Infinite Potential System

William queued up the X-Rank upgrade for the Fate Element immediately afterwards, finding it to be even easier to handle than the previous two upgrades due to his recent enlightenment. In less than an hour, the Fate Element had reached its maximum Rank, unlocking all of its X-Rank Bonus Effects because he had the Resist Fate Talent.

———n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

TALENT UPGRADED

Fate Affinity (Mythic): (SSR --> X)

Effects:

-Fate-related Mana Control, Magic Power, and Mana Efficiency +1280% >> +2560%

X-Rank Bonus Effects:

-Domain of Fate: Take complete control over all Fate Mana within a radius of 50 kilometers >> 100 kilometers. Can be countered by opponents with Fate Domains of greater strength.

-Territory of Fate: An improved Domain that extensively shows the Host its enemies' immediate future. Can be enhanced with Time Mana to establish a never-ending cycle of events that repeat until the Host closes the Territory or runs out of Mana.

-Primary Law of Fate (8.1% comprehension): You don't understand enough of this yet. Comprehend the Fate Element or visit ??? to learn more.

-Fate Elemental: Your Fate cannot be read or manipulated while in this state unless the level of opposing Fate Magic exceeds your own Affinity.

Next rank up: Ascend to unlock the next rank's requirements.

———

William looked at the description of the Fate Element with wide eyes. If what he was thinking was correct, he could use the Territory of Fate to hold the advantage in any fight. Unless someone could forcibly break through William's Fate Territory, they would be forced to repeat the same actions again and again until William found a method to maintain the advantage.

If anything could be considered overpowered, it's this! William smiled as he tested the Fate Element for himself.

Without a target to focus on, William didn't really know what to do with the Fate Mana. He was left searching aimlessly for any nearby living beings, and a regular groundhog over fifteen kilometers away seemed to be the only suitable one other than a human.

"Show me your future." William said as he pierced through the groundhog's head with a wisp of Fate Mana, though the creature wasn't hurt in the slightest.

Instead, William saw a second groundhog burst from the first, slightly ethereal in nature while it cowered in fear from William's aura. The ethereal groundhog suddenly dashed forward at a speed much faster than a normal human could react, just in time for the original groundhog to start cowering.

Based on the time period, it should run right about... now! William reached forward in an almost predictive manner, allowing the groundhog to run straight into his hand. Since William moved in its way, the groundhog's trajectory was slightly different than before but almost the exact same.

This isn't Fate, this is prediction! William smiled as he set down the poor groundhog that was only a bystander in William's madness. This Element would be incredibly useful in battle, and this specific Spell reminded him of those ghost cars during racing games that showed one's previous best time.

After a few more rounds of tests, William realized that the Fate Element was used for more than what he expected. Not only could one peer into another's future, but they could also manipulate it slightly, which is something he didn't fully understand until he recalled what the System said about Su Yanyu.

If he placed some of his intent into the groundhog, William could will it to jump straight into his arms, even without his own movement. To the groundhog, it would feel as if jumping into William's arms was part of its purpose in life. It would feel a familiar "calling" as if it was answering to the Gods.

In the terms of a regular groundhog, this could not be described as anything other than bullying. William was a sentient being with immense power that exceeded its understanding, so it had no idea that it was being manipulated at all.

If the Spell was used on a creature or human capable of complex thought, however, the effects might be degraded slightly. A Magical Beast might find a certain action odd or unnatural, while the human would immediately notice that something was wrong, as long as their Cultivation was close to William's.

That said, it would be extremely difficult to break a Spell of the Fate Element, and William was only testing the most basic of Fate Spells. With time, William guessed that Fate Magic would become yet another one of his most valuable Elements.

Phew, there's only one Element left that needs to improve to X-Rank. William wiped a bit of sweat from his brow after spending almost an entire day learning the ins and outs of the Fate Element.

His time wasn't wasted, however, as he now had a few new and powerful Spells in his arsenal that were sure to surprise the next Cultivator that forced him to use it. William almost felt bad in advance for anyone that dared to cross the line.

Ah, speaking of which... William smiled as his Hunter Talent displayed a few individuals crossing into its range.

Given that the Hunter Talent at X-Rank had a range of ten thousand kilometers, this wasn't difficult and it almost covered the entire World, but William wasn't focused on that. Instead, he realized that the group of individuals that the Hunter Talent detected were actually the Cultivators responsible for injuring Atticus the first few times before Juhi Descended.

William had heard the full story from the snake after the battle, but at the time he didn't have any method to track down the few Retribution members other than camping out at their Headquarters. William had too much to do and decided to serve his revenge cold, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

With a flipping of his wrist and a calm smile, William teleported close to a group of two dozen members of Retribution of whose ranks he didn't understand. All he could tell was that there were three leaders, two of which were the individuals that shared Atticus' bloodline and could cast Illusion Magic.

But Illusion Magic can't save you from this! William opened his Territory of Fate and wrapped the entire group in its range. Even if a few of them weren't involved in the battles against Atticus, William could hardly care less.

Instead of weaving Time Mana into the Territory like the System's description explained, William opened the Domain of Time directly, controlling the ambient Time Mana and slowing down time to an absolute crawl. The Territory of Time only affected himself, but the Domain was different and could be used for anything.

That said, weaving the Domain of Time into the Fate Territory had an even greater effect on the Territory than the System description, creating three alternative futures for the Retribution members and forcing them to follow each future one at a time.

William retracted the time-slowing effect and spent his Mana entirely on looping the time within, keeping the group inside of the Territory of Fate for what seemed like years to them but was only a few minutes on William's end.

With his almost three million Mana in his Mana Reserves, William wasn't afraid of running out of Mana anytime soon. The combined Domain and Territory burned through roughly two hundred Mana per second, but it would take much more than that to exhaust his Reserves.

He could go on for hours!

And so he did, spending almost three hours channeling the Territory of Fate and forcing the Retribution group to walk around in circles for entire decades of their lifespan. Even after noticing that something was wrong, there was nothing they could do to break out of their situation, and they were forced to accept things as they were.

Though that was the problem. The moment the group accepted their fate, their mental energy was extracted and sent to William, giving him a few sparse memories while also surprisingly increasing the mental capacity of his own mind.

It was like a miniature version of the Mind Talent upgrades, allowing William to expand his mental storage without the direct help of the System. The improvement was hardly anything much, but William was excited about having discovered a method to improve himself even further before Ascension.

I'm getting close to leaving, I have to make the most of what I have down here while I can, because it definitely won't be as easy as it was on Efretta. I think I'll Ascend right after finishing the System Quest...

Since William had gained loads of new Talents and was only two upgrades from maxing out all of his Elemental Affinities, he didn't have much left to do. He could always choose to stick around and idly collect Potential Points while upgrading his Elemental Farms and the Potential Farms, but that was incredibly boring, and might turn into the bad choice in the end.

What if he missed out on some opportunity in the Ascended Realms that could earn him fifty years' worth of Potential Points? If prices to upgrade his Talents kept increasing, the number of available Points should also be better in the higher Realms, right?