Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

In order to inscribe or engrave something into a person or material, one needed the necessary tools. Ed, therefore, started by making a needle-like pen out of some salvaged adventurer equipment. Orc Iron was barely stronger than regular ole' iron so Ed had no choice but to seek alternatives.

The only reason why the sacred tribe was able to engrave their orcs with orc Iron was that it was on their skin. As Ed had learned from fighting the weird abominations that resulted from this, the enchantments could be easily dispelled when put on the flesh.

That was why Ed planned to take a different approach.

[Basic Runite Engraver]

{A pen formed of the magical metal Runite and a few other composites.}

Having forged a basic pen, Ed was ready to start on this different approach.

'I want to reward Survivor by increasing its mana combat abilities' The best way to do it was undoubtedly to increase the amount of mana it could use or the precision with which it could use it.

Ed unfortunately however only knew a couple of runes. These were the runes for transportation, and just the skill to convert spells into runes.

'I need something to take mana from the air' He didn't have such a thing. Transportation just took mana out of a crystal and moved it to runes to activate them, and he lacked any spells that performed a similar action so the rune could not be inferred.

This meant that Ed could not give Survivor more mana. At least not through the conventional method.

'I can transport energy from its core and have it remain in the engravings' The use of plural was key here. The goal was to prevent the enchantment from becoming useless from a single attack and Ed believed he had achieved.

[Mana Bone Bank Array]

As always, Ed's array names were very practical. The name summarized the functionalities quite well.

The array would transport energy into adjacent arrays and also store some for itself. This meant that if one of the banks was destroyed in say the forearm, any on the hand would still be accessible just not rechargeable.

'It's not perfect' But there was no such thing as a perfect creation. While this was fairly elementary, Ed felt it was stellar for his level.

'Now for the main challenge…' Enchanting required the inscribed runes to be extremely precise. This was difficult because sometimes the available surface area was too small.

This meant that Ed's array had to be shrunk enough to be placed on different types of bones. So while the theory might be sound, Ed had to make sure he was capable.

Even if he had plenty of surface area however the concept of independent mana banks required they be as small as possible. It was the only way to make sure a small cut wouldn't cause Survivor to lose a quarter of his stored mana after scraping his elbow.

This challenge required an extremely thin pen and some very carefully applied ink. Enchanting still needed something that acts as a conductor of mana after all. Ed just went with some ground blood mushroom combined with an earth crystal. This solution was then further mixed into water. The end result was a heavy feeling maroon-colored ink.

With everything ready, it was time to get to work. Ed was already outside so he then spent upwards of 10 minutes inscribing multiple small arrays using a borrowed hand in a more literal sense.

The end result was no more than two arrays. His attempt at a third one had failed rather miserably. Yet he was also unwilling to spend more time on this activity. He moved on straight to Survivor's body after this small exercise.

If he messed up, Ed simply used the ethereal spark system upgrade to melt the incision back to normal. This helped tremendously since Ed didn't need to be afraid of making mistakes.

[Formationist has leveled up]

The end result was a little less than 100 arrays inscribed. Some angles were near impossible to write from and that often meant Ed wouldn't bother trying. Either way, as a first product, Ed thought it turned out quite nicely.

Ed then started assembling many anti-skeletons at ludicrous speeds. He had gathered plenty of skeleton consciousnesses on the way to Survivor's outpost. Soon enough, about 58 anti-skeletons were crowding the entire outpost.

'These will do for now' Mass producing the anti-skeletons alongside the bone brutes and armament skeletons was the ultimate goal for the crypt. He needed them to take over the original skeleton inhabitants.

Putting the new and confused anti-skeletons aside, Ed assembled Survivor. The reward had been the runes but Ed also gave it a brown robe. The robe had no functionality but it did work well to hide its blood-red tattoos, which had to be worth something.

Survivor slowly stood up from the cold floor on which Ed had summoned it. Survivor and many others and felt slightly confused. For Survivor, the confusion came from a weird sensation of soreness in its bones. As an undead, it wasn't used to feeling things.

'I've given you your reward. You should now have about an extra fifth of your current total after a couple of hours' The amount didn't sound like much in this context but it was in fact just about enough to make a difference.

Survivor felt grateful though. Even if Ed gave it 1% it would have likely felt honored to have Ed personally write anything on its body.

'Train, I expect more good things from you' Ed said effectively dismissing Survivor. His backlog was quite congested so Ed couldn't afford to watch Survivor training. What Ed proceeded to do from hereon was simple.

He traveled the dungeon acquiring skeletons and even built new outposts. These outposts were mainly filled with anti-skeletons. Ed did want to add brutes but they were simply too expensive.

While they were intimidating, the bone brutes were like one-trick ponies. They couldn't compare to the anti-skeletons when it came to usefulness.

On the other hand, the armament skeletons required multiple weapons to be made so Ed had to add them sparingly.

While Ed was creating new outposts, he didn't forget to make new loot. Some of these rewards included some of his creations like the warm maintainer and its blueprints.

'Hmm… maybe I should have named them Warmth Retainers instead' Looking back, Ed was afraid that the marketing for these products might not go well due to his poor name choice.

Accompanied by him and himself, Ed continued to tour every nook and cranny of the dungeon. He eventually came across a human and he was elated. They were doing just what he wanted them to!

The adventurers he found wore wide grins as they solved a puzzle. They were already seeing themselves acquiring something new. Ed had to admire their confidence but he also had to admit his puzzles weren't much.

When covering an entire dungeon with puzzles, one could only be creative for so long. They must have seen this type of puzzle before, the adventurers who both appeared to be warriors finally moved the last pedestal onto the rightful spot and an array activated.

Out of the sky like a gift from heaven, a Warmth maintainer fell out!

'These guys got lucky, I should let them live' If they spread the good word Ed would benefit. If the warmth retainer became a hot product outside, if he ever got out there was cash to be made.

"Aw f*ck! Another of these pieces of garbage!" One of the adventurers exclaimed evidently not amused by Ed's hopeful addition to the price pool.

Suddenly, the two of them felt chills down their spines.

Much later, Ed had returned to the temple of Ed. He was quite happy as on his way back, he gathered two human souls which was a nice bonus.

'What's wrong with my warmth retainer?' Did the people of the fantasy era not have any coffee to keep warm?

Whatever the case, Ed felt it was about time to switch bodies.

'I can still do more things here but…' The situation in the orc plains was worrying, to say the least. Not to mention W…

'Hm? If I remember correctly I placed a spiritual mark on W' They could communicate!

'W doesn't have the skill on him right now since I'm at level 0 but later on it's not impossible' he could send W a message right now out of fear for its well-being but W never put a mark on him.

'Wait… what if I send him my coordinate as intent?' Ed didn't know where he was but if it was merely the intention of his position W would be able to find him.

'No, the coordinates won't help' Ed had forgotten but the transmission did have a range limit. The long-distance transmission had to be exclusive to the spiritual mark.

Ed decided not to bother too much with that anymore and merely sent W some words of formality. He also expressed his stance on the situation of the marshland. While they were both one and the same experience tended to shape personality

Until Ed merged back with W there was a chance that their views would differ even if only slightly in the future.

[Assimilation is off cooldown]

'Looks like I should try something' Ed wanted to assimilate a materialized death flame from the torches. It was something he had been thinking to do since his current return.

'I also need to use the skill on the space anomalies' The dungeon's expansion created the anomaly as well as the portal in the boss room. Whichever Ed came across first would be materialized and perhaps assimilated.

For now, Ed would start with the faint flickering flames.