Chapter 453

“Don’t say it.” Lexi warned Ajax as soon as they entered the dungeon. 

“What… but…” Ajax was left speechless. 

“I know it’s been a long time for you since you entered a dungeon. But for most people it's normal to spend a few months without delving.” Lexi sighed. 

Ajax knew Lexi was right. The only people who delved as often as he did during the academy were adventurers that were freelancing to multiple noble families as they tried to save up a nest egg for something.

“Fine, let's just go.” Ajax said as he started looking for the closest arch to the next floor.

Since all of them had completed the first three floors already there was simply no need to kill any of the mini bosses there, they all made their way to the closest arch and simply moved on to the next floor. Ajax made sure to solo the boss and collect the body, no point in wasting his ability.

The fourth floor represented new ground for Lexi, Anna, Xavier and Oliver. None of them were pressured by the level forty fives, more than that Oliver had no use for the floor since he had already surpassed level forty seven. 

“Are you sure you want to push as far as the eighth floor?” Ajax asked. 

Considering that Lexi had already killed a level seventy two the answer should be obvious, but this wasn’t a boost. As much as Ajax could act as a booster there was still a big difference between Ajax and the real thing. 

It was easy to forget that while Ajax was starting to rapidly close in on being able to kill monsters close to the same level as the highest level humanoids around, the difference is power between him and those elites was much bigger. Each humanoid that made it to level one hundred and fifty was a generational talent, in one way or another. They couldn’t be compared to to monster of the same level. Where Ajax needed a favorable matchup to be able to win with a perfect fight, they would need a bad matchup to lose.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Lexi reassured him as they made their way around the fourth floor looking for another miniboss. “We just need to find a floor where I can isolate a miniboss easily. If we don’t find one we can always just walk out.” 

The fifth floor would be the last one they could blindly walk into. While Lexi, Anna and Xavier were all comfortable against pretty much any level fifty five, the same could not be said for Oliver. 

When Ajax checked the last arch they found as they cleared the minibosses he was a little surprised. “That is odd.” Ajax said as he tried to focus [Mana Syphon] as much as he could to get a better read on the mana inside the arch.” 

“What is it?” Lexi asked him. 

“I can only feel one mana type.” Ajax said as he kept trying to see deeper. 

“I thought you could tell apart about four or five when they are around this level.” Xavier said confused. 

“Usually the top three once we reach level fifty, four if the fourth one is close to the third in prevalence.” Ajax corrected him. 

“Then why can you only see one.” 

“Because it is more than 90% of the floor.” Ajax explained. “It's masking everything else.” 

“Let’s do it.” Lexi was quick to say. 

Oliver, Xavier and even Anna looked at Lexi with odd expressions. It wasn’t like her to blindly jump head first like this, especially as she hadn’t even asked what said dominant mana type was. 

Ajax on the other hand was very touched by Lexi’s gesture. The first time Ajax had ever lost a party member had been inside a floor dominated by the light element. It was something that Ajax still felt a little guilty about to this day since he had kept the information to himself so as to not disclose his ability to predict floors. Lexi was the only one of them he had shared that with and she was eager to jump at the opportunity of helping Ajax feel a bit better about the incident in any way, even if it was something as simple as clearing another one element floor.

“What element is it?” Oliver asked, he wasn’t certain about killing a level fifty miniboss that aligned so strongly with some elements. 

“Metal.” Ajax answered.

“How much above 90% is it?” Xavier asked.

“A bit over 93% not quite 94%.” Ajax answered. 

“Is this the highest you’ve seen like this?” Anna asked. 

“No, I once came across a 99% Light floor.” Ajax answered. “That was brutal but the enemies were also above level fifty.” 

“I say we do it.” Xavier nodded. 

“Could maybe find some decent quality metal to take out.” Anna was also on board. 

“I can handle metal.” Oliver confirmed. 

With everyone in agreement they all collectively entered the fifth floor of the dungeon. As they entered the floor nobody said a word. Everyone but Ajax was dismissing the update about +1 to all stats but even after that they couldn’t do anything but stare as their jaws dropped and they took in the sights of the floor. 

The floor design wasn’t all that special. It looked like a primitive city in the center of which was a large Aztec temple. Clearly the city was meant to be used by humanoids, the issue was that Ajax was simply unable to pick out the specific combination of Life mana and a few other mana types he had come to recognise only as a group representing humanoids. 

“Is that… Is that what I think it is?” Oliver asked, his voice shaking with disbelief.

“I think it is.” Xavier said as he stomped his foot leaving a good size dent on the floor near the exit arch.

“I’ve never heard of a floor like this.” Lexi said as she took in everything with wide eyes.

Anna was left speechless, she opened and closed her mouth a few times trying to say something, anything but nothing came out. 

While Ajax was just as shocked at what he was seeing as everyone else, he wasn’t as clueless. There was a very good reason why such a floor theme should be technically impossible, since it made no sense. But there were other floors that also made no sense but existed because of something else, myths and legends. And Ajax was familiar with this particular myth as it came from earth.

“El Dorado.” Ajax’s whisper was so soft nobody could make out what he said.

The entire city was made out of gold. This floor alone represented more wealth than all eight kingdoms did together, this city however was much larger than any interpretation Ajax had ever heard with the buildings extending past the horizon. The floor also confirmed something for Ajax, he hadn’t heard a single story about a city of gold since he came to this world, if floors like this existed there would surely be a story. The only possible answer was that the dungeons was borrowing something from him.

“I doubt there would be an elemental with only level fifty but do you think there is a golem somewhere on this floor?” Anna’s first words were calm and her tone composed, but her face still showed the whirlwind of emotions she was feeling. “Also how big do you think it is?” 

Nobody had an answer to that. While Oliver was a little confused at the question since he didn’t know about Ajax’s ability both Lexi and Xavier locked their eyes onto Ajax. This was mana infused gold, in one fell swoop House Hearthbound might end up becoming one of the top five richest Houses in Gryndor after Ajax exits the dungeon.

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Outside the dungeon Zilfallon and Solderon were both in attendance with two of the seven imperial hands. Much like the ten squads of Gryndor the Empire had seven hands, each hand was a group of five people who were not only extremely powerful but also worked perfectly together. Each finger was at least level one hundred and sixty five and each leader above level one hundred and eighty.

“He was just trying to mess with us, wasn’t he.” Solderon grumbled as he looked towards Zilfallon. 

As much as Zilfallon wanted to agree with his older brother he just couldn’t help but remember the confident grin and challenging eyes the prince of Gryndor had when he threw out those parting words. As a level one hundred and twenty five Zilfallon wouldn’t be confident enough to venture past the level one hundred floor by himself. In an unknown floor he could easily be swarmed and killed my a patrol of level one hundred and ten creatures.

“All we can do is wait.” Zilfallon said with his eyes fixed on the large arch of the dungeon. “ We still have a while to go, the others haven’t yet come out.”