Chapter 433

After Ajax finally got back up and he was counting the seconds before he could down a stamina regeneration potion. He had the potion as a counter to specific types of enemies who leeched Stamina but for him it was much better than a mana regeneration potion, not just because of the restriction he was under but because the regeneration potion increased one’s natural regeneration and Stamina regenerated about three times quicker in than mana in humanoids with equal Dexterity and Wisdom.

“We are not taking all of that.” While Ajax was getting his feet back under him and relaxing from the harsh battle Aranor and the prince had started a small argument about the hellhound’s corpse. “Do you know what that level of curse mana could do to civilians?”

Much like every other medieval city Sylvanthal’s capital naturally had a slums area where some of the city’s most unfortunate people resided. The hound being infused with curse mana meant that its flesh was useless for anything and taking it outside the dungeon with Ajax’s new boon could cause widespread disease depending on how it was disposed of.

“Get the fangs.” Ajax piped in. “They’ll make for a solid dagger base that should be able to inflict a curse without a skill.

In the end Ajax did end up collecting the fangs before the group started clearing out some of the rest of the floor in hopes of finding some good floor themes for themselves.

“Hey kid, what level is your [Empowering Restriction] at?” one of the rangers asked him as they were traveling.

“Why do you ask?” Ajax didn’t try to hide his skepticism.

“Never thought anyone so young could have an Epic skill above level fifty.” the ranger answered.

While Ajax didn’t answer the question his confused expression was enough to confirm something for the elves, Ajax’s level with that skill was not above fifty.

“Stop fishing.” The prince cut off the discussion. “They are trying to figure out how you pulled off what they think is a consuming restriction.”

“What’s a consuming restriction?” Ajax felt that he wasn’t giving anything away asking that question after he had all but told them that his skill level wasn’t above fifty.

“One of the bottleneck options for [Empowering Restriction].” the ranger answered. “Almost all restrictions you can currently use have their power bound by the amount of time they must be active for, usually a day at the least and a week at the most for efficient use of the skill. A restriction that only lasts for a few seconds isn’t going to give you any measurable boost.”

“And how does a consuming restriction change that?” Ajax asked.

“It's called a consuming restriction because you add one of your resources as the basis for powering instead of a condition.” the ranger explained. “Most commonly they are used to link Mana and Stamina, Mana and Health or Stamina and Health, when using one resource a certain amount of the one linked is also used to serve as the fuel for making the effect stronger.”

“That sounds awesome.” Ajax’s mind was already running through all the possibilities such an upgrade could provide to the skill. “Can you also use it to increase something else, like spending Mana Stamina and Health to increase one specific stat for a short time?”

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“I…I’m not sure…” the ranger said, confused. He then took a moment to try out the suggestion, afterwards he sounded a little surprised as he waved his hand in front of his face. “Looks like you can, but the exchange rate is not good enough for this to actually be useful in combat, just a twenty point increase is about ten mana a second and it looks like mana cost grows faster than stat increase, good try though.”

“So this is what you meant when you said he looks at the world differently, eh Aranor.” the ranger commander said as he listened in on the conversation. “The discoveries aren’t always useful but sometimes they could be.”

“What do you mean it’s not useful?” Ajax was slightly outraged at their lack of imagination. He calmed himself down as he remembered the old adage about old dogs and new tricks.

“Go on, give me a useful scenario for it, spending large amounts of resources for a tiny increase in one stat is not going to be useful in a fight, if it was useful it would be a bad investment and those resources could be better used in dealing with the situation.” the ranger commander said.

“Woah now,” the prince cut it before Ajax answered. “Lets at least make this interesting, how about a wager.”

“Don’t take it.” Aranor said as he watched the grin on the prince’s face. “I know that look.”

“Ah, I understand,” the prince said with a mocking understanding tone. “Not willing to back up your words.”

“What do you have in mind?” the ranger commander growled the words.

“Ajax what do you want?” the prince asked.

Ajax took a minute to think, it was easy to ask for something material but with his new Boon the value of anything that could be wagered on a whim like this just dropped substantially to him. “Training.” Ajax answered.

“All of us rangers have a healthy ego, kid.” The ranger’s mood improved by Ajax’s request. “But with your style there isn’t a single ranger that could actually train you in anything but a specific skill. I’m not willing to wager any of my skills for that.”

“Not for me.” Ajax shook his head. “When Arianwyn comes to Gryndor, she’ll have a ranger squad with her. That squad will take, say, a week to train my retainers.”

“I’m not sure it’ll be my squad that goes with her.” the ranger said.

“You can work it out with them to make the time I’m sure.” the prince said.

“Okay, fine.” the ranger said as he nodded in agreement. “Go on then, what’s a useful use of the skill.”

“Crafters.” Ajax was quick to spit out the answer he already had loaded. “Pretty sure blacksmiths will be more than willing to spend their Mana, Stamina and even Health to increase their Dexterity by a even a small margin when crafting.”

“Oh boy.” The prince couldn’t help but say after he heard Ajax’s answer, he knew Ajax would have enough people holding a small grudge against him for how his training method affected their offsprings. Now he will have old crafters who no longer had the opportunity to take consuming restriction be pissed off for losing business.

“Hey kid, we were talking about uses for a combatant.” the ranger commander gripped, though his spirit wasn’t in it. He knew the information was well worth a week of training for some retainers.

“Double or nothing?” Ajax asked as he thought of another application. “This time it will be an application for a combatant.”

“Sure why not.” The elves were taking a liking to Ajax the more time they spent with him.

“Prisoner escapes.” Ajax said his words coming out as quickly as his mind put the idea together. “Most war prisoners are pure mages since they are relatively easy to restrain, a large increase in Strength could let them break out of their restraints, even if it costs them most of their mana over a few moments.”

“This information doesn’t become public knowledge.” the prince instantly turned towards Aranor who also looked like he was about to say the same thing.

“The final decision remains to the king but I agree.” Aranor nodded, while Ajax’s idea was good it would only work if the captors didn’t know about it. The information becoming public would all but sentence countless mages to death in the future since their captors would be unwilling to risk them having the skill.

“Your people will get more than the bare minimum of training, I promise you that.” the ranger with [Empowering Restriction] told Ajax. He was already planning on experimenting with this new application of his skill to ensure that he wouldn’t incapacitate himself if he ever had to rely on it.

“Kate is going to be so happy, she tried looking into some of the non-standard healing spells but they are so hard to come by.” Ajax was very pleased with the deal they just made.

Healing was a domain where both Gryndor and the Empire were very much on the back foot compared to the other nations. The rarity of magic in humans meant that most were pushed towards becoming combat mages, Gryndor had been catching up slightly after Luna worked to spread the information and train more healers but they were still a long way off.