Ed believed in equal opportunities for all but when it came to rewards… it would be unfair to only meet the rewarded person halfway. Thus, Ed made no exception and kicked out anyone who was unwilling to leave after hearing Uggug.
From there, Ed gave Uggug his private lesson on smithing. As he had already gone over the basics and even explained some metals he would be giving them, Ed ended up teaching Uggug about handling the Ignite metal in particular.
"As the metal is naturally resistant to heat it is very important to increase the temperature of the forge…" Ed's explanation had some overlaps with his previous lesson but it couldn't be helped.
His craftsmanship level was not anywhere near high enough to teach anything more advanced. The lesson proceeded smoothly all the same however and Uggug was able to learn just about enough so that in the future he could turn his spear axe into an actual halberd.
"This weapon will be a family heirloom! Hahaha!" Of course, that the lesson was over also meant Ed had finished smithing the weapon Uggug had rightfully won.
It had no name as was expected so Ed left it up to Uggug.
"You will be the R-Ed-berd!" He soon learned it was a mistake but giving that he added Ed into it, he couldn't tell Uggug it was horrible or he would be insulting himself. Ed was Edvious that Ed fittEd into all sorts of worEds.1
After finishing everything up, Ed was left with free time. That would usually mean the dungeon would summon him but apparently not this time.
'Let's see… What can I do then?' Weighing his options, Ed realized he could learn spirit magic from Prild. While he was at it, he could work towards integrating the goblins into orc society.
'That involves things like education and combat capabilities need to be trained' Looking at how things were in Sanctuary at the moment, there was a need for that on the orcs too. Armored combat training had only recently started and Dakgu and Gurln were put in charge of it. Smithing was delegated entirely to Shel and Sharog was personally teaching Gurln magic.
The main issue however was that neither of these orcs was experts in these fields. That was putting aside the fact that only Gurln was actually learning from Sharog. Whatever the case, his orc leaders were much more advanced than their fellows but not by a sufficient margin.
'What I need to do is train them so they can train others' Trench, Blaze, Iron, and the rest of his anti-skeletons had followed this principle. After getting personal instruction from him, they went on to teach others. That meant that Ed needed to somehow have that happen for the orcs.
Looking at it there was only one option.
'I need to take the time to teach all of them something' He was only qualified for that much since apart from magic, he didn't think he mastered any of the fields. As for why he could claim magic it was only through mana manipulation.
'I know a lot of spells now as well' But it wasn't at the level where he would consider himself some sort of archmage.
With this in mind, Ed decided to start by teaching Dakgu and Gurln. While Ed was not necessarily used to fighting in armor, his skills allowed him to learn more about it than Dakug or Gurln could. Assimilation was also a way to assimilate knowledge and learn things faster after all.
'Though it certainly doesn't feel like it sometimes' Some of his skills were not progressing by leaps and bounds as one would expect. Thankfully this seemed like an opportunity not just to teach the orcs, but also to train himself.
With a plan in mind, Ed started by finding the both of them and inquiring about their teaching schedule. He could then take up their free time like a rude boss.
***
Back on the marshlands where the reeds adorned the docks, in one of the huts, there was Eon.
The testing for Bloody was going pretty smoothly thanks to the constant supply of injured. What worried Eon however was that he was still not able to pinpoint why using Bloody as a crystal was so effective in healing the others.
All the injuries practically manipulated themselves into closing which was a bizarre way to look at it. Eon could speculate as to why but that would not count as pinpointing the reason.
That being the case Eon needed to try a new type of patient. He was certain his speculation could be turned into a verifiable theory after this.
"Final test…" Eon muttered before bringing out a very sick man from a separate space. The man was of course Brennan Bosque, king of Bosque and currently missing person.
Brennan's appearance was almost skin and bones. He looked like he was dead which made sense considering the element he was struck with. Regardless of his looks, Eon had the hard task of bringing him back to life.
"Aaaaaar…" Brennan said making a strange noise. Eon tactically ignored this and only grabbed a piece of Bloody to begin the experiment.
As Eon didn't plan to literally bring Brennan back to life, using the death element was out of the question. That just left the life element again.
Using the now-familiar incantations, the mana in the air was stirred and Brennan's body which seemed like a withered branch suddenly regained some liveliness. It seemed to writhe with the yearning for something.
A good sign all things considered.
Since Brennan's body was plagued by the death element, using the life element to combat it seemed like the best and logical choice. It seemed this assumption had been correct.
"Hm?" Or perhaps not…? Soon after finishing the incantation the king's body which had been alleviated from the pain momentarily returned to its original state. It became clear that Brennan Bosque only experienced momentary respite.
But where did it go wrong then?
Eon ruminated on the question but saw no clear answer. Looking at the list of successfully healed patients, there was a common factor, however.
Blood.
Flesh.
Brennan's ailment was just that, an ailment. Although originally put near death by the assassination attempt, by now lots of other diseases and injuries must have formed. Even with top-notch healing, the chances of Brennan living longer than even a year was slim.
"There must be no traces of the death element left anymore though…" If there were Brennan would have died by now. It was obvious that the man was now simply sick.
Going back to his conclusion, the patients had blood and flesh injuries. Bloody was a blob of Blood so while there was definitely some relation, that was not the conclusion.
"The red blob must have turned my mana into something of its own" Eon did not know of Bloody's blood integration skill but observation could go a long way. As for what this thing of its own was, evidently, some sort of life and death pseudo-element.
"A blood element" Was the only thing that was both related to life and death. Blood could mean injury or it could mean death as well as in rare cases healing. This pseudo-element would be something like an organic element, but Blood seemed like the aptest descriptor.
Nevertheless, Eon still frowned. He had come to a good conclusion but... How was that supposed to help him? If the element was indeed something between life and death then he wouldn't be able to prolong his life by even a year.
The lizardmen's situation was progressing smoothly but wasn't the blob useless now? Why keep it?
"Just knowing it exists is good enough" Just based on the experiments he had performed the creature was too dangerous. It could integrate blood into its body and while it was nothing currently, there was no telling about the future.
He could continue to monitor it if he had the chance but he obviously didn't. His time was limited and he couldn't afford to keep it company.
"You've outlived your usefulness" Eon was not going to play nurse for the lizardmen either. That was obviously beneath him.
W had been keeping a close watch on the situation though did not miss the sudden hostility. Eon's harsh words coupled with his condescending gaze told W plenty about his and Bloody's fate. He couldn't allow it!
'Bloody, do as I say! Fragment!' Ed transmitted to Bloody who while initially dazed didn't fail to note the urgency in the transmission.
Bloody instantly fragmented into pieces momentarily startling Eon. Bloody's pieces were now quite tiny.
"Tsk!" But he was an experienced man that was always well aware of his surroundings. The room was immediately surrounded by walls of space.
'Damn! Charge!' W realized this too but he sent out the transmission for a charge anyway. They couldn't die, not like this!
"You have nowhere to hide. Did you think you could get a free meal?" Eon asked before using space to splatter some fragmented pieces of Bloody that charged against his space barrier.
The other pieces of Bloody including some W fragments went into hiding behind all sorts of objects. But as the entire room was sealed, that was all W and Bloody could do. Were they really going to die there?
'Bloody, no matter what, don't do anything stupid' The current skills they had were not enough to break space!
While fragmented, Bloody's body mass was even smaller too so it couldn't perform a strong charge. Overall, they were stuck!