Supreme Monarch

After focusing his attention on just increasing the strength of his five, well four of his five strongest vassals for a while. It was finally time he returned his focus to learning more about his innate ability, 'Potential Break.'

While seated on the high-quality wooden throne, his gaze gently shifted to the others in the room and he began calling them out in various order and groups in order to test his ability's limitations and range.

Of course, he didn't do anything drastic to the children as they would be unable to handle the backlash of having their potential utterly destroyed even if it was for only a second. He simply used the minimal mana on them and managed to boost their potential by 1 level each without completely destroying it first. 

As for the others, he didn't care to take a look at their skills or what they received from him as Uriel could always retrieve that information for him at a later date but he kept a list of their current Tiers so he would know how effective his ability was on them.

Talen, Hart, Kela, Lora, and Gail who were all at varying levels of the Tier 3 standard all increased by 1 full tier and were now captains of their squads. Though the squads were yet to be determined. 

The only exception to this was Hart who Tyler still felt was an idiot so he assigned him to assist Lora because she was a magic caster with the weakest defenses amongst them. The maids also got their potential increased and Tier 1 was now Tier 2, Tier 2 had also been increased to Tier 3. 

Cora who was his personal maid was now Tier 3 and since she was a healer, he would just have to teach her his healing spells and some other spells to help her defend herself in case of emergencies. 

With Uriel's help, he could now recreate any spellbook he had mastered but needed parchments that could handle the energy else the book would disintegrate the moment he engraved magic runes on them. 

...

After what felt like hours of just sitting in a chair and taking mental notes as though he was back in school. Tyler finally ended his experiments and had managed to learn a lot about his innate ability.

For instance, he still wasn't sure how many times in a day he could use his ability but for now, he guessed he should be able to use it as long as he had enough mana to spare. Currently, his mana was low and he could no longer use it but fortunately, he had just finished his last test before that happened. 

As for the question of how many times he could use it on the same person in a day. He was confident he could only do it once in the span of a few months. He had tried to do it twice on a beastman and the guy almost died due to his body breaking down from the power.

He figured the body needed even more time to adjust than the mana body. As one grew and increases their tier, their physical abilities improve as well. This was why even a pure mage like Liz was tens of times faster and stronger than a regular person.

However, if the body is suddenly flooded with too much power in a single instance, it would break down and degenerate until it dies. Tyler had to devour the energy directly from that guy's body with his new magic artifact, Depth of the Abyss. He also needed to distort space because the item normally wouldn't work on none projectile energy.

However, that wasn't something he could rely on so he didn't try it again. That was because the Depth of the Abyss had a more stubborn personality than Spatial Infinity. It would greedily devour mana even after Tyler had suppressed it. That was its entire purpose and it couldn't help itself.

The item normally wouldn't consume his mana when devouring energy because Tyler had forced it to invade the target body. It needed his energy to fuel itself.

This was why Tyler was currently out of mana and if he hadn't gained the skill Energy Manipulation, he probably would've died from mana deficiency. Of course, he would find a way to deal with such a dangerous side effect later but for now, he just scolded the item with domination as negative energy would be devoured by it.

The next question was how much could he break someone's potential if he didn't hold himself back or care about absorption rate.

The answer was subjective. It depended on the strength of that person's soul and body, and the amount of mana he uses. However, for now, he concluded the limit was by a full tier and one level. Two-tier when referring to just the Magic potential.

Next was, how many people could he use it on at the same time? The answer, ten. If he tried to expand his influence it would increase the chances of causing permanent damage to someone's mana body. However, as long as he uses the right amount of mana, the effects stay the same for those ten. 

The final question was how many times could he break someone's potential. Frankly, he had partly answered this question with the first question. He also wouldn't know for at least a few months or years but he felt he could break someone's potential more than once as long as it wasn't in the span of a few days. Although he could tell there would be a limit, the number of times he could use his ability on someone depended on their will and soul.

With that came the end of his little test and experiments which could be considered a success as he only had one casualty and thanks to Erin the guy was fine but his potential had remained the same because Tyler took back his mana. 

"Alright. I'm glad everyone is okay. Your wills and resolves were enough for you to withstand the strain my power placed on your mana body. You have all gained newfound strength but while your potential and tiers have increased, your abilities remain the same. However, most of you have gained new skills and abilities from me. I hope you can master them within the next few days."

Tyler knew they would be able to instantly use the skills they gained from him but he wasn't sure they would have complete mastery of them as even he did not. He had only just activated them after all.

The hall soon broke out into an uproar as the vassals expressed their gratitude and devotion or something. He was no longer listening to them. He dismissed them soon after and tasked Z with training everyone there and preparing them for his plan until Jarret returns. 

Liz, Rain, and Albert would spend that time sparring against themselves to master their new abilities as well but Erin didn't have anything she needed to do so she stayed behind with Tyler who remained seated on the throne not because he liked it. He just felt a little dizzy after losing so much mana within such a short period.

At this point, his mana reserves were beyond the level of a demigod but his ability took a lot of mana when used on others and he could understand why he had been unable to use it as a human. He doubted even a hero would be able to draw out the full power of Potential Break.

"Are you okay Lord Ty?"

A soft and lovely voice rang out to him in a worried tone so Tyler raised his head while massaging his temples only to see Erin's beautiful face draw closer to his as she studied him worriedly. 

For a moment Tyler's mind went blank and he could only stare dumbly at Erin, who was standing in front of him.

"Are you all right?"

A faint fragrance entered his nostrils. The scent seemed to restore his ability to think, and his mind, which had been hitherto out of commission, slowly returned to normal.

He soon calmed down and replied to her worried tone with a calming one.

"I'm fine, I just used a little more mana than I expected."

"Oh, dear! Is there something I can do to help Lord Ty? I'll try my best if I can."

Suddenly panicked by his words, Erin had drawn even closer to him. She was so close he could feel her gentle breaths. Her lovely face dimpled adorably as she asked her question.

Tyler, who had already calmed down was now getting worked up by the sudden turn of events again. 

"No, it's fine... I should be fully recovered in a few hours."

"oh... okay."

She moved away from him but it seemed like she was a little disappointed. Perhaps not involving her in his earlier test had made her a little anxious or feeling left out but there was nothing he could do about that now. 

Not only would it take way too much mana to boost her past her current Tier, but Tyler truly didn't think her source had stabilized enough for something like that. 

"Umm... err... Lord Ty?"

"Yes."

"I'm not sure if it will work but I can try using my ability to increase your life force. That may restore your mana."

"There's really no need for you too— You know what, please do."

Seeing Erin look defected about not being able to help, Tyler changed his mind and allowed her to do her thing which seems to make her happy. She rushed closer to him and held the sides of his head closer to her chest which would've made him distracted but the light was suddenly emitted from her hands, hindering the alluring view. 

It was then followed by a warm feeling that seems to wipe away his fatigue. After only a couple of seconds, the light suddenly stopped and she moved back a little as she shyly asked if it worked and how he now felt.

"Indeed. I feel much better now. Thank you."

"Um... oh it was nothing." She was fidgeting with her fingers as she answered him which made Tyler chuckle inwardly as he examined himself. 

Sensing more movements in his left hand that were struck by negative corruption, Tyler nodded his head in satisfaction and stood up from the throne. Turning his head to face the suddenly flustered Erin, he spoke.

"Do you have something to do while the others are busy?"

"Um... err... No, not really. I'm done with all the tasks you assigned me with and I'm able to maintain my surveillance spell around the castle indefinitely."

Tyler tilted his head in amazement as he smiled and continued speaking to Erin. 

"I see... That is impressive, good work."

"Oh... um... Thank you, sire."

'How adorable.' Tyler thought of her reserved expression as he thought of what he wanted to do next. 

"Since that's the case there's no point in assigning you a similar task so why don't you accompany me for a while then. I need to check up on the dwarves and then the Kobolds to see their current progress so I'm aware of whatever they require to make the work easier and faster. There's only so much I can get from reading the report."

"Oh... right. As expected of Lord Ty. I did not even think of that."

Tyler could see that she was genuinely in awe of his wisdom but she was operating under a misunderstanding as Tyler could not understand nor comprehend the extremely detailed report she had ogives him. 

He was only operating under the summarized version he had heard from her mouth. He needed to visit these places because he needed to get a better feel on what was going on around him so he could easily understand the report better. 

Uriel's explanation had also not been helpful as she was just as sophisticated as Erin was. Tyler was sure the nymph's intellect could match or even surpass that of Z if she was so reserved about everything including her abilities. 

After all, she also had the title of Genius in her data. Moving on from that train of thought. Tyler shifted his gaze to the corner of the room where only one person remained. 

Everyone else had left including the maids but Cora stayed behind and as Tyler stood up from the throne, she moved behind him and accomplished Tyler and Erin out of the hall.