Ed sighed internally before taking an upright posture. It was time to teach Zephyr a thing or two.
'Zephyr, after you've gathered the mana inside of yourself, try to send it outwards. It will create a gust of wind' Ed transmitted the next step. If Zephyr had critical thinking skills, it might have been able to do this without Ed's instruction.
There was another problem that Ed failed to mention much earlier. These skeletons couldn't chant. This meant that they could only manipulate the elements around them, their situation was hopeless in this regard.
Zephyr nodded and out of his glowing bones, came out a soft wind. A zephyr.
If Ed could feel things he would think it quite pleasant but since he couldn't, he was slightly disappointed.
'This alone won't cut it' He had long since grown patient but his surroundings wouldn't allow him to take it easy either. There hadn't been a single moment in which Ed didn't feel pressured by the looming adventurer threat. The only time could perhaps be in the orc plains but even then he was still forced to train and improve.
'Do it again, gather the elements in your hand and compress them inside of yourself. Then release.' What Ed had told him to do was essentially to create burst of wind after the elements decompress.
Zephyr didn't think to decline and immediately put in the effort. It clumsily gathered the wind mana inside of itself and compressed it into a single point with some effort. A small crack appeared in palm.
'Release it!' Ed was alarmed by this and instantly told Zephyr to get rid of it.
A blast of wind shot out from Zephyr and quickly exploded in front of the both of them. As Ed had a decent constitution and strength, he maintained his ground. Zephyr however tumbled and fell backwards.
Ed hurriedly inspected him and luckily, apart from the crack on its palm, there was no damage to it.
'It seems that too much mana is detrimental to any material' Any substance would suffer from strain when loads of mana travels through it in high numbers or at a number greater than it can hold.
'That was close. Don't over do it. That was your limit' Ed told Zephyr before pondering on his own words. If that was truly Zephyr's limit then how did he improve it?
For organic life, their vessels could adapt to better transfer mana around the body as well as hold out against higher quantities. The same didn't apply to the skeletons as their bones would always remain the same.
'Mixing it with a metal might work…' Ed had to consider how this would affect the travel of mana however.
'The only solution is to mimic the human body' By which he meant have wires of a mana conductable substance run through the inside of the skeletons. This sounded like a great solution but Ed would have to first find out how to do such a thing.
Ed observed Zephyr once more. Its glow had decreased and its cloudy green bones started to turn more grey. This clearly indicated that it was missing mana.
'Remember the feeling of the mana in your body. Use that same feeling to control the mana around you to enter your body.' He was basically telling it to meditate.
Zephyr nodded and tried this method. Meditation was rather slow but it was much slower to let mana naturally accumulate. Nevertheless, Ed would leave Zephyr to its own devices. He needed to make variants of other elements as well as try to mix them with other materials to improve their limits.
Ed immediately entered the system space amidst the sounds of clashing metal. When he returned to the system space, he was still in the forge room. He promptly left to grab the right materials and then returned to restock the holding box.
[Compatible materials detected, start the combination process? Y/N]
'Yes' Ed began the process once more. His plan was to create a crystal skeleton and mix it with antimony. The other plan was to create an anti-skeleton and mix it with a crystal. Basically the same but it just might lead to different results.
He tossed a water crystal into the white flame. He also tossed an arm in there and while they melted, he decided to prepare a new consciousness. If the skeleton was made of three materials it would surely be able to hold a greater consciousness, yes?
Ed, therefore, prepared two orc consciousnesses. He then tossed them into the forge on an empty space. The system sent him a familiar prompt after a short while and he obviously agreed.
[Piece of Consciousness]
The fusion of a being's thought.
Ed assessed the new wisp and found that it was now called a piece of consciousness. That is to say, it was a piece of something larger before. This further confirmed his previous conjecturers that the wisps originated from the dungeon.
He didn't pay it much attention and instead shifted his focus towards the new skeleton sets that were coming out of the forge at the moment. One was blue in nature while the other held a gray luster.
As part of the process, they had been sent out of the forge by the system to cool. But Ed didn't want this, he grabbed some tongs and directly tossed them back into the forge. While at it, he also grabbed another melted crystal, it was of the earth element. He felt that it would increase the chance of success when fusing it with the antimony skeleton.
[Compatible materials detected, combine? Y/N]
[Compatible materials detected, combine? Y/N]
'Do both' Ed answered and the system began its work.
The water skeleton's bones floated above the white flame and then a gray chunk of melted metal attached itself to it. The melted metal crawled over every nook and cranny as it mixed in with the bones.
Ed observed while considering if he should toss some more chunks.
On the other side of the forge, a different process was taking place. The earthen crystal which was in a liquid state did not try to fuse itself with the bones. On the contrary, it instead entered the area of the abdomen and floated there turning into a soft brown sphere.
'This… is perfect.' Ed thought as he watched both pieces fly out of the forge.
A mana core! But why? That was the first question that popped into Ed's mind. Getting a better understanding of the way the forge functioned would be incredibly helpful for his future endeavors.
'I think I can boil it down to either of two reasons.' Ed thought as he watched the liquids start to solidify in the white room.
One reason was that the forge's material upgrading function worked in chronological order. For example, slot one was the material that would be upgraded. Slot two was what would be used to upgrade it, and slot three would be any additional attachments.
The crystal could function in both slots two and three resulting in it prioritizing one over the other.
'And that works since the antimony can't be used as an attachment, only a reinforcement.' This meant that even if the forge system wanted to put in slot three it couldn't. The only other option was reinforcement.
The second potential reason was quantity. As he only provided a single chunk of both the crystal and the antimony, the system adapted to the best of its abilities.
The antimony as previously addressed could only be used to reinforce the body so even though it was the case, the system had no choice but to comply. As for the crystal, however, most of its properties would be lost if normally assimilated.
'It's more likely to be the former though' Ed felt it was more logically sound than the latter.
Regardless of which it was though, he couldn't wait to put both of these skeletons to the test. His mind whirred at the possibility of having a mage order at his beck and call.
***
Royal Castle, Capital Pith.
Brennan Bosque was inside of his bedroom admiring the stars that filled the clear night sky. He was contemplating many things at the moment.
For example, is there a god? If so, what did he do wrong? Is it not its job to provide guidance? Why did he feel so lost then? So... disillusioned.
Having children was supposed to be a wonderful thing but in regards to royalty, it felt more than anything like a curse. The pain of having to watch one's back against one's blood. The thought of it alone hurt more than any cold dagger that might pierce him sneakily from behind one day.
Suddenly, the king became wary. He heard footsteps outside of his door.
Then, a figure suddenly appeared past the door. It was the sage, Eon!
He had used some short-range teleportation to pass through the door. But he still couldn't help but wonder how Eon got past the guards. They were trained to be ready for any such situation.
"Brennan, sorry for coming so late today." Eon first and foremost apologized.
"No, not at all! It must be important, please sit down somewhere." Brennan who was near his balcony like window hurriedly denied his thanks and walked over to a couch. The king's bedroom was rather spacious.
"Our talk will be brief there is no need." Eon declined and softly shook his head.
Brennan stood next to the couch with a puzzled expression. Now that his initial surprise settled, he could get a good look at Eon's complexion. And it didn't look quite good.
Eon's skin was white, but it wasn't pale! His elderly long white beard couldn't hide this detail, it only served for contrast.
"I am dying" Eon uttered simply as if it didn't truly concern him.
Brennan's entire body suddenly shook as a result though, his heart was struck by shock. The undying wizard said he was dying! That alone would be worrisome but the true reason for his exaggerated reaction was…
"That- That can't be! I'll contact some of the best doct-" Brennan couldn't let his failsafe die! Eon was the main reason he so confidently allowed the dungeon conquest mission to start!
"Brennan, my time has come. Nobody can live forever, you have probably come to your own terms with this" Eon was referring to the prince's likely betrayal and Brennan's oblivious facade.
"I-..." But Brennan couldn't answer. He suddenly felt his kingdom was being threatened. Could he truly keep the Volcan empire at bay under these circumstances!? He wouldn't be able to spare a single troop.
"How long… I mean, how much do you have?" The king asked warily.
"I have one last request. Let me join the dungeon expedition." Eon said solemnly completely ignoring the king's question.
Brennan was confused by this request. Why would Eon need his permission? If he were to show up randomly nobody would complain.
"...sure" The king answered, although internally, he felt like cursing out the old sage.. Why was he looking to die in an old dungeon? Things had become complicated. Would he even be able to do this expedition?