Changing back to wielding his usual melee weapons Ajax wasted no time in taking out all three orcs in moments. The only reason he was able to dispatch level fifties quite that easy was because of the irritating damage he had done with the blaster but also because they weren’t expecting him to dash into a melee frontal assault after a ranged sneak attack.
Once he was done with the orcs Ajax chose to continue playing around with the blaster instead of starting a second round of alchemy. This latest combat had shown him just how much some of his skill could go. For all intents and purposes the blaster was simply a weapon that focused small bursts of radiance magic. Ajax had known that such enchanted wands and staff did exit but he had been told in no uncertain terms that they suck.
This wasn’t a wrong opinion to have either, considering that enchantments use an external mana source unlike runes it means that with all the different variety of attacks creating one static way to attack wasn’t all that useful. Though the blaster had clearly proven that so long as you pushed enough you could come up with something decent.
What surprised Ajax however was the interaction between the blaster and his [Mana Augmentation] skill. It seemed that he could use the skill in order to create a stable mix of radiance and whatever mana type he added afterwards. The results were marginally useful for the amount of mana they cost but their experience of mixing mana like that with his skills was invaluable.
Aiming the blaster at one of the orc corpses nearby Ajax went ahead and proceeded to fire an Ice augmented shot. The result was much as expected, the shot itself was unaffected in its travel time but upon contect it released a small flash freeze.
Just as there were certain mana types that mixed very poorly with radiance some were a perfect fit, both magma and holy were great choices as the holy would purify anything in the small area of the shot while the magma had its slow travel time covered.
The unruly kickback of the blaster also helped Ajax unlock the Uncommon skill [Focused Aim], not only that but he could actively feel his mana control improving as he started fine tuning how powerful the augmentations on each blast are.
He finally stopped when his mana dropped to one quarter, from there he had moved on to collecting the ingredients for his next [Alchemy] session.
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While Ajax was slowly working his way through his ideal dungeon floor biome things on the outside of the dungeon weren’t going quite as smoothly. A small wave of panic went through the guards waiting outside the arch when Lexi and Anna exited together with a tied up Olvier.
Thankfully for all of them the Empire guards were more than understand about political assassination attempts inside dungeons, this meant that while they offered them the courtesy of not interrogating Oliver they did scour through every single spacial item that exited the dungeon.
“There was one more with you when you went in.” the guard finally said as he was handing everything back. “Did he die?”
“I thought it would be a good idea to make sure we had time to properly process everything by the book considering the situation, he is still alive inside so no monsters came out when we exited.” Anna said diplomatically.
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“He also mentioned something about hunting for crystals.” Lexi jumped in with the cover story already established.
Oliver simply remained silent throughout the entire process. It wasn’t just the depression coming from the failed mission that was making him so obedient. Rather it was his desire to not bring an international incident to his father’s doorstep along with the failed mission.
Having been cleared Lexi, Anna and Oliver were escorted by one guard through the city towards their courtyard while the other guard remained to wait for Ajax should he deem to exit the dungeon. Little did the poor guard know that they would be waiting a fair amount of time for this.
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“You don’t seem all that surprised by the assassination attempt.” The emperor addressed Xavier as he had joined his father for lunch with the imperial family.
“We were warned ahead of time that something like it may happen during our trip and stay here.” Xavier answered neutrality, inside however he was cursing the emperor for using his high social skills against someone so young in order to get a better hold of the situation.
“That’s good, one unexpected surprise is as much as any trip requires.” the emperor sneered as he referred to Theron’s lucky break. Multiple offers had been made by the empire to the beastkin in hopes to recover the worms. Unfortunately for them all that did was lead to a few angry merchants as they were forced to treat the beastkin with respect while making their offers only to be rejected.
“Is there anything you would be willing to share about the tournament coming in a few years?” This time the emperor addressed the crown prince much to Xavier’s relief.
“The elves are expected to win it.” the crown prince offered. “They are simply in too deep of a financial hole following their most recent monarch. Seeing how their champion is yet to follow its king into retirement their victory is all but assured. The only question remaining is how much we can get from them for it.”
None of this information was new to the imperial family, their spies had kept them well in the loop concerning the big moves. “What are you hoping to get from them?” the imperial crown prince asked.
“We are looking to see about obtaining delves into their dungeon as well.” the crown prince answered.
“That’s a lot of dungeons your nation will be visiting in the next few years.” the emperor chimed in. “Our dungeon here, the elf’s, I’ve heard rumors about your father finally cashing in that dungeon delve favor from the republic and you will be coming back to mine after all that.”
“With how fresh this peace is and the somewhat assured longevity of it based on their champions' good health now is the time to start preparing our next generation of champions and giving them a good start should help keep them motivated to push forward.” the crown prince answered.
Xavier felt a small pang of jealousy at that. He had mostly gotten over it after being repeatedly exposed to Ajax’s talent and hard work. That didn’t change the fact that there had already been a plan in the works to help strengthen the kingdoms next champion, with Ajax’s appearance he had been moved down from the central position. Oddly enough Xavier knew that focusing on Ajax was the correct choice yet he still failed to smother every last ounce of jealousy. His earlier combat win did a lot to appease his own ego.
“That’s great to hear.” the emperor praised. “I do wish all of your talented youths the best of luck.”
Despite the emperor’s opinion on other races he still knew very well that if even two or three were to ally together they would be able to beat them due to sheer numbers. This meant that the stronger the human kingdom next to them was, the stronger their defense was since that was the only way to reach them.
Just like that three whole days had passed without Ajax showing any intention of exiting the dungeon. Suffice to say that the imperials had started worrying about him trying to do something on the inside that they had missed in the inspection.
After the fourth day ended with still no sign of Ajax the kingdom’s people were starting to get worried as well and outright dread had started to set in by the fifth day. The entire breakfast table was eerily quiet as Xavier, Anna, Lexi, the crown prince and a few other nobles ate.
“Do you think something happened to him?” Lexi asked anxiously.
“Something definitely happened.” the crown prince answered. “Most likely it was something good and he is simply taking advantage of the opportunity, according to my brother the risk of him actually dying is very low.”
“What sort of opportunity takes so long?” Lexi didn’t give up.
“I remember a recent abandoned city floor theme where they managed to find an Alchemist’s shop that had potions that increased skill growth for an hour when drunk.” The crown prince offered. “They sadly weren’t able to get any clue as to what the recipe to make them was but they took five days on that floor alone as they ran through the entire’s city supply of the potion and all of the team members broke through at least one skill bottleneck.”
During all this time Ajax could only guess at how much he worried people but he had only just managed to finish killing every monster on this floor. Despite that he had gone through only half of the ingredients that could be found in the various greenhouses and that was despite his extremely wasteful approach to experiments.