All of the orcs were boisterous after having won the battle. The atmosphere didn't die down even after Ed's quick nap. Ed was also easily recognized by some as his performance was quite attention-grabbing.
This only made it easier for him to get some of the loot. Once he asked for all of the pieces of armor, no one disagreed. For some, it was mainly that they didn't have any use for it but still.
Ed was at the moment inside of his house. A couple of hours had passed and he was trying to admit a helmet into his storage but after trying twice, it wouldn't budge.
'Is it full?' Ed asked himself.
The storage space was larger than the average living room and free of clutter but with all the things he had stuffed in there, it was bound to reach max capacity eventually.
'I won't be needing much of this anyway' Ed didn't think much of it and prepared to leave for good.
He first went to where Shel was resting and left after seeing her improved condition. By the next day, she was likely to wake up.
Ed passed the gate guard who seemed particularly excited to see him. He chatted up a storm and talked about treating Ed to some grilled pork meat. He politely refused and told the man to open the gate.
"Where are you going?" The gate orc asked with an axe on his shoulder.
"I'll be back, don't worry about it" Ed replied and with that was let out.
After he exited, he took a glance back towards the tall settlement walls. A part of it on the right side of the gate was burned significantly.
Ed only glanced at it for a second before shifting his gaze towards the battlefield. It was as if nothing had ever occurred. If it weren't for the holes in the ground his meteors and other spells caused no one would know of the massacre that had occurred.
Ed walked past these holes and disappeared into the forest. He trekked for a good 10 or so minutes before finally coming to a stop. The ground beneath him parted and then swallowed him up.
'This should do' Ed was currently in complete darkness inside of the hole he created. He had no actual plans to leave far away. That would be a waste of time and very inconvenient for returning.
Ed then brought out an earthly brown crystal which shone a soft brown. He also brought out Vorgarag's rudimentary ink and brush and began to inscribe some basic runes.
The first layer served to collect energy from the crystal, the next transported the mana to the third layer which denoted the spell. He added coordinates on the third layer that corresponded to the size of his hiding hole. The array's job was to reinforce it with mana.
'Don't want any weird accidents to happen…' Imagine if the hole caved in for some reason, would his body still survive? Or would he come out of the dirt like a zombie?
The hole wasn't much larger than his own body as Ed wasn't seeking comfort so the small crystal he brought with him would suffice. Ed nodded to himself before sitting down against the dirt wall.
'Is this my first custom array?' Ed thought with a small smile. All of the other arrays he had made were done according to Vorgarag's instructions and methodologies.
He placed the brown crystal next to him on the array and it instantly brightened. The array came alive and immediately got to work. Ed thumped the dirt walls and was satisfied by their sturdiness. He had derived the array matrix for the third layer from the earth dome spell. Satisfied, it was time to move on.
'Dungeon, I want to return to the crypt.' Ed spoke clearly inside of his mind. He also tried to use his transmission with the dungeon as the target just to make sure it was there and could listen.
'I really do wonder if that works… If it does maybe I can politely ask it to leave to use my other skill.' Ed joked around inside his mind for a bit as he waited for the dungeon's response.
Soon, his mind felt woozy and his consciousness started to part from his body.
[Recalling Champion's soul]
His vision disappeared and only the black abyss was in sight. The endless dark then once more took on a red hue as his sixth sense skill auto-activated.
'That could get a bit annoying' He thought as he turned it off.
Just as he finished that thought, a new message appeared.
[1:07 hours until respawn]
The glowing message indicated the respawn timer. It seemed that Ed would have to wait an entire hour until he could respawn. This was undoubtedly an inconvenience but it also helped Ed gain confidence in his conjecture.
'It hasn't made my skeleton body yet so I need to wait' The dungeon likely prepares his skeleton body in advance in order to summon him immediately when trespassers are present.
'My orc body should have quite the large respawn timer…' Ed muttered in his own thoughts.
He then realized that the dungeon healing him was probably also for its own good. Creating a body from scratch was bound to be less economic than restoring an injured one. If the dungeon was a regular company boss then it would definitely be a cheap one.
Ed wandered through his hazy memories for the entire hour before finally getting the message he had been waiting for.
[Summoning Dungeon Champion]
Per usual, his consciousness left the dark space and made contact with his skeletal body, His pristine white bones were still, just as pristine. Nothing was out of place other than the fact that he didn't know where he was.
'I should gather some skeletons then' Ed's plan involved the system space which he couldn't access under the dungeon's watchful eye. The only other option was to horde the skeletons and maybe collect some of their consciousness.
The dungeon didn't like it when he did this the last time so he wasn't too eager to try it. Lest it takes him back to the orc plains.
Regardless, he should already have plenty of 'life'. The number of orcs that had died in his vicinity was not small so Ed had no doubts this was the case. The only thing he felt a bit apprehensive of was that the system could start to take them for itself, killing Vorgarag in the process.
'How am I even supposed to differentiate them?' Ed felt puzzled when his mind reached this thought. Was it possible to have a two-way transmission? He hadn't had the opportunity to test this and he definitely couldn't now.
'Still, even if it isn't possible here it should be possible in the system space.' He couldn't forget that the system space was his domain. A place limited by his imagination, a place of the mind.
A possibility then arose in Ed's heart.
'Is it my own mind?' Ed's face would be expressing his deep thought if it wasn't for the fact that he was currently a skeleton.
His reasoning was simple. Whenever he was summoned it felt like he was being pulled out of his body and he would go limp. Whenever he entered the system space there was no such thing happening. As a matter of fact, the feeling was more akin to going to sleep and having a dream.
'Then… why is it listed as system space?' Ed found the description to be misleading if his conjecture were to be true.
Unless…
'Did… Did it take my mind for itself?' Doubt started to form in Ed's mind. He had marked the system off of his danger list but maybe that was a foolish thing to do.
'It's like a parasite.' Ed suddenly realized as he recalled how a parasite acted from his memories. It was simply a hazy memory but it was enough for him to understand that a parasite picked a host and used it to feed itself.
While a parasite might not kill its host, as it often relied on it to live, it was still capable of dealing it harm.
Ed doubted the system would do either as, at least for the moment, it wasn't in the system's best interest. He also knew to be grateful so he gave it the benefit of the doubt. Still, he would definitely maintain a more wary stance towards it in the future.
'Why does it feel like I am stuck in a fight between two giants?' The worst part was that both of them could read his thoughts! How was he supposed to feel safe scheming against them under such circumstances?
'The dungeon's capability to do this might be more limited' First of all, the dungeon had to be present to do so. A second possibility was that it was informed of anything by the system rather than reading one's own thoughts.
In that case, the dungeon would only get to know what the system wanted it to. And this already seemed to be happening as the system was clearly concealing that it was regaining its strength inside of Ed's mind! The System link skill was likely to earn the dungeon's hostility!