Half a year ago,

Inside the Giant Dwarven World,

"Brother Ajax, I heard from Uncle Aron that your clothes keep getting torn apart and burned to ashes whenever you temper your body."

A young dwarf excitedly ran toward Ajax while holding a dark-red battle robe in his hands.

"Especially whenever you temper your body using Sentient Flames."

"So, I specially created this Legendary-grade Battle Robe for you."

The young dwarf carefully handed the robe to Ajax with an excited expression on his face.

The battle robe looked simple at first glance; however, countless tiny runic patterns were engraved throughout the robe, giving it a mysterious aura.

Most importantly, despite being close to the forge filled with intense flames, the battle robe remained completely unaffected by the heat.

"Rurbeak, looks like your success rate in creating Legendary-grade items has greatly increased."

Ajax happily received the battle robe without rejecting it.

After all, he truly needed such a robe.

Every time he tempered his body using powerful flames, his clothes would instantly turn into ashes.

Because of that, Ajax had long gotten used to carrying dozens of spare clothes in his Space Ring.

"Yes, Brother."

The dwarf named Rurbeak excitedly nodded his head.

Clearly, he was very proud after hearing Ajax praise him.

Soon, Rurbeak quickly started explaining the effects of the battle robe.

"It is fully resistant to flames and possesses fifty percent resistance toward different types of Essence of Nature."

"Other than that, it can also block one full-power attack from any cultivator below the Heavenly Realm once a day."

"As for the minor effects like self-repair and self-cleaning, they are naturally included too."

Hearing those effects, even Ajax couldn't help but become surprised.

A defensive artifact capable of blocking a full-power attack from any cultivator below the Heavenly Realm was definitely an extremely precious Legendary-grade artifact.

"Thank you, Rurbeak."

Ajax sincerely thanked him.

"This is going to be a huge help during my Dark Region Exploration."

At the same time, Ajax lightly patted the young dwarf's shoulder before speaking with a smile.

"You should focus on refining Divine-grade Artifacts and ascend to the Heavenly Realm soon."

If Ajax was a monstrous genius in cultivation, then Rurbeak was definitely a monstrous genius in blacksmithing and artifact creation.

Unlike humans, dwarves followed a different path of ascension.

In order to ascend to the Heavenly Realm, a dwarf needed to personally create a Divine-grade Artifact.

And Ajax was fully confident that Rurbeak would definitely achieve it in the future.

However, hearing Ajax's words, Rurbeak suddenly shook his head.

"Sorry, Brother."

"I have no plans to ascend until you ascend to the Heavenly Realm."

His tone was firm without the slightest hesitation.

Clearly, he had already made up his mind long ago.

If not for Ajax, not only Rurbeak, but the entire Dwarven World would have been destroyed.

After that, Ajax not only upgraded the small Dwarven World into a Greater Dwarven World, he also gave many high-level and rare materials for Rurbeak to practice his weapon-refining skills.

Therefore, Rurbeak decided to ascend only after Ajax ascended to the Heavenly Realm.

'…'

Ajax remained silent for a moment before lightly smiling.

He didn't continue persuading Rurbeak anymore because it was not their first time conversing about this topic.

Soon, after chatting for some more time, Ajax once again returned to his Dark Region Exploration.

...

Present,

'Rurbeak, this battle robe saves my dignity in front of all these participants.'

Ajax could not help but remember Rurbeak when he saw the battle robe on his body.

Dusting off the molten lava from his battle robe that remained completely intact without showing the slightest sign of damage, Ajax calmly asked the surrounding participants.

"I have some extra Fire Elemental Spirit Ascension Crystals. Does anyone want them?"

At the same time, his gaze subtly landed on Thorne Valek.

Among the five elemental terrains, the main reason Ajax chose the Fire Terrain first was because of Thorne.

As an outsider in this New Universe, Ajax naturally lacked proper information regarding the factions, geniuses, and overall situation of this universe.

Thus, he decided to first establish some connections with people from the major powers.

And among all the participants, Ajax chose Thorne Valek from the Iron Mountain Sect.

After all, according to the information he gathered earlier, the Iron Mountain Sect was known for being a righteous sect.

'Whether they are truly righteous or whether it is merely a facade doesn't matter to me.'

Ajax calmly thought to himself.

'I only need some information.'

And the Fire Elemental Spirit Ascension Crystals were naturally the perfect bargaining chips.

That was also one of the reasons why Ajax directly jumped into the molten lava lake earlier without hesitation.

After all, there were lots of Volcanic Lava Sharks hidden beneath the lava.

And whenever Ajax punched one Volcanic Lava Shark, the terrifying shockwaves from his Divine Body Cultivation would directly kill multiple nearby sharks at the same time.

Thus, in just a short period of time, Ajax had already collected far more Fire Elemental Spirit Ascension Crystals than required.

Since he only needed twenty Fire Elemental Spirit Ascension Crystals to clear the First Stage, Ajax naturally planned to use the remaining crystals for exchanges.

And right now, his first target was naturally Thorne Valek.

"What? You are planning to sell these Fire Elemental Spirit Ascension Crystals?"

Thorne was a bit surprised at Ajax's words.

To pass the first stage, one needed only 20 Elemental Spirit Ascension Crystals from each terrain; however, those who collected more crystals would receive the Special Reward: The Divine Elemental Potion.

After witnessing Ajax's strength in dealing with the Volcanic Lava Sharks, Thorne knew Ajax could easily enter the top 10 ranks and earn the Divine Elemental Potion.

'Is he not interested in the Divine Elemental Potion?'

'Wait a second…'

Thorne didn't reply to Ajax; instead, he was lost in his thoughts until he suddenly realised, 'Or, is it because the Divine Elemental Potion is useless to him?'

The moment he thought of this, Thorne was shocked and wanted to directly ask Ajax about it.