Back at Sanctuary, things were working as per usual. The ones in teaching positions taught, and the ones with tasks and responsibilities tried to fulfill them.
In the case of Dakgu and Gurln, these responsibilities also involved exploring the plains and thickets looking for tribes to assimilate into Sanctuary. These orc search expeditions were rather successful, especially now that the orcs partaking in it were growing in both experience and power.
With this newfound strength, they could easily subdue the enemies with no deaths and nothing but both small and large injuries.
This wasn't due to Ed. The announcement about buying upgrades was made but Ed would only allow purchases on a weekly basis and with a limited quota. The point was not to become the richest orc alive by making them premium goods, it was just to save his time.
Ed couldn't afford to dally when there were many responsibilities he himself had to fulfill. For Sharog he might seem like a slacker but that was because she was looking at what he had done in managing Sanctuary.
Ed's deeds on a dungeon scale were grand and many. The improvements he made to the orcs livelihoods however one could argue already merited taking a break. Well, if they were achieved through normal means anyway. With the system and his knowledge, they had been a piece of cake.
Currently, Ed was overseeing the creation of new weapons in the smithy. Two days had passed since his meeting with Bob so it was about time to launch an attack on the humans.
That was also why he was supervising the creation of weapons. Though the fact that some of them were made with the new metals he donated also played a part. He had to make sure everyone knew how to handle them after all.
"Ed! Look at this one!" Shel said showing off a red-orange axe. This was an orc blood fruit metal mix Ed had Shel try. It wasn't the first of its kind, well, it was but not the first odd mix. The purpose was to assimilate something new.
[Assimilation is on cooldown]
[Vitality +1]
'Not even strength or constitution huh…' Ed was desperate for new attributes but they were all now yielding a pitiful one of a certain type. He was hoping that an orc blood fruit metal weapon would be different but it was to no avail.
'Well, I'm already plenty powerful' He wasn't even the only one participating in battle. Sanctuary had now over 250 orcs and of those orcs, only a fifth were children unable to participate in battle.
Obviously, Ed would not be sending 200 orcs at the humans. The humans would die for sure but the price to pay would be needlessly steep. Not just that, but children couldn't be left to have their way with Sanctuary.
Regardless, there were plenty of ways to win against the humans with even 100 orcs as things now stood.
While each orc would still die in a one-on-one confrontation with the grand majority of B-class adventurers, the loss would not be swift. As Bob had kindly informed him of the rough number of humans, Ed knew they outnumbered them 2 to 1.
This gap was close enough for the orcs to come out on top. This meant Sanctuary would only suffer a loss of more or less half the orcs. A significant amount no doubt, but it was also one easily recouped.
"So? Was that one any good?" Shel asked seeing another weapon disappearing into nothingness. Her nonchalance suggested Ed had been at the smithy assimilating objects on a regular basis.
"Not bad" Ed said knowing this was actually empty praise. With the current state of his assimilation, it was actually impossible for him to use it as an accurate measure of quality.
The distinction between hot garbage and good was not large enough for them to give different points. Speaking of...
'Status' Ed thought to look at these attributes now while he could.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Orc
Health: 2000/2000
Mana: 306/306
Vitality: 16
Strength: 16
Agility: 14
Constitution: 17
Dexterity: 15
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 8] -Show-
[Fortified Mind lvl. 0] -Show-
[Assessment lvl. 3] -Show-
[Assimilation lvl. 8] -Show-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 3] -Show-
[Language lvl. 1] -Show-
[System Link lvl. 6] -Show-
[Instinct lvl. 6] -Show-
[Adept Throwing lvl. 1] -Show-
[Mana Manipulation lvl. 9] -Show-
[Axemanship lvl. 7] --Show-
[Eloquence lvl. 4] -Show-
[Craftsmanship lvl. 3] -Show-
[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-
[Alchemy lvl. 3] -Show-
[Formationist lvl. 2] -Show-
[Spiritual Mark lvl. 1] -Show-
The progress was a bit... Slow? Ed had already expected this though so he was actually not very surprised.
"I see… Are you leaving now?" Shel asked after hearing his empty answer. Ed answered the question with a nod. Indeed, this had been the routine. Ed would pop by an hour or two before his assimilation would come through and after doing one it was time to leave.
There were one or two occasions where he stayed overtime but even then it was at most an added half an hour.
Shortly after leaving the smithy, Ed entered the system space. There was no cutscene and there hadn't been one in a long time. He was missing it now really.
With the idle thoughts signaling everything was fine, Ed returned to his project. The goblin+ project.
It was a project of improving goblins in not just skills but also intelligence and body constitution. So far, Ed had managed to apply the intelligence and skills improvement to one goblin.
The intelligence was only relative to a goblin though. The brain still limited the intelligence so there was not much Ed could do about it really. Merging consciousnesses into a dumber species mostly resulted in good memory.
To overcome this, Ed tried to give them skills related to intelligence, but he didn't actually have any.
'Most of my skill inks are from bugs and other creatures in the mushroom caverns' There was no way they had any intelligence. They were the type to blindly follow bait around and die at the hands of magical fungi.
This left only the constitution to improve. Ed left it for last as it was the hardest to seriously consider.
'Metals can never go wrong but…' If they were too heavy the speed would be affected. Not just that but the flexibility would also be affected. There was no good solution to these problems either.
Ed had to scrap the idea of using metal on the whole body. But that didn't mean he couldn't have the spirit smith assist and meet him halfway.
The goblin body which had been melted into a green goop suddenly opened up to release white goop. These were the melted bones of the goblins. A new goop, darker in color but tougher in appearance then entered the goblin body.
'It's good to know the spirit smith can do this' The bones in the goblin's body were replaced with orc iron which was something Ed himself could not do.
As a side note, this was a goblin that was picked up from some of the newly subordinated tribes. Ed had definitely made a good decision when he decided to have Dakgu and Gurln round up the orcs into Sanctuary.
That was important because the next step was crucial. Making the skin tougher was a matter of distinguishing between it and the bones. Fortunately, the spirit smith was just as capable of doing this.
Ed tossed a carapace from a bug into the system forge. He wanted it to become a part of the goblin's flesh to toughen its body. While it would not be at the level of the plated bugs, it would be without a doubt better than a regular one.
"This is good" Ed thought as the forge continued to wilt away at the materials inside it. Eventually, the piece of carapace melted and mixed with the flesh of the goblin before the skeleton re-entered the flesh.
Now there was just a goblin with a more brownish desaturated green skin. One could tell based on the features that it was a goblin but it also gave off of a certain edge. Ed was excited to put the goblin to a final test.
He had released it for intelligence testing a couple of times.
Ed exited the system space after the goblin cooled back into a solid and gave it the consciousness it was missing. Within a minute, the goblin stood up.
It scanned around itself confused before noticing Ed and becoming alert.
'This is so cool' Ed thought seeing the correct behavior of the goblin. It was like when you took a programming tutorial and expanded on the initial script but nothing broke in the end! It would always serve as a testament to your knowledge of the system in play.
The wary goblin brandished its hands which had relatively sharp nails. Ed wanted nothing to do with them but if he wasn't careful he would be getting very close and personal with the claws.
[You've been dealt damage. -3]
The goblin suddenly burst right off of the ground and hit Ed square on. It was using skills to attack!
'But it should know better' Ed thought with a genuine frown. How could the thing he created not be able to realize it was unwise to attack him? It looked like he would have to give it an unforgettable beating.
Ed grabbed the bolting Goblin after some focusing and smashed it onto the ground.
'You will now work under me' Ed told the goblin who paused not sure what to think. Was it possible it was concussed?
Eventually, it did speak though and they were meaningful words…
"Chit" The goblin was just squealing and making noise!
But Ed still took this as a yes.
'Now I need a name for you' The unsaturated brown goblin was not a good way to call it.