Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

Ed didn't dally too much, he assented to the advancement quickly and anxiously awaited good results.

'I wonder what paths I will get' Ed was curious about the multiple roads a hoarding skill could take but unfortunately it seemed that the system was not in the mood to give him a boost.

[<Hoarding lvl. 9> has advanced to <Collector lvl. 0>]

The hoarding skill leveled up on its lonesome to the skill called collector. The name seemed fitting but Ed was a bit disappointed by the potential usefulness of such a skill. Hoarding wasn't very useful but it at least sounded umm... interesting...

Collector, on the other hand, Ed supposed was a cool hobby. Would he be more enthusiastic about his hoards and know more about them?

'Let's see the description…' Ed thought and soon after a window popped out before him in response.

[Collector lvl. 0]

{Passive: Your ability to collect, organize, and preserve items is boosted

Active: Temporarily restore a collected item to its peak state}

'Oh?' Ed's interest was immediately piqued by the skill's details. While the passive ability was in essence just hoarding with a more refined look the active was undoubtedly useful.

'It'll depend heavily on its limitations' Was the restoration a complete restoration? How long ago could the sword have waned from its peak state for the skill to still be effective? How long did the restoration last?

The word temporary left much to the imagination and needed much testing too. Ed didn't know if it was only listed as temporary since it would depend on the equipment's rank or if there were any other factors to consider.

'That sounds right' But to test it, Ed decided to find one of the regular white skeletons in the crypt. They all carried around rusty swords which would be a perfect test target.

Ed walked away from the temple and ran outside the outpost's walls. He walked around for a few minutes before finding a semi-recently spawned group of skeletons. In this group, there were a few with a rusty sword and another with a rusty shield.

'Let's grab this' Ed decided to restore the sword instead of the rusty shield, however. He figured the swordsmanship skill would give him some expertise when it came to appraising swords which would be useful in this case.

[Restoration Failed]

Reality diverged from his imagination and Ed was stunned to find that to be the case.

'No way, could it be...? Is this rusty sword already too high a rank for my skill!?!' Ed figured that no matter how high rank the equipment was he could at least see it being restored for a second but… failed?!?

Since the sword failed, Ed eyed the skeleton with the shield and instructed them to hand it over. They did so with haste and Ed attempted to restore the shield as well while futilely hoping for a different result.

[Restoration Failed]

'...is this useless?' Why add an active skill that couldn't be used.

'Sigh… Unless these are already at their peak state' Ed knew that the skill couldn't have a useless active mode so the only explanation for the failure was that the items he tried to restore were already at their peak.

'I guess the dungeon doesn't rust perfectly good swords for use' Though it begged the question of why it would give swords to its skeletons with that aesthetic to begin with. Was the reason possibly to fool adventurers into underestimating their foes?

Ed knew first hand that the swords actually did kinda suck, they were at most rather sturdy so maybe it was to let the adventurers know it too.

'Never mind, let's not dwell on it' He had a lot of broken items back at the temple. Ed didn't use the active on the broken items at first since he couldn't be certain if there would be any side effects to the restoration. 

Since Ed wouldn't be using those items, this meant he had dreams of the skeletons being able to restore every single one to their peak or give them an even greater purpose. This dream was a stupid dream since the skeletons couldn't possibly use all that equipment restored or not.

'Sigh… Must be a collector/hoarder side effect' Ed couldn't bear to waste a good item!

Still, Ed hurried back to the storeroom and promptly used the restoration of the skill on a chipped sword.

Immediately after the skill activated, the sword shone with a brief light before emerging with a new appearance. 

The sword which had been roughened up by the earthquake now looked sleek and clean. The edge appeared sharp and endearing, at least from the perspective of the wielder. For the unfortunate foe at the other end of the blade, it was an intimidating sharpness.

Ed grabbed a hold of the sword's hilt. It felt new to the touch, this was despite the fact that Ed was a skeleton. The restoration was so effective that it transcended the senses!

'Not to that extent but…' Ed didn't actually feel anything, he was just imagining that was how it would feel if he could feel something. 

Ed then performed a couple of swift swings. His swordsmanship might be lackluster but these few were enough for him to judge that this was a great sword.

'It should be peak C-class equipment' The smith that created the sword was definitely skilled if a little new. Well, Ed wasn't far enough into the field of smithing to say that for sure but it certainly felt that way considering the classification of the blade.

'Now how long will this last?' Ed wondered silently as he stared at the clean blade. But before Ed could think about this he ended up forming a new question in his mind.

'Will any damage in this state carry back to the broken equipment?' To sate this curiosity, Ed didn't hesitate to exit the temple, there was perfectly solid ground before him and a blade just begging to be broken.

To the surprise of the scholarly mages and any other skeletons in the vicinity their liege suddenly stroke at the ground. A clanging noise followed.

The sword which Ed had only recently restored dug into the hard dungeon tiles proving its capabilities. Nevertheless, it didn't take much longer before the blade split into two. Ed's strength as he pushed the blade through the ground was too large for the blade to bear.

Immediately after the equipment broke Ed could see the restoration fade and the split parts remained split.

'That answers that question' The item was not invincible and damage, or at least critical damage, did carry over.

Ed then picked up the split part with the hilt and attempted to restore it once more. He didn't receive a notice for a cooldown before this so he assumed it might be possible to re-restore it.

[Restoration Failed]

Unfortunately, the skill did not apply itself to the weapon again.

'Is it because of a cooldown or because it is too broken?' If it was the latter Ed could imagine that the main reason was the level of the skill was still too low. For the former, however, Ed could only attempt to verify by using the skill on another piece of equipment.

Returning to the Ed temple's storeroom, Ed grabbed a staff this time.

[Staff of Dirt (Damaged)]

{A staff capable of channeling the element of dirt, that's how broken it is}

'That's a bit uncalled-for system' Ed felt bad for the dinky staff of dirt. Fortunately, with the restoration, Ed would be able to make the staff of dirt broken for a good reason!

Ed lifted the staff into the air and within a moment it was enshrouded with a bright light. The broken staff of dirt would soon become the overwhelmingly powerful staff of dirt!

Yet, after the light was gone Ed was still left holding a dinky staff.

'Wait… nothing changed?' Ed felt confused by the lack of change in the staff's appearance.

[Staff of Dirt (Restored)]

{A staff now more capable of channeling the element of dirt}

Ed was left silent after reading the description of the restored staff but he quickly recovered from his surprise.

'...No cooldown!' The active skill didn't have a cooldown on different equipment, or at least it would appear that was so which in itself something to celebrate. Ed quickly tossed the dinky staff of dirt aside and dusted his bony hands.

'I'll be able to learn the restoration duration from this' He just had to check back on the staff later. Ed did have one worry though.

'If my theory is correct…' The dinky staff would be permanently restored! After all its quality was far too low. What sane adventurer even brought such a thing into the dungeon?

'How can a staff not even control the element of earth but of dirt?' Ed didn't think that the system would make a translation error.

Ed then put aside his grievances with the staff and focused back on reality. He had thought the skeletons how to make basic fortification arrays and it was time to properly inspect their work.

How he would do that... Well, there had to be a human assault. Only after this happened could Ed be certain that there were no issues with defenses.

'I'll be able to teach Trench properly then too' Before that however Ed needed to link with the earthen head lich. Doing it now rather than later might prove to be a good idea in the future.

After all, Ed didn't know if the level-up gave him multiple link slots or even if it gave just one.. It was about time to put that to the test.