Nearly three hours passed. All along, Ed simply created crystals. His crystallize skill leveled up a total of six times. He also occasionally guided the skeletons and observed their training. It was going especially well due to the many crystals he created.
The gate corridor, as he dubbed it for convenience, had become an ideal mana cultivation site. The sole exception being the fire element mana which was for the most part lacking in the stale environment. Not entirely, but enough that the replenishing of fire elements was slowed to a crawl.
Blaze was currently far behind in his mana manipulation. It was even more so for the naive Kenny Jr.
'I should have given him another element' He really wanted to nurture Kenny Jr. but it wouldn't do under the current environment. The best bet would be to take him to the orc plains.
'Maybe it's time to test out that portal' Ed glanced at the large doors that separated him from the empty boss room. Thinking about how it was empty made him feel rather regretful.
'That's really too bad…' The fact that the room was empty was bothering him since it meant he couldn't make use of the boss. Be it for their knowledge or fighting prowess.
'Is the dungeon perhaps giving up on this floor?' Ed felt that it wasn't unlikely. As long as he was there, advancing to the next few floors would be a hard task for anyone below Samuel and fiery fists guy's level.
'Or should I call them realms…' Floors didn't seem fitting anymore given that the floors had merged to form a large expanse. This large expanse worked as a world of its own as the orcs and their tribes had demonstrated.
Ed stopped to ponder on his options and came to a quick conclusion.
'The system space is still not working so I may as well' Thus Ed decided to move into the boss room with the multiple skeletons.
He would first try to enter the portal and if it didn't work for whatever reason, he would send in his skeletons. And if they couldn't either… he would be disappointed but that was it.
'Follow me' Ed transmitted to a select number of skeletons. They were random nobodies. He couldn't afford to lose any of the valuable ones after all.
Plain old skeletons heeded his command. They would be the sacrificial pawns. For the sake of experimenting. He also called over the skeleton most fit for the job.
'you, let's go' Another sacrificial pawn. It was one of the skeletons from the latest batches. Its skills were therefore rustier than the rest. Time couldn't be made up, having the experienced skeletons go in would be unwise.
The anti-skeleton that Ed had called upon flinched mid-battle resulting in a strike to its skull. The other skeleton stopped seeing his reaction which left a positive impression of these smarter skeletons in Ed's eyes. They knew restraint!
The anti-skeleton walked over after receiving a strike. Its body was full of both small and large scratches after going through arduous battles. It looked weathered and battle-hardened. Intimidating.
But that wasn't ideal.
'I should make them spar with rusty swords in the future' Letting the spars happen with the adventurers' loot resulted in scratches and injuries. Those would result in obvious weaknesses for enemies to exploit. Plus, they looked cleaner without scratches anyways.
Soon, 10 regular skeletons and the anti-skeleton stood in front of Ed whose back was facing the large gate.
'We will enter' Ed transmitted to them. The skeletons instantly shivered uncontrollably at the thought of entering the boss room leaving Ed somewhat dumbfounded. He had expected them to refuse to enter but the reaction was still rather extreme,
'Whatever, let's open this first then' Ed turned his back to them and approached the imposing gate. He placed his palm on it and felt no pressure. Ed then pushed on it lightly.
With a loud creak, the door was pushed open by several meters.
'My strength has certainly increased' Ed thought as he peered into the well-lit boss room. The room was tranquil and lifeless, at the same time it gave it an uncanny atmosphere. Ed didn't pay it any mind as he wasn't there to sightsee.
The ground suddenly shifted, the ground underneath the regular skeletons shifted to be specific. Under Ed's command, they were catapulted towards the opening.
Ed watched as they flew through the air with evident panic and unwillingness. As soon as they flew past the gate, their bones disconnected and scattered all over the stone floor.
'That's rather unexpected' He would have never imagined that yeeting them in would result in their deaths.
Ed quickly activated his sixth sense skill, he wanted to see their lingering consciousnesses and how they would be collected by the system.
'Hm? Did I miss it?' Ed couldn't help but ask himself seeing that in front of his vision nothing had appeared or even taken on a different shade.
Seeing this, he was forced to revise his first conjecture as to why the skeletons feared entering. The lich was not the culprit.
'It's more like a psychological cue' Their fear was at downright traumatic levels. This was not in line with the undead's coldblooded and emotionless nature.
'If it's a cue it must have been placed on them by the dungeon' Ed, therefore, called a skeleton he had left on the sideline.
'Eight, come over here' Ed transmitted to a far off regular skeleton. This skeleton seemed to be messing around without any responsibilities but upon hearing Ed's command it hurried over. In less than 30 seconds, it stood before Ed.
Ed observed one of the first skeleton test subjects, Eight. It stood near him unfazed by the gate and the room it contained.
That alone was proof of the new conjecture. He had erased the memories of these consciousnesses. Not to mention they didn't originate from that of a skeleton to begin with.
'Enter' Ed told it. Eight didn't hesitate to make its way past the gate. It went in with steady and domineering steps but… It soon started to falter. Ed's sixth sense caught nothing, however.
After a short couple of seconds, Eight was no more. It clattered onto the ground lifelessly.
'I can rule out death by shock then' There was instead something wrong with the boss room.
'It must be that their strength is insufficient' Ed quickly hit on the right answer. He deduced this on the fact that he himself was completely fine when entering the boss rooms. Not only that, but Eight also lasted longer than the dungeon spawned skeletons.
The consciousness of regular skeletons was too weak. This meant that the anti-skeletons might be able to enter.
'Your name will be Martyr' Ed named the anti-skeleton. He was about to become a potential sacrifice, it would be unjust to not grant it some level of glory.
Martyr knelt solemnly. Since transmission revealed intentions it knew that it might become a sacrifice. Ed noticed this as well and with only a shred of remorse told it to enter the boss room.
Martyr nodded and with heavy steps, walked in. Nothing happened however even after multiple seconds had passed.
'Very good!' Ed praised Martyr although he was well aware it had done nothing. It would be cruel to not show it any gratitude. The testing was not over after all.
Ed himself walked into the grand room. He was eyeing the distant black dot. This would be Martyr's next task.
The duo walked past the scattered bones and proceeded deep into the room. They were then directly in front of the portal. It floated ominously above the ground and felt unnatural and unfathomable. One could get lost in its pitch darkness. The moment of truth as some might call it had come.
Ed looked at Martyr and asked it to enter.
'Return as soon as possible' Ed also gave it an order. It wouldn't do for it to stay on the other side. How was he supposed to know if it lived or not?
Martyr nodded and plunged into the black portal. It had no regrets! It lived a blessed life as a skeleton.
Ed waited.
And waited.
And after more waiting, decided that Martyr had likely perished.
'The portal is not safe' This was the conclusion he came to. Assuming that the portal was located near an orc settlement, they would be unlikely to pounce on the skeleton upon first sight.
The only other explanation would then be that it didn't lead to the orc plains and that something had indeed killed Martyr or simply that portal travel was not safe for them to do.
'There's a chance it's safe for me to enter it though' Ed was then faced with a dilemma. He was actually afraid of death for one sole reason. He would be traveling through space!
Could he guarantee that the dungeon still held any jurisdiction under such a circumstance? Of course, the travel was still within the confines of the dungeon so Ed was still tempted but there were other reasons not to die at the moment.
For one, it would be a waste of time. His skeleton body would need to be recreated by the dungeon first and given that he had gathered a lot of attributes the time taken would definitely be over two hours.
So should he take the plunge?