A few moments after upgrading his skill Ajax felt a wave of drowsiness overcome him and he fell asleep. He didn’t know it but his entire bedding was thrown around like a hurricane had passed through that night from all the twisting and turning he had been doing.

Ajax woke up the next morning with a shooting pain in his neck as he found himself lying sideways across the bed and his head dangling over the side. As he carefully got up he quickly sent a pulse of mana through his body to heal the kink in his neck. It took a few tries and over one hundred points of mana before he figured out how to heal the injury as it was different from the normal bruises,cuts or impalement he had practiced on.

As Ajax made his way downstairs he realized that he was the first one awake in the entire house and a look out the window informed him that it was barely morning. He quickly got to work cooking, wanting to do something to repay Tom and Kate for letting him crash at their place while he was staying in the city.

His timing turned out to be almost perfect, as his meal was almost ready when he heard movement from upstairs. Not more than ten seconds after that a disheveled Kate made her way into the kitchen looking both wide awake and sleepy at the same time.

“You’re already up?” she asked.

“Yeah, not sure what woke me up but I couldn’t get back to sleep.” Ajax said as he rubbed his neck despite it not hurting anymore. “Thought making breakfast was the least I could do.”

“And we appreciate it.” Tom said as he came down also looking sleepy. “Sorry to say though we both have to eat and dash. I am on the morning patrol and Kate has classes to go to.”

Ajax nodded at that and the three took their places at the table where Ajax slowly chewed his own meal as he watched his brother and his future sister-in-law demolish the food in record time before going to get changed and leaving with a quick goodbye.

Left all alone Ajax first got to work washing the dishes before he heard a ‘meow’ come from behind him. As he turned around he found Fluffy who had once again grown even bigger, whereas before while on all fours only his head reached Ajax’s knee now he reached that point with his shoulders.

“And how have you been?” Ajax asked rhetorically as he moved to the bag he put down last night on a shelf and pulled out the core of one of the bats before tossing it to Fluffy. The shadow cat exploded in motion for an instant the moment the core got in range, after devouring it in a single chop she returned to her initial position like nothing had happened.

Of course, Ajax could feel a little of the effects as the mana inside of Fluffy was reacting to absorbing the mana core, the instability allowed him to get a feel for the amount of power Fluffy had and he would ballpark it somewhere around level fifteen.

“Soon you’ll be strong enough to start joining Tom on patrol.” he smirked as a picture of a fully grown shadow cat was standing menacingly behind a squad of guards. “Your presence will do wonders as a deterrent once you grow up.”

As he exited the house he couldn’t help but think that Fluffy might soon be out of place in this city as a whole. Her parents were around the strength of a level twenty-five to thirty beast, at least the mother he killed, but she was both malnourished and didn’t have such good conditions growing up. In a few years when Fluffy reaches two and a half years old it is likely that the only people who would be able to go toe to toe with her would be the local branch guild master and the warden of the guard.

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He shook his head with a smirk at that thought and found himself glad that Fluffy and Tom had bonded. Now he was faced with another question, what should he do first? He would be stopping by to see Hatchet, Alana and Judy as well as his parents.

His first stop was to see Alana and Judy but they both quickly gave him a hug and then promptly ushered him out of their office with a promise to talk more tonight when they weren’t so busy. He also heard the receptionist mutter ‘so that’s who the expensive potions were for’ as he walked back outside.

His visit to his parents turned out much better, as Hatchet was still there the four of them shared a cup of tea as Ajax proceeded to regale them with his latest delve into the dungeon.

“Berserker?” his mother sounded both outraged and concerned when she heard what his new Style was called. “Doesn’t that sound… a bit reckless?”

“It’s not really that bad,” Hatchet answered. “Sure as a perpetual combat style it will get you killed, especially if used in a battle of attrition. But it is also one of the strongest styles when it comes to a one on one fight.”

The recount continued from there but Ajax decided not to share that he passed the first threshold, he wouldn’t want them having information like that and it wouldn’t do them any good to know it in the first place.

As he left his parents house Ajax found himself with nothing to do and nowhere to go. It was too soon since he returned from the dungeon delve for him to head outside the city to train his healing magic, not only that but he wanted to take it easy his first day back, all his training regimen could wait till tomorrow.

With nothing much else to do Ajax went for the stereotypical option. Like any adventurer who wasn’t doing a job or spending time with his family and loved ones he decided to head to the bar inside the guild branch and relax there.

“What can I get you?” the bartender asked him as he sat down.

Ajax pleasantly surprised to find the man behind the counter stereotypically drying and already clean and dry glass as he did his job.

“I’m not sure.” he said before thinking about his poison resistance. “Something strong.”

“Ajax I didn’t know you drank!” Bobby popped out of nowhere the moment Ajax got served his drink.

It was already around two in the afternoon but from the way the big man was swaying on his feet something told Ajax happy hour had started quite a while ago.

“I don’t Usually anyway.” he responded while downing the shot glass filled with a bright emerald liquid.

His actions happened to draw quite a lot of attention and Ajax didn’t know why at first but then he noticed that his health points had taken a small hit and he could feel a warmth that was growing hotter by the second expanding from his stomach.

“T..” he coughed. “That was something.”

He could feel the path the drink burned as it traveled down his throat. The bartender placed a glass of water in front of him with a pleased smirk. Ajax was a little saddened by the fact he wasn’t able to recreate the cliche interactions with a bartender. He was also under no illusion that this wasn’t the strongest alcohol in this place and the strongest would kill him, but maybe that was just something to work towards one day.

Deciding to pace himself for the rest of the day Ajax ordered another shot of the drink and a glass of juice. The initial focus on him from someone who looked so young downing the drink quickly dispersed once the rest of the adventurers realized he won’t be falling flat on his face, though more than a few got a quick chuckle out of the way he coughed after downing the drink.

Quite a few more members of the Collectors had shown up as the day progressed but Ajax mostly kept to himself on the far side of the bar listening to job requests as they were posted and taken on from the receptionist.

None of the combat ones sounded interesting to him as the targets weren’t anything above level fifty from the mission descriptions. One of them got his interest however when it mentioned fighting salamanders in order to collect their hide.

“I’m sorry sir but we have numerous credible sightings that those salamanders are in fact in the fifty-five to sixty-five range and not fourty to fifty” the receptionist's voice rose for the first time that day, her tone was also cold instead of the usual warm friendly one.

Most of the room turned to glare at the merchant who tried placing the request. Even the two people who were in the middle of a brawl put a stop to it in favor of giving the merchant a withering look. If there was one thing adventurers hated it was clients who knowingly gave lower danger levels hoping to get away with a smaller reward.