Ed finished gathering skeletons and had finally brought them back to the boss corridor. He could cast all of the earthen spells with the sole exception of earth dome to a viable degree. His control was still poor at best but he was satisfied with the progress. At the moment, Ed received a system alert.
[Assimilation is off cooldown]
He hadn't forgotten about the skill this time, he was anxiously waiting for it to get off cooldown in fact. Ever since Assimilation reached level 2 the cooldown had been reduced by an hour, he wanted to lower that number again.
'And to do that I have to level up the skill'
There was something that Ed had managed to notice after using the skill for a while. It wasn't very apparent but he felt he wasn't making the most of the skill. The skill only managed to go up two levels even though he used it almost instantly every time. That could be accredited to the long cooldown but that had to be wrong.
'Knowledge' That was the focal point.
The first time the skill leveled up he tried to assimilate a book. The skill was described as one that boosted understanding, it should come as no surprise that the skill can be used to directly assimilate the knowledge found in books. The time it took to level up for the second time was more than double. The skill either had a very steep leveling curve or he wasn't making the most of it and Ed was willing to bet it was the latter.
He commanded the first batch of skeletons to reseal the tunnel using the furniture as he headed towards his desk. He opened up the bag and took out a magic book, it was the one he took from the magician. He had neglected it all along as it had slipped his mind.
He had always been quite curious about its contents, what could it hold? Although he hadn't witnessed the magician's prowess first hand, he understood that he was no weakling by the traces of battle he had previously seen. It wouldn't be farfetched for the magician to be stronger than all of the previous intruders.
The book had an outline of a purple cube instead of a title, the purple was accented by the black background giving it an air of mystery.
[Spellbook: Space Hop]
A book entirely on the subject of shifting space. It holds many complicated calculations.
For some reason Ed's mind blanked for a second, space magic! Based on his memories, it was an extremely complicated yet powerful element. That magician was no simple character!
'Could the reason he only knew a few spells be he was trying to learn this?'
Ed took another look at the hefty book, its size was nothing to scoff at! A book so large on such a complicated subject was bound to take a while to learn. He held the magician in much higher regard now.
'But where did he get something like this?' Ed was quite confused as a person with such frightening backing or talent shouldn't need to venture a low leveled dungeon.
'I guess that is none of my business' He shrugged it off and proceeded to assimilate the book.
The book trembled for a brief moment before coming to a stop, new knowledge entered Ed's mind soon after.
[Assimilation has leveled up]
Ed if possible would have a faint smile, he dismissed the message and proceeded to carefully examine what he had just learned. He then opened up the book to see what pages were missing.
He was surprised to find out he learned two entire chapters out of a total of 8! Was the effect of two levels that substantial?!?
'I really have been wasting its potential' He could only admonish his past self as there was no way to turn back time.
He reviewed what the two chapters had taught him and realized something was missing.
'I am missing the basics, I don't know how space works'
The knowledge the book imparted into him was incomplete. Maybe he needed the other six chapters first but he couldn't understand certain terms or the logic behind statements.
'Even if I do know will I be able to use it?'
The answer was an unfortunate no. His earth element would not allow him to travel across space. Ed would need to take some risks and acquire the space element somehow.
'I already learned the earth element spells...' He couldn't be called proficient but he had certainly learned them.
Ed started to carefully ponder on the matter of acquiring a new element for his core. He couldn't find a solution as his information was lacking. His memories from games and novels were nowhere near insightful enough.
'I will cross that road when I get there' He was wasting precious time planning out an uncertain future.
Ed climbed out of the barricade and continued his gathering journey. He also got back to practicing his magic. His mana attribute was still under 200 points due to the time it took to recover mana.
That being the case Ed decided to improve his control. Reducing the amount of mana he wastes is just as effective as more mana in regards to casting more spells.
As time slowly passed Ed gathered more skeletons.
[Transmission has leveled up]
'Great, I felt like the skill was stagnating' With a skip in his step he got right back to grinding.
The spells Ed cast mainly consisted of Earth shot and Earth Wall as Earth Dome was too complicated and slowed down his skeleton gathering. Of course that didn't mean he was neglecting it, the defensive potential of the spell was nothing to scoff at and Ed was well aware of this.
Thanks to Ed's increase control over his mana, he could reinforce his entire body without losing too much mana. His ability to take hits had once more improved.
'This should do it' Ed thought as he looked at his following.
He had spent an hour gathering what he estimated to be 70 or 80 skeletons, it was time to bring them back.
The new skeletons he gathered were just as sharp as the previous ones, that is to say not very. Ed would love to increase their combat strength but he did not know how to go about it. Maybe if he learned some death element spells or techniques he could improve their performance, even if it was by using them as puppets.
[A group of trespassers has entered your floor]
The dreaded message appeared once more. Ed cursed out inwardly, it was much faster than he had anticipated. He increased his pace as he thought of any plans.
He discarded any stupid plans like sealing all the entrances. The dungeon would like him to eliminate the intruders so holing himself in a section of the dungeon would be counterproductive. Not to mention that the adventurers would eventually break through anyways and he would then be too tired to do anything.
'How can I use my new spells to eliminate the intruders' Ed had to think carefully about the matter.
It didn't take him very long to reach his base after quickening his pace. He started to consider if pushing all of the skeletons into the boss room would be the best course of action.
'They are still too scared'
He had ordered the skeletons to move aside the furniture, all of the skeletons tried to leave through the opening until Ed quickly used Transmission.
He might need to take the safe approach and eliminate some adventurers then retreat into the boss room. As far as he could tell eliminating adventurers allowed him to level up his consciousness which was always welcome.
'I stand a better chance to separate myself from the dungeon if I level up'
Leveling up increased the number of things he remembered and brought him back to his more humane side. Leveling up usually meant a new skill. The skills he had received so far apart from thought manifestation had all been rather useful.
'I should gather more allies'
Ed instructed to close the gap before quickly leaving.. He stopped using his mana as he needed to be in optimal condition for the upcoming clash.