Stuck as a Dungeon Mob

After sending off Sanev, the life in the Elven City continued on as normal. The market for the water fruits stabilized as Sudryal was able to break the monopoly that Riniya had. 

Of course, a duopoly was within reach but Sudryal did something that absolutely destroyed the possibility of this occurring.

His fruits were sold with seeds. He sold them at a premium thanks to this fact but as others with great array making skills got in on the action the water fruits' price had no choice but to go down.

Now, while more expensive than say the orc blood fruits, the water fruits were not a rare commodity.

Since things had normalized and people fell into a routine of doing their jobs it didn't need to be said that Ed too returned to his usual shenanigans.

'Ed, not like that!' In the temple housing the divine tree Azalia, Ed was drawing an array. He was acting very carefully so as to not make anything explode but it seemed he would never be as good as Azalia in that regard.

Listening to the tree's warnings from time to time, Ed finally managed to create a very special array.

'I'll dub you… Self Sustaining Biological Array' Ed thought as he inspected his creation.

[Self Sustaining Biological Array]

[ An array drawn by Ed capable of drawing energy from plants with elemental energy. ]

The self-sustaining biological array had the purpose of generating mana of a certain element using the elemental mushrooms Ed was growing in the system's space's living room. 

The way that the mushrooms maintained their elemental properties was by taking the elementless mana in the air and turning it into their own element. The specifics of how they did this… Even as a mushroom Ed wasn't quite able to figure it out.

'They all originated from crystals' So in theory they should have ran out of mana eventually. The only explanation was that they took in the existing mana in the surroundings.

'But mana of all elements doesn't exist in abundance in all places' System voodoo magic alone wasn't able to explain why these creations would never run out of mana in environments not otherwise suited for them. That meant that the mushrooms and any other plants that had similar traits must have employed this tactic.

'Though I can't imagine it is a very practical strategy' There was a reason why these things would normally be found in areas with high quantities of their elements.

'No wait… Could this be a chicken and egg situation?' Maybe areas with high quantities of fire mana for example became that way due to the mana photosynthesis of the plants in the area?

Ultimately these possibilities were irrelevant to Ed's mushrooms as he had simply created them. There was no chicken or egg, there was Ed. This allowed Ed to quickly realize that he was losing track of what mattered

Ed dialed things back to before his mushroom rant. What exactly did Ed want with this array? What did he envision?

'It's time to plan our return to the Bloodhaven' Ed's previous trip there taught him a lot about how dangerous it was to travel on foot in the Bloodhaven. He planned to send flying scouts to survey the entirety of the area.

W's skeletal winged body was full of mushrooms that served the purpose of exploding but what if he changed the idea? What if the biological life he equipped the skeletal body with was instead meant to create a mini climate? Would it be possible to offset the harshness of the desert?

That was the theory and Ed meant to have W help him put it to the test. As such, he called W over. He had already informed him of his plans so he instantly knew what was going on and let Ed drag him and the body into the system space.

The elves who were working their jobs were curious as to what Ed was doing after he put away the creepy creature that kept watch over them. Eventually they were forced to avert their gaze by their will to live. It wouldn't do them good to prod into Ed's matters.

In the system space, Ed did his best with the help of the system forge to separate every foreign object from the original winged creation only to now work on making it so it could house an array.

'This means fundamentally changing the skeleton' The power of the mind would hopefully work its magic and ensure that W's body would still be able to fly.

'Maybe I should draw some array to lighten the body and reduce air resistance as a means to increase flight speeds' The creatures of the Bloodhaven could still attack flying entities so it would be like killing two W's with one blood jet spray.

'Well, hopefully that idiom doesn't become an actual happening' Ed would need to make sure that W was blood jet proof.

As such Ed made sure to use the system forge to reinforce key parts of the skeleton with more metal. With these adjustments, Ed also planned to add more skills to the skeleton.

'I already provided it with some useful skill inks but more can't hurt' The only problem was that Ed could very easily start running out of these things if he wasn't careful. It had been quite a bit since he last visited the caverns and killed the creatures there.

Putting these worries aside, there was no reason why he shouldn't at least level up some of the existing skills the body had so as to increase its prowess.

'I don't intend to send W out by himself though so I need to be frugal' He needed a flock of the things to cover as much ground as possible.

With that in mind, Ed quickly got to work on mass producing the things he needed with the help of the spirits in his system space. Ultimately Ed managed to create around 5 other skeletal bat creatures that boasted a lesser but nonetheless impressive set of skills when compared to W's body.

'Now it's just time to draw the arrays and then attach the mushrooms' Ed didn't attach any mushrooms yet as he needed to make sure he could draw the array freely.

'Noooo!!!!' But he wasn't a machine so he did still need to hear from Azalia on the matter.

'Phew, done' Soon enough a flock of the things was created. These skeletal creatures had large wings and were inscribed with runic letters on their backs as well as mushrooms mainly consisting of the water element.

Ed also came up with a small idea. One that he hoped wouldn't turn out negatively. Borrowing from the idea of blood clots…

[Blood Mushroom]

[ A mushroom with blood coursing through its system. ]

The result was quite interesting but based on the system's assessment the things weren't exactly promising. Ed wondered if he could drop these things into the Bloodhaven and see them multiply rapidly but it was hard to say.

'If they could though…' Maybe it was possible for Ed to create a mushroom empire in the Bloodhaven and since the area would be under his control the elves could have a comfortable place to take refuge in.

'Well, as comfortable as a mushy island in a sea of blood can get' The sights wouldn't be pretty, that Ed was certain of. Plus, the place was not likely to stay put and accept that it now had a fungus infection.

'Any elves there would no doubt face constant waves of assailants' As such Ed would simply drop the mushrooms in the area and see the effects before he would ever consider putting any lives there. 

With all the arrangements complete, Ed could finally tell W and the other creatures to begin their test flights.

The creatures lined themselves up in the temple and then began to run for lift off. As they weren't planes they didn't wait for very long before flapping their wings and beginning their ascent.

As soon as their wings began to flap, the runes that formed the array of their bodies connected and began to glow. Immediately the water mushrooms on their backs also began to glow as they were now receiving sustenance from the array.

In spite of this, it quickly became clear to Ed that throwing a bunch of skills onto the creature alone wouldn't create fast flight.

While the creatures were able to become airborne and were currently running laps around the temple's ceiling, they weren't exactly quick. To put their size into perspective, they were at least half as tall as Ed.

'If I trim them down they should be faster and more agile' Making them smaller would also make them smaller targets which would be great considering that whenever it became night they became glowing targets.

'Well, at least the array seems to work as intended' The idea of having the runes connect when flying meant the array's size and design would need to be adjusted to account for the changes in size.

This idea came after Ed deliberated on how to have the array activate when it was needed. As they weren't part of the creatures' body, they wouldn't be able to activate it as easily as moving a limb.

He naturally made the connection that the wings movements would push certain parts of the body against one another.

'Nevertheless…' Ed could tell that the connection was too brief. The array was barely activated.

'They will need to adopt a flight pattern that allows the connection to be maintained for longer or they will need to flap faster' Ed jotted down these internal notes and called the creatures and W down.

He would make as many adjustments as he needed to make and send them off towards the Bloodhaven the next day.