'Argh!' The process was still just as painful as Ed remembered it. The jolt of pain he felt course through his spiritual body was not lessened by experience.
[You've been dealt damage. -480 hp]
Shortly after the message denoting his damage appeared, Ed's ability to think drifted away and by the time he awoke something seemed to be missing.
'Status!' Ed immediately yelled with the intention of finding the root cause of this feeling.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Level 7 Consciousness.
Health: 320/320
Bodies: Skeleton, Orc
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 3] -Show-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 2] -Show-
[Assessment lvl. 0] -Show-
[Assimilation lvl. 3] -Show-
[Language lvl. 0] -Show-
[Eloquence lvl. 2] -Show-
'Huh? Why? Are some of my skills missing…' Ed mumbled inwardly before turning to look for his other half. That was when he finally realized something.
[Ed (Consciousness)]
{ The main consciousness of the consciousness being Ed. }
The current him was the portion that received a lesser amount of hp. That made Ed realize that in the end, the split portions were himself. He was still he.
His thoughts were the same and with the exception of having lost a couple of skills, there were no drastic differences.
'Wait... I can assess things' Ed instantly looked around filled with curiosity testing out all other sorts of mental skills like…
Sixth sense… but nothing actually happened in the end. That was expected since it had indeed not appeared within his status.
'What are you looking for?' Ed then suddenly heard what would usually be his own thoughts inside of his head. These thoughts were from his main self.
'I'm testing out my skills' Ed told himself to which he nodded.
The main Ed decided to do the same. Before that, however, it glanced through its status.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Level 7 Consciousness.
Health: 367/480
Bodies: Skeleton, Orc
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 1)] -Show-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 5] -Show-
[Assessment lvl. 1] -Show-
[Assimilation lvl. 3] -Show-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 1] -Show-
[Language lvl. 0] -Show-
[System Link lvl. 3] -Show-
[Eloquence lvl. 2] -Show-
[Sixth Sense lvl. 0] -Show-
[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-
The first thing that Ed noticed was that the majority of his skills had seen some form of a reduction in level. That was outside of the damage to his consciousness which was for some reason still present.
'The skills that got cut off are most likely accessible by my other me' Ed then began to wonder what things were like for themselves.
'Can you use the system?' Ed asked to which he nodded. It seemed that would be a common scene.
'My sub-bodies, well, I can use the system as the smaller portion of a split…' That meant that giving it a body and sending it to retrieve his body was a possibility. The other-self would surely be able to use the area store and the like if it had access to the system.
After successfully splitting himself into two, Ed decided to proceed with the next step of tests.
''We need to get out of the system space'' He transmitted to himself while he himself also transmitted to himself those same exact words. They were both caught off guard for a second before feeling a sense of camaraderie.
'In the end, I am my best friend' Only he knew exactly what he was thinking!
The smaller portion of himself floated over to the spirit room while he himself exited the system space. Things were bound to be confusing if left as they were but calling himself Ed 2 wasn't exactly convincing.
Ed returned to his orc body and then realized something else. Was it possible for the other him to also enter this body? As he hadn't asked himself to try this it wasn't possible to verify it and Ed didn't plan on returning just to ask.
Ed instead entered the shack with Rebub in it. The orc had fallen asleep from fatigue in a corner of the place. Ed approached him and took his consciousness using spirit insert. The poor Rebub never had a chance to notice its consciousness had been kidnapped.
Ed didn't idle, he promptly inserted himself into Rebub's body for what would be the test of the century.
He was previously reluctant to insert bits of himself into his own bone previously due to being afraid of it exploding. He didn't think Rebub's body would explode just from receiving a smaller half of himself, however.
After waiting no more than give seconds, Rebub's previously sleepy eyes shot open and Ed only watched carefully.
"H- Hello" Rebub said awkwardly. The two stared at each other briefly before both curling the corner of their mouths. The confirmation that he could inhabit different bodies was a major breakthrough.
Rebub who was being inhabited by Ed's smaller splot then lifted his hand and examined it closely. He continued to examine other parts of himself as well as the feeling of moving and flexing every muscle.
Before he could get too distracted however Ed brought himself back. He could now confidently declare he was annoyingly easily distracted.
"Can you still use the system?" Ed and his other self both suggested going outside with the intention of settling this once and for all. That he could see his status inside of the system meant nothing, though it did give him hope.
Rebub's body acknowledged Ed's question and quickly attempted to check the status window. Its expression then crumpled.
"Looks like I can't" The system space resided in Ed's mind. This couldn't be changed. If the system space could split itself that would be another matter but how was such a mystical sturdy-looking temple supposed to break into portions?
'Does this mean I won't be able to split myself into extremely tiny portions?' Ed didn't plan to do this even if he could since his capability to think would be impaired and could result in him being unable to join together again. Still, it sucked to know that one might have one less option.
Rebub's body... No...
"You'll be W from now on" It was W now. Ed words cemented W's position as the smaller part of himself. Nevertheless, W didn't protest. Since W was Ed it knew better than to fight against himself during such a crucial time.
Humans could unite together to fulfill a common goal, why wouldn't he be able to work with himself then?
W, who was tied to the shack stood up and tried performing some simple stretches before trying to break free.
"Untie me" Unfortunately, Rebub's body was still weakened meaning that W could not break free on his own.
Ed quickly obliged before becoming curious about whether or not W could use magic. If W could it would have broken free on its own Ed imagined.
'I trained up all of the mana in this body so I guess it wouldn't make too much sense if he could' Unlike his skeleton self which had started with 0 mana, the orcs were bound to have a predetermined mana value.
Rebub would likely be no different. That however didn't imply that the amount was great. The amount could be a measly three or it could also just so happen that Rebub had no affinities while having a mana count of one hundred thousand. The chance of the latter happening was extremely slim for obvious reasons though.
After being set free, W walked around a bit before walking over to the alchemy station with Ed behind him.
"I don't think I can make anything…" W muttered while Ed nodded in understanding.
'The alchemy and even the formationist skills were tied down to my body' That meant that they weren't skills that relied solely on the mind and could not be passed on. That being the case, W knew only the basics of Alchemy. Level 0 perhaps.
'I wonder if W can learn the skill again…' Ed was quite honestly skeptical and worried. The odds weren't in his favor. As he was not some otherworldly genius and mainly relied on the system to acquire and level up skills, W would be nothing short of ordinary.
'W won't be able to give me skills after merging either then' This meant that his dream of breaching into level 10 was still possible just more one-sided. Leveling up or acquiring skills without the system required actual study and practice. That was more time than he was willing to spend on it.
"W, how about you retrieve the body now? I'll make some healing supplements and you can be on your way" After witnessing W move around by himself even if slowly Ed had no intention to not use him. Even if he was himself he would milk him dry to the bone.
"That doesn't seem like a bad idea but I think this body might suffer if I do that…" W was inside of the body so he knew better than anybody about its current state.
"That's fine" Ed replied simply. With the potions, Rebub could recover any injuries caused by strain. Ed believed that if he got even more invested in alchemy he could not only nurse Rebub's body back to full health but also bring it past its peak.
"I'll help then…" W said somewhat awkwardly. It was a bit weird to talk to himself like that. But W and Ed who was in the end one and the same didn't mind this for long as they both became invested in the alchemy.
Ed would take care of most of the actual work while W would act as an assistant passing the ingredients or casually stirring the pot.
Multiple healing supplements were quickly concocted and W didn't waste a second taking another one.
"Aaaah… So refreshing…" W felt refreshed after gulping a bottle down. The lab assistant work was tiring when malnourished.
Seeing this, Ed began to wonder if he should have a sip himself.
'Is it really that good?' He seemed to think so.. Maybe it was a good idea for him to venture into the drink business. Nobody cared if it was originally supposed to be a drug right?