Being stuck in a boring seemingly infinite void, Ed did not forget to check his system space. It was a simple way to relieve his boredom and get some work done.
'Since it works I'm going to make it work' The system space was now working inside the dungeon space as well which was actually something he had been unwilling to test out previously.
His point in entering was to check for upgrades and restart his assembly. He had more skeletons, orcs, and mushrooms to experiment with. Who knew maybe even a hybrid of the three was a possibility.
'I could make an anti-skeleton body and insert it into an orc or remove the skeleton of an orc to make an orc anti-skeleton' After that it was just infecting it with fungi and testing out its combat or support effectiveness.
Ed put this aside and asked for this time's catalog of upgrades.
[Spirit Worker] - A spirit that can keep track of stored objects or move them to areas within the space.
[Larger Area Store] - An upgrade to area store size
[Living Room] - A space in your mind where time flows as normal
[Conveyor Line] - May carry things to other rooms connected via conveyor
[Unable to show further upgrades]
The slew of upgrades made Ed's eyes shine with intrigue. While the larger area store brought him no benefit at the very moment, the other upgrades certainly had potential.
The living room would likely allow him to grow things in the system space like his mushrooms while the conveyor line could take them to the storeroom for sorting. From there, with another set of conveyor lines, they could be taken to the forge room where the spirit smith could have a crack at them.
These things would then be placed on the conveyor by the spirit worker. It was listed within its capabilities to move objects from place to place so using a conveyor line would be a piece of cake.
That meant that all of these upgrades worked quite well together but…
'They are too expensive' He hadn't checked the others but the spirit smith had already cost him like 5 orc consciousnesses and that was without the additional content he purchased like the catalogs.
Therefore, the worker had a minimum price of 5 orc consciousnesses and with the price of like 20 orc consciousnesses of the living room, being tight on cash wouldn't begin to describe it.
'System, how much are the conveyor lines?' Ed decided to start small and only purchase the spirit worker and conveyors.
[Acquiring 'Conveyor Line' costs 1 orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]
'One? That's actually rather cheap' Ed thought to himself secretly approving. The problem was however that his mind which had been in the system space soon started to feel hazy.
[Expelling user]
Ed was kicked out of the system from his own mind and was greeted by a vacuum in the black void.
[Summoning Dungeon Champion]
As the words appeared, Ed disappeared. He was sucked into the vacuum left with fading thoughts.
By the time he opened his eyes, he was already in his body. The area was dark and cryptic and the dim torches that failed to outshine his pristine white bones did wonders to inform him of his location.
It was the Temple of Ed.
If those details hadn't been proof enough of this however there was a crowd of skeletons that further supported this theory.
'Loyal as always…' Ed commented to the skeletons kneeling before him piously.
Ed wanted to go explore what was going on but he didn't forget to first return to the system space. Having given in to his earlier thoughts, he bought the spirit worker and the conveyor lines at a total of 5 orc consciousnesses.
Only after this was done did Ed decide it wise to try and explore the area. Thus, before the things had a chance to finish, Ed had already returned to reality
An odd urge then emerged in Ed's mind. For a brief moment, Ed looked at the back of his throne where he had made the inscriptions of the characters of his name.
'Hmm…' He raised a bony finger and placed it next to the character W. He then drew a diagonal line but that was the end of this random epiphany. The character didn't come to him.
Tossing it to the back of his mind, Ed swept his gaze past the skeletons. Iron who had been guarding him stood to meet this gaze.
'Any updates here?' Ed transmitted in question. The skeletons didn't reply as they couldn't speak but one of them stood up from among the crowd.
N O T H I N G
It wrote using the earth. Ed wasn't convinced since the dungeon wouldn't have sent him back there otherwise but he didn't think much of it either.
'Humans might simply be passing through' He didn't have anything against that as long as they weren't crossing onto the orc plains. He had made so many rewarding puzzles after all. It'd be a pity if no one was attracted by it.
Ed exited from the temple and a couple of skeletons followed after him. The others stayed in the temple for a bit longer before dispersing. The curious Ed watched as this happened.
The norms of the skeletons in this new society had yet to be observed. With the little observation he did though, Ed had to say he was satisfied. The habits he had ingrained into them since their inception were still being maintained.
The skeletons who dispersed did so train their skills through combat or self-comprehension.
'They are still training diligently' That was praiseworthy but only to an extent when compared to the deeds of others. Skeletons like Trench, Blaze, Pioneer were all teaching the other skeletons through their own methods.
Blaze for example was teaching spells through battles while Trench was teaching on linguistic using elements. Pioneer was focusing on the traditional sword movements and others like Brutus were just doing their own thing.
'Well done all' Ed transmitted to all the skeletons.
They all immediately stopped what they were doing and turned to look at Ed before kneeling or prostrating themselves. This did not exclude the ones from the temple but a lot of them did choose to simply kneel rather than prostate.
'It's time to reward you all' Ed planned to inject some skills into all of them. He had already done so for the bone brutes or in the case of Hulk, bone juggernaut. The heavily armored skeleton was still looking intimidating even as it failed to properly imitate the skeletons near him.
'Hah…' The funniest part was that Brutus was acting as its private teacher. The mace-wielding deviant was starting to get out of hand even as it attacked Hulk with its mace.
'I can already guess how this happened' Brutus probably tried battling Hulk but was surprised to find he could only chip the latter. Not willing to give up, he took him under his wing and would beat him with that as an excuse.
Ed was thinking this was the behavior of a bully but he also didn't stop it. Since Hulk couldn't be harmed at all it was best to keep Brutus perpetually occupied.
'I'll spare him the reward…' Ed thought silently before starting to pick out skeletons. He brought them all to his system space.
'Wow' Ed thought to himself in wonder. The conveyor line was finished. It was a semi-transparent white conveyor belt that floated just below the ceiling. This was not on its own what caused Ed's surprise, however.
It was the length of this roller conveyor line that left him flabbergasted.
[Purchase additional lines?]
'Damn scammer… ' Ed grumbled but he was planning to agree anyway.
'Yes...' Ed said,'...but make it reach the forge this time' He added to make sure he was not short-changed again.
Just like that, the inexpensive five orc consciousness turned into ten orc consciousnesses, or at least its equivalent. Ed was already using some mixture of monster consciousnesses.
'Speaking of… Where is the other me?' Ed thought entering the storeroom and spotting no W. He did notice a blue wisp, however.
[Spirit Worker]
It was the spirit worker floating around the storeroom awaiting orders.
'Grab all skeletons and move them onto the conveyor path' Ed transmitted to the worker before heading for the spirit room.
He tried scanning around for W but it was to no avail. W was not there with him.
'Bu- But he died!!!' Was it even possible for soul calling to fail?!
Ed didn't previously believe it to be possible but what else could explain this result? The death of W?! That was an outrageous thought.
'I can't die' If he did die he would have lost an incredible amount of health. Previously, W had only been about a fifth of his health. In this iteration, however, he was a third of it.
Feeling fidgety, Ed decided to hope for the best and headed towards the forge. As he walked over, he made sure to watch how pieces of the skeletons were being transported by the ghostly conveyor.
The items were rolling along nicely and making their way past the room walls almost magically by simply phasing through.
'It's the power of imagination' Ed said half-jokingly. There was some truth to this take.
Once inside the forge room, the conveyors dropped off the pieces… in the forge.
'Ah damn it!' Why was the system taking him so literally all of a sudden?!' The skeletons were being dropped directly inside the forge as opposed to the holding box. Fortunately, the spirit smith knew better and placed the pieces into the holding box itself.
'How do I move this thing?' Since the conveyor could reach the forge it could reach the holding box.
After some thought, the conveyor shifted to the correct position. Some thinking was all it took for the system to do the rest.
'Smith, create some new anti-skeletons' Ed gave it an order prepared to have an infinite army of anti-skeletons.
'Not that much but it shouldn't be too far' As long as the dungeon kept spawning them anyway. If he gathered too many the dungeon might boycott him.
With that thought in mind, it looked like it was time for Ed to head out and search for skeletons.. Who knew, maybe he'd manage to find something else as well.