NOVEL NEXT Chapter 376
As the team woke up they quickly made the transition to the seventh floor, while this floor wasn’t a breeze for any of Ajax’s classmates the level sixties could only be counted as a good warm up.
Ajax had carefully chosen the eighth dungeon to make sure he got one where he could find a few alchemy reagents so that he could get in the swing of things before he started his attempts at the poison using the ingredients he brought in with him. Not only that but he was hoping that whatever he could make to help give Lexi a better shot on the ninth floor.
“What are you making?” Harold asked Ajax as he saw him slaving over the cauldron while everyone else was hunting in the jungle that was the eighth floor.
“This is a strong freezing agent.” Ajax said as he carefully bottled the mixture while using his air magic to ensure there was no contact with the air.
“It doesn’t feel cold.” Arianwyn said as she picked up one of the flasks he bottled.
“It isn’t cold.” Ajax confirmed as he sealed the third flask. “The mixture doesn’t stay in liquid form when it is in contact with the air. While evaporating it draws in all the heat it can from the surroundings so quickly that it freezes everything. It’s why the flasks are so big and sealed.”
“You mean to say you don’t even open it, you just throw it and smash the flask?” Elara nodded as she looked at the flask Arianwyn was holding. “I’ve used ones that exploded before but I have heard there are freezing ones as well.”
Ajax didn’t mention that the freezing ones were a lot trickier to create. The difference between the two was that the explosive one became unstable in contact with air and exploded, while the freezing one was stable in both stages, this meant that a skilled alchemist could use his mana to stabilize the explosive mix during the creation process even if it made contact with the air.
After he had five flasks filled with the freezing potion Ajax swapped over to make a very sticky substance. The main reason for this was that the arch guarded by the miniboss he had defeated had a very strong earth mana present. Using both the freezing and sticky mixture Ajax was pretty sure that Lexi could use her Vibration mana to best an earth golem.
Ajax silently worked for over thirty minutes as he blocked out everything that was happening around them as he trusted Harold to keep an eye out for him. Unfortunately even that wasn’t enough as the mixture separated instead of neatly fusing. Much as he wanted to give it another go it was time to get going as he finally noticed that everyone had returned.
“Here you are.” Ajax said as he passed the flasks over to Lexi.
“What are these for?” Lexi asked.
“That arch there leads to a primarily earth dominant floor.” Ajax said as he pointed to the arch. “Not only that but I can also feel a good amount of Life mana as well so we should be able to find earth golems there, these should let you stick them in one place, freeze them and then you can use your Vibration spells to shatter them.”
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“Thank you!” Lexi quickly stored the flasks in her spacial ring and wrapped Ajax in a very tight hug.
“You’re going for one more?” Xavier asked incredulously.
Lexi simply nodded as all her classmates looked at her supportively and with a very slight hint of envy. Out of all of them Lexi was the only one who stood a chance on the next floor as she was the only one with something as powerful as a Legendary skill to make up the twenty-five level gap.
As the team stepped onto the floor Ajax noticed that they found themselves on a hillside covered by white marble. Everywhere he looked Ajax could see massive temples with white coulombs that reminded him of the Acropolis of Athens with the surrounding filled by moving statues of all different sizes made from the same material.
“Woah!” Xavier exclaimed as he closed the notification for getting an extra boost in stats from clearing the floor and took in the architecture all around them.
“It’s certainly something.” Arianwyn said as she also looked interested in the odd buildings. “Seems very similar to the way dwarves build their underground support pillars but with the stark white color and the non-cramped space squeezed beneath the earth.”
Seeing as none of them could recognise the Greek architecture made Ajax a little worried about what that could mean. Was he the reason that certain odd floors kept popping up? It had happened before, the most obvious example had been the floor that belonged in a galaxy far far away but he had left that aside as a technological understanding. This however was basic stone work. One thing was for certain Ajax had no intention of clearing this floor any more than they had to on the slight chance that the floor boss was actually a medusa.
It didn’t take long for the first group of statues to attack them, just like Ajax had expected however they weren’t any harder to handle than the usual earth golems he was used to fighting, the only difference was that these had a much sleeker frame that depicted a very fit human instead of a vaguely humanoid shaped mound of earth or rock.
“There is your target.” Ajax said as he pointed Lexi towards a small temple inside of which a statue was guarding an arch.
“Why that one? It’s rather big.” Lexi questioned the one Ajax selected for her.
“It’s too big to squeeze between the coulombs.” Ajax explained his plan. “Throw the sticky mixture through the door and then use A shockwave on one side of the temple to bring the whole structure down on it.”
“Then I can use the opening when it’s digging itself out to toss the freezing flasks and set up my spells.” Lexi quickly caught on to his plan and was fully on board.
Knowing she wouldn’t have much time once the fight began, Lexi accurately tossed the flasks so that the sticky mixture would spread just past the entrance to the small temple. She then moved to the right side where she could see the statue had started following her movement.
Lexi took out her boosting potion and downed it before she quickly began the chant for her Domain. This wouldn’t be a battle of attrition like the one on the previous floor where she chose a defensive monster and slowly whittled it down, either she could kill this statue before it got to her or the prince would intervene before it killed her.
As soon as she unleashed her Domain the statue started sprinting for the exit of the temple as she started the chant for the shockwave she planned to use to know the temple down. It was frightening to see the large rock giant dash so quickly towards the exit, but her fear subsided slightly as the giant tripped right at the entrance as her cast was almost finished because its leg got stuck in the black tar-like substance Ajax had provided.
Seeing the crater that formed where the statue’s knees made contact with the temple floor convinced Lexi that there was no way she could take a direct hit. Her shockwave spell was finally ready and she tried to help it along as much as she could with the mana from her domain spell as she unleashed it towards the support coulombs.
The spell worked even better than she hoped as not only did it bring down the coulombs but it also caused the statue to lose its balance right as the roof collapsed on top of it. Despite the elation at her success Lexi moved on straight to the next spell that she would prepare to unleash as soon as the statue dug itself out.
With a flask at the ready in hand Lexi carefully approached the pile of rubble that was moving as the statue broke its way to the surface. The previous pristinely sculpted muscles were now chipped and scratched, a thick layer of dust covering everything. Lexi didn’t hesitate as she tossed three flasks of the freezing mixture Ajax had given her and was prepared to unleash her spell as soon as it finished taking effect.
What Lexi hadn’t expected however was that the statue would mimic her plan and toss a rock from the rubble towards her before even standing up properly. It was only thanks to her defensive enchanted equipment that the rock was deflected to only clip her shoulder, shattering the joint in the process.
Anna and Harold both worked together to keep Ajax from rushing in there as soon as he heard her shoulder crunch from the impact. Despite the pain Lexi grit her teeth and watched to see the head, neck and top right part of the statue freeze as an odd steam rose from where the flasks spilled their contents. She carefully aimed her spell and unleashed a powerful shockwave that crushed the frozen part of the statue to small pebbles.
Lexi was able to hold on to her consciousness long enough to make sure the statue didn’t get back up before she succumbed to the pain and lack of mana. The whole world started going black and Lexi was sure she was out before she hit the ground.