Chapter 49: OWET

[Alert! 『Demon Lore』leveled up to 10/100!]

[Alert! 『Education』 leveled up to 4!]

[Alert! 『Education』 leveled up to 5!]

[Alert! 『Education』 ...]

[Alert! 『Education』 leveled up to 10!]

[Skills: 『Decode』, 『Focus』, and 『Symbol Knowledge』 reached Lv.10/100!]

[Sub-Class: Scribe (10/100)]

***

Ever seen someone speedrun their way into a PhD? Well, Cedric almost certainly did, in three days too!

That was absurd, but in a world filled with Superhumans, this feat wouldn't be considered an exaggeration. Many have done similar things before, others even escalated it to a whole new level, so Cedric wasn't all that proud of what he had achieved.

Still, he worked for it. His absurd learning speed felt like cheating, but nobody would hear him complaining.

Seriously, even Cedric found this a bit absurd. There was a time when all he needed was to glance at the first few pages of the book and his mind would already go through extensive lengths and theories, which mostly ended up proven as he finished the book he was reading.

He only needed minutes to consume all the knowledge available in a book, and once he had read enough about a certain subject, he would take online exams to prove his knowledge and he passed them with flying colors.

Now, Cedric's mind was filled with all sorts of mundane knowledge about science, mathematics, engineering, and medicine that he could review whenever the need for it arose.

On top of that, Cedric was also learning more about Demon Lore, as well as subjects that would help him increase his Sub-Class level.

Cedric did all of this without compromising his combat training too. This meant that he was extremely productive every day.

Thanks to his studies, he managed to gauge the plausibility of his plan to refine Demon Souls.

As it turns out, he wasn't the first one to entertain the idea. There had been people who had tried it in the past, yes, even before the Article he had seen online was posted. Sadly, none of them succeeded.

Thank you for tuning in, and I will see you next time! Bye~"

***

"...huh!" Cedric blinked after listening to that.

He was initially surprised about the sudden mention of the Outer World, thankfully he was more than knowledgeable now that he managed to recover fast and focus on the news.

Right, the 'Outer World'. That's what modern people call that place now. Some old timers would refer to it as the 'Old World' or the 'Forgotten Continents'. Neither term was wrong so to say, it's just preference.

The Cataclysm did more damage to the world than what humans initially expected. Even though centuries have passed since it happened, its effects can still be felt through modern times.

Back then, Humans were incredibly weak. As a result, they could only retreat and cower under the might of demons. The majority of Humans back then left their homes, leaving behind all traces of tradition, knowledge, and memories for the sake of survival.

By the time Acala came to their aid, the Humans were already down to a fraction of their numbers and were cornered.

Thanks to the emergence of Superhumans, Humanity was able to somewhat recover and carve a piece of the world to call home. Since then, they have done their best to bolster their defenses, recover their numbers, and raise strong warriors to keep existing.

Humanity did manage to recover at least, but it's never been the same since then. As society changed to accommodate the existence of Superhumans, the homes they left behind were pushed to the back burner. They just couldn't spare enough manpower to reclaim them.

And even if they could, the expeditions would be extremely dangerous since the rest of the world had been infested by wretched demons who had already spread their corruption everywhere.

It wasn't until the last decade that the Federation decided to launch the OWET initiative - composed of groups of talented individuals whose task is to explore and discover ways for humanity to reclaim their old home.

According to what Cedric knew so far, the expedition missions didn't always succeed. In fact, 8 times out of 10, the teams would fail to do their missions; oftentimes returning defeat and with missing members, or never returning at all.

This further stresses the sheer dangers of the Outer World. And this was also the reason why there haven't been a lot of people who volunteered to join this cause.

Cedric rewounded the clip and focused on the image of the expedition team. Upon closer inspection, the reporter was mostly right on his assumptions, the team was intact for the most part. They didn't lose any members, which is already a miracle on its own, and returned with a mission accomplished.

That said, they look dead inside. Cedric was still now an expert in Psychology, but he could plainly tell that the expedition team had been through some tough shit. They looked battered and beaten, quite possibly traumatized too.

"I hope that whatever their mission is, was worth the trouble and trauma it caused them. Shit, they look even worse than the worst people I encountered at the RMC!"

Cedric shook his head and proceeded to switch his viewing to the gaming channel...