Shortly after feeling mildly infuriated by the lackluster information, Ed exited the system space and returned to the real world while still mentally paging through the information. The main reason was that it was now time to focus on equipment.
'The next wave of humans should be coming soon' The humans had already begun to attack the first floor in droves. If he waited too long to power up the orcs he might find himself fighting an uphill battle.
Luckily, another thing used to put the strength of monsters into the picture was weapon strength! For example, there existed three weapon types.
One was common equipment. This was used on common weapons made out of regular iron and wood or any other sort of mundane material. These weapons could be crafted by beginners like Ed.
The next type was magic weapons. These types of weapons were either found in dungeons or made by craftsmen with some amount of renown. Unsurprisingly, Ed found out that dungeon spawned weapons also classified as magic weapons.
He was meaning to say that the common axe that Vorgarag and his people used to use for generations upon generations were magic weapons, and that was entirely reasonable. The weapons rarely broke in direct conflict unless one person held overwhelming power over the other. There had to be some magic at play for such an effect to come about.
The third types were far more epic, these were living weapons. Unfortunately, however, Ed's craftsmanship skill wasn't high enough to know anything more than their name. The encyclopedia also only mentioned some known living weapons used by kings and other sorts of rulers.
'Such a weapon would basically require a soul' Ed could only speculate this based on the name living weapons. He was therefore justified in calling it far more epic than the rest.
Knowing these three types of weapons, Ed now knew what to strive for. While It sounded like something really small, there was a large difference between having a general direction and wandering aimlessly.
At the very least he wouldn't be holding any unrealistic expectations of crafting a mythical weapon for the ages out of ignorance. He would still need magic metals after all.
'I wonder if a crystal will do though' The crystals from the cavern would at the least make for a good magic staff, no?
Ed then quickly shook his head. He didn't need to think about that for the moment. He first needed to create himself a smithy. Given that he had little idea how outside of what the skill told him, Ed would need to use the ethereal forge inside his head as a reference.
But first came the matter of location, preferably it would be somewhere easily accessible by all.
'The cathedral area seems to more or less fit the bill' The crystals were being held there along with other things such as axes and weapons. For the moment it was being treated as a sort of all-purpose town hall.
The main issue of this zone however was its distance from the complex and also the mere fact that much of the area was littered with useless abandoned buildings. Some orcs had moved in but they had not done much to improve the state of the houses.
'I might need to renovate the whole area' That sounded rather excessive but it was best for Ed to lay down any foundations now rather than later to avoid headaches. At the very least he needed to make things more flexible for himself.
Fortunately, he was very good at destroying things. He was confident in being able to level and clear the surrounding area.
'I can center everything around the cathedral' Realistically, there was no use for the complex. Although it held barracks, there were so many empty houses that it really didn't matter. Their existence had originated from a much richer time.
The complex also had medical rooms and a prison area but those could be easily built elsewhere. It wasn't like there was any type of actual medical equipment there and the prison was nothing more than many locked rooms.
To put this town foundation plan into motion though, Ed first had to discuss things with Sharog. He couldn't just suddenly start demolishing every building in sight. He especially couldn't do it since he didn't know which ones had orcs in them.
As usual, Sharog was at the cathedral meeting with orc workers and It just so happened she was still mulling over the decrepit houses.
"Ed, what brings you here?" She asked casting the two orc men who were talking to her aside.
Still, they only shrugged and wandered off instead of getting mad. How could they compete with the casanova that was Ed? It wasn't possible, Sharog could assign them some work later. They also weren't saying that solely because they wanted to shirk away from their responsibilities.
"I want to know which houses in the area have orcs and if they do to have them removed" Ed said going straight to the point. He planned to destroy everything and then build himself a large enough workshop building.
Sharog, hearing this, felt some confusion. Hadn't Ed told her to assign the orcs' homes? Why were they kicking them out then? She knew not to ask too many questions however especially since she owed Ed quite a bit.
"Ok, I'll show you which ones" Sharog decided that kicking the orcs out of their homes now would be much easier with Ed at her side.
The two went on an eviction date together and most of the orcs who had only recently settled in were forced to wait at the cathedral. This ordeal took Ed a good half an hour. Which was more than he would have liked it to have taken.
The two had certainly tried their best to be speedy and their timing had already been rather remarkable but there still existed many obstinate orcs. It was hard for Ed to settle the matter much quicker even though it pained him to part with those wasted minutes.
"Hey Ed! What's the meaning of this?" As the two returned to the cathedral after evicting the newly settled in residents, an orc asked Ed a question with a mix of genuine confusion and hostility.
Ed didn't answer the orc as he instead turned to Sharog and asked her to kindly step aside.
Being ignored, the orc was about to ask again but he instantly shut up after feeling the ground beneath his feet tremble softly. Ed was shifting the earth to create a controlled earthquake.
The shabby buildings started to collapse one by one. Stone was scattered everywhere and dust and debris took to the air. The whole situation depicted the scene of a natural disaster. Residents being left homeless following an earthquake, or an Ed in this occasion.
These resident orcs were left completely aghast as they saw what used to have shortly been their homes crumble so easily under the slight tremors. No one believes that an Ed could happen to them too!
After nothing but a minute, the ground around the cathedral was turned into an unstable mess. Ed was still unsatisfied, however.
'My powers aren't strong enough yet' He could have powered up but much of his mana would have been drained. The controlled earthquake had already taken over a tenth of his mana which given the magnitude of the event could be said to be little but Ed knew that the poor architecture was truly the one to blame.
Plus, the adventurers were still a threat! Not long ago, Ed had mentioned how he could easily reach 1,000 points on the adventuring scale but now he realized that wouldn't be enough.
'That means I could still be overpowered by multiple at that same level' There wouldn't be many at such a high standard but it was still very dangerous. For a person intending to build kingdoms not being able to defend his people was a sin.
'How can I get stronger than?' While Ed couldn't say he had stagnated given that the assimilation skill made it nearly impossible, he hadn't found anything that would prove otherwise.
'What I'm missing are humans…' The sense of pressure that he felt from having them breathing down his neck was very much important. But as more time passed by peacefully and as he became stronger that pressure lessened.
***
Arbor town used to be a quaint town. Now, however, it was being slowly turned into a city. Three adventurers arrived in this thriving town. They were a fearless group and strong though not very well known. They stopped at a recently built cafe to discuss their future plans of action.
"I can't believe that all the hype died down as soon as we got here" Wiley said dejectedly. He was still very much disappointed at the turn out of their trip.
"Should we still go in?" Asked Prissy really unsure if that was the right call. The main reason was that after the death of nearly one hundred unaffiliated adventurers, the news was soon broken to everyone that the dungeon was pretty much useless.
After killing weak skeletons, one would be met with a horde of liches. These liches would pose a tough battle and as a matter of fact, the adventurers still hadn't managed to get past them. The real problem was however that even after killing one or two of them, there were no drops.
There were no drops! That was insane!
The logic behind drop items was still uncertain but generally powerful beasts dropped powerful items and liches definitely qualified.
Many people were expecting to get the magic bone used in the bone forge potions but much of their excitement turned out to be baseless. There really was nothing.
"Sigh, I like to court death but without anything at stake it's just so… sigh…" Wiley was unaware of this until just now. His dejected expression now turned into one of helpless disappointment.
Agalia, their party leader, also agreed with the assessment of the two. Though she had no intention to court death, if she were to be willing there had to be a juicy price.
"Let's just go to the union and try to find some war missions" Agalia decided after a short deliberation.
""Ok"" Both Wiley and Prissy nodded and said.
Soon, the three of them paid for their bill and left for the door. They were heading down the nice yet empty market area.
Arbor town didn't use to have such a nice mark. Following the belief that the dungeon would give birth to a dungeon city, many people began to invest their hard-earned cash into creating businesses in the area. The cafe they had just visited was one such place.
Unfortunately, after it was discovered that there existed extreme danger for no sort of reward, many potential customers, the adventurers, were dissuaded. Still, a large majority had at the time remained but after they caught sight of the much better wartime missions they didn't even try to hold onto their wishful thinking.
Once outside the cafe, Wiley turned towards the direction of the dungeon. For some reason, he felt as if he had dodged an air bullet spell.
"It's a pity…" He followed after the two other girls without much remorse from thereon.. Surely, death awaited him on the battlefield of two nations.
