Tom had realized a long time ago that he was probably making use of less than half of what the system had to offer.
This had become especially obvious as his own strength continued to grow. The most important function of the study space for him, summoning teachers, had gradually become less and less necessary.
That wasn't to say the teachers weren't important. On the contrary, a capable teacher could provide him with an enormous amount of help.
Whether it was guidance in developing his talents or the transmission of knowledge, he had benefited tremendously from them. He had even ended up with several girlfriends along the way.
And every one of those teachers could potentially become his subordinate, each representing a formidable combat force in her own right.
The problem was that while the space's functions were powerful, Tom simply didn't have enough resources to make full use of them.
When it came to credits, he was already completely free from financial pressure. Between the regular monthly stipend he received and the influence generated by the various journals he published, he earned enough credits every month to use the system's functions freely without running himself into the red.
But achievement points were another matter entirely. They were ridiculously difficult to obtain.
Many of the system's tasks took at least half a semester to complete, and some lasted an entire year.
After all that effort, the rewards the system handed out were often nowhere near proportional to what he had put in.
Well, that was just his side of the story. For all he knew, the system thought it was the one getting ripped off.
Was there something wrong with the way he was developing the system, or was the system deliberately restricting him in this area?
Tom leaned back against the sofa and studied the translucent panel in front of him for a while.
In the end, he decided both factors were probably to blame.
First, his approach to developing the system really was flawed. The problem wasn't with him, though. It was with the wizarding world itself.
A large number of achievement points were tied to influence, and there were only about a million people in the entire wizarding world.
No matter how much chaos he caused, there was ultimately a hard limit to how much influence he could accumulate from such a small population.
If the wizarding population were ten times larger, then even if his achievement points didn't increase tenfold, they could probably increase three to five times over without much trouble.
Unfortunately, expanding the wizarding population to that scale was probably impossible for the time being.
Either he would have to develop a method of turning ordinary people into wizards, or the structure of the world itself would have to change.
Morgan had once told him that although the total human population during her era had been smaller than it was now, the proportion of wizards had been vastly higher.
There had been at least tens of millions of people with the innate potential to wield supernatural abilities.
But he couldn't exactly put all the blame on the wizarding world. The system itself deserved half of it.
Who could blame him for complaining when the system was so stingy with achievement points?
Couldn't it open up a few more ways to earn them?
Instead, even summoning a teacher had become something he had to do with extreme caution. He could spend several years saving up points, only to exchange them for a single teacher.
Still grumbling to himself, Tom used the guaranteed Legendary-tier gacha ticket first.
The familiar roulette wheel appeared before him, accompanied by the same cheap, tacky visual effects that looked like they had cost fifty cents.
After spinning several times beneath a blinding flash of light, an extremely irregular piece of metal appeared in midair.
The fragment itself was a dark golden color, but flashes of brilliant silver, calm blue, and blazing red periodically flickered across its surface. Tiny arcs of electricity danced along its edges.
The lights flashed so rapidly that Tom couldn't help wondering whether someone had stuffed an LED into the metal.
The system's description quickly answered his question.
[Fragment of the Elemental Throne: A fragment of a throne originating from a conventional high-magic world. The throne's original owner was a god who ascended through mastery of Elemental Magic. The god was eventually slain by an enemy, resulting in the collapse of the throne.]
[The throne had been occupied by the god for tens of thousands of years and had consequently been imbued with the divine elemental aura. By using this fragment, the host will randomly acquire one such aura, greatly increasing their mastery over the corresponding element.]
Tom's mouth twitched.
He honestly couldn't decide whether this was good luck or bad luck.
There was no question that the reward had an impressive origin. It was actually connected to a fallen god.
But a mere fragment of a throne didn't seem particularly useful.
The power of the elements might be astonishing in other worlds, but it wasn't quite so impressive in this one.
Wizarding abilities were incredibly diverse. When it came to straightforward elemental attacks, sheer power could certainly make them dangerous, but what really made the difficult spells troublesome were the special properties hidden within them, not the elemental power itself.
Take Grindelwald's Protego Diabolica, for example. The flames weren't actually all that hot. What made them troublesome was their ability to burn endlessly, along with their capacity to break through various forms of magic.
"Hopefully this thing comes with some special properties."
With that thought in mind, Tom raised his hand and shattered the metal fragment with a single strike.
The next instant, a burst of silver-blue lightning exploded outward.
An indescribable force surged through his arm and into his body.
Tom's vision went completely white, while a dense roar filled his ears.
The sound wasn't coming from outside. It had appeared directly inside his mind.
Then a bolt of lightning suddenly erupted, splitting through the endless darkness.
Electricity spread from his brain throughout his entire body. Stimulated by this strange power, both his magic and his bloodline began to surge.
Tom possessed the bloodline of an ancient phoenix, which also contained traits inherited from the Thunderbird. He was therefore no stranger to the power of lightning and could wield it with ease.
Yet this time, lightning felt completely different.
In the past, his method of controlling lightning had been much like that of a Thunderbird. He would first gather the winds and clouds, then use the friction between the clouds to generate lightning through what was essentially a magical version of a scientific process.
Now, however, it felt as though countless invisible chains had appeared in the air.
They crisscrossed one another, hidden among the clouds, the earth, and all things in existence. Tiny currents of electricity flowed along every one of them.
Tom reached out with his mind and touched the thickest chain.
Crack!
Countless dazzling bolts of lightning instantly erupted through the void.
"Interesting."
Tom stroked his chin.
He hadn't moved at all, yet a dense web of electricity had appeared around him.
Lightning was normally fleeting, vanishing almost as soon as it appeared. But under Tom's will, it had somehow transformed into an energy construct capable of maintaining its form indefinitely.
The webs of lightning hung silently in the air, like spiderwebs waiting for his command.
There was no doubt about it. His ability to control lightning had evolved.
The feeling was similar to the difference between a talent and an instinct.
A talent was potential that had to be developed before it could be fully utilized. Instinct was simply instinct. If you wanted to use it, you could.
Authority.
Tom suddenly found a better word for what he was experiencing.
In all the myths and legends he knew, gods were said to possess divine authorities, their wills standing above natural laws and ordinary forces. They didn't merely wield fire, lightning, or the elements. They held dominion over them.
So... if he used the "Authority of Lightning" to kill someone, would he still have to endure that disgusting feeling afterward?
Tom suddenly felt an urge to test it.
Unfortunately, he didn't have any Muggle enemies at the moment.
It wasn't as though he were some indiscriminate Dark Lord who went around slaughtering innocent people. The people he'd killed in New York had all been hostile toward him and had actively tried to attack him. He couldn't bring himself to kill someone purely for the sake of an experiment.
So for now, he could only suppress the idea and wait for a suitable opportunity in the future.
Tom had a feeling that his luck had been pretty good.
The grade of this reward was definitely not limited to the lowest Legendary tier. Calling it a Wizard-King tier reward wouldn't be unreasonable.
With his momentum still going, Tom decided to use his guaranteed King-tier gacha draw as well.
The next second, he froze.
The previous gacha draw had at least come with some special effects. They had been cheap and tacky, sure, but at least the system had made an effort to put on a show.
This time, however, absolutely nothing happened.
A flimsy piece of paper simply drifted down from above.
It landed directly in Tom's bewildered hand.
He lowered his head and stared at it.
60% OFF!
Tom: ???
What the hell? A discount coupon?
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