Chapter 717 (Patreon)

As the carriage from Lessis arrived the first to welcome them back was Lancel, most of the other guards were still wary of approaching Aurexion and with the dragon hover so close to the carriage they stayed away from it. 

Lancel greeted the members of House Hearthbound in a relaxed manner, he was a champion after all even if he was only at the average level of power for one and as most champions despite being loyal his attitude was a lot more relaxed than decorum sometimes demanded. 

“Something wrong?” Lexi asked Lancel as they walked towards the house where the rest of House Hearthbound was surely waiting for them. 

“It’s nothing, just a Skill getting used to something.” Lancel answered.

The Skill in question was [Constant Vigilance]. It didn’t get much use for the last century as few things were real threats to a champion and Lancel was used to it alerting him about the presence of Duke Manashaper before as he was a possible threat to him. Something had changed in a big way now that Ajax and Aurexion returned.

Before they left for the war the Skill had marked Ajax as someone who could hurt him and could escape from him but not as a real threat to his life. Aurexion however had the Skill warning him that he couldn’t beat the dragon, only escape from him. Both of those readings had changed.

Aurexion changes weren’t big but he now felt that the dragon could end him at a moments notice if he wasn’t careful, he hadn’t changed much from the war but had clearly made gains when it came to upfront damage. The readings for Ajax however changed a lot, where before he was able to most likely beat the young Duke the Skill now wanted nothing to do with him. Worse yet was the feeling that he couldn’t escape from Ajax if he didn’t want to let him go. 

“Huh” Ajax froze for a second mid step putting Lancel on edge as he was getting used to the reaction of his Skill. 

“Something wrong?” Lexi asked. 

“No,” Ajax shook his head as he continued walking. “Just a small strain from the war that just let go.” 

The answer didn’t exactly reassure them, instead it only reminded them that while Ajax might not be showing it on the outside he had still gone to war and that the fighting had stopped less than two weeks ago. 

As for the reason for Ajax’s surprise it was that his [Fire Aspect Mana] Skill had become available again. It took a long time from when he first used his Mythic Skill and he had spent only a few minutes using his Fire form but the backlash only ended now as he regained access to Fire Mana. Instinctually Ajax knew that the downtime for the lock would go down as the Skill leveled hire and if he used the elemental form in shorter bursts but it was still a surprise how long the downtime was at such an early stage.

The group barely made it to the estate door before they opened and the rest of Ajax’s family came to meet them. Ajax’s parents and grandparents as well as Judy and Anna quickly closed in as they welcomed Ajax and Aurexion back home. Behind them some of House Hearthbound’s older retainers were there, Theron as well as the Collectors.

It didn’t take long before the family all gathered in the main dining room where the table was filled with food but almost nobody was there to eat. They were all there to hear Ajax and Aurexion share their view on the war. 

The war told through Ajax’s eyes was a lot different from the way the reports presented it to House Hearthbound. Where the reports focused on who had the positional advantage and what supplies were needed Ajax was only focused on the champions, the part that wouldn’t be mentioned in the reports for fear of them being intercepted. 

Hearing of Ajax’s first battle in the war Lancel nodded as the retelling of Aurexion and Ajax arriving to support Firebeard. That story matched the power he felt from Ajax before he departed, a specialized mage killer with a dragon that could pull him out when he got in over his head.

The rest of the family was awed to hear Ajax and Aurexion each killed a champion in their first battle. While these were the weaker and less experienced new champions of the beastkin the rest of House Hearthbound didn’t have the strength to make a clear difference. 

Their second battle didn’t draw as much attention as they only captured a prisoner and helped prevent casualties but as the discussion got to the third battle the entire family couldn’t hold back their questions any more. 

“Do you have better control over it now?” Jake asked and everyone else wanted to know the same thing as well. 

“I do.” Ajax nodded as he remembered unlocking his Pseudo-Mythic Skill. “It’s still not something I can use for any real length of time but I have gotten much better at controlling my strength enough to not hurt myself while also getting the most out of my power.” 

Lancel knew this is what his own Skill could somehow sense. From the explanation it wasn’t clear but he knew, with [Absolute Body Enhancement] Ajax could not just beat him but he could kill him even if he was trying his best to escape. 

Explanations of how he had needed time to recover after using the Skill for less than a minute was met with silence as the whole family processed Ajax killing multiple champions in a matter of seconds. It was slowly becoming clear to them why both the Empire and Gryndor’s royal families were looking to build ties with their family despite most of the nobles not hiding their attempts at gaining even an inch by moving against House Hearthbound. They royals knew about Ajax’s power while the rest didn’t. 

Explanations about their delves in the Republic’s dungeons were overshadowed quickly by the prize they claimed from the Republic’s vault. The small box holding the twin shadow cherries sat in the middle of the table with Fluffy’s undivided attention focused on the small container. 

“Are you going to take it?” Jake asked his father. 

Despite being young Jake was smart enough to have picked up on some of the nobles he had seen meeting with his father mention the use of Mana every now end then. That both Jake and Kate were able to use Mana had blunted most of their point but with this Tom would also be able to use Mana.

“Of course he is.” Silvia said with a smile. She knew just how much being able to use Mana would help Tom, her only worry was how Judy would feel being the only one amongst her kids who couldn’t use Mana. 

Judy might have been feeling down about being the only one of her siblings to not use Mana if she could spare the time to think about it. Instead her thoughts instantly locked on to the value of Aurexion’s knowledge and the obscure items she was sure many noble houses had kept in their vaults. 

“Do they lose their effectiveness over time?” She asked, though from the way her fingers were twisting it was clear this was just the first question of many. 

“With improper storage they do in about two centuries.” Ajax answered having asked Aurexion the same question. 

That was enough for Judy to have her pitch ready. The mention of the blank armor also got a look of interest from Judy, Alana as well as both of Ajax’s grandparents but once they informed them it was given to the royal family in lue of taxes Ajax could read the reluctant acceptance on their faces. 

Of the entire delve Ajax only left out one key detail. His ability to focus most of the power of all elementals on a floor in one single creature and then remove the core from the dungeon. Aurexion had already warned him of that ahead of time and since he had no plans of putting it to use just yet the fewer people who even put it together the better. 

Ajax didn’t spare his family the gorey details following his delves. His following appearances on the battlefield had been bloody with his and Aurexion’s champion body count climbing quickly and a spike of fear ran through most of them hearing that Ajax almost killed the beastkin king but that the lion beastkin still survived and that the same could be said for his son. 

Ajax did also mention his fire elemental form but it was as more of an afterthought, clearly he wasn’t planning on explaining more about it despite the clearly interested look from Lexi, maybe one day in the future once he had a better handle on his Mythic Skill he might share more about it. 

The rest of the meal the family focused on lighter topics leaving everything else for next few days once Ajax and Aurexion got settled back in.

“Go on Jake, time for bed you have school tomorrow.” Tom nudged his son up the stairs.

“But…” Jake tried to protest only to be cut off by his own yawn.

“Your uncle is also going to bed, I’m sure you can spend more time with him tomorrow, after school..” Kate reassured her tired son. Jake look like he wanted to argue the last point but after meeting Kate’s feline eyes he seemed to rethink his chances and instead simply nodded.   

“I guess it is time for bed.” Ajax said with a smile as he looked towards Lexi, before he led his fiance towards their shared bedroom.