"Extract the talents now," William instructed the system. He had just extracted affinities and was now curious about the talents of his slaves as well.
[Understood.]
Once again, a cascade of notifications flooded his vision, each line informing of another low-tier or mid-tier talent harvested from the 250-plus enslaved individuals bound under his mark of slavery.
The rapid succession of system alerts created a flickering wall of text that was overwhelming to look at; William simply exhaled and muted them with a short command again for a second time.
When the process ended, he opened the consolidated list.
For several seconds his gaze remained fixated on the list as he scrolled it. The sheer number of entries scrolling before him felt excessive to him; most of the talents were low tier without good effects like fast cooking, cleaning, foraging, etc.
Of the two hundred and fifty-plus talents, he did find some niche and good talents, like mana-efficient or spear-master-like talents, but those were not as impressive as what he already had.
The list stretched endlessly, and he felt a faint headache forming just imagining having to inspect each one manually.
"Holy shit, system," he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "How exactly do you expect me to read the descriptions of over two hundred and fifty talents?"
[Do not worry; I have something for you.]
A new interface materialized before him as the system shop opened automatically. William’s eyes shifted to the System Services section, which opened up automatically, and a single item appeared before him.
—————⁜⁜⁜⁜—————
Item: fusion token
One-time use item, can be used to fuse a maximum of a hundred traits or talents to give out one high-ranked talent or trait; effects can be stacked with multiple tokens.
The effect of the high-ranked talent would be random.
cost: 1 million SP
—————⁜⁜⁜⁜—————
[For your case, you would require 3 tokens.]
William stared at the screen in silence. His face slowly tightened into a visible frown as he looked at the cost of one token.
"I barely have over three million points," he said in irritation. "And now you want me to burn them all in one go."
[Yes. In exchange, you will receive something of equal value.
William remained quiet for a moment, but the item was lucrative and was what he needed right now.
Two hundred and fifty low-grade talents were useless to him anyway. Fusing them together sounded like the better approach.
Still, the thought of watching his SP balance drop to near zero made his heart tighten.
With a resigned sigh, he pressed the purchase option and acquired three fusion tokens.
"Ah, shit," he muttered, laughing bitterly. "I am broke again."
His balance dropped to 58000 points, a dangerously small reserve for someone like him who always took risks.
He knew he would have to preserve the remainder strictly for emergencies.
[Would you like to activate the three fusion tokens?]
William nodded without hesitation.
[Ding!! 3 fusion tokens used...]
[Ding!! Fusing talents...]
[Ding!! Absolute adaptation interfering...]
[Ding!! Absolute adaptation has altered the fusion...
[Ding!! You have gained the legendary rank talent ’Omniscient Eyes.’
William blinked.
"At this point," he said slowly, "I genuinely feel like Absolute Adaptation has a personality of its own. The way it always jumps in peculiar ways is borderline suspicious, not that I mind it."
Curiosity flickered through his eyes as they were filled with anticipation.
"Show me the effects."
[Understood.]
————⁜⁜⁜————
Omniscient Eyes (legendary)
Effects:
- Flow of energies becomes visible, making host immune to stealth, illusion, traps, facades, and other effects of energy manipulation
- Can predict the emotions of a target if the host observes them for more than one minute.
- Can see imperceptible destiny halos of living beings, predicting their life, survivability, and fate to a certain extent.
- Can see through the truth and lies of beings equal to or weaker in cultivation rank
- Can intimidate other beings through eye contact and leave a mental curse on them, which festers by slowly eating their sanity away, the effectiveness of the curse is based on the target.
- Can leave your own halos on beings, affecting their presence and life in distinct, unpredictable ways.
- Can master visual techniques up to legendary rank instantly; lowers training threshold for god-rank technique mastery by 95%.
————⁜⁜⁜————
William read the entire description carefully.
"Fuck, this is insane."
The ability to see through stealth and illusion alone would drastically alter battlefield dynamics.
The ability to perceive emotional shifts and detect deception would make negotiations and manipulation far easier.
For several minutes, he and the system discussed potential applications in depth.
Once the initial surge of excitement faded, William forced himself to regain composure.
"Is the cultivation feedback sufficient for the next breakthrough?" he asked.
[Yes, but only for mana core. Spiritual energy cultivation is primarily coming from Sara Babylon, and even with 100x feedback, it remains insufficient for breakthrough. There is currently no demonic energy feedback; you will have to cultivate those yourself for the time being. ]
William nodded.
"No problem. Increase my mana rank."
He had deliberately stocked cultivation feedback since before the World Academy trials.
[Ding!! mana cultivation feedback received from individuals Ethan, Leila, Kathrine, Maximus, and Seraphine]
[Ding!! Mana cultivation has been raised to SS rank.]
William felt his core expand; Mana flooded through his body smoothly. His muscles relaxed involuntarily as he took in the changes.
"Will my cores keep physically increasing like this?" he asked.
[No. Upon crossing into the divinity stage, cores will transform and densify and won’t expand anymore.]
He absorbed the information thoughtfully.
"I wonder how long that will take."
[It depends on your growth and the growth of your bonds.]
Peers of his age had just barely reached A rank, but they had now touched a threshold; advancing to A rank was easier, especially for young people due to several reasons. When the body awakens newly, it is relatively easier to absorb mana, but after six months.
So the minor boost plateaus. Advancing from A to S required exponentially more effort. Beyond S rank, progress slowed further unless supplemented by rare resources, elixirs, or high-tier arrays.
World Academy and other elite factions maintained mana-gathering formations specifically to speed up cultivation.
For most individuals, cultivation accesses resources and innate talent. It was inherently unequal.
"Unfortunately, I cannot use potions or external arrays," William said quietly. One limitation or clause of his cultivation technique was that he could not use arrays and potions to accelerate his cultivation.
[Host, Primordial God Flow Scripture is among the highest-tier techniques available. Do not underestimate it.]
"I am not," he replied calmly. "I am just re-evaluating."
"When I had reviewed cultivation techniques, I noticed other God-rank cultivation techniques. Why did you originally insist on Primordial God Flow Scripture?"
[It is versatile and grants superior energy control. For your current stage, it is optimal. We may consider upgrading if you reach the limits of what’s possible with this technique.]
William accepted the reasoning and nodded. "Are there other ranks greater than god rank?"
[Yes, but they require a shop upgrade.]
"And how do I upgrade the system shop?"
[I have no information about it]
He then gathered technique training feedback from his bonds. The returns were modest. He had already reached Grandmaster in several techniques, while most of his bonds remained below that threshold. The resulting amplification was negligible.
Meanwhile, he realized that Sara Babylon had not started practicing any technique and was just cultivating spiritual energy.
Even if spiritual energy users didn’t train in any technique, they could still do things with basic energy application. If their cultivation technique was high-ranked and allowed better control over energy, they could do basic things like telekinesis, flying, and using spiritual sense to detect the surroundings.
"Well," William murmured, "I suppose I need to bind more capable individuals over time."
William said before moving ahead.
He moved beneath a broad tree within the domain and sat cross-legged.
6 hours outside equated to roughly 90 days inside. If he committed 6 external hours daily for a month, he could accumulate the equivalent of 7.5 years of cultivation time.
The numbers were staggering, and he could really make significant progress in such time.
The only real variable here was his own discipline.
He closed his eyes and began circulating energy through his spiritual energy core; he needed to bring its level to SS rank as well as his demonic core.
He could see massive progress in such a long time, although how much he was able to stick to his schedule was still a question he did not have an answer to.