BXBX NOVEL Chapter 75: Visitors, again
Age: 21
Race: Human II
Classes: Luminous Sage (Main), Demon Slayer (2nd), Scribe Lv.80/100 (Sub)
Level: Tier 2 - Lv.2
Titles: Veteran Undead Slayer, Son of Heaven, Pioneer, Young Sage
System Authority: Lv.8
Aptitude:
Body: EX!
Energy: EX!
Spirit: EX!
Final rating: EX+
Skills:
Actives: Sword Intent Lv.1, Kickboxing (M), Iron Skin (M), Multi-Stab (M), Air-Hop (M), Focus Lv.50, Lightspeed Lv.25,
Passives: Elementary Sage Physique (U), Sage's Perception (U), Education Lv.50, Demon Lore Lv.65, Slayer's Mark Lv.5, Decode Lv.65, Symbol Mastery Lv.80, Sage Arts Lv.12, Marksmanship (M)
[Mandatory Task:]
: Hell Dive - Survive the Endless Undead Horde for 5 hours twice.
: Rewards - 100% Demon Soul gain, Clearance Streak +1
: Punishment for Failure - Failure Streak +1.
: Record: Clear Streak - 9, Failure Streak - 0
**
There it is, 『Sword Intent』 at Lv.1 clearly displayed on his skill list.
It has been a few minutes since he got this skill and he's still confused. He was obviously not expecting to get this skill.
The main is that he's no longer a swordsman, he had already changed his class into something else. Hell, he even added one, and none of them were geared specifically towards the 'sword'.
He searched for information online and saw nothing so far, leaving him to come up with his own deductions.
'Maybe it's because I was a Swordsman in the past?' He thought to himself, 'That's the most logical deduction I can make right now. Maybe, changing one's class doesn't necessarily mean that they've completely abandoned the previous path they took.'
'That would make sense since if that wasn't the case, I should've lost my Sword-related skills, but I didn't. Or maybe it does and I'm just a special case?'
There are a lot of conjectures for this dilemma but Cedric figured that he shouldn't sweat the details so much. Doing so makes it sound like he's complaining when he clearly wasn't at all.
"It's an awesome skill to have anyway, so I'll take it." He declared softly to himself.
He concluded today's training and ate something. After that, he took a quick bath before going to his lab to continue his research.
Somewhere in his house, his captive was still locked away, unconscious but perfectly fine. Since he has gotten everything he wants from the guy, he'll be leaving him until Arishem becomes available.
For now, he had other stuff to do, mainly continuing his research to improve the method of purifying Demon Souls.
With the growth of his skills and his access to a wide range of knowledge thanks to his System Authority, his research has grown leaps and bounds since the last time.
From only converting hundreds of T1 Demon Souls at a time, he already perfected the way to streamline the procedure, making it faster and more efficient for users.
He even reached a point where he developed a way to turn the end products into a marble - one that users could simply crush to gain the concentrated essences within.
Cedric initially wanted the by-product to be a consumable pill. However, he would need knowledge of Alchemy to do that. His Sub-Class was nearly maxed out but Alchemy was set later on his list so he couldn't do this for now.
And while he could simply employ expert Alchemists to help him with the process, he instead chose to wait it out. Right now, he trusts himself more than other people, and he doesn't feel guilty holding this out from them.
Cedric also improved the tool that he uses to purify Demon Souls. Previously, he needed an altar carved with set runes to do it but now, he minimized it to a simple array disk that's user-friendly.
These Demon Soul Conversion Array Disks could go up to Tier 4, meaning that he could now convert T4 Demon Souls without any problems. He was able to reach this far since he had a steady source of Demon Souls thanks to the increased difficulty of his Hell Dives.
But again, Cedric still deemed this an unfinished product. There's still a lot of improvement to be made for this thing and right now, he just couldn't trust anyone to release this just yet.
That said, his achievement has already been recorded by Acala. In the event that somebody made this discovery and decided to release it in public, Acala wouldn't easily acknowledge their achievement especially if their product wasn't any better than his for he had already achieved this way ahead of them.
Cedric spent a good amount of time in his lab, making little progress in the process but nothing that he's upset about. After a few hours, he heard his alarm and concluded his research for the day.
He got out of the lab, changed into a more comfortable set of clothes, and spent his time relaxing in his loft. He listened to an audiobook as he drank his tea and enjoyed a slice of cake.
This essentially became his routine as people around him slowly recovered their daily lives.
The impact of previous events that nearly destroyed the city obviously had a large impact on the lives of its citizens. There had been protests, etc. But as days passed, the rest couldn't do anything other than move on.
Online, however, the event was still being heavily discussed. Even news networks clutched to this and milked it for content. Events like this are hard to come by and they need a hot scoop to do their jobs so of course they would take advantage of it.
The government already released a response to this. Saying that they would increase their efforts to locate the cult and stop their nefarious plans when Cedric heard of this, he was pleased but also skeptical.
He was the one who caught traces of the Cult here after all, and that had been a sheer coincidence during the first time. He highly doubted that the government could adhere to their words but at the very least, they were now made aware of the threat that the cult brings to the table.
**
"...oops, I think I need to go." Cedric muttered after reading a message sent to him by Arishem.
Erica and her friend Chrissy looked at him before nodding. Their reluctant expressions didn't escape his notice but he acted ignorant about them. Cause while he enjoyed hanging out with them, he had an important meeting to attend to.
He left them after apologizing for cutting their time short before making his way back to his home.
Once he was there, he didn't do much. He just prepared snacks and drinks for his soon-to-be visitors, by the time he's done, he's already aware of their presence making his way to where he is.
Within a minute after he had set the table, they appeared. He initially wanted to joke about how they had no manners since they didn't even consider knocking on the door but considering the kind of person Arishem was with, he decided to not do that.
They appeared in his living room, they saw him gesturing for them to sit down and the visitors weren't shy of doing just that.
"So nice of you to pay me a visit, Old Man." Cedric grinned at Arishem as soon as he sat down.
Then, he looked at the hulking man sitting next to him and his expression turned just a tad bit serious as he acknowledged his presence:
"Greetings, City Lord. My name is Cedric Stormrider. Welcome to my home."
Yes, Arishem came with the City Lord to visit him. Well...more like the City Lord 'insisted' on coming with him.
Quoting Arishem's message earlier: 'Just so you know, I'm visiting you soon. The City Lord 'insisted' to come with me, so yeah, be prepared I guess. Idk.'
Well, there's not much he could do about that now, does he? So instead of panicking and all, Cedric just focused on what he could do and hoped that the City Lord wouldn't get too upset about his hospitality.
"Well met, Kid." The City Lord gruffly replied while helping himself with the snacks and drinks he prepared for them.
"When this guy told me that another VVIP was hiding in my city, I initially thought it'd be another shrewd old person. To my surprise, I see you. You're probably the youngest VVIP I've met so far." He continued.
"Oh geez." Cedric chuckled. "I hope I didn't leave a bad impression then?"
"Nope. Not yet at least. And I hope it continues that way." The City Lord grumbled.
Arishem who's listening on the side did his best to not roll his eyes at the City Lord's posturing. This guy can be really dishonest sometimes, if he hadn't known the City Lord for years now, he might've been fooled too.
"Anyways, how can I help you gentlemen?" Cedric asked.
Clearing his throat, Arishem spoke: "Personally, I'm just here to tell you about what happened after the event. While you never showed up physically, your efforts had been a tremendous help to us so I figured that, at the very least, you deserve to know about the things that happened behind the scenes as well as receive a reward for what you've done for us."