Chapter 719

Working with his retainers as well as Jake, Jari and Nashara was something Ajax was more than happy to do as they started out but progress wasn’t something that happened quickly and most of them had already gotten the low hanging fruit. Ajax was easily able to point out where they needed to improve but just because he pointed it out didn’t mean that they would be able to make the necessary adjustments without a lot more training. With the advice given out their trainers were more suited to making sure they learnt it as they had Skills to help them improve now that they had something to focus on.

“What do you think?” Lancel asked as he joined Ajax, the champion was doing his best to get used to being in Ajax’s presence.

“We need to start running them through dungeons.” Ajax answered. “The sooner the better. High amounts of Stats make things a lot more forgiving and I happen to have gained access to a lot of dungeons during the war.”

What Ajax left out was that he would also be looking for ways to delve the dungeons of the beastkin and the dwarves during this time, how that would happen he didn’t know but he knew he didn’t want to waste that much potential power and if he leveled much more he would be missing out on too many of the same Stats.

“What are you looking for?” Lancel asked.

“People who might want to learn my casting style.” Ajax answered honestly. He knew that Benedict would be coming soon to learn but it wouldn’t just be a class of one. Theron was a prime candidate to learn the style having delved in the Empire as well as Gryndor with a heavy focus on physical stats while also being a beastkin and having access to Mana. “[Spell Direction] makes it viable for a hybrid fighter even if there still is a bit of power difference between my spells and those that are chanted or cast through runes.”

“Is your brother going to be one of them?” Lancel asked, knowing Tom had pretty high mental Stats from his more recent focus on ruling over his initial start as a guard, with the addition of delving stats he had a robust hybrid build.

“No.” Ajax shook his head. “My style of casting works best for versatile casters, Tom will most likely be limited exclusively to Shadow Mana, runic casting is going to be his best bet there.”

“That’s going to be just the motivation your father needed to learn how to carve runes.” Lancel laughed. “ His initial drive from learning [Enchanting] had just about run out as he compared his works with those of the many enchanters that now live in the duchy and seeing how much further he still has to go.”

Ajax’s father Sam had been running out of steam as his family kept pushing their Skills and bringing results to the House as a whole while his works were barely able to match those of artisans that could now be found anywhere in the duchy. Knowing he would be working to learn how to craft the runes his own son would use for his spells however would be just the motivation he needed to jump right back into progressing his Skills.

“You have danger sensing Skill that’s always active don’t you?” Ajax asked after a few moments of silence walking next to the champion as they headed inside.

“I do.” Lancel didn’t see a reason to keep it hidden, he knew he wasn’t masking his own small twitches as the Skill constantly warned him of the danger walking right next to him.

“How bad is it?” Ajax asked.

“Not as bad as it could be.” Lancel’s words drew a raised eyebrow from Ajax so he went on to explain. “Duke Manashaper was a caster, while he was stronger than me overall I had the upper hand if we were close so my Skill didn’t bother me as much. With you we’re on the other end of the scale, there is nothing I could do if you decided to attack me as far as my Skill is concerned. If we were more evenly matched my Skill would be much more annoying to get used to.” Left unsaid was that Aurexion’s presence was the worst since he could reliably escape the dragon though it would be difficult.

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“What are we looking at?” Ajax asked as he entered the room where his mother,Judy, Lexi, as well Alana and his grandfather were all gathered around multiple maps of the duchy.

“We’re trying to narrow down the location for Aurexion’s cave.” Elija said as he pointed towards the different spots on the maps where different veins were highlighted. “We narrowed it down to three different possibilities."

“I still think the answer is obvious.” Judy said from the side.

“If we were simply looking at it from a merchant’s point of view then yes.” Elija agreed. “But there is more to take into consideration.”

Looking at the three spots Ajax could see why the choice wasn’t an obvious one. The three spots each had their own draw. The spot Ajax was guessing Judy saw as the optimal one was the large silver vein that already had a higher than normal Mana density from the way Judy was glancing at it.

“So it comes down to if we want variety, amount or value?” Ajax asked as he looked at the other choices. The second location had not only a smaller silver vein but also a small gold vein and a tiny platinum deposit. The third spot had a small silver vein sitting surrounded by a large iron deposit.

“It’s not just the value of the metals.” Silvia pointed out. “The location matters as well. The silver vein is all the way at the border of the duchy where the other two are more central. Not to mention how much effort it would take to dig into them.”

“The effort to dig into them shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” Ajax waved away the concern. “Aurexion sees things on a different timeline that we do, with the increase in our lifespans we should honestly start trying to look at things differently as well. But with three final locations planned out I think it’s about time to bring him into it, it will be his home here after all.”

“But…” Judy was about to add something but Ajax cut her off.

“Now that we know how valuable the small tree curlings I made were, I will work with my Life Mana to make more so that we can plant them in all three locations.” Ajax said though he was a little worried about so many places drawing in Mana in his duchy, the dungeon and the initial lake where the tree was replanted were already two, with their estate and three more the number was getting a little high, it was possible they would lower ambient Mana too much in the rest of the duchy if they weren’t careful.

Before the discussions could go any further a quick knock at the door was only a polite warning before Kate entered a little out of breath. “Tom and Fluffy are ready.” There was no need for her to go on about what they were ready for, despite his best efforts to mask it Tom was very much excited about gaining the ability to use Mana.

The whole thing was happening outside. The House as a whole wanted to celebrate Tom gaining Mana and even with the large rooms they had in the estate none of them could accommodate the large number of retainers they had been recruiting and many of them had gathered to watch and celebrate. To many of them Tom was the boss having not gotten more than a glimpse of Ajax and a few rare sightings of Lexi when she was in the duchy. Not only that but it happening outside meant that Aurexion could watch everything without being cramped inside.

“Is this going to hurt?” Tom asked the small amount of fear he had easily overwhelmed by his excitement.

“It will be an odd feeling. There will be some pain but not too much.” Aurexion reassured him.

There was no need for an announcement, everyone knew why they were here. Ajax even spotted a few of the nobles he had met with earlier in the day on the edges here to watch. He was sure this was a move by his sister or grandparents as a way to market Aurexion’s knowledge and to show he could identify such treasures.

Now that Ajax was here and his Life Mana was available in case anything went wrong Tom was ready. “Once you split the stems you will only have seconds to eat them.” Aurexion cautioned the pair.

Nodding Tom the fruits from the small box and looked Fluffy in the eyes before he split the stems, threw one of the cherries in the air only for Fluffy to chomp it out of the air while he put the other one into his mouth stem and all as in his excitement he forgot to ask if he needed to eat the stem as well.

The taste was just like the cherries he had before though the texture was completely different. The outer skin shattered like glass and the juice coated his mouth as he chewed for a moment before swallowing the fruit.

Fluffy was the first to feel the effects, her [Shadow Aspect Mana] getting two levels before the power traveled through the bond and reached Tom. A small amount of pain went through Tom like a thousand tiny needles pricking him all over but that was easily ignored over the dizziness he felt as the shadows all around him started getting darker and lighter in his eyes.

The whole process took about thirty seconds and while not much had changed for Fluffy Tom could see where he had gained a few new Skills. After regaining his wits Tom didn’t need to start cheering, instead he focused on calling forth his Mana with all his will as his hand was covered in a layer of Shadow. Fluffy’s roar started off the wave of cheers and congratulations that exploded all around.

“It worked.” Ajax was the first to hug his brother with a huge smile on his face as he slapped him on the back to congratulate him.

“Better than we even expected.” Tom answered as his eyes took in the new Epic Skill he hadn’t expected [Void Aspect Mana].