Chapter 385

Despite everything going on during the night the team had slept peacefully, blissfully unaware of what was happening outside thanks to the silencing runes the room was equipped with.

“How many years?” Aranor asked. 

He knew exactly what was going to happen to the survivors of the attack. All of them were going to be found guilty in court but their punishments would be replaced with voluntary enlistment. During this time they would be closely monitored and answer to the queen or her representative.

“Fifty years.” Lioriel said as she looked a little disappointed in the direction of the small crater the ninth attacker had left before she died. “It would have been one hundred if none of them had died.” 

“Are there going to be any more known threats coming?” Aranor asked, his patience starting to run low after the number of times the royal family has used their small delving expedition to handle their political affairs. 

“This was the last one.” Lioriel answered while shaking her head. “The only one we know about will be the followers of the ‘Mark’ on Ajax.” 

“Ah…” one of the new members of their security awkwardly looked to join the conversation. “Prince Xavier will be challenged after he exits the dungeon.” 

“What why?” Aranor couldn’t understand the reasoning behind a duel. 

“The … more racially proud among the nobility heard the interaction in front of the dungeon played out,” he explained. “The duel will be fair and honorable… I’m just not sure the challenge will be extended in the same way.” 

This news left deep frowns on the elves keeping the perimeter outside the inn but for the prince who was listening carefully outside the door where the team slept a plan started to form, a plan for Gryndor’s royal family to get their hands on a fortress tree sapling to go with the high mana manure they had already secured. 

When the team finally woke up none of them had any idea what happened that night though Elara, Anna and Benedict all suspected that something had happened and they simply hadn’t been made aware of it.

“Are you going to be pushing past level one hundred on this one as well?” the prince asked Ajax privately. 

The dungeon started from level twenty eight to level thirty three on the first floor, with a nine level jump per floor Ajax would be able to gain the stats from six floors before it would pass level one hundred and the final floor would have him facing against level one hundred and fourteen. 

“I’ll do it.” Ajax said confidently, despite the big step up in power at level one hundred the rest of the growth was consistent with previous growth, having won against something at level one hundred and ten Ajax was confident one hundred and fourteen wouldn’t be all that difficult.

The group’s trip to the dungeon was slowed down slightly as the passed through the merchant quarter of the city. Anna had moved to spend the favor she only guessed they were owed after whatever had happened last night. She had used one of the members of their escort to buy certain unique products that she thought her family could reverse engineer.

When they got to the dungeon they were quickly led to the front of the line where they entered without any further issues. As soon as they entered Aranor moved off to one side where he wouldn’t be in the way, popped up a privacy screen and quickly activated his communication item to finalize the report he had been making last night as well as update it with everything else that happened.

Inside the dungeon the prince had a very similar reaction, once they were inside and out of earshot of anyone else the prince didn’t even bother with a privacy screen as he pulled Xavier to one side before the team could start heading for the first arch.

The prince quickly explained what the elves were planning in regards to Xavier and he quickly proposed that Xavier, Anna, Lexi and Benedict would finish their floor and get a good night’s rest before exiting the dungeon. Following that they were to play how tired they were as they exited so that Xavier would have a better chance of getting whoever they sent to challenge him in offering him a blanc prize for winning a duel right there and then.

“You think we might be able to get our hands on one of those trees?” Xavier asked, excited at the opportunity to do something meaningful to help his family and kingdom.

“Are you sure that is a good idea?” Arianwyn asked.

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Xavier asked quickly, energized by the chance to do something meaningful and unique.

“With the prince here with us and Aranor preoccupied with the duel who would be guarding Benedict, Anna and Lexi?” Arianwyn pointed out. 

“That could be an issue.” the prince acknowledged Arianwyn's point, “Especially if we take into consideration the kidnapping attempt from last night.” 

“There was a kidnapping attempt last night!?” Ajax was the only one truly surprised at the revelation. He wasn’t surprised that there had been an attempt since they had been preparing for one, what surprised Ajax was that he had slept through it without ever realizing. 

“He can push the duel until after we come out.” Elara suggested. “All Xavier needs to do is insist that the duel happen when ‘his revered uncle’ is there to watch him fight.” 

“Then there’s no need to spend an extra night in the dungeon for us.” Anna pointed out.

With everything sorted the group started their search for the nearest arch that would take them to the second floor. The search wasn’t long but this time there was no guardian patrolling around the arch. 

“A roaming guardian on the first floor?” Ajax asked. “That can be pretty dangerous for people who are at the appropriate level for the floor.” 

“It’s not a guardian.” the prince said as he inspected the area surrounding the arch. 

As the prince finally found what he was looking for he took an exaggerated step as he activated a few runes causing a very minor earthquake to take place around them. As the ground started to shake decently sized moat gave way around the arch, the small layer of thing rocks dropping down on the sharp points of the spikes below. 

“A trap arch.” Ajax said with a raise of his eyebrows. “Haven’t seen one of those in a while.” 

Almost all the arches one could find in the dungeon were defended by a guardian. One tenth of those had a roaming guardian but that still left a very small minority that were only protected by a trap or in even rarer cases the arch would have a locked set of doors that needed a key to open before that specific arch could be used. 

Lexi wasted no time in chanting an earth manipulation spell to create a small crossing over the spike. “Let go.” 

Xavier was the most excited of them all to get to the second floor of the dungeon. Having joined the academy so young Xavier had started off at a lower level than the rest of his classmates. While he had managed to surpass most of the more mediocre students in the class he hadn’t been able to close the distance with Anna, Lexi and Benedict. This time his lower level would benefit him since he was still level forty four he was still eligible for the extra stat point from this floor.  

Ajax hadn’t bothered to check what the theme of the second floor would be since they would simply be pushing straight through with the first arch they found. This was something he had immediately regretted as soon as he stepped foot on the second floor and promptly face planted.

“What type of spell is this?” Harold asked, annoyed as he picked himself off the ground having tripped as soon as he had entered the floor as well.

“I’m not sure, I haven’t encountered anything like this before.” the prince said as he carefully took a few steps while raising and lowering his arms to get a feel for the new sensation.

“I’m not feeling any spell structure.” Lexi said as she focused on her surroundings as Ajax offered her a hand to help her up after she had tripped as well. 

As he helped Lexi to her feet Ajax was carefully examining the mana prevalent throughout the floor and found that it was of a type he hadn’t encountered before. Despite that he had a pretty good idea of what was happening. Taking out his hammer from his spacial ring Ajax held it out to one side and dropped it to the ground to confirm his theory.

Watching the speed at which the hammer fell confirmed exactly what Ajax had though was happening. If he was fair with himself Ajax had been expecting a floor like this since he started delving but he had finally found a floor where the strength of gravity was different that what it was outside.