Published at 29th of July 2022 8:58 am

Chapter 480 - Elven Sap Ink

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The roaring winds blew away sand and dust forming into a fiendish storm. This nightmarish natural phenomenon enveloped a walking pile of bones. This was the orc skeleton.

Its gaze remained steadfast, not once did the harsh winds make it waver. Even as it was blown back and forth by the wind the skeleton faithfully looked forward. Its lord had set its path and there could be no deviation.

Unbeknownst to it however under the darkness of the sandstorm, they had long since lost their way.

On the other side of the floor, a lizard skeleton was walking down the scorching cracked soil. It had not encountered even a cactus in this arid wasteland. Its bones were no longer pristine, they had been roughened by the harsh environment.

With the suffocating heat visible to the naked eye, the lizard skeleton still managed to spot something. They appeared to be buildings… A closer inspection would reveal that they appeared to actually be ruins.

The lizard skeleton turned back around hoping to deliver the news of its finding. Whether the orc would manage the same anytime soon was unknown as the harsh sandstorm still lay claim to it.

***

Back in the abandoned Elven city, Ed had just finished sorting the library books onto one shelf. It wasn’t that there were too few books but rather that the bookshelves were too large.

What mattered was that aside from some books with ripped pages, everything was ready to be read. Ed would not be reading them, however.

‘I don’t know who was the smart one that decided to rip the pages off all the important books specifically’ If you needed to burn books you definitely had to burn the useless ones first..ᴄᴏᴍ

The elves that ransacked the grand library were so rampantly uncouth that Ed suspected his previous conjecture might be faulty. The ripping of these pages felt deliberate.

But Ed didn’t have the luxury of worrying about it for too long, he shifted his focus back to the restoration of the city, or more appropriately the divine sap tree. Its leaves were growing quickly and as it regained its vigor the air started feeling just a little better.

With abundant water and an increasingly better environment, it was only a matter of time before he successfully recreated a thriving oasis city.

All he needed to do was recreate the elf’s array ink and grow the plants quickly using a formation. After this step, he could slowly bring in living residents to populate the city.

‘Whether those residents will be orcs, lizardmen, and goblins or elves will be up to fate’ If the elves no longer existed on the floor there was no way around it.

Thinking about the elves made Ed remember the only living thing they left behind that still lived, the divine sap tree.

After a short contemplation, Ed sent a message through his link.

‘On account of your fortune, I’ll name you… Azalia1’ Out of all the things in the city only Azalia survived. It took god-given luck to outlast your extinct caretakers.

‘Azalia…’ The tree messaged back with a tinge of confusion. A tree could not grasp the concept of names immediately but…

‘Azalia!’ It did grow into the idea rather quickly.

Ed smiled subtly before stopping frozen in his tracks. The naming of any entity was a monumental occasion yet, he was no longer in the mood to celebrate. At least not celebrate the naming…

‘I’m back!’ A familiar voice transmitted with great excitement.

Ed was frozen stiff by the sudden message. There was only one entity capable of this, It was W! He had returned! Ed hadn’t expected something this good to happen so soon. He felt it was too good to be true, and to an extent he was correct.

‘Great, now the only problem is that I can’t communicate with him…’ If he sent a command that’d be a bit weird and linking across the spirit mark wasn’t possible… was it?

Linking with himself seemed like the right thing to do so Ed didn’t hesitate to give it a try.

‘Who have I linked with so far… A tree and Var Agus…? Was there anyone else?’ He put spiritual marks on lots of his subordinates and at long distances the spiritual mark and the connection from link felt equally muddled.

‘Ah right, A!’ He almost forgot about his other third. He needed to check out the mushroom caverns and the marshlands as soon as possible.

Ed cleared his mind of idle thoughts and tried to just focus on forming a link with W. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

Azalia’s chamber held nothing much but under the sound of running water, the subtle rustling of new leaves, and the poor lighting, Ed’s focused state made him the center of attention.

It felt as though he would manifest some unfathomable power at any moment…!

‘It… It failed…’ The link skill wasn’t activating. He couldn’t link with W for some reason. As he had linked with A before he knew that them being a part of each other had nothing to do with it.

‘There is either a limit to the linking or we are too far’ Ed couldn’t find any other reason.

Having possibly pinpointed the issue, but not being able to offer a reply, Ed figured it was a good idea to temporarily abandon the current floor to go pick up W.

‘It’s near impossible for him to enter this floor successfully’ W was a blob so getting across the crypt would be time-consuming with its maze-like structure. Even if W happened to possess an adventurer, getting through the orc plains would be a challenge, and the marshlands would be near impossible.

On the odd chance that he did brave through all of this W then had to jump into the lake and find an entrance to the next floor that even he failed to locate. Needless to say, W needed to be picked up.

‘It would be convenient if I could do it myself but system, please tell the dungeon to relocate me’ This current floor was harsh and empty, going away for a couple of minutes wouldn’t hurt.

Plus, the dungeon didn’t have to move him to the crypt, just moving him to the marshlands would do since he could then try to meet W halfway.

‘Well, I’m a mushroom there but I can figure something out’ He already had A transport him around so being escorted through the mushroom caverns and orc plains by lizardmen wasn’t too large an issue.

The lizardmen would, not only look forward to it but they would even think of it as a blessing. That would be especially so after they witnessed the vast green forest that awaited their destination.

The system did not reply to Ed’s request but he was still confident he would be seeing results soon enough.

This was why Ed was able to focus back on the tree newly named, Azalia. It was still exuding bundles of joy but Ed was ignoring it for the time being.

‘It’s a bit too lively…’ A weird thing to say about a tree. But Ed could only hope it wouldn’t become obnoxious in the future. Otherwise, he would forever regret forming a link with it.

Ed continued to observe the tree hoping to spot even a single budding flower. Why he needed to spot flowers was in order to figure out if the divine juice came from the fruits of this tree. Since the divine juice played some part in the elves’ research Ed needed a stable supply.

‘Nothing yet, the vial I found will have to make do’ Ed had not yet mastered the elven formations but he still wanted to give their ink a try. The divine juice wasn’t an ingredient but Ed was curious if it would carry similar properties to the sap.

Before he could experiment with the juice however Ed needed to succeed in recreating the elves’ method. So without further ado, he brought out all the necessary ingredients.

There was one ingredient Ed couldn’t procure though, the weird creatures of this floor. Ed would be lucky if they weren’t already extinct. This was why Ed had to substitute any of their blood with ones from monsters he did have.

Ed began tossing the substitutes into a cauldron he made on the spot. As it turns out Alchemy was a big part of creating great inks.

‘A Dunefly is probably close enough to a Lightning Firefly Bug’ With the attributes of fire and lightning on that tiny bug Ed didn’t think it’d be detrimental to the ink anyway so he went ahead and dumped some of its fluids right in.

Ed also didn’t forget to make a small incision from which to pour in his own blood. While the system gave him an added Arid to his type he was still an elf so his blood had to work just fine.

After using the blood of various creatures and even diluting it with water, Ed brought a piece of the sap ball he created. He melted this piece using the forge flames and had it mix with the inky concoction.

This was not enough on its own however as the sap would harden based on how the system worked. It may or may not mix properly so Ed made sure to collect some materials to put the cauldron to burn.

After a long while… Ed got a result.

[Elven Sap Ink (Variant)]

[ An offshoot of the regular sap array ink devised by the elves. It carries most of the same properties but with added volatility ]

‘Erm… I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing…’ Ed thought silently. What he did know however was that he succeeded and it was now time to put the ink to use.

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