Chapter 580
Ajax was slightly disheartened when HelSotHein had given him an more in depth explanation of how the Ascended races decided which dungeons to keep. Unlike humanoids the rest of them couldn’t get any bonus out of dungeons besides the access to a Mana dense location and strong enemies to fight.
“So a big level jump between floors is considered good?” Ajax tried to keep the disappointment out of his voice.
A bigger jump between floors apparently meant a marked decrease in the Mana the dungeon would drain from its surroundings. According to Hel their parent had destroyed three of the dungeons that were found in this kingdom before HelSotHein was born to allow the Mana density to recover.
Ajax couldn’t say he disagreed. While the Mana difference wasn’t all that large yet according to the hydra that was because the area still hadn’t fully recovered from the presence of so many dungeons. Already though Ajax could feel that with the higher Mana the ground was sturdier, it wasn’t to the point where he could jump with his full power without creating a crater from the force but he wouldn’t have to worry about possibly destabilizing buildings around him if he didn’t use his Mana to firm up the ground he launched himself from.
“For most of us, yes.” Sot shared, Ajax was starting to like Sot personality more than Hel or Hein, it seemed more focused on collecting knowledge this also meant it was much more accommodating to Ajax as it also wanted access to Ajax’s knowledge of humanoids. “ There are some uses where a lower level jump would be beneficial, but they are all more related to crafting or absorption.”
Absorption was a concept Ajax hadn’t heard about yet but after talking with Sot some more it was immediately apparent why he hadn’t. The concept was almost useless for humanoids, crafting and absorption were opposite sides of the same coin and each race could use a combination of them but the more they leaned into one the less they would benefit from the other.
The easiest example Ajax could come up with was poison. Humanoids would gain access to poisons through alchemy, a crafting profession. Hydras also used poisons but they could improve them through absorption exposing and enduring themselves to strong poisons they would increase the effectiveness of their own poisons. Humanoids were leaning so far towards crafting that they could barely get any use out of absorption with the few things they could use being special treasures, extremely rare things like the Waters of Youth that would be able to turn back the clock at least a little for whoever drank them.
“Why not destroy that last dungeon as well?” Ajax asked.
“Because that dungeon has a good level jump.” Sot explained. “Twenty five levels between floors is better than the other three that I know of around here. They have a twenty floor jump, an eighteen and a sixteen respectively.”
Thanks to the Ascended race's dislike for close dungeon proximity Ajax knew he would be in for a real journey if he wanted to visit all three of the dungeons. The distance traveled would easily end up being bigger than from one end of the humanoid kingdoms to the other. With that being the case Ajax chose instead to focus on traveling and meeting other at least somewhat friendly Ascended races while still heading in the direction of the dungeons.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“Safe travels Ajax, may we one day meet again.” Sot said as he and Ajax parted ways.
“Thanks, I hope we meet again as well.” Ajax waved his goodbyes before heading out of the ruins of the former capital.
Ajax was more than pleased with the gains he made from his trip to the ruins. The information he gained on the Ascended races alone made it more than worthwhile and that wasn’t mentioning the possible lost knowledge he had gathered from the library. He had asked HelSotHein to try and preserve the remains of the library for the future. Hel and Hein didn’t seem too receptive to the idea but they seemed interested when he mentioned next time they saw each other he might have something more to trade them in exchange for knowledge he might be able to find in there. Hopefully that would be enough for the hydra to put some effort into preserving what was left of the library.
Following their goodbye Ajax also made a silent promise to himself that at their next meeting the difference in their power wouldn’t be so large. HelSotHein was close to level one hundred and thirty and while Ajax had managed to kill monsters more than ten levels higher in the dungeons this was the first time he had truly felt like he was fighting against something that truly was twice his level.
As he walked away Ajax couldn’t help but pull up the system screen that marked the first step he had taken in that direction. After fully purging all of the venom in his body Ajax was pleasantly surprised to finally gain another poison related Skill. [Venom Refining] was an Epic Skill and worked like a passive buff, after being poisoned so often by creatures so far above his level Ajax’s body finally started to adapt.
[Venom Refining] would give Ajax a very small resistance increase to poison and venom but the real value of the Skill came from the increased attributes Ajax gained while his body was fighting against a poison or venom. The stronger the poison or venom the more Stats it would grant him. More than that Ajax could influence which stats he was gaining and unlike the boost from [Mana Syphon] they weren’t limited to his physical stats. His current plan while getting used to it was to focus on increasing his Intelligence as much as he could during combat since that would have the biggest impact by making his spells more powerful.
The downside to the Skill was that the power boost was temporary, more than that in the same way he could tear his body apart by boosting it too high with [Mana Syphon] there was a real chance he could do the same thing with his Mental Stats if he wasn’t careful. More than that Ajax was sure that the Skill acted similar to a potion and he was sure there would be some overlap there that might cause him to reject a potion when the Skill was working. It was something he would need to test but that was for when he had someone else to look out for him when things inevitably went wrong.
Pulling out his map Ajax was glad to see there were three new markings towards the edges that represented the three dungeons. Sot had mentioned that there would be some pockets of higher Mana density in areas along the way, apparently high Mana Density areas occurred much more frequently even without something to generate them when there weren’t so many dungeons stripping the area of Mana.
Ajax had been tempted to prod Sot for some information regarding the metal and moss he had found in the other high Mana Density area he had passed through but decided not to. He wasn’t sure how valuable the metal there was but he was sure the moss would be valuable to at least one or two of the Ascended races and might make for a good bargaining chip or gift in his future interactions with them.
With his new heading set Ajax started his run, he wasn’t moving at his top speed as his Mana was still far from full after healing himself more than that after putting some distance between himself and the ruins Ajax felt he had a lot more freedom to experiment, he was currently in HelSotHein’s area meaning it would be very unlikely to run into another Ascended race in this area so he didn’t need to be so much on guard.
Ajax chose to practice his shadow travel and shadow jump as he moved. The former was now a smoother transition than any he had been previously doing. He was already able to enter the shadows smoothly but he was now starting to get the hang of exiting without tripping from the sudden change in movement.
His shadow jumping however left much to be desired. He still hadn’t gotten a good handle on how to trigger the jump, he had managed to repeat his success but it wasn’t something he could do at will, it worked one in five times and even that was when he was focusing on replicating the feeling he had when he succeeded previously going fully off of his memory of the feeling. But now that he had succeeded he knew it was only a matter of practice before he became more proficient with the technique, when he got back he would work with Fluffy to improve as he was sure there had to be a way to do it without exiting the shadows when jumping.
Once night fell Ajax squared himself away underground, it would most likely be safe for him to keep going through the night but after the day he had he could use some rest.