Chapter 455

The group continued to head towards the temple. On the way there they encountered a lot more patrols. Ajax was careful to contain any of their empowered casters while Lexi, Anna, Xavier and Oliver each got their own. 

“They are all using the same chant. Not sure if it is specific to the animal heart involved or if that is the only spell they know.” Lexi said as she had examined the spell. “It also seems to work by empowering the knife not themselves.” 

“You mean that anyone could use the empowerment if they swung the knife?” Ajax asked. 

As good as Ajax was at dealing with mana Lexi still surpassed him in terms of theory and he was inclined to trust her judgement. The spell also looked fragile enough that he was confident in smothering it with [Mana Syphon]. 

The next patrol with a caster they came across Ajax wasted no time in dispatching all of them, leaving only the chanter to finish his spell, before he had a chance to stab the knife through the heart and mana core Ajax rushed him. He caught the warrior’s wrist before he could stab the knife while at the same time also taking off his head.

“Are you going to try it?” Lexi asked. 

“I’d much rather someone else do so, but if I am right about their bodies being too weak to handle the empowerment none of you can.” Ajax said before he stabbed the knife through the mana core and heart.

Ajax had made sure to cut off the empowerment of [Mana Syphon] before he gained another boost. The boost he received wasn’t as strong as the one [Mana Syphon] could provide, but his body still felt weird despite being used to handling even more power.

“Woah.” Ajax suddenly exclaimed as his perception changed. His vision suddenly came in and out of focus as his sight improved, he was forced to close his eyes to maintain his balance.” 

“What’s wrong?” Lexi asked worriedly. “Is the spell attacking you?” 

“No, but I am more and more certain that the hearts belonged to birds.” Ajax said as he slowly peaked through a partially open eyelid as he tried to control his improved perception.

“The spell must be boosting the strongest aspects of the heart.” Lexi ventured a guess. “Birds are fast and powerful but they have little to no endurance or defence. They make up for it with flight and good eyesight.” 

“Maybe the spell is just unbalanced like that?” Anna said. 

“It could be but I doubt it.” Ajax said, “The mana changed slightly when the knife stabbed the heart, I would guess it's based on the heart used.” 

“It can also be used by someone other than the initial caster.” Oliver pointed out. “This could be a big breakthrough for humans since we have so few magic users.” 

Ajax had barely managed to get a handle on keeping one eye open without his body swaying in an attempt to compensate for his new eyesight when the boost ran out. “How do you feel?” Xavier asked eager to find out anything about this potential new source of power.

“I’m fine, there doesn’t seem to be an inherent backlash built in to the spell but I could feel how only certain muscles were being enhanced.” Ajax answered. “If I had been pushing myself I’m sure my body would suffer, my joints and even some muscle groups especially so.” 

“I have the chant written phonetically, I won’t try it but my grandpa can once I get back.” Lexi said as she started doing another sketch of the knife from a different angle making sure to get the runes perfectly in terms of proportion and shape.

“Are we ready to leave this floor?” Oliver asked. “I think the Earth, Plant Wind floor would be a decent choice for our next floor.” 

“Not just yet.” Ajax said with a grin on his face as he stared towards the temple. He couldn’t make it out anymore but with his previously improved eyesight Ajax could make out the shape of the twenty foot tall Aztec statue with an arch between its legs. He was willing to bet that it was a golem guardian.

“That golem is massive.” Xavier exclaimed, as the person with the second highest Perception there he was able to make out the form of the golem before any of the others.

The animal face complete with a beak as well as the wings that ended in palms with fingers made clear this floor's obsession with birds.

“How is that golem only level fifty?” Oliver asked, his voice slightly shaking as he took in the size of the statue. 

“I’m guessing its because of how soft gold is.” Ajax answered. “All it has is weight and power, it’ll be slow and soft to compensate.” 

Ajax was proven correct when he engaged the golem. He had no problem locating the core and he made sure to use a precisely aimed Void empowered strike to shatter it. He didn’t want to damage the golem, his efforts were somewhat wasted as the golem deformed pretty heavily from the impact it made when it fell flat on its face after the core was destroyed.

“I’ve never butchered a statue before.” Ajax said with humor as he approached the fallen lump of gold with feet. Being already so close to the ground the feet still maintained their definition even after the fall.

Ajax made a clean strike cutting the golem in two at the waist before storing both halves into his ring. “Now we can go to the next floor.” 

“You know Oliver will figure out what you can do when you take that golem out of the dungeon.” Lexi whispered as they made their way back towards their selected arch.

“I initially wanted to hide it but there is no point now, we took too long to find the golem.” Ajax said as he let out a sigh. “Oliver will figure out at least part of what I can do anyway. It’s more important that the Empire doesn’t.” 

“I know the Empire let you skip out on paying taxes the last time when you came out with a bag of mana gems but I very much doubt they won’t at least fight you for some of this gold.” Lexi said. 

“They already set the precedent last time…” Ajax’s words had no conviction behind them. He knew very well that despite what the initial agreement may have said special circumstances would be weighed differently. A twenty feet tall statue of a muscular broad shouldered beastkin with wings made out of solid mana infused gold was not something he would get to keep to himself.

“My duchy’s financial situation has certainly improved.” Ajax decided to change the subject.

“That’s an understatement if I ever heard one.” Anna laughed as she had slowed down to walk alongside the two and join the conversation. “With that much gold your house is competing for the fourth richest in Gryndor.” 

Ajax already knew the economical landscape of Gryndor enough to know that the top three Houses in Gryndor in terms of financial power were the royals, House Goldmancer, and House Smithmade. 

House Smithmade was one of the oldest Houses, they focused on crafters and had been raised to Goldmancer twice before, once for a single century and another time for a milenia and a half. They were always a contender for the position of Archduke due to their influence on the crafter population. Many in fact were sure that once the current head of House Goldmancer passes it won’t be long before Smithmade regains the title once again.

The next dungeon floor wasn’t anything all that exciting. A forest on the side of a mountain with a hellish wind blowing constantly but often changing directions on whim. Oliver struggled to kill his mini boss and wisely opted to stop his climb at this point. He had managed to gain +2 to all stats and he was happy with the results.

The seventh floor was cleared in a similar manner, the only difference was that Ajax was now starting to show his limits when it came to ensuring his friends and girlfriend got a one on one fight with a mini boss. The level sixties were more resilient and Ajax had to be careful not to hit the mini boss while taking out its guards.

The eighth was much harder, both Lexi and Xavier had to kill a second mini boss after Ajax was forced to enter the fight as he hadn’t been able to intercept all the minions. Anna’s pyromancer style naturally lent itself to isolation as her opening attack forced everyone and everything to spread out, from there Ajax could easily pick off all the enemies with the exception of the mini boss.

“This should be safe enough, go to sleep.” Lexi chastised Ajax as they made camp in front of one of the arches leading to the ninth floor. “You won’t get another chance to have someone watching out for you.” 

“Thanks.” Ajax said as he laid down to sleep. “Just remember to let the prince know I might have some trouble with taxes after I exit.”