Ed was alone in an unfamiliar area. The first thing he did however was not to roam around, but to access the system space and summon some of his skeletons.
Immediately, Zephyr and his squad of crystal goblin-minded skeletons had appeared before Ed. The area withdrawal skill was quite useful to summon troops. Well, he had to arrange them first but it was good all the same.
If he could get an upgrade with an assembly function that'd be even greater but for now no such thing had appeared. He would often check the upgrades catalog but unless he bought something, it wasn't keen on changing.
As soon as Ed finished inserting the respective consciousnesses into each of his skeletons he noticed a problem.
'I didn't give them any skills' They had trained up some skills on their own but he hadn't given them any. Perhaps it was time for an upgrade? Not only that, but since the dungeon had brought him back it wasn't a bad idea to reinstitute an undead city.
'I made multiple mistakes last time' Placing his headquarters in front of the boss room had sounded good on the surface, but reality proved different. He was constantly besieged.
Though to be fair, that had been one of the reasons he remained there. To always know that the humans would come and from where. If he went elsewhere the maze might work against him.
Still, making a headquarters somewhere else in the maze like dungeon was the best for progress. Not just that, but if possible, Ed had to create treasures and place them around the dungeon.
He was farming mushrooms up until now but it was about time to farm humans. Not literally for a variety of reasons but luring in more adventurers could never hurt him. Some might start to ask themselves why there were suddenly good items regenerating in the dungeon, but the vast majority would probably say…
Dude, what the f*ck? It's free loot! Don't theorize! You might scare away our good fortune!
Which was exactly the kind of attitude Ed hoped they'd display. Humans were greedy, he himself was greedy. The fact that he was trying to kill them to grow proved that.
'Let's see, I can use loot I craft as well as loot they drop' The dungeon was probably doing this before too since Ed had seen some empty treasure chests early in his career. How it got the loot in there was beyond him but giving that it could materialize living beings, storing and placing loot was not all that impressive.
That aside, he still had to watch out for how he distributed the loot. No one would actually shut someone else up when they were pointing out something so blatantly suspicious.
That meant he just had to make sure it wasn't blatantly suspicious. If he made them find garbage along the way, but also made points of interest with better loot then things would be different.
At first, the adventurers would find it odd that these places had appeared. Yet, these feelings would be overshadowed by their sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different loot.
Eventually, hunting in this, 'cave of myths' would become common place. It would be the best place to go for loot and experience. The more advanced adventurers could proceed to the orc floor where Ed would also have to implement new loot.
'I can group up all the orcs there and train them up properly' Give some armor, give some weapons, give some both. Form cities, not settlements. The loot in these would be unimaginable ...because Ed didn't have any particular loot in mind just yet.
'As for advancing to the floor after that…' Ed could already tell the dungeon would have a core attack...? Was that what the dungeon was? Either way, his plans would have to remain strictly on the crypt floor and then the orc floor. He hadn't explored the cavern area well enough to declare he could turn it into an even more advanced stage anyway.
With a clear goal, Ed now had to think of where to start. Humans were coming, so should he put the loot first? Or should he build a base and then start his plan?
'Wait… I almost forgot' He didn't have the right of liberty and free will. The consequences of not intercepting the humans would be dire without a doubt. He needed to get the dungeon's approval first and foremost.
Obviously, Ed was not willing to be opposed at every step but if the opposer had overwhelming power over him what could be done? The dungeon was the crux of all of his problems.
Which was odd, maybe even farfetched.
'This entity is at least a thousand years old, right?' The history that the orcs passed down from generation to generation definitely suggested that. So… how could it be so stupid?
It was sheltered yes, but why was its intellect so low? Didn't it have the system? The system seemed to have been in an inferior position until recently, so how could the dungeon not have learned a thing or two?
'...you didn't teach it anything' The system did not teach it anything. Although the system was the elder in the house it left the child to run amok blindly in the dark. What if it got hurt?! What if… What if that's what it wanted?
…
There was a brief sense of crisis that overcame Ed but left shortly without explanation. Was it the sixth sense? Did the level up make it so he was more perceptive?
Too many questions. He had to get to work. If the dungeon was going to oppose him later he could confront it then.
'Zephyr, help me gather skeletons, drag them if you have to. Dead or alive, their bones are just as fine. Take them back to this exact room' The consciousnesses of the skeletons were not worth much. He mainly wanted the material.
As for why this room? Well, that's just where he was. He didn't know where IT was, but that's where they were. Either way, once he figured it out he could convert it to the first raid POI1.
Ed could do this himself but putting down loot with all of those skeletons behind him was tedious and very conspicuous. The humans would notice if there were no skeletons that he was around after all.
On the other hand, if the skeletons did it they would be strikingly less effective. The change would be hardly noticeable. They might even kill a couple which meant the dungeon would have to respawn them.
Ed could do this himself, but that brought its own problems. Due to a lack of energy, or stinginess, the dungeon might not want to respawn the skeletons. Picking off a few wouldn't alert it too much Ed believed.
'Set out already' Ed transmitted to Zephyr while shooing him away.
Whatever the case, going by himself might mean getting a jump on the adventurers. If he got some extra souls he would have no qualms splurging on a couple of system upgrades.
Zephyr and the group of the other green crystal skeletons left shortly after Ed's command. Ed took off right after them in an opposite direction.
He ran and ran while placing different types of equipment of different classes. Most of it was common C-class items, but Ed felt such equipment was already quite extravagant for something posing no risk.
Thus, Ed kindly left a couple of elaborate traps using arrays.
[Formationist has leveled up]
Not just traps though, he also left puzzles. Well, with traps of course but they were a different method. Most of all, it was fun. Making games was fun.
Ed was even briefly reminded of his lost memories. They were feeling more and more distant even as he remembered more. The assimilation of consciousnesses had to be responsible again.
[Assimilation is off cooldown]
'Perfect' Ed used his remote materialization to take out a common D-class whip. Whoever was carrying it must have brought the wrong equipment by accident.
Regardless of how it got there, Ed wasn't satisfied with such a paltry piece of equipment. He materialized a green crystal, it was of the wind element.
Ed's bony palms suddenly became bright. There was a spark-like flame on his hand. He used it to merge the whip and the wind crystal and then assimilated it.
If he assimilated the crystal he would get mana but if he fused it first...
[Dexterity+2]
[Agility +3]
He would get more of his lacking attribute. Agility. With this, his speed of placing things would be increased by nearly double. By now, he had also figured out where he was.
'I'm past the safety room' It was shocking but while snooping around for places to booby trap he came across the safe room. It had collapsed.
Using his sixth sense also didn't allow Ed to see any weird yellow force field like last time. The safe room had practically disappeared.
'When did the dungeon find time to do this?' He had been gone for a good bit so he supposed it was acceptable.
[A group of trespassers has entered your floor]
'There it is' There were humans coming in after all Ed. It was a good thing that he was used to the situation by now.