The greedy merchant had made it out of the guild hall with only a few ale mugs thrown towards him for his greedy uncaring nature. As all of this was happening Ajax was fighting an internal battle. On the one side was the will to continue with his training plan and continue delving with the Collectors until he became strong enough to go to the capital.

On the other was a deep rage the like of which he hadn’t felt since back in his first life when his parents killer was set free from jail. He felt like he wanted to chase after the merchant and accept the job just to get back at the scaly fiends that turned his home into rubble, cost Hatchet his arm and almost killed his parents.

He knew that the salamanders weren’t the real culprits, after all the baron’s son was the one who stole the egg from them in the first place and that he should be the focus of Ajax anger, and Ajax did reserve quite a bit of his fury for him, but he still had some for the salamanders.

“Hey, you all right?” Nelly asked as she squeezed her already rather tight grip on his left arm.

The action brought Ajax’s inner conflict to a close with revenge not being the chosen path, if only by a slim margin. Even when fueled by rage Ajax was self-aware enough to know that he wouldn’t be able to do anything significant to the salamander population as he was now, though he did remember to pin the idea in his mind for when he finally became that strong.

On that note Ajax finally called it a night. The thoughts of the salamanders left a vile taste in his mouth so he decided to head back home and get to sleep, tomorrow his training will begin anew.

Judy P.O.V

Eight months later :

Alana and I had gotten started on gathering the potions that Ajax would soon need as soon as the plan was made and he delivered the water elemental to us. Unlike the normal potion gathering we had researched however Ajax turned out to be a completely different beast and this wasn’t just because of his enormous amount of points that will be approaching 1500 when he reaches a bit higher that level thirty.

No, the main issue came from his hybrid balanced build. Getting potions worth 150 stats wasn’t all that difficult, no the difficult part came in the fact that all of his stats were above the 150 mark. With all his stats being so high we barely managed to scrounge up the money despite accepting some rather costly long term contracts to cover some of them.

Ajax’s stake in our company went from 20000 gold coins to under 1000 in the past few months but at least our efforts were fruitful. We had gotten the complete amount of potions that Ajax would be able to use some of them even for increasing stats past the 200 mark which made a decent dent into our money.

With this Ajax was now just a silent partner in mine and Alana’s business and we could now finally let go of any guilt and restraint we had when most of the company belonged to Ajax and we were making much safer investments.

Katy P.O.V

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I woke up purring pleasantly onto Tom’s chest but quickly disentangled myself from the warm pile of limbs and covers and went to wash myself. Normally I would have spent quite a long while soaking in the warm water but as of late the entire family was a little on edge.

My little brother Ajax seems to have a real talent for delving as he made progress much faster than anyone could have expected and he was already planning to make the move to the capital.

Ajax’s entire family was trying to get him to stay just that little bit longer. I was the only one that was supportive of his leaving, having clearly seen just how much he has already outgrown this backwater region.

Now strong people wasting away in such places for family wasn’t uncommon and would have been something that I would have even supported for the sense of safety it would provide. The problem that only I seemed to be able to ferret out was that he wasn’t the only one outgrowing this backwater region.

Alana and Judy had been big enough to move to the capital even before all of this took place, unsurprisingly their position actually got worse as time passed from having bought Ajax all of the potions he would need to reach the full potential of his stats.

My own growth in the healing department was massive. After the theory Ajax and I presented was sent by message to the capital and then proven to work I was rewarded with a lot of good will from the instructors. They had seen to it that I was only a few years from myself outgrowing the region.

With Silvia no longer looking after the kids Sam was able to push himself as a smith with a full time merchant to help him, he wasn’t the best smith in the city but he did make the top three despite his young age. Unlike his children however Sam would still take a decade to outgrow this backwater fully.

Tom and Fluffy were both on a meteoric rise in power the likes of which hasn’t been seen in the guards before. Had the rest of the family taken the time to compare the duo with anyone other than Ajax it would become quickly apparent that both will outgrow this backwater in a few years at most.

All of these led to one clear conclusion, if we didn’t all want to stagnate in the future it would be in our best interest to move into a better region, ideally a centralized one that is equipped to help strong talents grow. The clear option in my mind was to have Ajax leave for the capital and start preparing a place for our entire family there.

Tom P.O.V

A cool draft woke me up and I found the blankets thrown off to one side and the woman-shaped heater I snuggled with all night nowhere to be seen. I instinctively reached for my knife only to stop as I heard her humming from within the washroom.

As I was getting out of bed the door was bashed open all of a sudden and a black sack of fluff smashed flat against the covers once again.

“Morning there Fluffy.” the shadowcat purred as I scratched her behind her ears.

It was still astounding to me just how much a creature like this could grow in such a short period of time, even with Ajax donating a large part of her diet from his delving loot. Right now Fluffy had reached the danger level equivalent to a level twenty-five monster, this was about as strong as Ajax said her mother was and yet she was still a baby.

To my surprise these last months had passed relatively quickly. The time I spent training with Fluffy to be a bonded pair on patrol had been such much fun that I quickly lost track of time. My name had also spread far and wide in the city criminal underground. It turns out having a bond with a strong nose for illegal substances is an easy way to get yourself marked, our only saving grace was that we weren’t enough of a nuisance to the underground that they would risk Commander Grievous’s wrath.

Ajax P.O.V.

I had just finished the last delve I planned on doing in the city. With this I considered myself as being ready enough to head towards the capital.

“You know the last few runs have been pretty disappointing.” I said to Hatchet.

“You already were at the appropriate level of power to challenge that dungeon when you were level twenty-four. It would stand to reason that since you got six levels since that time, not to mention how much your skills have improved, that it would seem a weak challenge now.” he said patiently.

He wasn’t wrong, me and the Collectors had hit the dungeon at least once a week ever since I had joined the team. I would like to say that the reason for such a high number of delves was in fact my fault.

How was it my fault? Pretty simply. Due to Alana and Judy having to spend most if not all of my money to grab myself all the potions I would need I had also been pushing myself to scrape together enough money that I could at least have some financial stability as I got to the capital.

“So, you plan on drinking them anytime soon?” Hatchet asked as he looked over the table between us on which stood almost 20000 gold coins worth of stat points.