Ajax was glad that Lioriel had at least waited until he had recovered and rejoined the others before she started asking questions but he was in no mood to be answering them.

“I don’t know how I did it.” Ajax answered honestly. “This result was a happy accident.”

From the way Lioriels face went from a frown to surprise Ajax guessed she had a decently good truth telling skill that confirmed what he just told her.

“Really?” The question was rhetorical as it just slipped out before Lioriel moved on. “What poison were you trying to make that counts as an antidote? Whatever you are working with is new to us.”

Ajax wasn’t surprised to hear that, long term poisons that have no immediate symptoms are rare but not unheard of, a poison that actively helps the victim in the short term while also being deadly is a much larger leap that hadn’t yet been made. Ajax was looking forward to how the system would count his discovery of this whole debacle? From the lack of achievement he wasn’t the first ever to discover the interaction but he was hoping for more than a single discovery to come from this.

“A novel poison.” the prince responded, his continued silence being an answer in and of itself.

“Are you willing to sell the initial poison to them?” Anna’s question drew everyone’s eyes towards her however she didn’t waver her gaze from Ajax.

“That could cause some issues regarding safety.” the prince went to say but Anna cut him off with a shake of her head. “He’s not selling the recipe, and he’s not selling the improved version that is treated as an antidote. By selling the initial poison he can get in front of any questionable political intentions, after all even if your poison is seen as an antidote by the system they will have a version that works like a poison so it won’t be this nebulous unsee killer.”

“What would you ask for in exchange?” Lioriel was quick to adapt and latched on to Anna’s idea so she could at least get something.

“Alchemy ingre-.” Ajax was ready to jump straight into it but was cut off by Anna’s hand on his non injured shoulder.

“Samples of some more exotic alchemy reagents native to deepwood.” Anna said in Ajax’s stead, her merchant skills pushing as hard as they could. “Live samples that can be transplanted.”

Ajax couldn’t help but be impressed with Anna’s foresight. If he had a few samples to transplant into his own fields he might be able to grow his own depending on what conditions they required.

“The ones with the least specific environmental factors required for their development and growth would be best.” Anna pushed on.

Lioriel stood silent for a moment as she activated her privacy barrier. It took her no more than ten seconds to drop the barrier.

“Three species, one sample of each.” Lioriel’s offer closed off the first part of the negotiation and opened the second.

“Seven species, three of each.” Anna countered.

“Four species, two samples of each.” Lioriel shot back.

Anna opened her mouth for her next counter but no words came out. Ajax looked at her in surprise while she seemed to contemplate what was happening with a look of deep concentration.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

It was only then that Ajax realized that Lioriel was most likely one of their most gifted merchants, at least among the queen’s combatants. The reason she got the job of being the leader for their protection detail wasn’t because her strength was perfect for it, it was because her strength was high enough to qualify her and she had the merchant skill to negotiate.

“Five species, two samples of each to transplant and one of the end result.” Anna’s counter took Lioriel by surprise as she had expected her skill to assure her victory in the negotiation.

“Fine.” Lioriel said as she let out a sigh after thinking over the terms of the agreement. “But you are paying up front.”

With a nod from Anna Ajax took out a vial full of his initial clotting poison and offered it to Lioriel.

“Why give it up so easily?” the prince asked after Lioriel exited.

“It wouldn’t take them all that long to figure out how the poison works if they keep examining the body of the assassin.” Ajax answered. “Even more so if they get their hands on the body of the other assassin I killed and see the similarities.” Both bodies had died because of blood clots, they might have been initially dismissed since it would be common from blood to clot in an injured person that then succumbed to poison but it wouldn’t be long until they realized the clots could also be the means of killing, more so since hemorrhagic poison was one of the most well known.

“So, how about that royal technique of yours?” Ajax asked Xavier eager to no longer be the focus of the conversation.

Xavier’s smile widened at the question. “Once your wound heals up I look forward to showing you.”

“But I thought…” Ajax stopped himself there realizing he was about to mention how it didn’t work on too big a stat difference.

“You’ll see.” was all that Xavier said with a smirk reminiscent of his uncle’s.

The next week of the journey Ajax spent finalizing his healing. That wasn’t to say that the journey was uneventful, two times the assassin had tried to ambush them. Unlike their previous attempts however both of these attempts were a shameful display.

Both of the ambushes were simple attempts of opportunity based on proximity and terrain, there was no other distraction, there was no clear shot to Ajax. Their target hadn’t even been aware of one of the attacks until after everything was already handled by Lioriel and the rest of their escort.

One thing both ambushes did have in common however was that the attackers were all sporting rashes all over their bodies. It was clear that their side of the bargain with the Mark was coming due and it clearly wasn’t a pleasant experience.

“Are you sure about this?” Ajax asked Xavier as he entered a combat stance.

“I’m sure.” Xavier answered as he also took a combat stance.

The prince was there to monitor the spar while also providing a privacy bubble large enough to keep their spar from prying eyes. “Begin already, the item eats a lot of mana to extend the bubble so much.”

Xavier needed no further encouragement as he charged towards Ajax. Ajax on the other hand was taking it easy, he wasn’t using the boost from [Mana Syphon] and even then he was also holding back on his speed and strength as he wanted to work on his skill and not dominate the fight through his stats.

The fight started off pretty even. With Ajax constantly swapping between his sword, axe, hammer, shield and dagger constantly he was able to cycle through a large variety of attacks despite not having used more than one spell at a time to counter Xavier’s chanting.

As the fight continued however Ajax could feel Xavier pushing him harder and harder. Despite his skill with the weapons he was wielding it almost looked like his form was crumbling more and more with every exchange.

Ajax was already expecting this however. The prince had even partially confirmed his guess about how the fighting style worked so he knew what to look for. By holding himself back in terms of speed and strength Ajax had plenty of time to analyze both his and Xavier’s movements to see that Xavier was more and more reacting to Ajax’s move before he even made it. Sure if Ajax wanted he could focus on reacting to Xavier’s moves instead and the sheer difference in dexterity and intelligence would allow him to gain the upper hand.

The big surprise came when Ajax felt [Danger Sense] faintly hum almost four minutes into the spar as sweat ran down Xavier’s forehead as he pushed himself. Ajax had intended to start using a second spell and swapping over to his spear for the first time to take Xavier by surprise. It was instead he who was surprised as he found himself with his sword in his hand while only canceling out Xavier’s own spell.

Ajax stopped holding back his stats and even pushed a little with [Mana Syphon] to react, his high Intelligence giving him plenty of time to make the decision. What happened next surprised Ajax even more as his body seemed to move almost on autopilot as he pushed himself closer to his body's limits. The axe in his other hand had swapped over to a hammer, Ajax had made the choice to use an air augment instead of the metal one to specifically soften the impact before he sent Xavier sprawling.

“What was that?”Ajax in surprise. “It felt almost like my body wasn’t listening to me.”

“Ugh.” Xavier groaned as he picked himself off the ground. “Almost done in by my own skill.” Ajax hadn’t meant to hit Xavier so hard, only now did he realize that his body had actually been moving exactly as he had throughout their entire spar despite him wanting to switch it up on Xavier.

“Are you not just predicting my movements but enforcing a pattern?” Ajax asked as he firmly situated Xavier skill as a Legendary one.

“Not a pattern, a rhythm.” Xavier said as he stored his own armor and weapons. “It will probably get easier to spot the more you are exposed to it but if you analyze the fight with that in mind I think you will see just how repetitive your attacks get on a seven attack loop. Sure the weapon is different but every seventh attack you’ll see it has the same purpose. It even held out once you stopped holding back, I just couldn’t react to it.”