Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

--

Time passed, and Cedric continued working as the director of the Ancient Chaos Alpha project.

The second batch of participants arrived before he went on vacation, and so far, they're all doing well. In fact, there are already three people who have completed their transition and begun their mandatory 50 years of service to the Border Patrol Office.

Cedric actually discovered recently that the number of the second batch of participants grew while he was away, easily doubling that of the first batch. Although he wasn't informed of this, Cedric wasn't really surprised. In fact, he even predicted it. He wasn't offended that he wasn't informed immediately, either. He did say that he didn't want his vacation to be disturbed unless the Border Patrol Camps were facing an existential crisis.

It wasn't really a big deal. Obviously, due to the stellar success of the project, it would make sense that others will push more people to participate. The end goal, after all, is to canonize this path eventually.

Besides, this gives Cedric more material to work with. And the more he refines the process, the more solid the path becomes until the project itself becomes redundant.

Cedric himself estimated that by the time they have the third batch of participants, the transitioning method would at least achieve great completion. So much so that he wouldn't need to supervise it personally anymore. After all, the information Cedric was able to gather from this many people coming from various races and clans has been immense and incredibly useful.

Even the unexpected surprises aren't so common anymore because of the data they've gathered so far. Which clearly displays just how thorough and successful this project has been.

What Cedric truly needed to focus on was the path beyond the Void Refinement Realm. Especially since he needs to find an alternative for the first candidate that will attempt to cross it, and he doesn't have much time left.

**

In an isolated field, Cedric and Redstone could be seen...

One was sitting down with his eyes closed; the other was merely observing with glimmering eyes while jotting down data into the tablet he's holding.

Redstone opened his eyes; the previous murkiness in them faded and was replaced by a slight glee and excitement. Seeing this, Cedric couldn't help but ask:

"How was it? How do you feel?"

"Great! Awesome!" Redstone suppressed his excitement. "And more importantly, relieved."

"Alright." Cedric felt somewhat relieved too. "From my observation, some parts of your inner world have already manifested into reality. I assume that this method works."

"It does, Director!" Redstone couldn't suppress his excitement anymore. "I feel considerably less bloated than before. So long as I continue this, even if it's slow, I won't be in a time limit anymore."

This was the main source of Redstone's excitement.

The director came through. He did find an alternative way for his breakthrough without any high risks for mostly unknown benefits.

Redstone felt guilty. Admittedly, he was disappointed because he thought that the director was asking him to die to confirm his theories. However, here they were now. It hasn't even been six months since he theorized the first method, yet he already discovered another way.

And this one was more in line with what Redstone actually wanted.

'Slow and steady' would be the perfect way to describe this method. The idea was to first find a relatively empty area within the Primeval Scarlet Dust Realm that Redstone could claim for his use.

This was easily provided by the Ancient Titan Chancellor. This spot was an abandoned fortress that had lost its uses since the Ancient Warring Era. Nobody has visited this place for thousands of years now; most of their people have even forgotten it even existed, which is why the Chancellor easily handed it over to them for their experiment.

The second part was for Redstone to actually claim this place. And to do that, he would have to, and this is very important, slowly but surely release and allow his inner world to be imprinted on this place.

Great emphasis on 'slowly but surely'...

Because they simply can't afford a 'one and done' type of breakthrough, especially within the realm, they have to be slowed down to a trickle. By doing this, there won't be a rapid expansion within the realm. Without that, there won't be a bubble that the Void Prince could pop and use as an entrance to invade the realm and deal devastating damage, and more importantly, Redstone wouldn't have to go face-to-face against the consciousness of the Void itself.

Before starting, Cedric told Redstone that this process will be slow, easily taking years before completion. And during this, Redstone couldn't risk doing anything reckless. He must limit his movements because this breakthrough will take up most of his focus.

But Cedric thought too much, as he realized later. It would take years? That's it? Did he forget how long Ancient Titans live? To them, years were merely weeks in comparison! What about limited movement? Forget about it; Redstone was lazy by nature; inactivity was the least of his concerns!

More importantly, although Cedric considers this 'slow,' what matters is that it's way safer compared to the previous method. It takes more time, yes, but it's less dangerous.

Cedric explained it this way: Redstone was essentially expanding the space in this place to make room for his Inner World. In turn, this also expands the Primeval Scarlet Dust Realm, which should be obvious since they're within it.

Doing it slowly but steadily lowers the possibility of the Void discovering it, making it less dangerous for Redstone. Of course, the caveat is that it is very slow and would take great patience to do. Redstone can't risk accelerating his breakthrough no matter what because if he does, he'd be risking the entire realm with him.

In exchange, it is quite possible that once he's done, Redstone would be considered a cosmic lord.

What he's doing was creating another Cosmic Realm, wasn't it? Yes, it's his inner world, but once its 1 billion mile size was fully imprinted into this place, it wouldn't be anything less than a great cosmic realm. And since he owns it, then doesn't that make him a cosmic lord?

What was Redstone's distant dream before participating in this project again? Oh, that's right! Become a cosmic-level expert and live for a very, very long time!

You're telling him that he could essentially become a Cosmic Lord, someone who's greater than an ordinary Cosmic Level expert, just by spending a few years focusing on a slow but steady breakthrough? Hell yeah! Where does he sign?

The best part? Once his breakthrough was complete, the newly born cosmic realm was something that nobody could take away from him. It's his inner world manifesting to reality, after all. Whether this was permanent or not couldn't be determined for now, but Redstone wasn't worried since he's already satisfied that he has a way out.

And even if there are complications after this, he wouldn't be worried either because he knows that Cedric will look after him.

"Alright. That's good. That's very good. Whew! As expected, I'm a goddamned genius!" Cedric cackled.

"Yes, you are, Sir!" Redstone wholeheartedly agreed even though he knew that Cedric was just joking.

"Hush! Don't encourage me or else my head will get bigger." Cedric huffed before his expression turned slightly serious. "Well, since it works, then I'll leave you here to focus on it. Remember, don't be impatient, okay?"

"Yes, sir. I won't, I promise," Redstome solemnly swore. "I will also return to the camp to complete the rest of my mandatory service once I'm done here."

"As you should." Cedric nodded.

Since it would take time for Redstone to complete this breakthrough, his mandatory service had to be frozen for the time being. He will resume the count once he returns to his duties.

"Alright, I'll leave you here now, but I'll check up on you from time to time. If you feel anything strange or if you feel that you're in danger, do not hesitate to alert me so that I could take a look, okay?"

"Yes, Sir!"

"Alright. See you later."

And just like that, Cedric disappeared from Redstone's sight.

Alone with his thoughts, Redstone sighed. He lay down on the vacuum of space like it was solid ground and closed his eyes. With a pulse, his inner world began expanding with him at the core.

Of course, he didn't unleash it completely. Instead, he released the area that had been imprinted into this place already and started expanding it by mobilizing his chaos energy.

This wasn't hard for Redstone; hell, he could even do it in his sleep. And that's what he's exactly thinking of doing right now. He already memorized the refinement speed to a subconscious level, and like Cedric said, it can't be any faster than this.

And since he'd be here for a while, he might as well make the most out of it, so why not be comfortable?