Infinite Potential System

The Regeneration Talent was the only one that he had seen so far with a listed side effect, but it seemed that the negative effects diminished with each upgrade. Perhaps when the Regeneration reached X-Rank, the side effect would no longer exist.

30 years' worth of injuries instead of 15, huh? If I had that before my lifespan started increasing, I should only be around 44-ish years old.

It was rough math, but William felt it was somewhat accurate.

Knowing that the side effects were less prominent at higher Ranks, William now wanted to spend his Potential Points on upgrading the Regeneration Talent again. The only problem was, if he did that, he would only have five thousand Points left, not enough to upgrade Uri.

On the other hand, he probably wouldn't see Flame Dragon Uri for a while, and another Beast Tide was coming soon. He would definitely earn another ten thousand Potential Points as long as he performed well.

But, I just upgraded my Hard Skin Talent. The chance of me even being injured at this point is very low. Do I really need to upgrade Regeneration right now?

It was an internal debate, of which neither side won for the moment. The last thought triggered thoughts about his upcoming battle, though.

If I'm going to take on the Thieves' Guild, I definitely can't go as William, but I can't go as Yuming either. That will just paint a target on my second identity.

I need to create a third one.

William was lost in thought as he considered the attributes of his new identity. One of the perks of having only used a few Elements as William and even fewer as Yuming was that he could freely use the other Elements as someone else.

If I'm taking on the Thieves' Guild, I think I'll go with Necromancy, the Darkness Element, and maybe even Time? I would need something for defense though, maybe Ice?

But what to call myself? The Lord of Everlasting Darkness? Hmm...too edgy.

The Devourer Of Thieves! No...

What about, Jim?

-Jim? Really?

I'll keep working on it.

Since he was going for a more assassin-like vibe, William changed the color of his cloak to resemble midnight, its pitch-black surface dotted with wisps of white that glowed dimly like stars in the night sky.

He raised the hood to cover his face, concealing everything except his mouth. Underneath the hood, William used the Illusion Element to cloud his facial features. His eyebrows arched downward, and even the color of his eyes changed to appear reddish-brown.

His hair wasn't left behind, growing in length until it extended past his shoulders. The hair became wavy and flowed almost with a life of its own, complementing his other features and making William look like fierce.

His Strength Talent hadn't changed his physical appearance when it upgraded, so William had to use the Illusion Element to make his arms and chest larger, while his legs became thick like tree trunks.

In order to achieve this, William needed to upgrade his E-Rank Illusion Talent all the way to B-Rank, else it wouldn't be believable from an outside perspective. It only cost 1300 Potential Points, and now all of his Elements were at B-Rank or higher.

When he called Carl back into the temporary base, his voice was rough, as if he had competed with lions since birth for the title of most ferocious. Carl rushed in, thinking that an enemy had entered the Arrays without his notice.

After seeing William, he was more convinced that his earlier thoughts were correct, and he released all fifteen of his Magical Beasts in preparation for a tough battle. Anyone that had beaten William in a fight was way too strong for him to handle, but Carl knew he wouldn't be able to escape.

"Woah woah, calm down Carl. It's me." William reverted his voice to normal.

Hearing the familiar voice of William, Carl heaved a sigh of relief and put away his Magical Beasts. "Is this what you've been doing the entire time? Playing dress-up and trying to scare me?"

"Dress-up? No, this is for a secret mission." William defended himself.

"Yeah, right. And you expect me to believe that making yourself look like a bodybuilder is part of the secret mission?" Carl wasn't going to back down. Clearly William was having too much fun while he was outside dealing with the cold.

"Forget it, you wouldn't understand." William waved his hand in dismissal. "Anyways, help me think of a name to call myself while we are out."

"A name? Just how much trouble do you intend to cause? I know you can't show your real self, but you can't even use the name Yuming?"

William realized that he had never explained much about his abilities to his friends. Other than Riyald, no one else knew how many Elements he had.

Rather than explaining in detail everything about himself, William conjured a small piece of wood and threw it at Carl at high speed. With William's current strength, this action was more than enough to kill Carl in an instant.

Carl's face turned pale as he sensed his impending death, but then the unbelievable happened just as the wood poked his cheek. The piece of wood stopped in midair, still lodged inside Carl's face as a few drops of blood fell to the ground.

When the wood pulled away from Carl's face, his eyes widened in shock. It wasn't because of the wood, but because of the drop of blood that hadn't even touched the ground yet. It retraced its path and re-entered Carl's cheek, the small cut closing as the piece of wood returned to William's hand.

That's not Life Magic...that's...Time! Carl exclaimed inwardly.

"Since when did you also have Time Magic?!?" Carl asked William with unconcealed delight and a hint of jealousy. Time Magic was the coolest Element in his opinion, and Carl was very disappointed when he didn't awaken Time after starting his Cultivation.

"I awakened it when I broke through." William lied. It was the best explanation for now.

Carl nodded, "Is that why you want another identity? So you can freely use your Time Magic without being targeted again?"

William returned the nod, "Among other things. Are you ready to go?"

Carl looked at William's new figure and thought for a moment, "I think you need some gloves."

"Gloves?" William thought about the recent Space upgrade, where his fingers were repeatedly getting sliced off by the violent Mana. "I guess you're right, hold on."

"Don't you dare send me out there again, it's like ten degrees!" Carl complained.

William nodded, although he hadn't felt cold the entire time. It must be my Cold Resistance. I never even noticed the temperature...

He pulled the tailoring equipment from his Space Ring and got to work putting together a set of gloves that he could wear. He used the same cotton cloth as before, since it would match the rest of his equipment, though he didn't know what color to dye the fabric.

After a moment, he decided to go with red, since it was one of his favorite colors and would match well with the Fire Element.