It didn’t take long for the boar to also notice Ajax’s presence. For all that the creature seemed focused more on physical stats and raw power it had a decent amount spent in Perception, Ajax was also able to confirm with a quick use of [Inspector’s Eye] that it had a Rare tracking Skill based on smell.
Despite being above level one hundred Ajax wasn’t feeling threatened by the boar. At level one hundred and five it might take him a bit of time to work his way through all the Vitality and Endurance it had but with the Dexterity and mental stats he saw he knew he would be able to keep it at bay as he slowly whittled it down.
Killing it however wasn't what Ajax was focused on right now, instead he was more interested in learning more about how intelligent the boar was. According to the Stats it had in Intelligence, Wisdom and Mind the boar should be smarter than the average citizen of Gryndor. But that wasn’t how mental stats worked with intelligence.
Stepping a little close Ajax could see the moment the boar picked up on his Aura, something he noted the boar didn’t have despite being above level one hundred. Ajax had been told his Aura felt oppressive ever since his evolution but the boar’s reaction did a lot more than the explanations he’d been given before to explain just how his Aura was different.
The boar was clearly smart, yet he didn’t seem sentient. It was following his instinct more than it was making thoughtful decisions but it was also clear he could outthink the general traps hunters used to capture and kill its much lower level brethren back in Gryndor.
The rest of the animals around the stream had also taken note of Ajax’s presence, still since he hadn’t made any aggressive move they all minded their own business after ensuring he was given even more space than the boar had been.
Before Ajax could do any more he felt [Danger Sense] flare with a small warning a split second before a chorus of bird screeches filled the air sending all the animals around the stream into a frenzy. The only exception being the boar who made a calculated retreat.
A moment later a flock of birds easily twenty in number descended on the clearing. Each was as large as a human with a wing span of ten feet all of them clearly looking for food. One of the birds was even heading for him, its claws brandished as it dived looking to grab him by the chest.
Ajax had a hard time not laughing as he prepared himself for combat the moment he felt the warning from [Danger Sense]. The birds must have been around level eighty, and the only reason his Skill had even triggered was because of the ambush aspect of the attack. Ajax could clearly see the moment the bird heading for him felt his aura and started flapping its wings frantically looking for a way to change direction.
This wasn’t something Ajax was willing to let pass however. It was one thing to wander through the forest and not attack animals minding their own business but he wouldn’t stand for a direct attack on him. In a flash Ajax had his new axe out, what better time to break in the weapon as he decapitated the bird in a single smooth movement while also moving himself out of the way of the sharp talons.
Ajax’s change in mentality was transmitted clearly through his Aura, the birds lost any will to hunt, some of them that had already grabbed their prey in their talons had thrown it in his direction, having it land at his feet in an obvious attempt to bribe him in not going after them next. What had been a planned strike quickly turned into a free for all escape as the coordinated birds now struggled with space as they tried their best to get away from him.
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Everything happened in less than ten seconds, from the start of the bird attack to the point where only two beings were left by the stream. Ajax and the boar. Ajax thought the boar was brave to have remained, he was unaware that the boar wasn’t actually brave, it was simply listening to its instincts, instincts that said that if Ajax wanted him dead he would die, with enough intelligence to know he couldn’t run away from Ajax in the forest the boar accepted his fate and simply tried his best not to antagonise the powerful new creature that had appeared.
Ajax had continued his journey from there towards the dungeon after collecting the body of the bird and removing the feathers and draining the blood. He was interested to see if this would taste like chicken or not.
His travel speed didn’t increase but he was slowly but surely making his way closer and closer to the dungeon. The more he approached however the more often he spotted groups of the same birds flying through the sky. Could it be that this was the reason why the elves hadn’t chosen to expand in this direction. He didn’t yet have enough information to come to a conclusion but he could see why it would be hard to expand into a territory that had a large population of level eighty predator flyers, a single group would be enough to kill an entire small village.
That night as he returned to his meditation of shadow travel Ajax started to try different methods of pushing against the wall he felt separating him from the shadows. Trying to apply physical pressure obviously didn’t work, all of the force he tried to exert on the shadow went right through to the earth below. The same could not be said about pushing magically against the wall.
He had tried a number of different Mana affinities yet he had found only three different reactions to them. The first and most common was a collapse of the shadow, it happened with almost all the Mana affinities and Ajax could feel not just the wall break but the entire subspace of the shadow he had been trying to enter collapse.
This made sense to him, he knew that shadow travel didn’t actually protect those using it from magical attacks, in fact it made them more vulnerable as any spell that landed would usually land cleanly on its target.
The second reaction was that of breaking the wall yet not collapsing the shadow. This reaction only happened with neutral Mana as well as Void Mana. Of the two Void was actually more effective at breaking through the wall costing roughly half the mana it took with neutral Mana.
The third reaction was a bypass of the wall. Shadow Mana passed through the wall like it was diving into a lake, there was a clear disturbance of the surface of the wall yet once it passed through everything returned to normal.
Having finished his experiments with the Shadows Ajax exited his [Meditation] early, there were still two hours before sunrise and yet Ajax wanted to spend that time replenishing his Mana reserves to make up for his time testing the different reactions.
He had been getting closer and closer to the dungeon and one thing he picked up on was that not only was the variety of animals he saw in the forest growing but so was their level. Whereas the average level had been in the low to mid forties the day before it was now in the high fifties.
Another change that came with the growth in level was that there were fewer animals overall wandering the forest. Ajax knew that this was most likely because of the lack of resources to support any more animals.
Unlike a dungeon floor Ajax had yet to find an area with significantly higher Mana density. Sure the Mana density had risen slightly in the Wild Lands compared to Gryndor but that was because there were no enchantments out here that drew on the Mana as there were in the humanoid kingdoms, even then the difference wasn’t big.
The dungeon was a source of Mana and without humanoids to take control of it it had most likely become the focus point of all the strongest predators in the area. It wouldn’t be occupied as previous exploration parties would have already cleared out any creature trying to establish their lair on top of the dungeons but he was sure the top of the food chain would be spread out around the dungeon arch.
That wasn’t something he expected he would have to worry about. If anything Ajax was more looking forward to the dungeon since it would be his first opportunity to get a good night’s sleep on the lower floors, the past few days of [Meditation] rest were starting to wear on him more than he had thought they would.