Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking

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Cedric spent the entirety of the month doing nothing but mainly arena matches.

Although he would occasionally go out to explore the Fallen Heaven Realm or visit other places in the virtual universe, he will always come back to his temporary abode and continue enriching his experience in the arena.

Even though he spent a considerable amount of time lurking in the Cosmic Level bracket, Cedric learned a lot from his opponents. With every match he wins, he's becoming more and more familiar with the profound depths of the varying fighting styles and inheritances he encounters.

During one of his meditation sessions, he decided to send his consciousness to the sea of time.

Previously, he arrived here unknowingly after comprehending the Space and Time Laws to the Great Law level. He saw a lot of people submerged into the depths of this sea; only a handful were sitting on its surface and gazing blankly at the skies.

Cedric left a spiritual mark here, allowing his consciousness to return anytime he pleased, something that others before him tried to do but haven't succeeded at, making him unique so far without him knowing.

He would come here from time to time just to see if something had changed in him or in the husks of people around.

In those previous times, he hadn't discovered anything aside from a few newly submerged people appearing. This time, he did see an obvious difference.

First was to himself, or the image he left here.

Previously, only his head down to his clavicles was above the surface of the sea of time. Any attempts to push any higher would result in failure. If he truly wanted to get out of the waters, he needed to understand space and time laws deeper, or maybe even at the heavenly law level to do so; that's why people above the surface were rare.

But that was before. Now, Cedric discovered that more of his upper body was exposed. He could rise up to his abdomen; that's his current limit. Although it may not seem like much, in truth, this was considerable progress. He's nearly halfway through, and if his progress continues at this pace, then it's possible for him to completely get out of the waters in the next decade or so.

For those who had been trying to comprehend conceptual laws at a higher level, a little bit more than a decade was already extremely fast. Some would have to wait for centuries, if not more, or at least, risk their lives for miniscule opportunities just to comprehend conceptual laws a little more.

Cedric was different, though. All he had to do was to reserve a little bit of his everyday time to stare at the manifestations of the concept laws and comprehend them at his own pace. Even if he doesn't understand anything right away, it's fine, and it's progress anyway.

Obviously, this was something that he had to keep to himself, because if word got out that he had eyes that could see through concept law manifestations without any drawbacks, he'd never have peace in the Primitive Universe ever again.

As for what 'getting out of the waters' means in this aspect? Well, aside from no longer being influenced by time in terms of longevity, Cedric has no idea. He supposed that he'd discover that once he reaches that stage. It's no use thinking about it too much right now, anyway.

The other difference he noticed this time was that there's movement.

One of the images sitting on the surface of the water was glowing. It started out faint, but in this bleak space where even a firefly could become as bright as a lightbulb, that glow was extremely noticeable.

Cedric was attracted to that site, so he swam towards it. He didn't get too close, just enough to see what's happening and far enough to be unaffected.

The glowing image was that of a man with long hair; his other features were blurred or hidden by the veil of light, but Cedric knew that he must be a Heavenly Venerate at least, especially from the pressure he could feel around him.

As he observed the changes, he couldn't help but notice that the light around this image looked and felt a bit familiar to him.

It was the stars, as he later discovered. The light around this person's image appeared and felt like starlight. Cedric doesn't know if this holds some significance, though.

But the real shocking change happened after that.

When the starlight around the image intensified to its peak, Cedric suddenly felt a great disturbance in the sea of time.

Then, he was shocked to find out that the image of that person began moving, and the movement caused ripples to appear in the still sea of time.

He saw the image, still with eyes dull and empty, standing up on the surface of the water.

Cedric stared at the image and tilted his head to look at the skies. Then, out of nowhere, the image began levitating. It hovered above the sea just like that for about an hour or so, then, without any warning or prior indication, it flew to the skies and disappeared.

To say that he was surprised by this sudden development was definitely a statement.

He has so many questions: who was that? What happened? Why did that light feel like starlight? Why did that image leave just now? Where is it going? Will it come back? What does all of that mean?

Alas, he could only hold on to these questions because nobody's available to answer them. Even though Cedric felt greatly unsatisfied because he doesn't understand anything, he could only endure it for now, hoping that in the future, he'd be able to figure it out.

**

After that small episode, Cedric's activities in the Fallen Heaven Realm remained mostly the same.

He continued going to matches, and before long, he was already in his promotion matches to enter the Immortal Level bracket.

Cedric had no problems rising through the sub-ranks (bronze, silver, and gold); the requirements weren't that steep or difficult anyway, and since he has yet to lose a match, his climb through the ranks has been smooth so far.

To be promoted, Cedric has to win 10 times in a row, and his opponents must be at the same level as he is, or else it wouldn't count.

Cedric has won five matches so far. He just needs to win five more in a row like this, and he would be promoted to the Immortal Level bracket.

As Cedric queued for a match, his opponent was instantly found.

The opponent seemed to be a young man with elvish ears and pale skin. His eyes were like that of a snake, and he had a bow slung behind him as well as quivers attached to his hip.

"Tch. Great. Ran into a smurfer," he heard him say.

Smurf, smurfing, and smurfer are terms for people who are way stronger or more skilled for their current rank. They're usually painted as people who bullied others in games just for the sake of entertainment.

Cedric just smiled bitterly at this. Well, his opponent wasn't technically wrong. He was, technically, smurfing.

He wants to defend himself, but he knows that anything he says will just be seen as excuses, so it's useless. He might as well embrace the misunderstanding.

As the countdown ended, the match began.

And as expected, his opponent this time specializes in ranged combat. The bow he's using is what gave it away, obviously.

It didn't take long before Cedric was faced by a literal rain of arrows, all of which had a considerable amount of piercing power with them. Yet all Cedric did was to swing his sword horizontally to slice all of them off, turning them into fizzling lights that disappeared shortly after.

This didn't deter his enemy, though. Knowing that he's facing someone stronger than they're letting on, it's not surprising for his first attack to be neutralized easily.

Therefore, as soon as he released that volley, he already prepared the next one.

Cedric saw the predatory gleam in the archer's snake-like eyes. He then felt like his soul was being seen. Adding the fact that the archer already drew his bow and that his next arrow had that ghastly gleam, Cedric knew that the next shot would be to his soul.

The archer released the arrow. It flew for a while before it completely disappeared from the naked eye, but not to Cedric's eyes.

That arrow marked his soul, and it will hit him if he doesn't do anything. To make matters worse, a second one was already coming. It's clear that his enemy wasn't giving him any room to breathe at all.

He could feel the scorn of the archer, and honestly, he truly couldn't blame him. It's not his fault that the arena's matchmakingsystem works this way.

But he's not going to bend over backwards to earn this person's forgiveness. If the other party's determined to be bitter, then he could stay bitter. It has nothing to do with Cedric.

So, to not prolong this agony. Cedric decisively swung his sword to end the match as soon as possible.

[You win! ]