Back in the orc plains, Sharog was at a loss. After going to the smithy and finding Ed's lifeless body what exactly was she supposed to do?
At first, she had not been at all worried. This wasn't an unusual event from her perspective. Sharog was similarly at peace with the matter as Ed had told her his bizarre life story when Vorgarag was still around.
Nonetheless, after two or three hours passed and the orcs in the outside started to ask questions things were different.
"Why hasn't Ed come out yet?" They would ask remembering Ed's actions of giving mini speeches before or after long battles.
"Did he go somewhere?" Another would pitch in. This was the story Sharog and Shel settled with, but that didn't mean they were at peace with Ed's disappearance either.
After about 5 hours of panicking next to Ed's lifeless husk, they had no choice but to seek out expert help.
They brought Dakgu with them to ask Prild, the only one truly experienced in the arcane, about Ed's conditions. They knew that Dakgu had revived with his help after all which was also why he was brought along.
Prild who was usually prideful however was crushed seeing God's emissary unconscious body. He had collapsed to his knees in grief. Prild in his glorious greatness had found it odd that he wasn't able to return Dakgu's consciousness into his body, but things made sense now!
He had to return Dakgu's soul from god's domain but, what followed was beyond his own means. It was a thing that only the ones willing to bear the burden could perform! Ed had to have formed a secret agreement with God to exchange his own life for that of Dakgu.
God, I beseech you Ed would go and God would refuse, but with much persistence and giving in to his piety God eventually agreed. With the help of the handsome Prild return his soul he'd say!
Nearing the end of the ritual place his soul back and bid farewell for you'll find yourself in my domain soon, God would continue. But even while knowing this Ed would not back down and only pass on silently! How tragic!!!
"...goblins are kind of cute" Shel said beside Sharog who shot her a questioning glance. Dakgu however nodded as if agreeing with Shel's statement. What was cute about an old goblin weeping over the body of an extremely frightening orc? Sharog shook away the confusion and made way for worry.
"Can you please try and help?" Sharog asked while knowing full well that Prild could not actually understand her. That's what made it all the more surprising when the old goblin wiped his tears aside and nodded with a resolute expression. He had come to a decision.
If God's emissary had such resolve, why should he fall behind as a devout believer?! Even if he had to sacrifice himself to get Ed back he would! The goblins…
Prild looked back with a warm smile towards Guts and the others. He had trained guts to be his successor, the kid had no spiritual talent but… he had at least inherited his wisdom, the tribe would be fine without him.
Noticing his gaze, Guts waved at Prild who started to secretly tear up. Prild faced back towards Sharog and Shel perhaps to hide his tears from the young ones he saw grow. The other reason was to start the ritual.
The three of them were located away from the settlement's center as this was where the goblins were residing. This meant that no one could come to interrupt the ritual.
Prild opened his mouth and started plucking out his teeth.
"Ewww…" Sharog said silently while Shel and Dakgu continued to watch.
"Ot haaraan hegaan an rhan daan haar olkeragec" Prild then started to chant after throwing most of his teeth atop of the orc. The environment which was previously full of teary goblins quieted. They were admiring something.
"maan man druukaan khruun ach" It was the chant… it was beautiful.
It contained every sliver of emotion that Prild could muster.
"Argh, Kouf, Cough!!!" Even when Prild choked up due to missing various teeth and straining his throat he still managed to sound poetic.
Finally, the grand finale! Prild fell to his knees and reached out towards the open sky staff in hand. He was prepared to welcome the grand soul of the one and only great emissary!
"Mot?" But even after the ritual was finished, nothing happened. Question marks formed around Prild as he started to contemplate things.
Had God deemed his piety insufficient? Or was his soul not sufficiently noble? That was impossible! No one-
Suddenly, Prild fell to the ground clutching his head in apparent pain. Shel, Sharog, Guts, and the other goblins were all shocked by the turn of events.
"Old Goblin!" Shel screamed in fright seeing as how Prild's expression turned aghast and weak. The old goblin was quivering as he tried to stand up.
Soon, he slapped himself creating a reverberating sound that froze all present for a short moment.
"Ummm…" Sharog said more than mildly weirded. Dakgu however started to once more perhaps still reaffirming Shel's earlier statement in his mind.
Prild ignored the expressions, comments, or concerns that others might have had and used his bone staff to start scribbling on the ground. His work had not been in vain as he was provided a prophecy.
The prophecy showed the vile humans escaping from the underground. The time at which it will happen? Unknown. Where would they come from? Unknown. In truth, it was all fuzzy as if the event had yet to happen but Prild scribbled away what he did know.
Sharog who was the best at interpreting things thought on it quite intently but…
"Undead?" The chicken scratch on the ground was quite misleading. It displayed the humans walking out from under the soil causing Sharog to misinterpret things.
"Undead…?" Dakgu muttered confused. The knowledge of spirits and the dead was usually only known by tribes with shamanistic origins.
Nevertheless, Sharog did not take the liberty to explain it.
"We… We have to defend this place!" They could try and flee but… Sharog was not confident that they could find a better settlement. They could try and make one, but that was much worse than finding one.
"From what?!" Dakgu asked spooked by the declaration.
"The zombies... are coming..." Sharog said signaling the start of rounds of preparations.
***
Back in the land of shrooms, Ed was recounting his gains.
'I profited from this but…' The profits weren't by a sufficiently large margin. Ed couldn't hide his disappointment. As to whom was to blame for that… No one other than himself. The doom shroom route was rightfully destructive.
The destroyed mycelium was promptly regrown but that still took nutrients. The lost doom shrooms themselves could not be regained without spending more nutrients. The centicrawler also took out many metal shrooms as well as some sentry shrooms.
'At least… I can have its consciousness' If he could get some nice skills from it then all would be water under the bridge.
Ed entered the system space and scanned around for the consciousness of the centicrawler. It took him only a minute to find it.
[Centicrawler (Consciousness)]
{ The consciousness of an immature C-class centicrawler. It had room for growth but died at a young age}
Ed found it and read its assessment which spoke of its youth as if to downplay his achievement.
The consciousness itself was no different from that of the others. If Ed had to point one out it would be that although its size was not too different from the others it shone very faintly.
'Hm? Is intelligence actually measured by luster instead?' Ed briefly pondered before grabbing the consciousness and practically skipping his way over to the branding room and the extraction machine.
He was expecting some unique skills from the centicrawler as he skirted around the memory extraction prompts.
[Start Skill extraction? Y/N]
'Yes!' Ed replied. The machine powered on and new ink was bestowed upon him.
[<(Centipede) Hundred Legs lvl. 3> Skill Ink]
{ Passive: Increased speed and durability when trampling things }
The first skill Ed receive was not very impressive. It sounded neat for sure, but Ed would have to test what it would turn into to determine if that was actually so.
'Exclusive skills pretty much downgrade when converted to other species' This was what he had found out so far. Exclusive skills were exclusive, so an equal counterpart in another species could not actually be equal.
Ed already had many consciousnesses floating about, fortunately. These were his test consciousnesses which he was stuffing full of skills. He was hoping to find if there was a limit.
[< Charge lvl. 0> has been branded]
After giving the skill to a goblin consciousness, Ed found it to be a plain charge. The effects would probably be similar to a hundred legs. Unfortunately, unlike with the skill inks, he couldn't determine the effects through assessment.
Extracting it again was possible but considering how many other skills he had tested on some of the consciousnesses floating around... whether he'd manage to acquire it was dubious.
'Let's continue with the centipede's other skills than' Ed found it better to get to the bottom of the other skills instead.
[<(Insect) Steel Mandible lvl. 2> Skill Ink]
[<Screech lvl. 8> Skill Ink]
'This thing sure knew how to cry' With that thought, Ed proceeded with another extraction.
The resulting skills were… somewhat disappointing. But Ed was sure the centicrawler could not have lived a life so plainly.
[<(Arthropod) Tough Exoskeleton lvl. 3> Skill Ink]
'This seems usable' If he could transfer this onto his goblins, mushrooms, and pretty much everything he subordinated in the future they would be more resistant to attacks without a doubt.
Ed spent the rest of his time sucking the centicrawler dry of its skills.