Ajax P.O.V

That was definitely different, I didn’t read anything about there being anything out of the ordinary with this delve and yet there was a new person carrying a few of the porter bags and talking to Jones.

The woman in question looked a lot younger, at least compared to everyone else on the team she was definitely older than I was, maybe a year or two older than Tom. She was also on the tall side, reaching at least six feet with a solid wide build and rough features.

As I was pondering her presence here, a man around the same age as her, whose resemblance made me think he is her brother or cousin, definitely related, walked up and started picking up the rest of the porter bags. He was as tall as I was but where my body was more lean he was much bulkier, he had a full beard and the same rough features as the woman.

“More new people Jones?” I heard Bobby’s voice from behind me, the sound of two pairs of heavy boots let me know his twin brother was also with him. “We just picked Ajax up not two weeks ago.”

I tried not to show how glad I was that I wasn’t the only one not in the know about the new people that were apparently joining us.

“They won’t be sticking around.” Nelly answered and Jones just turned around to continue talking to the two.

“Alright then, what’s their story?” Donny asked, I liked that he was more on the paranoid side like me than his brother.

“They’re both children of a Knight” she said and I saw both Donny and Bobby wince.

I didn’t have the experience needed for this to affect me but I had heard quite a few stories on the way to the dungeon to explain their reaction. Before I had proven myself useful I was brow beaten with all sorts of stories where they were saddled with incompetent nobles.

“It's not that bad” she said as she lowered her voice to a whisper, most likely not wanting to have the two people in question overhear. “They are the first generation of a Kingdom Knight.”

“What’s a Kingdom Knight?” I whispered back. I knew that knights were the lowest of the nobles, any baron could grant a commoner a knighthood which is why most nobles considered baron the lowest level of nobility with a knight being a halfway mark between them and commoners.

“There are two ways to gain knighthood.” Nelly turned to me to explain. “The most common one is that a noble finds you useful and bestows it upon you. The other one is for the members of the military, after at least ten years of distinguished service with at least two minor accomplishments and one major one, a soldier at the rank of captain or higher can be granted a knighthood.”

“Yeah yeah, the main difference is that the Kingdom Knights are recognised as nobility everywhere unlike the normal ones who only have that right in the region where the person who knighted them is based. Save the lesson for later, why are they joining?” Bobby impatiently waved her on.

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“Fine” Nelly rolled her eyes at Bobby. “Their father decided to leave the service of a baron to join the retinue of the Viscount in charge of our region, with them being around level thirty four they wanted a boost for the first floor.”

Both Donny and Bobby smiled as they nodded and moved towards the pair to drop off some of their things for our new porters. Nelly instead continued to explain things to me.

“The reason they aren’t as reserved about them is because, generally, Kingdom Knights are soldiers first and nobles second, almost all of them teach their children properly and don’t let them get a big head about nobility and all that.” she said.

“Now where was I on the Kingdom Knights? Oh, yes, because they gained their knighthood through military distinction they have an easier time moving up to a baron position. Not only that but whatever lord they work under is also given certain tax benefits. It's all just a giant incentive to get talented military people who retire from active duty in a position to lead should a war start.”

I nodded. I could also see the appeal, if I was a baron I would also want to employ a knight that was a distinguished soldier and came with a tax break for me.

“What's a boost?” I then asked, though I figured since they were level thirty four they wouldn’t be much use on the second floor unless they had a lot of achievements.

“A boost just means that they will be tagging along with us for the duration of the delve. They won’t take part in any of the fighting on the second floor but will be our defense priority. It’s one of the easiest ways to make money since it's pure profit.” she said

“People are willing to pay a lot just to join a delve and watch for experience?” I asked.

“That’s not what they are mainly paying for. Yes there is a bit extra in there for them to get to watch what a real delve done by experienced people looks like but most of the money is for the pass that is included.”

“And a pass is?” Hatchet always told me that he wasn’t going to teach me about anything Adventuring specific besides how to do the actual combat and knowledge on monster types but it seems there was a lot of information I was missing. He said the main reason was that explaining everything would lose me a few discoveries.

“A pass is a way for them to gain stats. You found out that for every floor you pass that is around your level you gain stats right?” she asked.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Thing is, unlike you, most people can’t clear out the floor they move on to while they are at the level to gain stats for the previous one. The exception to this is maybe the five level jump dungeon at the capital.”

“Nobles and rich merchants have come up with a way around this. A pass is basically joining a stronger team, like they are doing, and we will let them fight the boss protecting the arch to the second floor. That way when they go through it they have enough contribution to earn the stats upgrade. After that they just set up camp near the arch and wait until the team clears the floor to leave.”

“Couldn’t they just leave straight away?” I asked, after all, why would they stick around.

“That is a safety measure, if they left they would just be detained until the team returned. It’s done like that to catch assassins who try to kill people in the dungeon and leave no evidence.”

“All right, everyone is here.” Jones called out. “Everyone meet Jaclyn and Devin, they’ll be our porters for this delve.”

Some of the members who just arrived had a few grumbled complaints much like they did with me but the others in the know seemed to explain their status as children of a Kingdom Knight and their mood improved.

With that we were all ready to go and we headed off towards the dungeon.

“You here for a pass?” Devin asked me once we were on the road.

“Me?” I was surprised at the odd question. “No.”

“Then how come you aren’t a porter?”

“Ajax here is a member of the team.” Jones cut in.

“How is that? He’s only level twenty-six.” Jaclyn asked as she frowned towards me. “Not only that but he can’t be older than seventeen, maybe eighteen.”

“I -” I started to defend myself but didn’t get a chance.

“You’ll see the answer to that once we get to the second floor of the dungeon. I will remind you though that you did both sign contracts to keep any information you discover about anyone on the team confidential.” he paused there before continuing. “This doesn’t just cover information you see in the dungeon but at any point since you joined the team.”

Despite me not being so paranoid ever since I knew that nobles knew about my magic for a while and yet nothing happened I was still relieved to hear anything more specific wouldn’t be spreading after this delve.