47 Earth Vein
The sky was beginning to turn bright again, and William was exhausted. He had spent most of his Mana multiple times in the last few hours.
William trudged back to his camp undisturbed. There were no longer any living Magical Beasts around this area of the Foam Desert, only corpses. William assumed the region was successfully cleared, so he spent the trek gathering materials from the remaining Beasts.
He entered the base camp and laid face down on the sleeping bag, releasing a loud sigh of relief. He checked his Potential Points.
POTENTIAL POINTS: 1089
William was slightly disappointed. He thought he had killed many more beasts, but after doing the math and counting the materials he had collected, William realized he had only killed 539 beasts that day, including the points he had already spent in the Talent Shop.
Overall it wasn't terrible, but William wasn't confident in his luck.
System, purchase 3 Passive Talents.
--Talent Purchased: Poison Resistance
--Talent Purchased: Sleep Resistance
--Talent Purchased: Stealth
Ugh, 600 Points down the drain and I get two resistance skills. Stealth doesn't look bad though. William looked at the descriptions for the different skills, finding that stealth would reduce his chances of detection, even while walking around normally. He wondered if raising Stealth to a high level would make him permanently invisible.
Could he even find a girlfriend at that point?
It would be best not to raise the level of Stealth too high.
One spin left, please System give me some luck! Buy a Passive Talent.
--Talent Purchased: Vision
Seeing the System message, William sighed. He had spent 850 points now, and the next purchase would cost 275 Potential Points. It was just too much!
If William couldn't find the Cultivation skill, joining the Five Elements Sect would be pointless. How could he explain to the Sect that he wanted to join but had no ability to Cultivate? They would laugh at him for sure.
William looked at his System Menu. He realized that to earn more points he would need to be more powerful. It was a waste to blindly hope for the Cultivation Talent when William didn't know how many Passive Talents existed.
What if there were thousands of options and he was playing the lottery? It hurt his head just thinking about it.
He used 90 Potential Points to upgrade his Rare Mind Talent to C Rank, then decided to rest for a few hours.
He would clear out more sections of the Foam Desert when he woke up. The guards wouldn't mind right? William was doing them a favor after all.
William woke up feeling refreshed. He traveled to Section 6 to clear out any remaining Beasts, then moved on to Section 7.
William didn't know how large the Foam Desert was, but the various Quest sheets in his hand said the Desert had at least 25 Sections. He was currently in the outer peripherals, and the more dangerous zones were mostly marked with higher numbers.
William created a base camp in each Section and would spend half a day to clear out the nearby Beasts. He would occasionally go back to an older camp to drop off extra materials that he didn't need to store in his Space Ring, and to kill Beasts that had recently spawned.
William didn't fully understand how the Magical Beasts would come back, but the System explanation suggested the Beasts were actually part of the world and would be generated to protect certain environments.
A few hours later, William could be seen fighting a group of ten Desert Beetles outside his camp in Section 7. He had missed a crucial Giant Fireball spell, only killing 6 of the original 16. The rest of the group immediately dove underground and engaged in a long battle with William.
Atticus slithered off William's shoulder, prepared to enter a battle for the first time in a few days. William was worried that Atticus would find trouble in the Foam Desert, given that the beast was only in the Foundation Establishment Realm.
It had the combat strength of an early Core Formation Realm Cultivator, but William didn't want to take any unnecessary risks before.
Atticus used Illusion Magic to conceal its presence, only moving when it saw the opportunity to strike. The snake wrapped itself around a lone Desert Beetle, crushing it through the shell.
-Your Companion Beast defeated a Desert Beetle: +2 Potential Points
Its good to know that I don't lose points for letting Atticus kill the Beetle. Doesn't this mean that collecting more beasts can make the process automatic? William thought. His eyes shined while thinking of the possibilities.
The duo cleared out the group of Desert Beetles a few minutes later. They continued through Section 7, planning to spend a few more hours combing the Foam Desert.
It was at this moment that William saw something moving parallel to him in the distance. It looked to be massive, but William couldn't make out its figure clearly. He spent 5 Points to upgrade his Vision Talent so he could see better.
The upgrade raised William's awareness to a new level, allowing him to see that the figure was a giant glowing rock about 5 kilometers away. Wait..rocks can move?
William was interested. He made sure Atticus was on his shoulder, then ran forward at maximum speed to the rock. William was able to cover the distance in less than a minute. The rock was still moving, so William had to investigate while matching its pace.
-Discovered Earth Vein: +5 Potential Points
Oh so it's a natural treasure! William was instantly excited. He ran up to the rock and tried absorbing it.
-Absorbing Earth Vein...
...
...
-Absorbed Earth Vein: +25 Potential Points
-Earth Element already acquired. Health increased.
...
-Earth Affinity has met the requirements for Rankup, upgrading for free...
———
TALENT UPGRADED
Earth Magic: (C --> B)
Next rank up: 250PP
———
William noticed the Potential Point gains were higher than the Life Vein, and the Earth Vein wasn't marked as lesser like before. Now that William was stronger, this boost wasn't life-changing, but the free upgrade to his Earth Element made a large difference.
He wanted to find more, but how? The Earth Veins were moving, which explained why William didn't see any before, but he was confident there would be more than one Earth Vein in a desert this massive.
William tested the effects of his Earth Magic on the next group of Beasts. His Earth Barrier spell could defend against the Foundation Establishment Realm Desert Beetles without any additional support, and would only break in one hit when a Core Formation Realm Beast was present.
With amplification from an Intermediate Barrier Array, the Earth Barrier could withstand attacks from the more powerful Core Formation Realm Beasts.
His Earth Spikes received a great boost in strength, surpassing even the damage from his Fire Spells when focusing on a single target. William could use the Earth Spike to pierce through the tough shell of a Core Formation Realm Desert Beetle with the 20 percent damage boost from his Beast Slayer Title.
William realized his Magic was still much weaker than his Talent in Arrays, but the improved Affinities were extremely useful when supporting an Array that required a specific Element.
When testing, William found that an Earth Spike Array was nearly 30 percent stronger than when he threw a spell himself. This meant William could probably battle with a Beast at the Peak of the Core Formation Realm if he used all his abilities.
His Advanced Barrier Array could delay a Golden Core Cultivator, but it probably wouldn't be enough for William to escape.
A non-Cultivator with Peak Core Formation Realm combat strength. No one would believe it if I didn't show them. William smiled.
