Chapter 496: Unlinking

After hearing Ed's transmission, the girl Kimani had no words of protest. The terms were that agreeable! She could become famous and powerful, what could she complain about?

Well, another possibility was that she couldn't protest thanks to the blood clots forcing their way down her ears, nose, and throat. But that was just a possibility and Ed was feeling optimistic.

All the elite orcs who took in the small blood clots against their wills were utterly shocked by the girl's ability. How could she fit so many of them!?! They were scared of one yet she was practically chowing down on the weird bloody creatures.

To them Ed now kind of looked like a devil. Their image of the gallant orc Ed was replaced with that of a horrifying body swapping evil god.

After the blood clots finished their march into the girl's body, one final blood clot dodged around her and crawled up Dakgu's body.

"Nooo!!!" He screamed awfully frightened. He thought that the things were definitely punishment to the orcs for being out of line but he was good so why!?!

'Relax, they will help you all get stronger' Ed transmitted to Dakgu and the others.

Immediately the orcs' eyes widened. The weird creatures could help them get stronger? Then…

All the orcs eyed the human girl with frightening scowls. The girl trembled being stared down by so many furious orcs.

'They will help you get stronger, but they will also keep watch over you' Ed transmitted to the girl who instantly understood what Ed was getting at. If she acted out of line they could probably kill her considering they were in her body.

'Now we can really leave' Ed transmitted as a follow-up to everyone present. The orcs now rejoiced in full. All except one, Sharog.

"Why didn't Ed give me one of them…?" She muttered to herself in confusion. If they could make the others stronger it could definitely make her stronger as well.

'I will make you a more powerful one later' The tiny blood clots acted under the commandments Ed gave them and were kind of dumb. They were more like tools than real living creatures.

Of course, since they still had some consciousness it was unfair to treat them that way but that was the reality. What Ed was going to make for Sharog was a blood clot capable of living seamlessly alongside her.

'At least that's the plan…' Ed thought while analyzing how he might be able to make that possible. The blood integration skill could probably advance into some form of this but with the most prominent blood clot missing how could he check for good skills?

'Damn you W!' Since W was himself Ed was really damning himself but whatever the case he hated that Bloody was left behind. He understood W's decision but he was still a bit resentful…

'That Aaron kid might be a good protagonist candidate but why'd you have to leave Bloody behind?' The innocent and gluttonous creature would definitely blow their cover. Even if it didn't, where was Ed to find skills like its blood sense?

'Bloody also managed to share the skill with me at the time…' That might very well be another skill seeing as W did not develop the same ability. Whatever that skill was could potentially help with Ed's goal.

'Hmmm… but can I make W develop that same ability…?' Bloody and W's blood clot body were of the exact same age. He knew this because W's original blood clot body came from a piece of Bloody as opposed to a new one provided by Ed.

In theory, they should have both developed the same skills. They both spent the same amount of time together and therefore shared the same experiences. Why didn't they share the same insights then?

'Maybe because of instinct…?' Bloody had all manner of skills that W may or may not have gotten. He for sure acquired the likes of metal body and slither but he didn't receive any species exclusive skill or behavior.

'Which is pretty odd' Even he could be affected by the bodies he entered so it felt a bit bizarre that W could complete resist the temptation to absorb blood.

'I guess the way he acquired that body was too weird to begin with' Ed decided not to look much further into it. Instead, he would look further into somehow spurring the development of that body.

'W is unable to do so maybe I should give that body to a new consciousness…' The blank slates would be more easily swayed by the power of the body and thus go through the body's expected natural growth.

Things like talent did exist but Ed didn't think he got lucky enough to nurture a super genius blood clot.

Still, while a new consciousness was an idea worth exploring it was likely not the sole answer. Ed felt that the best answer was actually to brand-new skills onto that body.

'If I brand skills that help with the skill's growth or help its instinct something is bound to turn up' The only problem was that Ed did not have any skills from the mobs that could assimilate experience into faster level ups.

'I guess the only source is me' Ed was afraid of losing level ups through this method, which was guaranteed to happen, but he also had no real other choice here. He couldn't know it was possible if he didn't even dare try.

In a sense Ed intended to leave it up to fate. If he could take just a single level of assimilation and grow it for other mobs to benefit from…

'It will probably turn into something like learning' The assimilation skill was a reward from the dungeon. As was the norm with most of Ed's skills, that meant he didn't know if they could be found in other mobs in the vast world.

There were some that he was certain couldn't be found out in the wild like assessment…

'Unless there are more systems' But Ed was dismissive of the idea. It wasn't that he wanted to monopolize main character rights, it was that the very nature of the system seemed to force the wheels of time to spin rapidly.

What Ed meant by that was that an era of turmoil would surely occur when a person with a system existed. How could a person with so much power remain hidden from the world? How could their moves not affect entire countries?

While Ed was not at that level, the dungeon he inhabited was already starting to attract the attention of multiple countries. Ed was indirectly responsible for this.

'The system's goal is unknown but this is all probably part of its plan' The system's plan might simply be to have Ed grow stronger for whatever reason but gaining worldwide attention was a side effect of that. The system couldn't be oblivious to this side effect at the very least.

'I really wish I could talk to the system more often…' Ed thought before instructing A to prepare to depart. He didn't know what A could prepare, but Ed did have things to pack up. He began by taking back all the mushrooms he spawned at breakneck speed.

The orcs were now completely astounded. The terrifying field of mushrooms disappeared in under a minute!

Yoashk then scooped Ed out of the ground and placed him back into his cage as if nothing ever happened!

'Hmmm…' Before they could leave though Ed entered a pensive state. 

'A, do you want to go with her?' Ed was thinking that cutting off communication with the adventurer girl entirely was not wise. As long as he had some sort of link with her things would be different, however.

[Transmission has leveled up]

'I think that maybe I should also fuse with you, you can then link with the human' A communicated causing Ed's thoughts to darken.

'I'm not against it really but I can't leave every floor unattended…' He needed one of his letter splits to watch over at least the lizardmen who were still in their developmental phase.

'Well then just remove the link and create a spiritual mark' A suggested again. He was very much against the idea of following the girl, or that was the impression one would get.

'Let's do that' Ed did not think this was too inappropriate, without the link he wouldn't be able to empower A in times of crisis but... The girl was more important right now. He couldn't guarantee that the link would work outside the dungeon, the spiritual mark didn't.

But considering this was an advanced skill, Ed was willing to pin his hopes on the Link skill.

'Plus as Link levels up I expect to be able to link with more people' He could set up a new link with A when the skill leveled up then. Ed knew that the link skill only seemed somewhat limited due to its low level, he trusted that leveling up would really increase the limit.

Ed finally stopped thinking and focused on removing the link between himself and A. It took some concentration, but he eventually got it to work.

[<Link> is no longer in effect]

[<Link> is on cooldown]

The closeness Ed felt to A disappeared. All that Ed felt was now an emptiness that came from losing something precious. But he freed up a slot… Maybe the cooldown would prevent the slot from being used right away, but since it was just a matter of time Ed had to ask himself more important questions.

Would the link with girl and work? Could he really pass her his attributes and the system flame?