Chapter 133: Successive Trials

He stored the Ascension Dragon Tears in his Space Ring after discovering it could only be consumed by a Nascent Soul Cultivator or higher.

William spent half an hour creating another improved Perfect Lightning Array, taking his time to make sure all the functions were stable before storing it into his Array Wheel.

He discovered that once he activated an Array, it couldn't be stored back into the Array Wheel and would need to be re-created.

By this point in time, it was already quite late at night, so William decided this would be a good place to rest. He raised a few Detection and Barrier Arrays to ensure there were no problems overnight, then made a quick meal for Atticus before going to bed.

When he woke up, there were still no nearby Cultivators. He assumed it was because of Flame Dragon Uri, who was an incredible deterrent to anyone on the second floor.

A few might have passed the dragon, but they had yet to arrive on the fourth floor. William didn't plan to wait for anyone, so he stood up and walked towards the staircase.

The moment William stepped onto the fifth floor, a voice resounded both in his mind and on the floor.

A challenger has entered the fifth floor...

A separate phrase from the same Cultivator entered William's mind just a moment later.

Welcome to the fifth floor. Prepare yourself for the trial of sense.

"Oh great...Way to announce it to the whole world." William complained out loud. If the Cultivators weren't sure if William was still alive before, they definitely knew now.

He continued grumbling in his mind while inspecting the surroundings. It was a flat expanse of rock and dirt, with no grass to be found. In the center was a massive mound of dirt that stretched twenty meters into the air, while similar mounds that were much smaller in size were scattered throughout the fifth floor.

He laughed a bit, knowing that this trial wasn't meant to be completed in such a manner, and probably would have been a bitter fight to the death if any other Cultivator had come.

William swam underwater to collect the black box from the pedestal in the center of the room, then moved on to the sixth floor immediately.

He was worried about spending too much time in the trial grounds, so William decided he would check the contents of the black boxes every ten floors unless he severely needed Potential Points.

Trial after trial, William completed each with ease. Sometimes he would follow the rules and clear the floor as the trial's creator had intended, while other times he found an easier method using his superior Talents and Magic Affinities.

On the eighth floor, William cleared a trial that required one to patiently infuse Mana into a crystal one Element at a time. It was probably meant to be completed by a large group of Cultivators with over ten Elements between them all, but William was able to finish it by himself.

Of course, he had deliberated on showing more than five Elements, but the System confirmed that he would be in no imminent danger as long as he didn't reveal any more Domains, and kept the Elements of higher rarity than Rare to himself.

This meant that he shouldn't use the Space, Time, or other Elements of the sort while the creator was watching, lest he wanted to attract even more attention. If that happened, it would become even more difficult to upgrade his Talents while in the Gravitas Ruins.

On the tenth floor, another announcement was made within the tower, notifying every Cultivator in the area that someone had reached the tenth floor.

To the Cultivators, it was immediately obvious who had achieved such a feat. Some Cultivators began gathering in small groups involving different Sects or even making alliances to take down William and share the loot the moment he exited the trial.

At this point, killing William would be more profitable than attempting the trial tower itself! Their reaction was not out of the ordinary.

To say these Cultivators were nervous was an understatement. Anyone that could clear successive trials at this pace by themselves was not a pushover. They had seen firsthand what his Array Puppets could do.

Everyone took the threat of William incredibly seriously as they called over their other Sect members from other locations within the Gravitas Ruins, some spending hours devising strategies and creating Arrays that might give them a fighting chance.