Watching how quickly the prince wiped out all the incoming packs, Ajax knew he still had a long way to go before he got close to his level. That said, the prince would actually be a very good match-up for Ajax if they were even close in power level.

While the prince clearly had more power in the small spells he used compared to Ajax’s, [Mana Syphon] would work wonders on messing up the precise outputs all those small spells the runes were constantly putting out.

“Not bad for your first attempt.” the prince praised. “Next time however make sure you don’t have so many of them coming back to get you.”

Ajax actually agreed with the prince’s evaluation. He spent the next two days perfecting his approach as it came to setting sections of the dungeon floor ablaze in a more controlled manner. While not all of the attempts he made were a resounding success his failures didn’t manage to gather a strong enough group of monsters to overwhelm him at any point.

While his days didn’t present much of a problem for Ajax, his nights were a completely different issue. With the prince activating his stealth skills Ajax was left all alone to fend for himself. That wasn’t all that big of a issue as Ajax could easily handle a single group of monsters it did present him with a new challenge.

By the end of their third night there Ajax was starting to really feel the fatigue setting in. While his stats might mean that he could stay awake for a few days straight it was by no means a good idea. Ajax had little problem actually falling asleep, it was actually staying asleep that posed the challenge.

After two close calls during the first night where he woke up just as the monsters were closing in on him, Ajax’s sleep became very light. So light in fact that a strong breeze rustling more than a branch at a time would wake him up.

The lack of sleep wasn’t just a challenge for his mental state however. While sleeping a person recovered both mana and stamina a lot faster compared to when they were awake, a clear solution to that would be to use his high level [Meditation] to make up for it but that posed a very similar issue by blocking off his senses from the outside world.

“We’ll definitely need to make sure you take an alarm formation with you.” the prince said as he looked Ajax up and down on the fourth day. “That way you should be able to at least get one night of sleep.”

“That would help.” Ajax agreed as he got to work starting the fourth and final day on the floor. “Are they all that expensive?”

“Depends what floor you need them to work on.” the prince said. “For something like this they aren’t cheap but I’m sure we can provide you with one seeing as how not only are you not pushing yourself as far as you can be even clearing the entire floor at our request.”

Ajax just nodded in appreciation and chose to focus on clearing out the floor rather than making conversation. Unfortunately for him the prince clearly had gotten a bit bored over the last few days.

“Have you decided which dungeon you will tackle first?” the prince asked.

“Their main dungeon.” Ajax responded.

“Oh?” The prince was surprised at that. “How come, you could make it easier for yourself by going to the other one first and getting a few floors worth of stats.”

“Because with the stats from the floors I clear in their main one I am hoping I can push one floor higher in the other.” Ajax explained. “My leveling speed isn’t fast enough that I will end up surpassing level sixty-two in the next five years so I’ll be able to clear all of those floors in my second delve.”

“That’s right.” the prince exclaimed as the idea clicked. “I forgot your level is only in the mid thirties. With this you’ll be able to gain quite a substantial number of bonus stats, especially seeing as you will also be getting a chance to delve into the Republic dungeons before the tournament.”

“You have any useful advice regarding that?” Ajax asked, more out of a desire to change the topic than actually expecting something insightful from the prince, their styles were just too different.

“The competition itself might actually pose a problem to you.” the prince said. “I was already level eighty by the time I turned fifty so you can expect the competition to be at least around level seventy-five.”

Ajax did a quick bit of math in his head, he was almost level thirty-five now, if he kept up a three level a year average he would be around level fifty-one or fifty-two by the time the tournament came around. Not an insurmountable level difference but by no means an easy one.

“Our styles are too different to me to help you there.” the prince continued. “All I could suggest is to make sure you get every last stat point you can from potions before it starts. After the tournament however you might have a nice opportunity.”

“What opportunity is that?” Ajax asked curiously.

“The elves are broke.” the prince said without sugarcoating it. “Everyone knows they are going to win the main competition since nobody is willing to face their champion in a straight up fight. If you win your bracket I can guarantee you’ll be able to make a deal selling the rights to the elves for something that includes a delve in their main dungeon as well.”

Ajax had to physically stop at that. Would it be worth it? Sure he wanted to gain as much power as possible but would he be able to justify spending all that money he would win in the tournament on just one delve?

“Don’t look so focused, you’ll make a decent bit upfront just from selling the other spots on that delve to other interested parties.” the prince spoke up once again. “Oh look here they come.”

WIth that the prince blended into the shadows and Ajax turned to look at the monsters that escaped the inferno. There were more of them than usual getting close to a full dozen coming towards him but all of them had severe burns. The wolves and bigfoots were clearly limping and none of them had all four limbs functional, the biggest danger came from the stags as both of them still sported their antlers.

Ajax was quick to cull their numbers using his bow, even with a light retreat he managed to kill half of the incoming enemies before they even made it into melee range. From there he made short work of them with his axe and sword, he had no need to use the hammer considering all the easily accessible weak spots that were given to him from the severe burns.

“That was very well executed but I do have a question.” the prince said after Ajax finished all of the attackers and started to head towards the obelisk.

“What is it?” Ajax asked.

“Why do you always channel your magic through your glove when you are fighting in melee?” the prince asked.

Ajax almost stumped over a tree root after hearing the question. He should have expected the prince to find out about that, the only reason nobody else had managed to figure out that he was doing that was because he made sure not to use his glove in front of anyone that was all that skilled with [Sense Mana].

“Oh, is it something good?” The prince seemed happy at that reaction.

That was when Ajax realized that he had no reason not to admit the reason, the prince had promised to keep anything he found out during this delve a secret, Ajax was sure he would be kicking himself soon enough.

“It’s so that the mana won’t erode the weapons.” Ajax shared. “There are a number of small elementally attuned gems in the glove and by channeling the mana through there first it doesn’t harm the weapons regardless of which mana type I use to infuse them.”

It was the prince who almost tripped hearing this. “Wait, so you mean you can use different mana types to empower the same weapon without damaging it so long as you channel them through a correct elemental stone first?”

“Yes.” Ajax nodded.

“That’s great!” the prince exclaimed. “You can make runic pieces so much more flexible with this, even if it would cost you a bit in maximum output.”

It didn’t take more than five more steps before the elation on the prince's face turned into dread. “Nooooo, why did you answer me?” the prince cried out as he turned on Ajax. “I could have figured that out in time if I just thought about it.

Ajax had a hard time keeping a straight face at the prince's antics, the deal the prince made specifically stated that he couldn’t directly or indirectly reveal anything he learnt from Ajax during this delve. While he could apply ideas to his own style and training he couldn’t share the discovery with a crafter to make him different gear as that would be indirectly sharing Ajax’s secret. This wouldn’t have applied if he came to the same conclusion without Ajax spelling it out.