Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

In the human base Aspiration, things were proceeding much more smoothly now. Without a declared leader, things were hard to manage, but everyone could agree to sift through the new resources.

Both of the magic carts contained a mix of building materials, food, and magic devices. Fortunately, this meant that although they only had one, they wouldn't miss out on anything too drastically.  These available resources were then neatly divided and soon after set up.

The magic devices included an easy-to-set-up alert system. This alert system functioned using anchors to transmit sound wirelessly. In other words, it was a much more limited version of the spatial transmission device created by Eon.

Aside from this, there was also a magic map. The name wasn't very creative and the function wasn't as magical as it made itself out to sound.

It was a thick slab with a magic crystal screen. The magic map was capable of finding mana particles in the area and using that to build a simple top view map. This was presented in one color, brown. The depth was represented by the light level and was relative to the ground level upon activation.

The logic would be something like finding the highest concentration of earth, compare it to air, water, etc., and make brown patches. Some shortcomings were the limited memory as well as the relatively small capture radius.

Nevertheless, Stuart looked at it as if it were a god sent. The best feature of the device was the ability to print out maps from what it captured. Adding color or any other special features could be done later.

It was already late at night so unfortunately, the group had to go to sleep but once morning came, the humans were working hard.

The scouts made off with the magic map, the alarm system was set up, some portable magic cannons, and a few quality of life devices like a magic stove to help with food cooking.

With magic, the technological level of the world was very mixed. It tended to stand on two sides of a spectrum.

The technology was either super-advanced with ridiculously expensive materials or high difficulty build requirements, or extremely basic with lots of shortcomings and moderately expensive.

The development of magic technology seemed to be getting held back by material prices but fortunately, the Bosque Kingdom was plenty wealthy. The devices were loaned to the company by the kingdom but other kingdoms might be too afraid to do even that much.

Whatever the case, assisted by such tools the progress of the base was unimaginable. It seemed near impossible to penetrate for any run-of-the-mill orc tribe. To celebrate, the knights and mages of the company all started to dig into the food from the cart.

"Our situation has improved but not for long…" Stuart muttered while looking at the knights smiling for the first time in a good while. A good meal was enough to brighten a poor day.

"The other cart… Do you think they'll get it here?" Stuart asked Eyad who was following behind him. Stuart was Eyad's squad leader so he was providing him with some more in-depth information.

Eyad wanted to say yes but he knew very well it was unlikely.

"I'm afraid not Sir… They would be here by now otherwise…" The number of enemies didn't seem to be large enough for them to lag behind by more than a couple of hours.

Stuart didn't reply but his mind was racing with possibilities. In the end, he realized he needed to calm down.

"Do… Do you think it got it?" Stuart asked Eyad.

"It? What's it?" Eyad asked back bewildered. 

"If it did… it might steal some of our technology" Stuart said seeing that Eyad wasn't quite following him. He understood now, however.

"That'll be… tough" The equipment they received was centered on building up their base. The cart that they left behind had some siege magic devices. If the orc or skeleton learned how to use any of them it could mean problems.

***

Not too far away, a green figure was skipping across branches running towards a certain direction. This was Ed.

He wanted to figure out the location of the base to spy on it and plan how to deal with it.

'In the worst-case scenario we will have to live with one another' coexisting with the humans sounded a bit inane but the possibility existed. Even if both sides were killing each other as long as it never became a net negative for the orcs it was possible to live well with one another.

Ed didn't want to lay at the mercy of the humans but it was a possible outcome.

'Well, I can probably tip any stalemate towards us' His strength progressed quickly but he would be mobbed and die if he relied on that alone. Fortunately, he also progressed others quickly now.

With his subordinates no longer needing to learn the skills themselves, going from zero to hero was easy. Doing it on a large scale was the only problem.

'Going to this base is hard enough though' He could more or less figure out the location of the base based on two tidbits of information. One, their retreat from the orcs when he wasn't present and two, their large-scale presence in the Blood rain tribe.

It was only more or less because he had only received two locations. If he had three locations he could make it there without a doubt but...

'All I have is their retreat location and potentially their scouting' The fact that scouts made it to Blood rain told Ed they weren't too far but time was pressing. This made him wish he had an autopilot so he could spend some time in the system space.

'Ah, autopilot, wasn't that cart capable of moving?' Ed remembered that it was definitely moving on its own. The two knights seemed to only be pushing it lightly from behind.

'Right, Survivor had it attacked' The cart was broken and wouldn't be able to help him survey the area faster.

'But what if something in it will help me?' Maybe the humans mapped the whole thing or had a compass that pointed to their bed. A weird compass to have but it wasn't impossible, right?

Ed stopped his running and rested atop of a thick forest branch. They were sturdy and safe from predators. Though Ed didn't think there was anything on that floor to predate him.

'Maybe humans…' Ed thought before entering the system. Just like last time, the spirit smith and spirit worker combo was going strong. 

There were a couple of points at which it stopped but Ed had to do no more than feed both spirits new commands. The spirit worker could get new materials and the spirit smith make new things with those materials.

Ed prioritized getting mushrooms now instead of skeletons. He would need a large stock to set up his base when he inevitably turns into a mushroom.

Since everything was in order, Ed made his way into the back area of the storeroom. There was a cart full of things waiting for him there.

Ed didn't hesitate to grab the cart and…

'Spawning on top of a tree seems a bit inane' Ed stopped himself from making a stupid mistake and exited the system space. He dropped to the ground and made sure the coast was clear before returning and grabbing the cart.

'Without embarrassing myself' Ed grabbed the cart and exited the system space. All was good. Except that... the cart actually seemed empty.

Ed did not speak a single word and returned to the system space where he used Area Withdrawal to retrieve the contents of the cart.

'I guess scattering them helps' Without the cart they all sort of formed into a pile. This allowed Ed to immediately notice a couple of interesting devices.

[Mage Hook]

{A hook bolstered by magic capable of pulling even the heaviest of weights towards a target}

'Hm…. This is a familiar…. A grappling hook?' Ed gave the thing a second look and was convinced that the device was indeed a grappling hook. It was for whatever reason magical though. Curious.

[Packaged Fire Mortar]

{A packaged short smoothbore gun that shoots firebombs at high angles.}

Ed didn't have to ask what a mortar was. The mortar was a legendary weapon of the medieval times. Well that didn't actually sound quite right.

'Hm, I know a lot' But Ed praised himself a bit for his wide breadth of knowledge all the same. This knowledge surely came from being proactive in his studies and not from procrastinating and watching videos on the web.

[Magic Ladder]

{A ladder capable of rapidly unfolding itself propelling the person on it up and allowing others to climb after them}

'Another magic item…' Ed was now certain someone had to have trademarked the magic name as a brand. Otherwise, the naming was a bit bland.

'Extendo o ladder! Ok maybe not' Something simple was best. A valuable lesson.

After further investigation into the other devices and contents of the cart, Ed quickly realized most of it could help in one way or another to beat some defensive measures.

The grappling hook was probably enough to take a fully kitted man up a tall wall. After they performed this another could use the ladder, whose height was not mentioned in the assessment, to join this person.

Immediately, you'd have two people defending an easy point of entry without ever fighting over the gate.

'These things are unreliable on their own but they can be something when put together' The mortar was not necessarily better off as a defensive tool. It would help tremendously, but using it to attack was not farfetched.

'With this… Maybe it's possible…' If Ed could figure out the magic hook and replicate it…

'With the mushrooms, I won't even need the ladders' A daring idea but if all went well, the dare would pay off.