Looking at the dungeon arch in the distance Ajax was debating making a run for it at high speed or slowly tip-toeing his way there. He knew every single creature in the area was on high alert after his battle with the snake but now that he had cleared off all the poison he wasn’t that worried about a single one of them finding him, he still had more than half his Mana and Stamina.
Ajax had to admit he was starting to understand the reasons why the elves didn’t bother with annexing the dungeon into their territory. The biggest reason was just how far away it was from their borders. Sure it would only take Ajax about three days if he was really pushing to cover the distance between the elven border and the dungeon but that was a vast amount of area, they just couldn’t afford to capture that much ground all at once or they would simply be spreading their people too thin.
The second obvious reason was the hunting birds that had only stopped circling the sky above now that he was so close to the dungeon and surrounded by high level predators on all sides. Those birds didn’t nest anywhere near this area but on a high rock possibly ten days travel from here, the nest would also clearly house much stronger creatures making clearing out not an option.
The biggest reason in Ajax’s book however was that it simply wasn’t worth it to claim this dungeon. Its starting floor was spread over levels forty to forty-five that was the highest starting floor he had encountered so far, it would mean none of the villages that would form around the dungeons would be able to make use of it almost at all since it would be so hard for locals to grow strong enough to safely delve the first floor.
To add on top of that the floor level jump was twenty five. This made it a non-starter for progress and even for the nobles would only get three extra dungeon floor clears before the dungeon jumped past level one hundred all the way to one hundred and forty five making it unsafe for the nation to delve. If the nobles wanted those extra stats they might as well just go on an expedition to the Wild Lands.
“At least that was the case until now.” Ajax couldn’t help but whisper to himself.
The kingdoms were in an odd balance with the extremists being buffered by acceptance and all of them surrounding the Republic that was a true melting pot. With the massive increase in population all kingdoms would need to expand and they would quickly find themselves fighting over the same territory.
With Gryndor being five days' travel away from the dungeon, at least for Ajax’s travel speed, and the elves only three it would be a race once the kingdoms started to expand for who would annex the dungeon. More than that with the average increase in strength Ajax’s Stat hoarding method provided it actually made the dungeon much more valuable as even commoners would be able to more reliably delve it.
Ajax very much suspected that this would be the first big strain Gryndor’s alliance with Sylvanthal would face and it all came down to how the two kings would handle it. At the rate of expansion his family was expecting from the kingdom they wouldn’t reach the dungeon for another century at least but discussions and arguments would surely start in half that time. A time when both King Sylvanthal and the current crown prince Xandor would be at the start of their reign where they need to prove their authority to keep the noble Houses from trying anything.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from NovelBin. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
That wasn’t something Ajax was actually worried about, according to Elija there was a very neat solution to the issue, one that Ajax would be happy to actually help push through if it came down to it. Simply giving the area to Benedict and Elara, with both of them being part of powerful military families, simply having them form a new House with ties to both and having them rule over such a contested piece of land was the perfect way to handle it.
With those thoughts out of the way Ajax pushed [Mana Syphon] to its limit as he started his dash for the arch. It only took a minute before he was aware of something chasing him, more than that Ajax was surprised to see it was a primate only about half again as large as him that wielded a stick. According to [Inspector’s Eye] the creature was level one hundred and twenty nine. More surprising however was that [Enigma] had felt an inspection Skill being used on Ajax, repeatedly each time changing the focus to a different part of his Status.
“That has to be at least an Epic Inspection Skill.” Ajax praised the primate that was having a hard time keeping pace with him as Ajax sapped the Mana from the self buffs it was using to try and catch up to him. “It doesn’t have much pressure to penetrate Privacy Skills but its very malleable to be able to change focus like this.”
Saying that Ajax used [Enigma] to modify what the primate would see on its next inspection, allowing it to fully understand the threat level Ajax posed to it. Ajax tried hard but he couldn’t hold back the laugh as he felt the next Inspect attempt land before hearing a weird yelp from the monkey as it tripped and face planted into the ground.
Leaving [Enigma] set like that Ajax had no issues covering the rest of the way to the dungeon. He felt two different Inspection Skills land on him during his journey, both of them were much weaker than whatever Skill the monkey had used but both of them clearly got the message as nobody tried to chase him.
“It does beg the question how something on that level rose to power here.” Ajax was curious how the creatures that took control of the area were only level one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty. Seeing as any dungeon break should be either ninety to ninety five or one hundred and forty to one hundred and forty five.
After arriving in front of the arch Ajax spent a good twenty minutes using Earth Magic to try and ensure he had a safe place to exit. He didn’t expect the third floor would push him all that far but he wouldn’t put it past the predators that had taken control of this area to be smart enough to see a pattern of humanoids going in and then coming back out in the exact same place. Unlike the usual expeditions he didn’t have the manpower needed to return from the dungeon blind.
Ajax had to admit it felt odd to mold the earth like this outside a dungeon floor. It just felt too easy. Outside of using the ettin staff to reinforce and create the tunnels under his family’s manor and the creation of the quarry Ajax wasn’t used to the ease of molding the earth outside the dungeon where the ambient Mana was so low in comparison.
Ajax spent two thousand Mana before he was happy with the fortifications he prepared for himself in case he was attacked when he exited. He then entered the dungeon already knowing what to expect from the first floor, it would be a marshy jungle where the biggest threat to him would be the mosquitos or the light bugs depending on which variation of the floor he pulled since they would be the most abundant and persistent creatures on the floors that would be drawn to him.
_________________________________________________________________________
The spider matriarch watched with interest as the special human disappeared into the same odd place they all did. This human was different from the others that had come before him however, it wasn’t the fact that he had come alone that had drawn the matriarch’s attention, it had seen that happen before even if they were all stronger than this human.
No, what really drew its attention was the odd feeling it got from the human’s aura, like he was somehow better, superior, not just when compared to other humans but even when compared to the matriarch itself.
The matriarch's instincts screamed to eat it, it had inspected the human and knew that while it was dangerous and powerful, more powerful than itself perhaps he was still not strong enough to escape from a well weaved web.