The sacred tribe. The tribe connected with God.
That was their name and their purpose for existence. They were blessed. For they had piously followed Safur's suggestions. The god asked for sacrifices in exchange for peace and they obliged. They could feast for a long time thanks to God's care.
Old Lagakha, as Gurln would call her, was admiring a mural. It depicted the story of Safur, the youngest of the orc ancestors, and how he was betrayed by the others. They had abandoned him and taken some of the knowledge they together compiled.
"Oh, great Safur, we will definitely avenge this injustice" The old orc woman piously swore.
Duma had squealed. He had told the lady of the situation back on his settlement. He told a glorious story of a migrating orc who fled to search for valiant warriors to join him in a cause. That was also how he ended up in their sacred tribe's settlement.
Of course, the sacred tribe had considered his story to be true. But they still needed to verify. The old lady thus did more probing and Duma had decided to retell his valiant tale.
"Even if the heretics lost, we will need to get rid of outsiders" It was one of Safur's commandments.
Thus, the sacred tribe, who had inherited most of the ancestor's knowledge, would exit the deep forest that had been their home for generations to sanctify and punish wrongdoings.
***
Back in the present, Ed was admiring his work.
The brown temple seemed somewhat historical in nature. As if it held great meaning and importance for some ancient civilization.
'Iron, you will be in charge of me' As Ed's knight, Iron obviously needed to safeguard his body. Iron nodded.
Ed walked towards the temple, Iron followed. He climbed up the sets of steps and entered the building. It was nothing but an empty square room.
The earth shifted once more. The floor which was simple dirt turned into bricks. The bricks directly in front of the entrance protruded slightly as if to form a path. At the end of the path was a throne.
Ed walked towards it and examined it. He inscribed the three letters of his name he could remember in their original language. To outsiders, it would seem like gibberish, to Ed it was meaningful.
|EDW|
Ed was hit by melancholy. He hence quickly shifted his gaze to other matters.
'Let's give it a few finishing touches' Ed thought as he opened his palm and created a small shard. It glowed a soft red. Thanks to the crystallize skill's level, it took only a minute to create entire crystals. That meant that a single shard could be made almost instantly.
Ed tossed it towards the wall where it was caught by the earth. It then shaped itself into a torch. The light it gave off was extremely dim. It could hardly be used to illuminate anything. Ed repeated this until the room was enveloped in a dim soft red.
'Perfect' Ed finally went over to the throne and sat down. He was wearing an embroidered robe with no effects. Still, the visual effects were what he wore it for.
'Iron, you are to guard this place. You will help Trench maintain the status quo. Expect my return' Ed sent Iron his intention. His last words carried a hint of expectation. As if once he returned, Ed would do something great.
The golem core would definitely be a game-changer. At the very least it would be an unexpected change. The adventurers would be shellshocked. Ed was the one most looking forward to it.
'System, inform the dungeon' Ed didn't make a fool of himself this time. As he had suspected that the system sent the dungeon information rather than it is capable of reading his thoughts, it wouldn't make sense for him to dance around in front of Iron.
There was no response but Ed still waited patiently.
[Recalling Champion's Soul]
The message took about a good minute to appear but appear it did. Ed felt his mind become woozy. His vision started to fade and he could soon no longer think as his thoughts became distant.
When things regained normality. He was inside of the blac- red void. He turned off sixth sense and the void lost the red sheen. Ed then waited for another message.
[10 minutes before respawning]
Ed nodded inwardly. The dungeon was more likely pleased with Ed's recent actions and thus allowed him free reign around the dungeon. He was after all strengthening its defenses. There was no need to punish or hinder him.
'Golem core…' The dungeon definitely wouldn't prevent him from creating such a thing.
The best method had to be throwing the carcass of an orc or boar into the system however which could make the dungeon displeased.
'I might need to keep a certain level of secrecy then' Ed didn't think more than that. It would likely not be impossible for the dungeon to read his mind when he was literally in it. Of course, the opposite could also be true.
Still, no chances. He distracted himself with idle thoughts instead.
[Summoning Dungeon Champion]
'Great' The 10 minutes passed and Ed was resummoned. He could feel his consciousness being sucked by a void-like vacuum.
His thoughts grew hazy and languid, before he knew it he was sucked away and thrown into another body. His orc body.
His senses returned to him. Ed's vision was covered with nothing but the brown of the dirt and the soft glow of the brown earthen crystal formation he set up.
'I'm still in the same place' Ed rejoiced inwardly. It meant that no trouble had been kicked up during his absence. Or at the very least it wasn't anything catastrophic.
Ed expanded the dirt as he stood up ready to leave. As he did he felt completely full of energy. The sleep had not turned his muscles lethargic.
It was also simply possible that having spent a good while as a skeleton, returning to his orc body felt that much more invigorating. His attributes were a bit ridiculous so it was rather natural.
He paid it to mind no longer as he pocketed the earthen crystal and dug himself out of his hidey-hole. The first thing that assaulted him was the smell of the wilderness and the rays of sunlight that passed through the foliage of the trees.
'Having all of your senses is a good thing' Everything felt better but what would feel best was returning to Sanctuary. Ed thus ignored the trees that softly blew in the wind and ran towards the settlement.
He sprinted at top speed kicking up some dirt in his wake. Soon the light was more resplendent as the trees became scarce and opened up to a clearing. Beyond the clearing was a tall wall.
'Hm?' The wall seemed new. Which was to be expected as a large portion of it had burned down. The issue was that there were also signs of damage.
'There was an attack' Most likely from an enemy tribe. Ed didn't fear such an encounter and thus continued running towards the settlement.
That was when a new thought emerged.
'Or did all of the humans not escape before?' He felt as though that was a possibility. It wasn't like the system had sent him any alerts. The damage on the walls was also not in any way small. It looked like it had been struck by powerful magic.
Ed felt some panic once he came to this conclusion. If the orcs inside were hurt or killed than this was the most short-lived sanctuary ever! He would have failed in his promise and worst of all, Shel and Sharog could be dead!
His sprint became much faster as Ed put some serious power into it. He basically launched himself forward at frightening speeds. No orc should be so nimble!
Ed then controlled the earth to create steps for himself. He jumped over the tall wall with the help of these steps. With a thud, he landed atop the wooden wall.
Ed then heard some screeching. The sounds came from some goblins who were frightened by his appearance.
'They are still using goblins' That had put Ed at ease to a certain extent but he still peered down the wall and into the settlement.
The sight before him was the regular settlement. There were no burnt buildings or pillaged housing.
'It looks like I was worried over nothing' he was confident in Sanctuary's ability to resist any orc invaders. So even if there had been a tribe's attack, he wasn't worried.
Ed looked over the settlement from the high vantage point for a good couple of seconds before finally deciding to go down the wall. He was currently thinking of how he should surprise Sharog or Shel.
'Shel wasn't really surprised by my revival though' She did faint at first but her attitude afterward was completely unbelievable. If she could overlook something like that Ed felt that surprising her wouldn't be effective.
'To sharog it is then' He also needed to catch up on the situation following his leave. For example, it wasn't impossible that someone tried to become a new leader or for the three tribes to separate and fall apart.
'Wait…' Ed finally got down the settlement walls but… there was no one!