It was a loss, but Ed was still unwilling. The gears in his head churned looking for an answer but even while working at maximum capacity Ed failed to find a solution.
'The system, wisps, erm, mushrooms' He kept on thinking about his available resources.
'I can't chase all of them...' He couldn't even place a mark on all of them either. He was at a loss! Should he take the gamble? Should he chase after one and hope not to lose the other?
"Let's retreat…" The trade-off would not be worth it. Plus, he still had an arrow in one eye.
Under the gaze of everyone, Ed grabbed the arrow and pulled it right out of his eye. Even some burlier orcs of the group flinched when they saw this.
[You've been dealt direct damage. -265 hp]
'I should be more careful about that in the future' He couldn't keep on taking such large chunks of damage. The brain was after all, as told by his mind, the most vital and important part of any living creature.
'Well, for those that have one anyway' Fantasy creatures were weird. Bloody especially and Ed made that one himself.
Ed stored away the arrow which was dyed red by his blood. It was not a bad arrow at all. It was clearly made to channel electricity better so Ed had to study it more carefully and see if he could somehow make a similar product for Dakgu.
"Ed- Ed, did that hurt?" Dakgu came from the side and asked, not out of concern, but out of awe. The orcs saw what happened the moment Ed was struck by the arrow. He stumbled forward as if he was about to drop dead.
Yet not only did he not drop dead, he was just fine! He even performed a precise long distance attack with an arrow in one eye! To top it off, he then pulled it out as if it was nothing!
If they were monsters as described by the humans, Ed had to have his own dedicated word. He was an Edwbomination!
Well, it all depended on his next answer.
"Yes" A succinct yes... The dependency had spoken.
The Edwbomination shifted focus. With the humans being chased off, was the dungeon going to make him go after them? Or would he be recalled soon enough?
'The living room will be enough to make up for my missing place in the mushroom caverns' He was worried about W and Bloody though. The two might be having it hard without him.
***
In some marshlands, in a certain place shielded by a barrier of space, there was an old fellow of considerable age. This man was Eon, the sage of space. He was still in Mensch tribe as was expected.
Yet, there had already been a significant difference in regard to the atmosphere of this tribe when compared to just a few days ago.
Eon was much more cheery. This resulted in the Lizardmen receiving just slightly more gifts than usual. Still, it wasn't obvious how cheery he was when he was with the lizardmen but W's horizon's had been widened seeing how Eon insisted on experimenting with Bloody.
At first, W was afraid that he would kill them but after seeing the man carry out a series of questionable actions like feeding Bloody who had just shown up at his doorstep, W figured Eon wanted a cat.
Of course, in a swamp land finding a cat was like finding a needle in a haystack while being in the middle of the city. Even if it was difficult, you should probably be searching in the right place.
Eon therefore had to settle for a red blob with an eye that floated about in its center. Was that better than a cat? Well, W couldn't know which creature was worse. Though he believed cats and kittens were at least adorable and that had to count for something.
Whatever the case, after further observation, the pale old man did not want a cat. There was still the possibility but what he wanted from Bloody was a lab rat.
Eon did things like splicing a small piece of Bloody and scrutinizing it. As far as W could tell, Eon did not have any equipment. To him, it appeared the old sage just added spatial mana to his eye and that somehow helped him study the foundation of Bloody.
These were no more than W's conjectures. The language skill of his was the same as Ed but he could tell the quality was downgraded. It was odd for the language to be learned equally when split.
"Hm…" Eon was currently not in his cheery state. He was in his pensive state.
The results of splitting Bloody didn't end up revealing much to him. He did investigate the integration and separation of the blob but it wasn't too different from other slime-like creatures.
He also tried studying one with his blood in it specifically but he once more failed to see any notable difference. Attempting to extract the small drops of blood from Bloody was also impossible.
The risk of using Bloody as a blood bank was too great if it wasn't first cleansed of all types of blood. Nonetheless, Eon had also found out that Bloody was toxic. Toxic!
It was a mean lesson taught to him on practically the first day of messing with Bloody. It meant that Eon had to search for other ways to make use of Bloody.
"But the creature is too dumb to cast spells…" Eon muttered observing the blob closely.
Bloody was currently many sizes shorter than before. Small enough to float on water and fit on a small table short was how short he was. The fragmented parts of himself were locked nearby though so the blob didn't really complain.
The only one really salty was W who was getting a smaller share of W's body with each iteration.
"Sigh… I was too wishful" Eon sighed and said.
He was cheerful at first because Bloody was a new creature. The novelty was wearing off very quickly, however.
As a final test, Eon decided to start using Bloody like one would a crystal. The blob had accumulated mana from the blood of beasts. This included Eon's own so it had to have loads in reserve.
"If you can use life elements or death elements will become obvious very soon" Bloody was too stupid to cast them on its own so the less natural approach was the one to be taken.
Not having cast many life, especially death, spells in his lifetime Eon was out of his comfort zone. He could only hope that wouldn't affect the results.
It was afternoon in the swamp and there was a large ruckus outside the medical hut.
"You are going- going to just let him die!?!" A lizardmen shouted choking up their words.
The constant conquest assured an influx of new lizardmen but it also ensured that there would be injured at all time. As the tribe continued to grow they'd be less and less likely to be able to control everything just fine.
Eon was fortunately not bothered by this. He did not do the things he was doing with the longevity of the tribe in mind. He was doing them for his own selfish needs.
Currently, he had entered the medical room with Bloody and W. The two, well, three of them were being concealed by Eon's magic.
The aged man had a book in hand which he flipped through magically and after a long-drawn-out process of research Eon was finally prepared.
He began a chant from within the shadows while holding firmly onto Bloody. The result of this was Bloody starting to light up thanks to the mana he collected from Eon's blood.
The spell Eon was casting was a simple lower heal spell. He did this because he lacked the relevant experience and because keeping it simple could still give good results.
The spell chant finished and Eon's wand cast a spell. The lizardman they were tending to had a bloody and battered leg. As soon as the chant finished however, the muscles, tendons, nerves and flesh seemed to come to life as they started to amend and append themselves.
'This is bizarre' The healing was being too effective and autonomous. The spell he cast was not like that. It was a very simple bandage solution when it came to spells.
"What did I do?" Eon couldn't think of anything he did wrong and that was because he hadn't. The spell he cast ended up as something different when using Bloody as the medium.
"Gasp! Great deity!" A lizardmen exclaimed. The tests were not carried out while invisible as it was a massive waste of mana. Eon became plain to see the moment he started casting as a result.
"You- You healed that?" The lizardmen stopped and asked surprised. That was until they were brought to their knees from gratitude. THIS was a real deity!
"I will be doing other patients so bring them over" Eon told the lizardman who scampered off almost immediately.
The influx of guinea pigs was now guaranteed.. The hydra's life was on a counter just as much as Eon's was.