Stuck as a Dungeon Mob - Chapter 550: Price of Greed

The silent contemplation didn’t last however as Alolvi soon started to hear whispers from his kind.

“Well, maybe if it’s him it’s alright” Someone whispered. They were amongst the elves that had fainted previously, they wouldn’t have had any way to get over the wall without Alolvi so they were alright with the decision.

“I don’t… I don’t have any objections either” An elder said hesitantly. They were a bit soured by the fact that they were now part of the bottom rung of this society but…

“Yeah…” Another elder agreed. Alolvi had been a part of their elder council so it was alright to allow him to take up a much more important position, their turns would come eventually. It was again just a pity they weren’t the ones receiving that privilege…

The jealous gazes of the elves started to disappear one by one and were instead slowly replaced by grateful eyes. Some of those eyes even seemed excited. Was the lich going to give them more autonomy now that they had a leader!?!

The elves could now see a more proper future but… that was only if Alolvi was the leader. What if his refusal caused the lich to not choose anyone? They couldn’t have that!

“Agree!” “You are perfect for the role” “If not you then who?” Noises, no, pleasant words started to emerge from the back of the room. To Alolvi who was nothing but a warrior the pressure of these expectations seemed unbearably heavy but… a strong warrior like himself knew how to lift heavy weights, right?

“I have no other choice then… I’ll be your slave” Alolvi said solemnly causing Ed to twitch slightly. What a truly straightforward man!

“Ahem, it’ll be nothing like that, just make sure everyone is getting along” Ed said hoping to dispel Alolvi’s malicious impression of himself. Did he treat them that bad-?

‘I guess I did go a bit overboard thus far’ Ed quickly abandoned the topic and instead watched as Alolvi frowned and gripped the sword at his waist tightly.

“I’ll make sure they get along” Alolvi said with clear sadness. Ed was now left agape, was the man messing with him!?!

“You know what… Nevermind, don’t do anything until I tell you to” Ed couldn’t handle Alolvi’s persistent misunderstanding of his character. He was such a loveable individual, how could anyone misunderstand him so badly?

‘Ay, such is the life of a dungeon mob’ Misunderstandings were common place.

Ed finally decided to move on from Alolvi and now pointed to Sudryal.

“Sud, you are now in charge of advising the leader” Ed said to the elder whose eyes instantly gleamed.

“Hahaha, you can count on me!” Sudryal replied spiritedly. After trying out the fruit Ed gave him Sud was more than willing to get in Ed’s good books.

Ed nodded satisfied with the elder’s immediate approval and then looked back at the crowd of elves. They were all looking at him expectantly especially the other elves of the elder council.

“That’ll be all, you can all go home early today” Ed decided not to completely let down their expectations and let them all go home early.

“Ah…” “Nooo!” The elves saw this as punishment however based on their expressions and reactions.

‘Oh, right’ Ed immediately noticed his mistake.

“Don’t worry, it’s paid time off” Ed said as he summoned a pile of fruits. The elves all had their eyes shine too and maybe that was because they looked at Ed under a new light. Whatever the case, they all hurried to grab food from the pile and scurry out of the elven temple.

In the end, only a few elves were left in the chamber. There was Alolvi, Sudryal, the rest of the elders, and of course the ever persistent Riniya. Oh actually, Sanev was also present amongst those who remained.

“What are you all waiting for? Would you rather work for it?” Ed asked causing everyone who remained to flinch.

The elders were hesitant to leave however. Shouldn’t they be getting positions too? Riniya echoed this thought despite not belonging to the elder council so she also did not take a single step towards the food pile.

Seeing their unwillingness to move out, Ed decided to enact his plan. The potential targets were a little broad but there shouldn’t be any problem all the same.

“Well, it seems I’ll have to give you all some roles huh” Ed said before putting on a pensive posture. He then gestured towards Riniya asking her to come closer.

Riniya was for some reason put off by the gesture but still slowly made her way towards Ed.

“H- How can I h- help?” She asked while stuttering. Ed almost felt like laughing, didn’t she want a position? What was with the question?

“Do you want to become stronger? Now that Alolvi is a leader the warriors are left without a face” Ed told Riniya whose uneasiness immediately left her body. Her eyes practically turned into crescent moons as they curved upwards and her lips formed a big smile.

“Yes-” “No” Before Riniya could agree however Alolvi who had remained immediately interfered. He had his trademark serious expression as he rudely interrupted his niece.

Silence enshrouded the area. Cutting off Riniya was nothing much but considering that Ed had made a proposal and wanted an answer… that was rude towards him, the all powerful being who was ruling over their life and death.

“She isn’t fit” Alolvi added noting the silence.

“She might be a mage but she is fit if I think she is fit, we just need a combat force. I don’t discriminate between types of force” Ed informed Alolvi who still shook his head.

“I don’t care about that, I wouldn’t entrust the lives of our warriors to her” Alolvi said unshakingly. Ed wanted to form a wide smile at that moment, he really only had endless praise for the elf!

But Ed made sure to hide it, in this case Alolvi was interfering with his wishes.

“Let’s just put her to the test for a little bit then” Ed said giving some leeway to Alolvi who though still showing dissatisfaction backed off and no longer said a word.

This caused Riniya to gnash her teeth however. Her uncle who was her most important person was now getting in her way causing her to be overcome with complicated emotions.

“Hey, snap out of it” Ed said interrupting Riniya’s frustrated thoughts.

“Come closer” Ed then added. Riniya nodded absentmindedly and approached Ed who unexpectedly thrusted his palm at her head. Riniya could not at all react before her body flopped to the ground lifelssly.

The elves all immediately took wary stances, they had no idea what Ed had just done or why. Nevertheless, apart from Alolvi none of them showed any outright hostility. They were all meek since they believed Ed could kill them at a moments notice.

“Don’t worry, its part of the process” Ed said hoping to quell their wariness. He even offered a candid smile but… why did they seem scared instead of wary now?

Ed shook away the notion and simply chalked it up to his imagination, he had flashed them a very frank smile after all.

Ed then closed his eyes and entered the system space. His plan for Riniya was very simple, scare her. Well, not necessarily that simple since he had long fulfilled his plan if that was the case.

What Ed intended to do was instead to have her under the influence of the system’s command skill and then trick her into being afraid of this skill.

‘The command skill has rather high limitations but as long as she doesn’t know it’ll work out just fine’ All Ed had to do was give her simple commands to showcase his power over her and then never use it again.

By never using it again she would never have a chance to experiment with breaking free of the skill.

‘It’s not actually possible to break free of it though’ One could resist the will to do the command but after entering the system space it was impossible to not be subjected to the skill.

But if Ed learned one positive thing about Riniya it was that she had a strong will and ambition. Her other twisted qualities made these negative traits but if she really put her mind to it she could easily resist his commands.

‘That’s why I’ll need to give her no chance to think’ Ed had to leave her stunned even after she returned to her body.

After entering the system space, Ed hurried over to the spirit room and after a short while located the consciousness of Riniya. It significantly stood out when compared to the other consciousnesses there so it had been a piece of cake.

Ed grabbed this consciousness and dragged her with him out of the spirit room. In order to fool her, Ed planned to first take him to his living room.

‘The consciousnesses can’t remember anything in here since time is practically stopped but…’ The system’s living room was different. Ed had grown things there and he didn’t doubt that it would be possible for him to talk to consciousnesses there.

‘I should have tried this much sooner’ Ed thought expectantly.