Ajax woke up refreshed the next morning. The booster had made sure that anything they needed to take care of was killed quietly without disturbing the two people they brought with them who would need their rest.

“Are you ready?” The Goldmancer guard asked him. “We have been tailing a small pack with a wolf mini-boss.”

Ajax simply nodded as hu stuffed a few rations into his mouth before he quickly secured his loaned armor and followed after the booster. Now that he was quickly moving through the forest Ajax started to feel the difference between his loaned gear and his usual one. Despite the one he had on now being substantially better it still felt odd to him as he didn’t have a chance to break it in.

‘That’s what this fight is for.’ Ajax thought to himself as he called upon the wind enhanced sword and the fire axe. There was an argument to be made for the shield but the hammer definitely wasn’t the weapon to use against a speedy opponent like a wolf.

“There they are.” The guard pointed out the pack of six wolves. The miniboss stood half a head taller than the rest and seemed to be scanning the surroundings.

Despite having a common more strength focused warrior build the booster had no problem attacking and wiping out the other five wolves, with a thirty level lead on them they proved easy pickings as Ajax tried to ambush the alpha.

For the first time in a long time his opening shot from the bow was dodged, this was even more impressive considering that the wolf wasn’t even focusing on him when he attacked but on the booster who killed the other five. As soon as Ajax engaged the booster backed off making sure to take none of the credit in the eyes of the system.

With the high ambient mana on this floor Ajax had no issue keeping his [Mana Syphon] turned all the way up with only a small amount being provided from his own mana supplies, despite this he was barely landing small glancing blows against the wolf. It was easy to see that he had the wolf on the back foot but this was slightly troubling as this was merely the warm up fight.

The wolf was doing its best looking for any opening Ajax might present but there was simply nothing. All it could do was try and get out of the way in time as the flaming axe and the wind blade were getting more and more hits in.

A minute in, Ajax managed to land a more deep cut on the inside of the wolf’s front leg, from there all it took was a well timed application of his earth mana to get the wolf to slip placing even more pressure on the injured leg. Ajax was sure not to miss that opening as he lodged the axe straight into the wolf’s skull.

“Not bad” the booster congratulated him. “We might want to make sure the one on the next floor isn’t so dexterity focused.”

Ajax could only nod as they headed back to their makeshift camp before heading towards the next floor.

“How long am I to wait?” Rex asked as he stood by the arch leading to the next floor.

“About ten hours should be enough.” one of the three boosters answered. “He’ll most likely be done in an hour or two but if anything too dangerous comes for you here just leave.”

Ajax had gotten a chance to evaluate the arch with his [Mana Syphon] and found it eerily similar to the mana from this floor, there was something strange about it however that he couldn’t place his finger on.

Entering the new floor Ajax and the boosters found themselves in the oddest jungle Ajax had ever seen. They were surrounded by large green trees that seemed oddly thin for how wide they were.

“Dammit, the foliage is thick here.” one of the guards cursed.

“I’ll be here for about ten hours.” Rex confirmed as he stood leaning against the arch ready to jump through at any moment.

Stolen story; please report.

The more they moved through the massive jungle the more Ajax felt there was something odd about it, it seemed like he recognised his surroundings somewhat but he didn’t know why.

That’s why it all seemed so weird, we aren’t in a jungle.” Ajax exclaimed as they came upon the first monster on this floor. The monster in question was an oversized ant about the size of a dog.

“I hate supresized floor.” one of the guards complained, clearly this wasn’t the first time they had to fight on a floor where the dungeon increased the size of everything but the people entering.

The others also seemed ready to complain but Ajax felt his [Dangers Sense] go off. Two of the boosters also seemed to have a similar reaction as while Ajax quickly jumped aside from his current position both of them launched an attack in the direction the danger was coming from.

The spider that tried to jump Ajax was quickly killed off, its landing had been slightly off as the prey he expected to land on had moved out of reach and two attacks met it instead.

“Great, they have ambush predators.” Ajax silently cursed his luck.

“Let’s find a mini-boss and get off this floor quickly.” Ajax very much agreed with the guards suggestion.

It took no more than another fifteen minutes before they managed to find the first mini-boss on the floor. “That one’s no good.” The booster shook his head as he looked towards the centipede.

“That one should work actually.” Ajax surprised them.

For most people a defensive type monster with some form of magically increased defense like they were sensing from the centipede would be a non-starter to push their limits against. For Ajax however this was most likely his ideal match-up as with the massive amount of ambient mana he would spend next to nothing on [Mana Syphon], more than that he could actively use the same skill to also weaken the monster's defensive skill.

“Are you sure?” The boosters double checked with him.

At Ajax’s nod they were quick to move and surround the centipede, they wanted to make sure nothing else would get the jump on Ajax during the fight. Much like with the wolf Ajax opening attack was fired from his bow, unlike the wolf however the centipede didn’t have the same awareness and took the opening arrow right through one of its eyes.

Considering how little centipedes relied on eyesight this wouldn’t do much to limit its senses but it was the perfect weakpoint to ensure his lightning infused arrow didn’t just bounce off the armored exoskeleton.

Much like he expected the centipede wasted no time using the two large antennas to sweep in his general direction, the jerky spasms and awkward movements showed that the lightning arrow had done its job in affecting its movement. What he didn’t expect was the way mana radiated off the antennas as his [Sense Mana] let him know exactly how the centipede was taking in its surroundings.

Ajax tried firing a few more arrows as the centipede advanced on him but now that it was paying attention to him he could do little more than bounce them off the durable exoskeleton. Much like the arrows Ajax knew that a wind enhanced sword wasn’t likely to do much better against that thick armor, the warhammer was the clear option the only question was would he use a shield or the axe with it.

In the end Ajax went with the shield, with the mana potential of the monster there was no reason to go all in on offense only to be blindsided by a spell. The fight played out in an odd mirror of the one he had earlier in the day against the wolf.

Just like against the wolf Ajax was the faster of the two, where the fight differed was that Ajax was now the one who was spending most of his time dodging attacks while looking for an opening to land a few strikes.

Every time his hammer managed to connect Ajax made sure to augment the strike with a solid bit of metal mana. The attacks were effective as they were slowly but surely cracking through the tough shell that protected the head of the centipede. The only issue was that Ajax couldn’t maintain his offense without the centipede trading a few blows back.

Each of the blows Ajax took he made sure to try and redirect. Despite that even the glancing blows he was taking caused the defensive enchantments on his shield and gear to activate. Ajax could actively feel himself bruising despite the extra protection and he knew that had he still been using his own gear he wouldn’t be able to outlast the centipede.

Five minutes into the fight and Ajax’s started heaving his breaths, he had gone through half of his entire mana pool and a third of his stamina. His health was doing much better, still sitting high above 80%. The centipede on the other hand looked like a vase that was glued back together, the exoskeleton on its head was now a large series of cracks.

‘This would be so much simpler with void’ Ajax silently complained to himself but that was one secret he wasn’t ready to let slip just yet. Despite all this Ajax was still grinning, he knew that the fight was going his way, all he had to do was continue like this and it wouldn’t be long until the centipede died.

The centipede was obviously of the same opinion as it started fighting more and more recklessly. Ajax could feel each blow he knocked aside with his shield reverberate through his bones, each attack was now more telegraphed but at the same time carried more of the centipede's body weight.

Thick blue blood started pouring out through the cracks in the exoskeleton as Ajax had focused most of his strikes there. A surge of mana was quickly released, it was a trick Ajax recognised as usually he was the one messing with the ground beneath his opponents feet, unfortunately even with [Mana Syphon] and his own casting he wasn’t able to overpower the centipedes manipulation entirely.

For the first time during the fight Ajax was now in range of the centipedes fangs, he pushed a solid two hundred ice mana through his shield letting it withstand one side of the bite while his chest piece dented and his ribs broke on the other side. Sadly for the centipede that simply wasn’t enough, despite the pain Ajax endured and now had an open shot and buried his warhammer straight through the broken exoskeleton and crushed the head of the centipede.

“Easy there kid.” The boosters were quick to come after he tanked that last attack. “You killed it. Good job, because if you hadn’t we would have after you took that hit.”

Ajax said nothing but simply focused on his light magic as he left his safety in the hands of the boosters as he focused on patching up his broken ribs.