William entered the Domain of Infinite the moment he sealed the door to his dorm behind him.
He had decided after returning that he would train for six hours after his classes every day. Unfortunately, thinking was a separate thing from actually starting off; all his focus recently had been consumed by matters of the heart that he did not want to indulge in right now.
The sun hung high above and bathed him with calm comfort. The dense air felt invigorating.
He stood still for a few seconds, letting the quiet settle into him; he let the noise in his mind quiet down for a moment.
[So, should we get started?]
"Yes," William replied calmly. "Start by showing me my status panel."
The familiar translucent screen unfolded in front of him; it stretched downward in long columns of data.
————⁜⁜⁜————
Name: William Kaiser
Race: Human (98%), True-Fire Dragon (2%)
Age: 15
Mana Rank: S+
Spiritual Rank: S+
Demonic Rank: S+
Path: Eternal Sovereign (Stage 1: Bending Mortality)
———— TALENTS ————
Lawless Adaptation (Supreme)
Fatebound (Supreme)
Beloved of the Universe (Supreme)
Heaven-Piercing Archer (Legendary)
Sovereign Spirit Transformer (Legendary)
Natural Actor (S)
———— SHARED TALENTS ————
Ruler of Eternal Darkness (SSS) (Shared via Tamasya)
Shapeshifter (SS) (from Amorphous)
———— TRAITS ————
- Fusion Core
- Primordial Affinity
- (SSS) Elemental Resistances: Water (D), Wind (D), Thunder (D), Storm (D), Space (D), Poison ( D)
———— ABSOLUTE AFFINITIES ————
SUN
NEITHER
DARKNESS
ICE
LIGHT
SHADOW
FIRE
SPACE
STORM (new!!)
———— PHYSIQUES ————
Divine Sun-God Physique
True Fire-Dragon Physique
———— WEAPON ARTS & TECHNIQUES ————
Heaven-Sundering Divine Sword Art (God Rank)
Tempest Sword Technique (Saint Rank)
Sinclair Serpent Blade Art (Heaven Rank)
Radiant Flash Steps (Heaven Rank Movement)
True Armament Subjugation Art (Unranked)
———— SPELLS ————
Void Sovereignty Spell (God)
Shadow-Born Manifestation Art Mastery (unranked)
Eclipse Veil (Grandmaster)
Purification (Grandmaster)
Blizzard, Glacial Bind, Ice Spear (platinum)
Luminous Embrace (gold)
Crimson Dominion Art (heaven)
———— BONDS ————
Ethan
Maximus Sinclair
Leila Ravenclaw
Seraphine Sylvaris
Katherine Nightreign
Sara Babylon
Lia
———— FATEBOUND ENTITIES ————
Tamasya (Mark of Destiny)
Seraphine (Mark of Destiny)
Sunchaser / "Sunny" (Mark of Comrade/Spirit Contract)
Maris (Mark of Servant)
Slaves: Benson, Barash, Grimlock, Ronin, and 250+ Cultist Spies
———— ITEMS ————
- Armament Nexus (Soul Weapon):
Crimson Aeon Blade (Divine)
Nine-Heavens Stormcleaver (Ancient
Univector Bow (Mythic)
Red Oath Daggers (Mythic)
Serpent King’s Fang (Diamond)
- Array hijacking stamp
- Bio Mech orb
- Infinite Chocolate Machine
- Trickster’s veil
————⁜⁜⁜————
Current SP: 3,058,000
————⁜⁜⁜————
Talents, shared talents, traits, affinities, physiques, weapon arts, spells, bonds, fatebound entities, and items. The list was long, almost absurd for someone who had started with nothing just a few years ago.
"I have come a long way," he said quietly.
But his gaze hardened within moments. Long way or not, the world was accelerating faster than his comfort allowed.
The cults were moving like they were preparing for war. He could almost feel so many undercurrents under the perceived calm, which would soon disrupt. He could not afford stagnation; he had to evolve and change his ways of progression.
"Let’s start with the slaves," he said. "Use the Mark of Slave. Extract their affinities for me."
[Understood.]
Immediately, notifications began flashing in rapid succession. Lines of names and affinities flickered. The sound cues irritated William by breaking his peace.
"Mute them," he said flatly.
The noise ceased, though the process continued for a few seconds in front of him.
He waited patiently as he tried to read the names, even though he forgot them a few seconds later.
Soon the assimilation was completed.
"Show me the list of elements gained."
[Understood, these elements have been elevated to absolute rank already.]
—————⁜⁜⁜——————
ELEMENTS:
- THUNDER (NEW!!)
- METAL (NEW!!)
- BLOOD (NEW!!)
- EARTH (NEW!!)
- WIND (NEW!!)
- WATER (NEW!!)
—————⁜⁜⁜——————
William studied the list before saying, "Only six new affinities from over two hundred and fifty people."
He was not disappointed exactly since it made sense.
Most of the extracted affinities had overlapped with ones he already possessed. Redundancy was natural. What remained were mostly common elements.
Metal was common among dwarves. Blood was common among vampires. Earth, wind, water, and thunder were common in almost all races.
"I was hoping for something rare," he admitted.
[Statistically unlikely from the cult’s lower-level members.]
"That’s true," he conceded.
He looked upward at the sky of the domain, thinking.
"I have too many affinities now."
[Yea. I am curious how you plan to manage.
William paced slowly.
"Reaching Grandmaster stage of mastery is an instant deal with Absolute Affinity. Beyond that, growth becomes exponential in effort. Even with time dilation of this domain, I do not have the time to train everything."
He stopped walking.
"Can I clone myself and assign different clones to different techniques?"
[No. A lifeform that cannot be copied without catastrophic instability, unless you control forces like fate, life, creation, death, energy, and all elements in existence—that’s a pipe dream.
William clicked his tongue.
"Hm... then I will have to be as efficient as possible; for instance, I will keep aside the techniques that are being trained by my bonds, just like I have been doing."
"Till now I have been really unorganized in terms of my powers. I have literally no defensive skills since I was too confident in my physique’s ability to heal me, but the major point I overlooked is that there is no sun in the Abyss."
"With Crimson Aeon’s invisibility, I got exposed by a mob during the time I infiltrated Barash’s base."
[and the Trickster’s robe doesn’t allow good dexterity and movement] system completed William’s thought process.
"Exactly, also Eclipse Veil is too low-ranked." He nodded.
"Heaven Sundering Sword Art is good for offense, but I need to have serious progress in it, but I am not going to waste my time on it like I did a few years back. The times have changed, and so has the pace at which things are moving. I will focus on acquiring a sword-related talent, which will accelerate the progress of the technique before starting training in it again."
[Correct next-stage mastery would be extremely time-consuming without a specialized talent.]
"I realized that already," he replied mildly.
"Tempest Sword Technique will sit well with my new storm affinity. That might scale naturally as Ethan trains more.
Sinclair Serpent Blade Art is situational but effective in dealing with small fries.
"Void Sovereignty Spell’s first form is excellent for crowd control. Armament Subjugation Art helps against multiple enemies. Crimson Dominion Art can be used now that I possess Blood Affinity."
He nodded to himself.
"Archery is still viable with Heaven-Piercing Archer."
[You are forgetting about stellar fire.]
"Yeah, that too, although I think I should get a sun-based technique too; just the effects of my physique are not enough."
"Radiant Flash Step is decent, but Platinum-rank movement is no longer acceptable if I want to fight skipping ranks."
He crossed his arms.
"I need a God-rank movement technique."
[Noted
"The Nether element is sitting redundant as ever with no use at all; I need a technique for that."
[Noted]
"Say something."
[Not... Ah, yeah, right. You are right, host, absolutely.
William sighed, listening to the system’s lost tone.
The sheer breadth of his abilities was overwhelming.
He was powerful, but his focus was scattered. His growth had been reactive, absorbing tools whenever circumstances demanded them. Now he needed to organize himself.
-------------
[A/N: next Chapter will be released after 12 hours, I apologise for the inconvinience]