Brennan Bosque the second… he had... Well, he had….
He had survived. If it could even be called that of course. The doctors in charge had stated that the chances of him ever recovering were slim. They even suspected he was still on track to die within a month at most.
"Quick! Find some A-class healers!" These were the opinions of doctors however which while good for small cases was no magic. There was a chance for them to still be unable to deal with the wreck that Brennan's body had become but any avenue with a chance of success was worth exploring.
The man who had roared these orders was none other than Bosque's prime minister. Surprisingly enough, the prime minister was not allied to Adelio, the prince. Though he and the king had their disagreement previously over whether or not to explore the dungeon, the prime minister was still loyal to the crown.
Someone even more bound by his duty to royalty however was Balin. The Bosque Kingdom's representative knight commander. He had been forced to rally troops in the capital in preparation for the expedition into the dungeon so he was present inside of the palace when all had gone wrong.
"I've failed you, your majesty…" He muttered from a distance, fists clenched. He still believed he was right to try and convince the king against the expedition to the dungeon. What he had failed to do here was protect the king.
While he took care of matters he had left two of his best subordinates in charge of his majesty. They were only at the peak of the B-class which was a great rank and worthy of praise but definitely not enough to protect a figure like a king.
To make matters worse, an unknown old man had chased the assassin in their stead. It didn't take a genius to figure this out. Though It took them a while to understand who he was it hadn't been impossible, the man was a legend.
As Balin entertained these thoughts and chastised himself inwardly, the rest of the royal family was allowed to visit the king.
The one who stood out the most was of course the eldest prince, Adelio the second was very popular in the palace. To be fair, he had bought most of them to his side so it was only to be expected that he would receive so much attention, Nevertheless, he was attention-grabbing for a completely different reason this time.
"How effective…" He muttered to himself inaudibly before turning to address everyone in the guest room where the king was being laid to rest.
"It's a pity, but worry not. I will take up my father's mantle in the period of his absence" The prince said with confidence in an eloquent yet shameless manner. His confidence was what grabbed everyone's attention.
"What?!" The lack of empathy that oozed from his tone made it rather evident that he had always harbored ill intent towards his father. Some of the vassals present were still shocked, however. This shocking declaration didn't rile up Balin as he was instead overcome with an ominous feeling.
"Balin, right? I remember seeing you a lot as a child. Anyway, my father had left you a task, yes?" The prince had approached him before addressing the confusion of the vassals or even his own family members. He spoke fluently without a hint of pressure but Balin was the exact opposite.
"Yes, your highness…" He responded with a wary eye while bearing hidden worries.
"Good, you are to prioritize this task. I cannot let my father's last will be left unfulfilled" A bare-faced lie. Not to mention by calling it a last will he had essentially cursed his father to death, was he not afraid of some sort of heavenly retribution!?
The prince had only one reason to not cancel this suicidal request from his father.
'That mana forge potion was quite handy' He was left yearning for more. The effects were simply miraculous and after seeing his younger brother seemingly have more talent than himself Adelio couldn't help but feel some agitation.
Though now that the assassination was carried out with some success Adelio knew of another way to alleviate these problems. He glanced at his brother with a smile, but that smile held evident killing intent. The third prince was left petrified.
***
To take the wisp out for a walk was of course not literal, it didn't have legs. Ed also wouldn't give it any.
'Let's head out together' Ed planned on testing whether or not he could have it live without a body. There were definitely dangers like the dungeon taking notice but given that he was inside of the system space Ed knew that it wasn't watching at the moment.
He grabbed the wisp and immediately awoke himself from his slumber. His drowsy vision didn't even have time to recover as Ed instantly activated his sixth sense skill and watched his immediate vicinity. This allowed him to see his wisp floating there seemingly unaffected by the outside world.
'It'd be nice if I could hear what it's thinking' Ed had an inkling that he would be able to find out once they reunited but it still couldn't stop him from feeling curious.
[Ed's fragmented wisp (Pained)]
A piece of the entity Ed containing small memories as well as a hint of sentience. It is currently exposed to the elements.
'What?! But it looks just fine…' Though Ed was initially alarmed, it didn't take long for his more rational side to make him wonder why.
He tried to draw closer to the wisp hoping to find traces of this decay. His vision felt strained after staring so intently with the sixth sense skill but…
[Sixth Sense has leveled up]
It worked out in the end. Ed was able to catch sight of the wisp of light became more translucent and weakened. It was different from what happened to the zombie before as the ball of light that was the consciousness didn't shrink in size but rather grew pale and weak in appearance.
Ed observed it for only a minute longer as he didn't wish for the consciousness to simply vanish before he finished all of his tests. First, he had to summarize his thoughts.
'It might be too weak' It was also possible that consciousness required a body. It wasn't a simple matter of preference.
Some other possibilities included that the mana in the air was hurting it somehow. He based this on the system's assessment. The elements usually referred to the cold wind or the dry ground of the wilderness but in a magic setting, the option of it being used literally wasn't impossible.
There were some other less likely reasons that Ed didn't even bother to ruminate over. He instead decided to try and find a host for this small wisp.
'I need to hurry' He couldn't stay there for too long or someone would think he died in his sleep. Last time Shel was able to help him get out of trouble but there was no hiding from anyone if he overslept. He had decided to sleep in the center of the settlement inside of the conspicuous unfinished building.
Luckily, he could cut back time by doing the testing for the spirit bones back in his orc body. They were ultimately alchemical materials and he didn't have the proper equipment down in the crypt.
Ed approached an anti-skeleton that seemed rather inexperienced. He called it over and it heeded without wasting a second. Like a dog in front of its master, the skeleton knelt in front of him while somehow shaking with excitement.
[Anti-Skeleton (Expectant)]
A skeleton formed out of a bone-antimony alloy, from which the careless overlord Ed derived its species name. Susceptible to flamed based attacks but can use the element of water.
Ed did an assessment as was customary and found that the system didn't think very highly of his lording skills.
'Is it because of the neglect…?' He had to admit it was quite plausible. It seemed he only called them whenever he needed to test something out on them and would otherwise be left on their own.
'I guess I still need to work on my personality' It was hard to manage one's mind and emotions when these things were being affected by thee different sources. His memories, his environment, and his body.
'Sigh, you shall be Callow1' Ed decided to name it perhaps a result of the system's rude reminder. He named it so due to the inexperience it showed in combat previously.
'Now…' Ed turned back to his wisp and using spirit insertion in reverse sent it to the spirit room. He did the same for the consciousness of the now named skeleton Callow and its body dismantled and scattered on the ground. Ed didn't mind it much as he was able to rearrange it rapidly due to his weeks' worth of experience.
He then inserted his mini-me into it and watched carefully with his sixth sense for any hint of an anomaly.
The skeleton showed signs of moving almost instantly. It was completely unlike the occasions in which he inserted consciousnesses into new bodies.
[Edw#& (Fragment)]
An anti-skeleton being possessed by the wisp of Ed.
'It's so weird to scan yourself…' It was especially weird because his name which he tended to simply gloss over was once more brought to his attention. The system had been calling him Ed so he had nearly forgotten he had a full name.
But that wasn't what mattered at the moment, Ed focused on observing the actions of his younger and likely dumber duplicate.
The anti-skeleton for some reason only looked at him with confusion. It was especially odd because Ed could feel that he was aware of what he was doing. The simple hint of sentience definitely went a long way to making a simple skeleton more life-like.
'I wonder if I can get my skeletons to such a level…' They already showed hints of emotions and rational thoughts but they still, go figure, felt rather dead.
Ed only mused on it for a short while before moving to the final parts of his experiment, he couldn't treat himself too roughly lest he ends up scarred upon merging again.
'Can you use transmission?' Ed transmitted to himself. The skeleton however only reacted by shaking its head after what felt like a minute of blank staring. Ed felt that the 5hp split's thoughts were simply too slow.
From thereon he tried asking about other skills and the skeleton would always shake its head. Though disappointed, Ed now knew not to expect any more from a 5hp split. After that Ed grabbed extracted the wisp and returned to the system space. He would find out what exactly it was that it had gone through.