Following his fight with the wolves Ajax started being a lot more cautious about his surroundings. He was very much surprised that whatever or whoever it was that he was feeling following him didn’t take advantage of his weakened state to make a move but he also felt the presence that was looking in on him show up more and more sporadically, rather than the almost constant presence it had been when he first sensed it.
Despite his increased vigilance in scouting Ajax was still very much taken aback by what he found on the edge of the river. According to [Inspector’s Eye] their species was river salamander but Ajax was shocked to see an almost human like village despite the lizards not having opposable thumbs.
The burrows as well as the small dam they made on the river seed to provide them with plenty of fish and Ajax spotted a large variety of levels, the average was much higher than the mid forties a human village would have sitting at closer to the high sixties. The highest level he saw was at one hundred and fifteen but he wasn’t sure that was the alpha.
Ajax carefully approached a group that had moved together away from the dam to gather, none of them were over level one hundred and that gave Ajax enough insurance that he wouldn’t be trapped in a similar situation as he had been with the wolves.
Ajax was surprised at how quickly they realized he was there, even if he wasn’t using Shadow Mana to mask his presence his [Stealth] Skill wasn’t that low. As soon as he was sure they noticed him Ajax dropped his [Stealth] and approached, feeling two Inspection Skills hit him one after the other.
Ajax had made sure that [Enigma] wouldn’t block his level hoping to lead them into a false sense of security since he was lower level than all of them. The high pitched seal-like calls co from them was clearly so form of language but Ajax didn’t know how advanced they were, that was until they addressed him.
“Are you lost?” Ajax was not expecting them to address him, the shock so large he froze. “Soone at such a low level shouldn’t be wandering around alone.”
One of the salamanders made to approach him but the highest level in the group blocked its path. Its eyes were locked onto Ajax but it was slowly trying to get the rest of the group to back up, a single word from it however was enough to spread fear through the rest of the salamanders “Ascended”.
As much as Ajax had tried to suppress it seed his Aura had given him away. It was quite showing how none of the group even questioned that just by being Ascended they all were sure he could overco a forty level difference.
“Are you laying claim to this area?” The highest level salamander asked.
“No.” Ajax answered now that he had regained his composure. “How co you speak my language.”
“This is the common language of the Ascended.” the salamander answered. “All learn to speak it.”
That was quite the revelation, and it gave Ajax a much deeper respect for the Reaper. Either he was strong enough to make the humanoid language accepted as the common language for the Ascended races, sothing he very much doubted happened. More than likely since he ruled over all humanoids for a long ti he forced a change by making the common Ascended language be the base humanoid language.
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“Is there sothing we can help you with?” Ajax took a mont to think on his answer.
A few more uses of [Inspector’s Eye] had given Ajax a much clearer picture of the race he was dealing with. While all of them seed to have access to their Mana and seed to have a Water affinity the rest of their stats varied a lot, even the total stats differed substantially between those who had similar levels making Ajax pretty sure their race was similar to humanoids, they could Ascended but they weren’t born Ascended they needed to fulfil sothing in order to evolve. That was sothing he very much wanted to check on.
“I am interested in the plants you grow.” Ajax finally answered. “I co from a long way away and I haven’t encountered them before.” Not to ntion that they seed pretty Mana dense compared to everything else in this area. “I also haven’t encountered your race before. Can you evolve and beco Ascended?”
Ajax had spotted a few clusters of carefully tended plants, even without tools it was clearly a garden the salamanders were tending. With his most recent discovery he was a lot more wary of approaching the dam, what if one of the evolved salamanders was there.
“So can.” The confirmation was all Ajax needed to know not to approach the dam. “But very few do.”
The interaction surprisingly didn’t last much longer with Ajax receiving a few samples of the plants from what the salamanders had on them before each went on their own way. Ajax also insisted on giving the salamanders a few seeds of plants that he knew favored water environnts, he didn’t have a wide selection just a few whose seeds doubled as Alchemy ingredients but it did make one of the salamanders very excited. From the low level and a number of Skill connected to [Herbalism] Ajax suspected they would contribute a few levels to it over the next few years.
“So the Ascended races and the humanoids aren’t the only races capable of communication.” Ajax was very much surprised, he always suspected that goblins and kobolds would be able of sothing similar but while they did manage to form villages it was impossible to negotiate with them, they were territorial and not even superior strength was enough to dissuade them from fighting.
The interaction with the salamanders did co with a few more unexpected but welco surprises. The Rare Skill [Diplomat] being the first social Skill Ajax unlocked above Uncommon. More pressing however was the initial question they asked after they found out he was Ascended. They wanted to know if he was claiming the area.
He had pressed the issue but with a few questions during their talks Ajax had tried to verify his guess and by the end he was pretty sure there wasn’t an Ascended race that had claid this area. In theory he could claim it and then so long as he didn’t try to expand into the territory of another Ascended race he would be protected by the Agreent.
In the end he decided that would not be a good idea since it could potentially annoy a number of Ascended races that were neighboring this area all of which could then decide to kill him once he exited his newly claid area.
Ajax did however focus a lot more on anything out of the ordinary in his surroundings as he departed. Instead of just looking out for anything that could hurt him, Ajax also started to scour the areas he traveled for any mark that signified the area of an Ascended race.
Over the next two weeks Ajax hadn’t been able to spot anything and he was starting to doubt he will in the near future as he was starting to get closer and closer to the next dungeon. From what he had learned about dungeons from HelSotHein he very much doubted that any dungeon would be ruled over by an Ascended race unless it was in surrounded on all sides by the sa race, with how Ascended races viewed the dungeon the area surrounding it would be deed undesirable since it would be lower in Mana density and they could instead simply make the trip any ti they decided to delve.
During his travels he also examined the new plants he had access to. Unfortunately they weren’t anything revolutionary compared to what he had seen before, at least in terms of their uses as ingredients.
From his conversation with the salamanders about the plants he did find out one of the main reasons they grew these plants was for their healing properties. While Ajax didn’t see the value in that since sothing even more potent could be achieved through Alchemy he did have to recognise the plants could work as a weak potion even raw. More than that they seed to grow quickly and being a renewable healing patch for the salamanders.
Once he was only two days away from the dungeon Ajax was surprised that the sa layered areas of dominance hadn’t ford surrounding the dungeon the sa way they had back at the previous one. All of the creatures he killed had not burst into Mana showing they didn’t co from the dungeon. This more than anything put Ajax on guard as it told him the Ascended races were clearly monitoring the dungeon sowhat as they were the ones Ajax suspected cleared out any dungeon breaks that might occur.
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