Infinite Potential System

William didn't remain idle in the Auction House after getting what he wanted. He had hardly any Spirit Jades left, and he wanted to upgrade his Mind Talent as soon as possible.

With the hours invested in understanding the Primordial Soul Devourer Technique, William's Sea of Consciousness was under much less stress than before, and color had fully returned to his face.

That being said, he was still in a state of constant headache, and his ability to cast Magic was highly degraded. The more time he spent like this, the more vulnerable he felt. He didn't know how well his Ascended Forcefield and Recovery Talents would handle an enemy ambush, but those would be about the limit of what he could do in his current state.

Forget the Fitness Talent; too many sudden movements and his Sea of Consciousness would shatter like tossing a rock through a window.

William returned to Treymon's entrance and visited small shop that advertised its taxi service, not forgetting to inform Professor Tenningbrew of his intentions on the way there. He wasn't sure if this was the brother mentioned earlier by the other [1] Animal Pathfinder, but it didn't matter as long as he was able to go back to Great Rouge.

After a short conversation and an agreed payment of five Spirit Jades, a bearded man seemingly in his late forties summoned a single giant snake with grey and red scales. The Bestiary called it a Red Rogue Serpent, and its main specialties were speed and stealth, just like Atticus.

The awesome Summoned Beast combined with a cheaper travel cost was enough to make William like this guy more than his brother, and he happily boarded the Summon. The man introduced himself as Bristle, also openly revealing his Cultivation to be in the Middle Stages of the Deity Realm to showcase his strength.

William spent a portion of the ride talking to Bristle about all sorts of things related to the Slightveil Plane, while the remainder was mostly spent sifting through the Soul Devourer Technique. It was a slow process and William couldn't hope to use the Technique any time soon, but he had high hopes for its future.

This time, William wasn't the only one fully occupied. Since Uri was still located in the Mortal Realms and Atticus' strength wasn't enough to travel on his own in the Ascended Realms, he had become quite lonely.

When the Red Rogue Serpent took the initiative to communicate with him, however, Atticus and he quickly became friends. At first, the Red Rogue Serpent commented on Atticus' bloodline, but later the conversation turned into a battle of which egg-based meal was the best.

Obviously, the unanimous vote was on omelettes, which further solidified the pair's friendship.

The trip went just as smoothly as it had on the way to Treymon, and all of the Magical Beasts in the vicinity steered clear of the Red Rogue Serpent. Even the least intelligent of Ascended Beasts was at least smart enough not to pick a fight it couldn't win.

During the trip, William managed to convince Bristle to take him a bit further for an extra two Spirit Jades, escorting him all the way to the fortress that enveloped the Quake Dungeon. Since his Summoned Beast was having a great time with Atticus, Bristle didn't mind going a bit further for some extra cash.

Including the travel time to Great Rouge, the entire trip took two days, meaning it was January 15th and school had already ended the day prior. The students of his class were probably already inside the Dungeon, so he was anxious to get inside and upgrade his Talents before they found trouble.

William had already been informed through his communicator that Professor Tenningrew had recorded the class for him and it would be given during his next class, but he was warned not to miss too many more school days, else he'd be removed from the roster for the Cultivators Induction Competition at the end of the semester.

Now, let's get to the 14th Floor so I can do some upgrading! William smiled as he entered the portal to the Quake Dungeon.

The headache that he'd been working hard to suppress returned the moment the appeared on the other side, but he still managed to create a long-range portal directly to the 14th Floor. Like several instances prior, William located the same hidden room, checked his surroundings on the Navigation Talent, and then closed himself inside before sitting cross-legged on the ground.

He retrieved a vial of Superior Calming Liquid from his Space Ring, then laid it out in front of him.

System, Ascend my Mind Talent!

-Your mind is unstable, so the upgrade process will take longer than usual. Please wait...

And wait he did. For five minutes, then thirty, and eventually an hour before the System initiated the Mind Talent's Ascension.

Zing! A lightning bolt of pain sent William into disarray as his Sea of Consciousness expanded by one percent all at once. Like a liquid that had been poured into a larger tank, the Primordial Soul Devourer Technique expanded with the Sea of Consciousness, filling up every available space.

The Technique continued to expand outwards until it was pressing on the walls of William's mind, but this time it wasn't as aggressive as before. More cracks in William's mind mended together until they were no longer visible, only the largest cracks remaining.

His Sea of Consciousness continued to expand further and further over the next seven hours, until it was past noon. The entire time, William diligently focused on controlling the System upgrade, preventing the ever-expanding Primordial Soul Devourer Technique from causing any damage.

When the upgrade ended, William opened the System Panel and checked the new effects of his Mind Talent.

———

Ascended Mind (Rare): (X --> F)

Effects:

-Mental capacity increased by 120x >> 300x

-Memory improved by 96x >> 240x

-Mental invasions are 100% less effective. Effects diminish against opponents with significantly greater strength.

-Your mental attacks are 10x >> 24x stronger

X-Rank Bonus Effects:

-Unbreakable: Your mind can handle the toughest situations and can handle any pain. No longer lose consciousness while in pain. Pain reduced by 99%.

-Unforgettable: Extremely high resistance to enemy memory-related and mind-restricting abilities.

-Mental Perception: Your brain sends constant mental waves to scan your surroundings, allowing you to perfectly understand the situation within 250 meters of yourself even with your eyes closed.

Ascended Bonus: The Mind Talent has 5% resistance to Dimensional Restrictions.

Next rank up: 3 AP

———

While most of the X-Rank Bonus Effects remained the same, the largest bonus of all was that William's mind was able to withstand most of the pressure from the Primordial Soul Devourer Technique.

Of course, expanding his mind allowed William to see the full scope of the Technique. To explain it in the simplest terms, William discovered that the Technique was like a zip file that had yet to be extracted due to limited space.

Now that he had upgraded his mind, the Technique was itching to break free and run loose in his mind.

-Requirements met. The Navigation and Vision Talents can now be Ascended.

[1] Animal Pathfinder: A term to label those who offer services to transport Cultivators via animal or Summoned Beast. Like a chauffeur, but without the use of automobiles.