Nelly P.O.V

As we started traveling back towards the city all of us started to loosen up again. It may not be easy to see from the outside but all of us go on edge every time we head towards the dungeon. This time it was to a much lesser extent on the way there as the initial plan had been to stick to the first floor. I hope Tristan and Rob haven't been too worried that we extended the trip by a few days.

The carefree and competitive attitude of the Reavers also went a long way to push the rest of us into a much more relaxed mood. The only one I couldn’t get a clear read on was Ajax. Despite his young looks and reported age that had him at fifteen years old his actions didn’t match up with what I expected from him.

The only times I have seen other people that young act so mature was when they were noble heirs, the training and lessons having taken over their childhood. Not only that but it seems that Ajax is also a little, well not shy but maybe paranoid? I had thought we were making progress in relating to him but he retreated back as soon as the Reavers joined us for the trip back.

Then again I could see where he was coming from. We had done a quick checkup on him as soon as we learned his name and everything checked out. That background check was the only reason we weren’t convinced he was an illegitimate bastard of a high noble and being raised in secret.

I have to say the kid intimidated me. It wasn’t his personality or his attitude, he was acting the way I would expect a brand new guild recruit to act, doing any job assigned, looking to learn and get new skills, greedy to gain more experience. What intimidated me was his raw power. I was already almost sixty years old but as I looked at my status.

Name : Nelly

Level :42

Experience : 58600/95800

Traits: Mana Constitution

Health: 2200/2200

Mana: 2200/2200

Stamina :420/420

Vitality : 220

Strength : 38

Endurance : 42

Dexterity : 40

Intellect : 220

Wisdom : 220

Mind : 220

Perception : 80

Stat Points : 0

Skills : [Cleaning Lvl 20] [Haggling Lvl 10][Gathering Lvl 30][Sense Mana Lvl 50][Expel Mana Lvl 50][Chanting Lvl 50][Inspect Lvl 30][Water Aspect Mana Lvl 40][Air Aspect Mana Lvl 40][Ice Aspect Mana Lvl 30][Mana Matriarch]

I knew I was one of the most valuable members of the team but that came because of my unique versatility in having magic.I was the lowest level of them all after taking a few years off to raise Tristan with Rob but now there was Ajax. He was twelve levels my junior and while I knew I could still outperform him in terms of raw magic, his versatility and physical prowess left no doubt that he could beat me in a fight.

I also understood his paranoia, because I had a much bigger reason than him to be paranoid about, one not even the rest of my team knew about. The [Mana Matriarch] skill was my second Epic skill besides my [Ice Mana Aspect] but it was also one that manifested during my pregnancy. The skill had no levels and was linked to the trait Mana Constitution, the trait increased my proficiency with all mana skills and allowed me to gain some slightly easier. The skill guaranteed that any children I have would be predisposed towards mana skills.

Like all non-level skills it came with a small description from the system when I unlocked it and ever since that day I have lived with the paranoia of what would happen should it come out that I have such a skill. Nobody except my husband Rob knows about it and I have been skittish around anyone that might be able to inspect others skills ever since.

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The skill was also the reason why I only had one child. Even for a mage the chance that their child can use mana is only 10%, it grows to 15% if both parents are mages. Having four children like I initially wanted, all with talent in magic despite Rob not being a mage would have brought too much scrutiny. As such we decided to increase our levels and have some more children once we are stronger and have some connections.

Ajax’s presence on this team is in a way both a blessing and a curse. Our connection with him will lead to extra scrutiny but it will also give us a chance to interact with important people. Not only that but his genius might cover up and draw attention away from me.

The trip to the city was uneventful. We spent a bit longer on the road than on the way here, stopping by on both nights to catch some rest before moving on. We arrived at Lessis as night was falling.

Even from twenty feet away I could see the shock on the guard captain's face as Jones told him that we had dungeon goods to declare and that we will be paying taxes. It was more of an unspoken rule that established teams like the Reavers and the Collectors were going to bribe officials to look the other way on taxes. It was an accepted practice to keep the teams from leaving the city for greener pastures.

The inspection of the goods took a little while. The inspector was a friend of Rob’s, who besides being my husband was also our contracted merchant, and I could see his eyes bulge when he took a look at the water from the elemental as he licked his lips. I’m also sure that he purposefully misidentified the valuable crocs as the normal variety.

Thinking about the taxation I also wondered about Ajax. Before we left we agreed that the kid would get half a share but after the second day on the second floor all of us agreed he would be given a full share of the loot. Despite that I hadn’t yet approached him about selling his hard earned loot through Rob.

“Ajax, can I speak to you?” I asked and the kid looked at me gratefully for having given him an out. He was stuck listening to Bobby and great oaf had managed to buy a barrel of cheap wine at our last village and had already drunk half of it.

“Thanks for that.” he said.

“No problem.” I smiled. “But I do actually have something to talk to you about.”

“Oh, what is it?” he asked.

“I know that when we left we our agreement was that we would split whatever we find into twenty-three and you would take one share while the rest of us took two. We have reconsidered that however.” I could already see him starting to frown.

“Oh?” he said as his face betrayed some annoyance. I guess I couldn’t blame him for being suspicious since most teams would cut out a first time porter completely from such a massive gain.

“We decided your efforts deserved a full share of the spoils.” I continued and his frown turned into a smile.

“Thank you.” he said.

“Speaking of the spoils, I wanted to ask if you already know what you wanted to do with them. My husband is the team contracted merchant you see.” I left the statement open ended so that he wouldn’t think I was pressuring him .

“Hmm”, he stayed silent for a moment. “I was planning on keeping my share of the cores for my brother's bond, his shadow cat is still a pup and can use all the manacores it can get. As for everything else I was planning to give them to my sister July and her friend Alana to sell for me.”

Seeing as he also had merchants in the family I didn’t want to push the matter. I could always convince him to swap over once we compared how much Rob got us for the loot compared to what his sister could get him.

Surprisingly enough when it came time to share the loot he was more than happy to take his share in mostly cores and the elemental water. The water was something we all avoided since we knew it would take time to be moved and doing so would have added costs.

After I arrived home I was greeted by both Tristan and Rob. Both seemed worried and exhaled a breath they must have been holding onto for a while.

“Mom!” Tristan said “You’re okay.”

“I am just fine.” I smiled. “The delve took a little longer than we expected since we also went to the second floor.”

“I thought this delve was just to get the new member used to delves.” Rob said.

“That was the idea but the kid proved himself too good to stick to just the first floor.”

“Just how good was he?” Tristan asked, he must have read something on my face.

“To be honest, like nothing I have seen before.” I said. “We all know you are talented Tristan, at twenty-five years of age you are already level twenty-nine and following a healer tract but he is something else. Despite being ten years younger than you he is already level twenty-four. Not only that but I don’t think I could take him in a straight up fight.”

This had both of them curious and I spent the next hour of dinner just explaining things about Ajax. Tristan was especially upset that he could already join the guild and us despite him wanting to do so for years, he only quieted down after I told him Ajax shared with us that his total stats were over nine hundred.

“So, what is the kid going to do with his share of the spoils?” Rob asked as we were heading to bed.

“Said he was going to keep the cores for his brother’s bond and give the rest to his sister Judy and her friend Alana.” I knew my husband well enough that the names of the other merchants was what he was interested in.

“Those two again?” he muttered.

“You know them?” I asked.

“Yeah, they started off small eight years ago and had a cash infusion into a small side business five years ago. From there their talent really shone and they just kept growing and growing. They’ve been having problems lately expanding into the higher reaches of neighboring cities.” he said and then froze a few feet away from the bed.

“What is it?” I asked.

“You just said they got their hands on water from the elemental?” he asked. “They could use that as a foothold to gain contacts in other cities. Seems like their bottleneck is about to gain a few cracks.”

That information was surprising to me. Did the kid accept the water on purpose for that?