As soon as Ed woke up, the first thing he realized was that Iron was not beside him. The reason was simple.
'What are you all doing…?' All of the skeletons, not just Iron, were in front of him. They were all kneeling piously seemingly yearning for something.
Ed swept his gaze on all of the skeletons and saw only 19 were left. Gold, who he didn't give a role, was kneeling right next to Trench. His armor had multiple blemishes and apparently, his weapon of choice was a spear.
'I did forget to designate him something…' As Ed commented on his lack of forethought, all of the skeletons faced forward with admiration and glee. Well, in reality, Ed could tell that some had looks of fear.
'Hm... ' Callow seemed to be part of the fear Ed group. Another quick sweep held Ed notice a pattern. Most of the skeletons that lacked great intelligence were showing fear instead of admiration.
'I suppose the smarter ones can tell they need me' Ed didn't know if that was indeed accurate but based on how strongly some yearned to grow stronger it was his best guess.
Finally, the skeletons stood up and Trench stepped forward. Gold followed behind faithfully and Ed could only watch with curiosity.
HEAR OUR PRAYERS
Those words formed out of the ground causing Ed's nonexistent eyes to narrow.
'Impossible' It wasn't that he was against hearing them out but rather that he couldn't actually hear their wishes. It was therefore impossible to actually conform with whatever it was they were requesting.
His answer which had been a clear shutdown made Trench and the others looked suddenly downcast. How could he tell? Them looking at the ground was a telltale sign on its own.
The skeletons were disappointed. They felt disappointed. They had emotion.
'These aren't puppets…' This random stray thought entered Ed's mind as if he was having an epiphany. The lich treated his death knights as slaves. They had no memories and they had no sentience. They were his puppets.
His skeletons did have a will, however. They weren't formed out of death magic. They were born out of the consciousness of living things. The consciousnesses of orcs tied together with perhaps another one or even some smaller skeleton wisps.
These skeletons didn't count as just one life then, they counted as two, three, or even four lives. The lives of orcs that died in his vicinity. Orcs that may or may not have been allies.
Was it alright to do this to his enemies? It wasn't his intention to say so but maybe. Still, how could he know who was who? Assessment? Had he ever gone through the trouble?
'Sigh… I better stop thinking so much' He had gotten too close to the orcs. He was treating them like he would humans.
That was fine. He didn't need to treat every monster as trash. He would be the monster instead if he did go act like that. Nevertheless, he had to draw a line.
'I'll get you all new partners' He could treat them better, and he should treat them better. Deep down he knew that they would die though.
That was right, they would die.
This floor was a maze but it wasn't all that tough. The fact that it was a maze also restricted his movements making it difficult to guarantee he could hide his troops.
'Maybe I should have dug a secret base' Making the conspicuous temple was a bad call but at least it had turned out nicely. That outweighed the bad, right?
'No, it doesn't, I need a contingency plan' Losing Kenny Jr. would be a pity. Losing Prairie might be bad simply due to its seniority. Losing the big three, however, would be horrible! Iron, Gold, and Trench had consumed vast resources.
Windstone armor was at most B-class but it was still a set of armor. Iron had earned a lot of combat experience and Gold's armor was a masterpiece limited only by its unique design concept. Trench was not much weaker in combat than iron and had become a cornerstone of the budding skeleton legion. That was a mage's strength.
After some thinking, Ed found some good options. One was turning his temple into a golem. Creating golems in general was a great idea.
'It could buy time as well as serve to hide secret passages inside of itself' A golem was a good idea but was for the time being not feasible. Ed hadn't forgotten about it as much as he had delayed it.
'I need to get my head straight' He had focused too much on improving the orcs leaving his skeletons at risk. The last couple of days was him jumping from one thing to another. He learned lots yes, but not very productive. What genius had as many as four different professions?
He had a system but he wasn't a genius. He needed to manage his time better! Had college taught him nothing? From now on, he had to be different!
[Mental Fortitude has leveled up]
A curious message Not entirely unexpected, however.
What did it mean to have mental fortitude? Was it the strength of mind that enables a person to endure pain or hardship? The answer was yes. But it could also mean determination and resolution.
Mental fortitude was not a natural talent. At the very least it definitely wasn't for Ed. It was something earned through life experience. It was maturity. Ed's life up to this point had many ups and downs, definitely lots of ups. Nevertheless, it wasn't easy.
The clarity of mind that this brought helped Ed greatly. That was because this clarity highlighted the path in front of him.
'This legion is quite pitiful, no?' It didn't even reach 20 skeletons!
For the first time in what felt like forever, Ed stood up from his throne of the earth to go gather new skeletons. Originally, he planned to split himself some more. He was also considering testing out the command sub-skill of the system space. The latter was still very much possible. The former might take some time but he would definitely get around to it.
'Wait for my return' Ed said through the transmission. The skeletons which were all standing in front of him parted and allowed him to walk out of the temple. Following behind was Iron.
Ed darted him a look and considered whether or not he should indeed take him. Looking back once more told him that the answer was yes. How could skeletons look like lost puppies? Ed didn't know, but the armored Iron somehow gave him that impression.
The two of them left the temple and walked briskly towards the wall. Ed opened a passage through it and left with Iron still in tow.
For some reason, as Ed traversed the merging corridors that led away from the boss gate, he couldn't help but feel nostalgic. From the placement of the dim flickering torches to the random crates of garbage that were located in each room. The cobwebs and the rusty weapons, everything felt so… old.
Ed continued to entertain himself with random thoughts as well as plans until he came across many groups of skeletons. Once he did he would add them to his group and repeat.
This continued for a while and as Ed continued gathering more skeletons he found no traces of human adventurers. It seemed that the dungeon hadn't failed to warn him out of negligence this time. The humans simply weren't present.
Ed continued to amass his army of skeletons until the number reached a whopping 150.
[Transmission has leveled up]
It wouldn't be mass skeleton recruitment if his transmission skill didn't level up, right?
'All of you, stop' Ed relayed another transmission. This time it was to stop, he felt that his range was slipping. This meant It was the perfect time to test the command sub-skill.
Ed approached one of the boneheaded skeletons and took his consciousness for just a split second. Basically, put he sucked away the consciousness just enough for it to leave the body but not enough to enter his system.
After doing that, he relayed… a command.
'Follow me' It was a declaration. It wasn't a simple suggestion. No, for even in Ed's own mind the command rung like a bell that had fallen from its tower.
Ed didn't need to guess what would happen if the skeleton had actually received the command. As for why he could tell the skeleton hadn't received the command...
'This skill is actually quite handy' After using it Ed could for a brief second feel a connection between himself and the nearby Iron. This was likely an indicator of what skeletons could hear the command if directed at them. The regular skeleton and himself didn't have this connection.
Ed waited ten seconds for the skeleton to show any signs of moving but even then its hand hadn't as much as nudged in one direction. He went for round two and sucked its consciousness properly using the spirit insertion and just as soon as he confirmed it entered the system he inserted it back into the pile of bones on the floor.
The skeleton took a second to reform itself as it gained control of its body and stood. Ed used the command skill again and gave it a different order.
'Raise your hand' The order fell but the hand rose. The skeleton had without notice lifted its hand almost instinctively. To be fair, it didn't take notice of literally anything else in its environment so anything it did was instinctive.
'This command skill is pretty simple and intuitive' Ed didn't need to do much learning. But there were somethings he had to figure out for himself, the next test he needed to perform was one of fidelity.
When he used transmission on skeletons with even slightly complicated instructions they would more often than not fail to understand or forget soon after receiving it. This of course didn't apply to his skeletons as they had sufficient memory space.
But the dusty and aged dumb white skeletons would forget. The sub-skill might do things differently, however.
'Leave and come back with another skeleton from the back of the group' The order fell and the mental bell tolled. It shook the skeleton's mind as it quickly processed the instructions.
No, that was actually wrong. The skeleton processed nothing. It simply pushed its way towards the back of the large group and came back a minute later with the head of a partner.
'This… is the skeleton I suppose…' The head had the consciousness so Ed couldn't say the skeleton had failed its task. Regardless, what really mattered was that the skeleton didn't forget anything!
'Unlike transmission, the sub-skill leaves nothing to the skeletons' It was more like forcibly taking control of their body to do things without their notice. With this, Ed could gather an infinite amount of skeletons.
A legion could truly be born, and they would all be under his command.