Chapter 494

Most of the group entering the dungeon looked nervous. It wasn’t just the guards, some of whom were entering the dungeon for the first time in their lives, it was the crafting focused members of House Hearthbound as well. Only two people were relaxed as they stood before the arch. 

“Is Lexi sure she doesn’t want to join us?” Xavier asked right before they entered. 

“She’s sure.” Ajax confirmed. “Something about one of us being available to greet any other nobles that might decide to show up.Unlike you she isn’t so eager so try out the other part of her boon.” One thing Ajax didn’t mention was that they were expecting at least some of the neighboring nobles to show up for the execution they had planned.

Ajax’s confident smile slipped a little after the last sentence. “I hope you’re not blaming yourself. You know you are in no way responsible.” Xavier tried to bring up his spirits but Ajax could tell Xavier was directing the words towards himself just as much as he was Ajax.

Last evening Ajax and Xavier had both received a royal missive from the crown prince letting them know that in the past few weeks since they left the capital half of the people that had joined them to receive the boon had died in the dungeon. 

Neither of them were blaming themselves for the carelessness of the people. Instead Ajax was blaming himself for looking past the obvious pitfall of their plan. Selecting poor Houses all but guaranteed that they would be looking towards those boons to help out with their financial situations, to the point where overzealousness or greed made their recipients take a bad risk inside a dungeon. All three had been full team wipes with no details as to what happened and only a flickering hope that they might just be somehow stuck on a floor with no way out.

Xavier on the other hand was blaming himself for not thinking of assigning a royal guard to each of those who gained the boon. His father had mentioned in the letter they sent to him that the other three who had received the boon were all now outfitted with a level ninety retainer of the royal family. Someone strong enough to take on anything the dungeon might throw at a level fifty five but not so strong as to be imposing on the House as a whole.

The mountain breeze of the first floor of the dungeon was the refreshing wake up call both of them needed to focus on the present once again. 

“This is the warm up floor.” Ajax announced. “All of you should be powerful enough to handle yourselves on this floor even if you make mistakes. Get used to your formation.” 

The delve would only be going to the second floor. At this point that was a floor even Xavier was somewhat confident he could solo given a usual floor and enough provisions to be able to take his time slowly working his way through it. The whole point was for the guards and crafters to get used to delving Ajax and Xavier were just there to oversee everything and test out the boon. 

The guards showed their inexperience from the start. While they perfectly handed the deer and the bears that wondered the forest the hawks and the wolves were a different matter. Both the stags and the bears relied on their brute strength for offence, something that the higher levels and their time in the city had taught them to respond to perfectly, not only that but both the stags and bears attack straight foward.

The eagles and the wolves not only relied on speed and pack strategy as well as ambush attacks but they were targeting the much more vulnerable crafters. This was something new for the guard to deal with. In their line of work it wasn’t very often they had to protect people from an ambush, the few of them who did well were those that had worked as part of caravan guards before on the lookout for bandits.

“Are you sure they’ll be fine on the next floor?” Xavier asked as he watched the two healers they had with them patch up and scratch, bite or beak wounds that people had suffered.

“It’ll be fine.” Ajax reassured him. “They’ll do a lot better once they have a constant defensible position instead of being on the move so much.” 

The reason why they were still on the first floor was that Ajax was looking for an appropriate floor for the builders. He wanted enough stone and wood that they would have plenty of both to work with. Ajax wanted to kickstart his road building force and get their levels rising.

“I see you didn’t bring the other Trailblazer your House has.” Xavier pointed out. 

Bob wasn’t the only builder to gain the [Cement Builder] skill but he was the first and only Trailblazer. Since then the skill had actually become very speculative for everyone who was working as a builder for House Hearthbound. Both [Builder] and [Cement Builder] were Uncommon skills, this meant that once you had one it would be very hard to get the other. The arguments about which would be better to get were still ongoing despite having started months ago at this point.

“There are a few who have [Cement Builder] among them.” Ajax said as he looked towards his retainers. “Bob’s too young and way too low level to come into the dungeon. He isn’t even level fifteen yet. Though I’m sure that won’t last for long now that he has an Epic Skill.”

“I’m surprised you had builders that got the skill and aren’t that young to be honest.” Xavier said. “You’d think most of them would have already had the [Builder] skill.” 

“Lexi has a theory on that.” Ajax shared as he noticed the griffin that was preparing to dive from above undetected by any of the guards. “Apparently [Cement Builder] has very little of the [Builder]’s skill assistance with the financial side of the skill, getting [Cement Builder] all but guarantees you won’t get the Rare [Foreman] skill.” 

“Isn’t that demoralizing?” Xavier asked, he also spotted the griffin preparing to dive but knowing Ajax had seen it long before him and hadn’t said anything he decided to follow his lead and stay quiet on the subject.

“Not yet.” Ajax said with a grin. “We’re thinking of a solution to when it will be but right now everyone who gets the skill is pushing themselves as much as they can. They all want to receive the Legendary Trailblazer Skill they think it will have.” 

“That is some incentive.” Xavier nodded. “Who are you helping to get it.” 

“Bob.” Ajax answered instantly, normally most nobles would be more reluctant to share something like that with the royal family since there was a real chance they would poach a Legendary Skill holder. But Ajax was confident not only that they wouldn’t try but according to his family Bob was showing himself to be very dedicated to House Hearthbound. “He’s young, has plenty of potential, he has [Mathematics] and [Bookkeeping] and we’re trying to get him the [Accountant] skill hoping to push towards something.” 

Ajax was being careful to make sure he wasn’t overheard by anyone as he didn’t want to let everyone know the preferential treatment they were all aware Bob was receiving was not just a reward for getting the Epic skill but them trying to rig the contest for the Legendary one as well. “We’re really hoping that it isn’t one of the older people with low Vitality that gets it, it would be a waste since chances are they won’t be able to push themselves too much even with it.”

It was then that the griffin made its move. The dive was nothing all that great but it started a lot higher compared to the hawks, this meant that by the time it was spotted it was already moving too fast for any of the guards to do anything about. 

“Look out!”

“Above!” 

“SHIELDS!” 

Sadly all the mages were chanters and none of them had a shield spell ready to go, all they could do at this point was watch helplessly as the guards tried to reach the person in time but even in the short seconds they had to register everything they knew they wouldn’t make it in time. 

Xavier tried his best but his focus on more combat effective stats meant that his Perception was simply too low. Despite knowing it was coming he still couldn’t even track Ajax’s movement with his eyes. He could feel everything with his [Sense Mana] as Ajax blurred into motion before disappearing.

Xavier even managed to distinguish three different spells, one made with Wind Mana, one with Vibration Mana and one with Earth Mana as Ajax not only intercepted the dive at the last moment but he even went so far as to make it a show of force as his fingers sunk into the feathery throat of the griffin.

Xavier was sure he was the only one there to even catch what Ajax had done with his spells. To everyone else he was sure it looked like Ajax had perfectly stopped the momentum of the griffin with sheer physical strength as he now held the thrashing creature by the throat. 

“Well, at least you learned how to make an entrance like a noble.” Xavier chuckled to himself as he remembered Ajax’s more conservative personality back when they first met.