Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

The lizardmen and A, who carried Ed, approached the center of the temple carefully. They skipped past some debris and were face to face with a blood soaked pedestal. The architecture was rather simple with the pedestal just being varying hues of blue.

Needless to say, this pedestal was in itself nothing fancy. There were two eye-catching things about it though. Namely, the blood and the letters that adorned its edge. The human alphabet was within Ed and A's reading capabilities.

The language skill was split however meaning that all the Eds out there likely had an incomplete language.

'Fortunately, I still know most of the basics' Not just that, but some words in the temple were older and less used so what he required were the ancient basics not the more modern version.

The language skill was obviously fairly complicated, for something to hold an entire language and parts of its past in what could be said to be a single digit representation was rather amazing.

That aside, A started to read the words under the guidance of Ed.

'Hydra Gauntlet?' The weapon seemed to be named as such. A shuffled around the pedestal multiple times forcing the lizardmen to make way. A good chunk of the lizardmen had lost interest in the center of the temple anyway so they calmly observed the mushroom god having moved kindly out of the way.

'Hm...' Ed was deep in thought.

The details written in the ancient human language were not exactly descriptive. There was no writing standard at the time Ed presumed this was written either so things weren't clearly connected with punctuations.

'This should have definitely been written more than a millennium ago' That was the only thing Ed could ascertain. In the grand scheme of the world and the universe, that actually seemed like such a miniscule number which was funny to consider.

'But it isn't miniscule' For technology, 1000 years was plenty.

To the point that it was surprising that the technology of the ancients was advanced enough to create magical weapons of any sort. Considering technology sped up exponentially, in theory, if the ancients were already that advanced shouldn't the current period be living to a standard not too far off from his previous life?

'Maybe something happened' There was also the fact that Ed had no way to know where exactly these worshipers were from. For starters, there was definitely more than one hydra in the world. For all Ed knew there was a different continent that had spaceships.

'Well, if they had spaceships, not making contact with this continent after all that time is a bit weird but…' Ed was just making speculations in his head, why did they have to be rooted in reality?

Ed had such outlandish thoughts running through his head but soon, they halted. The writings in the pedestal weren't very detailed as previously stated but he was surprised to find… the floor!

'It has letters as well!' It was riddled with debris making it hard to notice at first glance but upon a closer look there were indeed various writings everywhere. Some things were more akin to hieroglyphics than writing though.

The mushroom god's carrier suddenly started to sweep the debris off the floor and the lizardmen found this curious. Nevertheless, to Ed's delight, they decided to follow suit. Lizard see, lizard do or something.

As the rubble was cleaned up more and more letters were revealed. These hieroglyphics as it turned out were numerous.

'I probably can't understand them' They didn't make too much sense as pictures, the reality was he could simply not understand the letters.

Still, from what Ed could understand, his non-existent eyes gleamed.

'This- Is it similar to link?' The writing on the floor told the story of this temple and its people. They who worshiped their great deity were able to receive power through acknowledgement.

The exact method be it sacrifices, offerings, or whatever else was not written in words Ed understood. From what Ed garnered however it was indeed similar to his link power at least functionally.

The hydra could give the worshipers physical or the hydra could give them health.

The worshipers were not satisfied though, they wanted more power and created artifacts carrying the trait of their deity. Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful. The main reason was they were going about it the wrong way.

The hydra gauntlet was not using the power of their faith, but the power of blood which the ancients had theorized were connected. For the modern man, that was a nonsensical belief.

'Then…' The blood on the pedestal suddenly made sense to Ed. The gauntlet bit whoever tried to take it off its pedestal!

'Did they sacrifice someone?' Were the Mensch lizardmen really capable of something like that? Ed couldn't say since he didn't know them personally. Still, the idea was a bit frustrating. Did he have to deal with such stupid lizards?

'Who would willingly equip such a thing?' The biggest trap of these ruins was leaving such a cursed device out in the open. Were the ancients so conniving or was the dungeon the mischievous one?

'Hm… There should still be good stuff here' Although the ancients were going about it the wrong way, the fact that they had a functioning deity and worshipers relationship was interesting.

'I am cheating by using link after all' Whether the ancient hydra had this skill was dubious considering he acquired it through non-conventional means.

'That does merit a question though…' How was a normal person or mob supposed to acquire these skills? There was no method to assess them, would there be a method to acquire them?

The intricacies of the hydra's method were a point worth studying, especially if the ability to do so was somehow linked to mind power.

'Transmission was a mental skill, obviously link is too' The likes of spiritual mark were also mental skill and as it turns out, spiritual mark uses mind power.

'Does link use mind power?' The easiest way to check was to enter the system space and check his mental status.

[Name: Edwa&!]

Type: Level 8 Consciousness.

Health: 598/598

Mind: 3/5

Bodies: Skeleton, Orc, Mushroom

~Skills~

[Link lvl. 0] -Show-

[Fortified Mind lvl. 1] -Show-

[Assessment lvl. 1] -Show-

[Assimilation lvl. 7] -Show-

[Thought Manifestation lvl. 1] -Show-

[Language lvl. 1] -Show-

[System Link lvl. 6] -Show-

[Eloquence lvl. 4] -Show-

[Sixth Sense lvl. 0] -Show-

[Body Recollection lvl. 2] -Show-

[Spiritual Mark lvl. 0] -Show-

'Huh!?' Where did Ed get those new points from?

'I should make a habit out of accessing my status more often…' He would go in and out of the system space so often yet he would rarely check his status. He remembered a day when it was an almost every day thing.

'I guess I've become more numb to the situation' Ed thought reminiscing on the naivety of his youth. He was most definitely not that naive anymore and for sure the time period was long enough to reminisce so fondly.

'Anyway, there is mind being used up' That might mean that link did use mind. The only thing that remained a mystery was what exactly this power was.

It was used by thought manifestation, it was used by spiritual mark, and there was reason to believe it was used by the link skill.

'Not just that but it is interchangeable with the consciousness health in my status' Was it some sort of manifestation of thought? The literal naming of one of his skills?

'Thought manifestation was a skill I learned due to being a consciousness being...' It was most likely a skill unique to consciousness beings. The ability to sacrifice their own being to affect reality… a hydra wouldn't be able to do that.

After pondering for a short while in the system space, Ed believed he could surmise his thoughts.

'Mind had to be the power to manipulate or affect reality using one's thoughts, will, or intent' Only beings with a strong consciousness or soul would be able to harness it. That was probably why he was not earning any mind until now that his level was more mature.

'It's weird to put beings into levels to begin with' That was unless the levels were swapped for stages of growth.

Even after deciphering all of these things though the big question still remained.

'How do you increase your being, will, or intent?' Was his deduction wrong? Or was he missing something?

His first instance of earning mind was a memorable one. He witnessed what he could only assume was centuries of growth for the orcs.

'It was a spectacle' But it was also an experience. For some, it might be a life-changing experience. To witness the rise and fall of many civilizations… not many could say they had done such a thing.

'I might have killed one of the few' The sage of space with his cockroach bloodline was the only that came to mind.

A being that witnessed this… wouldn't they mature? Would it not temper their will?

'The intent is still dubious' It was also possible Ed was stretching the truth but… He felt a sense of pride. He might have cracked it, and even if he hadn't, he was definitely close.

Ed had to thank the ancient human civilizations for he was one step closer to understanding the makeup of the world he was now in.. He was one step closer to uncovering a foundational secret.