BXBX NOVEL Chapter 507
Although Ed didn\'t know what skills all the mobs he previously met had, he could take make some good guesses. How they moved was the simplest indicator.
For example, some had legs. If they had legs they had movement skills and if the legs they had allowed them to run fast they almost definitely had a good movement skill. While there were no guarantees, the possibility was high enough to bet on.
\'But even without the high possibility…\' Ed already have a couple of good ideas for what to use just from his known arsenal.
[Millipede (Corpse)]
The Millipede had an insane amount of leg so it passed the first check. Judging from his encounters with it the creature also had a unique skill to complement those many legs.
[<(Crawler) Thousand Legs lvl. 1> Skill Ink]
[ Passive: Great Increase in speed and durability when trampling things ]
The reality was that the skill sounded somewhat useless as it provided no obvious instant benefit. But after thinking about it a couple of times, Ed would need to do some trampling.
If there was one unfortunate thing was how flimsy the legs of the millipede, they were no better than noodles.
Fortunately, Ed was actually ok with that.
\'Although I do need to get there quickly…\' Another thing that mattered was what Ed would do once he got to W. Given that he acquired the elven body only relatively recently, he wasn\'t confident in facing an entire village of elves.
\'While I can summon lots of undead…\' He wasn\'t certain about the number of elves or the level of their skills. Ed was therefore better off preparing a speedy mount that could also escape past large numbers.
[<(General) Dig lvl. 0> Skill Ink]
It just so happened that digging was a perfect form of breaking and entering. Having the film like legs became a non issue when he would be moving through the ground almost like a worm.
[<(General) Nimble lvl. 0> Skill Ink]
[<(General) Slither lvl. 0> Skill Ink]
Some more supplementary skills ensured that there would be speediness and just in case Ed needed the mount to slither, he also supplied it with that skill.
\'Let\'s see… The next step…\' While Ed mentioned that escaping was a priority, some offensive and defensive power was recommended.
[<(General) Metal Body lvl. 2> Skill Ink]
The metal body skill could provide both when combined with…
[<(General) Blitz lvl. 1> Skill Ink]
The Blitz skill was an advanced form of charge and while the user could suffer from some recoil, the metal body skill could help negate this huge downside.
After compiling this many skills, Ed frowned.
\'I\'m not done quite yet…\' Ed had chosen the legs for the mount but funnily enough it was still missing an actual body.
But given that he gave it the slither skill and wanted to dig the ground as previously mentioned...
[<(General) Whiskers lvl. 0> Skill Ink]
In Ed\'s mind the skill could help the hybrid he was creating navigate.
Done with the skills, Ed decided to keep things simple use the body of an earthen worm. The earthen worm was just a magical earth worm but with the skills Ed provided... There was no doubt that the worm would become the strongest worm to ever dig the earth.
To make this a reality the skills needed to be branded first, however. Currently, Ed had no way to know what these skills would become after being branded. Ed had his hopes but hopes and reality often differed.
Ed no longer thought about this matter, he quickly searched through his storeroom and had the conveyor system send the necessary materials to the forge room. By the time he gathered enough millipede legs a good few minutes had passed.
\'I can\'t waste any more time!\' Ed thought as he began to work with a sense of hurry.
The end result might ultimately come out a little unpolished but Ed had no other choice but to rush the creation of this mount.
\'Ah crap! I forgot the consciousness!\' Ed thought as he finished creating the earthen worm and Millipede hybrid.
Ed hurried over into the spirit room where he picked out the consciousness of a lizardman. He made sure to wipe it clean before hurrying off elsewhere.
\'Let\'s brand skills!\' Ed thought, his target was the branding room. Ed could now only hope that W would last long enough for him to make his gallant and timely appearance.
The branding also consumed quite a good chunk of time after all. Ed spent a good few minutes just branding these few basic skills. By the time he left the system space...
\'Ed, please hurry!\' W was already shouting for help.
\'I will, just hold on a little longer!\' Ed transmitted back before summoning out his new mount from the assembly room.
It started to appear leg by leg until the entire body was fully revealed. This new mount looked a bit silly, it had the body of an earthen worm yet had numerous film-like legs however which more or less looked like small hairs.
\'Can this thing actually run?\' Ed secretly asked himself as the consciousness spread its influence through the long body of the hybrid. In a matter of a few seconds, the mount came to life.
\'Welcome to life, don\'t be too disappointed but you need to immediately get to work!\' Ed transmitted to the mount who cleanly understood his intentions.
It rapidly scurried next to Ed prompting him to get on.
\'Azalia, I will be back\' Ed said reassuring the tree for a second time of his eventual return.
The tree didn\'t respond and Ed didn\'t wait for it to do so either. He hopped onto the wormllipede and to his surprise, the thing was pretty fast! He coud feel the wind buffeting his face with every instant foot of distance!
The combination of skills he made for it worked well enough together to form dominance above and below ground.
\'Woah!\' That would be Ed\'s reaction whenever the worm activated its blitz skill. Since the worm-millipede wasn\'t crashing into anything it didn\'t suffer recoil. Since it didn\'t suffer recoil it could abuse the skill to achieve sudden bursts of speed.
There was a cooldown obviously but it wasn\'t short to the point where Ed saying woah became a rarity.
As for the digging part… well for the sake of demonstration Ed did have the wormllipede attempt to dig on the journey…
It was a catastrophic failure. The worm could not dig a tunnel large enough to fit a sitting Ed. He was knocked cleanly off the darn thing before he could even think to double back on the demonstration.
That was why for the rest of the journey, Ed decided to make more or at least plan more adjustments to the creature. Once they reached their destination Ed could fully implement these plans.
***
In the elven underground, in the storage floor, the elves were utterly lost.
"How did you lose skeletons!?!" Riniya shouted feeling extremely peeved.
"With all due respect, shouldn\'t it be how did WE lose skeletons?" The leader of this group of elf warriors said exasperated.
Riniya gnashed her teeth but didn\'t say anything. It was also a failure on her part of course but she\'d be stupid to openly admit that. Wasn\'t it much easier to push the blame onto someone else?
"Sigh…" Riniya let out a sigh, there weren\'t many places the two undead could have gone. If they found another exit the elves in the village would surely attack them for the mere fact that they were lone undead.
Not just that, but the elf that Riniya sent out before entering the storage floor carried a special message.
There are undead! Prepare to capture or kill them!
Riniya told the warrior to say this much so she was expecting some reinforcements by now.
"Search inside any container!" Riniya said having thought of the likely reason for the missing undead.
Noticing that Riniya had regained her rationale, the elven warriors were more willing to undertake her tasks.
"We were already on that" Said the leader of the group of warriors. More willing from not at all willing was not necessarily a great improvement. The warriors were still giving her some attitude.
Elsewhere, on that same floor, W and Idrisi were hiding just as expected.
\'Damn it...\' The problem was that their hiding spot wasn\'t very elaborate.
Since the arid elves were able to manipulate the soil most of the housing was just made of strengthened soil. The same applied to the cold and desolate storage floor. W was able to dig a hole big enough to fit himself and a dismantled Idrisi due to this and it was the only way they could hide in the otherwise mostly empty floor.
Fortunately, this hiding method proved to be very effective. The only problem was that the traces of digging couldn\'t be totally hidden and it was only a matter of time before they were discovered.
After repeatedly overlooking W and Idrisi\'s location they would start searching more and more thoroughly and at that point W and Idrisi would be doomed.
\'Well, I suppose I can at least catch a breather\' Using charge to escape again was not impossible.
\'It\'s too bad I couldn\'t find any obvious exit…\' W thought as he and Idrisi silently dug further and further into the wall. They had to wait for Ed but just in case he wouldn\'t get there in time escaping through digging always worked!