Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking-Chapter 540 - 5th Stage of Void Refinement

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'Whew...'

Cedric released a breath as the sensation of his most recent breakthrough recedes like a tide, returning calm to his turbulent Inner World.

His inner world expanded to 99,999 miles in diameter after this breakthrough. It required gross amounts of Void Energy absorption. Fortunately, that isn't something that he's lacking. It's also quite fortunate that his breakthrough didn't attract the attention of Void Creatures, or else things could've gotten more complicated.

Aside from expansion, Cedric's Inner World began showing even more visible signs of mutations. While it remains predominantly divided into dark gold chaos and pitch-black void, other colors became visible as well, and these colors represent the embryo of concept laws growing steadily within him.

As the concept law embryos mature, Cedric's connection with the Primeval Scarlet Dust Realm grows more intimate as well. His aura became even more in tune with his surroundings, making it seem like he's just a mortal walking amongst the gods, blending seamlessly with the background.

Cedric had this feeling that he could harness the might of the entire realm if he truly wanted to. Like he could impose his will upon the realm to do his bidding.

It would be a lie if he were to say that he's not tempted, because he was. But he wasn't going to do it...well, at the very least, he wouldn't go overboard.

This feeling shouldn't be wrong; Cedric's instincts very rarely lie to him, especially as his life evolves even further.

Even as he stands here doing nothing, Cedric receives insights about concept laws he never considered before, deepening his understanding and skill even further. It was a miraculous feeling, and he doesn't know if this was unique to him. He also doesn't dare to speak of it so easily too, because he didn't want to invoke too much envy and jealousy upon himself. After all, being passively enlightened is something many people wouldn't even dare to dream of.

'Still, the more I advanced, the more ridiculous my needs got.' Cedric couldn't help but laugh dryly at this.

This time, he didn't even bother taking note of how much void energy he needed. It's a lot, that's for sure. And it will continue to increase as he progresses.

He made a mental note so that next time, he'd be more prepared. He even thought about inviting protectors for his next breakthrough because expanding his Inner World from 99,999 miles to 999,999 miles might take even more time and also attract more void creatures.

Anyways...

Since his breakthrough was done, and the only thing he needed to do at this point was to let the neutralized void be refined to Chaos Energy, there's no point in staying here.

He repaired the seal, strengthened it even, and returned to the camp. This breakthrough lasts for two weeks. It could've been way longer if he had chosen the less risky option of minimizing the leak, but he didn't. He can't be absent from the camp for too long; there are just too many things there that need him.

One of those many things was, of course, more participants of the project making it through the final step: discovering the spark and fusing with it. There were five people who achieved it this time, and the camp once again had to be mobilized for their breakthrough, though not as much as before. Of course, as the director of this project, Cedric had to be there, and his own breakthrough already delayed them for two weeks, so he had to make up for it.

As more and more people achieved this final step, Cedric's confidence soared even higher.

Because you see, at the start of this project, he thought that most of these people would die. He never entertained the idea that all of them would be able to endure the horrible erosion of the void, which made him expect that most of them were going to fail, or die, before completing the first step.

But as time went on, along with his careful reminders, nobody has died yet. And their success rate had been no less than stellar so far.

Jormund and the other Ancient Chaos Path evolvers are already repaying the Border Patrol Office's investment in them big time. They had been sent into other camps and had already reinforced everything that needed to be reinforced there by now to the best of their abilities. Additionally, they are also learning and discovering more things about Chaos Energy as they go, making each day they spend incredibly fulfilling and rewarding.

Cedric sees it as a miracle. 'Cause what else can it be? Even with all of his preparations, he didn't believe that he'd be able to establish a strong and reliable way to enter the Ancient Chaos Path with his sole basis being personal experience. That's not fair and absolute. There are bound to be mistakes, inconsistencies, gaps, and maybe even casualties.

That's why he found it miraculous that nobody has died so far. And he's also hoping that the trend continues this way.

**

"Yes, I think it can work this way." Cedric muttered to himself while his hands never stopped moving.

Lights flashed on the device in front of him. It also released a series of pings and clunking sounds, which sounded wrong. However, the equipment was functioning as intended, like it's supposed to make these sounds.

Gazing at the people on the table nearby, he asked, "How's the connection so far? Any lags or inconsistencies?"

"None, sir. Green across the board."

"Great. But the real test begins once it's out there," Cedric softly said as he picked up the thing and marched out of the room.

What he picked up was a cube made out of Void Metals. Inspecting it closely, there is a series of dark golden veins hidden just underneath its dark exterior. It looked useless at first glance, but Cedric and a few other inventors spent a lot of time working on this thing, so how can it be useless?

Cedric stepped forward and arrived before the sealed gates in an instant. He greeted the guards, and seeing that it was him, they made way.

With a snap of his fingers, the seal on the gates unraveled, and Cedric smacked the black cube before throwing it to the other side of the portal before reactivating the seal. The act took him no more than ten seconds to do.

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Cedric moved and reappeared in the same room before. He looked over to the monitors but stayed silent. Opting to let others talk instead of leading them.

"The connection remains stable. The position of the cube is also within our expected activity range."

"All sensors are intact and working. We're already receiving feedback; it seems that the current Void Density within a hundred miles away from the gates is only at Level 3."

"Movement was detected! Oh, wait. Never mind, it's just voidlings. I shouldn't have overreacted; I'm sorry."

"Nah, you're all good."

"Report, the experimental device has already begun integrating with its surroundings. The estimated time of its fusion was seven days."

"Great! That's not too long. Even better since the device doesn't lose its other functions while fusing with its environment."

In short, it seems that so far, the device Cedric threw out there was working as intended, which is great since it was so troublesome to create it. It would've been a shame if it had failed.

That device is the new surveillance drone they invented to replace the old ones destroyed after the birth of the Void Prince. This one, though, was created following the principles of Chaos inspired by Cedric's enlightenment.

The surveillance drone was created to fuse with its surroundings; that's why it's created using rare Void Metals and other expensive materials as well. The way it fuses with its surroundings was unique too since its purpose is to become practically no different than the grain of sands within the void, virtually invisible and unremarkable in there, so as to not be destroyed again. Moreover, it's also durable; no Void Shifts or accidental hits should threaten it once it fully fuses with the area.

The drone could monitor a hundred-mile distance but only up to level 10 Void Density. Anything beyond that and the details become blurry. This was done on purpose because if the void density climbed that high, then the camp would face far more problems than just visibility of the area.

There are more drones ready to be deployed at any time, but for the sake of saving some effort and resources, just in case, they would wait until the first drone fuses perfectly with the surrounding area first before launching the others.

For now, though, this preliminary success eased their burden. At the very least, it was possible for them to re-establish their surveillance out there, making it easier and quicker for the camp to respond to any future threats.

Since his colleagues could handle this on their own, Cedric excused himself out of here. As a key figure in the advancement of the camp's effectiveness against the void and its spawns, Cedric's schedule was packed.

There are other matters that require his attention.