Infinite Potential System

William nodded, "Thank you, Senior Rodger, for your time. It seems we will be taking on the Beasts by ourselves then. I hope you can reconsider your choice in the future, when the Tides are more serious than they are now."

"Good luck, Mr. Yuming." Rodger hung up the call without another word. He handed the communicator back to his assistant, who had brought it into his Cultivation room at his request.

Normally Rodger wouldn't answer his calls while he was Cultivating, but something inside Rodger said that the blacksmith Yuming was a special sort of person that deserved his attention. He sighed as he returned to his Cultivation.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Yuming. The truth is, I'm a coward, and so are the others. No one wants to start a battle with the World that we know we cannot win..."

***

On the front lines of the battle, thousands of Player and NPC Cultivators alike were standing in formations and receiving orders from their battle captains. As each responsibility was issued, the Cultivators became a bit nervous.

For some, the feelings arose from not wanting to die, or hoping they can protect their families. For others, however, it was the risk of losing Points or not performing well during the Region Event, leaving them to fall behind the other Players.

For the Players, Points were a rare resource that could be used to upgrade their abilities that were awakened during Cultivation, or for lucky ones, right from the start as Innate Abilities.

Like the rest of the people in this World, Players could also become a Manamatus, equally as rare. They could upgrade their Affinities the same way William could, but the difference was that the cost of upgrading their Affinities was much greater.

While killing Magical Beasts, completing Quests, and unlocking or upgrading Titles was still a method of earning Points, entering new locations, surviving tribulations, and many other methods were not available to the Players.

Additionally, the Players could not awaken random new Talents from a shop like William could. To learn a new Talent, they had to actively learn the Talent from a skilled enough NPC.

This was much harder than it sounded, since most wouldn't even be able to attract the attention of high-ranking NPCs, and low-ranking ones wouldn't allow them to learn the Talent. Even weeks after the game was released, only around thirty percent of Players were able to awaken a Talent.

These people were usually already somewhat Talented in a particular skill, such as real-life archers learning the Archery Talent after being picked up by a master archer, or people with chemistry majors in college learning the Alchemy Talent using a mix of prior knowledge and adapting to the rules of the new World.

Up to now, most Players had at least one Talent, but the difficulty of acquiring a second was still immense. It didn't help that revealing that they could upgrade Talents to the NPCs usually resulted in death or enslavement, so the Players learned quickly to conceal that fact.

There were a few bonuses that Players had that William didn't, however. For one, the Players could buy and sell Potential Points on a market if they so wished using gold. This was a very popular function, but Potential Points were rarely listed for sale.

Because of this, people began offering real-life money in exchange for Potential Points, promptly raising the value of Potential Points and also the general interest in the game.

Even so, only those who didn't play the game seriously or wanted to earn a living would sell their Potential Points. Some would earn Points for themselves and sell a fraction of the amount they earned so they could pay their rent and food bills.

And so, many of the Players outside the walls of Blue Moon City were carefully listening to the instructions given to them, hoping to perform the best and earn more Points than the others.

Some that had learned various trapping techniques dug pits with the Earth Element and filled them with punji sticks that would impale the crossing Magical Beasts.

Others made preparations of their own by ensuring their weapons were sharp and ready for battle, or they had a full stock of healing Pills. No one could be sure that a healer would be there in time to save their lives.

Carl and William arrived at the backline just minutes before the Elemental Beast Tide was set to arrive. They could already feel the tremors in the ground, and William's Life Sense could detect thousands of presences just a few kilometers away.

Carl unfurled his scroll and released all ten of his Golden Core summons, then spread them out in a formation that would allow maximum coverage. Their purpose would be to engage any Magical Beasts that got past the front lines, and attack from afar when they had nothing to do.

William's assignment was the same, although he didn't have any Magical Beasts. After relaying his Space, Life, and Earth Affinities to his captain, William was told to raise Earth Barriers to defend against any long-range attacks and act as a healer otherwise, providing aid to those on the front lines.

William had chosen to reveal these three Elements because it wouldn't be too high-profile. A decent number of Cultivators at his level had two or three Elements, and while the Space Element was very rare, it was only enough to raise some eyebrows, not worth killing someone over.

The Life Element was also somewhat rare, but it was an appreciated Element, and no one wanted to get on a healer's bad side. William hoped to raise the level of his Savior Title some more while also gaining some Potential Points in the process.

There was also the number of casualties to think about, since William had to keep the number under ten percent to ensure he completed the System Quest. He didn't underestimate the Medium rating of the System Quest, knowing that it was entirely based on his current strength.

If he had to hold back, however, the difficulty would probably be rated higher.

William didn't waste time, constructing Advanced Arrays to support the traps created by the other Cultivators. He purposed the Arrays to conceal the presence of the pits, and sharpen the punji sticks that lied underneath.

Additionally, William added Advanced Arrays of Speed and Strength to buff the Cultivators, while also creating a massive Advanced Mana Gathering Array that would cover the entire battlefield.

Many of the Players took notice of William after seeing the series of Arrays activate and buff them all. Simple appraisal functions on their System Panels revealed him to only be "NPC Yuming", while the more advanced appraisals that cost Points showed something else entirely.

———

William [Disguised]: (SS-Rank NPC)

-Race: Human

-Age: 41

-Lifespan: 300 Years (Excellent physical health)

-Affiliations: Five Elements Sect, Adventurer's Guild, Alchemy Hall, Array Hall, Hillvire Empire, Gravitas Ruins

STATS: ( - )

-Offense: S

-Defense: SS

-Cultivation: S

-Magic: SSR

-Potential: X

-Recruitment Difficulty: SSR

———

Those who knew William's true identity chose to keep the information to themselves and take advantage of it later, while the others marked down "Yuming" as a potential NPC to recruit in the future, or even to pay to learn Arrays from.

William, who knew none of this, continued placing Arrays to support the battlefield. When the Elemental Beast Tide entered the one-kilometer range of the City, William halted his movements and started gathering Mana of the Earth Element to his fingertips.

The captains issued their orders. "Front lines, attack! Let the battle begin!"