Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

Uniting all the floors was the ideal solution to Ed's woes or at least that was the best he was able to come up with. Managing the adventurers would be that much easier if all the mobs were secretly leading them by the nose.

Thinking about the future Ed could not help but smile inwardly. The adventurers were about to have an awful time! This of course meant Ed had to hurry and give them a helping hand. He had to immediately put forth the plan to meet up with W!

'I now know what has occurred in my slumber' Ed said with a mystifying almighty tone. Var Agus trembled after hearing this. It would seem the little guardian was also a part of the great mushroom deity!

Before Var Agus knew it he ended up adding great to the mushroom deity's name! The fact that Ed could split and assimilate parts of himself was intimidating so it was reasonable. But the most fearsome part were the implications this ability brought. He was simply unkillable!

'I am very sorry your great divinity!' Var Agus roared in his mind. How could his paltry efforts be worth lauding? To help the mushroom deity…? What a joke!

'Don't apologize, be better' Ed replied causing Var Agus to shake vigorously in fright.

'...is what I'd say if you needed to apologize' But fortunately for Var Agus, Ed was only joking. 

Still, Var Agus could not find the humor. He was drenched in cold sweat and only let out a sigh of relief after coming to terms with the fact that the great deity just had a frightening sense of humor.

'Instead I need your help' Ed said before starting to transmit his instructions.

What Ed wanted Var to arrange some divine blood warriors to escort him to the orc plains. He made sure to explain his intention, to visit the orcs, and he showed Var Agus why they needed to do so.

[Link is on cooldown]

Ed managed this through the link's skill especial capabilities. Var Agus' mind was opened to a brand-new world through it.

The new things he saw where crazy to the point that he was put in a trance. What Ed first showed him was the verdant trees and fields followed by the thriving community of orcs. It went from Ed's first community with Vorgarag to the current Sanctuary.

These images were put in chronological order causing Var Agus to notice something. The mushroom deity was not a mushroom deity.

The mushroom deity was… they were a god! While they did use god and deity interchangeably he meant a real almighty god!

How else could the mushroom god offer such a perspective? How else could they seem so all knowing and mighty? How else could they be immortal!?!?

Everything added up in Var Agus' mind and his enthusiasm soared. While he didn't know why this godly figure seemed so pitiful at the moment, he knew that with its help his own tribe could bask in brilliance.

With this new knowledge, Var Agus was more than willing to help Ed reach the orc plains. He would lose nothing from this!

'But your great divinity, how about I go along too?' Var Agus did not think he would be displaying enough sincerity if he didn't guard the mushroom deity, no, great god too!

Plus the divine blood warriors might be trustworthy, but they didn't yet understand the scale of the great god's power! They might secretly offend or cause the great god to look down on their tribe and their species as a whole. That could not be allowed!

'No, stay and manage things' Ed refused to let him go however no matter how Var Agus might plead. If Var Agus wanted to solidify his position as leader, he needed to make the most of the instances in which he was absent just as he had now.

'You have proven yourself to be great at your job' While the incident with the living weapon was a potentially avoidable tragedy, Var Agus handled the aftermath cleanly.

He created separate groups of lizardmen to continue hunting down remnants of the Mensch tribe and attempted to assimilate them into part of his own. There were successes and failures that created casualties but the tribe still grew.

The city in the caverns was expanded and made far more liveable but the tribes outside were not forsaken. The former refugee tribe leaders received back their land under the condition that they maintained friendly relations.

As Var Agus had proven himself to be a good leader, and the mushroom god was backing him, the former refugees did not even think to make themselves an enemy.

While these few sentences greatly simplified everything, there was a lot of effort and skills that went into dividing the territory and maintaining the loyalty or friendship of the other lizardmen.

'Your words are too great for me!' Var Agus transmitted respectfully secretly overjoyed.

'Enough of that, please make the arrangements' Since Ed no longer had transmission and forming links with everyone was seemingly impossible he needed Var to hurry and do his job.

'The faster I meet with W, the fewer variables there are' If there was one thing Ed despised it was math with too many variables. At some point it stopped being a mathematical equation and instead a confusing mess of a puzzle!

Var Agus let out some more words of praise and reverence before scurrying off hurriedly. Ed watched this through the sentry shrooms but he also made sure to pay attention to other matters.

'Let's clean up the mushroom field' The current field had grown wildly without his consent, cleaning it up was just a matter of storing some mushrooms in the system.

'You can never have enough magic mushrooms' A wiseman must have said something along those lines before.

***

Far away out in the sea, there was a misty island and the silhouette of a man at its dock. He looked deep into the mist with a delighted smile.

"Finally…!" He said with hands stretched. Per the will of his master, he needed to venture out and explore the world to learn new theories and spells. He naturally had acquiesced at the time, and even up until this point he had not given up on this.

But one thing he never told his master was that part of the reason why he agreed to part from him was because he had a goal of his own. That goal was to find the birthplace of his master.

Whether he did it out of a sense of curiosity or a sense of reverence for his master was unknown. He himself had yet to figure it out, but he could guarantee there could very well be a mix of both.

Epoch.

There was an era in which the uttering of this word caused the hearts of many to shudder. That was because then the word was often used in the context of the Epoch family.

They were a family of powerful genius magicians all specializing in the element of space or other more arcane elements.

After searching far and wide, he, Moriel, disciple of the great sage of space, found the island of the Epoch family.

He flew over the monster infested sea, and ventured over the dungeon rich ocean, before finally finding the mystic island of legends, or more specifically of the legend Marcus Epoch.

Moriel's figure disappeared into the mist. He activated his magic and surveyed his surroundings.

Through the magic he could see collapsed stone buildings and wild grass that grew tall and fearsome. Within the second however, the environment suddenly shifted.

Moriel's figure teleported higher up into the sky.

"How shrewd" An abandoned island once belonging to a powerhouse family… if there weren't high-level monsters in such a place, where else would they go?

The ground which he had been walking on mere moments ago had been swallowed up by the very ground itself. Did that even make any sense?

Most would think not but a the fearsome earthen mouth closed shut before growing into the size of a small hill. The hill then transformed into a humanoid shape. It let out a frightening roar that spread through the entire east side of the island and obviously reached the ears of Moriel.

"An elemental" In places where abundant mana existed, it was said that the elements themselves could come to life. Through his journey's Moriel had confirmed this to be true.

"You are not my match" As the best disciple of the sage of space, he was already close to the level of his master at the young age of 40. For magicians, especially those of the space element, such an age was a trifling number.

The space around the golem suddenly split into half, the elemental was cleanly sliced at the core. Yes, the core. 

The elements did not come to life on their own under normal circumstances. There still needed to be a core. If there wasn't one the elemental could not have a consciousness.

The elemental turned into a mound of sandy ground, Moriel was confident of his victory. But before he could put on a smug smile, the ground began to reform.

"Huh?" The mound of dirt regained its humanoid shape and the beast took on a ferocious look.

"This pile of dirt isn't a monster then" It had to be controlled by someone or something. This signaled one thing...

Moriel's journey was getting exciting, the thrill of adventure and discovery… Moriel had learned his master made the right call in sending him out many years ago.

Perhaps that knowledge was what brought Moriel to his master's former family. So many years had passed since he last saw him…

As soon as he explored this place, he would visit his master and pay his respects. It was about time.