Published at 29th of July 2022 9:00 am

Chapter 524 - The Blood Haven

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Ed didn’t originally look at the blood gauntlet beast as an opportunity but hearing A’s response it was possible he was being too pessimistic.

‘Yeah you are right, an opportunity’ Ed still had parts of the hydra’s corpse in his storeroom. It might be possible to make a vastly superior hydra gauntlet with those materials assuming he received the proper insight.

‘If the ancients could do it, why can’t I?’ Ed asked giving himself some confidence.

‘I’ll leave you to it then’ Ed finally transmitted to A before focusing back on the real world. He trusted himself.

It was a new day since Ed first fed the orphans and put the elves to work. The events of that day transgressed in an unexpected manner. The elder water mage who had been sick from hunger and collapsed before was able to douse water on all the elves to calm them down.

Well, that alone didn’t do it.. The cooperation of some earthen mages shackling down the more hunger crazed individuals did a lot more than the dousing. But in a way, the water did actually help the elves wake up from their crazed state.

What happened thereafter was the cooperation of the elves with the elders for the picking of the fruits. Using a priority system, women and children were the first to receive fruits for their labor.

‘A noble but weak idea’ Feeding the warriors and actively willing rule-followers would be the most logical move. But as Ed had already concluded, the elves seemed to operate on tradition and ideals.

Anyway, it was now the second day and the elders’ previous decision had caused some dissent amongst the older male elves. Surprisingly, however, all of their dissents disappeared the moment they saw Azalia’s array come to life.

“Wow…” The elves had never seen such a picturesque scene..ᴄᴏᴍ

The whole chamber was filled with meditative silence. For the first time, they felt a bit of hope. Maybe… if they could learn just a bit of their captors skills… maybe they’d be alright?

This idea popped into all the minds of the younger elves, they were a lot more susceptible to change. Without a single word, this notion was spreading amongst them as they continued to observe the tree.

“Hey, continue working” Ed told the elves who he had noticed had come to a pause. They all flinched and under the orders of the elders continued to perform their duty.

Ed then started contemplating things on his own.

‘Riniya, come here’ He transmitted to the elven woman. She instinctively shrunk back in response and with fright turned to look at Ed who was visibly staring at her. She had to go there!

“Where do you think you are-?” An arid elf beside her exclaimed seeing Riniya suddenly pull back. They became quiet the moment they saw Riniya walk towards Ed, however. Regardless of whether Riniya had permission to do that they didn’t want to be involved.

After walking for a bit, Riniya though secretly reluctant now confidently stood before Ed.

“So you finally need me huh?” She asked smugly.

Ed was not amused by her words, he was instead really irked by her behavior.

“Never mind, you can go back. I’ll call someone more competent” Ed told her plainly before looking away from her and scanning the nearby crowd of elves.

“Eh? No wait-!” Riniya said flustered.

“Please let me help you!” Riniya added feeling anxious. Ed was her only lifeline now that everyone else had begun to shun her. The elf before was actually a warrior who would usually be beneath her. Yet, such an elf dared to utter such a rude remark when she first pulled away. How could that do!?!

The only thing that prevented them from saying anymore was actually Ed. He was such a strong lifeline!

“Alright, tell me everything you know about this entire world” Ed demanded, He didn’t use the word floor since Riniya would likely be unfamiliar with it.

“Where should I start…” Riniya mumbled to herself. The world she lived in was a rather chaotic one.

From a young age, there was nothing but a dark ceiling above her head. There was just a dark ceiling and this enshrouding uneasiness that formed up there. The thought of… will something come crashing down from this ceiling?

It was common thought, as common as wondering if it would rain. This feeling was especially felt by Riniya. Both her mother and father had died in battles against the undead. Unlike the other kids however, she was privileged enough to be entrusted to her father’s good friend.

“Where do the undead come from?” Ed interrupted and asked. He didn’t think the dungeon would make another undead floor so it was just a tad bit odd. ρꪖꪕᦔꪖꪕꪫꪣꫀ​ꪶ​

“Oh… They come from the blood haven” Riniya responded causing Ed to shoot her an additional inquisitive glance.

“That’s… That’s a place where the ground is made of flesh and it rains blood by the day. It’s a horrible place…” Riniya said with a quiver in her voice. She had never personally witnessed the location but that was what she was taught.

The undead were born there and they ranged from skeletal beings to creatures of flesh and veins. No matter their state however they were all hellish creatures to look at.

Ed who heard this was a bit stunned. Why would there be an entire area or floor made up of flesh and blood? Why was that even an option?

‘The dungeon is a bit more insane than I thought’ Only a sick mind could come up with something like that right?

Thinking about it again though, it kind of made sense. Where did the dungeon store all the materials for its creatures otherwise?

But the issue with this thought was that the monster encyclopedia never told Ed of such a floor existing in any dungeon never mind all of them.

“This… Blood haven… who has gone there?” Ed decided he needed more information on this place. While he wasn’t into the concept of a floor of flesh this was something in desperate need of investigation.

‘I can only hope the rumors are exaggerated’ But that seemed extremely unlikely. Ed was having a hard time explaining this floor though.

‘Shouldn’t the floor rot if it’s made of flesh?’ Ed couldn’t fathom venturing into such a place. That was because the only way for the floor to not rot was if it was alive…

‘That… that can’t be the final boss of the dungeon or something right?’ Or could it just be an undiscovered organ of the dungeon? The questions the existence of such a place brought unfortunately had no clear answer. Why would the dungeon expose its organ?! That was a weakness!

Riniya saw that Ed was still in contemplation but she went ahead and answered his question.

“Elder Sud should know something” Riniya responded. Elder Sud was the oldest of the elves in their village. He had seen all sorts of things.

“Who is that?” Ed said snapping out of his pensive state.

“That’s the water mage over there” Riniya said pointing at a visibly old elf. He only looked like someone in his late 50s but for the elves having such a look was unbelievably old.

Some elves had silver hair by birth but the elder Riniya pointed to clearly acquired his beautiful silver from growing old. There was a certain temperament around this fellow that suggested as much.

“I’ll go talk to him, you can head back to work” Ed told Riniya who became visibly disappointed.

“Won’t you… give me some reward?” Riniya asked with a tinge of fear. Since she was being shunned so she didn’t actually receive much food the day before despite being a woman.

“Reward?” Ed didn’t find it surprising for her to ask for a reward but he thought she’d be a bit more straightforward. A reward could be anything.

“Alright, take this” Ed said before summoning out a blue fruit.

“Huh? What’s this?” Riniya said confused. The fruit she was handed over felt more like a water balloon than edible fruit.

“That’s a fruit, you can eat try eating it. Though since you aren’t a water mage it might not be very effective” Ed told her.

Riniya didn’t quite understand what Ed meant. She also thought that such a fruit would not appease her hunger. Nevertheless, she couldn’t possibly ask for anything more now, right?

“Th- Thanks…” Riniya said struggling to hide her disappointment.

Riniya stood rooted in place and Ed started to walk away from her. He could just call over the elder but he figured he may as well show the man some amount of respect. Ed wanted detailed and accurate information, he had to outweigh his negative karma with the man and the elves somehow.

‘I wonder if some of these fruits would serve as a proper reward for him’ Ed could have him grow the water mana fruits personally. That would further elevate the man’s position as well as provide him a small monopoly.

‘Well, growing it requires a lot of mana’ The only place where the elf could grow it was therefore Riniya’s pond but Ed couldn’t allow him to take advantage of that so easily.

‘Oh well, I’ll think about that in the future’ For now, Ed should just try and see if the elder could resolve his doubts about this so-called blood haven.

The word haven could mean many things. No matter the definition however it was an odd name they had chosen, there had to be a reason.

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