Chapter 606

Ajax was barely standing on his feet as he arrived on the new floor and was hit with a much higher Mana density. The jump in level went from the high eighties to one hundred and twenty and Ajax was very happy with the result as he [Mana Syphon] worked to refill his Mana pool. 

Instead of moving to do anything Ajax simply took a close look at his surroundings before he  slipped into the closest shadow to himself and then started to flood his body with as much Life Mana as he could while using [Meditation] to help replenish his Mana faster and direct the healing as well as he could.

For three hours Ajax battled the poison in his body. [Poison Resistance] as well as [Venom Refining] worked diligently alongside the Life Mana to ensure Ajax managed to suppress and eliminate the werewolf’s second venom.

Just because he managed to suppress the second venom and he had acted fast enough to stop the spread up his arm of the first venom didn’t mean that he had been left without a reminder from the werewolf. Ajax’s left arm was left changed from the elbow down where the first venom had spread following the bite. 

The arm felt different, the muscle leaner, the hand bigger, the fingers longer and the nails had turned into something more resembling claws. The first thing Ajax tried once he was sure that the change wasn’t spreading in any way from the arm was to flood it with Life Mana and see if he could reverse the change. Sadly despite his best effort the Life Mana didn’t change anything, it acted as if there was nothing wrong with the arm. 

“I had to get overconfident…” Ajax silently cursed his own incompetence. Just because it was a floor with levels in the high eighties Ajax hadn’t taken proper precautions. He had seen the floor as a spot to relax, so much so that he had attacked an ant queen in the center of its nest and didn’t realize it would bring the entire colony down on his head. 

Slowly and carefully stepping out of the shadow he had retreated to Ajax, returned to the dungeon arch and carefully used [Mana Syphon] on it. He could get a general idea of the Mana in the air but that would only reflect the environment. 

“Humanoids…” Ajax felt it clearly that most of the enemies on the floor would be humanoids, that and that the floor would most likely have an underground section because of the amount of Earth Mana present. “There is some good news at least.” 

Humanoids were some of the opponents he would feel most comfortable challenging as a group. Unlike other monsters they retained the extreme weaknesses that came with the head or the heart, much in the same way the previous floor boss had the same weakness, though in its case it took ten stabs to the brain to get the job done. 

“I didn’t get even a hint of Plant, Growth or even Life Mana.” Ajax looked at the surrounding jungle, at first glance it looked like a tropical forest but one that was slowly dying. “Could be that they are just not dominant.” 

Looking back at the entrance arch Ajax knew he now had a choice to make. Would he try to clear the floor or would he just risk a dungeon break. He knew he had a chance to clear the floor, it would be very dangerous and take weeks of constant fighting against humanoids that would be capable of pushing him to the edge in groups. That was all manageable though, the big problem was the floor boss that would surely spawn. Would Ajax be able to deal with it? 

“I have to give it a try at least…” Ajax said with a resigned sigh. Even with how sure Verya had been that the elemental hawk would be extremely protective of Ajax he wasn’t about to risk offending his host by causing a dungeon break in its territory if it could be avoided. 

Ajax’s first step in clearing the floor was taking a much closer look at his changed left hand. It could very well be that this was his new normal. The only option he still had left was to cut off the arm and try to regrow it but considering the way Life Mana had reacted to it there was a good chance it would just grow back the same way. 

Once he decided there was no point in cutting it off and trying to regrow it Ajax changed to taking in the changes much closer. Much to his relief his new claws didn’t seem to have poison sacs so he wasn’t in danger of poisoning himself over a scratch. But that is where the good news ended. 

Ajax’s new arm moved completely differently than his old one used to. Not only was a lot of the muscle memory he had worked hard to instill in his body gone but even the movement his brain carefully directed had to be adapted. His longer fingers and claws fit awkwardly around the grip of any of his weapons causing them to become next to useless.

Even his hand to hand combat left a lot to be desired as while the muscle memory he had built up in his shoulder was still there from the elbow down it all worked slightly differently. One small silver lining was that his ability with a shield remained the same. When wielding a shield all of the movement came from the shoulder and elbow with the forearm and had simply holding the shield. If anything the reinforced muscles and bones made it easier for him to absorb an impact with his shield.

“It will take some getting used to.” Ajax muttered to himself, especially when it came to the precision required for his alchemy, hopefully people back in Gryndor or other Ascended races might know how to revert the change and this would all just be a memory soon enough. “But first it's time to rest.” 

It hadn’t even been a day since the last time he slept but Ajax was utterly exhausted, after spending two weeks on the second floor he hadn’t even spent a day on the third, his Mana and Stamina were still under one thousand and he wanted to be back as close to full strength as he could before he started fighting on this floor. 

After taking a few hours to fully recover his resources and relieve the pressure his Mana channels had built up from the constant fighting on the last floor Ajax was ready to start clearing this floor. As he was about to cover himself in Shadow Mana and start exploring the floor more thoroughly Ajax remembered one thing he hadn’t tried to ensure it would work with his new arm. 

Trying to perform the movement required for [Spell Direction] felt clunky with his new arm. As he tried weaving his fingers he found the muscles moving differently than he wanted them to, it wasn’t a big difference but it was there. The oddest part was that the incorrect movement somehow not only felt more natural but he could also feel the Mana traveling down his arm flow fluently until the movement finished and the small fireball was launched.

Or it was supposed to be a small fireball. As he finished the movement and [Expel Mana] worked to push the Mana required to generate the spell to exit his hand Ajax felt something click into place. The fireball he launched was more than two and a half as strong as he had intended it to be as it flew towards the nearest tree and exploded with a much bigger and louder explosion than he intended. 

[Spell Direction], all of the work Ajax had put in trying to gain the Skill and this is how he ended up getting it. Much as Ajax wanted to celebrate his success it would have to wait as he heard movement coming towards him, his fireball obviously attracting some unwanted attention. 

Four humanoids, two humans, an elf and a dwarf cut through the foliage to find Ajax. A shout in a language Ajax didn’t know as the human in a cloth robe pointed to him and the other three sprang into action. The leader then started to summon Mana to cast a spell. 

Ajax wasn’t about to take any chances however, he summoned his one handed spear into his right arm and threw it with a massive three hundred Lightning Mana augmentation as he pushed [Mana Syphon]’s physical boost to its top limit. He wasn’t going to take any chances here.

The spear flew true straight into the head of the caster before any of them had a chance to react. The other good thing about humanoids on dungeon floors was that they retained some humanoids reactions, the group of three shocked for a moment as they looked towards their dead party member. A moment Ajax wasn’t willing to let pass. 

Ajax didn’t know the movement required to amplify a Vibration spell but he let his left arm move in a way that felt best as he relied on his newest Skill to lead him. The power increase of the blow was nowhere close to the double power of the fireball but it was still a decent increase as his hammer smashed into the elves ribs, the light leather it was wearing doing little to lessen the blow that sent shockwaves through his entire body.

Guessing from their gear that the dwarf was a physical fighter Ajax chose to leave him for last as he swapped hammers and dashed towards the second human, a Void infused blow that was struck a Mana barrier inches from his targets head left him with a smile as the strike also head a couple hundred Mana infused letting the blow cover the few inches and make perfect contact. The second human was still alive but Ajax could tell the blow had knocked him out at least for now. 

Pulling out his shield on his left arm Ajax blocked the blow from the dwarf. Taking a better look at its armor Ajax found himself asking if this was another Aztec themed floor. The armor the dwarf was wearing was made mainly out of bones, even its axe seemingly made out of sharpened bone. 

The dwarf managed to keep up with Ajax for a few exchanges but one he started using Earth spells to mess with the ground beneath their feet Ajax quickly pulled him off balance and finished him with a Magma infused axe blow to the head, after which he finished off the unconscious human. 

“I can only hope to find another statue made of gold, that would make a very good gift to endear me to my host even if I do have to cause a small dungeon break.” Ajax said to himself as he picked up the dwarf’s bone axe so he would have a disposable weapon he wouldn’t care about damaging with his [Mana Augmentation].