Much later, Ed was still in the crypt. He was sitting upon his throne looking down pensively.
There were some humans bound by ropes struggling in front of him. Ed knew this struggling was futile, the ropes wouldn't break so easily. They were specially made from octocrawler threads reinforced with metal shrooms.
The bound humans didn't know that, they continued to struggle in futility and Ed simply continued to look at them deep in thought. He was interested in forming a method to extract their souls. In the event of its success, Ed figured rewarding the humans might not be a bad idea.
'That way I get more visitors looking to be probed' He didn't need volunteers but any influx of people was good.
Of course, that's not what the humans saw. All they could see was a skeleton dressed in an earthly red bloodied robe staring down at them from a throne. This skeleton also had intimidating death knights and just an entire horde of skeletons to guard them. The captive humans were terrified!
Though Ed couldn't say their terror wasn't justified, he would only be letting them go and rewarding them in the event he succeeded after all. Otherwise, he'd have to offer them to the dungeon.
"This is nothing like what the new novel said!" A girl exclaimed.
"Oh come on Mary, why would it be anything like the novel!?!" Their adventuring partner, also bound, exclaimed.
p
Ed could understand everything the humans said and he frankly had no comment to offer.
'Hopefully the intelligence of the people doesn't affect the quality of the souls and my ability to extract them' Ed thought after hearing their exchange.
'Wait… Would dumb ones be easier or harder to extract…?' A philosophical question, whatever the case, Ed figured it was time to tell the captives the good news. But those two adventurers continued to bicker and while Ed wanted to interject, he really couldn't.
'Urgh… I need my transmission…' It wasn't like he could use command to communicate with the humans. The only other option was link which… actually, he wasn't sure if it would work on the humans.
'In theory it should work, no?' If it was anything like the spiritual mark then there should be no problem linking with the humans. They would then be able to communicate as well as even share his power and knowledge with them.
'But I have no reason to do that…' If Ed needed anything from the outside, W should be able to hook him up. That in mind, Ed decided to do something differently.
He activated his skill, requiem.
"srikeu tyee ehnfabted uìemwhen tte ðch" The words he spoke sounded like complete gibberish. That was expected, but the skeletons near him entered this trance like state. This was normal per the skill function.
'This isn't what I want…' What Ed wanted was something more along the lines of the lich's ability to speak. But how could he achieve it? The requiem skill used death element mana and managed to make sounds...
Ed decided to try something along those lines. His mana manipulation skill was quite advanced so surely…
"A wash te shoru wath yei oll" Without invoking the skill, Ed tried to simply manipulate element-less mana. Sound was formed by vibrations in the air, water, etc. mana could definitely mimic such vibrations.
But that wasn't quite just yet...
"I… Weesh to…" Perhaps taking it slower could...
"Shari the gud new" It could get the message across...
"I wish to share with you some good news" Finally, Ed managed to produce a hoarse and unrefined voice. It wasn't quite as intimidating as the ominous sound Requiem created but this unrefined voice still sent shivers down the spines of the listening adventurers.
But that wasn't the only unexpected side effect of Ed's success.
[Requiem has leveled up]
[Mana manipulation has leveled up]
[Mana Manipulation has met the conditions to advance, Advance Mana Manipulation Skill? Y/N]
[<Mana Speech lvl. 0> Acquired]
[<System Link lvl. 6> is in effect]
[Combine skills? <Mana Speech lvl. 0> <Instruction lvl. 3> Y/N]
Ed was assaulted by a bunch of system messages. While he wasn't sure if this number of notices was his highest amount yet, it was certainly competing for the top. Thinking about this made him feel rather amazed.
'Such a simple understanding created such a strong reaction…' This reaffirmed Ed's thoughts that trying to comprehend things on his own could go a long way towards advancing his skills. While he didn't always rely on the system for skills, reducing his reliance on it further could prove useful.
As for how he was supposed to answer to yes or no questions at once... Well, he didn't always answer with yes or no specifically, there was no problem here.
'Combine the skills' He decided to first combine the skills, advancing mana manipulation could wait. The newly learned mana speech was just a way to communicate and instruction was rotting away on his skeleton body. Which was funny since he was all bones.
[Combining…]
"Good news?" An adventurer said taken by surprise. What could be good about their situation? That they got to meet new people? Ed captured two people each from two separate parties and all.
Ed wanted to say something, but the skills were in the process of combining.
'Hm? Wait, couldn't I have used instruction to communicate with them?' He was so used to using the skill alongside transmission that he forgot the skill had a range of its own just like the system links command sub skill.
[<Mana Communication lvl. 1> Acquired]
'No point crying over spilled milk' The mana communication skill seemed promising. The name suggested it was just the advanced formed of mana speech.
"That's right, good news" Ed said next to the ear of the adventurer. It was like a whisper that only he could hear. The adventurer was petrified, the skeleton seemed to have just learned how to speak! How did the skeleton manage to whisper to them specifically now?!
Ed was sitting on his throne and they were bound on the floor helplessly. There were even some knights positioned between them and the white bone devil.
"If you cooperate, and my experiments are successful, all of you will be freed" Ed still had a lot to learn about souls and what made them different from consciousnesses. As a former human, and a consciousness being, Ed's curiosity was boundless.
The humans trembled, why did they decide to come to this damn dungeon!?
***
In the continuously breaking down Bosque palace, the skirmish between Mite and W was just starting. Following the small ambush, neither party had yet to make a move. Until now...
A pillar of flames suddenly arose from beneath the feet of the robed man, W. This happened within what felt like an instant. Mite's cast speed was unexpectedly fast! Why did he show the flame in his palm earlier if he could cast so quickly!? W knew the answer, he was being duped!
"AAAARRGGHHH!!!" W let out an ear-piercing howl of pain. The pain of being burned was indeed rather excruciating, but W was no stranger to it. There was no real reason for him to make such a large drama over it.
Mite pulled back his outstretched arm and jumped back. He almost missed the streams of blood that were creeping their way towards him!
The scream was nothing but a distraction.
The pillar of fire had stopped with Mite having become distracted, this gave Brennan's body a proper opportunity to regenerate. The burns formed scabs and fell off before finally revealing new pristine skin.
"You are rather cunning" Mite thought with a smile, his eyes expressed a different emotion, however. Mite's glare might be able to give a normal person a heart attack. W offered no actual comment.
He simply ducked down and grabbed a sharp piece of debris before creating a large slit on his arm. Blood didn't spew out however, it ran across Brennan's arms and converged at his hand. It quickly took the shape of a single sharp claw.
W wanted to do the same for the other arm but Mite did not fancy such an action. A volley of fire spears appeared and shot towards W's position. The latter ducked to dodge the attacks wanting to charge forward.
What he had not expected was for a fire spear to form right in front of him. But his momentum could not be stopped. The fiery spear pierced right through Brennan's head causing W and Bloody alike to be left shell shocked.
Brennan's body collapsed, it tumbled and slid forward landing before Mite's feet.
"As expected, a healer can't compare to me in combat" Mite could be said to be quite arrogant but he had the skill to back it up. Not to mention he was the emperor of a strong empire and a dragon rider, who could utter a word of complaint? He was more than justified in his arrogance.
"Wh-" Mite's eyes widened. A slushy monster of blood coiled at his feet and climbed up it promptly like a slithering snake. Bloody's slithering skill was near advancing, he was fast!
Mite was taken aback but he reacted quickly.. He had no time to think about what the monster or skill was, he just needed to stop it quickly! So he turned up the heat and burst into a ball of flame. He was not keen on paying a price for his justified arrogance!
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