After hearing Ed's certain response, Vorgarag looked at the fainted Shel. They couldn't just leave her there.
"We can't abandon her here" Said Vorgarag to which Ed readily agreed.
It was especially so considering that Shel would probably be very confused if she woke up and found that Ed and Vorgarag were gone. Maybe she would think that everything was just a dream. Or worse she would seem like a crazy lady in front of the whole tribe as she preached about Ed's visit.
"Just umm... Shake her awake or something" Said Ed uncertainly. He didn't want to waste too much time there since his assimilation skill had already gone off cool down.
'Oh, that reminds me. My bag should be in here somewhere' Given that the past 24 hours had been a rush, he completely forgot about his bag.
'I am not sure if I need to assimilate the spellbook anymore though' Since he had already managed to use the space hop spell he theoretically didn't need to read the rest. Maybe he should try assimilating the other ones instead. Nonetheless, he still glanced around trying to spot any semblance of his bag.
"What are you looking for?" Vorgarag asked after noticing as he shook the unconscious Shel awake. Ed didn't need to hide anything, so he immediately replied.
"My bag, but I will just get it later since I am not heading back to the house straight away" Ed didn't want to carry his bag around for now.
"I think you left it down stair-" Shel suddenly laid up bumping her head against Vorgarag's.
"Ed!" Screamed Shel having felt nothing from the collision.
"Ouch..." Unlike Vorgarag who was slowly rubbing his head in pain. He didn't usually fight in close range so his constitution was much weaker than Shel's.
"What's up...?" Said Ed with a hint of uncertainty and a casual wave towards the just awakened Shel. In response, Her eyes widened in disbelief before starting to close again as she started to once more lose consciousness.
"N-no, no! Wait!" Ed ran towards her and caught her in his arms. He really didn't want to wait for her to wake up again. Luckily, Shel didn't fall back to sleep, maybe his words worked?
Shel's mouth formed a light smile while her eyes remained closed after feeling his embrace.
'This... is she doing it on purpose?' Ed's worried expression soon turned unamused, he simply dropped Shel back on her bed.
"Come on, I was really worried when I thought you died." Shel laid back up and threw Ed a reproaching glance.
Ed ignored her entirely, "...Let's go, she's awake now" He said with zero intention to explain anything to Shel. Given that the first thing she did after finding out he was alive was playing around, Ed assumed she wasn't interested in knowing.
"Alright then, I think I might know where Nag took Murbol, follow me." Vorgarag took the initiative to also ignore Shel and to lead Ed away.
"Alright! Let's kill her hehehe" Shel let out a sinister laugh as she got off the bed and followed after the two of them.
It took the trio a good minute to reach a substandard cottage. Upon getting there Vorgarag opened up a wonky door that revealed the barren inside.
'Hm?' On second glance, there were actually steps leading down. Maybe it was some sort of underground cell?
The three of them went inside and headed down the stairs. The path was illuminated by stable torchlight. The area wasn't actually very large, so they managed to instantly spot an injured Murbol tied up behind wooden bars. Her expression seemed sorry and the burn marks made her state pitiful.
"Hahaha! I am back b*tch!" Shel said with a vicious expression.
Ed was somewhat taken aback, what did Murbol ever do to her? Shel seemed to be the type to easily hold grudges. Ed decided that he would tread carefully in the future. He then let out a couple of awkward coughs and blocked Shel from getting any closer afraid of what she might do.
"Vorgarag, you don't mind if she dies right?" He needed to make sure that Vorgarag didn't have anything planned for Murbol.
Murbol was unfazed as she heard those words. She never had any intention to continue living. As a matter of fact, it was already odd that they had kept her alive this long.
"You mentioned this earlier and I didn't oppose, go ahead." It was better to quickly kill any enemies anyways.
There were multiple reasons for this, first of all, they couldn't afford to maintain them and secondly, it was just good etiquette. The orcs frowned upon mercy, it was a sign of pity which was equal to humiliating them. As for a third reason, well, there was no need to keep any potential problems alive.
Ed looked for what seemed to be a door before finding it and entering the gloomy cell.
"Make it quick" Said Murbol in a low voice. She had already lost Slug and was captured so there was no need to stay there and suffer.
'I don't know if this would kill her but it will definitely be quick' Thought Ed to himself after he approached her. His back was facing Vorgarag and Shel so they couldn't see what he was doing.
Ed placed his hand on her head leaving Murbol confused. That was until her eyes slowly rolled to the back of her head and her body dropped to the cold hard ground. Ed was storing her consciousness to find out more about the system and space and its forge.
"Eh!?! That-That's it?" Shel was hoping to see a good show but Ed did who knows what and quickly put her out of her misery. The b*tch got off easy!
Ed didn't really care as he called for his status in his mind.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Orc
Health: 800/800
Vitality: 4
Strength: 3
Agility: 2
Constitution: 3
Dexterity: 1
Mana: 223
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 2] -Show info-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 4] -Show info-
[Deduction lvl. 8] -Show info-
[Assimilation lvl. 4] -Show info-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Language lvl. 1] -Show info-
[???] -Show info-
[Instinct lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Adept Throwing lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Mana Manipulation lvl. 6] -Show info-
[Axemanship lvl. 2] -Show info-
[Eloquence lvl. 1]
Your words are well-spoken and carry a certain amount of persuasiveness.
Ed frowned upon discovering that the dungeon was still observing his actions, or at the very least observing the current floor. It meant that he would have to postpone any possible experiments inside of the system space which he felt was a definite necessity for the fight against the adventurers.
'My attributes are still quite a bit lacking...' His combat ability was likely the best on the entire floor. Him getting stronger was an absurd thought for many.
Nonetheless, Ed didn't think so. Although he did beat Slug he still died in the end. Sure the situation would have been different if he didn't sacrifice himself for anybody but... That was an excuse. What he needed especially when facing adventurers was overwhelming strength. Enough strength so that he won't ever have to die again in the future. That was Ed's new goal.
"What did you do? Did you kill her using mana?" Vorgarag asked the absentminded Ed. He couldn't see any sort of bleeding though. Well... not that it was exactly possible given that her body was already covered in it.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Something like that." Ed turned around and said while still somewhat lost in thought.
"Hm... Well, I guess it doesn't really matter." Vorgarag thought for a bit before decisively ignoring the matter. Ed probably did indeed insert volatile mana into Murbol's body to kill her one way or the other. As far as Vorgarag knew there was no magic spell that had a similar effect after all.
Shel was the only one left dissatisfied by the result.
"Since we got that matter out of the way, I have a mission for you Ed." Since the matter of Ed's identity had been settled and he had no more requests Vorgarag felt it was an opportune time to make his proposition.
Ed ignored the sullen Shel and perked up his ears ready to listen.
"The ancestors actually kept records of their knowledge. Some say it is safeguarded by a dangerous beast while others say that the knowledge in of itself is cursed." Vorgarag was naturally referring to the aforementioned cavern. This was the first time Ed heard of this however so it managed to instantly pique his interest.
"I have been wanting to go there for a while but I am always busy with the tribe. I want to delegate the task to you. My teacher has mentioned the direction before so you should be able to get there without too much of a hassle. I hope you can bring me back that knowledge." Based on his teacher's direction the cavern could be found deeper in the woods and was no more than five or six hours away.
"As for the humans... I'll try to set up both defensive and offensive arrays in the perimeter. I might need more mana crystals though..." Vorgarag's final words were said with disappointment.
The way that the crystals were being used currently was extremely conservative. Their potential was being wasted on simple tests. A smaller piece would still be able to get its job done. But even though it was being used so conservatively for so long it was still not enough, they might need to find a new source if they wanted to truly fortify their defenses.
Ed thought about it for a bit before coming to a decision.
"I'll do it." He said with conviction. Vorgarag was immediately elated since that was something that had been bothering him for a while but before he could tell him more details Ed interrupted him.
"I am going to need some payment though. I want some pieces of the crystals" Truth be told, the knowledge he would find would likely serve as a good enough payment. But Ed wanted to increase his mana capacity to make the space hop spell a viable option and for that he needed to assimilate some mana crystals.
The magic devices he had absorbed before only provided him with one or two mana but the crystals were basically crystallized mana. The amount of mana he would get was substantially larger.
Vorgarag stopped to think for a short moment before agreeing.
"I hope you can tell me what you are going to use them for though" Although Vorgarag had grown to trust Ed a bit more he still believed in his own judgment.. He wanted to know what Ed would use them for.