As the journey continued Ajax started spending more and more time in Gryndor’s carriage as he worked on his alchemy. While he wasn’t yet brave enough to try brewing mixtures in a wobbly carriage he had started infusing his available ingredients with as much life mana as he could manage every day.

The first thing he found out was the limit of how much mana his more plentiful ingredients could hold before they started to deteriorate, he had spent a good few days worth of mana finding that out and ruining a few sets of plants. The second thing he learned was that Life mana didn’t have all that good of a shelf life in what were essentially dead plants, as time passed more and more of the mana would slowly leak, the upside there was that when the mana all leaked away the ingredient was of slightly higher quality than before the infusion.

So Ajax’s daily grind of infusing large amounts of mana into ingredients only for it to slowly ebb away and leave them slightly better than they started, all this only to repeat the process as he tried to improve the quality of his available materials.

Infusion of mana was a very mana intensive process, this meant that while Ajax was draining his mana pool every morning and evening it only took about an hour each time, the rest of the time would be spent in the royal carriage at the king’s open invitation.

While Ajax’s dedication to alchemy was fully exemplified the princess’s infatuation had started to ebb away. She still felt a certain interest in Ajax as a member of the opposite sex but as the days went by she started to notice more and more how incompatible they would be.

While Arianwyn enjoyed the social game nobles played Ajax was very much not a fan of it, this big disconnect between the two of them as well as her position as a princess and Ajax’s future role as the head of a ducal House would damn any relationship between them to nothing more than a short fling as the differences between them would push them away.

As the princess started to realize that there was no romantic future for them her repeated attempts at approaching Ajax had laid the foundation of a solid friendship between the two. Not only that but the princess’s budding friendship with Lexi as the former had resigned herself to only befriending Ajax pushed her to change her goals.

Much to everyone’s surprise however as the chances of a match between Ajax and the princess were becoming more and more a thing of the past a new unplanned relationship was forming between Benedict and Elara.

“This should be my brother’s problem to deal with.” the eldest prince of Gryndor complained as he privately met with the elven king.

“I would also prefer to discuss this with your brother but as the sole royal representative it falls onto you to handle this.” the elven king agreed with a sigh. “This relationship could be the foundation of a long fruitful cooperation between our kingdoms or the start of a disaster.”

While Elara’s family still only held a ducal title they were not far from claiming the Archducal Bladeleaf position, with the close relationship between Elara and the princess as well as Elara’s combat proficiency and budding Domain it was all but a matter of time until they claimed the position. A relationship between the heirs of both kingdom’s most prominent military families was something that had to be handled delicately.

“I still think it’s a bit too early but I’ll send a message to my brother and father about any future steps.” the prince said with an exhausted sigh as he made his exit to send out a message. “The only time sensitive issue is her father, I’ll leave that one to you.”

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“That is…” the king started to object.

“I am not known for my discreet and politically sound accomplishments.” the prince cut him off. “In fact I am sure I built a reputation for the exact opposite, I will play messenger but any immediate action is best done outside my influence.”

The king had nothing to say to that as he knew full well just how reasonable the statement was. Elara’s father was something that he needed to handle, the elf was usually at the very least politically competent but not even the king could blame him for his recent instability. The elf’s previous beliefs of elven superiority had been all but shattered by Ajax’s sheer existence, the man’s dislike for the boy however would influence his opinion towards humans in the near future until he regained his balance.

“A relationship between Benedict and Elara?!” king Gryndor didn’t even try to hide the exasperation from his tone as he got the report from his eldest son through the enchanted communication device.

“What about Ajax and the princess?” the crown prince asked, while Ajax may have been oblivious to the initial signs back during their negotiations the prince had picked up on them.

“That was a more one sided infatuation on the side of the princess.” the eldest prince reported. “Not only that but it seems to be cooling down, though a strong friendship seems to be forming between her, Ajax, Lexi, Elara, Anna, Benedict, Xavier and Darkclaw.”

“Thank the gods for small mercies.” the crown prince let out a relieved sigh.

Even the brief prospect of there being a relationship between both Elara and Benedict as well as Arianwyn and Ajax was terrifying. In such a situation not only would all the other kingdoms be more inclined to cut them off at the knees but they would also be in danger of internal conflict depending on how Ajax’s existing relationship with Lady Manashaper was going.

“Have Ajax try and soothe any ruffled feathers.” the king suggested.

“And how would that happen?” the eldest prince asked. “Even if the duke would be willing to hear him out with an open mind Ajax is at best as politically inclined as I was at his age.”

“See if you can convince Ajax to help Elara with forming her Domain.” the king explained.

“That… could work.” the eldest prince acknowledged as he considered the idea. “I’ll see how that works out, we are almost at the first dungeon, I’ll be in contact again two days after we exit the dungeon to report on their reactions to Ajax’s ability to navigate dungeon floors.” With that the prince cut the communications as he didn’t want to waste any more mana.

The first dungeon dungeon they were approaching had monsters on its base floor ranging from levels twenty-nine to thirty-four, not only that but the dungeon also had an eleven level jump between floors. This would mean a five floor clear bonus for Ajax and a two floor clear for everyone else. Before the caravan arrived there however it would take two more days.

“Ajax,” the prince greeted Ajax as he exited one of Gryndor’s carriages following his daily mana dump into alchemical ingredients.

“Your Highness.” Ajax greeted back. “Something I can do for you.”

“There is actually, I would like you to start helping Elara with forming her Domain with your Legendary skill.” The prince then proceeded to explain the delicate situation and why Ajax helping Elara would help the situation. “Would that be a problem?”

“I can do that.” Ajax nodded, since using [Mana Syphon] wouldn’t drain his mana it wouldn’t interfere with his daily training, if anything it would give him a chance to see if he can somehow use his Legendary skill to not only strengthen his body but maybe even help regenerate his own mana.

Before he went ahead and offered Elara help he first went to discuss it with Lexi. Ajax had been impressed with how maturely Lexi had handled Arianwyn’s initial approach, he wasn’t sure if he would have been able to do the same if someone would have tried making a move on her. As such he first wanted to let her know what was going on.

“You should have Benedict extend the offer.” Anna said after she had also heard the plan as Ajax brough Lexi up to speed.

“Why is that?” Ajax asked.

“A few reasons.” Anna answered. “For starters the Duke would be less suspicious if the offer came from anyone other than you, not only that but this would also improve the Duke’s opinion of Benedict.”

Ajax was nodding along with Anna’s reasoning however Lexi had known Anna for way too long. “And the merchant’s reasoning?” Lexi asked her friend with a raised eyebrow.

“Never do something for free when you can get something for it.” Anna whispered softly as her cheeks blushed in slight embarrassment. “You can get Benedict to owe you a favor depending on how you present the idea to him.”

Benedict had quickly agreed to the idea, much like Anna had mentioned he had even offered Ajax a personal favor. With that Ajax’s and Elara’s training was set to start as they made their approach to the first dungeon.