Chapter 495

Ajax was proven right. After the group moved on to the next floor the guards did actually improve. Their new location was a mountainside with a sparse tree presence instead of a thick forest, this allowed them to maintain a better visual field and once they set up a defensible position their training and experience started to show. 

“You can go ahead and get started on clearing the floor.” Ajax told Xavier. “We’ll be here only for a day or two depending on what kind of stone we find. The wood is not the best in terms of quality but the Mana density makes up for it.” 

“Wouldn’t the same be true of stone?” Xavier asked. 

“Nope, Mana density only helps with strength of the stone, wrong stone means different structure not something that we can just swap out in a building design.” 

“What are you going to do?” Xavier asked. 

“Besides keeping an eye on them and you?” Ajax said with a smirk. “I’ll kick off a small quarry for them and make some cement for those that have the [Cement Builder] skill to use.” 

Once Xavier headed out Ajax headed for the small cave where he knew lay the floor obelisk. He intended to not just clear out the floor but have all the builders put their skills to use making a defensive position that the guards would then try to use to handle the endless siege in a beast wave simulation. 

“You don’t get it, I was right there.” The voice of one of the two guards that were watching the obelisk could be heard. “No more than ten feet from me, and I couldn’t see or sense anything. One moment I was watching helplessly as the griffin was about to shred someone and the next there he was holding the beast in one hand by the neck the same way my dad held chickens.” 

Ajax was now kicking himself for the show he put on earlier. He had wanted to let them be faced with the consequences of their action, to feel the moment of fear because of their failure. His misstep however was in not just blasting the beast with a spell or an arrow. Even now six hours after it happened it was all the guards were talking about. 

“I know.” The other guard responded as Ajax was coming from behind him, Ajax could clearly see the first guard was frozen in shock at seeing him approach but the second didn’t register his presence so he continued. “I used to think what the boys were saying before was an exaggeration, building a quarry in under a minute by striking the ground with a hammer. But now I believe it.” 

“M-My Lord.” The first guard finally got his bearings and saluted Ajax. 

The second guard was quick to react and turned around and performed a perfect salute, but his face was pale and his voice left him as his mouth simply moved up and down with no words forthcoming.

“I’ll send a few people to build a reinforced layer of stone across this floor.” Ajax said, ignoring their reactions. “Just because we haven’t seen any monsters come up from the ground doesn’t mean there aren’t any and this is where all the crafters will hole up for the beast wave. Make sure none of them activates the obelisk.” 

Ajax turned around and walked out of the cave without waiting for their confirmation of his orders. He didn’t think anyone would be stupid enough to activate the obelisk early but with Xavier out there he wanted an extra layer of protection. While Xavier was far stronger than this floor’s creatures it wasn’t to the point where he could be caught up unprepared in the beast wave that would form following the triggering of the obelisk.

As he walked outside of the perimeter of their soon to be defensive fort with his hammer in hand Ajax once again started hearing all the gossip out his previous actions at the quarry. He only used two hammer strikes this time, he wasn’t going for a long lasting quarry and he didn’t want to use up all his Mana and Stamina yet the effect was immediate. By lowering the scope he was able to carve out a few good chunks of rock that would work perfectly as the starting point for his builders.

“Get started on this” Ajax’s voice rang clear across the camp and everyone jumped to follow his orders. “Also get people to gather the gravel, we’ll need it soon.” 

With that Ajax retreated back towards the center of the camp, took out his portable alchemy station and got started on making cement. Unfortunately from what he could see he hadn’t gotten lucky and needed to use his own reagents for the cement. 

“My Lord.” One of his retainers approached him. “Would cement really be a good option?” 

Ajax looked up and found that while he didn’t know the man he did seem familiar. One of the retainers that had joined his House back in the capital and had been with them for a few years now. Enough time that he knew Ajax’s attitude and disregarded the shocked looks of his peers as he questioned the Duke.

“What makes you say so?” Ajax asked, he agreed with the man. With the information he had given them everyone should be objecting to the use of cement. This was a small test he wanted to lay out to see who would speak up as well as a lesson to the others that following orders without thought was a bad idea.

“You said we would be here a day, two at the most.” The builder said. “There simply won’t be any time for it to set.” 

“That’s true.” Ajax nodded and he could see the man relax a little with relief, despite having been with House Hearthbound for years he hadn’t spent almost any time with Ajax so he was still plenty worried about how the young Duke would react to being questioned. “But the main purpose of this delve is to increase your skills, as some of you have skills specifically related to cement it only makes sense to have some available for you. I’m not worried about clearing the floor.” 

“I see, thanks for putting my mind at ease.” The builder quickly returned to his crafting, eager to get back to the Mana dense stone and wood he had the opportunity of working with. 

Ajax’s words did a lot to ease the minds of the guards as well. While his previous actions with the griffin showed he wouldn’t let anyone get truly injured it had been such a close thing that they still had doubts, this made it clear that this was simply a training exercise. 

With the extra reassurance the guards started to feel a little more at ease. The ranking officer in charge even showed his experience by heading over to talk to the builders that were preparing the gravel as they waited for Ajax to provide them with cement powder. He wanted to coordinate with them. Now that he was aware that the cement wouldn’t have time to harden he wanted to build the wall strategically so that when the cement inevitably gave way it would do so in a way that funneled the beast wave in a strategically advantageous way.

Ajax took note of the man, that was some quick thinking. It took him moments after hearing about a problem, one that couldn’t be fixed, and he was already looking to make the most out of a bad situation. 

After finishing creating a few packs of cement and distributing them Ajax took a hands off approach as he simply observed the guards. He was looking to learn how to lead people during a defensive siege, while this small simulation would be very different from the real thing it helped him to start small and see what should happen. After all, with everyone prepared for a siege and knowing what to do this should be the model of efficiency once the beast wave does come.

By night time Xavier also returned, his armor didn’t have a scratch on it but it was covered with blood. Not human blood, but instead the blood of whatever was unfortunate enough have Xavier come upon it.

“How are they doing?” Xavier joined Ajax overlooking the camp after he cleaned up. 

“Up until now I didn’t have any major complaints.” Ajax said. “Shame they had to mess up right at the end.” 

“How’d they do that?” Xavier asked. 

“You’ve been here for a few hours and yet nobody approached you to get any information about what’s out there.” Ajax pointed out.

“I’ll say it's best you just let that go.” Xavier said with a shake of his head. “The only ones who should be worried about that are the leaders, and they are all commoners who would have been whipped at best for questioning a prince under their previous noble. And that would have been correct.”

Ajax caught the reproach in his friend’s tone. It was clearly directed at him but it still took him a moment to figure out where he had gone wrong. It hit him as he replayed Xavier’s words. The reason nobody questioned the prince but they were all looking towards them with inquisitive glances was because they expected him to do so. He was the noble leading them, he was the only one who could question a member of the royal family and he would then share what he deemed was important.

Ajax quickly moved to correct his mistake. He didn’t need to ask Xavier what was out there, during the day he had already investigated so he simply moved to share that with the guard leadership. ‘Looks like it's a learning exercise for all of us’ Ajax chuckled to himself.