alex bozdog
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Chapter 609
🕑 Added 2025-12-18 04:25:09 +0000 UTCOver the next two weeks Ajax tried everything he could think of to see if he could handle his werewolf arm short of cutting it off. He used Holy Mana, he tried Light Mana, Life Mana, he even tried scorching it and healing it back with Life Mana yet nothing worked. Not only that but Ajax had also dealt with a variety of more stand alone undead besides the Shadow assassins. Thankfully all of the other varieties were physically focused additions to the scouting patrols he was regularly killing.
Not only that but about four days after the appearance of the undead assassins Ajax was sure the floor boss had spawned. He had also made a couple more infiltrations into the ziggurat but so far he hadn’t yet found the floor boss or any hint as of what it could be. Just that he hadn’t yet ran into it despite so much time passing, however did a lot to cut down some of the worse options it could be already.
By now Ajax was sure he’d killed most of the cultists on the floor, the only ones left would be a small number of servants and the leadership along with any undead they decided to keep around and the floor boss. Ajax had also already picked clean the entire area of the tropical forest that he operated out of and already finished turning the reagents into alchemical mixtures.
It had been an entire day since Ajax last ran into a group of cultists so he decided it was time to enter the ziggurat once more and kill the remaining one. If he was lucky whatever the floor boss ended up being was also helping thin out the monsters on the floor but he wouldn’t count on it.
Making his way through the ziggurat Ajax could tell the difference compared to his previous short visits. It now took minutes of exploring before he would run into any cultist or undead, not only that but where previously they had always been in pairs at least he now only found solitary people wandering the corridors making it easy for him to quickly and silently kill them.
Despite the ease he was having in moving through the ziggurat Ajax never dropped his guard. He had learnt his lesson from the previous floor and he still didn’t know what or where the floor boss was.
It took Ajax the better part of a day to explore most of the ziggurat as he killed most of the remaining cultists and undead before he finally found the massive ritual chamber in the center of the massive stone structure.
Most surprising for him was that inside the chamber not only were there five cultists that all felt stronger than average but they were clearly also minibosses seeing as they guarded six different arches that were spread around the room.
“It has to be dungeon fuckery.” Ajax determined as he saw none of the cultists seemed to interact with the arches in any meaningful way in the same way that monsters that guarded arches on other floors also would simply treat the arch as something for them to defend without questioning why or what it was. It was always more interesting to watch humanoid enemies that clearly worked as a small village deal with the similar situation.
In the center of the room sat the person Ajax suspected was the high priestess, the throne she was standing on was covered in blood and bones but it was also pulsing with a large amount of Undead Mana.
Ajax knew this was going to be a hard fight. He had fought the minibosses of this floor as part of the patrol and hunting squads he had been killing for weeks now but they were always quite a bit tankier making it harder for him to simply eliminate them. This was especially bad here as all six enemies were clearly necromancers so he wouldn’t be able to use [Mana Syphon] against them at all.
All of the other cultists besides the high priestess also had four skeletons around they were controlling, making the numbers skew heavily in their favor. The one thing Ajax had that worked to his advantage was that since all of them were necromancers his Shadow stealth could get him close to them without giving away his position.
Ajax opened the fight by tossing half of his explosive flasks at the group, they had conveniently gathered together in a council like fashion around the high priestesses’s throne so Ajax would take advantage of that to see if he could take any of them out with his opening move despite their increased Vitality while also putting them all on the defensive.
Ajax beat a hasty retreat before the flasks he tosses exploded and used his Vibration Mana to ensure the shockwave that followed the massive explosion didn’t hurt him as well. Much to his delight as he looked at the massive pile of bones that were now centered in the center of the room around the throne Ajax noticed that two of the cultists, the ones closest to the explosion had died while the next two closest had lost at least one limb before their bone shell had gathered around them.
Unfortunately for him the high priestess was still unharmed and only enraged. It shocked Ajax to see that instead of attacking him like the other three were doing she instead threw her Mana at her seat where the bones and stone shattered to reveal a large ornate staff covered in glyphs with a tiny black stone in the center of the numerous runic circles.
Ajax didn’t get the chance to examine the staff as the hordes of skeletons were already charging towards him. He knew it wouldn’t do much good to focus on them since once he killed a minion it wouldn’t take much for the necromancer to replace it especially considering the amount of bones that littered the massive ritual chamber so instead he was looking for way to strike directly against the necromancers themselves.
Knowing he would only get once chance to use the element of surprise a second time Ajax was thankful the distance between him and the necromancers wasn’t that large. His aim with the bow had suffered the most out of all his weapon Skills as a result of his new left arm but Ajax was sure he would be able to hit his mark at this distance as he pulled out his bow and infused about three hundred Wind Mana into his arrow before firing it.
Thankfully the cultist all reacted exactly like he expected them to, all of them looking to protect the high priestess made it easy for Ajax to take out the final unharmed necromancer with a clean arrow through the eye socket and out the back of his head.
Unfortunately Ajax didn’t get a chance to revel in his success as [Danger Sense] and [Sense Dread] both started freaking out in a way Ajax had never felt before, more than that both of them were responding to the high priestess as she leveled her staff in his direction.
Ajax trusted in his Skills and quickly jumped into the nearest shadow before using a Shadow Jump to get away from his previous position just as a black beam of Mana so dark it seemed to suck in the light passed through the place he just stood.
It was slightly anticlimactic for Ajax as nothing happened as the beam of unknown Mana passed straight through the stone doing nothing to it but he didn’t let that discourage him. Ajax continued his assault on the necromancers slowly fighting his way closer to them through the skeletal minions they had while keeping a close eye on the high priestess’s staff.
The staff itself seemed odd to Ajax, unlike the other runic equipment he had seen used it seemed like the runes on it all worked together but were split into two parts. One of them was activating the small black stone in the center of the runic rings at the top of the staff while the other set of runes worked to weaken the power released from the stone.
The next two minutes of the fight were exhaustive for Ajax as he was constantly jumping around the place as he closed in on the necromancers while keeping well clear of the staff the high priestess wielded. Despite the beams not doing anything Ajax was surprised to see [Mana Syphon] didn’t affect them at all. It was like the Skill couldn’t get even the slightest grip on the spell cast.
Taking out the three necromancers didn’t take much longer after that, two of them were already missing limbs and even before that they weren’t all that skilled in close combat while they high priestess seemed focused on getting her staff to hit Ajax but it simply wasn’t going to happen considering his [Danger Sense] and [Sense Dread] as well as the difference in their physical Stats.
Unfortunately Ajax wasn’t able to avoid breaking the staff down the middle as he killed the high priestess nevertheless he carefully collected the staff in a separate ring from the one he was using for all the weapons he had gotten from the cultists. Even with the staff broken he was sure it was the most valuable weapon on the entire floor and it was the prize he was going to be taking with him once he left the floor.
With the ziggurat cleared all that was left would be any stragglers that remained and the floor boss. But first Ajax needed to take a rest. The fight with the necromancers might not have been that long but it had put a big stress on his Mana and Stamina to keep well clear of the Mana beams the high priestess fired at him.
Comments
Zuzana Toulcová
Again 😇 "only get once chance"->"one chance" "while they high priestess"->"their"
Silver Beard
AT this point, he'd have to fold back time and sacrifice all the xp he got since to get his human arm back as it was.
TerrestrialOverlord
Thank goodness were finally out of the shitty dungeon and we can get some progress to skills and knowledge. Also let's how the was Griffin or Sphinx will mess with the Sidhe. I'm still positing that he has to learn one of shapeshift, polymorph or transform to deal with the arm and he might need to let it spread all over his body to switch between form and perform partial transformations with higher proficiency
Arrogant Savant
He can still go to the dwarves for their craftsmanship (he'll it's a staple to only approach dwarves when you are so strong that human crafters aren't good enough)
gray matter
Mmm a lot of chapters for a minuscule dungeon…. Trying to get to ascended races conversations and dragons. Werewolf arms… cut that shit off and regrow it, it’s just magic and no one cares
Arrogant Savant
Good, he tried holy mana.
D.P
"Not only that" Don't fall back into the habit of this! Only 3 this time (or 4) so much better.
KipBR
I would guess either destruction, oblivion, or death magic. Death would fit with the theme, and maybe death mana requires you to not be alive in order to wield it? That would be a reason he can't touch it with mana siphon.
Raymond Mouton
Thanks for the chapter.
userunfriendly
Yes, but I'm sure it carries a massive stigma with the human and humanoid kingdoms...😱
Kbzzy
Auxerion soon
Sondadir
Thanks for the chapter!
Ethan Thomas
Why does it feel like the longer Ajax has the Warewolf arm, the more I’m convinced he is eventually going to be able to freely transform from human to warewolf at some point. It would be a way for home to sure up his weakness with mana syphon. One way to accomplish this would be to have him get an achievement related to not fully turning into a warewolf for a prolonged period of time. Or have there been some legendary skill related to shapeshifting that he will be able to learn.
Some Guy
Thanks for the chapter
Jaklelope
Tyftc
Corwin
Ajax is going to need to learn runes soon it seems. Just so he can craft the weapons he needs
userunfriendly
Tftc!🐶 Ajax opened the fight by tossing half of his explosive flasks at the group, "Most human problems can be solved by an appropriate charge of high explosives." Blaster from the movie Uncommon Valor 1983. 😈🫡 One of them was activating the small black stone in the center of the runic rings at the top of the staff while the other set of runes worked to weaken the power released from the stone. Ajax was surprised to see [Mana Syphon] didn’t affect them at all. It was like the Skill couldn’t get even the slightest grip on the spell cast. That doesn't seem right...it's like even the priestess is vulnerable to the full might of the stone that's obviously the focus of the staff, like the Hearthbound Ettin staff...it isn't an Undead mana stone? Could it be an element that Ajax hasn't encountered before, like...a Negative Mana stone?! That fits the description...purest black beam. 😱😱 And Mana Siphon would absolutely have worked on Undead mana...🤯 But first Ajax needed to take a rest. And it's at precisely this point that Keleros springs the spawned Floor Boss on Ajax. Now I'm betting it's another Werewolf. That would be the one boss type that Ajax would dread the most, obviously, given how much trouble it gave him the last time, and the one type of foe he's become the most afraid of, given the problems with his left arm. If he gets a hit on his torso, Ajax would be in massive trouble. At this point if he wasn't in combat, he'd cut it off and try to regrow it. He can't do that with a torso hit. That staff's stone worrying me too. It's behaving unlike anything else we've seen, where the wielder seems to be as afraid of it as an undead could be, so it's obviously not Undead mana, but as I just speculated, it's...Anti-Mana, or something similar. Why would Keleros add that into the narrative? Unless, and I'm just speculating here, Ajax needs it to create a Mexican Standoff with the Ascended outside?! The Sidhe might decide the best way to deal with a humanoid Ascended is to kill him...getting hit with an exploding Anti-Mana bomb might be a sufficient deterrent.😱😱🫣🫣
