Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

The battle between Samuel and Pyre was ongoing and as it progressed, things looked increasingly grim for Samuel Oakley.

"Damn it…!" He was no longer on the offensive, but on the defensive. The storm he created to put out fires was also slowly eating away at his mana and diverting some of his attention causing him to leave subtle openings.

The fire dragon Pyre would capitalize on any and every mistake regardless of length of time, positioning, or type of mistake. But what could Samuel do? He couldn't stop fighting, there would be no hope for the capital city otherwise.

Fortunately, whenever Samuel fell, the robed man would be present and ready to heal his wounds. They would collect his blood as well but Samuel was not too concerned. He couldn't afford to worry about it.

What he did know was that in exchange for a bit of blood, he could get a second wind. The dragon would suffer some blows every single time and W and Bloody would collect its great blood.

'It's almost too easy' W thought snidely as he absorbed another pool of dragon blood. Not much later, Samuel came crashing down again.

The real surprising part however was that he didn't come crashing down by himself. Pyre had dived after Samuel like a predator chasing after their prey.

"Hahaha, where is the vermin providing you help?" Pyre couldn't help but ask. Mite jumped off the dragon's head.

"I will take care of them" He said as he scanned the surroundings. W was able to hear this from within hiding spots and twitched slightly.

'Damn, they are onto me' W failed to acknowledge that the dragon Pyre was not stupid enough to repeat this little dance with Samuel until W had his fill.

"Rrgh…. Argh!" Samuel who had fallen suddenly slammed his fist down on the ground shaking the building and falling down another level. The debris hid his body from the dragon as well as granted him a real breather.

Not even a minute later, Samuel had escape through a window in the lower floor. He was unfortunately still covered in bloody injuries.

Pyre who had been ticked off by his unyielding spirit and seemingly infinite vitality had a savage smile. The bug was still injured, he could finally finish it for good. He took to the sky chasing after Samuel.

This meant Mite Volcan was left alone in his search for W.  The prince was no easy foe, and it made Samuel feel guilty about getting the mysterious person involved. There was nothing that could be done about it anymore though.

W also shared the sentiment of not wanting to be involved. But since they now had to fight, he would fight.

The fire that danced in the Mite's palm suddenly stopped. The young emperor could feel blood trying to seep out of his body.

"What…?" Mite was caught off guard but he quickly put up his guard. He had reinforced his body with mana and the nefarious manipulation was thwarted.

"Manipulating blood…" The young emperor had dealings with both life and death, but he never encountered something that could control blood. He became curious, but he did not become careless.

He reignited the fire the foul play had extinguished and this time, Mite shot it off into every direction. It was like an explosion of fire had started with him as the center.

Brennan's body was hidden behind a pillar and some debris, he obviously wouldn't be able to avoid this without revealing himself!

'If I can't avoid it then…' The searing hot flames reached his body. The persistent W held in his grunts of pain as his body burned and regenerated.

With all the dragon blood Bloody and he was mixed with, his resistance towards attacks had increased. His regeneration had also seen an abnormal increase.

Still, the improvements were not limited to just this. Mite was surprised to find that even as his relentless flames encroached on every corner of the ruined room, there was no sign of an enemy.

"Huh!?" Mite suddenly felt an overwhelming psychological pressure. It was a familiar one, dragon might! The intimidating nature of a dragon condensed into a skill… it was a skill that could cause the weak willed to die or faint on the spot!

But Mite was a young man that lived alongside a dragon. Apart from the initial shock, the move was mostly ineffective. Best of all, he felt he could more or less sense where the might had originated from.

There was a murderous glint in Mite's eyes, the endless sea of fire ceased and he personally charged towards the suspected pillar. His movements were agile, the hidden attacker wouldn't see them coming!

But the swoosh of a blade told Mite the reality was different.

'I can still see your blood' W thought as he swung his blade down at Mite. He might not be able to manipulate it, but he could still see it. Being sneaky would not work on him, but W still frowned.

'It won't work on you either though huh' Mite dodged the unexpected attack flawlessly, this would be a long battle.

***

In the crypt, Ed was sitting on his throne pensively. He had restocked and rebuilt some outposts, and he had also given the anti-skeletons some new equipment and mental improvements.

'Lofty' The giant skeleton also received some armor which Ed created through amalgamating multiple sets together. But one Lofty was no fun, Ed also made a new lofty he named Goliath.

Goliath was also wearing a make shift armor. Unlike Lofty however, Goliath did not have a mace as a weapon. In fact, Goliath had no weapons at all. It was simply much larger than Lofty itself.

As for why he bothered making this new giant skeleton… it was for another outpost. The variety of skeletons he owned was great enough to form some interesting boss variants.

Speaking of, Survivor which lead the armament skeletons, had survived some various struggles. Ed made sure to properly reward him once more. Survivor was now fully decked out in earthen gear.

Of course, when it came to outposts Hulk could not be left out of the talk. This Bone juggernaut was provided with a couple of bone brutes and given an outpost. Previously, Hulk was left in the main settlement idling away.

Other than these noteworthy things, Ed took care of some small matters. He improved the size of the Temple Outpost as he would call it. As he had made enough skeletons and also prepared unobstructed paths between rooms, there was no substantial difference in defensibility after the expansion.

Ed was thus satisfied with this round of summoning and was not eager to stay for much longer. Still, he wasn't the type to idle about while waiting either. So... what could he be thinking about?

Ed suddenly entered the system space. He was inside the storeroom, this was where he was last at.

'System, can you give me one of the souls I've collected?' Ed wanted to try offering one of them to the dungeon. Ed knew they could be used to purchase upgrades for the system so how much harm could his request do?

[No]

Flat out refusal.

'Wh- Seriously!? So I can't get a soul?' Ed was dumbstruck.

[No]

'...so I can get a soul?' Ed was now confused.

[Yes]

'Great, give me one!' Ed did not appreciate the trolling but as long as he got what he wanted all could be water under the bridge.

[You cannot retrieve collected souls]

'...' Ed was angered, though he chose not to show it.

'Sigh' He could unfortunately understand the mix-up. The system was saying he was capable of acquiring a soul, just not from the ones he collected already. Still, for a thing that was linked to him the misunderstanding seemed impossible.

'You WERE trolling me then, right?' Ed had to ask this but there was no reply from the ever so elusive system. Ed simply shook his head.

'If I can't get a soul that's already collected, I just have to procure one from the adventurers' As to how he might pull that off… the easiest thing to do would be to capture the adventurer alive.

'I can then have a skeleton kill them after I am far enough away' The ultimate goal for Ed was not to acquire a soul, just to offer it to the dungeon. He didn't have to act as a middle man if it wasn't necessary.

'With this, the dungeon shouldn't be against sending me to the front lines' Ed was not afraid of death, but he was still afraid of the death of others. If the dungeon became hesitant to summon him, basically leaving him as a last resort, he might end up learning some information far too late.

Offering it some reaped rewards might make the dungeon less hesitant to summon him since it would know there was something to be gained.

'The idea is good, the method kind of sucks' He needed to capture a living human or multiple of them, and then he also had to walk really far away to prevent soul calling from working.

'How can I make it even easier then?' It would also help if the result was immediate rather than delayed.

Ed stayed on his throne thinking about this for a short while. The dungeon's recent actions showed some semblance of intelligence, Ed could not end up on its bad side under such circumstances.

'It's better to have smart friends than smart enemies' Dumb friends might be even worse than smart enemies though. Ed therefore couldn't tell if this was a blessing or a curse.