Endless Horde: Through the Eyes of a Godking - Chapter 928 928: Increasing The Trial's Difficulty

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More time passed just like that…

While everybody continues on in their daily lives, completely unaware of the things happening beyond their perception, the colonist teams are still working hard to stay ahead of their schedule.

By now, more outposts have been made thanks to the unwavering and passionate work of the makers. Because of the appearance of more outposts, the comfort and safety of the cartographers and explorers increased as well. If they ever get tired on their mission and need somewhere to stay temporarily before moving on, the outposts become a temporary camp or settlement for them.

The outposts are always supplied with basic necessities like sealed fresh food and rations, first-aid kits, small gadgets, batteries, clean clothes, and basic gear that could be used in a pinch.

They also sent a request for specific gear, which could be sent using the ports built into the outposts. The outposts themselves are located in secluded zones, and the teams are equipped with a device that could locate them. Also, the outposts have an isolation field and a protective barrier. They draw in origin energy in a steady stream to use as an energy source and have several generators filled for backup.

In a pinch, they could also use biomass for fuel and energy sources. As long as the world where the outpost was built on isn’t destroyed, there will always be origin energy for the outposts to use.

These supplies aren’t really expensive. The HQs are equipped with 3D printers that could endlessly create these things at the cost of origin energy, too.

Besides, the explorers aren’t completely out of options. If they’re unable to arrive at the nearest outposts to them, they could always improvise using their environment. They are skilled, and without any actual threats to their lives aside from natural hazards, they’d eventually arrive at the outposts.

The explorers and cartographers were doing a phenomenal job, by the way. By now, they almost fully explored at least 50% of both chaos realms. The map has been drawn, and vividly so. The teams sent made sure to be very thorough in their search.

If they happen to miss something, like a secret realm entrance or a natural deposit that’s isolated on a magnetic field that prevented their senses from reaching it, for example, those will be added quietly later.

This was just the first pass after all. And even though the teams are making sure to be thorough in their job, it’s inevitable that they’d miss something along the way, and that’s fine. They won’t be punished for it so long as they have a decent excuse for missing those places.

And even if there were some areas that truly couldn’t be sensed through all means they have, it’s fine. Nick and Patricia will inevitably see these areas and instruct them on what to do.

This could’ve gone quicker, by the way. The only reason why it has taken them this long for only this much progress is because the teams are also expanding the network connectivity as they mapped out the chaos realms.

It’s a necessary thing to do, after all; both chaos realms will eventually need to be involved in the virtual universe. They have to build the servers now and expand the network at the same time so that they can save more time later.

Besides, the entire network was going to need a lot of time to operate smoothly. This will need a lot of troubleshooting, especially since they’re working in an unfamiliar environment here.

The Space Marines are also doing their due diligence at the very least.

They’re building the frontline defenses steadily, slowly filling out the dimensional gaps with modern weaponry, camps, and equipment that will be needed to defend their new territory.

Sure, they’re not in a hurry, but they’re on schedule. They’re not pressured since there’s no reason to. The Horde was gone, and with them, the real threat against such a giant that humanity has become.

What about the creatures of the last two chaos realms? They’re not an issue. Sure, humans are keeping the colonization efforts a private matter for how, but they’re not afraid to be found out by other creatures.

The divided and steeped-in-civil-war worlds of those last two chaos realms had other matters to attend to instead of provoking humans. And even if they were to be unified under one banner in an effort to resist and compete against humans for the chaos realms, they won’t stand a chance.

Unlike them, humans became a sovereign race more than a million years ago; the depth of that foundation wouldn’t be shaken by some last-minute and last-ditch effort at resistance by some barbaric and primitive creatures.

If they dared, humans could just send a fleet of space marines right to their front door to check their audacity. The Human Council would bet that a single fleet of space marines, with all their ships, gear, and weapons, would absolutely dismantle any form of resistance they could ever think of.

So, there’s really no reason to be wary of them. Humans won’t deliberately expose what they’re doing for now, but they’re also not afraid of being found out.

**

While everybody was busy with their work, Cedric was up to his usual routine.

The major change that happened to him was that he deliberately increased the difficulty of the trials, only slightly though.

Why had he done so? Frankly, because things were getting a little bit boring for him.

He already trivialized the trial that had claimed many lives before. He found out the loophole and shamelessly exploited it; he continued doing so for his own benefit, and he wasn’t scolded because of it. In fact, it was even implied that such was the right thing to do.

But it’s also because of that exploitation that the novelty of the trial itself has been lost. And frankly, Cedric had gotten so bored of it that he decided to increase its difficulty slightly to get some kind of stimulation.

And he’s glad that he did.

He didn’t go overboard and made the trial impossible. All he did was to take on a more active role. Instead of roaming the battlefield like a ghost, stealing kills left, right, and center, he made a bold decision to confront an abyssal face-to-face.

Cedric didn’t kill it in one hit. He exchanged several moves with one, deliberately holding back. It’s something that he hadn’t done in the past, yet he did now out of boredom.

And because of that, on his next trial, things got a little spicier.

He still remembered how it played out:

The trial started out the same: him blinking into existence on the battlefield. This time though, there were more humans, and they’re definitely stronger than the previous times.

The number of the abyssals that arrived also increased too, and their agression had been taken up a notch. They’re still emotionless and instict-driven creatures, but they’re showing a surprising amount of initiative compared to how they behaved in the previous trial.

Also, there used to be only three Behemoth Abyssals in his previous trials. Those slow-moving black holes of a creature weren’t really a threat so long as one stayed clear of them.

They’re really slow and don’t attack. They do, however, swallow everything around them regardless of what it is. And once one entered a specific range near them, resisting their pull almost becomes impossible.

Again, Cedric used to see only three of them in his trials previously. But because he deliberately increased the difficulty of his trials, now there are five of them. And they brought more smaller abyssals with them.

The addition of two more Behemoth Abyssals didn’t really cause too many problems for him, though. That’s mainly because they moved as a group.

They’re competing for scraps of food amongst each other. And so long as Cedric steers clear from them, like being at the opposite end of the battlefield and out of their line of sights, he’s practically invisible to them.

As such, he was free to return to his usual tactics of roaming the battlefield like a ghost and stealing kills here and there.

The smaller abyssals have become tougher and more resistant. Cedric had to recalculate and increase the force he needed to exert in order to secure his kills, but that’s not really that difficult.

It did make things more exciting for him, though, because there were more abyssals around. The trials made him sweat again, especially since the smaller abyssals are acting just a bit more aggressively this time.

All of this was fine and within his expectations. He wanted this to happen after all, and he got exactly what he asked for, no big deal.

But this also goes to show how sensitive and calculating the operations of this trial were. Even though Cedric only changed something very little to his routine, they immediately picked it up and adjusted the difficulty immediately.

Cedric reminded himself to always stay cautious and careful in the trial to prevent himself from increasing the difficulty beyond a level that he could handle.