as well.

It doesn't matter, I only wasted a few hundred Potential Points. I'll earn them back eventually.

William was slightly concerned about the future trials since he only had 1800 Potential Points left, but considering the trial creator was watching him most of the time, it might just be better to use up his Potential Points early.

I'll set myself a limit of 1500 Points for now. I have 1973 Potential Points, which leaves me just under 500 that I can spend on whatever I want.

With that thought, William continued forward through the Labyrinth. He was looking for the impossible trial that the Guild Master mentioned, the Enslavement Array on his shoulder urging him to move faster.

While William was improving his Array Puppets, the Enslavement Array began to act up, seemingly punishing him for not moving. He ignored it throughout the week, but now it would start sending slight jolts of electricity into his body every time he stood in place for more than a few minutes.

He investigated the Array while he walked, but he now understood that to crack this Array without killing himself, he would need a mental key that probably only the Array's creator knew. It wasn't a matter of skill with Arrays, but a matter of Cultivation.

The only weakness of the Array was that it functioned on a limited amount of Spiritual Qi, which was the converted form of Mana. It was tailored to William's Mana, which meant even if he used Mana to exhaust the Qi in the Array, it would only refill its reserves.

Physical attacks wouldn't work either, because it would trigger a backlash that would kill William instantly, even at his current strength. He thought about asking someone else to use Mana to exhaust the Array, but he would be kicked out of the Gravitas Ruins before someone managed to free him.

-Your Magic Affinities can currently be upgraded in this order: F, E, D, C, B, A, S, SS, SSR, and X.

X Rank... William didn't understand why the System would make the Magic Ranks so complicated. What was the point of S rank if it was only rank seven out of the ten ranks?

Doesn't that mean S-Rank is actually just another name for C-Rank?

-No. In your previous world the S-Rank was a rarely given grade representing the ultimate highest or peak, but how can the Potential System stop at the peak?

The System didn't explain further, and any requests made to elaborate cost William way too many Potential Points to bother. It seemed the true purpose of the System would remain hidden for a while.

Something appeared on William's Navigation Radar, but he could only see the edge of it. As William got closer, it was revealed to be a massive structure shaped like a cylinder that stretched hundreds of kilometers into the sky.

Is this what the Sect Master was talking about? William looked upwards but didn't see anything.

"That's weird, I should be able to see something that big from much further away than I am now..." he muttered. Was the structure concealed by Arrays?

He navigated the Labyrinth for another hour until he arrived at a five-kilometer courtyard where the unknown structure stood. It was a giant tower, over two kilometers in diameter and incredibly tall.

The entrance was a massive double doorway, but there was no door present. In front of the tower were a few hundred Cultivators, most of whom were drawing battle plans in the ground or sorting through their equipment.

It looked more like a group of Adventurers about to enter a dungeon rather than each Sect's most powerful representatives of the younger generation.

William took a peek into the open doorway to see a massive field of grass on the other side. He could make out a group of twenty Cultivators teaming up to fight a massive ogre that wielded a large bone club.

"Don't look too long, or you'll be pulled into the tower." a familiar male voice warned from a few meters to the side.