The question of the hour however was how exactly Ed was supposed to use this variant ink. The obvious answer was to grow some trees but Ed only had one array for growing trees.

'The quad input tree growth array' As the name suggested, it had four input points. The one for earth mana, the other for water mana, the input for the tree, and the input for the controller.

Ed had managed to increase the size of this array to encompass a wider area in the orc plains so he was rather adept with the array. This fact was in itself the problem, that array was too fundamentally simple.

'I might need to remake the array' He could use the quad input array as a basis but realistically the whole array would need an overhaul.

'Using the elves' improved runes I can use a single input source' The input source would be able to take in multiple different energies and separate them and mix them accordingly.

Doing this with regular ink and runes would make for a needlessly large formation. With less effort, one could just make multiple inputs as Ed had demonstrated. The end result would be more or less the same in terms of size.

'Let's see.. First let's settle what it needs to do and what I want it to do' Ed believed this would help him brainstorm.

The array's goal was to grow trees. He could create a small array that worked on individual saplings but he could also make a larger scale one that could be used in future plantations.

Thinking about it logically, the most effective array would be the single tree array. The downsides of this array mainly consisted of excessive consumption of resources. On the flip side, making a plantation-grade array would help him save resources but the effectivity on the trees would be lessened.

Since both options brought with them opposite advantages and disadvantages it was just a matter of need or personal preference.

'Let's create an individual array' What did Ed want? He wanted to help the divine sap tree grow! Creating a fruit orchard would not help his non-existent population. Using individual arrays as a form of practice would be much better.

'Since I wouldn't be using it on a large scale the loss of resources would be minimal too' The option was practically made for him.

Without further ado, Ed brought out fruit from his inventory. This fruit was nothing other than the orc blood fruit.

'I don't have lots of fruits, this one should do' The orc blood fruit had proven that it could adapt to environments sufficiently well. If it couldn't adapt the fruit wouldn't exist as the blood orc fruit, maybe just orc fruit if it was lucky.

The other fruits he had were from the mushroom caverns and the marshlands. There were lots of fruits there even if they weren't all umm.. healthy..

Ed did not want to handle anything poisonous never mind plant it.

After taking a couple of bites from the orc blood fruit and garnering its seed, Ed looked around Azalia's chamber and found a nice-looking corner. The only problem was that the nice-looking corner was missing something...

Earth.

'I have a high mana stat, I should try to manipulate the earth' When he first needed to manipulate mana as a skeleton the earthen mana was given to him by his master at the time, the lich.

When he was an orc Vorgarag had him undergo a test of affinity. Doing this test was pretty simple but as an elf, Ed was already filled with mana. Normally, that wouldn't exempt him from a test but Ed was an anomaly.

He had a high level of mana manipulation in multiple bodies and he had personally come up with or found different theories of magic. Any new body he started in henceforth could not be compared to the normal.

For this particular case, Ed could try taking in the earth mana first and if he suffered a backlash, suppressing it with the element-less mana in his body should be possible.

The suppression would be very wasteful but Ed couldn't be bothered to set up the magic compatibility test array.

Ed focused for a moment and tried to draw in the element of earth towards his body. The element-less mana that occupied his body was quickly swapped out for that of the earth.

Ed maintained a wary stance at all times but the earth did not seem to cause any mishaps within his body.

'Good, I have at least one affinity' Ed thought in jest.

[<Earth Manipulation lvl. 1> Acquired]

'Hm?' Ed didn't think much of the skill notice at first but it seemed he started on level one for some reason. This was weird, the only explanation was that the elf body had an innate ability to manipulate earthen mana.

'Maybe this is what they call talent' Ed was in the mood for jokes but starting off at level one was something noteworthy, could he be blamed for feeling a bit happy?

But he was just a bit happy, the occurrence was noteworthy but that was all it was, something to remember and keep note of. Realistically it didn't change much for him or what he had to do.

The corner Ed picked out started transforming itself and suitable soil soon surfaced. The orc blood seeds could be planted there right now.

Ed brought out a brush from his inventory, this was the array brush he made before. He had stored the elven array ink in a small container in which he dipped the brush.

The normal elven ink per his observations was a maroon color, Ed's variant was more of a clear maroon color.

The maroon brush tip then floated over the newly surfaced soil. The ground looked somewhat dry in spite of having been dug out from below the surface and Ed wasn't sure if he should water it first and draw later.

After just a small bit of hesitation, Ed went through with putting down his brush. He made a small runic circle before then making runic patterns that progressively spiraled out into another circle. Ed was copying a sequence he witnessed in the water management arrays.

Ed believed he had grasped the basics of this sequence. The circle shape Ed was so accustomed to only played a small role, and the spiral was the obvious highlight.

This spiral had two lanes of runes drawn onto them. These lanes were like normal lanes of traffic, one sent in traffic another sent it out. The traffic that was sent in would be processed by the small runic circle at the middle and then be sent out through the correct lane.

Those were a lot of words though, what was the crux of this little trick?

The spiral's ability to both draw in and draw out mana was the key reason multiple inputs were deemed unnecessary. The innermost circle, the one Ed started spiraling out from, just had to verify the elements going in.

[Formationist has leveled up]

'Phew, all that effort paid off in the end' All of his meticulous studies culminated into something, one could say his studies bore fruits. What a great feeling!

On second thought, it was too early to say it bore fruits.

'This is just the beginning..' All Ed did in the past few minutes was drawing the source of the mana. The logic to actually make the tree grow still needed to be deciphered.historical

Ed was actually not too worried about deciphering this logic. Since he did it once using different runes he could do it again, it was just a matter of time. What did worry Ed was the amount of time it would take for him to draw more of these elven arrays in the future.

'Smaller isn't better' Since he was working on a smaller scale he had to be far more careful. This would take time, if he was careless he might lose a limb. It didn't help ease Ed's worry that the variant ink he created was more volatile. If it blew.. it would BLOW..

Azalia was a newly named entity, how could he let her die so soon from a dumb mistake? That was part of the reason why Ed picked a corner of her chamber.

Thinking about the divine tree caused Ed to let out a sigh, it was still acting like a child.

After some pondering, Ed put down his brush anew. He drew a single rune before a message entered his mind.

'Wrong!' The message stated causing Ed to frown.

He tuned to Azalia with a doubtful expression and decided to do some probing.

'How do you know that?' Ed had an inkling but it was a good idea to have the tree confirm his suspicions.

'I know!' But the response lacked wordiness, a complaint most would believe unthinkable.

While Ed didn't get the response he wanted, he still smiled.

'Can you help me then? Since you know?' He said to Azalia who promptly replied by sending her enthusiastic emotions to Ed through the link.

'Happy to! Will help!' The message said exuding childish innocence.

Ed continued to draw on the formation. He had many things to ask the divine tree. For example, how could it see what he was doing? Did it make any sense for a tree to have eyes?

The divine tree clearly held a secret.