Infinite Potential System

Chapter 481 Treasure Mimic

william progressed through the 14th floor slowly, but with few roadblocks. even though he didn't have torches to follow, the navigation radar kept him from getting hopelessly lost. he only wished he could ascend the navigation talent so it could see the entire floor.

unfortunately, that would require him to ascend the mind talent, which in turn needed a vial of superior calming liquid. it was a cycle of requirements: once one need was met, everything else would fall into place.

he continued exploring the 14th floor, picking up a few hundred more quake dungeon gems, as well as four random pills unique from one another with unknown effects. three of the pills were tier 7, and the fourth was a tier 8 pill, which made him somewhat excited.

until william raised his alchemy talent to tier 7 or tier 8, though, he probably wouldn't discover what these were for unless he asked an expert. he stored them in his space ring and continued moving.

five hours later.

a brick wall that wasn't previously there blocked william's path. according to the navigation talent, this was the path that led directly to the stairwell, meaning he'd have to find another way around. unfortunately, when he mentally retraced the maze, william found that there was no other way to the stairs.

the only path had been blocked.

let's try this then. william opened a portal on his side of the wall that led to a set of coordinates only fifty meters ahead of him, directly on the other side of the wall.

weirdly enough, though, william's portal appeared on the same side as he was on. when he checked the coordinates, they had actually been modified by something other than himself.

what kind of ability is that? did the dungeon do it automatically?

-in short, yes.

what about in long? your journey continues with empire

-in long? you're re-

-anyways, request will cost 500 million potential points. yes/no?

uh, never mind. what were you going to say earlier?

[bestiary] treasure mimic: +1 pp

treasure mimic? that's just evil.

william was both angry and frustrated when he saw the name of the magical beast. he knew treasure mimics very well, but william didn't expect to actually see one here.

mimics were a well-known part of many games that he played. they were formed to look like chests, and rarely moved unless their environment had little ambient mana, but this wasn't just a mimic.

it was a treasure mimic.

there was a difference.

treasure mimics were once normal mimics. when they traveled from one area to another to find a more suitable environment, mimics would often devour treasures they came across and store them inside their bodies.

after a few years in this manner, mimics would transform into the much more powerful treasure mimic, which usually gained the abilities of the treasures they stored within them. if they ate a used sword, they would gain swordsmanship-like abilities based on how the weapon had been used in the past.

the worst part was when the mimic ate some sort of edible treasure. whether it was an element root or alchemical pill, a rare herb or otherwise, the item would be consumed by the mimic never to be recovered.

treasure mimics also gained cultivation naturally from consuming treasures. they absorbed the natural mana and automatically converted it into spirit qi, fueling their cultivation.

this was why treasure mimics were instantly placed on william's list of most annoying magical beasts. either he killed this treasure mimic and it dropped some or all of the items it ate, or there was nothing and he could only be disappointed.

william inspected the treasure mimic with his cultivation talent, finding that it was in the early stages of the initial deity realm. not only that, but with his mana vision william could see that its seal affinity was comparable to when william's seal element was ss-rank.

it wasn't surprising that the treasure mimic's cultivation had progressed past the limits of the 14th floor, but what caught william off guard was its magic ability. how did the treasure mimic improve its affinity to such a level? how long had it lived?

william didn't ask the system. he didn't want to be more depressed than he already was, seeing that a mimic had survived in a dungeon full of loot long enough to both break through to the next realm and comprehend its natural element.

he held back from countering the seal mana affecting his forcefield and decided to fight the treasure mimic head-on. with a flick of his wrist and a mental command, the abyssal weapon shifter transformed into a two-handed greatsword that he handled with just his right hand.

"grah!" william compressed the space between his feet and arrived in front of the treasure mimic with a single step, slashing across its body with the greatsword. his face was fierce as he pressed the blade further into the treasure mimic's body, hoping to cleave it apart in a single move.