Ed was very satisfied at the moment. He was so satisfied that he even ended up feeding Blurak one of the orc bodies he had stored up.
'Today's the only exception' Although Vorgarag had already received a body, Ed still had a use for the enemy orcs' bodies. He for example still needed to toss one of them into the forge in an attempt to melt the body whole.
'It wouldn't be good if they turn into orc chops' If that were to happen Ed wouldn't really know what to do. Each orc body was a valuable treasure in his eyes as the chances of him meeting and making enemies of young orcs were from thereon slim.
The first floor of the dungeon would hold modified skeletons, it was only natural for the second floor to have modified orcs, right?
'But… how?' While the thought of making the inanimate skeletons turning metallic wasn't too farfetched, doing the same for a living body seemed… like a bad skin condition.
While Ed ruminated over these thoughts, Blurak had just finished creating a pool of blood. Ed quickly sealed it not willing to let the high-quality blood be further sullied by the dirt in the air. The fact that the containers were made of rock was a danger on its own.
"Champion! Give me more!" Blurak demanded with a face that Ed could only describe as a pitiful attempt at looking imposing.
"No more, I ran out" Ed shrugged and said before quickly shifting gears onto how exactly he was to move the heavy and large rock containers.
'Splitting them up could work but it requires multiple trips' Any man who values their time should disdain such an option.
'I suppo-' Ed's thoughts halted and his eyes widened with alarm.
"Hey!" Ed immediately shifted the earth and moved the container before Blurak could sink his teeth into it.
"What are you doing!?!" Ed screamed after nearly having his heart jump right out of his chest.
"You said you would give me food" Blurak said stubbornly before forming its mouth into a sneer feeling that it had won after seeing Ed's alarm.
"The exchange ends after we both get what we want" Ed told Blurak causing his smug smile to disappear and form into a panicked expression. Seeing this, Ed could only sigh.
"I'll come back in the future and we can do the same exchange" Ed told the panicking Blurak causing him to immediately drop down on the ground with a tremblor.
"I'll sleep then" It said without much fuss. its snores soon began to once more resonate in the hollow cavern. Ed's eye twitched.
'Di- Did I get played?' He then quickly shook his head. He planned to make a long term deal anyway so it didn't really matter on whose terms the deal was made. He could let Blurak have that small victory.
'Now… do I need to upgrade the storage again?' The storage was at the very least for the moment on a strict touch-only basis. That was to say Ed couldn't store the blood even though it was in a container.
'I should check' His spirit room still had plenty of consciousnesses so he wasn't opposed to sacrificing a few. A large part of the sacred tribe orcs for example were newly acquitted into his mind. The soul calling skill guaranteed that he would not run out of them anytime soon.
'Although the range could use some improving' This got Ed to thinking that he was really neglecting his system even though it was his best tool. Upgrading it at the cost of some consciousnesses wasn't really a detriment. They had lived their life, right?
Ed returned into the system space and the first thing he did after confirming that he was indeed inside of the storage room was ask for an upgrade.
'How can I store my container?' Ed asked the system hoping for a positive response.
[Acquiring 'Area Store' costs 10 skeleton consciousness or one orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
'A positive response indeed!' This had to be nothing but a trifle for the godly system but Ed had still borne doubts. Nevertheless, he was glad to find out they were unfounded.
'Yes, Acquire area store' Ed answered promptly.
[Taking offerings...]
[Acquiring 'Area Store']
As soon as the two messages appeared, Ed was expecting to get kicked out but… surprisingly! He remained in the storeroom. The change must have had nothing to do with the storeroom itself.
[Notice: Area Store is unable to show its true capacity, consider upgrading the storeroom]
A new pop-up appeared soon after however, that made Ed realize something.
'There really isn't any space in here for the container is there?' Blurak had dug a deep pit and with the help of Ed, it was a nice square box. The box was only slightly smaller than the already overstuffed storeroom. It was a good thing that smart piling kept things, erm… not messy?'
'Upgrade the storeroom' Ed, therefore, didn't think too much about it and quickly acquiesced.
[Acquiring 'Storage+' costs three orc consciousnesses. Offer? Y/N]
'Yes' Ed rolled his non-existent eyes at the pop that he had already agreed to before being quickly kicked out of the storeroom.
[Taking offerings...]
[Acquiring 'Storage+']
The door to the storeroom even shut leaving Ed outside in the hallway to loiter around his own mind. He didn't have to wait long as the system was as punctual as always.
'Holy-!' Ed thought with amazement as soon as the door to the storeroom opened up. The reason was simple…
'T- This basically doubled in size!' He had to ask himself if it was possible that the system had used three of the smartest consciousnesses available.
'I wonder if the upgrades get cheaper or better as the system regains its power' It wasn't a baseless theory. It was similar to how most people that graduated from college could scoff at middle school math. After having faced higher hurdles or learned better methods, middle school becomes a breeze.
Ed however had no way to be sure about this unless the system decided to show him all available upgrades.
"Can you show me all available upgrades?' Ed quickly proceeded to ask the system. It tended to act on an answer only if asked basis. It didn't do much more extra.
'Wait… it did start giving me notices now' Ed thought with a tinge of joy. The future would surely be bright!
[Unable to show upgrade directory]
But the bright lights seemed to be malfunctioning at the moment…
'Well, maybe I simply can't at the moment' The reasoning might be that his clearance level was insufficient or even that the system itself was unsure of what upgrades it could give him. The latter was unlikely as it otherwise painted a lazy picture of the system.
'You can't only do the work when I ask for it…' That was Ed's final thought before he returned back to the real world waking from his sleep. He was still inside of the cavern tunnel being subjected to Blurak's loud snores.
It was a relief, he was afraid that Blurak would take that short chance to destroy the container. He simply couldn't relax around the ogre, he was like a disobedient pet.
Ed stood up from where he leaned and headed towards the sealed area on the ground. He lifted it up leaving a squared hole on the ground, he was unsure what to make of it.
'Does the dungeon fix it eventually?' Unlike the outside, the boss rooms were quite important. Though Ed wasn't sure why. If he was in charge of them he wouldn't leave the adventurers with a perfectly flat obstacle less battlefield.
'I suppose it depends on the boss inside though' For the dumb ogre, any 'human obstacle' would only serve to make it crash into a wall. Some obstacles could also be used for cover against things like spells. It was simply a matter of playing one's cards right, which was something Ed didn't trust the dungeon to do.
With those useless thoughts out of the way, Ed placed his green hand on the rocky container and closed his eyes. He would under normal circumstances simply wish the item into his mind but now that he had a new feature he had to be careful.
Area store more likely than not stored items within a certain box area and he didn't want to take the ground home with him or anything else. Was it possible to cut off his own hand with it for example? At that point, it'd be a weapon though.
An abrupt sound.
Ed suddenly opened his eyes, his hand was no longer touching anything. There was nothing but empty space in front of him and some dust that fell from the top of the rock container.
As for the noise, Ed could only attribute it to the sudden disappearance of the large mass that was the container. The air had to move to occupy that space anew. It was an interesting phenomenon but Ed had other matters to take care of.
'Great' Ed was satisfied, not a single drop was lost in the process! Ed would also have to test whether the ability also allowed him to store parts of living things. Overall, Ed was looking forward to upgrading more and more features of the system.
'Hm… How much until I can level it up again?' The system link skill felt like a consciousness suction force as of late. There was still no system link upgrade in sight after all.
Ed thought about it for a couple of seconds before getting ready to leave. He first also stored the smaller box of blood though.
'I'll look forward to putting you to good use' Ed thought as he pictured himself concocting a potion, For some reason, it involved an explosion, however.