Outside, William kept an unruffled face, but his heart was in chaos.
"Almost 4 million hp, and over 700 thousand mana points. I remember with only about ten thousand mana points I could destroy Yol, so with 70 times more mana what are my limits?"
"No wait, my intelligence greatly affects the power of the mana released. In terms of quality each point is twice as powerful as when I was at rank (D-), and in terms of quantity..." William looked at his statistics page again and broke out in a cold sweat.
"556 plus 45,314 is 45,870. So I'm doing over 200 times more damage than when I was at rank (D-)." William quickly calculated in dismay.
"So I should have the power to destroy part of the planet by giving it my all, right?
"Not to mention that I'm not even a wizard. My strength and agility are twice as great as my intelligence and wisdom..." thought William as he looked at the same fists that had not changed in appearance since he had acquired the system.
"Also, now that I have over 60,000 stat points in soul power, I'll be able to recruit many more people under my command, and have a better chance of picking up individuals with talents like [Uncommon Body (+20%) stamina] or even rarer talents like [Rare Body (+50% strength)]"
"So I'll become even more monstrous?"
"If one day I control my strength badly, will everyone here die?" he thought as his heart was not so calm anymore.
"William are you alright?" asked the emperor who was still in front of him.
"Yes, of course, I was just lost in thought," William replied with his usual smile that gave nothing away.
Klavis looked at William as if he was trying to analyze him, but it only lasted a few seconds:
"Well, William, I have a question, but it may bother you."
"Ask away."
"I would like to know the number of pillars in your dantian."
"Why do you want to know that?"
The emperor sighed slightly.
"I don't know if you are aware of it, but it is universally known the number of pillars you have somehow determines your fighting potential at the same level, of course reaching it is another matter."
"So what does that have to do with you?"
"I want to know the number of pillars needed for a (C-) rank to completely dominate a (B-) rank with a monstrous recognized talent, and even to be able to give off pressure comparable to an ordinary (A-) rank." he said while squinting his eyes.
" ... "
William did not answer and remained silent.
Klavis waited for a bit and then sighed.
"Excuse me, I know it's a secret to everyone but my curiosity got the better of me."
"I can tell you but on one condition," William spoke up.
Klavis was surprised and then a happy smile appeared on his face.
"State your condition, I should be able to meet it."
"Exterminate the zarans of Teloria."
Klavis could only give a bitter smile in response.
William laughed lightly as he watched her reaction.
After all, even among all the humans, there were very few who could defeat Klavis, perhaps only the human experts in the (S) rank would have the confidence to defeat him.
So William had a little self-congratulation for daring to joke about such a person.
Seeing this scene, the ten experts who accompanied Klavis were enraged to see their emperor mocked in this way, so they released their aura to pressure William for revenge.
It is a pity that they did not know that William and his army had just defeated the famous army of Joker Myriam, otherwise even with ten times more courage they would never have dared to release their aura on William.
Normally, releasing one's aura was not a problem because no one would be stupid enough to release it on someone higher than themselves.
According to their information William was only a rank (D+) with a power comparable to a rank (C+), although this was incredible, it was still far from their own power which was at least a rank (B+).
However, when this happened, it was like opening the door of the castle to the invader, the walls were useless.
So William only glanced at them briefly as he sent his own pressure invading their bodies and destroying their bodies from the inside.
"For just a little joke about their emperor, they are willing to destroy every bone in my body and obliterate all my dignity as a King. It's only a small price to pay for daring to have such an intention towards me," thought William.
All of them became extremely weak as a result, to the point of kneeling on the ground and starting to vomit blood.
The famous guard of Emperor Klavis, which was enough to sweep away any army of the Zarans, even Joker's, had been defeated with a single glance from William.
Of course, if this guard had not been so arrogant then they could have lasted at least ten minutes in close combat against William, which was enough to prove their strength.
The scene that previously looked like a friendly discussion between two old friends, took a completely different turn.
"William, how do you want to die?" asked Klavis, his eyes brimming with anger fixed on William.
"Considering that they are human and are useful enough to protect the human race, but mostly out of consideration for Victoria I only hurt them slightly. You should feel happy, Klavis," William replied calmly.
The human emperor immediately noticed that William had switched from being on familiar terms to being on familiar terms, which showed that despite William's calm demeanor, his emotions were in a completely different state.
And Klavis did not want to fight a powerful human being who could take the pressure off the Zarans.
Against all odds, Klavis only stared at William for a few seconds before asking:
"Can you change to another condition?"
"Obviously, I'd like to know the useful information about rank (C) and (B)," William replied.
Klavis was very pleased with this condition, as it was valuable information but very easily accessible due to his status and his own power.
Klavis made a slight gesture with his hand, and all the soldiers who had been looking at them could not hear anything, and even the movements of their lips were blurred.
Noticing this gesture, William mentally ordered the system to transmit everything Klavis was going to say to the top generals.
Unaware of this, Klavis began to quickly teach William some information about these ranks.
"Unlike the (F), (E), and (D) ranks which require physical training to progress, the (C) ranks must increase the height and strength of their pillar. This can be done by continuously injecting spiritual energy into your dantian."
"But your speed of injection is always determined by the strength of your will which requires even more concentration and motivation than the previous rank."
"The more pillars you have, the more energy it will take to move to rank (B-).
"To advance to the (B-) rank, your pillars must at least be surrounded by a green color."
"A color?" asked William curiously.
"Yes, if you look closely, you should be able to notice that a thin yellow color surrounds your pillars in your dantian."
William closed his eyes and concentrated on the intangible space that was at his navel, and indeed around his pillars there was a very faint yellow color that could be seen.
"The colors progress this way: yellow, green, blue, orange, and red."
"You can move to rank (B-) as long as the color around your pillars changes to green, but obviously you will be the lowest rank (B-) and you will never be able to move to rank (A-) in your life."
"Only those who are very close to death resort to this method."
"This can be understood because the effort to go from green to blue is extremely difficult, it normally takes more than 1000 years to do so, while the life expectancy of a rank (C) is 2000 years maximum, and often those in rank (D) are already several hundred years old."
"Many of them already have everything they want and no longer have the motivation to spend so much time meditating."
"Unfortunately for these people, reaching rank (A-) with the only green color, only increases their life expectancy by 100 years and their strength is really poor in this rank."
"The blue color increases life expectancy by 8,000 years and the orange color 10,000 once the rank (A-) is reached."
"Regarding the color red, no one knows because in our time no human has managed to achieve it."
"But the main advantage of a better color is not the life span but the strength."
"The difference between each color at rank (C) is not huge, but when rank (B-) is reached, then the difference between each color becomes really big, to the point that a rank (B-) possessing the color orange can beat 3 other people of his rank and possessing the color blue simultaneously."
"And this difference gets even bigger as you progress through the ranks."
"However there are details that can close this gap, and those are talents."
"Talents allow you to get more pillar, and therefore get more strength."
"Once rank (C-) is reached, everyone, regardless of species, gets at least one talent. An uncommon talent at between 1 and 20 pillars. A rare talent, between 20 and 50 pillars. A super rare talent, between 50 and 200 pillars. An epic talent between 200 and 500 pillars. Regarding the higher ranks even I don't know.
"As long as a (B-) has enough pillars surrounded by green energy, it can even beat a (B-) rank with pillars surrounded by red energy."
"The others don't know it yet, but I know it William because I have spies in Zaran territories."
"Joker Myriam was a rank (B-) expert with several hundred pillars surrounded by orange energy."
"All my guards are rank (B+) experts with at least 50+ pillars surrounded by blue energy."
"Hence my question William, how many pillars are needed to unilaterally crush a famous Zaran general, and even dominate all my guards in a few moments?"
William did not answer immediately, instead he looked at the vast forest inside his dantian where the trees were pillars.
And these trees numbered in the tens of thousands.