Chapter 348

Ajax spent the next two days enjoying the festival and recuperating. That isn’t to say that there weren’t a lot of people looking for a moment of his time but Ajax skillfully directed all of them towards his grandfather and sister. Darkclaw had done his best to restrain himself and give Ajax time to recover but the dam finally burst and a spar was scheduled to take place at the end of the week. It was on the evening of the second day that a small conference formed to discuss his options for the remaining five spots.

“Did any royal family approach you about a deal?” the crown prince asked as he joined Elija, Judy, Lexi, Anna and Ajax.

“None of them so far.” Elija shook his head. “We do have a meeting with the Sylvian family tomorrow morning to discuss Ajax’s tournament winnings. You’ll need to be there for that by the way.”

“Closest we have is a member of the Council, they offered a really good deal to get Darkclaw one of the spots.” Judy nodded.

It seemed that the best case scenario just wasn’t meant to be. Ajax had also hoped to be able to trade one or maybe even two of the spots to the beastkin or the dwarves in exchange for another kingdom’s dungeons to delve but even he knew it was a long shot.

“What are the best offers we have so far?” Ajax asked, curious.

“So far there are two offers that far surpass all the others we have gotten. The Council’s offer for Darkclaw was generous enough that it will push our house into the top ten merchant Houses in Gryndor.” Elija said with a look that told Ajax his grandfather was ready to accept that deal.

“The second offer comes from Elara.” Ajax was slightly surprised to hear that house had made such a big offer considering how their interactions had gone. “While it wasn’t as valuable as the Councilor’s offer for Darkclaw they will be making their payment almost exclusively in rare alchemy ingredients.”

“There are still offers that should be coming in over the next few days.” The prince gave his own opinion. “ Quite a few of the present representatives simply don’t have the authority to make such large offers but I can assure you that all of them sent out ravens days ago the moment you gained that deal.”

“You should accept the top two offers.” Anna offered her counsel. “Doing so will not only improve the dispositions of our hosts with us and repair your relationship with a ducal house, but by also lowering the supply it will loosen everyone else's purse strings.”

Ajax found himself very much in agreement with Anna’s suggestion. Accepting the top two offers would increase the price of the remaining spots but it will also show them as reasonable since they aren’t holding and squeezing people dry.

“That’s a solid proposal.” Ajax nodded in affirmation. “But when do you think I should go?”

“As soon as possible.” The crown prince didn’t miss a beat. “Going straight there from here would be best. The more time passes from when the incident occurred the less protected you will be. Not to mention that going into dungeons at a lower level is always better since you will have more floors available to you.”

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“That’s probably for the best.” Ajax nodded. “I’ll go through the Deepwood dungeons and on the way back I’ll delve into Sylvanthal's dungeons depending on how the negotiations go tomorrow. After I return to Gryndor I’ll go to the empire for the final delve before I head out to find a companion.”

“Good luck explaining that to your mother.” Elija threw out there with a shake of the head.

The words sent a cold shiver up Ajax’s spine as he thought through the timetable. They had already been gone for almost half a year, in his initial plan he would have had time to delve one kingdom’s worth of dungeons before returning home and spending a month in Gryndor before heading to the Empire at least. With two kindom’s worth of dungeons Ajax would need to travel quickly as they delved from one dungeon to the next just to get back to the Empire dungeon in time.

“See if you can add a nice gift for my parents in the deals for the last three spots.” Ajax asked his grandfather before he went to his new room to sleep.

While most people from that meeting went to sleep as it was getting rather late the crown prince was meeting with his father and brother.

“Something is going on with Arborea and Predator’s Pride.” the crown prince said as he referenced the two beastkin kingdoms to the south of the Republic.

Unlike the human, elven and dwarven kingdoms the beastkin had split themselves differently. Where the other races split themselves between those who thought themselves the superior race and those who didn’t the beastkins split themselves more along whether their animal counterparts were herbivores or carnivores. Not only that but because of the savannah and desert geography of their kingdoms the borders between them were not as clear cut.

“What makes you say that?” king Gryndor asked.

“Ajax hasn’t received a significant offer from a noble family from there for one of the spots in the Deepwood dungeons.” the crown prince explained.

While the same was true of the dwarven kingdoms, the dwarves as a society were much more focused on craftsmen and pure skill. The stat points from a dungeon wouldn’t be so alluring to them as they were to the beastkin’s more brutal and physical society.

“We have lost contact with an unusual number of our agents there in the past decade as well.” the king said as he rubbed his temple in hopes of preventing the headache he felt coming. “We will have to send more people to take a closer look at what is going on.”

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Ajax started the following morning with a quick training session with Lexi. He spent the first half an hour doing his best to get a feel for it as he used both [Syphon Mana] and [Sense Mana] to get a good look and feel for the spells Lexi was using. Much to her credit Lexi was not limiting herself to sound spells only as she also tried to add the mana to her earth spells in hopes of creating an earthquake like effect.

“This is a lot harder than I remember.” Ajax complained after his tenth attempt at chanting the sonic spell fizzled out in a waste of mana.

“You hardly practiced chanting in the last few years.” Lexi said. “These spells are a lot more advanced and we both know that different casting methods interfere with one another.”

Ajax knew she was right. He only ever used chants for cleaning, he was still a little peeved that he hadn’t figured out how that particular spell worked and couldn’t replicate it with pure mana control.

“How about that shockwave spell?” Ajax asked. “I think I have a better visualization of that one, not to mention that it relies more on mana control to create a small area that is very mana sparse.

Ajax’s guess had been right, it had only taken him eight attempts until he finally got the spell to cast. Unlike Lexi’s first cast of the spell he only fed the spell with a bit of mana creating a shockwave that only kicked up the dust in their training area.

“You did it!” Lexi congratulated him. “How did it feel?”

“Odd.” Ajax answered. The advantage with casting the spell himself was that he could get a much clearer picture of how his mana changed from neutral into the Vibration mana so that he could try and replicate the process. “It felt odd.”

Just like Life mana, Vibration mana was superior compared to the normal affinities Ajax used, there was a reason they were Legendary after all. Unlike Life mana however, Vibration was very much an aggressive and offensive mana type and he could feel the raw power the mana type could bring to his kit once he mastered it.

“You might as well end this session on a high note.” Lexi said as she started herding him out the training area. “Best you go get ready for your meeting.”

Ajax didn’t put up more than a token struggle as he headed to take a shower and a change of clothes. His mana pool was also quite depleted from the numerous failed casts. Lexi was right he should focus on the upcoming negotiations, there would be plenty of time for him to train as he traveled from one dungeon to the next over the next few months.