Infinite Potential System

William removed his gloves that weren't suitable for gripping the sleek crystalline Greater Fire Shards and was about to use his bare hands to rip them out of the wall directly, but then he remembered his experience with herb gathering.

What if this was the same way? Was there a chance he could damage the material in the process of removing it?

He looked through his System Panel for a specific Talent, stopping near the very bottom where two Common Talents under the "Other" category were located.

———

Other:

-Common:

--Herb Gathering: C (100PP to next rank)

--Mining: C (100PP to next rank)

———

It's only C-Rank. How long has it been since I last upgraded this?

William scanned through his memories, but he couldn't locate the specific moment. If he had to guess, it was probably while hunting in the Foam Desert. He had upgraded quite a few useless Talents back then.

It doesn't really matter when, but it's actually useful now. System, upgrade my Mining Talent to S-Rank.

William didn't care about the prerequisite Ranks, since he only wanted general knowledge that would enable him to recover the Greater Fire Shards more efficiently and without damaging them.

With his Mining Talent at C-Rank already and some overlapping information from the Blacksmithing Talent, William knew inherently that he shouldn't be outright grabbing them, but he didn't know exactly why.

As the System removed 1350 Potential Points from his balance, however, William began to understand as the information entered his brain directly.

He quickly found out that the reason why he shouldn't touch the Greater Fire Shard was because it was categorized as a crystal, and the oils from his hand could transfer to the Fire Shard's surface and making it lose clarity and luster at the microscopic level.

Worse yet, certain crystals could tarnish, which meant its surface would become discolored and reduce the value of the crystal. While this didn't apply to the Greater Fire Shards, William still felt thankful for the information.

The upgrade to B-Rank was completed and A-Rank came up next. William focused mostly on the crystal extraction process, though he also gained knowledge about how to mine various ores, which he could recall later as needed.

For now, he learned that the best way to remove the Greater Fire Shards from the walls of the cave would be to create a hammer and chisel. Using the hammer, he could lightly tap on the rock surrounding the Shard to loosen the crystal.

If all went well, he could use the chisel to tap with greater precision while supporting it with a gloved hand, eventually causing the crystal to fall. Afterwards, it would need to be cleaned with a brush and stored inside a container with a form of padding that would keep the Fire Shard in good condition.

It was a lengthy process, that would consume a lot of time, but William felt he could take the chance to get used to it. He sat still while the S-Rank upgrade proceeded, giving him more information on many of the rarer materials he could mine, while also sending him into a year-long simulation.

He didn't have a choice during the simulation whether he would extract crystals, ores, or standard materials, so it gave him a few months' experience with all of them. At the end of the simulation, William immediately retrieved his forging materials to create a chisel that he could use.

He still had multiple hammers of varying sizes amidst his blacksmithing tools that he could use, so only the chisel needed to be crafted.

Since he only had Starmetal Ore and a piece of Molten Dragonstone that he hadn't refined yet, William was forced to use the Starmetal, although he would have been more content using a less valuable material.

Another thing for the to-do list. Buy or mine some ore that I can use later.

He hadn't seen any ore yet in this cave, but William kept his hopes up. After all, there was still a long way to go before reaching the bottom.

Carl didn't bother watching the refinement process of the Starmetal, since he had seen it a few times before and was already bored. He admired William's work ethic though, which seemed to never tire no matter what.

First he was an Array Master, then an Alchemist, and now he's a Blacksmith? What is he trying to do, collect all the trade skills? What a maniac!

He flipped over and closed his eyes to sleep, doing his best to ignore the loud clanging sounds of the hammer bashing against metal. Unfortunately for him, though, the noise only became louder and more frequent as William neared completion.

Worse yet, the temperature had started to become unbearable for him. Though he was a Cultivator as well, the ambient heat from the Greater Fire Shards had raised the heat to an uncomfortable level.

It wasn't a big deal before since William had used Ice Magic frequently while fighting, but Carl couldn't help but notice now.

"William."

Clang, Clang, Clang.

"William!"

Clang, Clang, Clang, Clang.

"WILLIAM!"

Clang. "What?"

"You're loud, and it's kinda hot. Can you do something?"

"Oh, sorry." William was used to the sound of forging items, so he hardly ever soundproofed his area. Not only that, but his high heat resistance once again tricked him into thinking he was in a normal environment.

William used Sound Mana to prevent the noise from leaking out, also lightening the strain on his own ears. It was the fifth, technically sixth Element he had used in the Southern Plains if you counted the secret Fire Magic, but no one was around so William wasn't concerned.

Next, he created a small five-meter dome of Ice around Carl to protect him from the heat. Carl added his own piece by creating a wall of Earth above himself, catching the bits of water that melted from the ice.

William finished forging the chisel only a few minutes later in the soundproofed environment, then got to work extracting his first Greater Fire Shard. He started on the ceiling, raising himself up with a pillar of Ice, then reached upwards to stabilize the Shard while following the instructions from his Mining Talent.

Pop! The Greater Fire Shard broke loose from the ceiling after just a few minutes, gently held in William's hand as he retrieved a bit of cotton from his Space Ring to wrap it in, along with a small black box that was given out in the Gravitas Ruins.

-Acquired Greater Fire Shard: +25 PP

Not as much as Starmetal Ore, but still quite a bit! There's so many Shards here too!

He continued extracting Fire Shards, collecting nine more and placing them inside the same box with cotton padding in between. The black boxes had plenty of space inside, so William was able to store ten Greater Fire Shards at once.

Though he used a small amount of Mana each time to reach the next Greater Fire Shard, William's Mana Reserves recovered to full in under an hour. He wasn't really low on Mana anyway, so this wasn't really a problem.

He replaced the Ice Dome around Carl that had nearly melted, then continued extracting Fire Shards for the next three hours until he had 230 Greater Fire Shards. While he was excited about the loot, William was more thrilled about earning 5750 Potential Points.

He wanted to continue mining the Greater Fire Shards, but he sensed the thieves above them descending once again, so William had to wake Carl up.