Ed continued his teachings until the three skeletons exhausted their mana. Their pool was seemingly only half of Ed's own. The mana circulation of Drench and Zephyr was also slower than Trench's who had a core. Their body was simply not suited for the job.
There was another thing that Ed had tried. He used Zephyr as a crystal and it had worked! That was a fatal weakness! At the very least it wasn't obvious since no one would expect such a thing but… it was a sad finding…
'The only positive is that they recharge themselves' Ed jested as he prepared himself to head back into the system space.
Now that everything was orderly, he could easily finish the rest of the stored up skeletons and turn them into mages.
'I can't upgrade the rest without heading up to the orc plains first though' It was either that or training up his crystallize skill. And of the two, he would much rather do the latter.
How would he explain himself to Sharog if he only showed up to get some crystals and then left? At that time, Shel might also insist on following him. She was rather infatuated with him after all.
Ed was back inside of the forge. The automatic process hadn't stopped just because he had taken his leave. It seemed the system wouldn't reset unless the dungeon showed up which was a pleasant surprise.
There were now eight skeletons waiting for him to impart life into them. But Ed first needed to give them a mana core.
He hurried out of the forge and returned with eight crystals and some more consciousnesses.
'Let's see, two of each element should do' This meant that fire mages would be short one of their kind. He could fix that in the future though.
[Multiple compatible materials detected, combine? Y/N]
The message appeared as soon as Ed placed the new crystals in the holding box. Apart from the multiple nothing was different and Ed nodded in response.
The eight crystals were thrown into the flames to melt away. The ready skeletons on the side would follow suit, Ed, therefore, didn't pay it much mind and focused on cutting away the memories of the consciousnesses.
Once he was done, eight ready skeletons were waiting for him. But he wanted to do something else first.
Ed tossed an orc consciousness along with half of one and a prompt to merge them appeared after some bit of burning. He agreed and soon received a larger ball of light.
[Piece of consciousness]
Another piece of consciousness. This one was smaller by at least half a size though.
'Alright then, time to get out' He put the consciousnesses away into the spirit room and then left with the set of bones.
His pupils were still meditating hoping to regain their lost mana. Ed assembled the skeletons at a noticeably faster pace, likely a result of the extra dexterity the throwing knife netted him.
'Time to make them rise' Ed ran over to each and inserted an orc consciousness. All except one, this skeleton had a red mana core. A fire lich of sorts.
He knelt down and inserted the piece of consciousness. The other skeletons had already assembled themselves and were confused.
'Standby' Ed transmitted and they all looked over and knelt. Ed ignored them and saw the final skeleton finally start to manufacture itself.
It acted just like Trench and assessed itself and its surroundings before kneeling. Ed nodded and gave it a name.
'You will be Blaze. Do not disappoint me' Ed's latter words weren't entirely for formality. A fire could become quite deadly in confined spaces. Needless to say, Blaze could become rather deadly in this dungeon with stale air.
Blaze accepted its name and lowered its head further to show it.
'They all tend to react somewhat differently' This thought popped into Ed's mind as he considered the different ways the skeletons behaved when it came to showing him allegiance.
He tossed the matter aside and considered another issue.
'I desperately need to teach them to speak' He was not keen on teaching them how to do things every time. There had to be a way for them to communicate or at least of the ones at the top to communicate. The easiest form would be writing.
'But that means I need to teach them how to read and write' Ed's none existent eye twitched at the thought. For some reason, he felt this reaction slighted someone.
Ed sighed, there was no helping it. He would teach them to manipulate mana before seriously considering if he should increase the literacy rate of his population.
'Let's start with how to sense mana…' Ed reluctantly transmitted. The skeletons stopped their kneeling as they started to seriously pay attention.
After going through the regular routine, Ed called over Kenny Jr.
'Sorry for this buddy' Kenny Jr. tilted its head in confusion. Ed then placed his palm on its head and collected its consciousness through insertion. He planned to upgrade Kenny first.
He also collected its body as was only natural and returned to the system space. He collected the five skeletons from the storeroom and headed into the forge to complete their upgrades.
He had grabbed two fire crystals and one of the other three which he also tossed into the holding box. The process prompt appeared and Ed readily agreed. Now, he could focus on Kenny.
He went over to the spirit room where it was much easier to find his desired target and left with six consciousness, one being Kenny's.
'Time to chisel' He cut away the memories of the five orc consciousnesses until ethereal sparks no longer appeared. The forge was then done with the skeleton sets and Ed proceeded with the next step.
He added Kenny Jr.'s consciousness and one of the empty ones and made them join one another. They floated above the white flame to melt for a bit before running into each other and merging.
'Let's see the effects' Would Kenny still feel like itself? Or would it be as if a new person had foreign memories placed inside of itself?
'But I'm sure one's memories is what shapes their personalities…' Ed's own personality was… no longer what his memories told him. This was to be expected, they couldn't possibly align after he was essentially forced to start anew and form new memories.
[Kenny Jr.'s wisp of consciousness]
Ed felt reassured by this and left the space with the new sets in tow. Once out, the bones dropped to the ground and he quickly assembled them.
'Here it goes' Ed plopped Kenny's consciousness into one of the skeletons. He didn't know if it was the original one but it probably wouldn't matter, could it even be recognized?
Like magnets, the bones joined and assembled themselves. Soon enough, Kenny stood before him. He gazed around as if something in his life had changed. As if the way he saw the world had become estranged. Well, Ed actually couldn't tell…
He quickly inserted consciousnesses into the others and prepared to teach them how to manage their core. They would be the last mages he could make for a bit so he was especially attentive.
'Move the mana in your core at will' Ed instructed as he looked at Kenny's translucent red core. Kenny then started to move the lively fire elements around while Ed observed.
'Good, you got the hang of controlling the elements in your core' Ed praised Kenny who in return wanted to jump in joy.
[System link perk activated]
[<Instruction lvl. 1> Acquired]
'Hm?' Ed was slightly bewildered by the sudden activation of the perk. The name was self-explanatory, however.
'How does this work?' Ed asked himself as he wondered how the perk comes into effect. He honestly had no idea.
[Instruction lvl. 1]
Transmit knowledge directly to conscious beings. Knowledge must fall within a set parameter.
Given that the system link was not concealed, he directly received the skill definition and found it oddly familiar.
'It works somewhat like transmission' Ed felt that transmission had the clue he was looking for in regards to understanding this phenomenon.
'Kenny, come closer' Ed commanded Kenny who quickly took a couple of steps forward.
Ed then activated instruction, what would he pass? The first letter he learned from assimilating the spelling book that one time!
'No wait that's not right…' Ed immediately realized there was a problem with the knowledge he passed. It was limited! He couldn't for example pass on his entire life story to his students! Kenny still somehow seemed enlightened as it slowly threw its head back in realization...
'Damn, why can't everything be brokenly powerful?' Ed silently lamented his plight.
'Whatever, I'm not ungrateful' Ed threw the jokes aside and focused on the positives. The process of teaching the skeletons to read and write would be much smoother with the instruction skill.
The skill should also level up in the process, increasing its potential.
Ed then transmitted another letter, his target this time was the entire group of nearby skeletons. He watched their reactions and found that some of them seemed unaffected.
'So it also has a radius like transmission…' Ed could only determine it likely came from the same skill branch if such a term existed.
Ed then gestured for all of them to come closer, it was time to increase the literacy rate one letter at a time.