After much extraction, Ed managed to find the following unique skills inside Bloody.
<Blood Clot> Blood Integration lvl 7
<Blob> Fragment lvl 2
'Blood integration is probably the unique skill that allowed it to get so huge' The blood clot must have found lots of enemies on its path to the exit. How the enemies contained so much blood was a separate thing, however.
'It must have learned fragment as a result of blood integration' That was the only explanation for the low-level of the skill Ed could find anyway. It did make sense though so he didn't think about it too much.
As for how it could kill these creatures… Some skills on Bloody had leveled up quite a bit in the short while… eye spy lvl 3, metal body lvl 4, charge lvl 3, poison body lvl 5, and slither lvl 6.
'I wonder if Blood integration had anything to do with the level of poison body' The slithering was also likely helped by the constant charging. It was interesting skill behavior to observe for sure.
But Ed's main goal in removing these skills from Bloody was to find out where he could reuse them and he had to say, he wasn't sure.
'Blood integration is unique to blood clots so the result might be a little disappointing' Nonetheless Ed still wanted to give this skill to either the goblins or the orcs. It could turn into drinking blood replenishing health or just satiety.
'It would be a handy skill but there aren't enough boars to be viable' It might result in the orcs thinking of each other as food in tough times. Though that implied he wouldn't be there to do something about it.
Shortly after sorting out his thoughts, Ed decided to exit the system space and start harvesting some of his mushrooms.
Most of the mushrooms' cooldowns on their spore skills were under the 8-hour mark; Each release of spore would result in many mushrooms sprout so the harvest was in fact plentiful.
Ed collected all sorts of weird metal shrooms and gathered plenty of blood mushrooms. After that, he returned to the system space and started sorting his things.
[Acquiring 'Storage Shelves' costs 1 orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
[Notice: 'Smart Piling' is unable to show its true capacity, consider upgrading to 'Shelving']
Ed also went out of his way to upgrade his storeroom to contain shelves for the sake of convenience. What he now wanted was to sort potion materials.
Having things sort themselves on the floor was fine and his remote materialization had yet to fail, but that was because most of the items he sought were things he first found in the system space and then materialized.
'The piles can sometimes topple and change position so it's just not very convenient' Overall, Ed agreed with the system.
[Upgrading 'Smart Piling' costs 10 skeleton consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
[Upgrading to 'Shelving']
The storeroom which was chock-full of all sorts of objects was now looking like a warehouse. There was stocked gray shelves everywhere, its color a refreshing contrast to the divine white of literally everything.
'Maybe the shelves are just too lowly' Ed jested before exiting the space for good and finally confronting the dungeon.
'I don't know why you brought me back but, I need to get back to the orc plains' His absence was beyond the reasonable margin. Ed would not be surprised if the whole world was turned upside down and the goblins now ruled over the orcs.
'Prild does seem like the ambitious type' Ed told himself a lie that only Prild would believe.
Unfortunately, there was no response from the system or dungeon, they were expecting something of him.
'What could possibly be happening here that needs my attention?' He asked himself seriously considering the question.
There were the magic mushrooms and their mysterious ways, the land outside, and perhaps a boss. Ed couldn't think of anything else that might appear and was noteworthy.
'But those aren't even threats to the dungeon' Or was it possible that it also summoned whenever there were opportunities?
'Never' The only opportunity that existed when it summoned him was the opportunity to kill people. There was in the case of the mushroom body even the chance for him to die inside a little instead.
'I at least turned this body into a positive' So was it an opportunity granted by the dungeon? Technically yes. It did give him the body after all. That made Ed wonder if he would have to suffer to benefit this time too.
***
Var Agus kept on running. His webbed feet ran through the swamp water like a fish in the ocean and the other lizardmen behind him were doing the exact same. They were all kicking up the dirty and foul swamp water in their wake.
"Why are you running?!" Shouted out loud someone a distance away from Var and his escaping people. This was obviously Kurgher leading the charge against the traitors of the tribe. He then drew back his arm and launched his spear with a difficult expression.
His spear cut through the air as it whizzed towards Var's exposed back. Perhaps due to the nature of his role, Var was able to dodge almost intuitively causing the spear to hit nothing.
"You know the answer! Because you are chasing!" Var replied not knowing if his words were heard between troubled breaths.
The water continued to be stirred and ripple out with the movements of the lizardmen behind Kurgher replicating his spear throw. It was like a rain of javelins and a good handful of the people behind Var were struck be it on their tail or their back.
"Argh!" "Urgh!" Their screams drowning out under the water they colored crimson. The lizardmen warriors that failed their hits were not without luck, Var continued to run in a straight line so they were able to pick up their spears later on ahead.
"Var, we can't leave things as they are!" Axak someone acquainted with this Shaman and a devout believer of the hydra god shouted as another spear fell beside him.
Var knew that Axak was correct but what could he do? They lost in direct confrontation due to their disadvantages in number. Previously, Var had believed the strength of both sides to be almost equal. Nevertheless, reality proved different.
Whenever they tried to strike at their enemies they would dodge by a narrow margin. Thrusts of their spears that did by chance make it into the bodies of their enemies would suddenly meet resistance.
It was something easy to overlook as nothing more than a disparity in strength and skill from an outsiders' perspective but Var knew that Eon had to be manipulating things. That made it angry.
Var Agus wasn't angry because of the threat to its life but at being toyed with. Var was prideful, even if it didn't border arrogance Var had some pride. Who was he? He was the one and only Shaman of the tribe!
That was a position acquired through painstaking studies and one that even involved sacrifices to be made! The very existence of a shaman had to be respected so he, as one of the people to become one, had to be respected as well.
But instead, he was fleeing like a rat under the assault of his chief. Var was now sure that having one defined leader for a tribe was much better.
"I should have fed you to our god" Var muttered as a raspy growl. How grateful would they be then? To eat a chief of a lizardmen tribe was not an everyday occurrence.
"Var!" Axak screamed before having a spear pierce directly through his head.
Var Agus was beyond shocked to see the red blood of Axak rain down on his face for a brief second. It wasn't the cruelty laid in this action that brought the shock but the fact that this spear had been aiming for him only a moment ago!
It was a gut feeling of Var and just as he intended to dodge Axak was skewered instead. Although they were fleeing now, Var Agus now recognized that their lives was still at the hands of Eon. If Eon wanted them dead, they would die. It was powerlessness that Var only felt in front of Lernaean.
But while Lernaean was not a dumb creature, it could not compare to the conniving Eon who was recognized as a sage by civilization.
Fortunately for Var, Eon was injured. Otherwise, he really would have been eliminated by now. The battle from start to fleeing was full of moments where Var was about to lose his life.
"Cave!" Some lizardman shouted while pointing.
"Cavern!" Hope was rekindled in the eyes of the many. They had no idea how they managed to run far enough to reach one but they wasted no time tightening their formation to gain a burst of speed.
"Argh!" "AAAAAAH!!!" The screams didn't end until about ten lizardmen and Var were the only ones that remained. They stepped on solid ground and entered the mouth of the cavern. The group of 11 continued to run further in and before Kurgher could chase…
Eon appeared.
"Leave it, cough, to me" He said raising an aged and wrinkly pale hand.
The ceiling of the cavern then imploded before turning into a wide-scale thundering boom that shook the entire floor. Kurgher and the others were left with widened eyes as they saw the cavern entrance start to collapse and the swamp water continued to shake profusely.
"God!" It had to be true divine punishment.