Ajax was happy with his fight against the kobold. Despite having to use [Mana Syphon] on a high (medium if you consider the ambient mana) consumption rate he managed to dispatch the caster quickly.
“Is a den or village exactly what it sounds like?” he asked Nelly.
“Pretty much, they also act like a tavern for bosses which makes them a pain to deal with.” she said happily.
“If that’s the case why do you sound so happy?” Ajax asked.
“Because they always come with some good prime crafting materials we can take with us.” she grinned.
“If there are no mana cores or anything else of value then let's get moving” Jones called out.
“Assassin had poisoned blow darts, if anyone wants to use them for this run.” The scout held them out to our rangers.
“Looks like a nerve toxin not a hemorrhagic one.” one of the ragers examining the darts said. “I’ll take them, poisons carried by semi-intelligent races usually work on most anything else on the floor. Who knows when we might need to paralyze something.”
With that the entire team got back into formation and continued moving down the tunnel. Unlike before however Devin now seemed very interested in Ajax, Jaclyn was much more so but none of them could tell thanks to her more anti-social behavior.
“You said your name was Ajax?” Devin started the conversation.
“Yeah.” Ajax confirmed.
“That was quite something back there.” he nodded back down the tunnel from where they were coming. “I honestly expected you to be a healer or something considering you’re only level twenty-six. Boy was I wrong.”
“Thanks, I guess.” Ajax awkwardly answered, he wasn’t used to chatting like this with people he didn’t know. Devin’s always upbeat, happy go lucky attitude was also something he didn’t have a lot of experience with.
“I have to say despite having eight levels on you I don’t think I stand a chance against you.” he complimented Ajax. “Your style is also very interesting to me, it seems like a mix of magic and physical.”
Ajax just nodded at that, it was something that was very easy to see.
“My sister might have a chance against you if you weren’t using magic but I doubt I could take you.” he just kept a conversation going by himself. “She’s more the fighter out of the two of us.”
“I might have gotten ahead of her in levels thanks to all the social skills I picked up, but I haven’t managed to win a single round in sparring her in the last two years.”
Ajax was about to correct him that without his magic he probably couldn’t even win against Devin. He barely stopped himself in time realizing that doing so would mean having to explain [Mana Syphon].
He wasn’t sure what it was about Devin but something was making him want to talk with the man. It wasn’t anything like a mental attack but more along the lines of how merchant skills helped you find a proper selling or buying price. He guessed that this was from the social skills he mentioned having, but Ajax marked as someone who he’d have to watch himself around.
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“That light spell was also quite odd.” Devin just pushed on. “I can’t cast spells myself but I have been in three different dungeon runs before this and none of the mages in those groups had a spell like that. I have to say it’s very convenient.”
“Not as convenient as an axe.” Bobby joined in.
“I have to admit that that two-handed axe of yours really is something as well.” Devin moved on to talk with the plated front-liner.
“Sorry about him,” Jaclyn whispered to Ajax. “He has a lot of social skills and is used to being surrounded by other nobles who have them and want to raise them.”
All Ajax could do was nod at this. He could see the upside in leveling some social skills but even if they were easy to get he already dreaded having to level them. The entire team came to a stop in front of a dead end. Embedded into the wall of the cavern was a decently sized chunk of copper ore.
“Alright, looks like the den is most likely to contain some metal of sorts.” the scout said.
“I’m hoping it’s gold or platinum.” Bobby chimed in.
“Might as well hope one of their mages messes up a spell and blows up half their forces.” Nelly muttered. “You’ll have equal chances of it happening.”
“Why is that?” Ajax asked.
“Nobody knows why, but anything at silver level or higher in terms of value, when talking metals of course, doesn’t spawn in the dungeon. It has only been rumored to have happened twice in the last twenty years in this kingdom.”
“Then how is high quality armor made?”
“From natural deposits.” Jaclyn answered. “ Gryndor's main export is actually high quality platinum. The current Goldmacer family earned their title in large part due to the deposit their patriarch found more than four hundred years ago.”
Ajax appreciated the information. He also promised himself to have Judy and Alana give him a few lessons about who owned what in terms or resources near the capital before he traveled there. That information might just end up being more useful than learning his bootlegged version of healing magic if he gets the wrong attention.
The entire team turned back around and continued onwards in the other tunnel at the fork. They didn’t encounter anything in the tunnel for over an hour before it opened up into a large cavern.
“There is something on the ceiling.” Nelly gave out a warning. “I can feel some magic.”
Ajax also felt the magic but he didn’t quite recognise why it felt slightly familiar. As he was trying to work out where he noticed magic like this before the group came under assault from the mana infused sonic attack of the bats.
The attack caught them all by surprise. Unlike Ajax and the two nobles however this wasn’t the first time the team had been exposed to sonic attacks from bats. They weren’t stunned and showed why they were one of the best teams in Lessis, before Ajax even recovered from the sonic attack all of the bats were already dead.
Despite this Ajax felt a much fainter pulse of mana from behind one of the rangers. He also remembered now why it seemed so familiar. He didn’t waste a moment and tossed his spear as hard as he could while also infusing the tip with ice. He managed to nail the vampire in the throat before he could bite down on his teammate.
Even though the vampire was a boss, their intrinsic weakness carried through. Without having been given a chance to feed it could barely access half the power his level should have and didn’t even manage to get up after taking the spear hit.
With the immediate threat taken care of Ajax got to work using his recently learned healing magic. All he was doing was patching up his own ear drums after the number those bats pulled on them. Just like he expected, even that small amount of damage still ate a good two hundred mana from him to fix.
“Hey cool, a vampire boss.” Devin was yelling, the sonic attack from the bats clearly having done a number on his ears as well.
The young knight didn’t get a chance to say anything else before his sister slammed her palm over his mouth before pointing to her ears. Devin wasn’t an idiot so he caught on quickly to what she meant, not only that but he also had the good sense to blush for the outburst.
“Sorry.” he got out in a reasonable volume. “If you don’t have a buyer lined up any chance I can take the fangs?”
“What are the fangs good for?” Ajax asked Nelly.
“Profit.” The greedy scout was rubbing his palms in anticipation.
“Nothing” Nelly followed up. “But vampires' fangs are one of the many parts that are useless but look intimidating enough for nobles to collect them.”
“Boss, found an alcove over there” the scout pointed to a side of the massive open cavern. “It's going to be a bit of a tight fit with so many of us but I think it’s our best choice for setting up camp for today.”
“I got the bat corpse,” Donny said, picking out the biggest of the bats from the floor.
“Has it got a monster core?” Ajax asked.
“No.” Donny responded.
“Most of the times when vampires are present in the dungeon they aren’t bosses.” Jones started explaining for once and even the nobles looked interested, this wasn’t some general knowledge Ajax was missing.
“That means that they report to a boss version of the bats, most likely. Since we are dealing with a den or a village, the plan is to throw the corpse on one of their fires. With any luck there will be a horde of bats hanging around above.”
“With the vampires being intelligent enough they’ll recognise the smell of one of their own being burned and report it to the boss. After that the boss will react instinctively and we might get them to fight each other and we only clean up what is left.”