Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

In the end, Ed gave in and taught Gold a thing or two about manipulating magic. As to simplify his job further, Ed also had Zephyr make demonstrations.

[Instruction has leveled up]

Of course, the instruction skill could not be forgotten. It had performed the biggest role in quickly getting the newest addition to the gang, Gold, up to speed.

'I wonder if this is alright though' The other skeletons wouldn't feel he had neglected them, would they? They were dead after all, right?

In truth, however, Ed's neglect went really far back. The first batch of experimental subjects was a perfect example. They were named from one to nine and weren't of the antimony metal skeleton type. That was all due to his neglect. Those skeletons have long since now perished, but if they hadn't, they would definitely bear a grudge.

Ed tossed the matter into the back of his mind and silently observed the power of Gold's attack when pitted against Zephyr's.

'It looks so weak…' But Ed wasn't entirely disheartened. For one, he couldn't forget that Zephyr's own start had been less than impressive. It was only through a mix of mana and combat training that Zephyr's power eventually increased to a sufficient level.

'Hm, in the future it will be better to experiment on the already trained ones' Ed wanted his experiments to show immediate results but that was impossible under the current circumstances.

'Zephyr, you and Pioneer are now in charge of Gold' Ed decided to do the necessary trials at some other time as he delegated the task to the most senior wind lich of the bunch.

'Though Zephyr has been left behind by this point' Zephyr was made out of wind element mana crystal. He excelled in manipulating mana inside of his body yet… not so much outside. 

Ed could only theorize that the overabundance of mana inside of his crystal mana clouded his ability to sense mana the further it got from him. This left Zephyr as a weird brittle mix of a close combat mage. 

Based on some of the stories Ed absorbed from the encyclopedia close combat mages weren't lacking in power as much as they did defense. A glass cannon. Though with Zephyr's unique body it might as well be literally made out of glass.

Having dealt with the newly acquired armor and the skeleton that now wore it, Ed was ready to continue sleeping.

'It will probably take upwards of an hour or so' Still, that was actually rather fast. Ed's experiment as an orc had thought him that much.

'I guess since it's just bone and no nerves or flesh it's much faster to regenerate it' This was Ed's only possible real explanation for the faster recovery as well as the large difference in attributes between both bodies.

As Ed returned to his throne room and sat down to return to sleep, Iron watched simply by the side perhaps contemplating something. Ed didn't know nor really cared as he drifted off into the system space.

Once there, the first thing he did was ask the system about something.

'How many consciousnesses until the next level?' Ed asked, the reason being he planned to help the system return its peak power. It could only bring him benefits.

[six orc consciousnesses, do you want to offer them? Y/N]

Promptly, a glowing message noting the exact amount appeared in front of Ed. The amount which was, by all accounts, astonishingly low.

'Is it maybe due to all of the other smaller upgrades?' Ed hadn't forgotten about the first time he learned of the upgrade feature. It was after offering an insufficient amount of consciousnesses to the system that it opened up the forge and even returned the change.

Ed was convinced this was the cause but that begged the question of whether or not the system would upgrade on its own if he didn't feed it directly.

'The main problem is that it won't show me what other upgrades are available…' How was he supposed to know what to upgrade then as a way to test the hypothesis?

'Hm? Could it be that it can't show me the directory because I ran out of upgrades?' Wouldn't that be too coincidental? Ed felt that this was likely an incorrect approach.

'If anything the system link skill might simply need to level up' If he thought of it as a sort of clearance level up or a feature only available to pay to win players then it all made sense. He had to be a big spender of the system to get more benefits that in the end would only help him spend even more.

'You are lucky you've got a big monopoly on my access to systems…' Ed grumbled as he fantasized of a world where he gets access to multiple system interfaces each more awesome than the last. 

The invincible eating system! The amazing martial system! The unfathomable knitting system! And other sorts of ridiculous systems all at his fingertips working against one another by competing in price wars.

But fantasies were fantasies, Ed was instead stuck with the regular titleless system's monopoly on all systemized goods.

'On a serious note… are there more systems?' Ed was curious as to what exactly the system was and the encyclopedia had provided no knowledge on this, not to Ed's surprise. If systems were common knowledge then humans would have driven all species of monsters to extinction, of this he had no doubt.

After some more pondering driven by simple curiosity, Ed finally replied to the system with a simple nod. He would upgrade the skill to hopefully acquire an indispensable sub-skill.

Thus far, the soul calling sub-skill and the spirit insertion sub-skill had worked together quite wonderfully, the former was more likely than not a preparation for the latter. In that case, what could he possibly receive now?

[Taking offerings…]

[System Link has leveled up]

[<Sub-Skill: Command>]

'Consciousness Link?' Ed thought as he read the glowing messages that appeared before him. Not able to hold back his curiosity, he quickly asked the system for the skill's effects.

[System Link lvl. 3]

Command - Ability to directly connect and command previously acquired consciousnesses as well as sense their presence.

'Th- This is great!' Ed didn't even bother to consider the ethical dilemma that came from directly commanding consciousnesses. He instead started to look over the benefits of being able to give orders to consciousnesses he acquired.

This meant that as long as he killed someone he could force them to follow his will! The only thing that Ed didn't know was whether or not there existed any limits on this. For example, what would happen if he tried to connect and command 1,000 consciousnesses at once. Was it impossible or would it simply kill him instead?

Learning the limits of this ability was the key to knowing what his future on other floors might look like. With the skill's expected capabilities it was bound to seem smooth at the moment. That's what made it all the more important to know whether the skill took things like willingness into account.

'Hm… I wonder if it can be upgraded' He had never asked about upgrading the subskills before especially since they didn't show any level on the messages for their definitions. But it would simply be a pity if the command sub-skill wasn't able to reach the heights of creating an uncontestable tyrant. While Ed didn't plan to ever go to such lengths it was still reassuring to know he could, right?

After contemplating on the matter for a couple of more seconds, Ed asked to see the upgrade directory once more.

[Remote Materialization I - Able to materialize stored objects as large as half a cubic meter.]

[Storage++ - Added 250sqft to storeroom size]

[Smart Stacking - Place stored items into neat stacks]

[Large Area store - Store an area of 15sqft directly into storeroom]

[Unable to show further upgrades]

A slew of messages appeared causing Ed's non-existent eyes to gleam as he scanned over each one. Much to his disappointment, the list was still cut short.

'Why are all of the upgrades for the storeroom as well?' Ed asked himself as he noticed this small peculiarity.

'I suppose I might need to level up the system some more until having other functions being listed...' Ed couldn't say for certain but what was being displayed currently was already a step up from before.

Remote materialization for example was definitely something he was interested in acquiring but would most likely not have come up with himself. Aside from that, he was a bit disappointed especially since most of the displayed upgrades were just extensions of already acquired ones.

'System, how much for smart stacking and for remote materialization' Ed decided to acquire both of these functions. Smart piling could use an upgrade and smart stacking felt like the perfect compromise between organization and mess.

[Acquiring 'Smart stacking' costs one orc consciousness. Offer? Y/N]

[Acquiring 'Remote Materialization I' costs two orc consciousnesses. Offer? Y/N]

Two new prompts appeared, Ed agreed to both of them and was forced out of the forge in which he had been making these purchases.

'Could it be that I can also use remote materialization for things in the forge?' The upgrade seemed better and better, Ed couldn't wait to see it in action now.. The upgrade listing was a blessing from the heavens, erm, the system.