Chapter 386

Despite the initial shock the prince was nothing if not an experienced warrior. He might not understand what was happening, how it was happening, or even why it was happening. What he could do however was assess what the effects on him were and how to compensate for them. A few runes activated and the prince felt power surge through him the power boost was precise enough that it almost perfectly counteracted the additional gravity

“Is this a trap?” Harold asked as he covered himself with his shield on the floor where he hadn't bothered getting up. “Did the elves figure out how to mess with the dungeons?” 

Ajax was very surprised at the angle Harold’s mind went to, though to be fair Harold was still deeply linked to House Silvertongue so it was only natural for his first instinct to be a political plot when something didn’t add up.

“It’s the dungeon floor doing this.” Ajax said as he placed his hand on the arch and used [Mana Syphon] to confirm his theory, just like he expected he recognised the main elements of the floor, all but the primary one which he now guessed to be mana. “A new mana type.” 

“There was a Legendary mana type like this that we didn’t know about?” Xavier sounded shocked and he regained his feet, Arianwyn nodding along with his words.

““It’s not Legendary.”” Both the prince and Ajax spoke at once surprising everyone else and each other into silence.

For a few moments the two of them just looked at each other silently inviting the other to explain, the silence was broken by Lexi who was too impatient when it came to anything related to a new mana type like this. “One of you explain already!” 

“It’s too weak to be Legendary.” Lexi's words startled the prince a little and he explained. “This is Rare or Epic.” 

“It’s Epic.” Ajax said and everyone turned their eyes to him. 

“How do you know that?” the prince asked. “Did you encounter this before inside the dungeon?” 

“No, I never felt this type of mana before.” Ajax denied. “It’s just that I’ve been searching for it.” 

That was as much as Ajax would volunteer as he turned towards the Elara, Arianwyn and Darkclaw. The meaning behind his action was clear as he returned his gaze to the prince and tilted his head questioningly. ‘How much should I say?’

Arianwyn however was in no mood to wait for permission as something just didn’t add up to her. “The mana type you were researching has to do with metals, mainly getting them to stick together or push themselves apart. What does that have to do with this?” 

Both Ajax and the prince turned surprised looks on to the elven princess while Lexi threw her a more hostile look as she came to the obvious conclusion. The existence and research or Magnetic mana was spearheaded by her grandfather and kept relatively secret, Arianwyn having knowledge of it and to this extent meant that there were spies infiltrated rather deep with decent access to House Manashaper.

The further they got along their journey the more and more Ajax had started to consider Elara, Arianwyn and Darkclaw as simply friends. It felt odd for him to keep things like this from them despite giving them fully to the royal family who would then distribute them further.

“Just a bare bones explanation.” the prince finally relented under the elf’s gaze as he weighed the pros and cons. 

“The other mana I use is Rare, it works in all directions but only on metal.” Ajax tried to explain the link he conceptualized between magnetism and gravity without explaining gravity itself. “Whatever this is works on everything but only has a single direction. If it was a Legendary mana type it would work on everything in any direction.” Ajax had personally dubbed that mana type Attraction/Repulsion and it was something he very much wanted to get his hands on.

“I still don’t see how it’s working.” Xavier said as he processed Ajax’s explanation. “I have a decent enchantment meant to repel outside spell influences and it wasn’t triggered by this.” 

“That’s because it's not us that are affected.” Ajax said. 

“You ate dirt just like the rest of us, how are we not affected?” Benedict asked.

“If a skill increases the strength of your muscles it will also increase the strength of your swing.” Ajax tried to explain. “When you throw something up it falls down, when you jump you fall back down. You don’t notice this because its been happening to you ever since you were born, if whatever it is that is dragging you down suddenly increases though it would feel like a spell applied to you.” 

“That’s why you dropped your hammer.” Lexi perked up as she started looking at this from the same perspective her grandfather had drilled into her from a young age. “You tested to see if it would fall faster than it did outside!”

Ajax simply nodded in confirmation. “Fascinating as all of this is, what do we do now?” Darkclaw asked, he was a researcher or an inventor he stuck with what was tested and knew it worked. This odd mana type would have to be reported back to the Republic but he wasn’t as invested as the others. 

“Nothing much, most of us will just head for the closest arch and have Xavier get his clear of the floor and move on to the third floor.” Ajax said. 

“Why only most of us?” Xavier asked. 

“This floor is low enough that nobody is in any real danger on it.” Ajax explained. “While you accommodate to the changes and get the kill you need I am hoping your uncle can scour the floor and find me something infused with this mana type that I can study on the outside.”

“Sounds like a plan.” the prince nodded and got ready to dash away as his runes sucked up more mana.

“Sylvanthal would also be very interested in buying such a sample.” Arianwyn called out as the prince started to run. 

“As would the Republic” Darkclaw left no pretense as he followed the elf’s example and yelled after the prince.

What happened next was an exercise in frustration for Ajax. Unlike everyone else here he was the only one who had spent years training to manage a continuous changing physical boost. He wasn’t as skilled as the prince who took seconds to adapt but after five minutes he had [Mana Syphon] providing him a strong enough boost to simply counteract the increased gravity.

This wasn’t what frustrated Ajax however. What frustrated him to no end was that despite the massive presence of gravity mana on the floor as a whole he hadn’t found any monster capable of using it. It was just passively there in the ambient mana and he could barely analyze it when it was doing nothing more than existing 

“How the fuck did my uncle adapt so quickly?” Xavier cursed. Out of everyone Xavier was having the hardest time adjusting as he was also a hybrid fighter, he had no issues walking normally but his combat ability had suffered.

“Curse users.” Benedict replied nonchalantly.

“What?!” Ajax, Lexi and Xavier turned towards him at that flippant answer.

“He faced a lot of curse users during the wars.” Benedict explained. “In the field hybrid fighters are mage killers, unlike in a tournament there is no arena limiting them and giving a clear start. Their biggest weakness is that their stats are spread across six stats plus Vitality and Perception where everyone else spreads theirs across three and Vitality and Perception.” 

“Curse fighters are mostly physical so they can react and curses would target the lower stats best since they apply a flat reduction.” Elara continued for him. “Your uncle had specific squads that had people who could use cursed attack hunting after him during the war.” 

As she said this, Elara's eyes unintentionally flashed over to Ajax for a moment. He was also a hybrid fighter but from the way he was going he wouldn’t have the same weakness. This wasn’t something the others missed so the discussion dropped off there as everyone returned to their exercises to adapt to the increased gravity.

It was only once Xavier felt ready and the group started their search for an arch leading to the third floor that the silence was broken. “If you ever figure out how to work with this mana type I’ll want to hire you. It would work wonders for military training.” 

Funnily enough Benedict wasn’t addressing Ajax but rather Lexi. Out of the two of them Ajax had a higher chance of getting the affinity but that wouldn’t help with anything outside of him using it. If Lexi learnt if on the other hand there was a much better chance she and her family could figure out how to enchant an area to mimic the effects of the floor.

It didn’t take more than half an hour before they found the arch and its guardian, halfway through Xavier’s fight the prince had also returned with a nod of confirmation at having succeeded in his task.

Not wanting to be surprised again Ajax didn’t even wait for Xavier to finish killing the mini boss as he beelined towards the arch to check the mana type of the next floor.