As they exited the second archway Ajax was hit with another sensory overload. This one was much weaker but it was still felt as the mana density increased as they entered the second floor.

“You’ll get used to it the more you are exposed but the odd feeling never really goes away.” Nelly said while propping him up. “There are even some bosses that flood the surrounding area with mana during a fight so be prepared in case this happens.”

Ajax nodded at the advice. The second floor was completely random and as such they had to be ready for anything. More surprisingly was that he felt the mana surrounding him had reached a high enough density that he could syphon it. [Mana Syphon] could work on the surrounding mana at an approximate cost of three mana per second. It wasn’t much but it did mean that as the floors rose higher he would be given more and more free mana to syphon for his physical power increase.

Feeling a particularly high density in the arch he placed his hand upon it. That he found mana in the arch was no surprise but getting it to give any of it up was like pulling teeth. More surprisingly was that the mana he pulled from the arch wasn’t neutral, it in fact had hints of wind and earth and fire.

Looking around at the desert they seemed to be stranded in made him start building a theory, sadly however it was one he didn’t have anywhere near enough information to complete. He was rather ecstatic about this however as he would get plenty of chances to gather and test his theory in his time with the Collectors.

With all the immediate concerns pushed aside he pulled up the System notifications that had been blinking in his vision.

Achievement : Born Completionist

Fully clear the first dungeon floor you enter.

Reward : +3 to all stats.

! (lesser versions of the achievement can no longer be obtained.)

Boss Completionist

Fully clear all bosses on the first dungeon floor you enter.

Reward: +2 to all stats.

Completionist

Fully clear a dungeon floor.

Reward : +2 to all stats.

Boss Hunter

Kill all bosses on a dungeon floor.

Reward : +1 to all stats.

This breakdown of achievements did leave him thinking if he made a mistake. Was there a chance to get both Boss Completionist and the normal Completionist to gain an extra +1 to all stats? He quickly dismissed the idea on closer inspection as Boss Hunter would overlap and it would take out the normal version of completionist.

He then took a look at his other notification.

Progression Achievement : Delver

Pass through an advancement arch inside a dungeon.

Reward: +1 to all stats.

Progress : Passing arches to levels you haven’t been to advances this achievement.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Reward: +1 to all stats for any progress made.

!For a floor to count towards progression you must be at most two levels higher than the highest creature on the floor and have contributed to the dungeon exploration in a meaningful way.

“Are you done looking at the system?” Donny’s gruff voice broke him out of his thinking.

“Uh…” Ajax realized that they thought he had spent all this time looking at the notifications because others didn’t know how to keep them minimized. He coughed awkwardly. “Yeah, yeah, I am done. What does it mean to contribute?”

“Already thinking about progressing are you?” Bobby said with a teasing tone. “He sure is a go-getter.”

“Ignore him.” Nelly said. “There are quite a few ways to contribute. Taking part in the fighting is an obvious one, healing injuries of your comrades is another. The system somehow seems to have a rather complex understanding of dungeons since workarounds that work for other achievements don’t on the Delver.”

“Might be because of the mana density or the arches…” Ajax mumbled as he nodded but nobody heard him.

“The achievement is a bait though so be careful.” She finished her explanation.

“What?” Ajax re-read the system message but still couldn’t see the trap.

“Think about it carefully.” Jones said “Even if we manage to fully clear this floor what will happen?”

“I’ll prog…” his words died in his throat as he thought it through.

Ajax realized that nothing would happen. In order to claim the progression he would have to go through the arch to the next level. The problem was that would trigger the next floor, which left him to deal with a new floor or let the creatures there loose on the outside as soon as he exited.

“I’d have to enter the third floor,” he said weakly.

“Got it in one, I knew you were smart.” Bobby patted him on the shoulder.

“The level restriction, contribution requirement and entrance to the next floor usually mean that you won’t be progressing that achievement much.” Jones finished.

His words however brought back Hatchet's extreme reaction to his way of banking stats and how much he had managed to push himself before he ever spent them. He had said once that this head start would let him grow his lead further and now he knew how.

He wasn’t as limited as others in searching for a group to essentially carry him a floor above his abilities while also letting him face the appropriate floor alone to gain the contribution, or, more widely spread, running a dungeon with a small enough floor level jump that you can clear the floor above while still within the two level requirement. The importance of the dungeon near the capital grew once again in his eyes.

“Stick to the center.” Jones said as they got moving once again. “This seems to be a desert biome but we don’t know anything about it.”

“How many types of desert biomes can there be?” Ajax asked incredulously, but still complied and took his assigned position as porter.

“Quite a few actually.” Nelly said from beside him. “You can have scorpions and camels as usual ground enemies. Vultures are decently common as flying threats. Snakes and crocodiles are a staple of oassises that might show up. If we are unlucky we could even have a sand borrower type like a giant worm.”

Ajax wasn’t the only one to give a more guarded look to the sand they were standing on and was suddenly feeling a lot less safe despite the clear visibility in all directions. Not only that but his position at the center seemed more like a target to him now, a sand burrower would hit dead center of a group with little to no warning, whereas other threats their formation might protect him from would be visible from a mile off.

“We got anything to search for in the desert?” the scout asked Jones, under normal circumstances he would already be off to explore the surroundings but in this situation that would mean going off alone so far that should anything happen he would be dead. “Besides the massive vulture we might be able to help the Reavers with?”

“Yes, we do. That old request from six months ago.” he responded, which got groans from everyone.

“Look on the bright side, we got a porter for it now.” Bobby pitched. As everybody turned to give Ajax a look of pity.

“What job is this?” he asked.

“A merchant we do business with had an odd request. He needs some larger grained strong sand. It can be found near rocks in the desert and it needs to be in a higher dungeon floor so that it is strong enough to not instantly get thinned out.” Jones diplomatically said.

“If we find it, you’ll be carrying around a lot of sand.” Donny translated the flowery language.

Ajax knew he was being a bit cynical here but a part of him hoped they wouldn’t find any sand that fit the description.

“To think that we are in a desert and the profitable thing we are searching for is sand.” Ajax shook his head at the irony.

“That’s not the most profitable thing.” Nelly cut in. “It’s what we have an open contract on.”

“Yeah, despite all the pain a desert is, it’s also a gold mine.” the scout chimed in.

“How so?” Ajax asked.

“Simple.” he answered. “Most speciose here lay eggs. If we happen upon an unhatched nest we have a decent one in five chance for each egg to not burst into mana when we take it outside.”

“He’s right.” Bobby continued. “Now one in five might sound low, but of the eggs that survive being brought out of the dungeon only one in a thousand actually hatch.”

“And that's a generous estimate.” the scout said. “But it means nothing since the rich nobles and merchants still start a bidding war over each one.”

It looked like they were willing to go deeper on the subject but they were cut off by a signal from Jones.

“Focus up,” he said while pointing to the left. “Looks like the Reavers got lucky, I see at least five vultures closing in on us.