Unlike the last level one hundred and eighty floor they cleared the group had spent almost a week on this floor and had yet to see the floor boss, this could mean that it was one of the hidden ones that didn’t make a show of announcing themselves but they all were pretty sure the just hadn’t cleared enough of the floor yet.
“As much as you might like this floor I hate it.” The prince complained to Ajax who had already set up his alchemy station in their camp and got to work learning about the peculiarities of plants found on this floor. “Too many ambush predators.”
As it had been previously proven with the alligator the only one of them who didn’t really have to worry about being ambushed was Aurexion as his sheer size made that incredibly unrealistic. This meant their clear speed was considerably slowed down.
“We can’t even burn down this floor.” Evelyn wasn’t much happier, as a mage she was particularly vulnerable to the ambush predators, the first time a jaguar tried to dive on her while she was wading through hip high water she complained for two hours straight even after Ajax fixed the deep claw marks on her shoulders about how cats hated water and shouldn’t dive in a pool. “Even if we wanted to, it's just too wet and vibrant. Did you make any progress on the arch?”
Since they realized they would be spending some time on the floor the group of champions decided to leave Ajax at their base camp that contained an arch to see if his theory about draining the arch was any good.
“I found out trying to drain it doesn’t work unless I isolate it.” Ajax answered. “Not only do I have to drain it uninterrupted but I also have to draw in any ambient Mana from its surroundings or it will just draw it in to replenish whatever I take.”
Ajax had actually gained an entire level in [Mana Syphon] since he started experimenting with this, something massive seeing as this was a Legendary Skill above level fifty and that he was in no danger when he was using it and the only strain came from focusing on pulling the Mana from the arch. Even now Ajax had one hand on the arch, he had been using [Mana Syphon] on it and the surrounding for the past five hours.
“The only problem is I have no way of knowing how much I am actually drawing from it.” Ajax continued. “More than that the more I take, the harder it is to keep drawing more.” His plan for now was to drain it for ten hours or until the resistance became too large for him to keep drawing more Mana, then to see if he could use [Inject Mana] to add Mana of a specific affinity to it.
As the hours slowly passed and the group waited for the return of daylight to continue clearing the floor the conversation slowly branched out to different topics, everything about the war and their current situation had been discussed in the past few days.
“Why did you insist on having all your people go to this school of yours?” Evelyn asked him. “And why start them out so young?”
“A big reason behind it is something Aurexion told me about humans.” Ajax shared. “Humans have almost no racial inclinations towards Skills, any Skills. It’s humanoids as a whole really that have low inclinations but as you can see from the other humanoids they have some inclinations towards Mana. The only inclinations we humans seem to have towards anything that I can see is for Mana and that is related to our parents.”
Mana using parents were more likely to have children who could use Mana but even then it was no guarantee. “Still doesn’t explain your schooling.”
“Most people, commoners and especially peasants living in villages don’t choose their profession based on what they are good at.” Ajax explained. “They choose it based on what their parents did before them, what they need and what pays best. More than half the time the village blacksmith is the village blacksmith because it’s an important position, it pays well, it's consistent and their father was the blacksmith before them. It doesn’t matter whether they have talent for it or gain Skills.”
Most people did eventually get the common Skills after decades of work but even then they were slow to level.
“My mother actually looked into it just in case we got more pushback on the idea than we ended up getting.” Ajax pointed out. “ For villages near the mountains or an active mine the best thing that can happen is for their blacksmith to only have daughters. This means he will usually pick the most talented apprentice he can find to take over and that leads to one that can get Skills for the trade.”
“Then that blacksmith is better, the main output for the village becomes better, with Skill leveling come levels so this blacksmith lives longer and gets even better.” Evelyn was quick to follow the knock on effects. “Something so random can change a whole village. And you are trying to do that on a massive scale for your duchy by helping everyone find what they are good at.”
“Why do it at such a young age?” The prince asked. “There are a lot of people who actually don’t enjoy the things they are talented towards. Wouldn’t forcing them to do it as kids make it less likely they choose it as a profession rather than having them find out once they need to start making money and that is a bigger draw, say at the age of ten?”
“Most won’t have time by that point.” Ajax shook his head. “Even if we ignore the loss of five years of practice and the boost in levels that comes with that after the age of eight or nine the children for peasants are part of the workforce for the household.”
“Should we do the same in the capital if Ajax’s approach shows results?” The question was directed towards the prince.
“I think my brother is already putting the infrastructure in place expecting Ajax’s vision to become a reality.” The prince answered. “I know he has been keeping a close eye on it.”
“Why not do the same thing now then?” Ajax asked.
“A couple reasons.” The prince answered. “The investment would be pretty large, you already took a large number of crafters from the capital to start your schools. Next is that by waiting we will get a clear blueprint of how to do it after you deal with most issues, and in a couple years the first generation of people with more Stats will be joining the workforce, my brother hopes to steer them towards delving so they become more combat capable in case we need to expand into the Wild Lands. The best way to do this is to have the generation after them take a lot of the crafter professions.”
That was a callous and very unfair approach but Ajax could see the reasons for it. Aurexion however also added something he hadn’t considered. “And by choosing to copy Ajax at that point rather than just try and take what he built it would mean no other nobles will have any standing to try doing so openly.”
“That as well.” The prince nodded. “We’d rather have any such attempts be made politically where Lady Manashaper will be dealing with them rather than someone trying something more forceful which would mean you and your bond will start tearing down established noble Houses.”
The conversation got cut short there as night turned into day. This was the signal for Ajax to stop draining the arch and he used [Inject Mana] to push as much Life Mana as he could into the arch. The reason he chose Life Mana was because he didn’t know if the Mana he chose made a difference but he expected a Legendary Mana type might be more easily accepted. The second was that the main Mana type of the arch was one he didn’t have. During his time on this floor he wanted to do the same thing with an arch that had Earth as the main Mana type to see if injecting it would change how prominent Earth Mana would become as part of the Mana makeup of the arch.
“Well? Did it work?” Everyone stood around Ajax curious to find out.
“It accepted the Mana.” Ajax nodded. “I don’t know if it made any changes and we’ll eventually need someone to explore the floor after I do this to find out if it changed anything but it’s progress.”
It only took a few hours after the group started to clear the floor again before something finally changed. A large pillar of flame was easily seen in the distance announcing the floor boss. A fire elemental.
“Not again.” Ajax cursed as he dreaded the loss of all the ingredients.
“It’s not as bad as you think.” Aurexion consoled him. “This floor has too much Water Mana for the Fire to do any immediate damage.”
“If anything this will prove a boon to your progress as an alchemist.” Evelyn also joined in.
“How so?” Ajax asked curiously.
“Over the next few weeks the Fire Mana will slowly become more and more ingrained on the floor. This means as time goes on the plants you collect will slowly have more of it present, even if the ingredients are the same plant their Mana makeup will change over time. Learning how to adapt to that and what the change does to the reagents and how to best use those changes should help you improve your [Alchemy] Skill if not grant you an advanced Skill in the field.” As a researcher Evelyn was knowledgeable about how crafters progressed even if she wasn’t a dedicated crafter herself. “But first we have to kill the elemental.”