Infinite Potential System

William's smile beamed like the sun, the Physical Charm Talent triggering on an unlucky marketeer manning one of the stalls. Before they could recover from the involuntary charming, William had already run off to the exit gates.

There were only a few hours left before class started, but William had just thought of a much more efficient way to earn Ascended Points. Since the System was giving out Points for earning Spirit Jades, and Dungeon creatures weren't very profitable, why should he take the time to kill things?

It's time to put this Sales Talent to use!

William thought as he chain-teleported towards Great Rouge. The return trip was much more efficient than the way to the Quake Dungeon, taking less than half an hour to reach the entrance to the city.

The Sales Talent was one of the many Trade Talents that had merged to become the Jack Of All Trades Talent, but its effects hadn't disappeared nor diminished in the slightest.

In fact, since merging to become a Celestial Talent, William's ability to buy, sell, and trade had become multitudes more effective!

I just need something to sell...

William frowned as he scanned the contents of all his Space Rings from his memory. With the Mind Talent's memory-boosting effects, William didn't need to waste loads of time physically going through them; he could just mentally travel back to when he had last checked.

Even if his room was as messy as it was in his teenage years, William could find any item he wished without fail. He could even revisit old Space Rings that he had taken from others and stored elsewhere, as long as there was enough time to do so.

While his memory was very strong, it still took William half of the trip to identify all the key items that he was willing to sell. The outcome was disappointing.

Unfortunately, the Sales Talent listed most of the items as worth less than one Spirit Jade or completely unsellable individually. The Greater Fire Shards, which he had the most of, were only sellable in quantities of a thousand or more, each thousand worth a measly one Spirit Jade.

Considering he currently had a bit under two hundred thousand Greater Fire Shards in stock, this meant William could earn almost two hundred Spirit Jades, but he wouldn't be happy until he had over a thousand Greater Spirit Jades.

"Oh? What's this?" William looked at a large blue rock that emitted immense Soul Energy. It was an Ultimate Soul Stone stored inside a Space Ring that didn't originally belong to him.

If William remembered correctly, this Space Ring belonged to one of the Cultivators that targeted him after leaving a Trial Tower within the Gravitas Ruins. But how did the Ultimate Soul Stone get there? Did he accidentally put it inside while moving around something else?

How could I have missed this? Doesn't it give whoever uses it a lot of Soul Strength? That could have been a life-or-death difference back then!

William complained inwardly.

He looked at the statistics of the Ultimate Soul Stone, realizing it wouldn't help him very much in his current state. In fact, even with the bonuses from his Soul Talent, William would barely improve his Soul Strength by one percent. Using the Sales Talent, however, the System Panel displayed the Ultimate Soul Stone's true value as an item for auction.

It was worth a whopping 50 Spirit Jades!

William smiled. That old master of his really was an interesting fellow. He could even produce materials like this that were useful to those in the Ascended Realms. How rich would Riyald be if he took his laboratory to an auction?

With Riyald's activities during William's apprenticeship, he wondered if there was more to the old man than met the eye.

Okay so with the Shards and the Ultimate Soul Stone, I can earn about 250 Spirit Jades. I have 43 right now, so if I haggle a little and get a good deal, I might be able to reach three hundred...

William did the simple math in his head.

He would prefer to have a thousand Spirit Jades, but this amount should be enough to at least buy a few items he needed for the Talent Ascensions while simultaneously raising the System to S-Rank.

William entered Great Rouge and used Spatial Steps to reach the market a few seconds later, scanning the stalls for anything promising. He focused on a few smaller stores that specialized in gem-like materials and items, but even the most successful gem trader would only purchase a few Greater Fire Shards at a time.

By the end of the hour, William had only made thirteen Spirit Jades. The worst part was he had to actually reduce his asking price by a considerable amount, since the number of Greater Fire Shards he sold were worth closer to fifteen Spirit Jades.

Despite the Ultimate Soul Stone being a rare item, none of the small stores wanted to buy it from him. Judging by their expressions, they didn't trust William and didn't want to waste money on a potential fake item.

After roughly five minutes of narrowing down his other options, he opted to simply try selling to the three largest stalls in the market, namely general stores that sold a wide variety of items.

Since limiting his sales to stalls that sold gem or shard-like materials wasn't as profitable, he felt he'd have more luck with someone whose funds were more fluid.

"How do you expect me to sell these? This isn't a toy store, get this trash out of here!" an elderly shopkeeper hissed while waving a gnarly stick at William.

On the front counter, a small Companion Beast in the form of a purple cat swiped at half a dozen boxes containing Greater Fire Shards, the sound of shattering glass causing a few nearby customers to turn their heads.

"Hey! I worked very hard to get those!" William replied angrily as he stored the remaining Shards in his Space Ring.

Toy store?

William asked the System.

-It seems the weaker Fire Shards are mostly used to make household heating sources and lava lamps designed for children. Your "hard work" turns into a gift for young teenagers to display in their bedrooms.

William could sense the hidden insult in the System's last sentence, but he didn't have time to argue with it nor the shopkeeper. He packed up his items and moved on to the next two stalls, unwilling to give up without earning at least a few more Spirit Jades.

The Sales Talent didn't help me much with that last guy. Maybe I need to change tactics a little...

William thought to himself as he pretended to be a normal customer and browsed the shopkeeper's wares.

"Can I help you with anything?" an average-looking woman seemingly in her forties spoke up after a few minutes of silence.

"Ah yes," William scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. He tried to subtly make use of his Noble Prowess Talent to speak more eloquently, "Does this establishment have an interest in... long-lasting utility materials?"

The woman seemed to blank for a moment as she comprehended William's words, making him slightly nervous. "We will trade for most things, as long as they have some value. What kind of materials are you referring to?" Stay connected through empire

The woman's tone didn't put William's mind at ease. If he wasn't careful with what he said next, there was a chance the second stall would be a bust as well. He frantically racked his brain for the ideal response.

"My sla— company has extracted a large quantity of extra Greater Fire Shards, and my usual business partner does not have enough production to keep up with the increase. Perhaps you'd be interested?" William took out a box containing a Greater Fire Shard and set it on the front counter.

The woman frowned when she heard the words "Greater Fire Shard", but she opened the box and inspected the contents anyway. After a few seconds, she closed the box and returned it to William.

"How many of these do you have? I'll take some, but there's a limit to how many I'm willing to purchase."

"One hundred and eighty thousand." William responded honestly, after doing some quick math to determine how many he had left.

"One- One hundred thousand?!?" the woman's eyes widened in surprise before remembering what William said. If there was a whole company mining these things, such an amount was easily achievable.

She shook her head, "I couldn't possibly take that much. It would take years to sell that many Shards, even if they are of good quality."

Sensing that things were about to take a turn for the worse, William waved his hand in dismissal. "I don't expect you to buy all of them anyway. How about a deal? I'll be your supplier of Greater Fire Shards whenever you need to restock, and in exchange I'll give you a five percent discount."

The woman's brows furrowed, "Ten percent."