Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

In a more distant location, Arbor Town was bustling to the point of being inundated with activity. That seemed contrary to the expectations of the Freedom Union, but that was because Jasmine committed one oversight. The time it might take for Brennan Bosque's to be fulfilled was greatly reduced because...

He was the king.

It was one thing to act under orders of the royal family and another to personally escort the king to his throne. The benefits of the latter coupled with the already handsome pay… Some adventurers started advertising and advocating the request, they wanted to complete it as quickly as possible.

Not even a week passed and the adventurers of peak C-class or B-class numbered 157. If Brennan stayed for a week… who knew, maybe the number would double or even triple!

Yet, in front of a mirror, Brennan Bosque was touching up his regal look. He was getting ready to set off towards the capital. There were many reasons for this, but the main one was impatience.

Brennan could not wait longer for more adventurers to gather. The situation at the capital was risky and since the Duke was at least expressing support for the Bosque royal family on the surface some danger was mitigated and other things facilitated.

Plus, a larger adventurer army would move significantly slower than a smaller sized army. Brennan was better off hiring them in waves in that situation.

"Let's go" Brennan told Bloody who was sitting lazily by a window sill, it was taking in the sunlight that shone through. Bloody was reluctant to part away from the window where it could see bags of blood pass by in droves, but…

'Get in here' With the word of W it had no choice but to slither over to Brennan and jump atop him.

"WAWRAAWRGHAW" Brennan screamed a warbled scream as Bloody entered through his every orifice back into his body. He sounded like a man drowning in dry land.

After a very uncomfortable and disgusted few seconds, Brennan managed to regain his composure.

"That'll never be a pleasant experience, tsk" Brennan said complaining. If it weren't for the fact that his body felt less numb in some places with the absence of Bloody, he wouldn't dare let it out.

He took the risk of being found out, and it also felt horrible. Apart from having some brief comfort, there were no upsides.

"Your Majesty, the adventurers are waiting" A voice came from outside. It was the voice of Stuart who had been formally declared the leader of the company. It was an honor bestowed to him due to his great job at managing the kings affairs. Yes, it was a reward for being a good secretary.

"I'm coming out" Brennan said, shrugging off any remnant discomfort. He was ready to leave, but actually first he needed to ask for one thing from the monster inside him.

"Hey, give me back my eye and ear" Brennan said in a hushed tone.

'If I do that, I won't be able to protect you' W responded without missing a beat.

Brennan frowned.

"Keep the ear, give me the eye" Brennan said simply not thinking too deep into it. He figured that W would know to take back control of vision if he heard him screaming for help.

W didn't want to lose sight, but he accepted the compromise. Farming enmity from Brennan gained him no benefits.

"Thank you" Brennan said now seeing a clearer picture of the inn room.

He then opened the door and closed it on the way out.

"Your Majesty" Stuart said bowing respectfully.

"Let's go" Brennan said to Stuart who followed behind quietly. They were going to rile up the adventurers and begin their long trek towards the capital.

***

Back in the mushroom caverns, a lecture via transmission had just finished. He was satisfied with the learning speed of the 10 lizardmen Var Agus sent over.

'Transmission might not be instruction, but it is still very helpful' The instruction skill could help the lizardmen retain and digest the knowledge but as it turned out, he didn't get instruction again.

'Is it such a tricky skill to acquire?' Or is it possible that the system perks are no longer activating?' Ed felt that the former was not likely, but that only left the latter option, and he didn't know what to think about that.

'Is this the price for 24/7 system space access?' If it was… Ed had to say it was worth it. That being said, he knew it couldn't be true.

'The conditions must have become more stringent is all' After Ed waved goodbye to these fleeting thoughts, he also waved goodbye to the lizardmen. He pulled it off using a wave shroom.

Ed combined the screech skill with a special mushroom cap to have the sound waves affect the cap in a way that they were visible. The purpose? Purely testing. The current version of the sound wave mushrooms brought him no foreseeable benefits.

But there was something that did bring him benefits. That was the blood he left to clot last time. The living room made quick work of the bloody containers. The clotted blood was ready to host consciousnesses.

'It was just that with the sudden appearance of the lizardmen I didn't have the time…' The lizardmen had appeared rather hurriedly to Ed's surprise. But this surprise was small compared to the surprise of finding out why they were rushing over.

They were eager! It wasn't because they wanted to learn a new language, though the lizardmen surely appreciated the gesture, it was because they could earn his spiritual mark.

While the lizardmen didn't know what receiving a divine being's mark meant, they were already imagining all sorts of crazy fantasies. They were imagining borrowing Ed's power and… wait what power did a mushroom have again?

Apparently their imagination was much greater than Ed as though he was indeed very powerful, they had only touched upon a small part of his arsenal.

One of Ed's powers they failed to witness was what Ed was doing right now. He was bringing blood to life at that very moment.

Soon, amidst the plantations of primarily gray mushrooms, red blobs appeared to squirm and trash in tandem. They were coming to life!

'You are all the start of new bloodlines' Ed transmitted to the blood clots who were going to start wandering aimlessly.

The total amount of containers was about six, since some blood was either low in number or not worth Ed's time. The ones he picked were therefore ultimately the following:

'Goblin, magic mole, Blood bat, Shadow snake, Land Salmon, and finally Human' The strongest of these bloodlines would have to be the human but that was just an opinion and yet to be seen.

'I won't give them any skills for now' Ed needed to know if they would develop blood integration on their own or if they would need an extra boost.

'Come to think of it, I can definitely take that from Bloody' Distributing it to all sorts of creatures might be an interesting challenge, but Ed also didn't want to dwindle or weaken Bloody in any way. He could only hope these new clots were indeed not disappointments.

The blood clots were processing all of Ed's words thanks to the transmission, but they still felt lost and confused. Ed was immediately starting to feel that giving them no skills might end up being a mistake if he intended to let them act freely.

'No, let's not do that' He wouldn't give them skills but he also wouldn't set them free. Ed came up with a new plan.

Much later, the lizardmen came back for round 2. The break they took was brief and unexpectedly, this short period was enough for six red blobs to be waiting for them.

'We will be doing a competition, the best gets a portion of my strength' Ed transmitted to the absentminded lizardmen. Why were there red blobs? It didn't matter anymore! 

<" What kind of competition!!!?>" One of the lizardmen asked excitedly. This particular lizardman had forgotten their spear, but they were confident even with their barehanded skills.

<" Hehehe"> Another lizardman laughed mockingly. It could read the expression of the brute next to it. Unfortunately, victory was not to be theirs. They were the one that would-!

'A language comprehension competition with six victors' Ed continued to transmit, causing some lizardmen to fall to their knees looking up at the cave ceiling in defeat.

<" I feel scammed…"> Someone muttered. Why did a test to get strength require language comprehension?

Ed saw their reactions and couldn't help but feel some empathy towards the lizardmen. But that didn't mean he let them off the hook.

'Let's start' The way Ed taught the language was by transmitting words and their intended use. The lizardmen were to then use them in a coherent sentence.

They were obviously not native speakers, so more often than not the lizardmen's words were entirely wrong, but…! As long as they demonstrated understanding, Ed would give them a pass.

The competition started and at the end, the rankings were decided by how many words the lizardmen comprehended. This was a fair way to rank it, but it came with a surprising drawback.

'Too many ties' The word comprehension match ended up going into overtime and ultimately Ed didn't know if the participants were all too stupid, or too smart.

'The latter, yes the latter' Ed chanted inwardly as the 3rd overtime match was getting underway.