Chapter 269: Howler and Backpack Fatty
Cedric stood on the plain with swords surrounding him in an ornate manner; his hands were clasped behind his back. Evidently, he\'s controlling the swords using only his thoughts.
Even though the sword case he got from the system could potentially produce an infinite number of training swords, 10 was the limit of what Cedric could take out at once. Using the sword case does consume energy, and controlling these many swords puts a mental burden on him.
Cedric stood still, and so did the swords. When he opened his eyes, the swords suddenly turned into streaks of light that flew away from him, carrying a terrifying, piercing power with them.
Sending out a thought, the swords practically teleported back near his body and encircled him with their tips facing out. They then spun, seemingly turning into a circle saw. With another thought from Cedric, they stopped again.
One sword broke away from the formation and landed on his hand. Cedric went into a stance and began performing the fundamentals of the Sword Master Chapter of the Myriad Sword Catalogue.
With each breath he released, it was accompanied by a sharp and piercing gleam of the sword. His body and the sword he\'s holding thrummed in joy with each move he made. Slowly but surely, the sharpness of his aura climbed steadily as he practiced his stances.
In conjunction with performing his stances, Cedric was also practicing the fundamentals of the Sword Immortal Chapter of the Myriad Sword Catalogue. The Sword Immortal Chapter was all about controlling flying swords, much like the nine training swords hovering around him since he started his training.
Even though he could only control 10 swords for now, he could perform numerous sword formations using them, and this would just increase as he gradually increased the number of swords he could control.
His current level of skills displayed the Beginner stage of comprehending the Myriad Sword Catalogue. Technically, he could\'ve just chosen either the Sword Master Chapter or the Sword Immortal Chapter to specialize in, but Cedric decided to train in both.
He\'s not being muddle-headed by doing this. And if his assumptions were correct, he\'s neither the first nor the last person to have done this. The Myriad Sword Catalogue is the fundamental sword skill within the alliance; it\'s not surprising for anybody that someone would want to master it to its fullest, and Cedric was no different.
Cedric\'s current level of strength was enough to reach the Intermediate Stage of the Myriad Sword Catalogue. He just needed more time to practice it.
Once Cedric had enough of his warm-up, he decided to take his practice up a notch.
He mobilized his energies, which had been converted into Bright Yang Energy due to the influence of the Nine Suns Empyrean Codex. The flare of his energy resonated with the swords, causing bright golden flames to cover each sword. As Cedric focused, the flames condensed, and their heat rose at an alarming rate.
Now, aside from the terrifying sharpness of the training swords, they also carry the annihilating heat of Sunfire. This essentially doubled their lethality.
The sword on Cedric\'s hand showed a stronger reaction to his energy because it\'s in direct contact with him. Nevertheless, be it this one or the flying swords, both just made Cedric extremely dangerous.
Cedric carried on with his training with this. In addition, he\'s also performing the Heavenly Shrinking Steps, which also reached the beginner stage.
His figure blitzed from one location to the next. Some would even say that he\'s teleporting, and that\'s not technically wrong. After all, the Heavenly Shrinking Steps are essentially a discipline of spatial manipulation.
Cedric\'s mind was in overdrive with how much he\'s doing. Fortunately, the workload was divided equally among his thousands of thought chambers. He had been gaining more and more insights as he practiced, and anybody who\'s watching him could tell that he\'s improving at an alarming rate.
Due to how intense his might was, it was inevitable that he would leave a trail of destruction wherever he went. Fortunately, his personal space could repair itself faster than he could do damage to it. But even then, Cedric ensured that he\'d control the amount of destruction he caused.
Yes, he had no reason to hold back like this here since this place can take it, but what about Prime Earth?
Prime Earth has already been severely weakened by democratic corruption. Cedric didn\'t want to accidentally destroy his world all because he couldn\'t control his strength; if that happened, then all of his efforts would\'ve been for naught.
He knows that he will inevitably cause damage to the world when he fights; he just has to make sure that it\'s properly controlled and that he\'s good.
Cedric kept this punishing and draining pace for 8 hours straight. When he heard the alarm going off, he stopped and fell face-first to the ground with a loud thud. He even somewhat tasted the soil.
He panted heavily. His entire body was drenched in sweat, and his limbs were trembling due to overexertion. Wisps of steam wafted from his body; his organs were working overtime to alleviate the stress and the punishment he sanctioned for himself.
About five minutes later, his trembling stopped. Cedric grunted and pushed himself off the ground. And with great difficulty, he stood up and limped towards the Spiritual Lake.
Uncaring about his dignity, he threw himself into the lake, not even bothering to take his clothes off. He allowed himself to float on the surface of the lake and his body to greedily absorb the abundant energies within.
The 1st Extreme Sun Aperture within him sucked up all the energies of the lake to replenish itself. This happened without Cedric\'s conscious urging.
As his body recovered from fatigue, his mind remained active. He left some of his thought chambers to digest his recent gains in offensive skills while the rest focused on a new task.
Now, he\'s comprehending the Five Elements Concept Diagram and the Runic Heaven Records at the same time.
Interestingly enough, the Five Elements Concept Diagram was quite easy to analyze. It might be because he had a similar experience due to the Aspect Sigils, or he\'s just really perceptive. Either way, this was good for him.
Of course, he would need to test out his comprehension eventually, but right now, silently pondering it would suffice.
Once Cedric felt rested enough, he got out of the lake, dried himself, and took the materials provided to him to practice drawing runes.
Cedric decided to make the talismans that he saw in the Runic Heaven Records. He figured that it\'s a good practice tool to gauge his level. It\'s a bit challenging because, even though he\'s capable of movement, he\'s still exhausted.
He would continue to recover from his talisman-making practice, though, so he did it anyway. All while he continues to analyze the Five Elements Concept Diagram in the background.
This was how Cedric divided his daily schedule. And his progress was nothing to scoff at.
"I think that my progress would be faster if I could test my progress against someone."
Cedric sighed and decided that he shouldn\'t think too much about this for now.
**
"Oh, so this is the new guy! He really is hairless!"
Cedric swallowed whatever he wanted to say in reply to that. Instead, he looked at the speaker just now and was surprised by what he saw.
"Greetings!" The challenger said, thumping his chest and emitting a low growl, which should be their way of greeting someone. Cedric could tell because of the emoji that floated beside his speaker\'s head when he did that.
"I\'m Howler, member of the Werewolf Clan."
Howler is a bipedal wolf with a human-like torso. He\'s about 8 feet tall and has lush gray fur. There is a long scar on his left eye and a claw scar on his chest. He\'s wearing a bone-teeth necklace and a pair of pants.
"Sorry for staring." Cedric averted his eyes and bowed slightly. "Hello, I\'m Dawnbringer, a human."
"A human, eh?" Howler looked interested. "I haven\'t heard of your kind before, and how surprising that you can speak my language."
"I..." Cedric blinked; he then looked shocked and mildly terrified. "I guess I do. Damn, it happened again."
Cedric really had no idea how this was happening subconsciously to him. Didn\'t he have perfect control over his body? Why couldn\'t he control this?
"You must be the first of your kind to arrive here, then," said someone who\'s standing beside Howler. "Did the system ask you to register your racial identity when you first came here?"
Cedric nodded to that, and once again, he could understand this person\'s language, which further added to his confusion.
"Oh, well...then that checks out." He said, "Ah, I\'m called Backpack Fatty, by the way. Nice to meet you, Dawnbringer."
"Nice to meet you too...?" Cedric observed himself as he tried to reply to Backpack Fatty with the same language, and once again, he\'s shocked that he could do this.
Backpack Fatty tilted his head and asked, "Oh, you know my language too?"
"No," Cedric decisively replied, and with a wry smile, he said, "Would you believe me if I said that this is my first time hearing and speaking it? I don\'t understand how either."
"Oho...how interesting."