For the first time in more than five years Ajax had been spending his time off without anything at all to do. Sure he still did run through a small training session at the beginning of every day but he has spent most of the last two days relaxing and catching up with his family.

This was a time he enjoyed greatly but it came with one downside. He was all but jumping out of his skin to venture into a dungeon for the first time. The morning of the third day he did his training, grabbed breakfast and all but raced down to the guild hall to grab all the applications and information packages on the teams. He would be spending today discussing his selection with Hatchet as well as his brother and sister in case they have some extra inside information on them from their jobs before selecting a team and joining it before the day was done.

With this plan he would most likely be starting the trip towards the dungeon tomorrow morning and might enter the dungeon in a few days. He did his best to mask his enthusiasm as he picked everything up at the guild hall but the smirk Sophie sported told him just how successful he had been.

The first two hours of the selection process were spent in silence with both his and Hatchet pouring through the guild information and record of every team that applied to take him in order to narrow the selection down to a few teams. Despite both of them having the reading skill the amount of information was massive with two dozen teams having applied. This was equivalent to a full two thirds of all active teams in the city.

“So, who is it that made it into your final selection?” Hatchet asked once Ajax put down the final piece of paper.

“The Reavers, Stonespear and The Collectors” Ajax counted them off.

Each of the teams mentioned excelled at something. The Reavers were exterminators, they did more outside dungeon work and focused on requests consisting of collecting mana cores from the dungeon. Not only that but their level was quite high with an average of forty-three with ten members despite the members being rather young and only being part of the guild for five years at the most.

Stonespear was a contractor team. It focused almost exclusively on contracts. This could be anything from guard duty, exterminations, escorts or dungeon delves. They were the most spread out bunch of them all doing a little bit of everything. They were also the lowest levels of them all averaging level forty with a thirteen man team. Their members were also just as young as the Reavers, being in their mid thirties.

The Collectors were the dungeon specialists. They completed very few contracts that weren’t assigned to them by the guild and those that they did revolved around collecting something specific from running the dungeon enough times that a favorable biome manifested in the second floor. They were the highest level team of them all with an average level of forty-five and eleven members on their team. Their ages were around mid forties with a few pushing fifty.

“I do agree that the Collectors could be a good fit but the Reavers and Stonespear aren’t groups I would recommend.” Hatchet said as he dragged up the information on the three teams. “ While the three you chose do fill the three types of teams based on their regular activities you should look a bit deeper into it.”

“First of all, Stonespear. This team is headed by a noble, that is what the little emblem on the back of the information page means. Even if we discount the off chance of how they would focus on recruiting you every step of the way the team is created around protecting and advancing the noble’s in question reputation.”

“As for the Reavers, they are just unreliable. They have been active for the past two years and they had four members die in that time. They are greedy for advancing and leaving this backwater so much that they make routine mistakes.” Hatchet said. “You need to keep in mind that not only are you already stronger than most anyone from the teams that applied to recruit you but you will also be leaving them in a short amount of time.”

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Ajax understood what he meant by that. Joining either of the two teams would most likely lead to him forming bad habits, something that would become an anchor to him as he moved on to places where his strength was more commonly found.

“If you are looking to join an extermination team I suggest the Vipers. They have been active for the past seven years. During that time they haven’t had a single casualty, this despite only having a seven person team and cycling out two of their original members.”

“As for a contract focused team, Blackwheel S. would be a good place for you.” Hatchet said.

The second suggestion surprised Ajax.Blackwheel was different from all the other teams that applied because they had the S. suffix added. This marked the team as being sponsored directly by a merchant organization or noble family. This in itself came with a slew of extra regulations to ensure the neutrality of the guild. In this case it was a merchant organization sponsoring the team.

Ajax thought hard about what type of team he wanted to join. Ideally he would join a contract team, these would give him the best way to steadily advance all manners of skills, something that would not only increase the longevity of his fast leveling but also build a good reputation in the guild. That was true however if one was thinking long term.

Considering he was not going to stick around with the team any longer than necessary meant his priorities needed to adapt. In the end what tipped the scales between the Vipers and the Collectors was the location of Lessis.

He had thought, and Hatchet confirmed when he asked, that both exterminations and contractor teams operate differently in a more influential region than a backwater like Lessis. But one thing that changed very little regardless of where you went was the process of exploring a dungeon floor. Sure the level jumps and starting level were different but when it came to dealing with a randomly generated floor their second floor would be close to the capitals fourth or fifth floors.

“Yes, that is probably your best bet for short term gains.” Hatcher nodded at his choice. “Not only are they one of the more experienced teams, their delver focus should mean you enter the second floor a lot sooner than with the other teams and you can start making some real progress from there on.”

With the decision finally made Ajax headed to the guild hall to see about meeting the team. The best part of all this was that as this was a delver team they should be heading to the dungeon almost immediately which suited his purposes just fine.

At the guild hall Ajax was sitting at a table with half the members of the Collectors including their leader. Not only that but all around the tavern they were getting looks from the other adventurers. Annoyance with a bit of outrage towards Ajax and envy towards the Collectors.

“It’s nice to meet you, Ajax.” The leader, Jones, said once both parties had drinks.

“It’s nice to meet you guys as well.” Ajax responded.

“If you don’t mind my asking, why is it that you chose us? I know you had plenty of options” Jones asked.

Ajax decided to be upfront with them. This way both sides knew everything going in and there would be bad blood at the end.

“ Seeing as I am just starting my career as an adventurer, a contractor team might be more suitable for me and it would be, if I was looking to remain here. However I am looking to leave Lessis and head to the capital within a year or two so I am looking to build up as much relevant experience.”

“ I see. We are most likely to take you with us into the dungeon’s second floor. Not only that we will be doing so often and this is the best way for you to not only level quickly but also to pad your record with something that wouldn’t depreciate if taken to another branch.” Jones nodded.

“That works out for us. We are also preparing for a move out of this backwater but we are waiting here until our final member, a son of one of our current members brings himself up to par with the guild standard, at the time of the move a favor from a noble or two will come in handy .” Ajax appreciated their honest response but was quite curious about something.

“Why would you wait so long for a freshly recruited member?” Ajax asked them.

“That’s easy, because not only are they capable of using mana but they are particularly talented in healing.” All of the members at the table grinned at the announcement, after all the difference between having a healer on the team and not having one was massive.

It wasn’t just for the emergency injury that they were valuable. But with a healer in the team they would be able to take riskier fights, this would lead to higher experience values and faster leveling.

“Yeah, that would make it worth it.” Ajax nodded. “So when are you planning to take the next expedition?”

“We were planning to head out in the morning after dawn but we can push it back a day to accommodate a new member.” Jones offered and none of the other members seemed put off by the delay.

“Bobby might just get in trouble.” One of the others snickered.

“Yeah, for once we won’t be conveniently gone the next morning when the husband of his latest trist shows up looking for him.” Another joined in.

“I am quite eager to leave as well.” Ajax dashed their hopes. “I will be ready in the morning.”