The 10 minutes flew past and Ed found himself inside of a new room.
It was filled with eerie shadows cast by the flickering of the torches. Cobwebs with no spiders in sight and trashy furniture. A usual sight inside of the spooky crypt.
Therefore, Ed needed to figure out where exactly he was which didn't take him too long. He could be said to be at the halfway point between the floor entrance and the boss room. Of course, he didn't forget to gather a large horde of skeletons while he was at it.
[Transmission has leveled up]
Now, he just had to put his plan into action while heading towards the boss gate. He wasn't going to wait there like last time though. His plan was much bolder than that.
Being a sitting duck resulted in a complete failure so why would he try that again? He needed to take the initiative.
As he passed hallways he made sure to create a mix of pitfall traps and spike traps. Their purpose wasn't to kill anybody. It was to inform him.
What was one of the quirks of this part of the dungeon? The echoes. For some reason, sounds got around in the crypt.
Not only that, but he had become quite adept at handling the earth which his skeleton form focused solely on. He, therefore, became quite sensitive to the earth around him. He could hear or feel the vibrations and thanks to his knowledge of the area more or less pinpoint the direction from which they came.
Direction alone was good enough. With just this, he would be able to respond to his enemy's movements and reposition his army.
[Mana Manipulation has leveled up]
Reposition? Well, as it was simply impossible to predict which of the many rooms the adventurers would traverse, Ed had to keep moving. There was just one problem with this.
His transmission skill had leveled up but its range was still limited. That is to say if he wanted to properly surround the enemies he himself would have to be in the center of the enemies. The first words that might come to one's mind would be...
Impossible. He would get obliterated. And that's putting it nicely.
Which is why he decided to just hide. Originally, he planned to hide underground in the center of the room but there was something odd with the vibrations he was feeling.
None of the pitfalls were activated! They came prepared! He didn't know how exactly they did it, but they did!
Which is why he took a risk and instead hid in a wall. This unfortunately meant that one side would have fewer skeletons than the other. If the enemies chose to escape that way they would have it easy.
'But they might not even need to escape…' If he was found before he could cause any significant damage the adventurers wouldn't even need to consider escaping.
The reason why Ed was thinking so negatively was due to the feeling of increased tension. As the vibrations grew ever closer and intensified so did his pressure.
The main problem was that whenever he took a position to hide he wouldn't be able to see his opponents at all. He wasn't used to being in the dark like this. Well… he was but not being able to see his opponents was a new experience.
More rumbling vibrations.
Ed moved a final time and moved the skeletons along with him. This would be his final move.
The adventurers actually took a direct approach. He should have expected it since now that he thought back on it the adventurers tended to come out of one or two different merging corridors that stood next to each other.
The path they would take was essentially predetermined each time. He felt dumb for moving around so much but now wasn't the time to worry about it.
He heard steps. He felt steps. Many steps. The number of adventurers was incomparably larger to last time. One final rumble resounded the area.
Ed then briefly heard what sounded like howling winds.
"Stop!" Yelled an adventurer. The voice sounded fairly familiar to Ed.
"We are surrounded!..." Ed didn't really bother to hear out the rest of what the man had to say. It was clear that his plan had been found out.
He hadn't expected to be found out so easily but it wasn't necessarily hard to believe which is why he didn't mind it and quickly moved on to the next phase of the plan. Chaos.
'Charge!' He transmitted to the many skeletons that he kept in the surroundings.
The large rectangular room towards which the skeletons were currently charging had ten entrances. Both of the longer sides had three entrances and then the other two sides each had two.
The skeletons entered mostly from the larger sides and the backside. The two front corridors from which the adventurers had entered the room was inevitably the weaker side. He couldn't send any skeletons through there until all of the adventurers entered the room after all.
And chaos did indeed befall the adventurers. He could feel all sorts of conflicts happening from within the safety of his wall.
Some explosions, random screams. The number of adventurers was higher but the quality definitely decreased.
The reason? He didn't have time to think about what that might be. He couldn't lose this perfect opportunity to gain some levels.
Ed had thought up many ways to fight the adventurers while inside of the dungeon's mind space. The best ones involved mana along with his thought manifestation. The only problem was that he for some reason couldn't get it to work.
It might just be a lack of tension.
He blew out his hiding spot. The debris hit some of the unsuspecting c-class adventurers causing injuries.
The light finally returned to Ed's world. He could see… a sea of people. The flickering torches were enough for Ed to see things clearly. He began his chant with newfound determination.
His small commotion didn't actually manage to catch the attention of the vast majority due to the chaotic state of things.
"Urgh-!" A man who wore some leather armor was pierced by an earthen spike. And then another one… And another one…
Ed decided to stimulate a mix of mana manipulation and thought manifestation. He had already swiftly reaped the life of one man. His red blood finally made the others notice him. Not only that but...
A bright green glow could be seen illuminating the entire room. A man looked at around with his surroundings with sharp eyes, he was looking for prey.
'I can't waste my time!' Ed thought finishing his chant.
[<Thought Manifestation> is in effect]
The air above the adventurers was suddenly occupied by large chunks of earth. This was the meteor rain spell. The only difference was that there was no fire.
Ed modified the deadly spell to fall within his current area of expertise.
The large intimidating chunks of earth could not be missed. But it was too late for anyone to interfere. Ed knew that the strongest enemy was likely to lead the group so he positioned himself further from the back.
This obviously paid off.
Screams and wails. Some people cast spells to protect themselves while others tried to attack the huge chunks of earth.
Some succeeded, but a lot failed.
The ground trembled furiously. The large collision between the chunks of earth and the floor resulted in a small earthquake that shook the immediate area.
"F*ck!" Said a B-class adventurer that barely managed to destroy one of the large projectiles. The debris that came from his attempt still managed to deal friendly fire.
The biggest downside to the thought manifestation skill was the need for immense concentration. Ed was solely focused on his spell couldn't care less about those people that survived his first attack. That was also in part because he saw a frightening sight.
A ridiculously large tornado was darting towards his direction. The more ridiculous part was that all of the adventurers in its path were fine!
Ed gritted his teeth. He had to, lest his jaw falls off from the fierce winds. With a few seconds to react, he summoned a dome. The large tornado didn't care.
A blender. The speedy winds cut him apart without mercy. Ed barely had time in mid-air to catch sight of a familiar man holding a sleek and exquisite green blade. The blade was still exuding a green glow and the man held a serious expression.
He had this image imprinted in his mind at the last second. But rather than fear or worry. Ed felt satisfied. It was because of how many people he had killed. He was certain! A level up was waiting for him!
[Recalling Champion's Soul]
Ed's consciousness left the smithereens that remained of his skeletal body and re-entered the empty black void.
Everything had gone down so quickly. In the heat of the moment, there were many things he might have missed. Things that could have been done differently or better but…
It didn't matter now. He already had his prize.
[Champion has met the conditions to level up, initiate level up? Y/N]
'Yes!!!' If one could scream in their mind then Ed's reply would sound like a thundering roar from his enthusiasm.
[Champion will be put to sleep]
Ed's mind became muddled and the black surroundings somehow became fuzzy.. He was drowsy and fell asleep. As he drifted off to sleep he could only think of one thing, what new skills might he get?