Chapter 595

Ajax took a moment to take a good look at Verya. It didn’t seem to him like she was lying but he had no way to verify it. That said he wasn’t about to risk pissing off any Ascended, especially if he would be going out of his way to do as he was already no planning on causing a dungeon break. 

The dungeon they were looking at had a twenty floor jump meant that he would at most be getting only one or two floor clear bonuses depending on where the first floor started. 

“Now that we are here you have a decision to make.” Ajax said as he turned towards Verya. “And no I am not planning on causing a dungeon break.” 

Verya seemed reasonably reassured as he said that. “What choice?” 

“Are you going to wait outside or join me inside the dungeon?” Ajax presented her the options. 

“Why wouldn’t I join you?” Verya asked. “As far as I know humans can still gain their bonus even if they have others with them ca-” 

Ajax had to rely on his social skills to mask the smirk that wanted to break out on his face as Verya fell victim to their deal in the same way he had not long ago, since it was Ajax’s turn to ask a question she couldn’t ask such common knowledge generalities. At the same time he was slightly upset at missing the chance of answering such an easy question and getting two more of his own. 

“If you want to join me we have to make another deal.” Ajax said. “Anything we learn about the other’s Skills and abilities inside the dungeon we do our best to not give that information away.” 

“So you have a little trick to do with dungeons?” Verya turned her neck in a very bird-like fashion as she took a moment to study Ajax, it was these odd movements that came out when she wasn’t focused that reminded Ajax she was a shapeshifter and that her original form was not the winged humanoid it presented as. “Fine, I'll wait out here.” 

“You’re not curious?” Ajax was surprised. From everything he had seen the sidhe was very much interested in any knowledge she could gain from Ajax. 

“In suffering a backlash from breaking a deal, no thank you.” Verya shook her head. Seeing Ajax didn’t get it she chose to explain further. “Just because the only binding deals you have are with me doesn’t mean I don’t have other binding deals with other sidhe. Accepting your offer could mean I have to break a deal, with you or someone else later.” 

Ajax’s eyes widened and he cursed his own stupidity at not having thought about that before. Of course Verya would have standing deals that might force her to give away information. It was obvious from how they met that she wasn’t in a high social standing if she was working with someone clearly weaker than her just because of who his parents were.

“I’ll do my best not to take too long.” Ajax reassured her as he stepped towards the dungeon. 

Once Ajax entered the dungeon, Verya was left with nothing to do but to plan. Already her standing was going to grow once she reported back some of the information she had learnt just from traveling with Ajax. More surprising however she had found was just how much experience she had been gaining since she started traveling with Ajax.

She knew the reason for the increased experience, it was something almost no sidhe her level would ever get the chance to experience, making deals with another Ascended race. Their race’s abilities were known and no other race would leave their young to make deals with the sidhe. This meant the only deals she had made so far were with the lesser races or other sidhe. Given that Ajax was also stronger than her the added difficulty only ramped up and the experienced only increased. 

“I need to find a way to make more deals with him.” Verya was sure of that now that she had a moment to herself to put her thoughts in order. “I should also be more free with the questions about humanoids. “ 

It was refreshing for Verya to make such bare bones deals, unlike the complicated deals sidhe made with each other as they tried to close every loophole. Moreso, Ajax’s position as most likely the sole human Ascended had led to her gaining a very important Legendary Skill [Ambasador]. A lot of her Skill had already been heading towards the social climb but this one would mark her as useful in trades with other Ascended races. It was her lucky break to gain it. 

A greedy corner of her mind nudged at her to try and get in contact with her village leader. Ajax would still be safe and if he makes the right deal he might have an easier time completing his journey, she could justify it to herself as giving him an opportunity if she was to reach out, the elders would make the trip to the dungeon in hours unlike the days they took to get here. 

After entertaining the thought for a moment however she quickly snuffed it out. Even if she could justify it to herself in order to not break the deal they had made Ajax would clearly take it as a betrayal. From the few times she saw him fight she had gotten a pretty good idea of his personality from his fighting and betraying him would lead to a grudge that could very well lead to her death. The Sidhe had learnt their lesson the first time not to underestimate humans. 

Inside the dungeon Ajax found himself inside of a volcano. If that was all Ajax wouldn’t have been all that impressed what was shocking to him however was just how full of life the floor was. It wasn’t just the reptiles that swam through the rivers of magma but Ajax was drawn towards the magical plants that were actually rooted in the molten liquid. 

There were few texts that mentioned anything about such plants back in Gryndor. The rare times they were found it was always on dungeon floors and most groups who stumbled upon them didn’t have an alchemist that could work with them at all. The number of high level alchemists that entered dungeons was extremely low and most low level alchemists couldn’t deal with the inherent heat required to work with the plants even when they did appear on lower floors. 

Ajax took a moment to give a silent apology to Verya before he started scouring the floor looking to collect as many of the volcanic plants as he could so that he could experiment with them on the later floors. 

Being the first floor of the dungeon Ajax had no issues in dealing with the monsters. He did notice that the strongest were only level thirty seven, this meant that he would be able to get a stat boost from the next floor as they would be fifty seven there and the floor after that when they would be seventy seven before fully clearing the ninety seven floor. It took him about seven hours to collect enough of the plants that grew on the floor to fill up an entire spacial ring before Ajax finally decided to move on to the next floor. 

On the upside, by spending so much time scouring the floor Ajax had already found the perfect follow up floor that led him to a swap. The abundance of plants here were perfect for his experiments not to mention the abundance of Mana infused water, though he will have to put some effort into clearing it of impurities. 

Ajax could already see it. In the future once the humanoids were no longer so reclusive alchemists would travel to this dungeon to get access to that first floor and these rare ingredients in abundance. It was that thought that brought his excitement to a screeching halt and caused his first experiment to fizzle into a failure as he lost all focus.

Humanoids would become less reclusive by necessity, but that didn’t mean that human nature would change. Unless handle very carefully this new breakthrough he had given humanoids could very easily turn into a brief golden age before an apocalyptic disaster where they overstepped and the Ascended races crushed them. 

Think of that Ajax was more determined than ever to get stronger, to get himself a seat at the table from where he could stop that future from happening. It seemed obvious to him that humanoids would have to band together when dealing with the Ascended races, they couldn’t afford to be at each other's throats when dealing with such forces.

Before returning to his alchemy Ajax decided what his next question for Verya would be, the easiest way for him to ensure he would be able to gain enough power to stand toe to toe with champions three times his level when he returned. Once he was out of the dungeon Ajax would ask about Mythic Skills.