Chapter 173

Unlike his previous eight days at the Academy this time Ajax came dressed in his combat gear instead of his uniform and he even carried his trust expanded backpack that was filled with his provision. He recognised how useful the ring was but he wasn't going to risk it somehow getting damaged in the delve.

“All right now, settle down.” Professor Silvertongue said. “I know this is the first time going on a delve for most of you. This is why I as well as healer Ungus will be joining you on it. As we go forward however you will have a volunteer from the healing Union as well as one or two of the teaching assistants of the other professors to go with you.”

Both instructor Gatecrasher and Dave were sitting by the door. Ajax wasn’t paying all that much attention. Unlike all the other classes where he knew the basics but also had to pay attention to fill in some missing gaps that they taught at the Academy, delving was something he had been doing for months in a much more dangerous dungeon.

The gear that instructor Gatecrasher and healer Ungus had put every other set of equipment he had seen to shame, they all knew it wasn’t required but it was more about sending the message that the dungeon shouldn’t be underestimated.

The spotlight however was stolen by professor Silvertongue’s mail armor, not only was each individual ring in the chestmail enchanted but they were also arranged so that they would form bigger enchantments when working together. The chainmail was sturdy andAjax could feel the mana concentration in the metal was stronger than what had been in the lake he found. To top it all off was the massive shoulder pad that covered his dominant arm to offset the weight of a heavy shield.

The walk through the city looked a lot like a fashion show or a parade, depending on how you looked at it. Each class marched in formation as all six headed towards the dungeon. Ajax did notice a few people pointing at him and Dave as they walked behind the freshman class.

“Don’t let it bother you.” Dave whispered. “They’re all jealous they can’t have as bright a future.

Him and Dave weren’t the only ones with less than stellar gear, Ajax had caught sight of two other commoners, one in the third year and one in the fifth that looked much more shabby. He had found out that in all six classes there were a total of seven commoners besides him, only two of them hadn’t already joined a house however, and that was because both were holding out for better offers instead of deciding to go at it independently.

“How come you don’t have any gear given to you?” Ajax asked, after all Dave had already joined a noble house.

“ This gear is higher quality than it looks.” Dave said as he pointed to his armor.

“Then how come none of it is enchanted?” Ajax could feel quite a bit of mana infused in the material and knew it could handle quite a few enchantments.

“Because I’m not actively delving, well at least not anything that would pose any danger for me. I’ve been at the academy for the last four years and I’ll be sticking around for at least six more. Getting it enchanted now will be detrimental to my training if I end up relying on it too much.” he explained. “I’ll have it enchanted for my last year here so I can get used to the enchantments.”

Ajax nodded at the explanation and quietly followed behind his classmates as they all filed into the dungeon area. Just like the other arch, this one was also surrounded on all sides by tall walls that were manned by people and the grounds holding dangerous runes ready to exterminate anything that came out of the arch. The mob before the entrance was consistent with the other dungeon at the capital, only this time a wide path was made for them all to approach.

One by one each class entered until it was finally for the first years. Ajax already knew what to expect having done his research on the dungeon. Despite being called the Goldmine there was no gold to be found anywhere. There were 6 different layouts that could come up and all of them were different variations of a forestry mountain covered with caves. For two of the layouts the caves connected to one another but for the other four they were dead ends. It was only called the Goldmine because of how valuable a dungeon that only had a five level jump between floors was.

Inside the first floor Ajax could already feel the mana in the air of the dungeon. Even with increased efficiency it was not enough for him to maintain any noticeable increase from [Mana Syphon], something he had expected seeing how the expected level of monsters was only twenty-five to thirty but he was still slightly disappointed.

“Dave, Ajax you two will only step in if someone is about to be seriously injured.” instructor Gatecrasher reminded them once they stepped inside. “Despite all their training there is bound to be one or two that get over excited about being in a dungeon and act careless, if it doesn’t look like the blow will be too bad let them get hit a bit before stepping in, might knock some sense into them.”

“Alright, everybody settle down.” Abbot silences the chattering. “ We seem to have gotten the fifth variation, and I hope that all of you know what that means from your preparation. For your first day we will be splitting up into four groups.”

“The first group will be made up of those who have delved a dungeon before.” some slight muttering arose at that as the ideal groups people had planned crashed and burned.

Five people stepped forward after a moment's hesitation. To no surprise Ajax saw Lexi, Annabeth and Ben all part of the group, besides them there was one of Ben’s friends and a member of the prince’s group, the same one that had gone out of his way to threaten Ajax that first day of school before Alchemy class.

Surprisingly the prince wasn’t among them, though if Ajax thought about it a bit more the prince was only level twenty-one until very recently so it made sense he didn’t have delving experience.

“You all will be with Ajax,” he said. “Now before anybody complains, this is because Ajax doesn’t have experience supervising so I want to make sure none of you will freeze up and this way the groups will be smaller so you will get a better chance to experience the fights.”

“But, Sir there are four other people who could lead the groups.” Another student piped up.

“No, there aren’t. Healer Ungus will be sitting back at the base camp where we all know his exact position in case of an emergency. I would also like all of you to offer your thanks to healer Ungus as he offered to set up the camp all by himself today.” he said with finality.

“Thanks healer Ungus.” The class collectively said in a way reminiscent of the way kindergartners answered ‘good morning’ to their teacher as a group.

“These groups are only for today so stop worrying so much about it.” instructor Gatecrasher cut in. “The six of you can go, be back in this clearing five hours from now.”

Ajax and the group quickly followed instructions as they jogged off towards the mountain. “And make sure they stay out of the caves for the first day.” the instructor called after Ajax

As they headed away from the rest of the class Ajax realized the first issue. Unlike what he was used to, this group had their makeup completely flipped. They had four casters and one physical fighter so he kept a closer eye on the light armored members of the group trusting Ben’s armor to be able to take a hit.

The first enemy they encountered was, unsurprisingly, a bear. While the second layout had a tribe of kobolds, they were spread out throughout the case and didn’t wander the forest. That left them with the bears, wolves, stags and a slim chance on one of the few griffins that nested near the top of the mountain but hunted everywhere.

“I got his legs.” Ben’s friend reacted to the bear as soon as they saw it and silently chanted to immobilize his feet.

Ben started charging before the chant was even complete. The two showed that they had been training together as none of the four bolts hit Ben and accurately froze the bear's paws to the ground.

The bear was not standing still however and also charged towards Ben. The frost spell was not all that strong based on the short chant and the amount of mana channeled. The bear in fact had managed to break out one of its paws through the momentum it had. That didn’t do much to help it as it looked down at its paws in confusion only to be decapitated a second later.

“So which way do we go now?” Lexi asked as Ben was coming back while wiping the blood off his sword.

“That way for wolves, that  way for deer and there should be another bear that way.” Ajax pointed in three directions without much thought.

“Oh, and how do you know that?” the noble from the prince’s group asked snarkily.

“Tracks.” Ajax said, pointing to the group. “I learned from a hunter in my village. "This caused the rest of the group to chuckle as the noble's face turned a bit red in embarrassment.