Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

There was only one way to find an answer to any question.

Experiment.

The scientific procedure of discovery.

'Dakgu, bring the human closer to me' Ed transmitted to Dakgu who quietly abided.

Dakgu and the girl stepped forward. Well no, in actuality Dakgu dragged her over. She was still shell shocked by the fact that dozens of tiny monsters entered her body and could kill her at on a whim. In such a state she couldn't walk on her own two feet.

Yoashk, or rather A, who held up Ed also grew closer to Dakgu and both stood there awkwardly as Ed fiddled with the link skill.

No matter how he fiddled with it however, the link wouldn't activate.

[<Link> is still on cooldown]

Ed instead received a disappointing prompt.

'It looks like breaking a bond puts the skill in a state of temporary sleep' Ed could verify this by quickly trying to send some vitality over to the divine sap tree, Azalia.

…

That attempt failed as well.

It was entirely possible that the link skill could not work across floors but Ed could still feel the links he had with Var Agus and the tree so that was highly unlikely. Even then, trying to use the skill on Var Agus still failed and Ed was certain he had placed a spiritual mark on him before.

'Indeed, breaking bonds is not a good idea' He couldn't make a habit of it, not that he planned to it. But if he did intend to make a habit of it, he first needed to know how long the skill would take to recover from the cooldown. 

This meant Ed's questions were left without answers, and that he was left with no other choice.

'Dakgu, accommodate her on your ride and bring her back to Sanctuary with us' Ed did not mind bringing her along for a bit. It could help enlighten the girl and maybe even help her form a more friendly opinion of monsters.

"I will definitely do that Ed!" Dakgu shouted resolutely.

Dakgu got to it as Ed focused on placing spiritual marks on the girl and the tiny blood clots. If Ed really wanted the adventurer, Kimani, to form a positive opinion of monsters she had to have freedom. In order to give her that freedom, Ed needed to make sure that she wouldn't run.

With the spiritual mark, on the odd chance the adventurer thought she had any escape, Ed could always track her down. The consequences for such an action wouldn't be simple though so Ed hoped she was prudent.

Finally, everything that needed to be done in the orc plains was done. The elite orcs now had blood clots slowly growing inside them strengthening the orcs regenerative capabilities and vitality.

The girl Kimani was also undergoing the same process at a similar rate to the orcs. Ed figured it might be slightly accelerated compared to the others but it couldn't be exponentially faster. Otherwise, the girl would be sucked dry.

Knowing that everything was settled, Ed returned to the system space. Dakgu, Gurln, and Sharog could handle any small inconveniences that might occur during the trip.

'Now let's see…' Ed wanted to create a skill ink for one of his skills so he first needed to split himself.

Ed thus headed for the system's forge where he reluctantly tossed himself into the forge again.

'System! Please make multiple small splits!'  Ed roared at the system while in excruciating pain. The white flames continued to melt away at his thoughts all the while.

Since Ed needed just one level of one of his skills, making small splits was in his best interests. After what felt like another eternity, small wisps started to split off from Ed.

They floated out of the forge right alongside Ed himself.

[Ed (Wisp)]

[Ed (Wisp)]

[Ed (Wis...]

[Ed (W...]

[Ed...]

Multiple Ed wisps were ready to be prodded and experimented on. Ed wanted to suffer as little loss as possible however so he first made sure to transmit something to them.

'If you have the assimilation skill, step forward' If none of them received it Ed would just go for another skill.

2 wisps ended up stepping forward much to Ed's surprise.

'Ok… If you only have the assimilation skill step forward...' Ed decided to narrow down his choices as much as possible. A controlled experiment needed strict control over all the variables after all. His question ended up being pointless however as both of the wisps stepped forward.

'Oh, which will be the lucky Ed then I wonder' Ed mused to himself before leaving the forge room with his entourage of Eds.

Along the way, he began to think about what he could do with the other Eds. The system might have made a little too many Eds all things considered.

As Ed's mind continued using the word Ed, Ed came to believe Ed was starting to lose Eds meaning.

But before he could have a Edclear meltdown, the Eds were already in the branding room just waiting for the magic to happen.

'One of you two get on the machine' The Eds had to know how to use the extractor and indeed they did. Both Eds actually tried to jump onto the machine which was something Ed was not Edxpecting.

Ed quickly settled their dispute and prompted the system to begin the extraction process.

[Are you sure? Y/N]

'Hm?' A weird prompt appeared.

'What are the risks?' Ed wondered. If it was just the possibility of losing a level then… He did account for that already. Ed didn't know if he should trust that was all the system was afraid of though…

Well, losing a level was still a rather hefty punishment…

'Let's reconsider' Ed then got the assimilation wisp to step down and instead asked for an eloquence Ed wisp to step up. Luckily there was one and this Ed was just as obedient and lovely as the other Eds.

[Are you sure? Y/N]

'I guess it's just bound to happen anyway… Go ahead' Since it was eloquence Ed could take the risk.

The extractor soon activated, it prodded the small wisp and began extracting fluid at a record-breaking slow pace.

'Hmm…' That was a bizarre occurrence. Why would the extractor work so slowly when it came to a wisp of himself?

There were many reasons why. Maybe the system was just being more careful since it was handling Ed instead of some random consciousness. The problem was that Ed's outlook of the system was sort of a perfect machine.

The system could not make human errors and therefore didn't need to be any faster or slower with what was just another consciousness.

'Instead…' If the system was being more careful, it meant that this wasn't just another consciousness. Basically, the material this time was different.

It was either more fragile, meaning it had to be more careful in spite of its mechanical prowess, or it was tougher… if it was tougher it wasn't that it didn't want to go faster but that it couldn't.

These observations were interesting but they weren't of any real help. Ed could only hope that the assessment of the end result would offer some real insights.

Following a grueling wait, the system finally delivered an end result.

[<(Edwa&!) Eloquence lvl. 0>]

{ Consciousness matter of the being Edwa&! }

'This… is disappointing' The assessment only told him the matter belonged to him but it didn't at all explain what it was. It even reverted to referring to him as Edwa&! instead of Ed.

'Is this a skill ink?' The substance did appear to be inky at first glance but unlike the other skill inks, this one was almost brilliant. A beautiful white? It was the system's favorite color was all Ed could ascertain.

Ed then frowned thinking about the consciousnesses.

'If it is true that this is a different material…' Would the branding still work? Ed was doubtful that it was the case.

'Let's hope the consciousnesses can bear it then' Ed planned to brand this onto the consciousness for Sharog's blood clot. Maybe eloquence would it allow it to speak? That was just how valuable his experience was.

'Should I try another skill?' Or maybe he should try branding the eloquence back onto the wisp and checking if the skill's level was affected. Truthfully the only way to get this done was to merge with the wisp first.

'Let's do that after all' Ed looked at the branding machine. This printing press like device was ready to flatten any of the Ed wisps without problem.

'Right, maybe I should use it on a different Ed wisp' He could see if the other Ed wisps were able to completely absorb it or if only the original would.

Ed grabbed the floating divine looking matter and inserted it into the branding machine. There was some ink from other consciousnesses already in there. Admittedly that ink looked murky in comparison to his own.

'Let's hope it works the same' Ed said inwardly as he cleaned up the branding machine and prepared it.

'Someone with another less useful skill step on board' Practically all of Ed's skills were useful after Eloquence so it was a hard call for the Ed wisps to make.

A body recollection wisp eventually entered the branding machine. This valiant Ed was ready to accept his fate, and Ed was ready to observe this process.