Chapter 469

The room fell silent at Ajax’s words. For a moment all of them were processing what Ajax had said. Ajax knew there was a lot riding on this though he promised himself he would keep quiet about the ability to bond Ascended races. 

“What do you mean, evolve?” the king asked.

“Is that why your Aura is so different now?” The young princess barely fifteen years of age asked, she had recently spent her stat points after following Ajax’s advice, with her Perception over twenty five she was finally able to perceive Aura’s, while she had gotten used to them Ajax’s oppressive superiority affected her in a way she wasn’t used to.

“Yes, that’s why my Aura is a little different.” Saying that Ajax flared his Aura to give everyone a good feel for the change. “As for what I mean by evolution, the System was pretty clear in its notification, my race evolved from Awakened Human to Ascended Human.” 

There were a few sharp hisses of breaths at the word Ascended, the races that claimed said title being able to wipe kingdoms from the map over a weekend at a whim. “What did you gain from evolving?” the king asked. 

“It doubled my remaining life span.” Ajax  said with a smile. “Not only that but it also added +10 to all my stats.” 

“That is a very strong Achievement.” the crown prince nodded as he stroked his chin. “One that will cause even further competition between the noble Houses.” 

“That wasn’t the Achievement, little brother.” the oldest prince said with a smirk. “You would do well to listen more carefully.” the smugness that radiated off him at getting one over on his brother who was usually leagues ahead of him in terms of communication would last for a while.

“Not the Achievement?” the king asked. 

“The system was just informing me of what the evolution did, almost like it was outside the system's influence.” Ajax explained, something he was pretty sure about considering it had taken two weeks since he was born before he gained access to the system. “There was also an Achievement attached to evolving.” 

“Like always our new Duke is always pushing for greater things.” the eldest prince said with pride as he patted Ajax on the shoulder. “He got a prestige version of the Achievement for evolving before the age of fifty.” 

“The prestige version increases my gained experience by 200%. Effectively tripling my experience gain.” Ajax explained. “The regular version is only a 150% increase. Where it gets a little dicey is that the prestige version requires 10 Discoveries while the normal version only five.” 

“Ten discoveries is very steep, especially for an Achievement that is to be earned by the age of fifty.” the king nodded. “I assume you bypassed the requirement with your reward from your Researcher Achievement.”

Ajax nodded at that. “One thing that doesn’t make sense to me is what did the system mean when it said Awakened Human?” the crown prince asked.

Ajax had the very same question for a long time, now that there was an opportunity to find out he focused his [Inspector’s Eye] on the young princes focusing on only uncovering her race. Sure enough the message he got in return said [Awakened Human]. She was the easiest to test this on as she had no privacy skills just yet.

“I am not sure,” Ajax prefaced his words. “But I think there is lower version of humanoids, inferior or basic.” 

“And you think that they are weaker than us?” the king asked.

“No, if anything I think they might even be stronger on an individual basis.” Ajax shook his head. “The reason they are inferior would be that they lack choice when it comes to choosing their build. Humanoid races like kobolds, goblins or orcs. Stronger in terms of pure stats compared to a human of the same level but with a set distribution of stats and skills.” 

Ajax had been thinking on this for a good part of the trip back from the empire, once he returned to his duchy he would go and scour the salamander nest as well as try out his theory by inspecting one of the kobolds.

“Then how come we are born awakened?” the king asked.

“I think it’s because both parents are awakened humans.” Ajax said

The implication that two Ascended humans could give birth to an Ascended human left the room quiet. “That is a dangerous speculation.” the king said. 

Almost all humans invested a good portion of their stats into Vitality. While Endurance also increased a human’s lifespan slightly the returns on investment were much lower compared to Vitality. News of the evolution was sure the see young nobles skip out on early investments in Vitality all in hopes of clearing dungeon floors fast enough to gain their evolution. 

“You have given us a lot to think about.” the king said as he stroked his white beard. 

“On a lighter note, what can you tell us about your magic mud?” the eldest prince asked. 

“Magic mud?” the crown prince asked, confused. 

“It’s called cement.” Ajax was sure the prince knew exactly what it was called and was only calling it magic mud to needle at him.

“What is this cement?” The king also asked intrigued and also happy for a small distraction from the big implications of human’s ability to evolve.

“It's what gained me my Researcher Achievement” Ajax said. “A new alchemical substance that when mixed with water will turn into a viscous mud like substance that will then slowly dry out, by consistently keeping it wet during the setting period it will eventually harden. Currently the timeline is about two weeks.” 

Both the king and the crown prince looked to the royal adviser. While they both had plenty of knowledge they weren’t that specified as to understand what effect such a discovery would have on the kingdom.

“Interesting,” the advisor said. “Depending on how durable the hardened end product is, it would make building homes much easier.” 

“The current endurance isn’t good enough for building homes.” Ajax shook his head. “At best it would work as a binder for stornes, I am currently working on developing a more durable and possibly self repairing version for building. The current use of the substance is for building roads.”

“Roads are not a bad idea.” the advisor nodded. “Considering what you said about it being mudlike in the beginning I would guess it would be easy to repair any damage by adding another layer. Depending on how expensive it is to make it seems like a feasible plan. Though I do not see the use of such things, we already have roads.” 

“Traveling on a flat even surface is much faster, the number of broken down carts would be lower.” Ajax explained.

“Our carriages managed to almost double their speed on the small bit he had built around his future manor.” one of the squad captains reported. 

“That would be very valuable.” the advisor nodded. “Especially with your duchy’s location all but barring one of the two roads that lead to the Empire. I imagine merchants will rejoice to hear this.” 

Ajax smiled as he thought about his plan to build a harbor. With a direct way to reach the Empire’s capital in a much shorter time frame as well as the increased amount a large ship could carry he expected merchants will be flooding his duchy.

“I appreciate your timely visit to inform us of these developments Duke Hearthbound.” the crown prince nodded his head towards Ajax. “I imagine you wouldn’t be staying in the capital for too much longer?” 

“Actually I plan on staying for about a week.” Ajax said, surprising them. “With the increased experience gain, the timeline for attempting to get others the Achievement of defeating a floor boss twice their level is quickly closing. I am planning on delving in next week if you could lend me a few of your men to ensure the safety of everyone. Not only that but I also plan to invite Luna to open a research base for the Healing Union in my duchy.”

What Ajax didn’t say was that he was hoping to pick Luna’s brain about how to best propose to Lexi. It had been a long time coming and while he was pretty sure she would say yes there was a small part of him that worried she would say no.

“That would be fine.” The king said, with the Healing Union ruled by the crown in all but name, it was the royals who needed to approve of Ajax’s request. Still, because ostensibly Luna was running the Healing Union politics demanded that Ajax ask in a roundabout way. “It’s nice to see you being more comfortable in your position as Duke.”

“By your leave, Your Majesty.” Ajax bowed his head and everyone was subsequently dismissed, exiting the palace and heading for their family’s manors, all except Ajax who was heading towards Luna’s manor.