Ed who was still in the system space awaiting an answer as to why the cost was so high never received one. He could only speculate.
'Price is usually determined by supply and demand, but that doesn't help me here...' There was no demand apart from himself and the supply was a service to which he was providing the resources. In that case, the price could be determined by labor.
If a product had to go through an extremely complicated or resource-heavy process then naturally when that product was sold to the market, it would be at a higher price. Otherwise, the seller would not be able to make any profits due to the cost of resources or simply the time spent.
If this was applied to the human souls, it implied that for the system to use human souls it either consumed many of its own resources or the process was heavily straining. It could also be both, either way, Ed had a high price to pay.
'Well, then why can I use these souls?' If the process of using them was complicated then why was he able to use them to level up?
'Does the dungeon make things easier?' Assuming this was true, the cost ratio between the system and the dungeon was simply different. Although he could bring his say 10 human souls to the dungeon and get an upgrade, to do the same with the system would require at least triple the amount.
'Then leveling up through the system isn't impossible but…' In Ed's eyes, it may as well have been. It was already a struggle for him to stockpile his current amount of human souls, whatever that number might even be.
[Do you want to offer? Y/N]
'Tsk, no' Ed canceled the order, it was a waste of human souls. Sure, sitting on his wealth was equally a waste but- but! He was really saving it for a special occasion!
Rather than using his hard-earned human souls, he would in fact rather use the orc consciousnesses. The only issue was he didn't actually know how many orc consciousnesses he had.
'I need an inventory spirit' Ed joked inwardly before redirecting his focus to the system.
As things stood, Ed did not advance his skill nor did he level up his consciousness. Wasn't that the same as saying nothing actually happened? He needed to level up something…
[Acquiring level up costs 24 orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
'Hm?' Ed was then pleasantly surprised by the low price of the level up.
'I suppose some upgrades have grown more expensive' It wasn't entirely unreasonable for this level up to appear cheaper when judging solely on quantity.
'Upgrade' Thus Ed decided to go for it. With such generous offers did he dare refuse?
All of a sudden, Ed who was inside the storeroom was surprised after catching a glimpse of the hallway. A brilliant light incomparable to that of the forge flame shone blindingly in the area, even though he technically had no eyes he still wanted to instinctively squint.
But the light was brief and a couple of notices soon explained what had occurred.
[System Link has leveled up]
[Spirit Branding unlocked]
[New upgrades available]
Ed read seriously through the three messages and quickly concluded that a new room had opened up.
'Rooms open up when acquiring certain skills or when leveling up' More importantly it seemed he had not acquired any form of sub-skill. This meant that when acquiring rooms he might not acquire sub-skills or simply that the system was being cheap.
'It's likely the former…' Ed doubted the system was being cheap though if it was he felt that would likely be his fault. He had made it go against the dungeon after all and while he wasn't sure how that looked like it was bound to be exhausting.
'I get exhausted just from trying to talk to it after all' He couldn't imagine having to be in conflict with it. Ed was now starting to pity the system but he didn't forget to walk out of the storeroom and head straight for the new room.
Just like everywhere else in the system space, it was white. It was glossy from every imaginable angle and the room also felt nearly empty. Nearly. There was a very eye-catching machine in the center of the room.
It looked like some sort of printing press, the system was quite industrial. Ed was expecting something along the lines of using piping hot metal to leave a mark on the consciousnesses.
'System, what can I do here?' Ed then took the opportunity to ask the system a question. The obvious answer was branding, what Ed wanted to know was what the point of such a thing was.
[The branding room may be used to imprint skills, memories, etc. into a consciousness]
The system did not disappoint, it gave Ed a succinct response that explained what he could do but left out how he could do it… To be fair he hadn't asked but even after he had, there was no response from the system.
'Looks like it's just you and me' Ed thought as he took a closer look at the machine. It needed a print medium which would usually be paper, but Ed supposed this time it would be a consciousness.
The ink was the only thing troubling Ed. He had thought of various methods like melting a consciousness in the forge but he felt that would be useless.
'I'll just end up transferring the memories from one to another or merging them together' He could already do such a thing so why bother?
'Oh right, the upgrades' If he couldn't figure it out he had to be missing something.
[Storage++ - Added 250sqft to storeroom]
[Increase Hold Size - Enlarges holding box size]
[Extractor - A versatile machine capable of extracting precise spiritual information and converting it to a required medium (Medium Options Sold separately)]
[Achievement Branding (Medium) - A feat is branded onto the soul giving fundamental strength]
[Unable to show further upgrades]
'Wh- What- I can't ev- What?!?!' Ed who was reading happily the new upgrades was left utterly stunned after reading the first new thing. Sold separately?! Those words seemed all too familiar for some reason, but Ed did not let it get to him. He still needed the extractor based on its description.
'As for the achievement branding… there did exist such a thing…' Achievements had long since slipped his mind. Honestly, he was rather curious now on what exactly had happened or why they even worked in the first place.
'Let's put that to the back of my mind, for now, acquire extractor' Ed would buy the extractor and then exit the system space to deal with Dakgu and the goblins.
[Acquiring Extractor' costs 5 orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
Ed nodded and the upgrade quickly went through. He was kicked out of the mostly empty room and the dazzling light from before did not appear, the door only closed preventing him from looking in until things were done.
It took less than a minute and the empty room now had a printing press and… and… a very large needle.
'I'd hate to be the victim of this thing' The extracting machine was not just a very large needle. It was a mechanized very large needle. The consciousness would be placed under and using some buttons one could move the angle and position of the needle. It was like a weird version of the crane game but probably not rigged.
Ed was really enticed to put that to the test but he still had to push it aside. Dakgu and the goblins were waiting. With this in mind, Ed finally left the system space.
The first thing he did once out looked around for the time of day. It looked like night had not yet come.
[Assimilation on cooldown]
[Agility +3]
[Dexterity +1]
Ed assimilated A B-class dagger that he had lying around in his storeroom and exited the shack. Sharog was no longer crafting potions and there were instead orcs shuffling from the garden and back towards the settlement center.
"Ed" Sharog said acknowledging his presence.
"Let's go to the goblins" The orcs shuffling around were obviously transporting the potions and given that Sharog had made plenty in his short absence there was no need to delay Dakgu's cure.
"Sure, gi- give me a second" Sharog said before running over and turning off the arrays. There was some risk if those were left on. Unfortunately turning it off also meant having the plants wither.
"So where?" Sharog asked and Ed responded by signaling her to follow him. This was easier said than done however as Ed burst into a sprint that left Sharog behind.
"Oh, sorry, let me carry you" Ed was used to not wasting a single second so he tended to run around a lot. Without waiting for Sharog to say anything, Ed lifted her with one hand placing her on his shoulder and running towards the direction of the goblins.
Any passersby would assume Ed was kidnapping her, well, if they could see him Ed at all. His burst of speed got them to their destination in a matter of a minute.
Feeling the presence of orcs, the goblins started squealing and squeaking before exiting and looking fervently at Ed and Sharog who was still on his shoulder.
'I need your help…?' Ed said unsure if the goblins were actually up to the task.. They were all prostrating and treating him as some sort of godly champion who had successfully returned from a mission.