The black void reached out endlessly in every direction and Ed who sat in the middle of it all was not amused. He believed that the dungeon had forgotten about the isolation penalty when it first mentioned respawning. It turned out to be nothing more than psychological warfare.
The message had in fact appeared at least 10 more times since then. Ed was confident that he had spent at least an hour in there now. Isolation didn't allow for any timers or windows to pop up. Ed was stuck in the dark.
Finally, a new message appeared.
[Summoning Dungeon Champion]
Ed was instantly elated. If he had picked the psychopath advancement then isolation would become a piece of cake but as he hadn't and some of the effects of mental fortitude were even lessened, isolation was proper torture.
Ed could not wait to leave back into his orc or skeleton body. Given the human situation most likely the orc one.
A vacuum in the black space opened up and Ed's consciousness began to wander. His thoughts grew distant as he was sucked into the vacuum and offered no sort of resistance.
By the time he awoke from what would be his usual temporary stupor, he noticed an odd event. For one, he couldn't see anything.
'Why is this?' As he probed about he then realized that he also couldn't feel anything This was not his orc body. He instantly deduced.
[User is being punished]
Ed's wonders were answered surprisingly by the system. He did not expect it to speak to him first! That would usually be worth celebrating but Ed felt that this wasn't quite right.
He tried to use his system link skill and just as he suspected it had worked. In an instant, he was no longer surrounded by blind darkness inside of an unfeeling body. He was instead now inside of the infinite white space and in front of him was the majestic system temple.
Ed appreciated the sight briefly before taking human form and walking up the steps.
'System, is the dungeon not present?' Ed asked curiously. It would always take a while after being summoned for him to be able to use the system link usually.
[The dungeon is watching]
Ed froze for a second feeling a chill down his spine of light. He was forced to a halt by the revelation.
He then pondered deeply on the repercussions of his actions. The system link skill was supposed to be a hidden skill. But Ed's thoughtless cursing caused it to intervene for the sake of allowing him to live.
Ed knew that this was bad since the dungeon would likely lose the great trust they both formed with one another, all of those precious bonding moments were going to waste This was of course not beneficial since the dungeon would now think twice before giving him skills.
Still, this wasn't all bad. The system not keeping itself hidden had the perk of remaining open 24/7. In fact, Ed was actually having a hard time finding a negative side to this.
'Unless... Is it targeting the system?' Ed didn't know what that might look like but it couldn't be good. In his eyes, the system had not returned anywhere near its former peak. This thought was surprising considering he never saw what its peak looked like.
Regardless, he was starting to regret his decision a little. If the system's ability was hindered due to this then the 24/7 access might not be worth it in the end. Not everyone was willing to sacrifice quality for convenience.
But truthfully there was nothing Ed could have done. Based on his own calculations. Following after Eon could have taken anywhere from 30 minutes to the whole day.
The space sage was obviously capable of both teleporting and hiding. If Eon did not want to be caught by Ed, he likely wouldn't and if he was caught he could still escape with ease.
Assuming that Eon decided to for some reason confront him right after he crossed the gate they would both be stuck in a battle. He hadn't seen all of Eon's capabilities but Ed knew that he would be hard-pressed to win.
Eon would likely decide to eliminate him as soon as possible due to his sickly state. That would mean powering all up from the start. It wouldn't be a battle of attrition which was good but…
This good was automatically offset by the fact that he would die. In this scenario, both his skeleton body and his orc body would have been eliminated. That meant waiting at least an hour to respawn as a skeleton or upwards of three as an orc.
'The skeleton wouldn't be saving me that much time either' The skeleton would be in the crypt while he needed to be in the orc plains. Overall, Ed would lose if he confronted Eon.
The best choice was therefore to stop the other humans from reaching the next floor as well with the help of the orcs. The dungeon didn't see things the same way, however.
'Sigh... Now what?' The system said he was being punished and he would agree considering that he couldn't see anything.
[Upgrading costs 41 Orc consciousnesses. Offer Y/N]
Ed's nonexistent face twitched. What a bargain!
'Hm… but that might actually not be a bad idea' The main issue with this plan was the fact that he was left with limited funds. He couldn't easily agree to that.
'Let's think of the positives and come up with a temporary plan' Ed told himself before thinking carefully about how to exit his current predicament.
The first thing was of course returning his sight and feeling. He could do this by switching bodies but without being able to see or feel he wouldn't be able to split himself into another body in an attempt to observe his current status.
'Wait… maybe with sixth sense' After being brutalized by the dungeon his consciousness health was at rock bottom but the sixth sense was still available even if bare bone.
The potential positives of this plan not working out would be that Ed would need to find alternative ways to watch and feel his surroundings. Assuming he succeeded he would learn a lot.
'That's too damn wishful' Ed chastized inwardly.
"What the hell am I anyway?' He couldn't fathom it. Though he was certain this had to be next floor.
***
Eon trod forward with a calm expression but at the same time, this was nothing but a facade. His face was stern but his eyes darted about the cavern taking in the beautiful sight.
The crystal laden cavern that was supposed to be in the orc thickets could not compare to the glowing beauty exuded by mother nature. Mushrooms and plants of all sorts seemed to be growing in this elegantly shaped cavern. They were each lit in resplendent colors.
"Magic fungi…" Eon knew what these were. These were magical fungi capable of... harnessing magic. This was because they specifically grew in wet environments with plenty of mana. This usually meant crystal caverns.
The fungi would absorb the crystals, and this would determine their element as well as the color they would glow. In rare cases, there would be pseudo-element fungi. The crystals would go extinct but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"This is, cough cough, is a very interesting cavern" One of the benefits of these mushrooms was that while they couldn't be used in arrays like crystals they could be used to create an ideal ever-growing training ground.
This wasn't without risk however since even these magic mushrooms would dream of a better future. It just so happened that a cultivating mage was the perfect nourishment for growth.
Eon didn't covet these things as a result but others might. To be fair, regular magic fungi would never be able to harm most mages.
Eon continued his sightseeing tour through the dungeon and he was surprisingly beset by all sorts of creatures. It was as if the dungeon's reproductive and spawning capabilities were suddenly turned to overdrive.
The fungi were fairly docile on their own but their not so distant relatives the myconids weren't as magnanimous. Common insects were also turned into magic beasts and attacked from all nooks and crannies.
There were giant centipedes, crawlers as they were more often called. What amazed Eon the most was again their ability to locate him even while in an isolated space. Eon was not aware of the reason. It was fascinating, however.
Eon continued down the tunnel and eventually, his haggard appearance was illuminated by sunlight. The tunnel which took him roughly 30 minutes to exit out of had multiple smaller branching paths but he didn't have the liberty to visit them. His focus was solely on meeting the next boss.
'A swamp huh' Eon mused before letting out small coughs. He was barely holding on at this point. The only reason why he could still go on was by using the space crystal to feed him small amounts of mana. This kept his body happy and revitalized.
Eon continued forward. He waded through the swamp water which was supposed to be filled to the brim with fishes and other small organisms.
Apart from being disgusting however the swamp water was pretty desolate. Eon found this to be an interesting happening. Even while venturing other dungeons he never encountered an incomplete ecosystem. Without the bottom of the food chain, the top would slowly die out.
But that was none of Eon's business, this played out in his favor. He continued through the swamp unimpeded. Nothing seemed to notice him outside of the cavern.. It was another curious thing.
