Chapter 480

Ajax took the time to dissect the beholder and examine the corpse. He wanted to know just how much damage the initial attack had done. The answer was : a lot. Ajax didn’t know just what the relation between the number of eyes used and the amount of power the spell received but almost a third of the creature’s eyes had been destroyed by his initial attack. More than that almost the entire other layer of muscle was covered in a criss-cross of electrical burns, not to mention the skin.

“This looked a lot harder of a fight than the ettin.” Lexi said as she and the rest of their friends joined Ajax in examining the corpse.

“It was actually quite a bit easier.” Ajax explained. “Even without all the increases I received since back then I think I would have been able to win against it by just keeping my distance. There was nothing it could do against ranged attacks from a fast enemy. But if I was forced to engage it in close combat…” 

Ajax didn’t need to finish his thought, all of them had seen what had happened the first time Ajax had gotten too close to the creature, his only saving grace had been the amount of variety he had access to in terms of mana affinities, his Metal affinity allowing him to protect himself from the Decay beam.

“To think it would have [Telekinesis].” Benedict said after a moment of silence. 

“Any Legendary affinity would have caused problems.” Anna disagreed with his evaluation. “Imagine what it would have been like if it had access to Undeath mana to go with that Decay magic.” 

Even the thought sent a shiver down all of their backs. On a floor so full of life as a jungle biome to unleash a Decay and Undeath caster would be the precursor to a zombie apocalypse.

“Time to leave.” Xavier said, ready to put this behind them. “We all have a lot of thinking to do about how we will be splitting up our mana pools. Well, almost all of us.” Xavier’s comment wasn’t directed towards Ajax who didn’t gain the boon but rather towards Anna. 

If Ajax’s theory that it was the mana affinity that made the Floor Boss’s spells more resistant to his [Mana Syphon] then this would mean Anna’s flames would become even more resistant than they already were thanks to her own Legendary skill. Despite being a merchant first and foremost Anna was on the path to be the strongest Fire mage in Gryndor and soon after that the all the humanoid kingdoms.

Nobody had any reason to stick around. Ajax thought about clearing a few more floors for the extra stats but there was no need for that just yet and he would need a dedicated boost team to push himself, the squad could fill in but he didn’t want to impose on them on such short notice, especially since they had mostly already finished clearing this floor.

“So what did you get?” Lexi asked as they headed for the exit arch. 

“ [Overloaded Spell Conductor]” Ajax answered. “That should make it a lot easier for me to get a better use out of the staff.” 

“You got it?” Lexi sounded impressed. “Grandpa has that, it took him five years to unlock it after he started leading rituals. Though he did start with some lower mana ones and didn’t go all the way up to thirty thousand mana as quickly as you did.” 

“It was something else to control that much mana.” Ajax nodded as he thought back to that moment. “I could barely focus on anything else, and that was with the staff handling the burden of channeling the mana.” 

“That staff could be a great tool for training siege mages.” Benedict says. “One of the biggest issues high mana pool mages run into is that it takes so long for them to push their mana channels to grow to the point where they can cast spells with thousands of mana, by using your staff they could start getting experience with that earlier, it might even lead them to unlock their skills earlier and give them more time to grow them before they need to use them in combat.” 

Siege mages were some of the more reliable ways normal groups took out floor bosses. While it wouldn’t always work out due to the nature of the floor boss, having a siege mage that is able to effectively replicate Ajax’s feat of doing significant damage to the floor boss makes it a lot easier for the rest of the group to finish it off. This helps groups deal with more robust bosses like the ettin, elementals or anything extremely large with a lot of Vitality.

“I also got [Telekinesis].” Ajax whispered the words but Anna, Lexi, Xavier and Benedict all heard him clearly. Their eyes bugged out as their jaws dropped and they all turned to look at him.

“So that’s what that was at the end.” Benedict said, remembering Ajax’s grabbing motion that brought the beholder to the ground. “I sensed the mana but I was too far away to notice what it was clearly, with all the Wind Mana in the air from the beholder I thought you used Wind as well.” 

“Is it an affinity?” Lexi asked almost at the same time as Benedict.

“It isn’t.” Ajax answered. “And yes, that’s what that was.” 

“But how?” Xavier whispered. “It took you months to unlock Vibration Mana, to unlock [Telekinesis] in just moments.” 

“I guess I have a very high affinity for the skill.” Ajax answered with a shrug. “This is the same way I picked up [Mana Syphon] all those years ago.” 

As Ajax said this he realized that as a stand alone skill [Telekinesis] just became a contender for if not the outright best skill in his arsenal, especially when it came to short engagements. Unlike all his other Legendary Skills [Telekinesis] was only bound by how much mana he could feed it and the short range of the ability. 

“What is it like?” Lexi asked as she hopped a little in excitement. Like almost all mages who had unlocked their mana at a young age she had at one point imagined she had the ability to move things with her mind.

“It’s hard to explain. Despite it being based on mana it’s not really a spell, its just similar to my form of casting but not quite the same.” As he said this he focused and used the skill to gently pick Lexi up off the ground and bring her towards him where he wanted to wrap his arm around her.

His little trick failed as while he managed to lift her gently the speed at which he pulled her towards him was faster than he expected as he ended up knocking both of them over. 

“It’s like having another limb that I haven't used before.” Ajax said as he laughed and helped Lexi and himself back to their feet. “It's easy to put a lot of power behind an action and get something close to what I want to with brute strength but it will take time to learn how to properly control it. Not to mention it’s quite Mana intensive.” 

“How bad?” Anna asked. 

“Not as bad as Life Mana, then again nothing really is.” Ajax said. “It takes about a quarter more than Vibration Mana. That’s to say nothing of the limited range that comes with it.” 

Nobody asked what the range limit was. While all of them were very good friends, that would still be too sensitive a question for him to share about such a powerful weapon in his arsenal. Lexi would ask once they were alone and Ajax might even share the information with the others but he wouldn’t be talking about it where anyone else like the royal squad could hear them. Everything other than that was something he was already going to share with the royal family and Duke Manashaper so he wasn’t too secretive about it.

“What about you Benedict?” Ajax asked. “Not too disappointed with the boon are you?” 

Unlike all the others Benedict was a purely physical fighter, their recent dungeon spree had given him the stats to change that somewhat into more of a hybrid fighter in a similar way that physically inclined elves fought but this wasn’t looking like it would be that great a boon for him. 

“It actually makes it a bit easier to determine my new fighting style.” Benedict said with a smile. “Instead of going for the conventional variety hybrid like you, Xavier and the prince are using, I'll go for a more specialized version. Like Anna I’ll be focusing on a single element for all my spell casting. Though I will take my time to decide which one is best for me before I start aspecting my mana.” 

“You heading for the duchy in the morning?” Xavier asked Ajax and Lexi. 

“We are.” Lexi answered. “Just going to give the report on how successful this delve was, get a good night’s rest and then we’ll be heading out in the morning along with all the retainers my family is sending with me.” 

“Maybe a shower first.” Xavier coughed, while Ajax had healed his legs it wasn’t so easy to get rid of the smell of rotting flesh that now stuck to his boots.