Hollow Core

[Profile]

Name: Cedric Stormrider

Age: 21

Race: Human

Class: Tier 1 - Swordsman

Level: 2

Titles: Jr.Undead Slayer, Scholar, Sword Child

Aptitude:

Body: S

Energy: S-

Spirit: (S) - Locked. Tier 2 req.

Final rating: S

Skills:

Actives: Sword Ki Lv.5, Kickboxing (M)

Passives: Vision (M), Learning (M), Ki Mastery Lv.6, Smell (M), Multitasking (M), Taste (M), Touch (M), Listening (M), Intuition (M), Footwork (M), Recovery (M), Tolerance (M), Tactics (M)

[Mandatory Task:]

: Hell Dive - Survive the Endless Undead Horde for 3 hours.

: Rewards - 100% Demon Soul gain, Clearance Streak +1

: Punishment for Failure - Failure Streak +1.

: Record: Clear Streak - 3, Failure Streak - 0

**

Two months passed by quickly like a serene river.

Cedric, who's now an entirely different person from who he was a few months ago, barely felt the passage of time. Focused on his task to become stronger to ensure his survival.

His routine hasn't changed. He still trains every day, taking it easy at least once a week to allow his body to keep up with the strain. As a result, he had seen explosive growth in his overall strength, making him as one of the most powerful fighters within the Risk Management Center.

Since he was able to keep up with the ever-rising challenge of his Mandatory Service, his monitoring chip now turned yellow, meaning that he had more wiggle room when it came to his survival. Should he fail to clear his mandatory task, it would once again turn his chip red but Cedric obviously doesn't plan on letting that happen.

Besides Harold and himself, of course, nobody seemed to care about his progress, which was fine with him. He knows that everyone else here was too absorbed in their own fight for survival to even congratulate him, and that's understandable. Hell, he'd actually feel weird if they praised him now since he's used to being ignored by the rest.

That being said, Cedric knows that the Wardens are now paying close attention to him. Not to the extent that they're watching his every single move, of course. Just close enough to see if there's foul play happening, and since they had yet to approach him, that means that they haven't found anything yet.

And it better stay that way since Cedric was truly trying hard here.

Cedric wasn't really concerned about the eyes that were following him. It's not like they'd discover his deepest secret anyway. It's impossible for them to discover where his true strength lies unless he tells them that himself.

Any type of skill that allows one to view the System Profile of strangers was prohibited by Acala. It is only allowed within professional background checks. Even then, the information they will receive will be limited.

The Risk Management Center might be a government-funded facility but they hardly cared about the people who ended up here so Cedric was extremely confident that nobody would discover his real secrets here. Not even the Chief Warden will know, that's unless Cedric himself informs them. And he's not that stupid to do that.

Cedric knew that they already reported his activities to the Chief Warden. It's actually hard for him not to know considering how sharp his senses were even at their limited degree due to his purposeful delay of his personal growth.

Yet even so, so what? Their reports won't really have a significant difference. He already knew that they had discovered his training routine, but he was not hiding that. In fact, Cedric was pretty sure that someone already reported his activities to the Chief way before this and it was already recorded. So, comparing that to the recent reports, they wouldn't really discover anything different from his activities.

This has been Cedric's daily routine. He's like a machine now actually since he would often discover himself doing the routine before he gives the mental command. It's like his body was now moving out of sheer instinct.

Cedric doesn't know if that's good or bad, but it hasn't injured him so far so there's no harm in letting it happen.

On another point, Cedric was a multi-millionaire now in terms of Demon Souls. He's actually quite stumped with how many Demon Souls he earned just by clearing his Mandatory Task.

With how much he had, he could live in luxury...well, as luxurious as this place would allow, and still have enough to keep up with his daily expenses. The more times he clears his Mandatory Task, the more he will earn so he doesn't see himself running out of Demon Souls anytime soon.

Of course, there's the idea of spending his hard-earned money on stuff that would make his life easier and more comfortable. He'd wanted to buy more high-end combat suits, swords, skill books, and so on. But this is where his indecisiveness reared its ugly head.

Cedric had no real need for those right now. In fact, the way he is right now could already be considered as overkill for his Hell Dives.

Sure, the Hell Dives are becoming harder and harder each month that passed, but his growth from his relentless training manages to keep up with that. Even with the fairly common equipment he has, it's already akin to giving wings to a tiger. His Hell Dives recently give him pressure but not enough to actually push him to the brink of insanity like before.

So really...buying more equipment to strengthen himself even further sounds excessive to him. So, he chose to save his Demon Souls for now.

It wouldn't be too late to purchase items he'd actually need later anyway. Especially since the System Shop's transactions would always remain fast.

That being said, Cedric was prepared for emergencies. He had bought an extra pair of equipment and necessities just in case he got placed in a tight spot. Beyond that though, he kept his expenditure at a minimum level of comfort.

Currently, it was midnight...

Cedric could be seen sitting on the floor in his room. Looking closely, numerous sigils and runes are glowing around the room. They're nothing special though, just something to isolate the rampant Ki from escaping the room. He didn't want to cause alarm throughout the entire center with his nightly activities.

With his legs crossed in a meditative position, a strain could be seen on his face. Sweat dripped down his entire body as he continuously circulated his Ki through his entire body.

Each successful circulation purified his Ki to a higher degree. His entire body was emitting a faint white light in the process. His powerful heartbeat echoed across the room as he continued and his body was also releasing a subtle amount of pressure.

In his body, his Ki was just about finished with its 100th circulation for the night. Once it has returned to its previous location, an explosive change occurs.

Tremors rocked Cedric's body as his Ki suddenly condensed into a faint yet solid core. It reduced its size to a hollow marble which penetrated his heart, turning into an aperture in there.

An unprecedented clarity illuminated his entire being. Cedric could feel his entire existence ascending to a level unlike before. The feeling was positively euphoric and he couldn't help but release a groan due to the sensation.

His field of senses expanded and elevated to a finer degree. The abundance of Ki within his body practically doubled, and he could vaguely feel his spirit being uplifted despite knowing that he shouldn't be able to access it for now.

When the tremors ceased, Cedric felt an unprecedented level of calmness surging within him. He felt like there was nothing that would ever surprise him anymore, nothing would ever disrupt the calmness and serenity of his mind, and that in itself was shocking ironically.

Cedric felt so light, it's like the Resistance Stamp became worthless just like that. Of course, he would increase the level of resistance later once he's done appreciating this feeling of freedom.

When he opened his eyes, a placid and serene calm seemingly washed over his entire room. It's like his immediate vicinity resonated with his mental state, it was incredible.

Then, his state slowly subsided. Cedric already knows that it's only a fleeting thing but he still enjoyed it to its fullest. With this breakthrough over, he officially stepped into the first stage of the [White Lotus Core Scripture] - the Hollow Core stage.

It took him some time but that can't be helped. The origin of this technique was different from where he was. He's already lucky that it was even recognized by this world so you won't hear him complaining.

Because of his breakthrough, his 『Ki Mastery』 jumped all the way to Lv.7 from Lv.5, with that increase, he's expecting his 『Sword Ki』 to enter a short period of explosive growth as well.

He just got even stronger, and that came with the confidence that, just like the previous months, this month's Hell Dive should be a piece of cake for him.

"Alright, now that that's over. It's about time I do something about this smell...urgh!"

His breakthrough also came with the expulsion of impurities from his body so after riding out his high, he didn't hesitate to run towards the bathroom to clean himself of this filth.