It was a cold and isolated mountain with a warm interior. Not homely warmth, but oppressive heat. It was the Volcano of the Volcan empire where the prince, now emperor, Mite Volcan resided following his usurpation of the throne.
The young prince who often had an aloof and indifferent expression was currently feeling pressured. His hands were sweaty and though his face was solemn his heart beat rapidly.
"How much longer are you going to keep me waiting Bana?" The great fire dragon, Pyre, whom Mite had used for his successful appropriation of the empire asked. The dragon's red eyes seemed to be visually threatening to burn him alive.
The bubbling hot lava which Pyre had sunk it's body did not alleviate Mite in the slightest. That being said, there existed the possibility that Mite's sweaty palms weren't at all related to his nerves but to the suffocating volcano gasses and heat.
"You- Where did you get that name from?" The young emperor asked with narrowed eyes. It did find that the dragon had played along quite well to his whims up to this part.
"Bana~ Hahaha, you are smarter than that Mite. I taught you after all." Pyre eloquently replied after a hearty laugh. Though its menacingly sharp fangs did not seem to imply Pyre was having fun.
Hearing this, Mite cooled off significantly.
"...what do you know about my mother?" But that didn't stop him from inquiring about something. In the first place, bringing up his mother was not done without reason.
"Why do you think I want to make a land of dragons Mite?" Yet, Pyre brushed off the question leaving Mite aghast. Was it alright to ignore him so brazenly? But upon recalling he was facing a dragon he couldn't act with his usual arrogance.
The dragon was also his master so he forced away his indignance and pondered deeply on the question.
"That's tough…" When Mite first encountered the dragon he was but a small child. He was easily convinced by the reasoning of preserving his species and as something that was natural but that was obviously not so.
"You are weak" Pyre said gruffly.
Dragons ruled the land, the sea, and the sky. In Pyre's eyes, they were the ultimate creation. They were the apex of strength and intelligence.
What were humans worth? Well, they had a lot of potential in Pyre's eyes but no matter how strong they became they were no dragons.
The sudden insult did not have Mite bat as much as an eye. He could acknowledge his weakness and grow past it if it were necessary. The issue was that his main weakness was his deceased mother. That was a tall cliff to climb.
"...How is this related to my mother?" Mite interjected bringing the topic back to his matter of interest.
In response, Pyre visibly and audibly scoffed. Steam was released from its nostrils. A funny image usually but not when one was surrounded by bone-melting magma.
"What makes you think it's related? Just know that we dragons need to return to the front lines" Pyre said concluding the matter.
"Agh, That Bosque prince has not gotten control of the kingdom yet" Mite excused himself begrudgingly. Having a puppet king as ally would have made fighting the Galeburst Dynasty that much easier.
Pyre scoffed once more, perhaps he found Mite just as useless for delegating so many tasks to his subordinates and waiting for results.
""Go for plan B"" Both of them said one in a mutter the other as an order. It turned out that Mite knew quite well what to be done. The two ended up staring at each other, the sanguine eyes of Pyre eventually made the emperor break eye contact.
"Looks like we are both on the same page" Mite said with an insincere smile. The dragon however smiled genuinely bemused.
"I did raise you for so long" Although it did think little of humans and could at times be harsh, Pyre still had a soft spot for the young emperor.
Mite and the dragon exchanged a couple of short words before Mite bid him farewell. The insincere smile was replaced by a sharp scowl.
"Tell the Harvest March to prepare themselves for Plan B. Also… Don't fail this time. It has to be an accident." The plan to poison the king turned into a failed assassination due to the ill competence of the assassin last time.
One could argue that some of those aspects were outside their control like the involvement of the sage of space but an assassin first had to gather information. Knowing these things fell within their scope.
"Yes" The shadow of the prince which led his shady organizations said never having made her presence known before disappearing.
Mite's frowning face was finally replaced with some relief. At least their war technology was advancing thanks to their experiments.
***
"Gasp!" Ed felt as if he had suddenly awoken from a deep slumber. The surroundings seemed blurry but after blinking a couple of times it also seemed to have become clear.
It was a foggy forest with tall trees and soft deep green grass.
'It's familiar' Such a place did ring a bell but it didn't hit Ed until he squinted and tried to see what was ahead of him.
It was an altar.
"Ah, I remember now" But if he was remembering correctly, wasn't his body quite heavy last time? Weren't his words nothing more than thoughts too? It was weird.
'I suppose I did grow' Ed thought as he stood up with unsteady steps. He had appeared on the ground like a drunk man.
He did examine his figure but he saw nothing more than a blurred-out white light. He had a human figure but its existence on his consciousness seemed to have become blurry or was being hidden by whatever the place was.
After standing, Ed started stepping forward. One foot after the other. He did make progress towards the altar but eventually he was starting to grow sluggish.
With every step the comforting grass growing more and more comfortable. Ed was convinced this mystical forest had to be heaven for heavy sleepers.
His feet however had at some point stopped moving. The realization dawned upon him soon after and he managed to snap out of his stupor.
'That was dangerous' Was there something in the fog or was the grass coated with some sort of weird substance? Ed didn't know but he wanted to reach that altar.
He fought the sluggish feeling but before he knew it, he had disappeared from the space and found himself in the pitch black.
'What- That's it?' Ed questioned with a tinge of disbelief. Why did it feel like he made even less progress than the first time?
Ed had no choice but to accept that reality, however. Although he was able to move and react with more fluidity in the end he somehow fell asleep.
[Opening missed messages…]
Ed decided to put that aside and check the string of messages waiting for him.
[Champion has leveled up]
[<Spiritual Mark lvl. 0> Acquired]
[System link has leveled up]
[Theater unlocked]
The slew of messages surpassed Ed's low expectations making him become exhilarate.
'Spiritual Mark!' Didn't that just scream useful? As for the theater… That was obviously what he needed to deal with Bloody. Ed was starting to wonder if the system considered him when opening rooms or if there was a prerequisite.
'It makes sense to consider me' The system link was quite literally a link with the system so it likely knew what he wanted and when he wanted it as well as why he might be needing it.
'Status' No matter what, Ed needed to first verify his status.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Level 8 Consciousness.
Health: 545/643
Bodies: Skeleton, Orc, Mushroom
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 6] -Show-
[Fortified Mind lvl. 0] -Show-
[Assessment lvl. 3] -Show-
[Assimilation lvl. 7] -Show-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 2(-1)] -Show-
[Language lvl. 1] -Show-
[System Link lvl. 5] -Show-
[Eloquence lvl. 4] -Show-
[Sixth Sense lvl. 2] -Show-
[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-
[Spiritual Mark lvl. 0]
{ Leave a spiritual imprint on the body as a means to pinpoint the location and transmit signals.}
'Hm?' Ed would be turning his head if he was anything more than a blob of light when inside the dungeon space.
The definition was… vague at best. The initial portion was fine as a descriptor but transmit signals wasn't very clear. Transmit what signals? What for?
Using transmission seemed like the safest bet but was that all it could really do? What if one day he advanced his transmission to the point of allowing it to reach the entire world, wouldn't the skill go to waste then?
'Pftt of course it would become obsolete' But he would never reach such heights. Would he?
[10 minutes before respawning]
The respawn notice appeared and Ed suddenly felt that the dungeon was quite pleasing to the eye. It was acting so generously this time!
Though the matter of into which body he would be taken to was yet to be settled.
While waiting, Ed started to wonder if there would be a limit to the mark. Could he give it to all his bodies for example? Would movements count as signals? Was this transmission a one way channel?
That was to say, if he were to leave a mark on W and transmit signals to him would he be able to answer back?
These considerations made Ed realize that even if the skill was quite literally just sending messages, it was still a great skill. If he could even use it on his minions and friends... He'd become the most annoying person on the planet!
'That's not quite right….' But having a one way communication channel from a person could grow dull quite quickly if used too often. That then begged the question of what bodies could he leave these marks on and which he couldn't.
[Summoning Dungeon Champion]
Whatever the case, Ed would get to find out after entering one of his bodies.