Ajax and the prince were the only two to remain on the seventh floor of the dungeon, despite the increase in stats Arianwyn, Elara and Darkclaw didn’t yet feel up to challenging such a high floor though everyone knew once they made it to Sylvanthal’s capital all three of them would be taking on the level one hundred and ten mini bosses.

The floor theme was a large mountainside that was filled with caves that lead into a mine shaft. In the skies above Ajax could feel the mana coming off the griffins that were circling them.

“So what will it be, the griffins or whatever we find in the mine?” the prince asked.

“I’ll take my chances with the mine.” Ajax said as he threw a wary look towards the sky because of the weak pulse [Danger Sense] sent out. The pulse disappeared as soon as he looked up and made eye contact with one of the griffins.

Unlike the lower floor this mine was not only dark to Ajax’s eyes but even his [Mana Sense] didn’t let him identify any creatures as if any where there they all seamlessly integrated with the ambient mana.

“I don’t like this floor.” Ajax lamented as they made their way deeper into the mine by torchlight.

“Then you best get out of here quickly.” the prince said as they descended deeper into the cave without any sign of hostility.

The two of them continued their walk for another thirty minutes and while they hadn’t made contact with any form of life they had been attacked numerous times by the traps that were laid out all around their path.

“This doesn’t make any sense, how can there be inbuilt traps in the walls when the shaft is naturally formed and no humanoids are part of the floor.” Ajax complained as he bandaged a cut on his leg.”

Even the prince couldn’t save Ajax from the damage as the traps had a quick activation with minimal movement, more than that they didn’t use any mana, just a simple cause and effect based on the trigger.

“Quit complaining, look we already found an arch.” the prince said as he pointed at the chamber at the end of the tunnel they were moving through. “Let's hope it has a miniboss guarding it and we’ll be done with this.”

Ajax and the prince carefully approached the arch carefully checking for any guardian but there was none to be seen. “Do you think it’s a trap?” Ajax asked. “I can’t see any lock for it to be a key passage.”

The prince didn’t have a chance to respond as Ajax stepped too close to the arch and a massive hand made of stone ripped itself seemingly from the floor to come swinging in his direction.

Despite the surprise attack Ajax didn’t hesitate to jump out of the way as he took a boosting potion out of his spacial storage, removed the cork and chugged. The guardian didn’t give Ajax any time to spare however the confines of the mine and the size of the mini boss meant that it couldn’t move all that well in the space given.

Ajax wasted no time as he brought out his hammer and charged it with Void mana. “Earth golem!” Ajax hissed, figuring out why he hadn’t sensed it. Earth golems were known for their durability however their defenses based themselves on the attack landing on their outermost layer that distributed the impact evenly in a large area. Ajax’s void strike bypassed that defense and took the golem’s arm from the elbow down.

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An earth golem would have been a good match for Ajax given their environment. It was only wishful thinking on his part to be facing a golem. As the guardian stepped towards Ajax its leg sank into the ground as its mana started flooded out.

It was only Ajax’s [Danger Sense] that let him react in time to bring out his shield to lessen the impact and the guardian sent Ajax flying into the wall with a powerful enough punch that he left a small outline of his body on impact.

“Not a golem.” Ajax coughed as he spit out a mouth full of blood staring at the earth elemental with a mix of determination and slight trepidation.

Fighting a full fledged elemental is something Ajax had done before however none of those elementals had been past level one hundred. To make matters even worse he was fighting an earth elemental in an underground mine, this put him on a timer as the elemental had practically endless resources to reform its body regardless of the damage he took. Ajax’s only chance was to destroy the core inside of the body.

“You sure you don’t want to give the griffins a go?” the prince asked from the sidelines where he had finished taking out another earth elemental that had been drawn by the fighting.

“No.” Ajax response was short but on the inside he felt a little doubt that perhaps it was the smarter idea to not face the elemental.

“Suit yourself.” the prince said as he settled himself in a stance to interfere should there be a need. “At least we figured out how the traps were made.”

That realization did nothing to help Ajax currently as he flooded his body with Light and Life mana to heal the damage he had taken as he prepared to charge the mini boss. For the next three minutes Ajax danced around the elemental as he smashed through his arms, legs, torso and even its head one after another in search of the elemental’s core to no avail.

‘This isn’t working’ Ajax thought as he watched the elemental restore the lost mass by simply taking it from the rock around them. ‘Normally an elemental’s core is easy to sense as it is the source of their mana, not only that but it takes much more for an earth elemental to move their core inside their body, but I can’t sense it anywhere. The mini boss’s entire body is infused to the point the core could be anywhere.’

“Get ready to pull me out.” Ajax shouted as he formulated a new plan. “If this doesn’t work we’ll go for the griffins.”

The prince tensed up at those words, even more so when he noticed that Ajax was charging the elemental head on with only his shield. The elemental didn’t seem to be disturbed or surprised or suspicious as to why his recently slippery opponent changed to a forward charged and simply threw a punch with all its power just as it had been doing since the start.

As the punch made contact with his shield Ajax was sent flying towards the walls once more, this time the impact was even stronger than the one he endured at the start of the fight. More than that his shield had shattered moments after the impact and the prince was already moving towards Ajax.

Unlike the first punch Ajax endured in the fight he wasn’t the only one hurt this time. The elemental and the entire mine shaft as a whole vibrated violently from the impact.

“Crazy kid.” the prince cursed as he picked Ajax up while the kid in question was trying to regain his bearings.

Ajax’s plan had been similar to the one Lexi had used to defeat the massive plant inside the cave a few dungeons ago, since he didn’t have a good enough handle on Vibration magic to use it naturally he had planned to tank the impact from an attack on his shield and then use his magic to amplify that resulting vibration.

The plan had not only worked but it had in fact worked too well. With Ajax pushing over seven hundred mana in just amplifying the vibration instead of also creating it the result of the attack was much stronger than even he intended, this was the reason that his shield had shatter, it was the reason the elemental had died and most importantly it was also the reason the prince was rushing with Ajax towards the arch in the middle of the room before the entire mountain came down on their heads following the local earthquake Ajax had just unleashed underground.

Ajax was still a little disoriented as the prince laid him down on the next floor before getting him to sit up. “You best have gotten the stats for that.” The prince said with a bit of harshness in his voice that Ajax’s couldn’t condemn seeing as he had almost gotten both of them killed.

“I got it.” Ajax said as he closed the notification and looked at a second one that made a shit eating grin bloom on his face. After all the hours of training Ajax had finally managed to gain [Vibration Aspect Mana]. “I really got it!” his voice going slightly higher the second time.

The prince had been nodding in acceptance but when he heard Ajax repeat himself his eyes narrowed as he took in the young Baron’s slightly battered body. “You also got Vibration mana didn’t you?” it didn’t come across as a question so much as it did an accusation.

Ajax didn’t even need to respond, all he did was make eye contact with the prince and maintain it while his already large grin seemed to grow even more. The prince let out a series of expletives that would have had drill sargent’s reaching for a pen and paper to take notes.

Ajax’s amusement only seemed to grow as he took in the prince’s reaction and closed the notification for his new skill when his entire body froze as he took in another notification that he hadn’t expected.