Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

In the system space, Ed was holding a semi-transparent brown-gold goo.

[Divine Tree Sap]

{Special Tree Sap capable of preserving anything not excluding mana}

'Wait… So I can store mana in this?' Ed's eyes flashed as he came to an understanding.

'So that's how it is' Ed suspected the elven arrays used this sap but now he was certain!

Holding mana did not sound like much. Weren't the runes doing that already? You could draw up anything with your blood and the possibility of mana coursing through it would exist. Thus, the answer APPEARED to be yes...

All arrays relied a lot on circulation and flow. Runes that were drawn sloppily could cause an explosion depending on the type of array. The sap could help prevent this by preserving the mana in turn allowing for the creation of much bolder runes.

Still, this wasn't the entire answer. While it made sense that sap with the ability to preserve mana could prevent the explosions, it failed to explain how the mana managed to travel past it in the first place.

In essence, the runes were indeed holding mana already but not to the extent of the sap.

'The sap should be too sticky' Naturally, that meant the mana should not be able to pass through it.

'Ah, that's why the ink was a mixture of sap and something else' If the sap was laid on too thickly there would be no array, but combining it with other inks would result in less effective preservation.

That sounded counterintuitive and it was, but even with weaker preservation, this special sap ink would still allow for bolder runes capable of holding multiple or more complex functions.

Either of these would result in both compact and complex arrays.

'So what is this special mix?' Ed imagined that the elves dedicated a lot of research time to improving the travel speed of mana through the array as well as the preserving function of the sap.

Ed needed to get the ingredients for this mix. To make his own from scratch when he knew the elves had a better one he could steal... It felt criminal. A weird notion.

After coming to terms with the need for further research, Ed proceeded to use the fluid extracting function of the branding room to separate the leaves and the sap. After a while, Ed had a large blob of leaf fluid that ended up consolidating into a giant leaf ball.

'You really work wonders system' To Ed, it felt like the system was able to bend the very laws of reality to make materials react in unnatural ways. How could a ball of leaves exist?

Well, after undergoing the fluid extraction method and solidifying with the other leaves, it became a mushy green ball. It served no purposes except to perhaps fuel a fire.

The ball of sap was similar. Were it not for the fact that Ed had the system's forge sparks at his disposal, the hard sap ball would be useless to him.

'Whatever this should be enough' Everything else like automation could be figured out at a later date.

Exiting the system space, Ed did not take the sap ball out with him. He left it in the storeroom for the time being. He was now thinking about how he was to steal the secret formula.

'I don't think it'll be stored in a random bottle in some office safe' If Ed's speculations were correct about the elves, as long as he found their labs he would be set.

'Hm? But why not take the easier way?' Ed suddenly realized he was being a bit dumb. He was overlooking the obvious solution.

'It's a pity though, I don't want to break the array' This solution required removing at least a part of some runes. Ed couldn't bear to do such a thing with his own two hands to the water management array.

Which was precisely why he left the room and went to visit the tree once more. He didn't actually go for the divine tree, however. Ed's goal was the light switch array.

'It's extremely simple so taking a small piece should be a-ok' Ed did as he thought and grabbed a small piece of the array using the area store function of the system. Immediately, the array powered down and the open roof from which light cascaded down began to close.

The mechanical rumble was none of Ed's concern however as he hurried back into the system space.

'My elven body is for decoration at this point' Ed thought wryly. He was about to move into the branding room permanently it seemed.

While there were other times he loitered around in say the forge, the branding room was not a place he normally frequented.

'But that's because I didn't have the opportunity' Now he did. The fluid extraction was the perfect way to reverse engineer the ink formula.

The measurements were the only thing that might turn out to be a bit off, but otherwise he could find out all the materials in the ink.

'Time for round 2' More extraction was afoot.

[<Divine Tree Sap> Material Ink]

[<Divine Tree Sap> Mat...]

That of course meant Ed now had to rely on luck. While extracting continuously until there was nothing was a viable option, it was far too time-consuming. Ed wanted to learn the ingredients at optimal speeds which once again relied on luck.

[<Water> Material Ink]

After a short while, it seemed like the sap liquid was running out.

[<Elven Blood> Material Ink]

'Elven blood…' Ed thought while subconsciously looking at his own body. He was in the system space though so there was nothing to see apart from the white nothingness.

'I can work with this' He would have to stab himself a couple of times but he could and would make do.

After receiving the elven blood material ink, Ed continued to extract things.

[<Lightning Mana> Material Ink]

A tiny blob of lightning mana appeared causing Ed to doubt some of his existence.

'Was that from the recipe or a result of me using area store?' The chances that it came from the area store were higher than it being part of the recipe.

After going through many more extractions, the materials for the ink formula were compiled.

'There wasn't just elven blood…' There was also blood from unknown creatures. There was for example a so-called sand jabber, a Dunefly, as well as an Oasis Chelys.

What those creatures even  were or where they could be found was beyond Ed.

Other findings included a fruit, a so-called divine fruit. One could speculate about the origin of this one, however.

After grueling extraction, Ed had the formula.

'I don't know how it comes together but this is a good starting point' He could try finding the elven labs now. If he found the ingredients there that would still be fine since he could just verify if his little system work was worthwhile by proving the ingredients correct.

As for how to apply this formula… The system obviously couldn't tell him that much. It'd be perfect if Ed managed to find a guide at these hypothetical elven labs. Until he found them he couldn't be certain they existed.

Ed left the system space once more, he just had to find them.

'I wonder how the new skeletons are doing…' Ed was hoping they would find other traces of elves along their journey. Was it wishful thinking?

Ed didn't know, he exited the tree's chamber and began wandering around the palace's many halls.

He hadn't explored everything since he was undergoing a see science diet. He saw science, he ate it.

'Not quite right' But it was true that he jumped onto the first opportunity to study the formations.

As Ed wandered about the palace's hall, he took in the light shining through the highly stylized windows. The shafts of light highlighted all the dust in the air. 

No one had been here for at least a decade. But as if to make up for it, it did look as though Ed would be spending a lot of time here searching.

[Dried Plant]

To speed up the search, Ed would assess each room with a perfunctory glance. He didn't spend more than half a minute in each room.

[Alchemy Equipment]

But even this ended up yielding results. A lab!

Looking around the room more closely, Ed realized that apart from being dusty, the room was also messy. There were lab reports everywhere written on very fine now aged paper.

[Water Preservation Potion (Failed)]

{A failed list of ingredients for what the chemist was hoping would answer the problem of thirst}

The single sentence from the system was enough for Ed to infer what occurred to the elves in this place.

'They were running out of water…' Ed thought as he ducked to pick up another piece of paper.

[Weather (Report)]

{ A bundle of papers containing the weather records of the elven city } 

'The last rain was…' Ed paged through the bundle quickly and found his date. The year was 4521, it rained for a few hours.

'I don't know how the elves keep their dates…' The time the sun and moon set in the dungeon were different from the outside. It wasn't unreasonable for there to be different dates, but 4,000 seemed like a rather high number for a year.

Nonetheless, Ed's focus was not on the date he couldn't decipher, but on the fact that it rained.

'The dungeon can mimic weather then…' The water cycle must exist in the dungeon. Why was it that he hadn't seen rain in the orc plains?