"Sir Balin!" A middle-aged knight yelled with respect as he ran across the trodden grass of the palace's training field.
"What's the news?" Balin asked with some worry. The past few days had made him stressed beyond belief. He had gone to the field to lose that stress with a couple of swings of his sword. It had only been a few hours ago since the palace, well, the prince, had told him to prioritize the capture of Arbor's dungeon but...
"The rift city is said to be facing an assault from the Dynasty!" The knight brought news of war, which was not supposed to be his priority. But as the representative of the knight commanders how was he not to worry!?
Putting aside that this was the country he had devoted his life to, his friends were also out there fighting tooth and nail against an enemy much more formidable than themselves.
Balin knew not to kid himself, the bosque kingdom was nothing more than a rich scion who no one messed with due to their financial power. Money was power but in the world of swords and magic real tangible power was even more powerful.
While money could get you power, it would be after expending the time and effort. With great national or even physical power, however, you could take whatever you wanted. You didn't need business smarts either, just raw power.
More often than not reaching this level would also require time and effort but there always existed many lucky people blessed with talent or fortuitous encounters, sometimes both.
"Sir, are we really not going to…?" The middle-aged man could see the worry in Balin's face yet he still decided to ask this question. He just found it somewhat unbelievable that an entire knight company was put in charge of eliminating a dungeon.
Balin really wanted to at that moment scream, No we are heading to join the war efforts! but… it wasn't going to happen.
"We will have to give it our all to quickly finish this task in order to help defend our country and family" Balin had no family. He used to be a noble but his family had been plotted against and destroyed to its totality. He was luckily taken in by the Kingdom's previous knight command representative however as he owed his family a favor.
From thereon Balin learned to devote his sword solely for the use of the kingdom and to devote his friendship to his comrades in arms. This was the family he wanted to defend, the only family he had left.
"You are right Sir Balin, we should set off early then" The middle-aged knight responded flashing a faint smile behind his helmet. He was simply glad to be assigned to this commander.
Though Balin never had a wife and kids, he was still a proud parent. All of his subordinates thought of him as their father thanks to the bond he was willing to make with them.
"We don't need to rush it either, we can get there in two days" Balin shook his head and said while holding up two fingers.
The knights could obviously ride their horses to Arbor town as it was a formal deployment and make it there in a day and a half but it was troublesome to move a company 1of 200 men, or 20 squads. Hurrying too much would only put them on edge.
"Two days…" His subordinate was a bit worried but he didn't express any dissatisfaction.
"You know what, let's conquer the dungeon in three days to make up for it" Balin added what most would consider an impossible deed.
"Y- Yes of course!" But those that knew him closely knew that this was very well possible for Balin, he was a one-man army. Though not in combat, something else...
***
Ed cooked up a bone fragment for every single one of his skeletons. Only a few ended up with special characteristics like Iron had. Clearly, a good chunk of them had not worked on developing a personality.
To be fair, the dungeon environment was horrible for this and it didn't help that the skeletons always followed the same bland routine. In fact, it was a miracle that Ed had gotten ANY special characteristics from the skeletons other than Iron.
Then again… it wasn't all a miracle. It was also in part to a discovery Ed had made.
[Scavanger's skull bone]
A plate of dark bone taken from the skull. Ideal for potions pertaining to sight and focus.
Ed's drop was a piece of bone but that didn't mean it had to be the same for the others. The shape of their drops had to accommodate the characteristics or memories of the consciousness he placed inside.
For Scavenger, for example, the characteristic was his keen vision which he used to pick out favorable loot. Ed had tried using a part of his hand as well but it had not returned a characteristic. That was what had really nailed in this theory for him.
Ed left the system space for a final time and quickly reassembled all of the skeletons that were part of the experiment. As a farewell gift, he also increased the consciousness strength of those not already at maximum capacity.
[Recalling Champion Soul]
It was a farewell because Ed had to get back to his orc body. He based this on when assimilation had gone off cooldown. It was otherwise impossible to keep track of time. He had by the way assimilated an arrow for its agility. It gave him two additional points which weren't all that.
Ed waited patiently inside of the dark endless void he was summoned into while considering what potions he should try and make first. He would make pickaxes and instruct the orcs to get him iron but while they did that he would create potions with the drops.
'It will be a bad idea to use my more important materials first' Ed didn't have any experience making anything other than healing potions, he wasn't stupid enough to think he could come up with an entirely new recipe on his first try.
'I wonder if the humans put my drop to good use…' As Ed wondered what he could turn into, the dungeon finished its summon timer.
[Summoning Dungeon Champion]
Ed was returned to his orc body, he was still laying on his impromptu bed.
The forge was cold and a look outside would reveal the occasional cascading rays of soft sunlight. With these considerations and the cold wind that blew in from the entrance, Ed could safely declare it was early morning but everyone was likely getting up.
Orcs were morning people. They would get up early to do their chores or jobs. Once that was done they could eat and continue what they were doing until night came and it was time to sleep once more. That meant that they didn't tend to stay up late The only exception was after victory in battle but the orcs would otherwise follow that simple routine.
"Monsters are rather… normal" It was a weird thing to say, contradictory even. Yet, hadn't his skeletons developed rather normal? The orcs had created a simple yet civilized society too. It made Ed really curious about one sole thing.
'When did humans decide that monsters were to be attacked and killed?' Was it when they discovered they could drop loot? Or were they the first to suffer at the hands of a single monster and then declared that all monsters were to be exterminated? Could exceptions not be made for certain types?
'The same applies to dungeons' What was wrong with dungeons? Ed could say that dungeon was rather apathetic to the feelings of others but he wouldn't say that it for sure intended to wreak havoc into the world.
Could it be that the simple propagation of the dungeons was an issue? Ed didn't think it impossible since having so many monsters being generated by something beyond humanity's control was bound to be worrying but… what if a dungeon spawned say… humans? Would they get killed too?
'Sigh… how did thinking about morning take me to mass genocide?' Ed shook away the thoughts and stretched his body. It was time to start a productive day.
Ed decided to get started on operation miners. He was going to get himself some miners. Usually, he would pass this through Sharog first but he realized he might be overexerting her. It was also necessary for him to form some connections even if he didn't like to waste time.
Ed left the unfinished smithy and greeted some orcs as he walked until eventually coming across the house of Bulwud. As the contractor, Ed would undoubtedly be able to use him to hire the necessary orcs.
Ed knocked on Buldwud's door a couple of times until the orc finally lumbered over to the door and opened it with a hint of impatience.
"What-?!" He yelled angrily before even noticing who was in front of him. Once he did he instantly tried to make himself seem smaller.
"E- Ed" Bulwud had likely been copulating and was justifyingly angry so Ed didn't really pay his tone much mind. He only sent him a warning with his eyes.
"I need some tough orcs to dig up something from the earth" Ed got right into business.
Bulwud hearing this recovered from his fear and became pensive at once.
"Give me a second, I'll be right back" Bulwud said before retreating into his home and starting to argue with an orc woman.
Ed could hear some arguing between a man and a woman and after a couple of more seconds, he heard a particularly clear and loud yell.
"I want my head to stay in its place!" Bulwud said before exiting his home and slamming the door shut. Ed could tell that some misunderstanding was at play.
"L- Let's get going" Bulwud said amicably while hiding his trepidation.
Ed wanted to say something about the argument he just had and his parting words but after seeing Bulwud glance over the matter he couldn't bring himself to say anything. The two then went house to house hiring some orcs to mine ores. Through this, Ed began to learn more about his people.