Looking at the captured assassins gave Ajax a much better understanding of why the skill they had all gained was only considered Rare. A tracking mark with increased damaged to the target that can be used by any member of the organization as long as one of them applies it is something that should be a Legendary skill.

The assassins that were captured weren’t starving but that was the only difference he saw between them and the portrails he saw of drug users going through withdrawal in movies back on Earth. All of them had bloodshot and baggy eyes, messy hair, rashes, uncontrollable twitches.

Each and every one of them however was sensitive to his presence. If they happened to catch a glimpse of Ajax they would focus on him, their uncontrollable twitches would continue but all their struggles would change from just random escape to a way to get closer to him.

“Why aren’t they just killing them?” Ajax asked.

Ajax wasn’t feeling any sort of sympathy for the assassins, he just didn’t see the value of keeping them alive. Usually criminals this high level that were caught were kept alive for one of two reasons, either they could be talked into accepting a forceful conscription in a time of need or they needed a public execution.

Neither reason seemed plausible here to Ajax. These people could never be released and expected to do anything other than mindlessly try and chase after Ajax so that ruled out conscription. A public execution of high level elves for attacking a human inside of Deepwood so close after a change in ruler would almost certainly spark riots from the more indoctrinated citizens.

“Two reasons I can think of.” the prince answered. “The first is that it gives them a sure way to know if you died. As long as their backlash is enforced it means that you are alive, after another year I doubt they would be able to recover their minds even if you did die but the signs that the backlash ended would still be visible.”

“What’s the other reason?” Ajax asked.

“Testers.” Benedict answered. “Perfect way to see how a high level reacts to a skill or a poison. The usual problem with keeping such a high level prisoner is that the method of restrain affects the tests or you risk them escaping. Their backlash is one of the best restraint methods though you do need to account for its effects in the test results.”

That went a bit far for Ajax’s taste. His sense of morality had changed dramatically since he arrived on this world but keeping a tortured prisoner as a lab rat was something he wouldn’t do.

“Any word about their leader?” Ajax asked, looking to change the topic.

“Nothing so far but we have sent one of our squads in the area to secure the last dungeon; that way he won’t be able to set up an ambush there.” Lioriel shared.

With every day that passed the danger the assassin represented to Ajax got lower and lower. The backlash was now starting to affect their fighting prowess and even someone as strong as their leader would be severely weakened because of how much his style relies on precision. Both stealth and long range sniping become a lot harder with tremors, twitches and unending itchiness.

Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.

Ajax wasn’t at all worried about the last dungeon they had planned. The dungeon had a sixteen level jump between floors and started with a floor at level thirty one to thirty six. This unfortunately meant that the highest floor Ajax could clear would be the fifth floor of the dungeon spanning levels ninety five to one hundred. Trying the sixth floor was out of the question since the seventh would push the prince into clearing a floor with a level one hundred and sixty floor boss.

What Ajax was more worried about was the third floor of the dungeon. Lexi had already defeated a level seventy floor boss but that had been a close call, the one she will be facing now would only be two levels lower, more than that he was sure that Lexi wouldn’t be the only one to try and push to clear that one.

“I’ll be fine.” Lexi said as she came to take a seat next to Ajax who was watching her practice. “I gained a few stats since the last boss and this one will be a couple of levels lower. And if anything goes wrong you’ll be there to step in.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but I can’t wait until we get back to delving dungeons to clear out entire floors instead of just pushing for the stats.” Ajax answered as he leaned into Lexi.

“I also got word back from my family.” Lexi said excitedly. “Grandpa thinks there might be a way to speed up my progress with certain skills by practicing them on floors where the ambient mana of the same type is prevalent.”

Ajax had to admit that it sounded like a solid idea. The only reason it hadn’t been tried before was that in order for ambient mana to increase progress it would have most likely needed to be at a concentration surpassing the level of the user. This meant sending the trainee into dungeon floors that outleveled them, all for a chance at getting the right theme. With his use of [Mana Syphon] the chance became guaranteed so every time Ajax would take a crafting team into the dungeon he could also grab Lexi so she could practice the mana type that matched the floor theme they were hunting.

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted by a loud thunderclap that echoed from nearby. In order to not slow down everyone did their training as they moved alongside the caravan. Everyone’s skillset was fairly well known to each other and since both Lexi and Ajax were trying to keep Vibration mana from Deepwood they hadn’t been using it in public.

“THAT WAS SO LOUD!” Elara was all but yelling as she excitedly jumped up and down once she realized that the notification in front of her eyes was real.

“Elara, darling, you’re shouting.” Arianwyn tried to calm her friend down while also pushing down her own excitement for her success.

“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” Elara asked a little quieter now as she started to hear some light ringing.

“That should be better.” Aranor said as he used a healing spell on her. “ Can you hear now?”

“I CA-” Elara started to say loudly but stopped as she realized just how loudly she was talking and blushed in embarrassment. “I can hear you.” she whispered.

Elara had taken a different approach to unlocking Vibration mana that Lexi and Ajax had. Since her family didn’t have any easily accessible shockwave spell she had instead focused on using her domain and recreating a natural lightning bolt with her lightning bolt spell.

“I know a storm domain isn’t all that defensively focused but you might want to make sure you protect yourself from your own attacks.” Ajax suggested.

Unlike the lightning bolt the thunderclap went out in all directions, even if the owner of the domain was slightly more resistant to their own spells while inside it thanks to the skill it didn’t make them immune by any means.

Once their protectors returned to their post Arianwyn quickly put up a privacy bubble, she hadn’t bothered excluding anyone from Gryndor as they were already in the know before she asked the important question. “Did you get the mana affinity?”

Elara was nodding her head so rapidly that Ajax was glad the dungeons provided +1 to all stats, having seen her stats before that he would have been worried she would snap her own neck if her Endurance hadn’t increased since their duel.

“Did you manage to integrate it in your Domain at the same time?” Aranor asked.

“Not yet.” Elara answered. “But I’ll get there.”

The last two days of their trip to the dungeon passed without any excitement. Once they arrived there however Ajax was slightly worried to see that instead of the usual makeshift market area that sprung up around the non-capital dungeons of a country this dungeon seemed to be surrounded by a temporary army base.

This change gave him the confidence the assassins wouldn’t be trying anything but it did make him more worried about what would happen when he exited the dungeon while the prince stayed to clear the final floor.

The thought of unleashing a dungeon break themselves and making use of the chaos to ensure they weren’t attacked was a tempting one. They were less than a weeks ride from the border and they could cover that distance much faster if they were were all running there instead of traveling by carriage