Chapter 546

“Why are we here as well?” Quinn complained as they traveled through the dungeon’s third floor.

“We’re here to speed things up.” Patrick answered. “This should all take less than one day on the outside.

“Plenty of noble Houses out there that want to win the favor of a new Duke, why not have them send people to speed things up?” Quinn asked.

“Because you won’t blab about what the new Duke can do.” The prince explained. “And depending on the floor boss he faces he might have to show a lot.” 

“He has already shown a lot.” Quinn grumbled. “[Telekinesis], Void magic, there are enough rumors about him also having Life Mana on top of a number of other known affinities and his Mana draining skill. I mean come on, who kills floor bosses twice their level in single combat?” 

The ten squads of Gryndor were among the strongest forces in the kingdom and this could be seen from their attitude in front of the royal family. They did follow the orders they were given but outside of the public eye they complained and didn’t fawn over the prince present despite him being the strongest individual here.

“You can loosen up.” Ajax tried his best to calm the Collectors down.

It wasn’t the first time the Collectors were in the presence of people so far above their station. Shortly after they arrived in the capital they started selling their boosting services in the dungeons below market price just to get the delve slots and train their newest member and healer.

“It’s not that.” Jones shook his head as he looked in the direction of the squad and the prince as they made their way through the wet marshy floor.

“Then what is it?” Ajax asked. “I know all of you were boosted in dungeons before.” 

Ajax had made sure that all his retainers were boosted during the time his family was living in the capital, even the noncombatents were taken once to gain the extra stats, it had made for a great recruiting tool. 

“Not to a floor twice our level!” Jones exclaimed. 

The Collectors had worked their way up slowly and safely, it was one of the main reasons Ajax had joined them when he first started delving. That hadn’t changed when they got to the capital, with the increased difficulty of the floors they managed to speed up their leveling compared to their last few years in Lessis but it was still under a level a year. Their leveling speed inside dungeons increased working for House Hearthbound but their delving frequency decreased so it evened out.

“The only time you’ll be in any danger is during my battle with the Floor Boss.” Ajax waved away their concerns. 

“That is exactly our point.” Bobby pointed out. 

“We haven’t even seen a floor boss before.” Donnie finished his brother’s point.

“Being tapped on Mana and Stamina is also worrying.” Nelly said, though she looked towards her son. He was the youngest member of the Collectors and the one with the lowest physical stats. More than that however he was only level thirty nine, making him particularly vulnerable. He had been catching up in levels with the rest of the Collectors especially with help from House Hearthbound and was a higher level than any of the rest of them had been at his age but he wasn’t up there quite yet. 

“This is the safest time for you to do this.” Ajax said. “I doubt any of you will be able to match even half my leveling speed until I get a number of more levels.” 

As arrogant as the statement sounded, everyone knew it was the truth. The floors were passing quickly, with Ajax not looking for any specific floors, they simply climbed through the first arch they found. Ajax did however take the time to kill at least one monster per floor to make use of his boon. The group took less than an hour to clear a floor but with their target being on the sixteenth floor it still took a while to get there.

“Are you going to be looking for a specific floor for the last floor?” The prince asked. 

“I am.” Ajax confirmed.

“Why bother?” Frank the scout asked. “The floor boss is related to the floor theme only one in four times. Makes it especially easy to kill it when the surroundings don’t match it.” 

The squads had delved past the level one hundred hurdles countless times, every time they cleared a floor past that point they needed to deal with a Floor Boss so they had killed hundreds by now, though most of them had been with a significant level advantage.

“I’m not looking to fight a specific boss.” Ajax explained. “I want the terrain to work better for them.”

Ajax had learnt his lesson from his first attempt at boosting the boons. Trying to keep someone half the level of a Floor Boss out of danger in a forest was nightmarishly difficult. The trees weren’t much of an obstacle for the beholder or Ajax during that fight, but while they didn't provide any cover they were a mess for the young nobles to try and navigate since they couldn’t really even topple a tree with such high Mana density easily. 

“What are you hoping for?” Patrick asked him. 

As a squad leader Patrick was experienced in planning to keep fragile VIPs safe during their missions so he was open to giving advice. 

“Something with rocky terrain but not sealed like a cave or tunnel.” Ajax answered quickly. “That way I can use Earth Mana to at least build them some shelters that will at least slow down the Floor Boss if it decides to target them.” 

The last time Ajax’s only way to protect the people he was boosting was to charge towards the Floor Boss and he had almost paid dearly for that mistake, getting [Telekinesis] had been a happy accident but not a situation he wanted to repeat.

“Try not to get a cold floor.” Quinn joined the conversation.

“Our comfort isn’t the priority here.” Frank frowned at his teammate.

“No she’s right.” Patrick nodded. “Rocky floors tend to either be mountains or tunnels, if he can be precise enough to not get a tunnel system it will most likely be a mountain. Half the mountain theme floors are freezing cold, most of them aren’t so cold as to be considered an environmental floor but even those could be deadly for people half the level they should be who are low on Stamina and Mana.” 

“I hadn’t thought of that…” Ajax felt very guilty as he admitted that. 

Ajax had already been on a lot of environmental floors, one thing they all had in common was that the environmental factor was the highest Mana, so he knew to avoid an ice or fire floor. What he hadn’t accounted for was that pretty much any very cold floor would be harsher than any environmental floor the Collectors had faced until now. With the gear they had with them being enchanted for protection against direct attacks instead of warmth it could have turned out badly.

It took the group almost eleven hours to make it to the fifteenth floor. Since they weren’t checking what the next floors were up to this point they ran into the winter floor here. It wasn’t to the level of an environmental floor but it was enough to prove Quinn’s point as the Collectors couldn’t stop from shivering and the group moved as quickly as they could as Ajax was searching for a good arch to the next floor. 

“Tha-thank y-you.” Nelly stuttered from the cold as the Collectors all huddled close as Quinn used a fire spell to warm them all up after an hour on the floor.

Unlike the previous floors the Collectors and half the squad had remained by the entrance arch while the other half and Ajax had left looking for a good next floor. Since they left the slow moving people to wait with the collectors it only took about two hours before they returned and they all started moving in the right direction. 

“L-L-Let th-the n-next f-fl-floor be w-warm.” Bobby said as they moved away from the fire. 

“Careful what you wish for.” Frank teased the big plate carrying warrior. “Stone and fire is how you end up in a volcano.

“Are you looking to also push deeper into the dungeon?” the prince asked Ajax. He knew that Ajax hadn’t gone above level one hundred in this dungeon yet, he could probably push another five floors to gain an additional five points to all his Stats.

“Not this time.” Ajax shook his head. “I’ll do it when I boost the nobles, there are people expecting us and despite the time flow difference I don’t want to rush when fighting something level one hundred and fifty.” 

The sixteenth floor wasn’t exactly what Ajax had hoped for but it also wasn’t something he would complain about. The rocky landscape was covered in a thin layer of earth and grass, Ajax was curious what kind of enemies would populate this floor besides the humanoids he already knew would be here. 

“Stay warm.” Frank joked with the collectors one last time before he left with the rest of the squad to start clearing out the floor. The squad split up into two groups of four who left with the prince to clear out the floor and spawn the Floor boss while Ajax, Quinn and Patrick stayed with the Collectors.