Gamer Reborn

Chapter 631

“Any reason for your father’s glare this morning?” Ajax asked Lexi as they were on their way to the royal palace.

“You made the last few days a little difficult for him by having Aurexion stay at our manor.” Lexi explained. “It gave him a little leverage but it also meant all his conversations were mostly about your bond.”

“As they should be.” Aurexion’s pride was felt in his words.

“What you should be even happier about is that word of humanoid evolution hasn’t spread yet.” Duke Manashaper said. “Not many nobles got a chance to really feel the difference in your Aura before you left for the Wild Lands. Of those that did most were told anyway and warned to keep quiet or too young and weak to realize it.”

“And they now think the Ascended aspect of my Aura comes from my bond.” Ajax nodded in confirmation. “But why are we keeping it under wraps? It will come out soon anyway.”

“Of those that know it's mostly the Dukes.” Duke Manashaper explained. “The royal family, and not only ours but Sylvanthal’s royals as well, want some time before word spreads.”

“They want to set up precedents for who goes delving in foreign dungeons before all the nobles find out the number of floors cleared is the way to evolve and they all start fighting for spots.” Lexi guessed.

“Exactly.” Duke Manashaper nodded before looking towards Lexi with a guilty expression. “I should also inform you that you won’t be getting any of House Manashaper’s spots. They’ll all be going to the future heir of the House.”

“I doubt that will be a problem.” Aurexion scoffed. “From what I’ve spoken with a few of your ‘champions’, rewards for fighting in the war are based on accomplishments as well as use.”

“How does that help with Lexi’s delving?” Ajax asked.

“Pretty much all your delving here is at level or within ten levels of your level at most.” Aurexion pointed out, once again surprising Ajax with just how smart and insightful his bond was considering he didn’t grow up in humanoid cultures. “Your reward will mean you will have delves up until clearing level one hundred and forty just like most of the elite soldiers were promised. Since you are going to be maybe level seventy by then, that would mean about seven delves into each dungeon. But you could already clear to that point in one delve so that will leave six or so for each dungeon to your House.”

“That...” Lexi was also speechless as she followed Aurexion’s logic.

“Hahahaha.” Duke Manashaper just laughed as he processed Aurexion’s observation. “I doubt any of them thought of this interpretation and considering you and Ajax will be fighting champions during the war I doubt they will realize it either.”

“How did you get so insightful?” Ajax asked curiously, feeling some annoyance from his bond he quickly continued. “I’m not calling you stupid, but you are adapting very quickly.”

“I’m sure it seems that way to you because you all live so isolated.” Aurexion answered. “But out in what you call the Wild Lands each Ascended race has its own culture and we learn about the others enough to understand what is going on. Adding one more isn’t all that difficult.”

Ajax supposed that made sense. Not to mention that Aurexion had access to the royal family and their retainers and servants to ask questions of and answer some as well while they were at the royal palace so that was hours to get more information. It only made sense that the dragon would be interested in the rewards from fighting in the war.

Once they got to the royal palace Ajax was happy to see Luna and the two royal healers waiting and ready to finish regrowing his arm. “Does your arm feel any different?” Luna asked.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Not directly.” Ajax struggled to explain. “It’s just that it doesn’t seem to respond... is how I’d best explain it. I went through a few of my combat steps this morning before coming and while my shoulder moved as if my right arm was there that was all.”

“Most likely because you’ve lost all muscle memory seeing as we created your new muscles.” Luna made an educated guess as she started taking notes. “From what you said the dragons said it would take about a month to get used to your new arm. I'm guessing that would be to build your new muscle memory. It might also be a chance for you to try and gain some skills while you’re at it. Do you have [Writing], it might come easy to unlock as you learn to write with an arm that doesn’t have the muscle memory for writing letters built up.”

“I already have it but that is a great idea.” Ajax nodded enthusiastically at the opportunity while the healers started their work on his arm.

While Ajax was getting his hand rebuilt and Aurexion was getting more immersed in humanoid culture the crown prince as well as his brother and father joined them in the courtyard, a little worryingly they made a beeline straight for Ajax.

“This doesn’t seem good.” Ajax joked to break the tension everyone was feeling when the three royals appeared.

“It’s nothing bad.” the crown prince reassured Ajax. “It’s more something we wanted to request of you.”

“You all seem pretty serious, for something that is a request.” Ajax pointed out.

“My brother would like it to be an order but that could turn into a big thing if it ever got out.” The eldest prince was the first to relax a little. “Essentially they are interested in your intention to delve a little before heading off with us to join the war.”

“I doubt one delve slot will be that impactful.” Ajax said unwilling to give up the extra stats before going to face champions while down in numbers.

“The request isn’t about you not delving.” the king said. “It’s about you not selling any more floor boss kills.”

“That...” Ajax was surprised by the request. He hadn’t even considered getting a boost group going for the delves he was planning but now that he heard it, it didn’t sound like a bad idea. “I wasn’t initially planning on it but that does seem like a good idea for my House, one I’m sure my sister or grandfather would have brought up to me.”

“We’re worried about the future stability of the dungeon.” The king explained. “While you might be the most prominent right now with the ability to extract items from the dungeon there are ten more people in the kingdom able to do the same. We’re hoping the number doesn’t grow, but we can’t make that an order or the noble houses missing out will be out for blood.”

Ajax could very much see their point of view. Right now he was the only one that could be pulling high Mana density items from floors above level one hundred but all the people he boosted were the most promising their Houses had to offer. Even discounting the large number of dead from his initial boosting that still left ten of them. Xavier, Benedict, Anna and Lexi weren’t ones they needed to be worried about but the other six came from financially troubled Houses who would be looking to grab anything valuable they came across.

“I can ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH” Ajax’s sentence was cut off as a wave of pain raced up his arm like he had just plunged it into magma.

“What are you doing to my bond?” Aurexion’s snarling head was next to the healer working on Ajax’s hand in a moment as the dragon could feel the pain through their bond.

“I don’t know.” The healer quickly backed away, intimidated by the dragon. He was above level one hundred but nowhere near strong enough to put up any resistance if Aurexion wanted to use him as a chew toy.

Having a moment to get used to the pain Ajax quickly figured out what had gone wrong but he didn’t have the mental bandwidth for a more gentle solution. Instead he pulled a dagger from his spacial ring and stabbed his own regrown hand with it, directly at the source of the pain. For a moment the pain spiked once more before retreating to a dull throbbing.

“You... messed up... on that nerve...” Ajax took a few deep breaths as the pain of having a knife stuck in his arm was a welcome relief from the blinding pain that had come before it. Taking a moment to catch his breath. “Sorry about the knife but that was the fastest way to stop the pain.”

The healers followed Luna’s lead in examining the damage as well as Ajax’s right hand before even removing the dagger and resuming their work while Ajax returned to his conversation with the royals, his [Pain Resistance] having gone up a couple of levels.

“As I was saying I can do that.” Ajax picked up the previous conversation. “I do see the problem with too many people having that ability since it can destabilize dungeons.”

“You’ll be getting some push back from the rest of the nobles.” The crown prince said. “And we can’t be seen as supporting you in declining their requests.”

“Tell them to bring their complaints to me.” Aurexion growled, still feeling protective of his bond.

Ajax watched smugly as the king tried to come up with an answer to Aurexion’s offer while the crown prince quickly covered his brother’s mouth as he seemed to want to agree with the dragon’s offer.

“Aurexion is actually the perfect excuse for it.” Ajax said. “He’s my bond and over level eighty. Even the two of us can’t reliably kill a level one hundred and sixty floor boss let alone protecting others while we do so. As for anyone suggesting I leave him outside the dungeon, fat chance considering we’re both heading into a war and need the time to get used to fighting together.”

“That’s a great idea!” the crown prince breathed a relieved sigh.

“I suppose it will work.” The eldest prince admitted. “Though I prefer your bond’s idea more.”

Thankfully for Ajax it didn’t take longer than a little past noon for his hand to be fully healed. All that was left now was for him to get used to it and rebuild his muscle memory but he could do that just as well from back in his duchy with his family. Seeing as they had enough time to get there both him and Lexi departed for their duchy with Aurexion skipping out on the royal court with the excuse of needing the time to prepare for joining the war.