Chapter 557 - Alolvi's Choice

It was already the third day of Ed teaching the elves how to create arrays, and the elves were now starting to become really invested. After class, the residents of all ages were happily discussing the topics that had been covered and some were even putting the topics into practice.

One such individual was Sudryal.

"It's really enlightening… Sigh…" He said with a defeated sigh. If it wasn't for the fact that the other elders stopped inviting him to meetings, Sud would still be actively plotting against Ed.

Well, now things were a little different hence his defeated sigh but the point was if it wasn't for his sudden appointment as an advisor he would be registered as an enemy of Ed. The twists and turns of life were hard to understand.

Currently, Sudryal was creating an array at his provided home. Like the other houses, none of them were particularly large. Cities were known to have small apartments in order to house a large number of residents. 

Of course, in the case of this city, there was still plenty of space considering the lack of residents. Unfortunately, Ed was the formal owner of everything so they couldn't start tearing down walls and buildings as they pleased.

It had to be mentioned, the arid elves were very strong individuals who had persevered the sands of time. They had labored arduously to forge a home in the hostile desert. They carved out the ground and shaped it to their will.

While the use of magic was definitely present, these elves were artisans.

Sure, the settlement as Ed had seen it was actually rather ugly looking but that wasn't due to a lack of skill. It was a lack of will. Living a life where they could be chased out of their home without warning, overdoing things was bound to hurt instead of heal. 

The mere fact that the underground city which appeared to be messily constructed stood was a testament to the elves' genius and ability to craft.

All that being said, despite the elves' ability to construct, Sud had to settle with the space provided by his small apartment for this array. He nonetheless managed to make it work.

"Done" Sudryal said with a beaming smile as he stood and inspected his creation. The array was done according to Ed's teachings so it wasn't anything game-changing that came of his own brilliance. Still, it gave Sudryal a use for the seeds of the fruit Ed gave him.

"Hehehe" Sudryal didn't waste any more time and placed the seeds in the correct runic shape before stepping into his own spot. Things would finally be looking up!

Ed provided them all with a spot to plant trees but given the public nature of those arrays, Sud was not comfortable planting this special seed there.

By keeping the fruit a secret, Sud would be able to monopolize it and quickly grow stronger. That was to say he had no intention to sell it or reveal it publicly to anyone, ever! It was a great plan!

…if nobody else had access to the fruit.

In another building, Riniya was laughing silently but maniacally to herself.

"I will take full of advantage of this new knowledge" Riniya knew that if she played her cards right, boosting her position in the village would be a piece of cake. The water fruit Ed gave her seemed useless at first glance but Riniya was wise enough to keep the seeds at hand.

After yesterday's lesson, everything clicked for Riniya. She could just sell them publicly to the water mages and become quickly acquainted with these still important figures of their society. This was her path to stardom! 

Unbeknownst to her, however, someone else was on the same, yet slightly different, path to stardom.

"I'll have to remove the seeds of the fruit when selling though…" Riniya thought pensively. She wasn't keen on doing additional labor but she couldn't trust just anyone with this either. If she hired someone and they stole the seeds, her monopoly would quickly dissipate.

What a dilemma.

Elsewhere, Ed was carefully considering something.

'Hmm… This should do for an experiment…' Ed thought as he placed his hand down on the desert sand.

[Constitution +1]

[Assimilation is on cooldown]

'Damn…' The entire desert was not ridden of terrain for the sake of his constitution attribute.

Day after day, Ed would make sure to assimilate something from his system space or the surrounding area. The result would always be similar to this however with nothing but a single point to his name.

This was needless to say less than favorable.

'I am running out of things' The things that Ed assimilated didn't have to be exact to bring him lower yields. Assimilating one tree type for example would lower the yield for all other tree types assuming their characteristics weren't specially different.

The same applied to all the metal weapons, armors, and just ore in Ed's inventory. The more he continued to assimilate them the lesser the yield. Usually, Ed could still get his current body some nice stat boosts in a new floor but…

'This floor is too barren' There was hardly anything to assimilate! Ed's only hope now was…

"The blood haven…" Ed muttered.

'What do you think of the place W?' Ed decided to ask his other half. Ed liked to keep W in existence given the dungeon's tendency to spontaneously summon him. Thanks to that W was rather knowledgeable about the elves' daily routine and capabilities.

This was something that didn't seem important at first thought but was in fact, crucial.

'It shouldn't be too difficult for us' W said after pondering for a few seconds. The elves were highly skilled combatants but their current state was poor and they couldn't hold a candle to Ed. With this in consideration, the blood haven ought to be no threat.

'Good, I will head there then' Ed thought before suddenly remembering something.

'Right, wasn't there also some ruins we need to investigate?' Mauro the lizardman skeleton had found it previously and were it not for Idrisi's sudden trouble with the elves it would have been a priority on Ed's exploration list.

Remembering this location Ed now had to do some more thinking.

"...Yes, let's do that!" Ed said thinking out loud.

When the next day came, the elves were all lined up and ready to depart to their respective classes. It was just too bad that Ed had no plans to start class that day.

"Alolvi, you are a leader but you are also a warrior. I respect that about you" Ed unexpectedly started that day with sincere praise for Alolvi. The target of this praise and admiration felt a weird unease.

Despite technically being a teacher, Alolvi hadn't done anything teaching. It wasn't that he didn't try but rather that all of his students also switched to Ed's classes leaving him nothing to do.

This meant that Alolvi had no students and therefore had no reason to be admired, respected, praised, or otherwise.

"Well… Thanks…" Alolvi also found it a bit strange to highlight that he was also a warrior. Wasn't he a warrior first and then technically a leader? Alolvi did not recall making any leadership decisions yet so why was this reversed?

"Which is why I need you to select some people to accompany you on an expedition to the blood haven" Ed then said causing Alolvi's heartrate to instantly accelerate. 

"The bloodhaven?!?" Alolvi accidentally exclaimed aloud from shock.

"Yes, yes, you can pick anyone and as many as you like. Only warrior students are exempt since… they are students you know. They can't possibly face the harsh bloodhaven when they don't even know how to walk yet" Ed said causing the warriors who abandoned Alolvi's class to feel a chill down their spine. Was this said to spite them!?!

All of a sudden, some of the elves seemed to want to join Alolvi's third line to feign being a student but… Ed had a smile as he faced the crowd of elves that froze these folks into place.

"Can… Can I take everyone?" Alolvi asked meekly. He hadn't actually been to the bloodhaven before but he had heard many stories of the place.

Alolvi did not feel prepared.

"Hahaha!" Ed laughed and then smiled at the crowd who looked at him expectantly. Their expectant expressions then immediately fell and were replaced by a sense of foreboding. Why wasn't he saying no!?!

"A- Alolvi! What a funny joke!" One of the elven elders said awkwardly.

"Hahaha, wow yes!" Another elf parroted this behavior and said. Soon other elves joined into the awkward laughing whilst sweating bullets. Why was their leader trying to get them all killed!?

"Well, actually, I'll be going to the blood haven too so you just need to pick some people to accompany me" Ed didn't plan to leave the city without a leader so soon. Only if Alolvi truly took everyone would he be comfortable doing something like that.

But taking elven children on such a dangerous ride was stupid and leaving them in the city without any protection was also stupid.

"Ah… what a relief…" Sudryal said. If he had to leave his recently planted tree behind he would be too worried to survive the dangerous and hostile blood haven.

"Sudryal, as the advisor you are tasked to come with me" Ed then said causing Sudryal's face to scrunch up.

"F*ck…" The old elder cursed silently.