Ajax was more than happy to discuss most of the match with the princess. A fighter on her level would be an ideal person to bounce ideas off of.

“You left yourself too open when you attacked Regalia.” the princess said. “It would have been well worth it to bring up even a very thin earth wall that would block my vision so I couldn’t drop that avalanche on you. Quite a lot of mages rely on direct line of sight for their spells until they get better and have a lot more experience.”

Ajax nodded in acceptance as he thought over the fight. “You should have depleted your first domain faster, or at least not infused as much mana into it.” Ajax said. “Following the opening of the fight, having Regalia with you after you set up a second domain would have made it all but impossible for me to get close enough for a solid blow.”

A brief moment of silence passes through the room as both of them digest the feedback. “That just leaves the final exchange.” the princess said as she tried her best to sound nonchalant.

“I’m still not telling you what that was.” Ajax said with a sigh, he had spent the first ten minutes of their conversation just getting that point across.

“Why not?!” if she could have the princess would have stomped her foot in tandem with that statement. Bits and pieces of her how spoiled she had been by her grandfather, the previous elven king, started to peek through.

“That’s something we would all like to know.” Aranor said from the entrance to the healing ward.

“I’m not that curious.” the king’s oldest son said as he walked between Shadow and Aranor towards Ajax.

“Yeah right,” Shadow said. “A gold coin says the moment he gets in the embassy he is getting sat down and asked how he did it.”

“Is it over?” Ajax asked, referring to the finals of the final tournament.

“It is.” the prince nodded. “The elves won two out of three.”

The prince said that with a wide smile as he accentuated Ajax victory in one of the tournaments. “Looks like you’ll be spending a lot more time with the elves sharing that mine.”

“We would be interested in setting up a meeting with you regarding perhaps selling your share of it.” Aranor said quickly.

“Not with me you won’t” Ajax’s statement surprised all of them, even the prince seemed shocked at the remark. “With my trading skills I might as well give it all away for free and it won’t be too much of a difference. You’ll be discussing that sale with my grandfather and sister.”

Both the princess and Aranor breathed out a sigh of relief hearing that Ajax was willing to bargain for his share of the winnings. “I’m starting to think that the Goldmancers should look into marrying your sister into their family.” the prince commented with a chuckle. “The amount of pressure this entire trip put on her merchant skills I’d be surprised if she didn’t gain five or so levels in the last few months.”

Ajax didn’t correct the prince that Judy had only gained four levels, after all with this latest appointment she might just get to five. “Can you walk?” The prince asked as he offered Ajax a hand.

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“Just barely” Ajax said as he slowly got out of bed, his knees shook under the pressure of his own weight but after a few seconds they proved strong enough to hold him up.

“You seem well on your way to recovery.” Shadow said with a knowing grin. “Darkclaw will be ecstatic to hear that your spar with him won’t have to be postponed too much.”

Ajax couldn’t suppress the groan as he heard that, it wasn’t that he wasn’t looking forward to the fight with the beastkin but after the last two fights even he could use a bit of a break. The only silver lining was that even with his Life mana it would take him at least a week before he would be more or less recovered and by that time he should be pretty restless from being bedridden for a while.

Shadow’s prediction turned out almost exactly on point. The moment Ajax stepped inside the embassy he was quickly directed to a room with the royal family, the first squad, members of his own family as well as most of his friends.

“There is quite a lot we have to discuss.” the kings said as he wearily rubbed his forehead.

“It’s not that much is it?” Ajax asked sheepishly.

“Well lets see, there is the somewhat settled question of what you are looking to trade your tournament winnings for.” the king said as they had already gone over the fact that Ajax was looking to get as many alchemy ingredients as he could in addition to delving through all of Sylvanthal’s dungeons. “After that we have your new mana affinity that apparently makes enchantments malfunction without even making contact, your theory on sonic affinity mana, and last but certainly not least the ten slots you have for a boost in every single dungeon in Deepwood.”

Ajax tried his best but he still looked pretty guilty after everything that happened in less than the last twenty four hours got listed. “It doesn’t make enchantments malfunction.” Ajax said with as much of an affronted tone as he could manage.

“What does it do?” the king’s oldest son asked, he was one of the most interested in the odd mana affinity since from the way it bypassed defenses it was something that he would love to get a rune of.

“It… moves the point of impact.” Ajax struggled to find a way to explain Void. “You saw how the hammer didn’t leave so much as a scratch on the wall of ice right, it simply dropped as soon as it touched it.”

“Yes, that was the part that didn’t fit with the enchantment disability theory we had going.” the prince nodded. “The blow certainly wasn’t all that hard considering how it bypassed almost all the enchantments yet still didn’t kill a full mage, this despite all of the mana you put into it. Something we are all very glad about” the prince added the last part in a hurry as both the king and his younger brother were glaring at him.

“Void doesn’t strengthen the blow at all.” Ajax shook his head.

“Void?” Lexi interrupted his explanation.

“It's what the mana affinity is called.” Ajax answered. “The more mana you put into it the further it moves the impact point from the point of contact.”

“Considering you put that much mana into it and it barely moved the point of impact by a foot I guess this would be a rather niche use mana type.” the crown prince pointed out.

“I don’t normally use it to get around a mage’s shield.” Ajax said defensively.

“What do you use it for?” the captain of the first asked.

“Mostly it is for anything that has very strong armor or skin.” Ajax said. “Works wonders against insect type monsters, it only takes a regular blow amount of mana to put the point of impact right past their shell. Most powerful defenses really focus a lot on the initial layer actually.”

“That sounds a lot like Space affinity.” the captain of the first squad said. “Instead of using a spell to hit the exact place you want it’s a lot more restrictive and relies on the power coming from the physical swing. I shudder to think what even a light blow to the head from it would do.”

Ajax did his best not to remember the nausea inducing experiments he had done with Void when it came to crushing a brain inside a skull, he did however give a nod in confirmation to the man’s guess.

“Void is something I will want to keep to my own House, at least for the time being.” Ajax added on. “With it being an Epic affinity with no known runes or spells it’s not like there is much to go on.”

“Yet you think that there is someone in your House that can use it?” Benedict was quick on the uptake of Ajax’s words.

“I’m not sure that they can but I am optimistic about it.” Ajax confirmed.

“Who?” Judy asked. “I know that Kate doesn’t cast like you and all the other mages that we have are chanters.”

“Fluffy doesn’t.” Ajax said in a quiet voice that carried throughout the room leaving most people confused as they placed the odd name.

“Let me get this straight.” Benedict said as his face paled for a moment. “You want to try and teach an ambush predator that can already teleport through shadows how to effectively bypass the armor of its prey?”

“I’m also hoping that if Fluffy gets the skill he might pass it onto Tom through their bond afterward.” Ajax offered.

“We will ask that you keep a monitoring spell on the bond at all times if it does pick up the affinity.” the crown prince said. “The rest of this is up to the scholars, same as the sonic theory.”

“That just leaves the nine spots in the Deepwood dungeons.” Ajax shifted in his chair closer to his grandfather in hopes that the merchant will do most of the heavy lifting in the upcoming discussion.