Chapter 425

Ajax was silently freaking out on the inside, there were a total of twenty two ducal families in Gryndor right now but out of those only five of them were landed. While he was sure he wouldn’t be given any of their territories even having an actual dukedom would paint a target on his family for at least 15 other ducal families that wanted to earn their own large swath of land. Not only that but the current five landed ducal families were so entrenched in their lands that it was actually easier to grow the families influence to replace one of the three archdukes at the moment than to get any of the current five evicted without a massive mess up on their part.

Ajax’s saving grace was that he had very good connections to two of the archdukes and a solid one to the third, not only that but his relationship with Lexi actually pulled all of House Manashaper into his corner since Lexi would become the Duchess Hearthbound. 

“Focus damnit.” the prince growled as he pulled Ajax out of the way of an errant spine from the massive porcupine Harold was fighting. “If I knew it would throw you off so bad I would have waited until after the dungeon to tell you.” 

Harold was a much better match against the porcupine despite the monster’s proclivity for launching spines infused with wind or shadow mana. The creature’s fighting style actually provided a rather novel way of defeating it, by clearing away the spines on its back to open up new patches where you could land an attack. 

Harold had thrown aside his seventh shield after he intentionally got as many spines to embed themselves in it. “How many of them does he have?” Ajax asked curious how many shields Harold’s spacial item held, seeing as none of the ones he used so far were his primary shield.

The porcupine now had an odd bold spot a little larger than two shield widths on its back. It clearly wasn’t used to fighting with such an exposed weakness as it didn’t take much longer for Harold to embed a spear in the creature. 

While the attack wasn’t enough to end the fight by itself it was enough to freak out the monster. Surprised by something actually making it past its quills, the creature tried to turn and examine its own back leaving Harold with a perfect opening to dive to the side and stab his spear through the creature’s neck.

Unlike the wound on its back that was intended for piercing damage Harold went for a wide slash at the neck aiming to bleed out the creature. Over the next two minutes the creature continued to slow down further and further as Harold switched back to his defensive fighting style only taking the occasional poke to speed up the process.

“Any preference?” Ajax asked Elara and Arianwyn once the fight was over.

“Nothing underground.” Elara said as she wanted to make use of her new Storm Domain and for best results that required clouds. 

“No fire or ice.” Arianwyn similarly didn’t want to contend with the creature's own affinity for ice or have her own domain suppressed by the natural fire mana of the floor.

“Anything for you?” Ajax asked Darkclaw. 

“I’ll hold back for now.” Darkclaw said. “I’m sure I’ll get another chance to delve another time when I am better prepared.” 

Being a primarily melee ranged mage did have some advantages when it came to the mana efficiency of your spells but against creatures close to thirty levels above you that was worth far less than the safety some distance might provide. 

“Alright then.” Ajax nodded as the group started moving towards a specific arch. 

Ajax didn’t bother trying to select a specific floor theme for himself, nine times out of ten the floor boss had nothing to do with the floor theme and any elemental boss that spawned would twist the floor theme to suit itself.

“This one is earth and air.” Ajax said as he pointed to an arch. “It shouldn’t be underground and I’m not feeling any Ice or Water mana and no Fire either.” 

“If it’s a bad match-up we could always try again next time.” Arianwyn said with a noncommittal shrug. 

As they set foot on the floor they were met with a powerful wind current that cut across them. The floor theme seemed to have placed them into a mountain range, none of the mountains had snow on them but you could see numerous peaks as they extended for miles.

“Oh this is perfect.” Elara said with a cunning smile as she appreciated just how close she was to the clouds.

“I should be able to make this work.” Arianwyn said. 

Harold and Darkclaw both exited the floor at this point and Aranor chose to warn his charges. “Remember while your domains might grant you superiority over an area any creature living here could still have a better control of the Wind element that is present in both your Domains.” 

“We’ve got incoming.” one of the rangers called out.

“What are those things?” Another followed up as they took a defensive position around Ajax, Elara and Arianwyn.

Ajax was the sole member of the group to recognise the creatures that were flying towards them, back on Earth they were known as harpies, humanoid creatures with wings instead of arms and claws instead of feet. 

Despite the lack of knowledge on the creatures the rangers had no issue taking them out, they were after all punching down a large number of levels. “They seem to share the humanoid weakness of a body with multiple kill spots.” 

“The lack of fingers and toes means they can’t use weapons and if we were outside the dungeon I would very much question not only how they formed their armor but also how they managed to put it on” Aranor said as he inspected the corpses. “They are however very proficient with not only Wind mana but a few of them also had Ice, Fire, Earth, Light, Shadow and even Lightning.” 

“Might have something to do with the males.” Ajax said, drawing everyone's attention. “What? I can’t be the only one who noticed they are all female.”  

Ajax’s theory was quickly proven true the first time they came across an outpost the harpies had made. Unlike the females the males were larger and sturdier, not only that but they were fully covered in feathers, had humanoid hands with only slightly sharper nails and most noticeably the head of a bird.

It took a few outposts but neither Elara nor Arianwyn had any big issues in dealing with a harpy mini boss. It took a while to find one that would prove a favorable match-up in terms of the elements they used: Wind, Earth and Fire for Elara and Wind, Earth and Light for Arianwyn.

While the fights were rather clear cut it didn’t mean they were easy. Arianwyn had to use up 80% of her mana in setting up her Domain and even then it had almost run out by the end of the fight breaking through the perpetual tornado that circled the mini boss.

Elara had opted for a different approach where she set up her domain a good distance away from the boss before opening the fight with the biggest lightning bolt Ajax had ever seen. The spell must have had more than two and a half thousand mana poured into it between the cast and the empowerment it received from the Domain. 

“These creatures are ideal for boosting.” one of the rangers said. “They would also be a nightmare for anyone of appropriate level doing this floor, they seem to be able to combine their spell casting. I will have a full report delivered to the Adventurer’s Guild once we exit.” 

Ajax had also killed his own harpy miniboss without much fuss, his [Mana Syphon] had worked perfectly to weaken the creature’s defenses and allow him to break through with sheer stats as a magma infused axe was embedded in the harpie’s head. During this time one of the rangers teams was running wild clearing any monster they came upon looking to spawn the floor boss.

“I’m not sure you should fight it if it ends up being a Wind elemental.” the prince said as he took in the surroundings.

“RAAAAGGGHHH” 

“ROOOGGGGHH”

Two wails echoed across the mountain range before Ajax had a chance to respond. “Don’t seem to be a Wind elemental.” Ajax said. 

“If that’s what I think it is, it might be one of the best ones for you to fight.” Aranor said as he frowned in the direction the roars seemed to be coming from.  

“What do you think it is?” Ajax asked. 

“Based on there being two shouts I think the floor boss is-” Aranor was interrupted as the scout from the clearing ranger team arrived. 

“We’ve spawned the floor boss” He said with a cocky grin towards Ajax. “You’re in luck kid, it's an ettin.”