Jones caught Ajax’s eye and gave him a brief nod before he turned and followed after the representative with all the members of the Collectors who saw him doing the same. Hearing who the man was representing Ajax surmised that this was something to do with the reward they were promised all those months ago for picking him up.

That didn’t concern him much however as he was no longer a member of the Collectors. Ajax walked forward and joined the shortest line in order to talk with a receptionist. He did notice some people giving him some strange looks as he stood in line, surprisingly they weren’t hostile or curious but instead searching. It seemed almost like they were looking for something on him.

“Welcome to the Adventurer’s Guild, how can I help you?” the receptionist with the name tag that read ‘Mina’ asked.

“I am here to register with this branch.” Ajax answered as he slid over his badge.

The receptionist took the badge and ran it under the reader, the brief widening of her eye was the only show of emotion she showed while reading the information.

“Here is a guild badge sir.” she said while taking a slightly more professional posture. “If you’d like to take local contracts however we would need to ascertain your eligibility.”

“I would like to take local contracts.” Ajax confirmed.

“If you’d follow me we can have you inspected and assigned an appropriate clearance level.” she said as she started to move away from her desk.

“I’d like to take a combat exam.” Ajax said before she could even fully turn around.

“That is also a possibility but it does prevent you from selecting contracts with specific skill requirements.” she explained.

“That’s fine.” Ajax said as he moved to follow her as she walked towards the back of the building.

“What level would you like to test yourself to?” the receptionist asked as they walked. “On duty right now we have levels twenty-five, twenty-seven, twenty-nine, thirty, thirty-two, thirty-seven and forty.”

The specific levels she mentioned threw Ajax through a bit of a loop at first before he figured that it did in fact make sense. Unlike back in Lessis, here they had a dungeon that started at level twenty-five and another that started at thirty so it made sense to keep people around those levels on site to always be able to test people looking to join up.

As they walked further back they approached a table around which were seated several men, all of them looked to be in their mid to late twenties. While all of them had a drink in front of them, one of them had several empty mugs and was face down on the table. As they approached, all of their eyes scanned Ajax from head to toe.

“I’m sorry, but it seems we won’t be able to test you against a level thirty-seven.” the receptionist sighed and shook her head slightly as she took in the man who was passed out on the table.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ajax silently cursed as that was the option he was hoping to go for. With a confirmation of that level he would have no problem gaining access to the dungeon and perhaps even taking a contract that could provide him with a decent delve time. At the same time it would also draw less attention than doing the level forty one would.

“I’ll take the level thirty-two one.” Ajax said after a brief silence.

‘uuuuuuu’ one of the men at the table whistled. “Which ducal house does he come from.” he asked the receptionist.

“No affiliations have been reported.” She answered, taking the time to stare slightly into the eyes of each person at the table.

The answer was a surprise to all that were around the table, it made all of them take much more professional stances and watch Ajax with a little respect. A few even threw a few pitying glaces towards the passed out man.

Ajax didn’t know it but they all thought he was the son or grandson of Duke, after all with someone so talented that they reached level thirty-two or thereabouts while being as young as Ajax noble families would mark them as being theirs. The one exception to this being when it was actual members of the family that were that talented, in those cases they wouldn’t show their affiliations.

With that all of them fell quiet as one of the men stood up and moved with the receptionist towards a door, Ajax following silently behind them.

“Damn, two of them?” one of the men still at the table whispered not knowing Ajax could still hear them thanks to his high perception. “Do you think they kept him hidden so that they wouldn't upstage the royal family’s prince? I hear he is joining the academy this year.”

That comment drew a little of Ajax’s attention, the prince, or at least the one they were most likely referring to was less than a year older than Ajax. The first and last time Ajax had heard about him was when the announcement that he had achieved level fifty in a skill before being ten years of age, something Ajax hadn’t managed to do.

That was the last of the conversation he was able to hear as the three of them entered one of the side rooms. Inside there were lots of weapons on display, Ajax instantly recognised them as training dulled weapons similar to what the guard used back in Lessis for training, if of a higher quality.

“We’ll spar with these for your test.” the man said with a professional tone as he picked up a large two handed sword and stood in the center of the room.

Seeing the man pick up the two handed sword Ajax decided to fight while dual-wielding an axe and a sword. There was no need to use the mace as that was more of a finishing weapon, it was also much more effective against a defensive style that relied on shields.

He had to try a few different axes before he found one that was balanced just right for himself. With his weapons picked out Ajax moved to stand in the center and entered a fighting stance. He wasn’t planning on using magic at all against a level thirty-two, after all he was sure he had more physical stats than the man did.

As they both moved to engage, Ajax's guess was proven correct as he found himself moving faster than his opponent. As his axe made contact with the sword however he found himself losing the strength battle, this was to be expected seeing as a one handed axe was going against a two handed sword but even so it had quite a bit more power behind it that Ajax first assumed.

Despite being able to push past his axe the sword cut a clean arc through the air completely missing Ajax’s body as he already swerved to the side and was bringing his own sword in a horizontal arc landing a solid blow against the man's ribs making him wince a little as his armor rattled.

Despite the solid contact the fight wasn’t over yet as Ajax knew one strike in the opening exchange wouldn’t be considered enough for him to pass the examination even if the blow would have been lethal in real combat.

Over the next few exchanges the examiner took a much more defensive style and didn’t overcommit to a single strike again. This however made his choice of weapon rather poor as he couldn’t bring out the best from the two handed sword. It left him falling behind in terms of speed even more as Ajax didn’t spare him and took swipes at his shins, arms landing more than a few.

After only a minute into the fight the examiner was already heaving, he knew he would be sporting bruises on his legs the following morning as he watched Ajax for a moment to catch his breath before charging him again.

Ajax wasn’t enjoying the fight, he didn’t like bullying those weaker than him especially when they clearly admitted their inferiority as the examiner had shown after their first exchange. Determined to end in on quickly he leaned into his [Berserker Style] charging forward with reckless abandon, a strong swipe of his axe bringing his opponent off balance before his blade made contact with the man’s neck.

The examiner dropped to his knees as he started coughing following the blow. Ajax also lowered his weapons, recognising the end to the match.

“Congratulations on passing.” The receptionist said from next to the door where she waited for them to finish.

From there Ajax simply returned with the receptionist back to her desk where he received a small marking on his bronze badge, most likely symbolizing that he had passed the test. With that taken care of, Ajax took a quick glance over the contracts posted on the boards as he headed for the exit but didn’t see anything interesting as he headed back towards Luna’s house.