It took Ajax multiple attempts before he was finally able to create a herbicide he was happy with, thankful none of his other failures ended in an explosive manner, despite this Ajax couldn’t help but feel that he was lacking. No matter what he did Ajax didn’t think he was getting everything out of the ingredients he was using.

“This should be good enough to help you kill a miniboss.” Ajax said as he passed the herbicide and the booster potion to Harold.

“What went wrong?” the prince asked as Ajax was collecting his alchemy equipment.

“I don’t know.” Ajax said a little exasperation leaked through as he got to the core of the matter. “I tried multiple different approaches until I ran out of prepared ingredients but it never felt right.”

“That’s not unexpected.” the prince said with an understanding smile. “If anything that you managed to even make something as good as you already did is a reason for celebration. Most people take at least half a century of dedication after they finish their apprenticeship before they can properly use ingredients from this high a floor.”

Looking at it that way Ajax could see how he was expecting too much from himself. He could feel his alchemy skill being pushed to the edge as he tried to adapt and react during the brewing process just to keep the mixtures stable. His [Dungeon Crafter] skill was almost at its first threshold as well.

“Unlike your combat prowess your crafting doesn’t scale as much off stats, give yourself time to grow your skills.” The prince knew that Ajax had recently gained two Epic alchemy crafting skills that will speed up his progression. “I know it might not seem like it because of how young you are but you have centuries to go before you even hit your physical prime, let alone start to grow old.”

That was something Ajax still had issues coming to terms with. Unlike most other things his experience from Earth was actually more of a detriment in this case as his previous perspective on age didn’t match the one present in this world. He was not even twenty five and he would easily live another forty times that long considering how quickly he had raised his Vitality and how it would continue to grow.

Watching Harold as he battled the miniboss was relaxing. With the boosting potion and herbicide the battle actually favored Harold, the only thing he needed to look out for was the five minute timer on the boost but he managed to win with twenty seconds to spare as he opened up a large gash in the center stem of the giant venus flytrap looking plant where he poured his remaining half a vial of herbicide.

“That was closer than I would have liked.” Harold heaved out as he returned to Ajax, Darkclaw and the prince.

“You still had plenty of time left.” the prince said. “If you were down to the last ten seconds I would have started to worry.”

“Here.” Ajax said as he extended another vial to the man.

“You’re giving me this now?” Harold asked while accepting the potion.

“It’s an antidote.” Ajax explained. “Won’t do anything for the backlash of the potion but it should negate the diarrhea.”

Harold looked like he wanted to comment on that but five minutes since he took the boost had elapsed and an ominous gurgle from his guts was all it took for him to uncork the flash and down the potion.

“UGHHHH…” Harold tried his best to hold it down. “Can’t you do something about the taste?”

“Once I can make them consistently I’ll worry about that.” Ajax responded.

With that taken care of the group moved back to the rendezvous spot where they would meet the three elves, seeing how they were the first ones back despite the almost twenty hour long session alchemy they had clearly found something worthwhile.

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“Do you think something happened?” Ajax asked after two hours of waiting.

“Nothing here on this floor could pose even a mild threat to me, let alone someone like Aranor.” The prince reassured him. “Collecting might be taking them a while however as mages are not known for their physical stats.”

Half an hour later the first change they felt in a while happened. A massive heatwave washed over all of them, it wasn’t quite as strong as the one Anna unleashed on the lower floor but it was comparable.

“They’ll be coming soon.” the prince said as he activated a rune that formed a small win barrier around them.

“What is going on?” Ajax asked, a little surprised.

“Floor boss spawned.” the prince answered.

“Is this your first time seeing how an elemental floor boss affects the floor?” Darkclaw asked.

Ajax simply nodded in affirmation. Over the years he had seen twenty floor bosses after the kitsune. Despite the higher chance for them to appear as the floors got close to level one hundred it wasn’t guaranteed. Of those twenty he had even killed four of them, the others forcing them to retreat and have the dungeon guards kill them on the outside.

None of those twenty encounters had been with an elemental type boss. He had learnt about them and knew that they would affect the climate of the entire floor but it was his first time seeing it.

“The heat wasn’t that bad.” Harold said as he waved his hand towards the wind bubble.

“It’s not for the heat.” the prince said, a small shiver traveling through him. “It’s for the smell, if you thought it was bad before, imagine how it would be after warming it all up.”

Nobody made any other mention of the barrier but they all threw grateful looks towards the prince as their noses scrunched up at even the idea of the repulsive smell. It only took ten more minutes before the elves finally made their appearance confirming the prince’s prediction.

“I take it you found something?” the prince asked.

“Half the ring.” Aranor said as he passed the ring over for the prince to inspect.

“Does that have a preservation enchantment?” Ajax asked as he looked closely at the ring.

“It has to.” Arianwyn explained, “Decay mana naturally wants to spread and … well decay. Even with the enchantment it will only prolong the time until it takes for the mana density to lower.”

This made sense to Ajax, the enchantment wasn’t temporal in nature after all it worked to keep things fresh by keeping them isolated from outside influences, this wouldn’t matter all that much to something that was already decaying.

“Let's get out of here” Elara said as she looked around for an arch. “I don’t want to stay on this floor any longer than I have to, even as valuable as it may be.”

“What choices do we have for the final floor?” the prince asked Ajax as they started moving.

“Earth, fire, lightning.” Ajax answered as he nodded in the direction of each respective arch, he kept his answer down to a whisper, since the next floors would have levels as high as one hundred and twenty three Ajax could only get the dominant mana type.

“Earth it is.” the prince nodded and took the lead towards the first arch.

“We’ll wait for the both of you at the nearest city.” Arianwyn said as they made their way towards the arch. “All of us could do with a shower.”

Nobody objected to that and Ajax was sure that as soon as the people outside got one whiff of them as they exited there would be no objections from them either. As they got to the next floor and Harold Ajax and Darkclaw got their increased stats they all left Aranor and the prince to clear the floor.

“Finally you’re back, I was so worried.” Lexi wasted no time tackling Ajax as he exited the arch, something she very much regretted as her nose protested Ajax’s new fragrance.

“What happened?” Anna asked.

“We’ll explain on the way.” Harold said as he started moving towards the carriages, everyone around the arch gave them a wide breadth after Elara reported the status to the dungeon guards. “Some of us could use a shower and we’ll wait for the two in the nearest village.”

Ajax spent the way towards the village explaining what happened to Anna and Lexi, he had also offered to share with Benedict and Xavier but both of them were content to wait and not get closer to Ajax than they had to.

“That is very interesting.” Anna nodded as she also quickly put together the same theory Harold had once she heard that the floor that delayed them was a Plant and Decay floor.

“So what is the next dungeon?” Ajax asked.

“That would be the first Deepwood dungeon and also their worst one.” Arianwyn said. “It’s one of the worst ones with a nineteen level floor jump and it starts with a thirty one to thirty six range.”

Ajax could help but agreed, even for him the dungeon would only provide three stat points to all stats while everyone else would be limited to one because of how the floors jumped.

“We’re going into Deepwood.” Ajax said with a small frown as he remembered the start of his interaction with Deepwood’s ambassador.

“In Deepwood we must stick together.” Elara said. “All of you will have assassins after you, it’s too big of an opportunity for some of the more bigoted nobles to let slip.”

“Will it be that bad?” Ajax asked.

“Aranor won’t be able to join us in the dungeons since we don’t have the spots for him, once you all exit early stick close to him.” Elara warned. “Not only that but always exit with a shield up and ready for an attack, other races aren’t allowed to delve their dungeons so humans coming out will get a dungeon break reaction.”

The conversation continued on the topic as they made their way to the village as all of them started mentally preparing themselves for how Deepwood would be.