Infinite Potential System

"Going once...going twice...sold! To our friend from the Hillvire Empire for seven thousand Mana Stones!" Rodger yelled out.

The winner was unsurprisingly Harold Kami, who went to a back room with Rodger to make the trade for the item. Rather than leaving the Night Market, Harold Kami chose to come back and bid for more items.

"That dude must be loaded..." Carl said. Just look at his uniform, he's a member of the Kami Noble family in the North.

"Are they that popular?" William asked. He didn't expect Carl to know about a random family in the northern part of the Continent.

"Only because of what they do. They're not a very large family compared to Ancient Families, but they have at least one representative in almost every City on the Continent.

They're basically all merchants that buy items at a low price and sell them for more. You might as well call them their own Auction House." Carl explained.

William nodded. He wondered why a merchant would spend so much money on his weapons. Was it for a personal matter?

The Auction continued, and William was informed that he had 6300 more Mana Stones available to use for bidding if he wanted. He now had 12928 Mana Stones to his name, which should be enough to bid on any other rare items that appear.

The Night Market took ten percent of the profit for themselves, which William had already expected. Even in his old world, Auctions took a portion of the profits, although not usually so much.

For the occasion, William used 375 Potential Points to push his Sales Talent from D to A-Rank directly. Like its name, the Sales Talent provided useful knowledge that would help William make a purchase or sell an item.

It also told him many methods to encourage others to spend more or dissuade people from charging higher prices for an item. Rather than a Sales Talent, this might have been better named as Bargaining.

Although the best addition was that he could now see the value of every item in front of him. It showed up as a layer of orange text within the blue text box from the Appraise Function. The orange text read the market value of the appraised item based on the area he was in.

William knew that improving his Sales Talent would give him an edge, but he didn't expect this kind of advantage. His eyes shone as he proceeded to appraise every item that came through the Auction.

The Auction continued, and item after item was brought out for bidding.

William's Lightning Element Root appeared after a few minutes, causing another bidding frenzy. The item sold for a whopping 950 Mana Stones, which according to William's Sales Talent, was roughly a hundred Mana Stones above market value. The Space Element Root was even rarer, so it easily sold for 2250 Mana Stones, further adding to William's balance.

When a set of rare Alchemy ingredients in a specialized glass case appeared, Gunther became ecstatic. His eyes glowed as he looked at a large blue carrot that emitted an icy aura, even slightly chilling the room.

"That's a Tier 9 Frost Carrot! You can use those to make a Tier 9 Fireproof Potion!" he said excitedly. Gunther had learned a little bit about Alchemy since William left the Sect, so spotting a well-known and powerful material like this was easy for him.

William looked at his friend and narrowed his eyes, "What do you plan to do with that Frost Carrot?"

"Well of course I'm going to- I don't like the look you're giving me." Gunther decided to hold his tongue before William said something childish.

William waved his hand in dismissal, but there was a slight smirk on his face, which made Gunther angry.

"Don't even think it!" Gunther said.

"Yeah, yeah...we know what you're into." William's smile grew wider.

William noticed one of the ingredients he needed for the Tribulation Pills amongst the group, so he surprised his friends by instantly bidding five hundred Mana Stones, which was half the market value of a thousand.

There didn't seem to be many rich Alchemists among the audience, so only one person outbid him for 600 Mana Stones, which William promptly waited until Rodger was counting down to bid again.

Judging by the man's expression, William could tell that he was only trying to make William waste money. As the countdown started, the man became visibly nervous that the ingredients would actually sell.

The man locked eyes with William, who remained stone-faced as the countdown nearly ended.

"605 Mana Stones." William said, while giving the other man a "Don't test me" look.

No one tried to outbid William, scared that he would let the ingredients go if they pushed him too far. With the main item yet to go up for Auction, no one wanted to spend past their budget.

William told Rodger he would accept his ingredients later with the Mana Stones he had earned from the other Auctions, then remained in his seat.

Some of the audience noticed that William wasn't getting up, but they saw him pull out a communicator they recognized.

So he's also auctioning an item. I wonder what he put up? The spectators wondered.

Their thoughts were interrupted by a sudden wave of Mana that assaulted their faces. Rodger had just removed the lid to one of the glass cases, which revealed a blue stone the size of William's thumb.

Rodger took a step away from the blue stone that was surrounded by a small vortex of what William realized were actually strands of consciousness. The stone was actually gathering Souls from the environment and improving itself constantly.

William had no idea how the stone worked whatsoever. It was so powerful that it seemed to defy the very rules of the World, and William wondered why someone would even auction an item like this.

"This is an Ultimate Soul Stone, which was harvested with great effort from a cave that only appears once every fifty years in the third Ring of the Providence Zone. There were many others like this, but I have already absorbed ten and there is just one left over.

Since the cave won't be opening for another fifty years, this is your last chance to acquire such an item! The bidding starts at two thousand Mana Stones, begin!"

Before William started bidding, he appraised the Ultimate Soul Stone.

———

Ultimate Soul Stone: A small rock that was naturally formed in a cave of souls. It contains unfathomably dense Soul Energy that will overwhelm even the most powerful Cultivators if they are not strong enough. Can be eaten to improve your Soul many times more than a regular Soul Stone would. Effects do not diminish, but cap out depending on the size of the stone.

Effects:

+5000 Soul Strength

Requirements: Host must have 1000 Soul Strength to consume

Market Value: Priceless, unobtainable for 50 years

Ultimate Soul Stones Eaten: 0/10

———

Five thousand Soul Strength?!? Does that mean Rodger has fifty thousand Soul Strength right now?

William now realized just how powerful his Master was compared to him. He also wondered how much Soul Strength was required to reach the peak of the world. If fifty thousand wasn't enough to Ascend, was it one hundred thousand? One million?

He hoped it wasn't a million. William didn't even know where he would get so many souls.