Clearing the floor was a new experience for Ajax. With the rest of the champions gone and only him and Aurexion made each battle one they needed to be careful in. Ajax’s usage of [Absolute Body Enhancement] meant that no individual monster was of any actual threat to them as he was more than capable of killing them in a single hit with the right Mana Type enhancement but with the strain on his resources being overwhelmed by a steady flow of monsters converging on them was a real risk.
“I prefer fighting you humanoids.” Aurexion commented as he tossed an oversized python off of himself.
“With the size difference I don’t even question that.” Ajax laughed as he got to work collecting any alchemical reagents he could off the dead creatures, the infusion of Fire Mana did mean that some of their Mana cores, if they were still intact, could be used to experiment with before using the floor boss’s core. “That snake could actually outmuscle you.”
The python was even more physically focused than Aurexion, more than that almost all of that focus was on Strength and Endurance relying on stealth over Dexterity to get close to its target. While the snake wasn’t close in size to Aurexion it was still large enough to coil around the dragon’s front legs and strong enough to actually break some bones.
“Think you can heal me?” Aurexion asked, for the first time since he met Ajax he had taken some real physical damage, more than that the damage wasn’t just surface level. While the snake did manage to hurt Aurexion the fight wasn’t a hard one for the dragon, using its body so offensively the snake essentially served itself right up to Aurexion’s powerful jaws and as long as the dragon was careful to not allow the snake to coil around his neck he wasn’t in any lethal danger.
“We might need to realign your bones first.” Ajax commented. “I’m not sure how Life Mana would react to healing misaligned bones and healing you with Light Mana would drain me.”
“Best wait until we get back to camp fi-” Aurexion didn’t get a chance to finish as they felt another enemy approach.
A mud elemental erupted from the river bank and Ajax bit back a curse as he reactivated [Absolute Body Enhancement]. The elementals had started off as swamp elementals but with the increased Fire Mana on the floor they had slowly become mud elementals and according to Aurexion it wouldn’t be long until they became Magma elementals as they absorbed more and more Fire Mana.
The elementals weren’t all that dangerous offensively but they were a pain to kill since physical attacks did little to them, they were somewhat effective now that they had become mud elementals and had a more physical aspect to their bodies compared to the swamp elementals but that same mass and stability also made it harder to find and destroy their core. The biggest issue however was that with their change to mud elementals they had started wandering the floor away from the rivers and their presence could stall Ajax and Aurexion enough for other monsters to gather.
With his Mana and Stamina already half drained from the previous fight Ajax didn’t bother experimenting with anything and went straight for what he knew would work. With [Empowering Restriction]’s increasing his durability Ajax had been learning to use his physical enhancement as more than just an upfront speed increase with a massive power boost. Days of repeated use had led to Ajax actually completing complex combos while continuously moving, the low weight and manageable center of gravity of the knives made this a lot easier than his other heavier weapons but it was a start.
The elemental tried its best to react but despite being a mud elemental now it was obviously not used to its own form yet, the rapid change from swamp elemental to mud had made the elemental clumsy and Ajax had no issues dashing around it while slashing deeply with an Ice Mana infused daggers solidifying the mud.
In under two seconds a large portion of the elemental was frozen solid but Ajax had already spent about three hundred Mana just in the [Mana Augmentation] to get that done. Using another hundred Mana Ajax added in something else he had been working on since he started using his daggers.
A heavy kick landed on the elemental’s frozen side releasing a powerful shockwave as Ajax leaned heavily on the Vibration Mana part of his Pseudo-Mythic Skill, shattering the body of the elemental and making the core much easier to find. With the core exposed a quick swing of Ajax’s daggers was all it took to kill the elemental.
“Your leg didn’t break this time.” Aurexion noted as he watched Ajax turn off his Pseudo-Mythic Skill while breathing slightly heavier from the exertion and massive drain on his Stamina and Mana.
“The impact was still strong enough to burst a few blood vessels, I’ll have some bruises for the next few days.” Ajax said as he tested putting some more weight on his leg. “Intresting to see how less damage is actually harder for more to heal.”
Over the last couple days Ajax had experimented in attacking more with his body and Vibration Mana and the results were promising. The increased durability from [Empowering Restriction] made it harder for Ajax to injure himself and his Style Skill managed to adapt that with his [Unarmed Combat] Skill and Vibration Mana to give Ajax options for some attacks that packed some power behind them even when using daggers. The attacks were still too strong for his body to handle but according to Aurexion it was the perfect way to train to gain some Skills that would increase his durability.
“How is less damage harder to heal?” Aurexion was confused.
“Because the way to heal a bruise is to move the blood. When bones would break through my skin getting rid of the excess blood was easy but now it’s trapped there.” Ajax explained.
The two of them didn’t waste any more time and Ajax climbed on Aurexion’s neck who took to the skies and headed for their camp, they didn’t want to risk any more monsters sneaking up on them.
“Are you going back to your alchemy?” Aurexion asked, knowing that this was their seventh day of slowly clearing the floor.
“I actually want to experiment with a different arch for the first two days, see if I can sense some kind of change when I drain then inject Mana into it.” Ajax answered, he hadn’t even finished his sentence when he could feel the boredom echo through their bond at the idea. He didn’t blame his bond for his feelings as he would need to be the one guarding Ajax against any monster wandering through the area they had already cleared to make sure nothing got close to the arch while Ajax kept in contact with it. “It’s also a good chance to start seeing if we can get you any more Mana types.”
That comment instantly had Aurexion curious. “You want to see if I can get more Mana types?” The dragon asked, very excited about the prospect since he saw how different Mana types were compatible with his Legendary Skill.
“I’m hoping our bond will make it easier for you to gain some of the Mana types I have.” Ajax explained, he didn’t mention that he wanted to check if his Divine Witness Trait would also be shared through the bond but he did suspect that it might be considering that Aurexion had gained a Legendary Skill already despite not using his dragon’s breath all that much since he and Ajax bonded. “Vibration Mana would be ideal for you seeing how much you focus on using your large body and high strength, not to mention it would really boost the power of your [Draconic Roar].”
Both Aurexion and Ajax knew that getting a Legendary Mana type was a long shot and they would actually focus more on the Rare and Epic aspects, Wind would be their primary focus as Aurexion would be able to use Wind spells to help with his aerial mobility, something that was currently a rather large weakness for him when fighting any other naturally airborne enemy since he had no leverage point to bring his impressive strength to bear.
“And how are we going to do that?” Aurexion asked.
“We’re going to have you try some chanted spells to see if you can get a handle on wielding specific Mana types.” Ajax answered. “Once you get a feel for it you can try free casting the spells and then move on to using [Spell Direction]. Though I only know some basic chanted spells for most elements it should be enough for you to get a feel for it.”
Before settling in for their week of training and experimenting Ajax and Aurexion first took the time to recover and heal themselves following their week of combat, the night they had stayed out there to keep fighting had especially taken a lot out of them seeing how the nocturnal predators were not only active over a larger area and always looking for prey but they also naturally relied on stealth attacks a lot more. Once they had replenished their Mana and Stamina as well as finished healing both of them did a quick patrol over the area of the dungeon they had already cleared before setting up around one of the dungeon arches.