Chapter 683 (Patreon)

Adding even a small part of the floor boss’s core proved to make a qualitative change to the elemental core. Over the week of crafting Ajax split the elemental core into four and using it as a catalyst he was finally able to have a level of consistency in crafting with the high Mana density ingredients. 

“Finished so soon?” Aurexion asked after Ajax walked away from his alchemy station after only one day. 

“This worked out better than I could have expected.” Ajax explained as he showed the rest of the floor boss’s remains. “I want to spread some more of these to other elementals now so they have time to absorb them, then we’ll get back to crafting.” 

Aurexion didn’t mind but he did notice that as they flew around finding mud elementals to throw core pieces at Ajax was also changing the amount he gave to each elemental, even now he was experimenting with how big a difference each core made.

“Just one more now.” Ajax said as he had a quarter of the floor boss’s core left. 

“If you want to give all of that to one elemental, wait until after the ones you already gave out finished absorbing their fragments and you kill them.” Aurexion advised. “Giving a single elemental a full quarter of the core might make it strong enough that it will hunt down the others and collect more cores.” 

Ajax nodded at the advice and agreed to wait until after their following clear week, after he collected the new cores he just fed before finding a final elemental that he would give plenty of time to absorb a larger amount, creating a weaker floor boss just for himself and Aurexion to take on before they left the floor. 

Returning to his crafting Ajax found himself doing a little better after getting the experience of using the empowered core as a catalyst but his success rate had returned to the abysmal level it had been at during his previous crafting attempts.

“You don’t seem to be doing too well.” Aurexion commented after Ajax dumped out another failure. 

“That I am having any success at all is actually a really good sign.” Ajax said. 

The ingredients Ajax got to work with on this floor rivaled the ones the best alchemists in the humanoid lands ever got to work with, at least in terms of Mana density. Master alchemists with their Skill above level one hundred and plenty of other Skills supporting it could boast high success rates when working with such reagents but they didn’t do so by crafting on a dungeon floor where the ambient Mana could disturb the balance of the craft, that wasn’t even mentioning that they had carefully researched recipes instead of substituting most of the ingredients and hoping the new mixture would work. 

“I know even the ones that are a success aren’t all that high quality but when it comes to crafting in the dungeon that’s less of an issue since most of the reagents would otherwise just be wasted and be left inside.” Ajax continued “It will take me years of practice before I can make something actually useful.” 

Aurexion nodded at the explanation, despite very few dragons even trying their hand at any sort of crafting his aunt Khalysstra was one of them so he had a better frame of reference for how long it took and why such Skills and efforts were valuable in the long run, especially with how much easier it would be for Ajax to source reagents with his ability to somewhat navigate the dungeon floors. 

The next few weeks passed quickly as Aurexion and Ajax stuck to their routine. Slowly but surely they were finishing up clearing the rest of the floor and their training was showing results. It took a month of practice but Ajax was finally able to wield his hammer and axe while using [Absolute Body Enhancement]. 

It took Aurexion a month but after constant focus and repeated attempts he finally managed to get [Earth Aspect Mana]. Not one to be outdone by his bond Ajax had also gained [Hardened Muscles] and [Solid Bones], a Rare and Uncommon Skills respectively. His efforts towards getting [Elastic Blood Vessels] hadn’t yet paid off but  Ajax wasn’t disheartened, if anything the increased endurance his new Skills had given him made him all the more eager to work towards getting more. 

In terms of alchemy Ajax put the cores he collected from the elementals to good use, he had even managed to create an average quality healing potion. Despite the potion only being of average quality the ingredients used to make it also made it one of the strongest potion Ajax had ever seen and if it could be taken outside the dungeon it would quickly be bought and stashed in the vault of a ducal or royal house as one of the potions reserved for the head of the house or their strongest fighter.

“Don’t force yourself.” Ajax said as he approached Aurexion. “Take some time to get used to Earth Mana before you move on. You’ll have more time after the war is over and we return to the duchy to learn Metal Mana, also a deeper understanding of Earth Mana will only help you with Metal.” 

Emboldened by his success in gaining Earth Mana, Aurexion had spent the last week wanting to get a start on his attempts to gain Metal Mana, unfortunately for the dragon he could barely get spells to cast when chanting. More than that since the only spell Ajax knew for Metal Mana was a reinforcement spell it meant Aurexion had little he could see since the only mental they had available was high Mana density and already enchanted.

Aurexion wasn’t pleased by Ajax’s words but he knew his bond was right. The only hard part to swallow for the dragon was that Earth wasn’t all that useful of a Mana type for him, since he mostly used his large body for combat as well as flight the amount of Mana he would need to spend to make any worthwhile changes in the terrain just wasn’t worth it. 

“Try to see if having Earth Mana helps with your Magma Mana.” Ajax suggested knowing his bond was simply impatient. “We might get some use out of it soon.” As he said this Ajax looked towards the spot he knew the elemental was in. 

After collecting the cores from the elementals he had fed the floor boss’s core to Ajax took the last quarter of the core and fed it all to a single elemental. To say that elemental had increased in power by a lot over the following weeks was an understatement. The former mud elemental was now a fully fledged magma elemental, not only that but its size had also doubled and instead of the usual headless humanoid body elementals defaulted to his shape had changed to mirror the one the floor boss had previously had. Aurexion had confirmed the elemental was still a far cry from the ifrit in terms of power but he had certainly closed the gap.

“We need to be careful.” Aurexion cautioned. “We won’t be able to do the same thing we did to the floor boss to this magma elemental.” 

Unlike the ifrit the magma elemental was not only a regular elemental, meaning he could move his core anywhere inside his body that, but since he was a magma elemental instead of a fire one his body had physical mass that Aurexion couldn’t just dive into to force the core to be exposed.

“Best we plan for an endurance battle.” Ajax said. “But first I want to clear out everything else around it.” 

The two of them spent the next two days carefully flying around the magma elemental and clearing all the monsters they could find before taking a break to restore their Mana and Stamina. The elemental was one of the few monsters remaining and both Ajax and Aurexion were confident that once it was deal with they could activate the obelisk without worrying about being overwhelmed even with all the surviving monsters that had somehow evaded them for the past couple of months converging on them. 

“Are you sure it will work?” Aurexion asked as he skeptically eyed the large glass bottle in Ajax’s hand. 

“Not really.” Ajax admitted. “But it certainly can’t hurt.” 

Ajax had managed to create a freezing potion during the past few weeks. It was of poor quality but at least it was stable. Ajax wasn’t sure it would do anything to the elemental but he was hoping that it would slow it down and give Aurexion a large enough patch of cooled down magma that he could tail swipe with enough power to smash away a large portion of the elemental’s body mass.