Chapter 176

As most of the students split back up into their three groups Ajax decided to do something productive and started cooking the deer they had brought back. As he was cooking he was thinking about how he should deal with the Punishment. Clearly he needed to do some more research and a visit to the school’s library would fit in nicely after they returned from this delve. Until he got a chance to do that research however he was going to go out of his way to make sure if he needed to interfere anymore during this delve he would only incapacitate the monsters instead of outright killing them.

“That smells good.” Dave said as he came up to him having finally cleaned the blood off his armor. “I heard one of yours got bit.”

“He wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings after one of the griffins dived in and two wolves got a hold of him.” Ajax said.

“My group didn’t have anyone make any mistakes.” he said and that raised Ajax’s suspicions about why he had to interfere.

“Then why did you come back with blood on your gear?” he asked.

“Had a few of them freeze up.” Dave said “If they are to be hurt because they messed up we’re supposed to let them get roughed up a bit but if they freeze, getting hurt will actually make it more likely that they will just freeze again next time.”

“They froze again at the end when we ran into a squad of kobolds. I’m guessing they looked a little too humanoid for them.” he shook his head.

Everyone was ecstatic at being fed a warm meal instead of the rations they brought with them, even if one or two of the students did complain about the quality they were quickly told to shut up by the rest as they didn’t want to discourage Ajax from cooking more often.

The next two days went very similar to the delve Ajax did with the Healing Union. Most of it was boring and he only had to step in once when the team he was with didn’t notice the griffin swooping down on them. A quick electric arrow managed to both take the griffin off target and give the rest of the students time to get in position and brought their attention to it without distracting them from the kobolds they were engaged with.

The end of the dungeon clean up on the fourth day of the delve went very differently to what he had experienced before. While most of the monsters had already been killed over the four days there was still enough to form a decent wave at the end. Not that it helped them much as with the number of mages present not a single monster was able to make more than ten feet into the cave before it was blasted.

“So how was your first cycle with the Academy?” professor Silvertongue asked him as they made their way back to the academy after exiting the dungeon.

“The delve was quite a bit more boring than I had expected, but other than that everything was interesting.” Ajax answered honestly, he was very excited about all the different subjects he was going to learn about in school.

“Hahaha.” the professor laughed at his answer. “You have to be the first fifteen year old to say that the delve was the boring part of the first cycle.”

“The griffins were a bit interesting, I wonder how they can fly around with such a bulky body.” Ajax said.

“They have hollow bones, at least the ones inside the dungeon, there are variations of species that don’t and can’t fly until they get proficient with wind magic.” Abbot answered. “Anyway, I have your first delve set up for you.”

“You do?” Ajax was surprised to hear that everything was already set up. “When is it and which dungeon is it for?”

“It’s three days from now.” Abbot said. “You’ll be going with one of my family’s crafter teams to the third floor of the Highlands.”

“What’s a crafter team?” Ajax asked as he hadn’t heard the term before.

“A crafter team is a group whose purpose is to find ingredients for crafters to practice on inside the dungeon. Just because none of the items can be brought out of the dungeon unless you get lucky with a good find they will still keep their skill progress. You’ll even get to meet one of our senior crafters who’ll be there to advise.”Abbot said, sounding more enthusiastic than he had at any other time.

“So this is your family's plan, they want to show me the advantages you give to the people to join you as they work their way up while still giving me exactly what I need to progress.” Ajax said, though he had to admit it did sound like the Silvertongues had a great benefits package.

“Oh,” Abbot’s expression went back to his regular stoic look. “What gave it away?”

“It’s the first time I heard any form of emotion in your voice.” Ajax said. “ That must be a well leveled skill since you actually sounded excited.”

“This is why I hate politics.” Abbot murmured under his breath. “ All that aside, joining our family, or any big noble house really but I am partial to my own, will be very beneficial to you.”

“That may be so, but I haven’t had the greatest experience with nobles in the past, even tangentially.” Ajax admitted “As things are right now, I’ll see just how far I can get by myself and if I reach a bottleneck I might change my mind based on what I can learn about other noble families along the way.”

“That does sound like a well thought out plan. One piece of advice I have for you then is not to leave stat potions as an afterthought. As you gain levels and stats from dungeons try and buy some stat potions while your stats are still low, the price skyrockets for stats once they pass the three hundred and fifty mark.” Abbot said. “The team will be gathering in front of the dungeon in the morning, they’ll be the only team waiting out there so it should be easy for you to find them.”

With that Abbot walked away and Dave returned next to Ajax after giving the two of them some space to talk. “Big plans?” he asked.

“I have my first real delve in the Highlands three days from now,” Ajax said. “As the class teaching assistant it still falls to Abbot to fulfill my perks as a teaching assistant, like appropriate delves. I am going with one of the Silvertongue crafter teams to the third floor.”

“See if you can gather a few crafting materials from the second floor for any crafting you might like to do. Most of the time the senior crafter that joins will have time to spare and they have always helped me with my crafting even if it will only ever be a hobby or a last resort.” Dave suggested.

Ajax nodded at the advice, he hadn't thought of doing that but now it was simply a question  of what crafting profession he will be able to find ingredients for. Once they got back to the Academy all of the students were dismissed.

Since it was still midday Ajax went straight for the library on the seventh floor. Unlike last time he came here he could only feel the aura of the headmaster coming from his office. Ajax took next to no time at all to get accustomed to the aura now, his time around professor Silvertongue had greatly helped with his ability to withstand non hostile auras.

Entering the library for the first time was an experience all to itself. Rows and rows of shelves towered over everything all filled to the brim with books. In fact after taking a second look he realized that the shelves themselves were also enchanted to be spatially expanded allowing for more books to be stored. He really hoped there was a good filing system otherwise he would end up spending the rest of the day just to find the right section he should be searching.

As he walked through the shelves he noticed that they were split up by subject, with Alchemy being the first section and Archeology being the second. He quickly found his way to the Curse section and he began looking through all the different covers hoping to find one on Punishments.

“Is there something I can help you with?” a voice called out to him from right behind him.

Ajax flinched in surprise and finally felt a second aura coming from the old man behind him spread throughout the area. To say that the man was old was an understatement, despite being rather tall the man was hunched over and looked to be almost made up entirely of wrinkles, despite this his aura was undeniable.

“Well, what are you looking for here boy?” he asked.

“I’m here to look into Retributions and Punishments.” Ajax answered his question the second time.

“Well which is it, Retributions or Punishments? They are two different sections, also why are you looking at Curses?” he asked, almost sounding slightly offended at the notion.

“I want to know about the Bullying Punishment.” Ajax was more specific this time.

“Bullying.” the old man scoffed. “When will people learn that power leveling doesn’t do anybody any good?” he didn’t wait for Ajax to answer as he started to shamble off. “Well come on then.”