Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

Chapter 94: Breakthrough

The rewards were nice and all but for now, that wasn't his priority...

Since he already passed the test, his advancement will now begin.

As if on cue, Cedric felt a strange sensation bubbling within him. He became alert and immediately sat down to brace for the impact.

Boom!

Cedric's body shook. A wave of pure unknown force slammed into him, causing him to groan uncomfortably. Nevertheless, it wasn't threatening. He hurriedly relaxed his body allowing it to absorb the foreign energy that was being transmitted to him.

While the list of requirements didn't include Demon Souls, it's under the premise that all system users know that every advancement needs it. A given fact, more or less.

For Cedric's Tier 3 Advancement, he needed a whopping 150,000 Purified Demon Souls. For others, this would've been impossible to get but since Cedric could collect them, this was no problem for him.

He had millions of Purified Demon Souls collected in his inventory. He prepared them beforehand since he didn't know how much he would need.

The strength of Purified Demon Souls as well as a mysterious stream of energy were combined and funneled into Cedric's body, changing and strengthening him in the process.

Cedric's mind, body, and spirit were being elevated at a discernable pace. The previous impact of the energy mixture no longer bothered him. Right now, he's solely focused on allowing his body to absorb as much as it can while also paying attention to the changes within him.

Time passed and soon, Cedric could tell that his advancement was tapering off. By now, his body was already adjusting to the recent changes. However, Cedric still has something to add.

Once he's done absorbing every morsel of energy there was for his advancement, he circulated the [White Lotus Core Technique].

He decided to take this chance to advance from the 'Hollowed Core Stage' to the 'Solid Core Stage'.

Through his perfect control over his Ki, the hollowed core gradually filled up. Incomparably pure Ki was poured onto it, causing the hollowed core to start rotating in place.

Cedric was completely focused on this process, he couldn't afford to the distracted since one wrong move could severely injure him from within. Thankfully, his control was perfect, not even a sliver of Ki was wasted when he moved them.

Eventually, he converted enough Ki to fill up the Hollowed Core. The next step is to compress it as much as he could. And to do that, he had to exert his will upon the core and have it spin even faster.

Doing this wasn't too challenging for him either. He compressed his core again and again until it became the size of a mung bean. It's incredibly small but make no mistake, this core packs ultra-dense Ki. If he were to release this and have it explode, it would wipe out the entire Black Thread City in mere seconds.

Once Cedric felt that he reached the limits of his core compression, he released his hold on it. Its rotation speed visibly slowed down a lot but that's fine, it doesn't have to spin that fast all the time anyway.

More importantly, however, Cedric's Ki which used to be in gaseous form, has now condensed and purified even more and was close to liquefying. As a matter of fact, he already collected a drop of liquified Ki, and it was not coursing through his body, nourishing and strengthening him.

Thanks to this nourishment, Cedric's body underwent another metamorphosis. His skin started shedding, more impurities were pushed out of his body, and he also bled a lot, but none of these were harmless. It was a natural process since his body was being refined to a whole new level.

"Finally..." Cedric mused to himself, "Solid Core Stage and Tier 3 Lv.1! My strength elevated greatly!"

It was normal for him to be excited. The feeling of becoming stronger was exhilarating.

Cedric casually threw a punch and was elated when he saw its effects. Even this casual punch of his could severely injure C-Rank Superhumans of the same level. This just shows how absurd he had truly become.

With the elevation of his strength, the burden he could shoulder increased as well. Of course, this comes with responsibilities but since he's still a nobody for now, he still had time to spare.

"The range of my senses also increased by a lot." Cedric murmured, "Around 50 miles with me at the center. The Black Thread City is about 100 km², about 38.6 miles. Simply put, no matter where I am in the city, I will know everything happening within it and some distance outside of it. That's great."

He briefly wondered how Arishem and the City Lord would react to this if he were to tell them. When Arishem asked him last time, he severely downplayed it and said that his range was about a kilometer and a half.

'They wouldn't suspect it if I were to say that I could sense up to 10 kilometers next time right?' He mused to himself before shaking his head.

"My body will need time to consolidate this breakthrough. It will do it on its own though, so I'm not worried." Cedric muttered while cleaning himself.

Once he was done, he briefly admired himself in a mirror. His previous 'exfoliation' made him even more handsome than before. There's also a faint smell of freshness coming from his body.

"Strange, I'm pretty sure I used unscented products just now. Could this be my natural scent then?"

Cedric decided to not think too much about it. He wasn't too concerned about this. So long as he doesn't smell bad, then it is fine.

Since he's done with his breakthrough and advancement, Cedric decides to settle a few more things before leaving this place.

He took out the Beast Egg and held it close to his body. He analyzed it with his senses and he felt the latent seed of life within the egg. It's as if it were frozen in time, it's alive but it won't grow unless he does something about it.

Also, because of its form, it's impossible to discern what kind of beast it was. Well, he's better off nothing thinking about it. After all, its description said that it would depend on him and the nourishment he could provide.

"Fortunately, I don't need to be a Beast Tamer to incubate it." Cedric sighed in relief.

To form a contract, Cedric bit his finger and smeared his blood on the eggshell. As soon as he did that, the Beast Egg glimmered before turning into a streak of light, disappearing to his chest.

Cedric hurriedly inspected his body and discovered that the Beast Egg had taken a spot near his White Lotus Core as its home. He could also feel it absorbing a little bit of his Blood Essence.

Blood Essence is also known as the longevity of a Superhuman. It's the lifespan, in simple terms. The amount that the Beast Egg absorbed from him was comparable to a full year of his lifespan, meaning that his lifespan lessened by a full year just now.

Cedric wasn't too concerned though. Due to the changes that happened to him since then, Cedric could live up to 500 years old. A mere year wasn't something he'd cry about. Besides, so long as he makes more advancements or breakthroughs, his lifespan will continue to be extended, so really, this wasn't concerning to him at all.

What he didn't know is that the amount of blood essence the Beast Egg absorbs for the initial feeding depends on its contractor. For now, the Beast Egg is driven by pure instinct. It reacts according to the rules of its immediate environment.

For Cedric, losing a year's worth of Blood Essence might not be a big deal but that's because he wasn't aware of how precious his Blood Essence was...

He's an EX-Ranked Superhuman, a one-of-a-kind monster. The worth of his blood essence was at least 10 times greater than the blood essence of a S-Rank Superhuman.

For the Beast Egg, this was a sheer dose of Ambrosia. The moment it consumed Cedric's blood essence, it already began laying the foundations for its phenomenal birth. It would take time for sure, and Cedric would need to feed it more valuable resources, but so long as he met its demand, the Beast that would come out of this egg was bound to surprise him greatly in the future.

"That should be the Initial Feeding done," Cedric muttered. "It should stay silent for a while."

With that out of the way, he stopped paying attention to the egg. It's safe within his body so he doesn't have to worry about it.

Cedric left the Enlightening Tea Packets inside his inventory. He didn't plan on touching those for now. It is a valuable consumable, yes. But he hasn't encountered anything that would require its usage so it's best to leave it there.

Next, he brought out the Random Legendary Equipment Ticket.

"Alright, let's see what kind of equipment I'll get from this." He whispered, "Please be a sword though..."

He took a deep breath and tore the ticket in half. Golden light erupted all of a sudden, momentarily blinding him.

Once it subsided and his vision adjusted to the brightness, the legendary equipment revealed its form to him...