Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

Back at the elven city, Ed was currently inscribing runes down on the floor. His hands worked swiftly and efficiently.

[Formationist has leveled up]

The main reason why Ed could progress so quickly was that he was just creating a much larger version of the prototype assisted growth array. That being the case, his motor skills could only continue to improve as he drew more and more on the floor.

[Dexterity + 1]

'Huh…?' Ed's hand stopped the moment he felt his fingers hasten and took notice of a rare notification. The level up was fine and dandy but why the sudden increase in attribute?

'It's been a really long time since my attributes have gone up by themselves…' There was something suspicious about that.

'I wonder if there is some sort of skill at play…' Ed muttered inwardly. He could only think of a few culprits the main one being assimilation but at the same time assimilation was the most unlikely.

In fact, Ed suspected that part of the reason why his attributes weren't going up naturally was because of his constant assimilation. This was not a new thought either, he had resigned himself to that quite a long time ago. The skill had followed him for a long time and natural attribute gains certainly had not.

That said... if there was indeed a skill that could help lessen this side effect in his status... Ed could narrow down his choices to a couple.

'Doing it by body instantly leaves me with one elven skill and just my consciousness skills as candidates…' Out of all his consciousness skills there were very few with the potential to be the culprits.

A few candidates might be thought manifestation, which usually left a notice of its activation, and assimilation which Ed had already ruled out, and lastly body recollection…? 

Needless to say, the reason could NOT be his consciousness skills.

'Status' That meant that the choice was obvious.

[Name: Edwa&!]

Type: Elf (Arid)

Health: 680/680 (!)

Mana: 207/207 (!)

Vitality: 4 (!)

Strength: 3 (!)

Agility: 5 (!)

Constitution: 3 (!)

Dexterity: 2 (!)

~Skills~

[Survivalist lvl. 0]

{ You have a knack for adaptation and survival }

[Formationist lvl. 6] (!)

Survivalist was the only skill that could give him attributes and looking at the skill's definition again, it wasn't impossible.

'A knack and adaptation for survival…' Put another way, adapting could mean adjusting to fit the situation. In that case, if one constantly performed an action growing accustomed to it was natural.

'I'd say the skill's name is a bit misleading…' It was true that gaining attributes would help survival but Ed felt as though he had been misled up to this point.

'Still, it's a good skill' Ed was now made to wonder if the arid elves outside also had that skill. If they did, they might not be useless at all. It would imply that they could grow rapidly and adjust to any future position he gave them.

'Of course, I can't expect their skills to be as effective as mine…' If they did have the survivalist skill since they didn't have a system the gains might be a lot more subtle.

Not subtle to the point of being unnoticeable, but subtle to the point that the elves could break the balance of any ecosystem they were tossed into.

'Eh, why speculate?' Looking up at the ceiling of Azalia's chamber would allow one to see the darkening sky. Ed could tell that night was now just a few minutes away.

'Let's check on them' Ed stored away his brush and stood up off the ground.

'Azalia, thanks for your help. I will be back shortly' Ed transmitted to the tree before dashing off in a hurry. He didn't want the tree to throw a tantrum so he felt that leaving quickly would leave her too dumbfounded to send a message through their link.

After skipping and weaving past many of the elven city's abandoned building Ed finally caught sight of the city walls and atop it, he saw numerous elves.

"Looks like they followed through" Ed murmured to himself before jumping over a water canal and climbing the city wall directly. His actions were graceful and surprising.

"Woah!" "Wha-" "AH!" Surprising translated to horrifying for the elves, however. Ed's nimble movements allowed him to sneak up on them and fall suddenly amidst their group. Despite Ed's praiseworthy movements, all the elves shrunk back and immediately distanced themselves from him forming a circle.

"Do I have some sort of terror radius…" Ed complained silently noting how perfectly they distanced themselves from him.

Following his silent complaint, there was stillness. The sun had set, there was now only the cold night wind and the glittering stars in the sky above to indicate time was still flowing smoothly.

Ed had to break the ice.

"Hm… Let's see" Ed said audibly before walking over to the outside edge of the wall. He peered down and noticed no one was left behind.

"Wow, it seems you got everyone up here" The only thing that remained outside the wall were some undead that weren't able to climb up.

The elves sighed in relief.

Ed smiled subtly and then hopped off the wall to retrieve his undead. This was just a short trip and it didn't take long before Ed was back atop the wall.

"Now that I've done that… It's time to check if anyone has died" Ed said causing the elves to stiffen in waves. It was as if a jolting shock spread through them and caused them all to visibly flinch.

"Oh? Why the extreme response?" It didn't occur to Ed that any time he mentioned death the elves felt they would be getting killed.

Anyway, the only way for Ed to verify if anyone had died was to enter the system space. Ed closed his eyes and prepared himself to look for any elven consciousness.

'While the system can't help me with that I should be able to tell at a glance…' The consciousnesses of all species were different in size and at times clarity. While Ed wasn't sure what clarity indicated he did know that the bigger consciousnesses usually belonged to the smarter or better ones.

An elven consciousness would definitely look large and shine brightly amidst the sea of lizardmen, orcs, goblins, and lowly bugs or monstrous animals that was the spirit room.

Upon entering the spirit room, Ed looked up at the swirling cloud ceiling. To be exact he was looking around the center of the room where the consciousnesses would be pulled in or out of. Seeing nothing there, he started to look at other parts of the room.

Unfortunately, even after a good minute of searching he found nothing that met his expectations of an elven consciousness.

'Weird…' Thanks to their extreme response Ed thought that the system's soul calling sub-skill would capture at least one death. Was the radius too large? He couldn't say for certain.

'I should have counted them when I had the chance' The only thing Ed bothered to do was estimate their numbers to a good hundred. Putting them into a row of lines and doing some basic multiplication shouldn't have been too difficult.

Finding nothing, Ed quickly returned from the system space and opened his eyes. He was still standing tall and the elves were still rooted to their spots right outside of Ed's terror radius.

"Looks like you guys thought you could fool me" Ed said to the elves with a smile.

"Wh- What?!" An elf exclaimed.

"Stop joking! What could we be fooling you with!?" Riniya's uncle Alolvi shouted.

"Oh? So you think I didn't notice?" Ed said to them. The elves looked at one another with uncertainty and fright.

"Let me give you a hint" Ed said to Alolvi who was holding his sword tightly.

"Where did you get the strength to hold that blade?" Ed asked the arid warrior.

"The strength to-?" Alolvi was confused by the question before his eyes widened.

"Did I not say you couldn't wander around? Shouldn't you all be thirsty and starving right now?" Ed elaborated on what he was talking about and the elves all became pale. They were supposed to wait starving and thirsty?!?

"What? Don't give me that look, it was just until sundown." Ed said with a wronged voice.

Alolvi formed his free hand into a fist and clenched it. The other elders in the crowd did the same and wondered if this was some sort of divine punishment. They couldn't fathom how they came across this demon, there to be some form of divine interference! What god was punishing them?!

Apparently the god was Ed.

"How should I punish you guys?" The elves had gone down to the canal to get water despite his orders to not wander around. Would they still have any respect for him if he didn't punish them here?

The atmosphere was tense. Beads of sweat formed on the elves once again telling Ed how well they hydrated themselves. This reaffirmed it… If Ed didn't punish them they wouldn't have any respect for him!

"I've decided! You guys will go down the wall and…!" Ed said cutting himself off to add suspense.

"Pick a home to sleep in! It's pretty dark" Ed said with a devilish smile.

"Ah…" "What…" "You- What?" The elves who were caught up in the suspense were all left confused. Their thoughts were scattered and they couldn't come up with any explanation for the current turn of events.

The reality was that Ed didn't want to punish them for this slight. The elves already had no respect towards him, he'd be fooling himself if he thought that they did. The only thing they felt was fear.

But while fear was a legitimate way to rule, it wasn't absolute.

Not just that, but the purpose of this exercise was to test their civility. The willingness to risk their lives to get water for the rest was in a way, a secret passing method.