Hearing the lively laughter of Vorgarag Ed smiled subconsciously and struggled not to break out into a laugh of his own. That only seemed to make things worse for Sharog however.
She suddenly felt the urge to hide somewhere. But...
"I'm sorry…" She apologized instead. She was not his opponent.
"Hm? Why are you apologizing? This was a losing battle from the start" The smile on Ed's face disappeared as he noticed the frown that formed on Sharog's delicate face. Well, as delicate as an orc could be anyway.
"Hah… You are really something Sharog" Vorgarag said approaching the two.
Ed was interested in hearing just what was it that Vorgarag had to say for himself but…
"Argh..! Wh- What!?" He was assaulted by a sudden headache not all dissimilar to the one Vorgarag had experienced much earlier in the day.
[Mental Connection Disbanded]
The wrenching sting that assaulted his mind was as brief as the message delivered by the system.
Ed who was holding his face in one hand slowly looked up and gazed towards a specific direction.
"W…" He muttered understanding that things had gone wrong.
His connection was disbanded. Ed could only think of two reasons. Death. Or a different space.
Ed didn't mean different as in W entering into the portal back into the crypts, he meant isolation. A place that was impenetrable by any wave, mental, psychic, whatever it might be, it couldn't reach.
'But that's as good as death' Unless the dungeon suddenly captured W the only other culprits were the humans. That was very much worrying.
"Ed! Are you ok!?" Sharog said holding both of his shoulders.
"Huh? yes" Ed who was in a momentary daze answered briefly. He could see the worry written all over her face as she gazed directly at his face searching for any signs of pain or injury.
"How about you guys spar with me?" "Who are you?" Vorgarag on the other hand was talking with Gurln and Lash. This seemed to suggest that he wasn't worried but Ed knew that this was not true.
One of the secondary purposes of the spar was to show the two of them that Ed was standing upon the top of an insurmountable mountain. To see bits of that peak crumble could make one thing that the peak could one day break apart and crumble. That the orc atop this peak would fall or tumble down alongside it and be within reach.
"Thank you but I'm alright-" Ed said before pausing. He had grabbed Sharog's arm but for some reason, she seemed keen on holding onto his shoulders. Ed guessed she was unconvinced.
"It's something minor, I just lost a large chunk of my mind" Ed said with some regret in a nonchalant manner. He was only missing a self-deprecating smile to sell the actually crazy image he seemed to intend to sell.
"Ho- How does that sound alright?" Sharog said astonished. It was as if the two of them lived in separate worlds. Otherwise, how was it possible that she didn't see the triviality of the matter?
"Let's leave this here for now" Ed now wanted to hurry off into the smithy to lock up for the night and enter the system space. He needed to both calculate his losses and think of a way to recuperate them.
'If it's isolated then I can still get it' If W had died the dungeon would have him.
Sharog was unsatisfied with this but she didn't think she had the authority to press for more.
"Good night then…" Sharog said with a lingering gaze before walking over to Vorgarag and her two disciples. Ed was left to his own devices.
He hurried towards the smithery and after he got there he saw Shel inclined against the forge.
'Right…' She seemed to be sleeping there by herself, tired yet satisfied, she was holding such an expression.
Ed didn't think twice before exiting the smithery and heading towards one of the empty houses. In there he finally entered the system space.
The boundless white space that shot off endlessly in all directions seemed especially large to Ed at the moment. The temple stairs only drove home this point all the more. He knew that this was his own fault.
'System… what can you-' Ed didn't finish that thought. Shouldn't he be asking what he could do? The system would likely give a non-answer as a response anyway. So Ed got to thinking...
'The dungeon seems to have peeped on me at some point' He realized that there existed hope. If the dungeon was watching it was possible that it collected his consciousness.
As for the reason why it would know it was his… There was no way to be certain but had to assume it could. If he wasn't missing something then the dungeon should be able to read the memories of consciousnesses it absorbed but at the same time… he was a special case.
'If it can't that's just as special' If the dungeon failed to read his memories then it would be intrigued and not consume him directly.
With peace of mind, Ed concluded the matter and started to think about how to proceed.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Level 7 Consciousness.
Health: 369/480
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. 1(-1)] -Show-
[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-
Abysmal. Some of his skills were previously close to or on the verge of leveling up. The situation could not be worse!
'System, how many offerings does it take to upgrade you?' Ed decided that desperate times called for desperate measures.
[Estimated cost is 37 orc and 7 skeleton consciousnesses. Y/N]
It was expensive. Worst of all Ed couldn't say it was worth it. What if it was more economic to spend those consciousnesses on upgrades? What the system was asking for was a third of his entire fortune.
…
Ed couldn't say yes.
'...upgrade to ethereal spark' Ed instead decided to purchase the upgrades individually. Even if buying the would-be bundle was cheaper Ed had no way to know what it contained. It was best to spend his consciousness wisely.
[Taking offerings…]
[Acquiring 'Ethereal Spark'...]
Ed decided to pin his hopes on isolation. The system's message did not seem to imply W was killed so he had to prepare accordingly.
'Anything that can isolate a consciousness is bound to be powerful' To mend and bend space was no easy task as Ed had recently learned. Trying to do two simple portals ended up costing him his entire mana core and it was the size of a small hole.
Locking up Rebub's body implied both great control and a great amount of mana. Even if was just the consciousness the matter was still beyond Ed's abilities.
Thus, Ed had to strengthen himself and those around him. These considerations meant that he would have to speed up his smithing plans.
'It's a pity that I couldn't get my bones back' Thinking about it now creating a living weapon or armor out of himself would have been really interesting. Ed's new options were limited in terms of quality, however.
'Let's see… Orc iron armor for the masses but…' What armor was he to wear? Where would he get the materials?
Fortunately, the acquisition of 'ethereal spark' made both of those questions pointless. Everything was his materials! The armor inside of the storeroom was all at most B-class but Ed wore no armor. Nothing could be worse than that.
Ed entered the storeroom.
[Serpent Chain Mail]
[Fire Basilisk Helm]
[Outrage (Sword)]
He performed a cursory scan of the equipment inside jotting them all down mentally. Remote materialization required he knew what he wanted making this a must.
He then exited the system space and the first thing he did was of course to test out the newly acquired upgrade.
The dark house which Ed chose as his temporary last-minute residence was lit by flickering white light as sparks appeared out of Ed's palm like a magic trick.
'I hope this isn't too weak' The large forge already took a good ten or so minutes, wouldn't it be impossible to melt the real-life objects with some sparks? There was only one way to find out…
Ed punched a wall. He wasn't angry at anything, he only wanted a piece of it.
He gripped the punched out piece tightly but not enough to crush it. He then activated the ethereal sparks which were cold to the feel. Soon after that wasn't the only thing cold, the melted rock wall was cold and droopy as it escaped his fist as slime would.
'...That was fast' Ed thought not knowing how to react. The process was fast!
He didn't know if the materials were simply too common or not but that didn't matter! If the orcs had to wear armor made out of rock they would!
Ed dashed out of the lonely abandoned house and entered the smithery which was only some dozen feet away.
[Raw Orc Iron]
Ed's first target was a cart full of orc iron. He held one piece and hurried over to the cold forge next to which lay Shel.
'Hm…' Ed moved her carefully aside as to not wake her up and then activated his ethereal spark,
The flickering white light once more illuminated Ed's surroundings and after a minute regular rock started to ooze out of his hand. It left nothing more than Iron which also showed slow signs of melting.
"Hahahaha!" Ed couldn't help but laugh at the sight. This made things simple!
Ed would make sure that whoever dared kidnap or kill W would face an entire orc geared battalion.