The situation was pressing. For the Sanctuary orcs, things would not last without Ed for much longer. The reason was obviously their numbers. After suffering from so many battles, their combat force numbered less than 60.
This combat force didn't mean there were non-combatants that could be trained up to enforce that number. This so-called combat force was just any adult orc regardless of age or injury. If they could be considered an adult Sharog was counting them as part of their combat force. That meant the remaining orcs were all children.
Overall, they numbered less than 80 orcs. Which was pretty damn large for an orc tribe in the orc plains where Sharog originated from but quite small for Sanctuary. Her tribe had less than 50 and was dwindling rapidly from starvation for example. In that zone finding tribes of thirty was not rare.
It was only in the orc thickets1 part of the orc plains that this number seemed small. The sacred tribe had been a behemoth.
The buildings that stood their ground till today were proof that they once numbered in the thousands upon thousands. It was a pity that famine turned this once great orc city into nothing more than a dilapidated civilization of zealots.
"They are demanding Ed, what do we give them?" Sharog asked the orcs gathered there. Due to the state of emergency, the ones present were Dakgu, Shel, Gurln, and lastly, Yerghug.
The first to speak up was Dakgu.
"We should just tell them that he is knocked out" He believed that lying to them any longer would be troublesome. When Ed first took leave following the death of Vorgarag things were at least going well.
Now, much of the area was destroyed by the vibrations of the collapsing cavern, food was scarce, many of their friends had died, the Sanctuary orcs were unhappy. It was only a matter of time before some started to revolt.
"That's a dumb idea" Gurln rebuked. As Sharog's disciple and the oldest of the sacred tribe left, Gurln was quite wise. Well, not to such an exaggerated extent but he had grown up knowing that his people were a bit off in the head.
He didn't think that the Sanctuary orcs as part of the same species fell far from this tree. To give everyone such an answer was too optimistic and Dakgu who was older than Gurln should have known better than to suggest that.
"But if we make this seem more normal there shouldn't be a problem" Dakgu cruised over Gurln's rude attitude and continued selling his point.
Yerghug, the assistant, who would likely be permanently substituting for Bulwud simply shrugged off the question with a helpless expression. He was new to the entire thing so he had nothing to offer. He always simply assisted Bulwud, what did he really know?
Shel was of course less of the smart type so she was also a bust. In the end, Sharog could only truly have a conversation on the matter with Dakgu and Gurln.
"Why don't we just control Ed like a puppet?" Gurln suggested with a serious expression.
"How is that any better than my idea!" Dakgu shot up from his seat and asked pointing his finger at Gurln. Gurln simply cast his gaze aside in response.
Flabbergasted, Sharog ended the impromptu meeting by chasing everyone out. Her only words to them were to calm the orcs down for now. In the real end, Sharog could only rely on herself.
The boar breeding was not very fast but it was enough to feed them now that their numbers were low. The only problem was the dissatisfaction of the orcs and the lack of manpower for some larger-scale defensive plans.
One could argue that now that the humans had been fended off there was no longer a need to keep these plans in motion, but that was a stupid thing to say. The humans had been chased away, not eradicated.
The orcs didn't even know where exactly these humans were coming from so it was impossible to declare they could eliminate them. In the worst-case scenario, they would often be besieged by humans.
"Do I really have to use Ed like a puppet…?" Sharog asked herself before promptly shaking her head. The idea was ridiculous, she would have to shift her lessons for Gurln from magic to common sense.
"I hope Ed returns quickly…" For now, she would have to divert the orcs' attention from the problem.
"Hmm… Maybe I can make them some sort of drink…" The alchemy Ed taught her was versatile enough to be used to craft drinks.
***
Back in the crypt, Ed was chasing closely behind the knights as they continued to make their way towards the exit.
After having been found thanks to Hulk, Ed got them off his tail quite easily. While he was unfamiliar with the crypt, less so than the knights who had the area mapped out, he had many tricks they couldn't thwart
One of Ed's favorite moves for example was luring them towards traps he set up. After a while, the knights had learned not to follow after him. That was good because it allowed Ed to become bolder and bolder.
He was following them almost openly as they came across traps and puzzles. One could only imagine their confusion.
"I got a C-class spear…" Archer muttered after solving a door puzzle. One had to shift panels into a set order to activate the array and collapse the wall. Inside this wall was a spear which the Archer, Arc, had grown tired of.
These knights were carrying various C-class equipment by this point and had grown tired from all the winning.
'These guys are probably the only survivors from the expedition to the orc plains' Ed thought as he continued to observe them. He was a bit relieved when he thought about it like that. This meant he could shift back to his plans.
'I should reduce the frequency of the traps' To make things worse, the white pristine skeleton they were so afraid of was following behind them while nodding occasionally or shaking his head unsatisfied.
"Di- Did it make these puzzles?" Such a question did pop out at some point and they all became frightened of the answer. But the way the skeleton followed them and its subsequent action suggested this was after all the case.
They were very eager to leave and tell everyone about this forsaken place. Unbeknownst to them, that was exactly what Ed wanted.
'Goodbye' At one point they reached the safe room and Ed could follow them no longer. His transmission still managed to get through though and the knights were scared sh*tless.
We are leaving already! You do the same!!! It was what even Kiano the leader of the squad seemed to be thinking.
With his new friends hastening their steps as they climbed the stairs to the previous floor, Ed could now focus on creating the undead cities.
'Iron' Ed summoned out a familiar skeleton, Iron. His new body was made of runite metal. The red armor even possessed some basic enchantments ranging from protection to speed.
Iron solemnly fell to one knee as soon as it was summoned out. It was out of deep respect. Iron was a principled dead man, he knew, Ed had granted it even more strength with this new body; It couldn't treat him coldly.
As for why Iron was summoned... It was obviously to lead the first undead city. If these things were to operate without him, they would need strong and smart leaders. The champion Hulk for example was a potential undead city lord. Unfortunately, it was a tad dumb.
That only left Ed with Trench, Iron, Gold, and a few others. He had chosen Iron in the end and created him some better armor. The others would surely get their chance later.
'I will teach you to gather other skeletons and how to deal with them' One fatal flaw of the undead cities was that they couldn't reproduce.
Since they couldn't reproduce the numbers would not multiply. To recoup any lost member new weak skeletons would eventually have to join. Having the weak skeletons defeated much of the point of the cities, however.
Ed would need the lords of these cities to collect them slowly so he could pass these skeletons to his spirit smith after some period of time.
'I suppose it might be time for an upgrade' The forge's holding box needed more space for large-scale skeleton assembly.
[Storage++ - Added 250sqft]
[Increase Hold Size - Added 10sqft Enlarges holding box size]
[Remote Materialization II - Able to materialize stored objects as large as a full cubic meter]
[Large Area Store - Doubles area store size]
[Unable to show further upgrades]
Ed took a shallow look at the list and though unsatisfied, bought the storage++ and increased hold size from the system. By this point, he was really running dry on orc consciousnesses.
He hadn't been present for many of Sanctuary's conflicts lately. Even if he was, he might have joined late. But Ed found extra space necessary.
'Time to create some new skeleton variants' Iron needed some ideal subordinates if he was going to lord over an undead city. Ed was capable of providing them.
Ed returned to the system space and stuffed the holding box with all sorts of materials and items. He did not discriminate as he started to move lots of things from the storeroom to the forge holding box.
The point of all this was of course to find out what he could and couldn't make. The catalog was updated depending on the materials and occasionally on purchasing the catalog.
'Let's see what you have now' With all of these new goodies, Ed had to be compensated properly.