Infinite Potential System

"Class will be ending in an hour. Keep at it, everyone!" the Professor announced to the students while everyone else was focused on the Mana Circuits in their hands. The bottom half of his lab coat billowed behind him while he walked around, its behavior reminding some that their professor was actually of a ferret's bloodline.

Tenningbrew stopped at one particular desk and looked at William calmly, noticing that he had barely moved since a few hours ago. Despite this, the boy appeared incredibly focused, beads of sweat pouring down the sides of his face.

It seems I've found myself quite the student. No wonder he could Ascend at such a young age...

the Professor nodded in satisfaction and turned to the side. He didn't dare disrupt William's concentration at a critical moment like this.

Contrary to the Professor's misunderstanding, William wasn't working on his Mana Circuits at all. The sweating was entirely due to one piece of information that came in a few minutes ago.

Not only had the Heavens reached the Slightveil Plane, the System had also discovered that they numbered over a hundred individuals! To make matters worse, most of them were in the Solar Deity Realm, while half a dozen might even be above that!

It took the System almost two hours to subtly gather this information, and William almost wished he hadn't asked for it. There was nothing he could do to a single Solar Deity Cultivator, much less a hundred of them!

The Solar Deity Realm was the next Realm after the Deity Realm, which in turn was above the Initial Deity Realm. William was merely at the bottom end of the Ascension Realm. His enemies outnumbered him by a hundred times, and they were three entire Realms above him.

While a three Realm gap could be easily crossed in the Mortal Realms, Cultivation after the Ascension Realm was vastly different. If the difference between a human non-Cultivator and a Core Formation Realm Cultivator was around twelve times, the gap between someone in the Ascension Realm and the Initial Deity Realm alone was one hundred times!

That was just a single Realm. William didn't have a solid understanding of the Realms above Initial Deity, but he guessed the gap couldn't be anything less than a few thousand times. Maybe even tens of thousands.

-The Heavens are disappearing from my detection range. They've split up and seem to be searching various personal Dimensions scattered around the Plane.

Damn it, how much time do I have?

-Depending on the size of the Dimensions they are searching, it could be a few hours or up to a day.

A few X-Rank Talents isn't enough. I need to be stronger!

William cursed his weakness.

If he could learn skills like Efretta's Spell Reversion that turned his opponent's attacks against them, William would be in much better shape. Naively of him, however, he relied too much on the effects of his Talents to improve.

Almost all of my Talents are percentage bonuses... but zero times a million percent is still zero. Without the System automatically granting me the bare-minimum knowledge to use some of these Talents, I'd be useless!

I need to improve quickly, but there's not much time. What can I do?

William scrolled through the Status Panel for a second time, searching for a Talent that he could use to improve his chances of survival. This time, the intent wasn't to use Points to upgrade it, rather raise the fundamental skill.

My goal isn't to fight, so offensive Talents are off the table.

William mentally crossed off a few dozen Talents. Even if he could close the gap between the Heavens members, he knew that fighting now would only lead to more trouble later.

If he killed the young masters, the parents would come next, as some would say. No, the goal was to run or hide, not fight.

Hide!

William's eyes lit up.

He was already inside the school's Dimension, which counted as a form of hiding. The fact that he hadn't been located yet proved that hiding was a good strategy.

William narrowed down all of his Talents to include ones only related to escape and hiding. There was the Hunter, Not Hunted bonus effect from the Hunter Talent, which gave him a forty percent chance to detect his enemies first.

That's pretty useless right now...

William scrolled up to the next Talents.

Misdirection... useless.

Stealth? Would putting on camouflage work?

It's already enhanced by an additional two hundred percent from the Master Thief Talent, so it's much stronger than your everyday X-Rank...

William imagined putting colored paint on himself to blend in with the environment. He wanted to try it immediately, but he was in the middle of class at the moment. Just in case, he sorted out the necessary items within his Space Rings and mixed together some plant material to create paint.

Oh right, it's disabled in this area.

What else is there... Fitness?

He opened the information panel, condensing some of the details of the bonus effects that weren't very useful to him at the moment.

———

Fitness (Mythic): (X)

Effects:

-Speed increased by 20000%

-Jumping strength increased by 20000%

-Balancing ability improved by 20000%

-Flexibility improved by 20000%

-Time to reach maximum speed reduced by 20000%

-Reaction time improved by 20000% Experience more on empire

-Resistance to physical fatigue +20000%

-Full-body muscular ability +20000%

-Immunity to the effects of knockback

-Wall-scaling improved by +20000%

-Ability to redirect your velocity in another direction +20000%

-Your hands can be used with 20000% finer detail and grace.

X-Rank Bonus Effects:

-Narrowly dodging an attack grants you a 30% speed boost for ten seconds. Duration is tripled if you dodge a life-threatening attack.

-Accelerated Reflexes: When faced with killing intent or targeted by physical or magical attacks, time is slowed by 96 times from the Host's perspective only.

-Reflexive Learning: When narrowly dodging one or multiple attacks, one random attack within one meter of the Host will be selected and be partially comprehended by ten percent.

-Speedy Recovery, Maxed Out, Running On Empty, Fit, Physique, Power, Steady Hands.

Next rank up: Requirements Locked. Upgrade the System to S-Rank to unlock the next Rank.

———

Hmm, there's a lot of bonus effects, but I can't really improve my strength in a short amount of time. It would take at least 7-10 days to see any progress. Not to mention, could that really work in this case?

-You'd need to perform some type of strenuous activity that tears your muscles without causing increased injury.

William mentally nodded. It made sense.

Okay, then there's really only one option.

William scrolled to the Magic Talents section and checked the information on the Illusion Affinity.

———

Illusion Affinity (Legendary): (X)

Effects:

-Illusion-related Mana Control, Magic Power, and Mana Efficiency +1920%

X-Rank Bonus Effects:

-Domain of Illusion: Take complete control over all Illusion Mana within a radius of 100 kilometers. Can be countered by opponents with Illusion Domains of greater strength.

-Territory of Illusion: An improved Domain, designed to modify any individual or material within its range to take the form the Host desires. Effects are lessened when targeting opponents of significant strength.

-Primary Law of Illusion (90.1% comprehension): You understand almost the entirety of the Illusion Element's Primary Law. Your Illusion Element has been enhanced greatly by your comprehension, and you notice something different about your Illusion Mana. There may be even more effects. Comprehend the Illusion Element or visit the Realm of Illusion to learn more.

-Illusion Elemental: Transition between reality and illusion seamlessly. Proceed with caution.

Next rank up: 1,000,000PP and one Deity Illusion Shard.

———

It had been a long time since William looked at the stats on some of his Elements. There was a lot of new information that didn't show up previously, especially something about a Realm of Illusion, but he didn't have time to think about that.

What mattered the most right now was improving the Illusion Element as much as possible before the Heavens found him. But how?

A spark of lightning to his right suddenly shot upward and distracted William from his thoughts. It slammed into the ceiling with incredible force, scattering until it had spread to all four corners of the classroom. When the sparks dissipated, the stray Lightning Magic had left a scorch mark about as wide as William's body.

He looked at the culprit, an embarrassed Mikaela Mirov with a left hand that had turned completely to ash. When she saw William looking at her, she quickly hid her hand beneath the desk and gave him a glare.

"What are you looking at? I just used a little too much power, that's all." she turned away from William while Professor Tenningbrew contacted an aide with the Life Element to have Mikaela's wound healed.

"Thanks!" William beamed. Mikaela's accident had just given him the answer he was looking for.

It was right in front of me the entire time! I need to improve my Mana Circuits! Even a slight improvement multiplied by almost 19 times from the Illusion Affinity will have a huge impact!

"Huh? What the fuck are you thanking me for?" Mikaela looked at William with a mix of confusion and annoyance, which only intensified when she realized that he wasn't listening anymore.