Chapter 394

Ajax’s [Pain Resistance] was getting the best workout it had ever gotten as his arm sent a spike of pain every time he moved the massive cast that encased the entire right side of his torso.

‘Two damn levels off’. Even though the attack had happened four whole days ago Ajax couldn’t help but still curse the assassin, not for the attempt on his life so much as for being only two levels off from increasing Ajax’s achievement of killing something triple his level without assistance.

“Just let it go already.” Lexi broke Ajax out of his music as she carefully wrapped him in a hug without jostling his injured side.

“What?” Ajax was surprised by her words. 

“You were daming that assassin again for not being two levels higher weren’t you?” Lexi could calmly state that since they were alone in a worded carriage. “Don’t deny it, I can see it from the look on your face. Just be grateful about the skills you did gain and focus on getting better before we make it to the next dungeon. I want to get out of this country as quickly as possible.”

Ajax wanted to put up at least a token of resistance but couldn’t help but agree with her. Her latter point about getting out of this country was a solid one as with a second application of the Mark on him the assassin would feel the side effects stronger quicker and would be more motivated to kill him. 

More than that however Ajax was also severely inconvenienced by the wound that still lingered. The poison the assassin had used was of a very high grade as well as magical in nature. Not only would it have killed him in seconds had he not doused the area in magma but even the small amount of time it had to work on his wound before he could burn it out was enough to make the area very resistant to healing magic. It wasn’t to the point where it could repel his Life mana but it was still taking him time and care as he carefully worked his Life mana to remove all traces of the poison as well as any of the scarring on the wound. Once all of that was done the rest could be healed in one go with the usual healing magic. 

Going back to her first point Ajax could accept that despite not improving his achievement he was happy enough with the results of his victory. The system had seen fit to give him five skills as reward for his accomplishment.

[Focused Mind] was an Uncommon skill he had gained most likely from the concentration he pulled off in quickly reacting to his own wound and for not only maintaining consciousness but accurately and effectively working towards his own treatment despite the pain, exhaustion and blood loss he was faced with. 

The Rare skill [Assassinate] was just as easy to see the reason for. He had essentially killed his target with a single well placed strike, one that sacrificed his weapon for, to simply inject the poison into the assassin. 

Both of these skills were well documented by the kingdom of Gryndor, while the first was mostly prevalent among crafters instead of soldier combat healers were also known for getting it. [Assassinate] was a skill everyone was aware of and while gaining it was objectively a good thing it would best be kept under wraps that the head of a future ducal family had it so as to not influence the nobility's perception of them as the royal family’s personal hit men.

The third skill wasn’t as well documented or seen as that particularly impressive. The Epic skill [Limit Suppression] was one that allowed people to push past their own limits. They speculated that Ajax received this because of how far he had pushed with the number of concurrent spells he used, the amount of mana he pushed out in the initial exchange and for the way he maintained his consciousness and continued to spend his renewed mana following the exchange. 

[Limit Suppression] was also the skill Ajax was most excited about. It hadn’t started out that way but one piece of information he had received from the prince about the skill had raised its value in Ajax’s eyes. At a threshold the skill could be upgraded to allow the user to suppress their usual limitation for a different cost instead of the normal period of weakness. Ajax's whole plan for the skill was to lead it so that he could burn through his stamina so he could bypass the amount of mana he could push through at any one time.

This build wouldn’t have him leaning so much into the physical boosting narrative he had initially envisioned by acquiring a boosting skill that ran off of stamina similar to the way he could power [Mana Syphon] with his own mana. This change would make it a lot easier for him to overwhelm people with multiple different affinities as it would allow him to take full advantage of the fact he could simultaneously cast multiple spells so long as he could bring forth enough mana for all of them. 

[Vibration Strike] was the most common sounding of all the skills he gained. The Epic skill was simply a different version of [Precise Cut] and [Precise Blow] that was based off his newest Legendary mana type. That wasn’t a negative in his eyes however as he could see multiple ways to push the skill further by applying the VIbration mana in multiple ways, not only that but by using the skill he hoped he could apply Vibration mana to his attacks without having to sacrifice the durability of his weapons.

[Creative Application] was the fifth and final skill Ajax had received in the wake of the encounter and it was one that perplexed him the most. The Epic skill seemed more like a crafter skill but he couldn’t realize what had led to him getting it. Was it the use of magma to sear the wound and burn out the poison?

“Stop questioning why you got the skill.” Lexi once more read him like a book and broke his trance once his mana got low enough that he stopped using his Life mana. “Let's go join the others.” 

Lexi was very careful to help Ajax along, so as to not trigger his injury, as they moved from the private carriage back into Sylvanthal’s royal carriage to join the others.

“The valiant hero finally graces us with his presence.” The prince was quick to make a joke as soon as Ajax entered the carriage. Once they had gotten past the checkpoint Ajax had been moved to the carriage where only Lexi and the prince had seen him for the past four days. 

“You just had to upstage me.” Xavier joined in as he shook his head in mock disappointment as he slapped Ajax on the back, despite being careful enough to do so on the opposite side of his injury he had still put too much strength behind the friendly slap and Ajax flinched as his wound pulsed. “Sorry.” Xavier said with remorse as he saw his friend flinch. He was also quick to put some distance between him and Lexi as he didn’t need his new fighting style skill to tell him how she would respond to his negligence. 

“How did you do it?” Lioriel’s voice was ice cold as she entered behind Ajax and Lexi.

“Do what?” the prince asked.

“Are you sure you want me to say that aloud?” Lioriel asked but her gaze didn’t leave Ajax's surprised face as he took his seat to look at the elf. 

“I’m not sure what you are implying.” Ajax took a moment to gather himself before he presented a united front with the prince. 

“Fine, have it your way.” Lioriel shrugged, her posture turning a little aggressive as she interpreted their confusion for a cover story. “It took the royal alchemists and medics three days to figure out what happened but you used an antidote to kill the assassin. So again I ask, how did you come up with that?” 

More than a few people gasped at the implication while Ajax’s mind was already running at a hundred miles an hour after he seemingly received the missing piece of the puzzle. This was why his ‘poison’ had felt different to his skills compared to the weaker first iteration, this was also why he had gained the skill [Creative Application] that he hadn’t disclosed to anyone else. Most importantly however this was also why almost every person in the carriage was looking at him with a slightly worried expression.

Coming from Earth Ajax was already aware that a lot of medicines could end up being poison if taken in too large a dose or when taken in absence of the sickness or poison they were supposed to counteract. This was not the case in this new life. Creating an antidote that could function as a poison was groundbreaking not because of the new application but because the system recognised the concoction as an antidote certain skills wouldn’t work on it. Skills like [Detect Poison] or [Poison Resistance].

The way most antidotes work in this world was that they targeted the ‘bad’ agent affecting the body and removed it. Ajax’s clotting ‘poison’ worked by forcing the blood to clot despite any other interference, this making it act like an antidote for a powerful hemorrhagic poison that would dissolve in the blood of the victim.

“You made a deadly antidote?” Aranor found himself shocked at the possibility, despite all his powerful and highly leveled social skill his jaw was hanging low in acknowledgement of the achievement.

As Ajax processed all of this he turned to look at the prince, silently asking what their response to this would be. Ajax knew for sure that this wasn’t something that he could cover under to guise of House secret, more than that it wasn’t even something he would be able to keep hidden from the other two kingdoms, the only question was what could they get in return for the sensitive information.