For the first time in a while Ajax actually had a rather easy time in all the floors of the dungeon. Even the final floor didn’t pose that much of a challenge for him because of the extra stats he gained from his skills. If anything the floor was the perfect wet stone for him to get a decent handle on how his spells worked with all the extra stats.
“That was quite the increase in power.” the prince said as they waited together in front of the arch. “Can you tell me if it's replicable?”
Ajax remained silent for a moment as he debated what to do. “In a way.” He finally answered. “But it's not practical.”
“The increase looks close to one hundred stats.” the prince raised an eyebrow. “ That’s a rather big increase that practicality can be left aside.”
Ajax chose to remain silent and the prince respected that, he had something else on his mind. “Once you exit the dungeon I have a mission for you.” the prince decided to switch topics.
“What are those?” Ajax asked as he saw the prince take out two items that shined to his mana sense showing they contained a fair amount in their storage.
“My privacy shield and the communicator for my father.” the prince said. “You, Elara and Arianwyn will all exit at the same time, it will be almost a day before I exit and I need to make sure no deal is struck at that time.”
In actuality it would take the prince two to three days to clear the following floor, it was only thanks to the dungeon’s time anomaly that it would seem like only a single day to the outside world. Past the mana level to house level one hundred time passed two times as fast inside the dungeon and with each level after that it ramped up further and further. This helped combat the issues of floors also growing in size meaning that level one hundred and fifty going for a delve didn’t spend a whole month just clearing the floor.
“What kind of deal?” hearing who was involved and the time sensitive nature of the agreement he couldn’t put together what could have happened.
The prince took a moment to explain the situation and ramifications to Ajax. Ajax very much understood everyone’s point of view, in terms of both politics and simply from the innate urge to progress further as a species and an individual such an agreement would make perfect sense. More than that it would also provide the nobility a way to ensure they maintain a stat advantage once the commoner’s baseline power grows thanks to Ajax’s training method.
“What’s wrong?” the prince asked as he took in Ajax’s awkward expression.
“Nothing.”Ajax waved it off. “I just didn’t think I would become such a catalyst for change.” His thoughts however also added ‘Am I really going to be the evil overlord who is defeated by the power of friendship?’.
The most important part of the agreement was that Ajax himself wouldn’t really be able to take advantage of the delving since he had already cleared most of those floors and no country would let outsiders delve floors past level one hundred and fifty. The sheer number of high level monsters unleashed by a dungeon break at that level would be enough to level a capital even if their elites would survive and eventually even kill off the monsters that escape.
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“But why is this so time sensitive?” Ajax asked. “I don’t see your father and brother rushing headlong into a deal without waiting to run it by you.”
“I doubt they realized just how quickly you would grow on this trip.” the prince answered. “They both have a great mind for ruling and even some of the more advanced combat strategy is well understood but they don’t have the same grasp when it comes to one person’s ability to progress.”
Ajax was taken aback by that but as he thought about it more he realized that the prince was right. The king was close to twice the same age as his son, he was a higher level and Ajax was certain he even possessed more overall stats, despite this the prince registered as the stronger of the two to his [Judge Threat]. This was the difference between someone who leveled as a combatant and someone who only dabbled in combat.
“I expect Elara’s little revelation to come as a surprise to them.” the prince continued. “That in and of itself will be enough to rattle them as had they realized the risk they may not have been so enthusiastic about the extension to your trip. Accepting the delve exchange and allowing other to delve our dungeons first with no collateral should they break the deal would a great political move to show goodwill.”
“I think just going for the goodwill might be the better way of going about it.” Ajax as he thought about it.
“In an ideal, hell even in an okay scenario, I’d fully agree with you.” the prince nodded. “But in those cases you would anyway have enough time to grow and progress. Having those defensive agreements in place would be paramount if something unexpected should happen.”
With that Ajax let the topic drop. With nothing else to do Ajax decided to scrounge up any or the flora present and try his hand at [Alchemy] using such mana dense ingredients. They still had another three hours before it would finally be time for him to exit the dungeon since the plan was made to allow for the case that Ajax didn’t kill the first miniboss he faced and needed to find a second.
“Will we take our time a little more once we step back into Sylvanthal?” Ajax asked. While he had initially been prepared for an extended trip the addition of Deepwood had turned what was supposed to be normal dungeon circuit into a driveby where they hit the dungeon as they raced passed.
Ajax had expected the journey to be a lot more like the lap they did of the Republic where they would spend a few days in the city around each dungeon before moving on. The danger of Deepwood as well as the timer with the Empire delve had meant all of them had spent the last three months on the road with barely a few days stopped and even those were only to delve.
“You’ll have about ten days to relax in Sylvanthal’s capital on top of the days you will be delving for, for the other two dungeons we will stop for a day to rest before and after we all exit the dungeon.” the prince reassured him.
With the time to depart rapidly approaching Ajax and the prince stepped onto the next floor. Ajax didn’t take the time to look over his new surroundings, he barely spared a second to give [Mana Syphon] a chance to take in the ambient mana to see if he could push the skill’s ability to predict dungeon floors before he exited the dungeon with the prince’s privacy and communication items.
As Ajax exited the dungeon and took in his surrounding it occurred to him that they hadn’t taken one thing into account, they had accounted for the difference in the speed of time as it related between the dungeon and the outside but not between the two floors of the dungeon. Since Ajax and the prince were one floor higher time would pass slightly faster for them and Ajax who was supposed to be the last to exit by a few seconds found himself all alone outside the dungeon hoping for the other to exit quickly.
Unlike the dungeons in the capital there was nobody around this dungeon that could pose a threat to him besides Aranor and their own escorts, even the dungeon guards weren’t strong enough to pose a threat to him so he simply did his best not to show his distress at having messed up the plan.
“What happened?!” Another deviation from the original plan was Aranor’s reaction. Since the plan had been hatched inside the dungeon he couldn’t have been informed, having Ajax be the first to exit despite Arianwyn and Elara having almost always excited a floor earlier caused some serious distress to the elven champion.
While Ajax had actually gotten to the level where he could comfortably track the champion’s movements as he was a full mage it did little to help with the mana that was leaking from the arms that were fastened to Ajax’s shoulders, the elves previous question hanging ominously in the air.
Fortunately enough for Ajax the rest of his team exited before he had a moment to give his best attempt at an explanation. Harold, Elara, Arianwyn and Darkclaw were all very surprised to find Ajax waiting for them outside the dungeon with Aranor’s Aura exuding a murderous presence.
Their reactions to the situation were different. Harold and Darkclaw looked on confused while Arianwyn quickly moved to sooth Aranor and Elara facepalmed as she quickly figured out what happened and couldn’t help but be disappointed at her past self for failing to noticed the hidden variable.