If Ed could use the materialize skill on consciousnesses... What would it do? Could making the consciousnesses something that can be touched be of any actual benefit?
'Yes, assuming some things are true' When a consciousness or soul left a body they would start to naturally decay. For a consciousness being like Ed, the matter was no different. His split-off parts would also start slowly dying.
If materializing the consciousness meant getting rid of this issue then Ed could create some sort of ghosts that listened to his commands. The issue was then if those ghosts would still be able to pass through objects or if they would need some sort of skill to facilitate this. Not only that but if they would still be able to float about or if they would have to resort to walking.
'Some pitiful ghosts for sure' Outside of that, materialized consciousness would be transportable. Ed could hand them off to skeletons for example and have them deliver them somewhere. He was saying this was a benefit but frankly he couldn't think of a situation where that would help him currently.
'It's not like the skeletons are eating souls or consciousnesses' Ed thought for a moment before realizing something.
'But why not?' Wouldn't it be pretty cool if he created something like that? Though on second thought creating something that could in theory kill him was not a good idea.
'I'm getting too ahead of myself' He had reached his ideal location for the headquarters. The room was large, like half a city block large. The height of the room was an astounding 8 stories tall and this high ceiling was supported by some thick pillars.
The atmosphere was relatively clean. The dungeon bricks in this area were not shabby suggesting that they were generated at an earlier time than some other areas of the dungeon. Why did that matter? Well, it didn't but Ed appreciated the freshness of having new cracked bricks rather than old cracked bricks.
Upon entering, Ed no longer messed around. He immediately started setting the foundations for his undead headquarters. The ultimate goal was undead cities but the dungeon offered little space. That meant that the cities would have to be traversed via the corridors.
The things that would be in these different rooms connected to form a city were inhabitants. It would be different camps of skeletons and other creatures that Ed might create like the blood clot.
The layout he made also left room for some weapon and equipment storage as well as a library. The things he would put in his library would, unfortunately, have to be written by himself.
He didn't have many books to go around and who knew? Maybe someone would like what he writes.
'The autobiography of a dungeon mob, a sure to be bestseller' Ed would buy it so why wouldn't somebody else?
'No wait if someone buys this it means the adventurers plagiarized my work' Ed decided to shake away the nonsense. Writing down all of his strengths and weaknesses into a book that could be stolen was not very smart.
Yet, Trench was still put in charge of the library. That meant Ed hadn't given up on writing some books.
He felt that if he used a pseudonym, writing stories on mobs was quite alright. Ed's true goal with the autobiography of a dungeon mob, which now would only be loosely based on him, was to change the humans' perspective on mobs.
'If I can do that it opens the route to cooperation' He wasn't sure if a couple of books alone could bring about any such change but planting seeds of doubt was enough. Like that, Ed could eliminate them when they became hesitant.
'My skeleton body sure makes me sinister' Ed made an excuse for his thoughts before working on some finishing touches. The headquarters were just a bunch of boxes right now. The earthen skeleton mages weren't intelligent enough to do more on their own.
Ed proceeded to slowly carve and modify the walls of these boxes as well as add or remove things to their ceiling.
The ultimate result was Temple of Ed 2.0 in the center surrounded by exquisitely carved walls and small sub rooms. Those rooms contained shelves and some armor stands where different items would be stored.
'That settles this place' Ed was satisfied with the final result. Best of all, it wouldn't be immediately destroyed! The headquarters was placed far away from the boss room and ex-safe room.
The distance was only enough for Ed to get to the boss room in half an hour. Though that didn't seem very far for travelling on foot, it was far enough to not be too far.
'Getting further from my emergency plan isn't good' Ed thought as he entered the new temple. When he was last pushed into the boss room he was able to summon Gwydion by pure chance. If he had fought the humans elsewhere the boss wouldn't have been summoned.
Ed finally sat down on a new earthen throne. It had the letters E, D, and W, carved into it as was tradition. The other letters were a mystery so Ed couldn't carve them but he didn't become emotional at the thought.
'Trench, as Iron is in charge of protecting me, you have to continue making skeleton outposts' All of these outposts would house regular skeletons but that was only until Ed could get around to changing them into anti-skeletons or something else like that.
Ed couldn't make the armament and bone brutes a regular occurrence if there weren't more outposts. Sure, even if they didn't have these especial skeletons, the humans would at least be open to the possibility.
That reminded Ed that he had to release something.
'Hulk, follow the orders of Trench to the best of your ability' Ed commanded to the burly brute. It nodded slowly and turned to identify who Trench was. That was also when Ed realized he hadn't taught the thing to read and write.
'I need to upgrade my instruction skill some more anyway' Ed didn't mind the task and promptly taught the brute all he knew about reading and writing.
The air of hulk was no longer that of a fumbling fool, it was that of an 8ft tall scholar with bulging muscles and impenetrable hide.
'What scholarly traits' Ed said inwardly before shifting his attention to a message.
[Recalling Champion's Soul]
'Good thing I was already on the throne…' Ed's thoughts were cut off just in time as his mind wandered and drifted away.
***
The place was filled with radiant lights of all colors but for some odd reason, one could spot the occasional gray spot. It was a blinking gray light that appeared dull in comparison to the crimson reds and the azure blues.
'Damn me!' W screamed his mind having been put to the test the past many hours.
W continued to steadily lose territory without the aid of the death shroom bombardments. The gray mushrooms inside the colorful field were all practically dead.
W couldn't communicate with them and they would soon be starved of resources. The colorful shrooms had used an encirclement tactic to cut off said resources and while this much thinking was worthy of praise, W wasn't in the mood to complement the enemy.
'These mushrooms are ruthless but…' Though the death shroom slings weren't really holding their weight, and although the situation looked grim, W was not defeated just yet.
The area these mushrooms had managed to claim did not account for even 5% of his current territory. Their pace of conquest was slower than a snail's and W did not see a way for Ed not to return in time.
But of course, any flags raised, no matter how recent, would be met with reaction.
'They are sending the mushroom workers... ' W was finally starting to become unsettled. Some of these workers had fire magic mushroom laid out on them and others wind but they were all terrifying for a powerless mushroom such as himself.
He couldn't use the puppet Ed made for him since Ed was not present to swap him into it. He also couldn't use magic since none of the mushrooms knew to use any. The closest thing to magic were the death shroom slings which were unlikely to suffice.
The myconids approached slowly but surely. Their carefulness suggested they didn't intend to harm a single mushroom. This all changed the moment they stepped foot on the gray side of the world, however.
'They are running towards my death shroom slings!' These slings had been able to significantly slow down the progress of the mushrooms. For them to be smart enough to target them… these mushrooms were not simple!
The monster encyclopedia said nothing about magic mushrooms being particularly intelligent. W felt like he was being cheated. Whoever the magician got the book from... He needed to get out from his grave and demand a refund!
A death shroom sling fired out its projectile but even after hitting squarely on the approaching myconid it only inflicted partial damage. The area of contact had suffered but that was strictly what had suffered. The death element did not propagate and the fire was quick to dissipate.
'Hm?' W who was about to lose hope suddenly noticed the myconids freeze and turn around hurrying off.
'What are they heading towards?' W asked himself before focusing on the sentinel's shroom view. He soon realized what the group was guarding against.
It was large, very large. Their forests were no different from a patch of grass to this large red creature.
'B- Bloody?' While the mushrooms prepared to fight this new enemy, W was only curious as to why the thing had become so huge.
'Well, there is no time to care, beat them bloody!' It was both an order and words of encouragement.