Chapter 665 |
Ajax knew this dungeon would be a quick trial run, they wouldn’t be spending all that much time inside and the little they did would be spent on the higher floors. Since the dungeon started at level forty four and it went up by eight before the one hundred mark they would be clearing a total of thirteen floors, with time being spent only on floors eleven, twelve and thirteen where time moved a lot slower on the outside by comparison.
Their rapid delve through the initial nine floors was by far the fastest Ajax had ever done, they were all champion level and for the first eight floors nobody even needed the clearing bonus. Ajax also refrained from grabbing something off of each floor for this run since he didn’t want to let the Republic know more about his boon. He was sure the information on the weaker version of the boon had already leaked but the idea that he could take something off each floor he cleared was something he still wanted to keep quiet about.
By the end of the first hour they were already done with eight floors and were stepping up to the ninth, the floor jump was also doubling and the difference could be felt clearly in the Mana difference between floors now. The ninth floor was also the first one Ajax could get the clear bonus for so while they still headed for the first arch they could find everyone made sure to let Ajax and Aurexion handle the miniboss with no help to get the clear bonus.
“Okay, let's find a few options from here.” Ajax said he had already discussed the plan with the prince beforehand, but for the last three floors they didn’t want them to be random. “But we won’t spend too long either half an hour at most.”
The prince had made it clear what they were looking for, humanoid presence was the number one stand out. If they could get an intact set of high level gear intact from the dungeon it could highly boost the power of a champion that was compatible with it. Other than that the presence of Metal Mana was their second target as that would be the easiest thing to get weapons from with any reliability.
The level one hundred and thirty two miniboss didn’t pose any more of a challenge to Ajax and Aurexion than the level one hundred and sixteen did. With Aurexion’s overwhelming size advantage over the oversized otter he simply dove down from above to immobilise the miniboss while Ajax finished off with a quick Void infused strike to the head.
They quickly found five different options to choose from for their next floor while Ajax did collect the claws from the otter he killed, he was sure that some master level crafters or even a grandmaster that ran out of reagents wouldn’t take too long to turn them into weapons the elites could use.
“Anything?” The prince knew best how Ajax’s prediction of floors worked.
“No metal or humanoids.” Ajax shook his head. “One of them is Water and Plant, the rest all have Earth as one of the two most dominant with Air, Plant, something I don’t recognise and the last one I’m pretty sure is bugs.”
“Bugs?” The question came from one of the other champions with them.
“A hive of something.” Ajax explained. “Ants, bees, could be something else like termites.”
“Let's go with the Earth and Air.” The prince said. “Best chance to find some metal.”
“I doubt it, Air is dominant there and Earth is secondary.” Ajax cautioned but they weren’t wasting time from a floor they would hardly spend any time on anyway so they went with the Air and Earth floor.
Ajax was pleasantly surprised to find the eleventh floor to be made up of massive pillars of different types of rocks, they were of different thickness and were all connected by bridges with a very far drop going down so far Ajax was sure the dungeon floor ended before it reached the bottom.
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“Damn, we got unlocky.” the prince cursed. There were Earth elementals of different rock types on the pillars but none of them were made out of anything all that valuable.
“Maybe not.” Ajax said as he turned towards Aurexion. “Aurexion, can you see if you can find a volcanic pillar around here?”
Aurexion took flight with a grunt of affirmation but even he now seemed to be a little more on guard as the level one hundred and forty eight birds and air elementals in the air could prove dangerous especially in groups to the dragon.
“Why are you looking for something volcanic?” The prince asked.
“Volcanic ash is a key ingredient in making the more resistant concrete I want to use for buildings. I know I’ll have to rebuild my estate at some point and from the looks of it this floor seems to have everything separated nicely.” Ajax knocked on the chalk pillar they were standing on. “I’m not sure where I’ll find anything as pure as this with this Mana Density next time I need it.”
While Aurexion was scouting for Ajax’s prize the rest of the group quickly cleared a few pillars in search for a good arch to the following floor. Ajax had no issue soloing an rock elemental, Vibration Mana applied with the full power of his [Mana Syphon] boosting his physical abilities was more than enough to make quick work of the miniboss.
Unfortunately for Ajax Aurexion was unable to find any volcanic ash elemental, the only volcanic rock he did find was obsidian but with how fragile the rock was it wouldn’t be all that useful for them even if it could be sharpened further than metal making for a much better edge. In the end Ajax had Aurexion help him take down a marble elemental with as much care to not damage the structure of the marble.
While Ajax hadn’t had the best luck when looking for volcanic ash the fates did smile on him a little as he found an arch that had the clear trace of humanoid enemies leading to the twelfth floor. There was not even a discussion about their other options once they found that and the group quickly moved on to the penultimate floor.
A large grassy hillside greeted them on this floor. Not wasting time Aurexion quickly took to the air and brought Ajax with him to get an idea of their surroundings. What they found however was not something Ajax had ever expected. There looked to be quite a few villages off in the distance with spots of forest here and there.
“A feeder floor.” Aurexion's comment drew Ajax’s curiosity. “Best not to linger here too long or they'll just keep getting stronger. Lets find one wearing a good set of armor, kill it and take it and move on to the final floor.”
“What’s the feeder?” Ajax asked curiously.
“Humanoids.” Aurexion commented offhandedly but the shock he felt coming through the bond told him how much of a surprise this was for Ajax.
“Humanoids are the feeders on this floor?” Ajax was surprised. As he took in the villages he noticed that they seemed to have some sort of fortifications surrounding them.
“Don’t worry, social races like this are the most common feeder floor types past floor one hundred.” Aurexion misunderstood the reason for Ajax’s mixed emotions seeing humanoids be treated as simply prey inside the dungeon floor. “Your social way of living makes for a more sustainable floor that wouldn’t grow out of proportion, at least that’s the conclusion that was reached. There will be humanoid minibosses as well protecting the weaker members of their community who are the feeder types.”
Dropping back down to the group of champions waiting for them, Ajax and Aurexion shared what they found. The rest of the champions found this revelation just as disturbing as Ajax did but they adapted to it much quicker.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this happen on a floor but now that you put it like that it does make more sense to see it as a feeder floor.” The prince nodded in agreement to Aurexion explanations. “Makes sense we didn’t put the pieces together since while you can take feeder types outside the dungeon who besides a necromancer would want to take a pile of bodies with them. “
“You think their clothes would count as skin?” The morbid question had all of them turning towards the mage champion who asked the question. “Hey don’t look at me like that, even if it is only commoner style clothing this is a level one hundred and sixty four floor, the quality of the Mana density we could gather could change the fashion trend for a century.”
Choosing not to waste any more time the group moved together as they approached the closest village to them looking to find a humanoid who was wearing the best armor they could find for Ajax to take outside the dungeon with them. Unlike the previous floors the champions remained grouped this time, with the floor level being so high even a regular patrol here would be close to the level of a squad , they couldn’t risk spreading out and having one of them ambushed and killed.
“That one.” The prince found their target and locked on to it before Ajax even noticed it. It was easy to see why the prince wanted that specific target. He was wearing a clean set of thick metal armor, but what drew the prince’s attention was the lack of quality in the gear. “It will need some work but that could become one of the best sets of gear Gryndor has.”
The guardsman wearing the armor looked to be on the young side, the armor itself was blocky and not at all elegant. It was however in pristine condition, made with a lot of metal and considering the size of the person wearing it Ajax was sure a skilled craftsman could have made two armor sets with that much metal. It was also a perfect canvas for runes of enchantments as the armor lacked any frills or patterns.
“That’s the one then.” Ajax nodded. “Let’s kill it and get on to the next floor where we can rest for a bit.”
Ajax chose to adapt Aurexion’s mindset and he was sure the bond was helping with this but unlike the other floors where had faced humanoids going into a village and razing it to the ground still took a bit of a toll on him so he tried not to think of them as actual people and instead just something the dungeon created.
