Thanks to his mental note, Ed remembered the encyclopedia. The only thing he didn't remember was where he left it.
'I can't be getting senile already, right?' He was a mass of memories or something so was it possible that he couldn't remember where he left such an important book? Or was it possible that he had in fact not placed enough importance on it?
Well, if there was a plus side to this was that his notion that how deeply impressed one was at something was what determined whether it would be remembered. It seemed kind of obvious but surely it had value… maybe.
'System, do you know where I left the darn thing?' Ed decided to just ask the system. Who knew, perhaps it would reply.
…
'That wasn't worth the try' Ed simply entered his mind and searched for the book himself. Smart piling made it so the piles were more or less ordered under a fitting label. This wasn't a perfect system though.
For one, the larger piles blocked the smaller ones. This meant that a single book could easily be overlooked if one wasn't careful. There was also just the fact that things were still messy. Ed also had no way to know what these labels were so he could end up searching for a bracelet for example under accessories but for some odd kink it was actually under armor.
After some very much tiresome searching, Ed caught sight of a sturdy book. It was obviously the encyclopedia! It was wedged between the armor and body piles.
'These piles could be more organized as well…' Ed complained inwardly.
[Acquiring 'Organized Smart Piles' costs one skeleton consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
Ed didn't even spare the message another glance. The system surely didn't miss a chance to try and sell him things!
Ed grabbed the encyclopedia but before exiting he thought about something.
'Why do I need to exit to assimilate things?' He certainly didn't, which also meant that maybe…
'I can assimilate the consciousnesses' That was right! Ed hadn't thought to do so previously due to his almost mechanical actions. It was also due to the fact that he couldn't touch the consciousnesses while awake. He could see them through sixth sense but that was all.
'I'll have to make that my next goal then' But of course, the encyclopedia still took immediate priority. He was certain to attain benefits from the book as compared to not knowing what assimilating a consciousness might achieve.
He could speculate that it would raise his intelligence or increase his mental capacity as a whole but there were no guarantees. Assimilating the encyclopedia, however, would provide him with information on dungeons. Given that he lived in one it was bound to be rather helpful.
[Assimilation on cooldown]
[Assmiliation has leveled up]
Immediately, Ed's mind was filled with vivid imagery. Yes! Flying beasts, treacherous plants, mundane things...? Then monsters, monsters, monsters!
But it wasn't just monsters either, places! Places with beautiful crystal clear lakes yet inhabited by deadly aquatic beings. Or deep caverns with a sleeping boss monster Like… a hydra! A nine-headed dragon-like beast with a tough and perversely large body with an even more perverse ability to regenerate.
Where were all of these fantastical places? Why in dungeons of course! These were environments full of mana, full of fresh air, and capable of creating miracles. Dungeons were… like a paradise, a paradise for monsters of all kinds.
Then again, they were also hell. Deep dark gloomy settings lit by eerie torchlight and inhabited by bone-melting goo, slimes. Of all sorts of elements. These creatures though seemingly innocent were anything but!
All sorts of monsters living in all sorts of environments, it was magnificent. It was like watching a really good nature documentary.
Having assimilated half the book, Ed was able to learn and basically see whatever it was that the author of the encyclopedia or the many collaborators had written! That was right, even though he was provided with vivid imagery he had only assimilated half the book but that was normal.
Unlike the primitive boulders of wisdom, this was a full encyclopedia! A catalog of history! For the assimilation skill to be able to take on just half of it was amazing!
Of course, there was also the chance that the knowledge contained inside wasn't all that rare, and Ed could definitely say that after assimilating its entirety. For example...
'Adventurer classes…' To demonstrate the strength of monsters it was necessary to compare them to something, preferably something human in scale. This left nothing but adventurers, monsters were therefore also ranked under these classes.
'I wonder what class I fall under…' Previously, Ed had no way to gauge the strength of the adventurers. He could only compare them to the likes of Samuel or… the fiery kid he killed. After that everyone was cannon fodder. That could be seen as an unfair assessment but Ed knew no better.
Now that he did though he could still safely say that they were mostly cannon fodder.
There were a total of four classes and these classes were determined on how many points one scored based on certain conditions. 10-100 points, you were a D-class adventurer. The D-class was basically entirely reserved for beginners and these beginners were not allowed to wander into dungeons.
Then came C-class which was more common and also more varied in strength. Here, adventurers could start to distinguish themselves The requirement went from 101-300 points. Though the point system wasn't perfect, usually, a peak C-class adventurer was twice as strong as a bottom tier C-class adventurer.
'B-class…' Ed muttered continuing to consume loads of knowledge.
The assimilation didn't discriminate either so all of these bits of knowledge came to him at once. That sounded bad but Ed was guaranteed to learn these things with time just due to the fact that he had assimilated them, stopping to think could help him digest knowledge much faster, however. It could also help him get any specific knowledge much faster.
Ed was therefore able to focus for a couple of seconds and learn of the next couple of class requirements. The B-class was then from 500-1000 points which seemed rather wacky but the main reason for the sudden leap in 200 points was that becoming a B-class demanded being capable of handling mana.
Simply put, being capable of handling mana gave you an automatic 200 points. Mana was a powerful force, society had naturally developed around it. It only made sense that it would be thought so highly of. It was worth noting that this meant C-class mages had to be ranked differently.
'If we judge my ranking on those requirements I should be… A class…' Ed's spell repertoire was rather small but his cast speed and mana manipulation which arguably went hand in hand together could only be declared as impressive. His mana capacity was also not half bad. It could fit him into the C-class slot on its own.
'Wait… aren't humans rather weak then?' How was it possible for him to reach what was essentially their peak power so easily then?
The A-class was much more diverse in terms of strength given that it now ranged from 1050-2000 points but to Ed, this was all pretty much the same. He could easily reach 2,000 points in a year and still have time to kill! He was confident of at least that much.
Aside, from knowledge on rankings, there wasn't much else interesting or helpful inside of the pages upon pages he assimilated. Ed had surprisingly not learned much on dungeons themselves.
'Do humans not know much about dungeons as well?' Ed felt that this answer was the only explanation. Otherwise, the introduction of dungeons would have been more fleshed out.
It only described them as monster nests filled with both immense danger and rewards. It also contained small details on dungeon-based catastrophes. Like that one time, an ogre ravished fields of…
'Hold it…! That's blurak isn't it!?' Ed had previously speculated that Blurak had come from the outside but as more and more of the knowledge about this particular matter entered Ed's mind he could only gulp nervously.
'The boss monsters are the dead from the outside…' Considering that he existed it wasn't that large a stretch but it still shook Ed to find it to be true. He had for example forsaken the chance to learn about everything and anything from the grumpy lich.
'He was probably human at some point too after all' As Ed thought of this the ogre's story was switched to a metaphorical next page.
'Th- That's it!?' After mentioning how a king slew Blurak there was no more information. This told Ed that the humans were more oblivious than he previously imagined. They didn't have a strong grip on whatever happened inside of dungeons.
The many catastrophes in the book also advocated this as for some reason the humans tended to treat them more like a natural disaster than a threat they could do something against. The book also always mentioned cleared dungeons but it never explicitly stated what that entailed or what exactly is achieved. It apparently didn't make the dungeon disappear in its entirety either.
'There could also be conditions for whether or not they are destroyed after a clear' But as the book was on monsters and not dungeons Ed had no way to ascertain this, the information was lacking, and worst of all... That was it! The assimilation had finished feeding him knowledge!
Yet, after being exposed to so much monster and dungeon phenomena Ed only felt... unsated. As if he hadn't read enough.
He quickly grabbed hold of the much lighter encyclopedia and paged rapidly through it but...
'What type of encyclopedia is so incomplete!?!' Ed had assimilated the table of contents, he now knew where everything was, but that also meant he learned something else. The date, he knew the date!
'Made in the year 1353…' which meant…!
Ed still had no idea if the knowledge was incomplete due to its date or not!
'F*ck I'm stupid!' Ed cursed loudly in his mind which wasn't really all that possible.. It did speak volumes of his stupidity though.