As the mastermind behind everything, Ed could naturally hear the players' conversations.
They certainly had the enthusiasm of players pioneering a new game, whether they were asking questions or planning to compile a bestiary.
This was good, very much in line with his expectations. The game designer's efforts to personally cosplay Muninn had not been wasted.
But... Ed suddenly remembered that he apparently had yet to make Little Green's image-recording function available to them, which meant his bestiary entry probably would not have a photo anytime soon.
It seemed his bestiary entry would retain its air of mystery for a while longer.
In fact, although Ed's current combat strength left much to be desired, both [Verdant Crown] and [Otherworldly Half] were abilities that leaned toward the conceptual.
Combining the two had even let him cobble together a game system outright. He only needed to add a function to capture what the eyes saw, and then he could bring the images back to the other world through the Soul Webway. Compiling a bestiary would be no difficulty at all.
With that in mind, Ed decided to put this into tomorrow's or the day after tomorrow's optimizations. Then he picked up his burlap sack again and followed the pioneering players, beginning his own "player observation diary."
Much as Ed had expected, after obtaining information from him, the four quickly revised their plans for the day.
Besides building a raft, they intended to follow Ed's guidance and find some beast or monster brains, along with... chaotic souls that had yet to dissipate.
It had to be reiterated here that Ed's requirements for performing Otherworldly Soul Summoning were not actually that complicated. There were still only two conditions: a "body" and "permission."
He had asked the players for brains, of course, to construct bodies capable of housing souls. As for utterly chaotic souls, that was complete nonsense. He had said that out of another consideration-
Ed's current level was only "2," and the number of player souls he could summon was capped at four. Only by having these four initial players capture those beasts alive, then landing the finishing blows himself to gain experience and level up, could he ultimately increase his soul strength and expand the Webway's capacity.
There was naturally no need to let the players know about this, just as he would only act in ways befitting an NPC. The only difference from other games was that this NPC was occasionally very intelligent, and those occasions were frequent.
Not far ahead of Ed, the four players were whispering among themselves.
[Zhongde]: "Why's the Guide still following us?"
[Do Some Farm Work]: "Isn't that good? Without him, no one would heal us if we lost an arm or a leg. Just think of him as a healing bot."
[Good Times Don't Last]: "Actually, isn't this pretty normal? Like the Guide NPC in '〇erraria,' who follows the player early in the game, providing both guidance and protection."
[Howling Pothos]: "Then when are you planning to throw in a voodoo doll and sacrifice him?"
[Good Times Don't Last] jumped and instinctively looked back at Ed, only to see a trace of the gentleness unique to bots in the young NPC's single eye.
He turned back and said to [Howling Pothos]:
"I'm loyal to my faction. I wouldn't do something like that, even to an NPC."
[Howling Pothos] did not respond further. He merely marveled inwardly at how loyal and devoted this newbie was even toward NPCs. If his combat ability really did prove strong later on, he could be recruited into the team he was currently putting together in his head.
Ed naturally heard those words too, but he did not particularly care-
What a joke. I'm always the one sacrificing other people. How could I ever end up being sacrificed?
Meanwhile, the players briefly divided up the work. Before today's test began, [Howling Pothos] had specifically set aside two hours to learn how to make a simple wooden raft.
The materials dropped by the vine sheep they had killed yesterday would now come in handy. He intended to use his own flesh and blood to cultivate some vines, then use these all-natural ropes to lash the logs together.
After he briefly explained his plan, [Good Times Don't Last] decided to build the raft with him. The newbie's main role was to cut off the vines at the critical moment, preventing them from sucking [Howling Pothos] dry.
As for [Zhongde] and [Do Some Farm Work], they intended to see whether the soul-summoning method Ed had described could actually get them slots in the closed beta.
The four split into two groups and soon got to work.
Since they had gained a preliminary understanding of the nearby terrain yesterday, the two responsible for hunting soon concealed themselves.
Although there were relatively few trees in the wilderness near the old castle, large patches of bushes occasionally appeared.
Neither had actually hunted in their original world, but they had at least seen how it was done, so they crawled into the bushes and began waiting for prey.
Soon, their wait yielded two "plum blossom" deer that seemed to have appeared in the promotional concept art.
Looking at the antlers blooming with flowers, [Do Some Farm Work] whispered:
"You know, female deer generally don't grow antlers, so these two in front of us are both males. By normal game logic, if a species has two members left, they can still breed a whole herd, but with this game's settings being so detailed, it's hard to say."
"Then are the flowers on their antlers male or female?"
[Zhongde] clearly had a different focus from [Do Some Farm Work], and posed his question with quite the scientific spirit.
"Good question. I don't know either, but it doesn't matter now. They're coming."
The two stags with flowers blooming on their antlers slowly approached the bushes, which looked tender and succulent.
A floral fragrance spread, silently drifting into the two players' nostrils.
Both naturally noticed the fragrance, but to avoid alerting their prey, they merely exchanged a brief glance before continuing to stare fixedly at their targets.
The two plum blossom deer drew closer and closer. The two players in the bushes wanted to spring up and attack, only to suddenly discover that their bodies had gone weak and limp. Even the short spears in their hands had slipped free at some unknown point.
Like two utterly drunk men, they merely propped themselves halfway up and swayed from side to side before collapsing completely. Yet the two stags showed no sign of being startled. Instead, they remained calm, as though they had expected this.
The two looked at their translucent stat panels and, sure enough, found a debuff named [Paralyzing Toxin]!
The floral fragrance!
The floral fragrance was poisonous!
Facing the plum blossom deer, which bared two rows of sharp teeth, the two came to this realization before being devoured completely.
Their supposedly brilliant concealment had been exposed long ago. Those two plum blossom deer had never been coming for the bushes!
Sure enough, high-end hunters often made their entrance in the guise of prey.