Chapter 411

The first floor of the dungeon wasn’t all that special of a setting, the rather common forest theme was one Ajax had grown very used to. What made this floor different from most he had seen was that the trees grew about twice as thick and four to five times as tall, more than that this floor also had elven enemies defending it. 

“I can see now why so few crafters get their start in the capital.” Ajax mentioned as he looked around. 

The presence of humanoids on the first floor all but guaranteed that the market would be flooded with weapons and armor that was collected from them, since a decent number of teams would clear the first floor there would always be a steady supply of items people were looking to unload quickly.

“Has the royal family or the Guild tried to stop the flood?” Anna asked, curious about how something like this would affect the market. 

“Both have tried.” Arianwyn answered. “It has failed every time for the same reason, directly or indirectly.” 

“If it’s always the same reason why not fix that before trying again?” Ajax asked.

“It’s hard to fix the nobility.” the prince joined in clueing Ajax in on what the reason was. “Almost every ruler tries but it takes many generations of rulers doing their best to put a decent dent in the corruption of nobles and if the line is ever broken by one bad or incompetent ruler all the work must start again.” 

“Also how do nobles ruin things when the royals attempt it.” Ajax knew that nobles could band together to oppose the royal family but he doubted they would do so for something as trivial as low to mid level thirty weapons and armor, he could see them uniting against the guild for the same reason just on principle.

“Only way to stop the flood on the market is for all the spoils to be bought before they can enter it.” Anna explained. “That means everyone’s storage is checked when they leave. If everyone’s storage is getting checked as they leave it won’t take long for nobles to bribe the ones checking to find out about any other valuables commoners are taking out. Once that happens the system soon collapses because the Guild will oppose it in order to protect its members.” 

The first arch they found on the first floor was guarded by a giant beaver. Ajax felt rather bad about the poor thing as Aranor dispatched it before it even made a move to defend the arch. With the guard handled Ajax wasted no time placing his hand on the arch. 

“Well?” the leader of one ranger squad asked with a raised eyebrow. It wasn’t so much that they doubted Aranor’s word about Ajax’s ability as the claim was so outrageous they still didn’t fully believe it was possible despite the reliability of the source.

“Earth and Magma primarily.” Ajax said. “There doesn’t seem to be much Air or Plant. I’m guessing either an underground cave system or the inside of a volcano.”  

Ajax felt a shiver go up his spine when he remembered the last time he had been on a floor theme that imitated the inside of a volcano. At some points the ledges got very thin and more than once one of his teammates was thrown off the sides and left dangling by the ropes everyone had tied around themselves above a lake of magma. That floor had had level ninety enemies however and he wasn’t at all worried about one with enemies half that level.

“I’ll be, he was actually right.” Rimthel looked on with a mix of awe and glee. “So you can just go to whatever theme you want?” 

“No.” Ajax shook his head in denial. “I can feel the mana types dominant on the floors, but I don’t know how they will be expressed, more than that if I don’t recognise the mana type it will be useless. Also the higher we delve the fewer mana types I can see.” 

“More importantly is that the arch is already set.” Arianwyn spoke up as she fixed the ranger squads with a warning look. “He can’t change it, only see what it is.”

“What she means is don’t blame him for the themes we get later on, he can’t change them.” Aranor translated, left unsaid was the ‘or else’ Arianwyn implied about anyone harassing her new friend.

The second floor turned out to be a multitude of tunnels that were dug around a few rivers of magma. Because of how low level the floor was there were always light mana rocks embedded in the walls to provide visibility. The monsters on this floor were also basic worms and other digging animals, while all of them had some sort of fire affinity none of them were strong enough yet to handle the heat of the magma.

With Benedict, Lexi, Anna and Xavier needing to kill something on the second floor they now had a number of different arch options to choose from, at least initially. Once the third arch was identified to have Crystal mana as its third most common mana on the floor with Life and Earth as the top two it was a foregone conclusion what arch they would choose. Gems were always in short supply no matter the mana density, more than that they were used by all types or armor and weapon crafters meaning a very high demand for a very low supply, it wasn’t uncommon to find master crafters who were still novices in working with gems because of their poor beginnings and lack of backers.

“Hopefully the next floor theme isn’t a cave.” one of the rangers complained as they moved through the third floor.

“Speak for yourself, I just hope it has some ore deposits.” Rimthel responded.

Up until this point the ranger squads hadn’t seen anything to be impressed by. They could admit that the Ajax’s classmates were stronger than any other people their level they had seen but that was to be expected considering the number of different dungeons they had delved so far. This changed however as Lexi faced off against her crystal scorpion.

With the miniboss being only level fifty four Lexi didn’t consider it strong enough to even be a warm up. The rangers had all tensed a little when they saw that Lexi allowed the crystalline arachnid close in but seeing nobody else react they didn’t interfere.

When Lexi unleashed a full power shockwave that turned the miniboss into rubble the rangers were impressed. Not only were they impressed with the power of the spell but also with the control Lexi showed as her attack demolished the miniboss yet didn’t do more than leave a few small cracks on the wall of the tunnel.

“That was an affinity.” one of the mages broke out of their shock first. “You have the affinity for shockwaves?” 

All of the casters and even some of the more melee focused rangers were very much interested in this development. Shockwave was one of the spells all of them made use of regularly because of how versatile it was, depending on which variation of the spells was used it could be a defensive spell to intercept a projectile, a defensive spell to force an enemy away or an offensive spell as Lexi had just demonstrated. There had been many attempts to unlock the affinity but so far none of them had succeeded.

“What rarity is it?” another ranger followed up, the question was innocent in his mind, he had asked because he had a long standing bet with his teacher on if the affinity was Rare or Epic.

“It’s Legendary.” Lexi answered with a sweet smile. 

The answer floored both squads, not so much for the power of the affinity but rather by the admission of possessing a Legendary affinity. “Wh - why would you admit something like that?” 

“Because Elara has it as well.” Lexi’s answer was flippant but the effect on the rangers was immediate, a wave of congratulations fell on Elara. 

“I see the Baron is not the only future powerhouse.” The ranger leaders approached Aranor, the three of them knew they would be ranger leaders for most of their new king’s reign so being up to date about such powerful people would be a requirement for them even if they were allies. “This defensive agreement is looking like a better deal with every day that passes.” 

“All five of them have the foundations to become more powerful than anyone currently alive.” Aranor warned them. “I will admit Lady Manashaper has started to pull ahead of the others and Baron Hearthbound is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.” 

“You think he needs to be taken care of?” the other squad leader whispered. 

“Gods no.” Aranor shook his head. “Despite some glaring weaknesses when it comes to social interactions the boy’s mind is just as valuable as his personal combat prowess.” 

“How do you mean?” the squad leader asked.

“I have a feeling that we are living in a historic time.” Aranor said as his gaze focused on Ajax. “With the discoveries he has made and the change his very presence is causing on the nations I foresee us all expanding our borders in the coming centuries.”