Chapter 573
Once he was far enough away from the high Mana density area that he was sure nothing was still chasing after him Ajax finally slowed down and took a roundabout way to get back closer to the area. It wasn’t that he was looking to enter the area once more but he was more interested in the lack of high level creatures surrounding it, any strong creature would have sensed the area and gone there already.
“Already planning my return trip.” Ajax couldn’t help but chuckle as he looked down at the splinter of metal he had in his palm.
So far Ajax already had a rematch lined up with a spider matriarch, though that was more of a grudge match that he was sure he would win if he wasn’t ambushed. This new addition to his list was a lot more important. While he didn’t know much about the metal he had seen enough of the creature’s lair to figure out a thing or two.
Whatever this metal was, moss had clearly not only evolved to consume it slowly over time but in doing so it was releasing Mana into an area. It was a breakthrough of a discovery, more importantly Ajax was sure he wasn’t the first person to make it.
The area was on maps already but there was no mention of the cave. Ajax was sure every other humanoid that entered it had met its end at the claws of the rodent creature that lived there. The tunnels had been built specifically for itself, that along with the Mana density meant mages could easily be run down and physical fighters didn’t have the space to surround and kill it. Regular group tactics wouldn’t work on it and from the regeneration he felt neither would bleeding it out.
That brought Ajax back to the moss. There was something odd about that moss. The Life Mana in it, more than that however there was something odd about it and Ajax very much wanted to get his hands on some, not only because it would help him create a high Mana density area wherever he wanted but because he was sure there would be numerous properties to that moss that he could take advantage of using his [Alchemy].
Taking the time he was resting Ajax took out his alchemy equipment but instead of working on different potions he started testing the small sliver of metal he managed to grab a hold of. He wanted to see what it was that made this so important.
Now that he had contact with the metal and time to examine it Ajax quickly figured out that this metal had much higher Mana density than anything he had ever felt before, and that included the equipment of the champions, some of which had come from level two hundred dungeon floors. If he was to guess Ajax would ball park the Mana density of the metal at the high end of two hundred and eighty and closing in on three hundred.
That is where the good things ended however. Ajax had only felt one thing hold on to its Mana tighter than this metal and that had been the dungeon arches. Even with physical contact he could barely use [Mana Syphon] to get a bit of Mana to detach from the metal.
This made the metal heavy, but it wasn’t strong. Ajax could feel that he could crush the small bit he had just by squeezing his hand. He tried heating it but the damn thing barely retained any of the heat, that wasn’t to say it isolated anything it simply passed the heat along unevenly.
After about two hours of testing Ajax could find almost no use for the metal despite the high Mana density it had. Besides its weight it could only be used as a catalyst to remove excess Mana from a mixture, such catalysts were known as a beginner’s aid since no trained alchemist would rely on them as they would weaken the end result of their craft. Dealing with the released Mana was their job after all.
“I have to not just mine the metal but I also have to get samples of that moss.” Ajax cursed the rodent some more for showing up so quickly, if he had some of that moss he would have been able to get a much better idea of the value of the discovery he happened upon.
Finishing his inspection Ajax felt disappointed in the metal, it had such high potential but it seemed like by itself it was simply junk, the one useful property it might have was to disturb rituals by messing with the precise Mana structure required for them along with the Mana amount.
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Something that eased his frustration with the Metal was the two notifications he had pending. His efforts in studying the odd metal had been enough to finally push Ajax to the threshold for not only [Alchemy] but also [Mana Syphon], he wasn’t exactly sure why it was that [Mana Syphon] was pushed by it seeing as he had used it on dungeon arches before but he also recognised that dungeons were weird.
Choosing to deal with his [Alchemy] threshold first Ajax took a look at what was on offer.
[ALCHEMY] Advancement options :
Mass production : provides innate understanding in increasing batch size of crafts.
Adaptability : provides innate understanding in substituting ingredients for similar effects.
Research : provides innate understanding in creating desired effects.
Each of the three options had its merits but Ajax was quick to dismiss Mass production from the list. Sure it may have been the most useful one in the near future but this was most likely the only threshold boost this Skill would get so Ajax wasn’t going to be short sighted on this.
That left him with a choice between Adaptability and Research. Each had their positives but Ajax was leaning towards Adaptability. Not because he thought it was better than Research but rather because most alchemists almost always picked Research hoping to create something new that would be their crowning achievement.
It wasn’t that Ajax would appreciate the help from Research, in fact it would be extremely valuable if he was to try to recreate anything from his Earth memories. Adaptability was simply too good for him to pass up.
As a Duke Ajax would have access to all of the best recipes but the ingredients for them were too scarce to make them once they passed the dungeon floor level of one hundred and fifty. He knew already that he would be going well beyond that point in the future and being able to work with what he had was much more important than creating something new. With his boon he would always be able to bring samples back from the dungeons and get the help of other alchemists to create new things but when it came to making them he would need to adapt the recipe to what he had available on hand inside the dungeon.
With the first choice made Ajax now looked towards [Mana Syphon], his first second level threshold.
[MANA SYPHPON] Advancement options:
Speed drain : enable the faster draining of mana and range.
Mana steal : improve the ability to drain mana from internal sources (Object and other living beings)
Health funnel : when using mana syphon the body gains increased regeneration.
Refuel : absorb one tenth of the Mana Syphoned into your Mana pool. (May have adverse effects depending on the affinity of the Mana)
Ettin : syphon Stamina equal to one third of the Mana syphoned.
The first thing Ajax noticed was that all of his previous options had remained available for selection, this included the randomly generated Health funnel that he gained from the achievement of his first Threshold breakthrough.
That wasn’t to say that said particular upgrade was one he was tempted by, with the addition of Life Mana to his tool bag meant the upgrade was all the way at the bottom of his list for choice he would go with.
Everything else on offer however was much more tempting. Speed drain would make it much easier for him to disable the larger spells he had started dealing with now that he was fighting so many levels up. Not to mention flexibility he would gain from the increased range.
Mana stealing would help him with his alchemy quite a bit he imagined. Even in combat the ability would be devastating, no longer would he simply be limited to draining the spells his opponents were trying to cast but he could now start draining them directly as soon as they were in range, even if the amount drained wasn’t as much as he could get from their spells it would put everyone he was facing on a timer from the moment the fight started. Physical fighters all the more so since they had smaller Mana pools and the effects of hitting zero Mana could still disable them.
The ettin upgrade was clearly influenced by his boon but it was still tempting for the same reason Mana stealing was against physical fighters. While it wouldn’t be as useful against monsters since they usually where a little more balanced mages would truly fear him as their Stamina pool was usually even smaller than a physical fighter’s Mana pool, that wasn’t to mention that he would be draining the Stamina at a very fast rate, one third of the Mana he would be drawing .
The final choice refuel was a double edged blade. With the ettin boon he would be able to use refuel to regain both Stamina and Mana. More than that he was sure the upgrade would help him immensely in picking up new Mana affinities since he would actually store the affinity inside his Mana pool and be able to use it when expending it without having to personally generate it. The downside was that it would make the backlash from Mana affinities like Curse Mana all the worse, so much so potentially that it might even disable his Skill against certain enemies or environments.
After thinking on the decision for a time Ajax decided that he wasn’t in a rush to take it. Unlike [Alchemy] this was a much tougher decision and one Ajax would postpone until he was either in a situation where he was forced to pick to survive or he talked with his friends and teachers about what the best option would be.
Having finished his break Ajax started his journey once more, flicking the small piece of metal that was the catalyst for both of his breakthroughs in the air before he stored it back in his spacial ring.