Chapter 622

Over the almost two weeks of travel Ajax and Aurexion had gotten a lot closer. Not only was the bond helping their communication but they could both feel the drive to push further in one another. Ajax had already pushed far ahead in terms of Skills where Aurexion had pushed almost beyond what is safe in terms of Stats. Now it's time to help their bond make up the difference. 

“We need to get you to one hundred Skills as well.” Ajax said with conviction after a comment Aurexion made about how Stats are more valuable unless you are dealing with high rarity Skills. “Maybe if you get the Achievement you’ll change your mind.” 

It took a moment for Aurexion to pry what the Achievement Ajax was referring to was out of his bond, not out of Ajax keeping it to himself but the stubbornness of the dragon had him insisting he wasn’t interested for the first five minutes and that he in fact ‘did not want to know’, which he then had to backtrack.

“Not to mention that weaker Skills support your stronger ones.” Ajax explained the theory he was planning to implement through his school to help people have more and better supported Skills. “I know I missed out on more than a few of those by rushing into professions as quickly as I did as a child. I don’t regret most of that since I needed the levels from multiple Skills but I wish I had taken my time to get some of the Common Skills to support it.” 

“Why not get them now?” Aurexion questioned. 

“Its hard to unlock them since everything is technically covered by [Alchemy].” Ajax said. “The only way I think I even could do it is if I use [Empowering Restriction] to cut off [Alchemy]. The issue is I can’t have [Empowering Restriction] help me with the task to unlock the new Skill either so it would be an odd restriction.” 

“And it would take a lot of time to do it that way.” Aurexion agreed. “Time is something you have not had much of yet. You might not be able to look at things on a similar scale to a dragon but you should start looking at things in terms of centuries at the least.” 

Ajax knew Aurexion was right, but knowing something wasn’t as easy as putting it in action. He had lived two lives and the first one he was certain he wouldn’t live to a century, even if he did it wouldn’t be long past. The second one his entire childhood people thought that a hundred and fifty was a long time for commoners to live and that was the timeline that was pushed despite the centuries nobles were known to live for. 

“Are you sure I shouldn’t go for [Telekinesis]?” Ajax instead asked about his Pseudo-Mythic Skill looking to change the topic. His Pseudo-Mythic Skill had been discussed in length during their journey but while Ajax understood the arguments and agreed with them he still wasn’t fully done arguing them. “I’ll be able to fly with that.” 

“You’ll be able to use [Telekinesis] to fly even if you don’t include it in the Skill.” Aurexion huffed in annoyed, it was the fifth time he had to make this exact same point. “It might not be as fast but [Telekinesis] would be a lot more limited, you would only be able to use it to move your own body, it would lose its range.” 

Ajax knew Aurexion was right, Vibration Mana would not only add a lot of umph to his blows but it would actually help him defensively as well. His thoughts were interrupted when he could finally see something beyond the deserted desert. 

“I think it's best if you were to go higher.” Ajax said as they were approaching the border. 

“Why is that?” Aurexion asked. 

“Becuase while people would be expecting me to come back nobody can see me on your back from down there.” Ajax explained. “And a dragon flying it would cause a commotion.” 

“Fine, fine.” Aurexion complied, rising in the air. “It still won’t be enough if they have a few eyesight Skills.” 

Aurexion’s imbalance had been getting a little better; the addition of the Epic Mana affinity Skill helped and Ajax would work with the dragon to grow his Skills and levels to make up for the Stats. One thing he wasn’t going to mention however was the Uncommon Skill [Rider] he had gotten days ago. He wasn’t sure if Aurexion hadn’t checked his Status page since before he got it or if he was ignoring it but he very much suspected the former and was preparing for the outburst when he found out. Being treated like a mount was something he was very much against, and Ajax fully supported that.

Now that they were back in Gryndor Ajax knew he had less than a few hours before they made it back to his duchy. He had considered if going to the capital first to have his arm fixed might be a better choice but in the end he decided that he didn’t want to deal with the fallout of not having gone home as soon as he arrived, especially without the missing arm to make them concerned about how his time in the Wild Lands had been.

“Oh, one thing I forgot to mention.” Ajax said as he just remembered. “Besides humanoids my brother also has a Shadow cat bond, please don’t eat Fluffy.” 

“I don’t so much care about a kitty as I do about your vault.” Aurexion said. “You mentioned concentrated gold, Mana dense concentrated gold.” 

Ajax had not been surprised at all that dragons valued gold. What he had been surprised by was that they actually hoarded gold ore, with nobody to smelt it and refine it. Ajax very much expected Aurexion to be very happy with the golden statue he had pulled out of the dungeon. The ensuing argument between his new bond, his sister and Alana would be one he would be happy to watch as he enjoyed a snack. 

Talking about snacks Ajax had run out of food almost a day ago. His provisions should have lasted him more than a year and a half even with generous estimates but they hadn’t accounted for the dragon the size of a large building also sharing his food. 

“Did I mention the Mana here is dreadfully thin?” Aurexion asked as they approached his duchy.

“You did.” Ajax acknowledged but he could also feel the same thing himself. It wasn’t an issue for him since that was how he’d grown up but moving so quickly to such a Mana dry area after being in the Wild Lands left him also feeling a little more out of breath.

“There’s my manor.” Ajax said as he pointed out the massive stone building, he was glad he wasn’t in the city since a panic over the appearance of a dragon was not the first thing he wanted to deal with. “See if you can land in the training area without crushing anything.” 

Over the last two weeks Ajax had found out that while moving on the ground Aurexion knew how to move so as to not demolish everything in his way, the same could not be said about his landing sights however. 

It was relatively early in the morning and Ajax was glad to see there weren’t many people in the training yard. The few that were there were already moving to launch the alarm as Aurexion landed spreading cracks through the ground and crushing a few wooden dummies into splinters.

“STAND DOWN!” Ajax’s voice resounded as he watched with pride as his people were getting ready to fight a dragon they most likely knew they had no chance of winning against. 

“Lord Ajax.” 

“The duke is back.” 

“That’s a dragon he just jumped off of.”

Ajax ignored the comments and instead was on the lookout for the one possible danger he wanted to prevent. “I have to say, kid, I thought I had learnt my lesson about the outrageous things you can do but this is something I couldn’t even imagine.” Lancel was easy to find once he started to talk and Ajax was glad he hadn’t attacked first. The easygoing nature dropped quickly however. “What happened to your arm?” 

“Something I only want to explain once, to everyone.” Ajax said with a sigh as he did his best to hug Lancel with one arm. 

Aurexion had the patience to let Ajax finish the hug he had given Lancel but not much more as he prodded him with his nose. “Yes, yes I didn’t forget.” Ajax said with exasperation. Seeing someone he had already expected to be in the training yard at such an early hour Ajax delegated. “Theron, would you please show Aurexion here to the vault, and try to take the widest passages.” Ajax was suddenly very glad for the suggestions he had received about making his manor have extremely large ceilings in every floor and wide corridors. 

It took a few moments for the shocked beastkin to process Ajax’s polite order before he started moving. But Ajax didn’t care, he was home after so many months and he was looking forward to seeing his family again.