Chapter 487: At the Sanctuary Gates

Back in the mushroom caverns, Ed was still being escorted by the lizardmen. The trip was mostly uneventful with only the occasional monster fights. 

The trip was especially uneventful for Ed though as there was nothing fun about being a potted mushroom. As a result of this, Ed spent most of the trip time in the system space. His own head was the only place he felt free.

But while that feeling of freedom was enough to warrant staying in the system space, Ed was also making plans and experimenting with things in the system space. Given that the elven body was a recent acquisition, and his visit to the orc plains rendered the orc body partly pointless, the dungeon might send him back to the desert soon.

'It's good that dungeon is being less erratic nowadays' That could mean that Ed was learning to understand the dungeon better or it could also be the other way around. Either way, it was a good thing to be able to plan around the dungeon's antics.

But realistically, there wasn't any planning that couldn't be done as a potted fungus. His main reason for entering the system space was the experiments. He was making the preparations for the mass assembly of orc skeletons and lizard skeletons.

'Two won't cut it' The orc skeleton, who Ed decided would be named Idrisi, needed to have some subordinates. Similarly, the lizardman skeleton, named Mauro, would also need some explorer subordinates.

This was also a good way to test the assembly room so Ed was killing two birds with one stone. There was one thing that bothered him, however.

This land scouting was inefficient. The skeletons could only walk and their view was likely to be often obstructed by dunes of sand in places where there wasn't just arid flatland.

There was a sole answer to this problem.

'Flying…' How could he make a flying skeleton? It was a weird question which most would probably answer with a question of their own. Why?

Ed was likely better off creating a zombie of sorts instead of a skeleton if he wanted it to fly. Even a puppet had better odds so why should he fixate himself on a skeleton?

While these sounded like good ideas at first thought, anything with flesh on it might be susceptible to the weathering of the hot desert. A puppet was more feasible but might still need semi-constant maintenance.

'This will need some experimenting' Creating hybrid skeletons that still walked on land would feel kind of pointless. Attaching wings to human, lizardman, or orc skeletons would be pretty cool, however.

'Maybe I should start by experimenting with an undead version of the mobs here' The mushroom caverns were thriving with all sorts of creatures. There were some like the blood bat that obviously had wings.

With this in mind, Ed left the system space to quickly inform the necessary parties of his requirements.

'Whenever possible, hunt any flying monster and deliver them to me' Ed commanded briefly before returning to the system space. 

The one he communicated with was A as he lacked the transmission skill. Since A could control the lizardman as a blood clot he could pass on his words to the warriors. A was sort of like his spokesperson.

Anyway, with his new hit order, Ed would receive the materials he needed for experimentation.

The lizardmen were not under the suggestion of the command sub-skill or anything like that but they still acquiesced to A's, or rather Ed's, request and fulfilled it to the best of their abilities.

By the time they were finally about to cross into the ogre cavern, Ed had already earned lots of experimental materials.

'Ah, I can try to use the preserving sap on the wings and attached them to the skeletons' Ed thought while looking at some large and plump blood bat wings. His ball of sap was also still hanging out and putting it to use was rather simple.

Ed brought the bat wings and the sap to the forge room. He melted some sap and had the spirit smith assist in the application of the sap onto the wings. The system hadn't performed such a combination before so the smith ended up learning it just then.

The sapped bat wings were ready but now Ed had to figure out a way to attach them onto the skeletons. Thanks to the forge the melting and cooling could simplify the process. The only problem Ed had was picking an ideal position.

The system worked in mysterious ways so Ed had no doubt the skeleton would be able to make use of the wings. He was just afraid of messing with the balance of the skeleton when attaching the wings.

If a plane was too heavy for example, it might never get off the ground. That was easy to understand and logical. But if it was more weighty on one side than the other and it did manage to take off it might become uncontrollable. 

Maintaining a proper weight for any creature or creation was an extremely important balancing act. Wouldn't it be pathetic if his first prototypes fell flat on their faces immediately after taking off?

There was a myriad of other factors to consider when taking flight, too many to list in fact. But that balancing was a key factor was something that even Ed was able to remember and understand. Other variables would show up after sufficient crashes- Erm, testing.

Unfortunately, this testing could not be performed at this very moment.

"Wow… How vast!" For just now the lizardmen had reached the ogre cavern and were left fascinated by the vastness. The cavern's ceiling was extremely high and the distance between each wall was equally large.

This was a boss room.

"We are almost out" A said using the voice of Yoashk.

The divine blood warriors had their blood boil with excitement. Whether that was a result of the blood clots was unknown. Regardless, there was a feverishness that enveloped the entire escort group.

Without further ado, they picked up their pace and ran for the tunnel to the outside where they were met by glittering crystals.

"Wow…" The glittering crystals were a new thing for the lizardmen so there was some amazement. Nevertheless, after the mass mining of the orcs, the crystal tunnel of the cavern was much less impressive.

The truly breathtaking sight was once they were finally out of the cavern. 

The lizardmen's expression of awe was highlighted by the brilliant moon rays as they watched trees sway softly in the wind. The quiet and still forest devoid of most life yet full of liveliness was astounding for them.

"So peaceful…" One muttered their heart feeling at ease.

'We are finally close to Sanctuary' Once they entered Sanctuary they could make preparations to properly meet W halfway. Ed could sense through their link that he was still moving forward.

'There was a period of apparent rest but…' Only a couple of hours later W was back on the move. His movements even appeared to be faster somehow. Maybe that was a sign that W's findings were something to look forward to.

***

The night that they were brilliant as always, the moon phases in the dungeon were seemingly non-existent. The morning sun could be seen peeking from behind the far-off horizon from atop the Sanctuary walls.

Needless to say, the morning was soon to arrive.

The goblins and orcs on wall guard duty were watching this scenery lazily. The pay for guarding the wall was pretty good yet all they had to do was relax and do nothing. It was the best job for them!

In fact, it was such a good job, that there were some orcs and goblins playing with some metal cards in the background.

"Your turn, Lug" An orc said brusquely.

The orc Lug narrowed their eyes while looking at the cards in his hand.

"Come on Lug, play a card" The orc said.

Lug narrowed his eyes further, they were almost shot at this point. Suddenly, his eyes shifted to the left side of his hand. Then…! To the right side!!!

Should he play the 3 boars… or a 4 boars card…?

Finally making a decision, two cards fell out of Lug's hands. His opponent turned red from anger.

"Aw damn it! I'm not playing with you again!!" Lug would always end up revealing his cards anyway! Why did he agree to play with the big lug?

Lug blinked with confusion.

"Why not?" Before the orc could berate him however an alarm came from one of the goblins.

"Huh!?! Enemies?! Visitors?! What's going on!?" The brusque orc asked with shock.

"They… They look like Reid!" An orc next to the goblin report while looking down the wall.

"Reid!?" Lug asked in surprise.

"Reid is good at cards!" He declared causing his earlier opponent to trip up from astonishment.

"How the hell did I get assigned to guard the same wall as you!?!" Wasn't it an insult to his skills to hold the same job as that oaf?

"Let's meet the guests!" He then declared before heading for the stairs.