“Was it really that bad?” Ajax asked Anna as they made their way through the next floor.

Anna had proven her mastery over the element of fire as she not only lit the mountain of coal but also followed it up with a spell to make them burn faster releasing a heat wave that would have done quite a bit of damage had it not been for his [Mana Skin].

You don’t understand how wasteful it would be to make a bar that size.” Anna defended herself as she blushed in embarrassment at her own actions. “Magicite has no mana concentration, there isn’t high or low quality which is why it is used sparingly in enchanting and runes.”

“Surely someone has used it before to make this alloy before.” Ajax reasoned since not even Anna would know about it if it was such a niche application.

“Yes, there are times when using it is worth it.” Anna let out a long sigh. “The resulting alloy however always matches the steel used, you used the same amount of magicite for steel around level fifty like the one you have or steel at level one hundred and fifty. Only at the higher levels is it ever acceptable financially to form the alloy.”

Now this was something that Ajax could understand, Alchemy had a similar situation with the use of catalysts, curtain catalysts would work for almost any level mixture but using it on something with low end materials would be nothing but a waste.

“Is this type of steel any good for anything?” Ajax asked. “Besides getting a few skill points in [Blacksmithing]

“Very much so.” Anna nodded. “Since the steel is of lower quality it can be molded by lower level blacksmiths, since the alloy is already part magicite it will take enchantments and runes a lot better than normal materials, it would be ideal in helping any journeyman or higher blacksmith in unlocking the [Engraving] skill that is needed for enchantments and runic spells.”

Ajax couldn’t help but wonder why they wouldn’t create such an alloy in small amounts if that was the case. People could keep resmelting the same piece in order to unlock the skill.

“It won’t work.” Anna said as she looked at him. “You only get one chance after melting this alloy to work it, if it sets for a second time and you melt it down it will lose its properties, that’s why it takes a journeyman blacksmith.”

“Let me know if there is anything left of this bar after your father unlocks the skill.” Lexi said as she listened to their conversation. “Dad is in charge of the blacksmiths in our House and he will very much want to buy whatever you have left from you.”

As they were talking Ajax quickly picked up on a small pack of shadow wolves that was launching towards them, the stealthy predators had made it surprisingly close before their stealth failed them as it was drained by Ajax’s [Mana Syphon].

The wolves were normal level sixty-three monsters, not even minibosses but they were too quick for Ajax to have time to warn Lexi and Anna, all he managed to do was take defensive position in front of Lexi to intercept the wolf heading for her while launching a spell at the one heading for Anna.

With his sword and axe Ajax wasted no time killing both the wolf that attacked Lexi and the one that was going for him, outside of their stealth and speed the level sixty three wolves didn’t really pose a threat to Ajax at all.

“This is not the place for a casual chat.” the prince said from in front of Anna where he took care of the final wolf before Ajax’s spell even made contact. “Especially on a floor theme like this.”

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The floor theme the group had decided to go with for their third floor of the dungeon had been one that had what Ajax recognised as the usual forest distribution with an overwhelming amount of shadow mana.

The group decided that this would be the best choice as shadow mana was mostly focused on stealth meaning that once the enemy was located taking down one that was several levels higher wouldn’t pose as much of an issue.

“Sorry.” Lexi and Anna said at the same time as they retreated more towards the center of the group.

Ajax had already killed a miniboss on this floor, so had Anna, Lexi and Xavier. They were simply looking for a final one for Benedict before they could leave the floor. “Found one up ahead.” Aranor said. “It’s a snake.”

All of the monsters on this floor had been a half beast half elemental hybrid, these creatures were similar to the phoenix in that while they did have the physical form of a creature their bodies were entirely made up of elemental magic, in this case shadow magic.

Benedict took out his own flask of boosting potion as he prepared his enchanted sword and shield. Since the creatures were formed of shadows attacking them with regular physical attacks would be pointless, using a weapon crafted from magic infused components was the only way a physical user could fight them.

The fight started as Benedict threw a torch at the location of the snake and used the light to finally locate his enemy. Despite being a physical fighter Benedict did still have magic skills, most notably [Sense Mana] that he used to lock onto the snake as he dashed towards it, not letting it get in position to lunge.

The snake was coiled around a few different branches and had to be at least forty feet long, despite its nimble reflexes Benedict had caught it unaware and managed to land a good opening slash on one of its eyes.

Ajax didn’t know how but apparently even partially elemental creatures still relied on their sensory organs, unlike full fledged elementals who didn’t. From there Benedict pressed his advantage beautifully as he stuck to the snake's blind side as it jumped from branch to branch following the head and looking to finish the battle quickly.

It was here that the level difference showed, The snake had about twenty levels on Benedict, not only that but unlike Lexi, Anna and Xavier Benedict had missed out on three floors worth of additional stats in the Empire, not only that but the disadvantage had compounded on floors in their previous dungeon runs through the Republic where his physical fighter limitation stopped him one floor sooner that the mages. The snake was quick enough to keep retreating while only taking shallow wounds.

Despite the disadvantage in speed Benedict showed his genius in carefully leading the snake right where he wanted as he finally trapped it and dropped down to impale it right through the head. The snake had nowhere to go as its body was tangled around the branches all around them.

Feeling the snake expel a large amount of mana, Ajax suddenly worried for Benedict as the snake phased its shadowy coils right through the branches that were restricting it and tightened its coils right on Benedict as he was dropping towards the head.

It was only thanks to the protective enchantments on Benedicts armor that the snake didn’t have enough time to crush Benedict in its grip as his sword penetrated straight through the snake's skull dispersing the body into shadowy fumes.

“That was close.” Benedict said with a grin as he approached the group.

All of them congratulated him, none of them making any mention of the blood that was dripping from his nose, clearly some of the blow from that final attack had made it past the defensive enchantments.

“What floor next?” Ajax asked as he presented the options while Elara cast a few healing spells on Benedict.

With Benedict, Xavier, Lexi and Anna bowing out at this point the next floor was an earth floor, selected more for its valuable potential instead of any ease of clearing, the floors inhabitants would all be below level eighty and nighter Harold, Darkclaw or Ajax would have any problem dispatching them.

They quickly made their way through the earth golems, unfortunately they hadn’t managed to find anything they could take back out by the time they cleared all the minibosses they needed.

“So we have a light and fire floor, a lightning and wind floor or a plant and something you don’t recognise.” the prince Harold asked as he took in their options.

Out of the three of them Harold was the weakest and he would have the hardest time killing the level ninety fives. “I say we go for the plant one, at least that should have something I can kill.”

Nobody else had any reason to object as the group made their way onto the next floor. Ajax barely had enough time to clear the +1 to all stats notification before the smell hit him like a ton of bricks.

“Urgh.” it took a lot out of the princess to not retch at the stench.

“What is that?” Elara asked as she covered her own nose.

“Holy shit.” Ajax mumbled as he looked out over what he could see of the floor.

“You’re only half right there.” the prince said, his usual grin unaffected by the smell, on a closer look however Ajax noticed the prince was in fact holding his breath. “I guess we found out what that mana type you didn’t recognise was, Decay.”

Ajax cursed under his breath, just his luck to find a floor based around natural plant fertilizer.