Infinite Potential System

William looked at the Collateral Damage Talent first, since it had the most interesting name and was his first Legendary Physical Talent. He hoped it was like the Attack Reflection Talent— much more powerful than its rank suggests.

-Collateral Damage (B-Rank Legendary): Your enemies will never know what hit them, literally! When attacking with kicks or punches, your moves are surrounded in an invisible aura that affects the surroundings in a radius around you. Current radius: 40 centimeters.

"This really is a cheat skill!" William said as he punched forward next to a nearby hill, blasting apart a small area around his fist. This would be very useful in close combat and would pair really well with the Attack Reflection Talent.

He tested it out with the Abyssal Weapon Shifter, but it only seemed to work with his bare feet and fists. A shame, but still an incredible Talent.

Despite having spun over a hundred Physical Talents, the amount of "Nothing" purchases remained about the same and even rose slightly. After a hundred spins, he had only earned 10 new Physical Talents.

I have plenty of Potential Points left, though. I should upgrade these new Talents before doing anything else.

William's defensive ability had increased greatly with the Hard Muscles, Organs, Bones, Veins, and Skin Talents combined, but he needed even more if he wanted to survive the Chaos upgrade without running out of lifespan.

System, upgrade these Talents to X-Rank. He selected the four Talents spoken previously that weren't already at the maximum Rank.

-255000 PP

The upgrades were much faster than awakening the Talents initially, and William's Mind Talent limited the pain to a bearable level. The only downside was the psychological impact of seeing one's internal body parts replaced and refined repeatedly. It was gruesome, to say the least.

He skipped past the notification of the new changes, opting to proceed with the Talent upgrade and wait for the final reveal.

-Requirements met for the Talent upgrade. Merging the Hard Skin, Hard Organs, Hard Bones, Hard Muscles, and Hard Veins Talents... Please be careful, you will be left vulnerable in this state.

Vulnerable? How? William wondered, but his question was quickly answered.

Just as quickly as his body parts were refined and improved were they gathered and removed one by one. His skin was ripped off first, surgically and with little pain. Then came the muscles, followed by the nerves that hadn't received any upgrade.

Next, the bones and organs were removed at the same time, floating above William's head and disappearing just like before. In their place, a dark blue light enveloped the area, making William feel as if he was underwater.

At the end of it all, William was left solely as a consciousness, with no body to host him. The underwater effect was actually just him automatically switching to the Spirit Mode Vision, which was not controlled by him at all.

-You are a Soul Being until the remainder of the upgrade. Defend yourself.

Before he had time to fully react to the situation, William saw two human-like figures in the distance with glowing white eye sockets. Even in this form, his Cultivation Talent was able to identify that they were both in the Core Formation Realm, which made William ease up slightly.

The two approached, gathering an ethereal fireball in each of their hands and tossing them at William in unison. He tried to dodge to the side, but quickly realized his speed wasn't what it used to be, limited to barely the Golden Core Realm.

He underestimated the amount of strength he had to put into dodging and was clipped on the right shoulder by both fireballs, which exploded next to him and made his entire right arm disappear.

There was no pain, but his arm wasn't recovering at all!

Shit, I can't use any of my physical talents in this place! William realized.

-Didn't I just tell you that you're a Soul Being? Why are you surprised about this?

Aren't you upgrading my Talents? Why do you always have time to bully me?

-You're easy to bully.

...

William channeled his Soul Strength into creating a fireball of his own, finding that Magic wasn't suppressed as much as his physical ability. He cast the fireball forward when it approached the size of a building, obliterating the two Cultivators instantly.

Even the SS-Rank Fire Magic is limited to the middle stages of the Nascent Soul Realm... this is harsh.

If William didn't have 1250 Soul Strength, he wouldn't even be able to achieve that! In the Soul Realm, one's physical abilities were reduced by nearly ninety-nine percent, while their Magic would be roughly ninety percent weaker.

Soul Strength wasn't a measure of how powerful one was as a Soul Being, it was a measure of how much the restrictions of the Soul Realm affected the person. If William's Soul Strength was less than a hundred, he wouldn't even be able to move in this Realm!

But of course, William didn't know that. He continued to battle fiercely with every opponent that entered his vision, from two to four to dozens of remnant souls of long-dead Cultivators and Magical Beasts.

If their souls are still here, does that mean there's no such thing as Hell or the Netherworld? William asked the System.

-There is, but only one's bare consciousness can go to Hell. All of one's acquired Cultivation, Soul Strength, and their Mana Reserves remain in the World they died, becoming an emotionless bundle of energy that wants nothing but to attack those who enter the Soul Realm without permission.

So, Soul Zombies? William asked.

-Soul Zombies, Ghosts, Vengeful Spirits. Call them what you like, but they're all the same thing.

Then what about the Demon I saw in the Gravitas Ruins? I remember asking about their origins, but you wouldn't tell me. What about now? Are they Magical Beasts, or...?

-Request requires 840 Potential Points. Yes/No?

Only 840? Sure.

-Demons are a unique lifeform that come directly from Hell. I've already mentioned that Cultivation, Soul Strength, and Mana Reserves stay in the World, but what happens when the consciousness that went to Hell returns?

-It's simple. The lost Cultivation, Soul Strength, and Mana Reserves merge back together with the original consciousness, bringing with it the vengefulness that one has towards living beings. If a consciousness is powerful enough to reach the World from Hell, they are also strong enough to bring this World to its knees. If given the time to grow, that is.

William didn't understand everything about the System's explanation, but he got the general idea.

So, if I died and went to Hell... I could come back, technically? But the moment I returned to Efretta... things wouldn't be good.

-Exactly. Many who want to return to their home Worlds have nothing but the best intentions, but few realize that their homesickness will become both theirs and their family's downfall.

-Those that wanted revenge on their murderers will only have it worse. Before they have a chance to locate their objective, the negative emotions will cloud their thoughts and cause them to go rampant. Eventually they will forget who they even are— a killing machine with no goal.