Infinite Potential System

This is absurd! What are the Heavens doing! William complained inwardly. He had hardly absorbed a quarter of the Lesser and Standard Life Veins, yet the Heavens were already responding in kind. He hadn't even messed with the Greater Veins yet; outside the Greater Fire Vein he absorbed a long time ago in the Southern Plains.

-If you saw a person in a ski mask outside your house, would you wait for them to come inside to do something about it?

Okay fair, but this is absurd! If someone wants to break into my house, I might yell and shout or threaten them with a weapon, but I wouldn't drive a tank up to their house in return!

Actually... that sounds pretty fun. William couldn't help but smile.

-Even in this situation, you're still an idiot.

Thanks! William beamed as he scanned his surroundings with his Life Sense. He was currently close to the Foam Desert, so most of his Companion Beasts on the Azures Continent including Atticus were centralized around there.

Dispersed roughly fifty kilometers from each other were fifteen groups of ten Tribulation Transcendence Desert Beetles that William had chosen specifically for one reason. The 150 Desert Beetles were all Legendary Rarity, which made their upgrades insanely expensive at a whopping 9.7 million Points, but it also gave them access to the Domain of Earth.

The Desert Beetles' upgrades were almost equivalent to the number of Potential Points needed to raise his System to A-Rank, but unfortunately upgrading Companion Beasts didn't count towards the System's upgrade.

William would have committed his resources to raising more dragons, but they were too large, too high-profile, and weren't necessarily a counter to the Heavens. Of the dragons listed in Williams' Bestiary from his travels over the years, he only had Lightning Drakes, Azure Wyrms, Flame Dragons, and Forest Dragons.

The Lightning Drakes were discovered in passing close to where Thin Creek Village used to be, while the Forest Dragon was found on the Arcturis Continent. It would have been added to his Bestiary much earlier while in the Gravitas Ruins, but that creature was artificial and didn't count.

The strongest of the group was the Azure Wyrm, while the Flame Dragons ranked second, but Fire and Plant Magic weren't ideal for countering Heavenly Lightning. Instead, William decided to raise the Magical Beasts with the greatest defensive power and the best Earth Magic: Desert Beetles.

As the Dragonewts fell from the sky with their spears pointed downward, William didn't have time to communicate with the Companion Beasts one by one, so he channeled Sound Mana to his voice and shouted an order to his group.

"Beetle Bros! Assume defensive positions. Cast your Domains!"

The Beetles responded instantly, having coordinated together with William as practice in the past. Their intelligence wasn't comparable to Flame Dragon Uri, but they were reliable enough to follow orders.

The movement of all Earth Mana within a radius of five hundred kilometers made the Dragonewts pause briefly, searching the area for the source. Even after a few moments, they couldn't locate the Desert Beetles that were each buried underground.

Of course, that was all because of William, who had created Tier 6 Concealment Arrays in each zone that the Desert Beetles occupied. Unless it was someone on the same level or above William in Arrays, they wouldn't be able to find the Desert Beetles even if they had weeks.

Without fear of being discovered easily, half of the Desert Beetles poured large amounts of Mana into creating a massive barrier of Earth that separated the Dragonewts from William. As the Spell formed, the other half channeled a different Spell, forming massive Earth Spikes that shot towards the Dragonewts in waves.

Despite the Dragonewts' incredible speed, the Earth Spikes were shot in waves that were perfectly timed from one another, forcing the Dragonewts to either be hit by a Spike or dodge it and find themselves impaled by another.

-Your Companion Beast has defeated a Dragonewt: +1001PP

-Your Companion Beast has defeated a Dragonewt: +1000PP

With a mix of offense and defense, it was the perfect defensive measure! 150 Desert Beetles with almost peak Cultivation were able to temporarily stop a hundred thousand Dragonewts in their tracks!

Not only this, but the rewards for killing Tribulation Transcendence Beasts were not small at all. The Heavens were basically gifting William Points!

To support them, William found out through the System that the Dragonewts carried both the Wind and Lightning Affinity, so he opened both Reverse Domains and took away their Magic ability in its entirety. The Dragonewts were now forced to use physical attacks to battle the Desert Beetles, which would not be very effective.

Of course, how could William allow the Dragonewts any advantage? They were fighting at odds of almost a thousand to one, how was that fair? The Desert Beetles were impressive, but they weren't nearly enough to take on more than ten by themselves.

Only with cooperation and orders from William did the Desert Beetles have a chance of winning, so William decided to even the odds some more.

"Atticus! Use your Territory and keep them away from the wall!" William ordered to the Mythical Rat Snake that was quickly approaching.

Hearing William's words, Atticus gave a hiss of acknowledgement and flew above the Earth Barrier and released his Territory of Illusion, turning the skies into a maze that made the Dragonewts unsure of which way was up or down.

With their vision clouded, the Dragonewts ran into each other and sustained serious injuries from the Earth Spikes that continued to strike their bodies, the Potential Points flooding into William's balance a thousand at a time.

"Let us handle this from here, Master. We'll clear them out." Atticus declared confidently, his massive body twisting and coiling midair to sweep away a group of Dragonewts that accidentally came too close.
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-Your Companion Beast has defeated a Dragonewt (x7): +7000PP

William smiled and accepted, but not before asking Flame Dragon Uri to fly over and keep an eye on things. If anything went wrong, Uri would let William know immediately. With Atticus around, the Dragonewts' Elements would be just as useless even without William's Reverse Domains, so he was able to freely return to absorbing some Lesser Earth Veins in the area.

The battle between the Desert Beetles and the Dragonewts went on for an entire month, destroying much of the territory in vicinity of the Foam Desert. William had made ample preparations beforehand to protect each city on the Continent, but even Tier 6 Arrays weren't enough to handle such unrelentless attacks.

Without the Players in the Soul Formation and Tribulation Transcendence Realm, many of these Cities including Blue Moon City would fall. Hearing about their efforts, William was thankful that this newest batch of peak Cultivators wasn't as cowardly as those like Rodger from the Night Market.

He continued to absorb the Veins, moving on from Lesser Earth to Standard Earth, then skipping the Greater Veins and moving on to the next area. With his incredible memory and the Space Element, William didn't have to worry about losing time because of this.

Even after the Azures Continent's Lesser and Standard Veins had been absorbed, the Heavens still hadn't sent anything else at William. William wasn't sure if they had given up on targeting him, or if they were preparing something big. Either way, he didn't plan to sit idle and wait for something to happen.

William moved on to the Velos Continent next, which had Veins of the Poison, Blood, Sound, Seal, Necromancy, and Darkness Elements. Of all of the Continents, the Velos was the most difficult to deal with. Many of the mutated Magical Beasts had strength exceeding even the Dragonewts, and their abilities were very unique and odd.

If William were to decide between fighting another hundred thousand Dragonewts or fighting a thousand of these things, he might choose the Dragonewts, and not just because of the Potential Points.

A single Magical Beast was especially unique. According to the System, it was a Rat Snake just like Atticus, but its scales were deep red and it carried both the Darkness and Illusion Element. It was guarding the Superior Darkness Vein, but William could sense its aura even from a hundred kilometers away.

That thing has to be almost as strong as Marcus! It probably would have Ascended already if not for the Illusion Element. William thought as he approached the Mutated Rat Snake.

As he entered the dark cave that it resided in, William was overwhelmed by a thick cloud of Illusion Mana that seemed to have condensed over the course of thousands of years. His sense of direction was briefly obscured, and even his sense of sight and smell were impacted slightly.

He coughed heavily, expelling the disgusting combined Darkness and Illusion Mana from his lungs.

It can suppress me to this extent, it must be something amazing! William gleamed as he pushed through the cloud, delving deeper and deeper into the cave while covering his mouth and nose.