As he walked down the street Ajax wasn’t paying all that much attention to his surroundings, instead he was studying a piece of paper that he received from the receptionist after he finished all the paperwork for enrolling and getting himself accredited for the combat test.

The piece of paper represented the open slots for delving concerning the two dungeons near the capital. The situation was a real downer for him as unlike back in Lessis where the time queue time for a fully booked out dungeon was two weeks, here the harder dungeon was booked solid for the next two months, whereas the other dungeon had the first opening in three months time.

The only way around this would be for him to join a party that already had a delve slot or to obtain a delve slot from a person who had a contract attached to it. He really didn’t want to tag along with another party, not only would he very likely outgrown them very quickly but he wasn’t the trusting sort, the only reason he joined the Collectors originally was because going solo wasn’t an option.

There was a rather obvious solution to his dilemma : talk with Luna and see if she could get him a spot on the healing union teams, from what he saw of the publicly available schedule they had three delve slots a week, one for training, one for gathering and one for trading. He still didn’t know Luna that well and while this idea was more palatable than joining her noble house it would be his last resort.

As he made his way through the merchant district towards the noble part of the city Ajax now carefully inspected all the different shops that were scattered around. He knew that he would soon be in need of a smith, leatherworker and merchant. One to fix his weapons, one to fix his armor and one to sell most of his goods to.

More than anything however he needed to find an alchemist, with these two dungeons at his disposal he would see all his stats grow by by eleven if he cleared both dungeon to the point that the bosses reached around level sixty and that would mean he would be able to take a few more potions.

This in turn reminded him that he needed to gain access to a lot more money. The two thousand gold coins he had with him might be a fortune to the common farmer and even an adventurer, when it came to how much of a money sink getting an adventurer to progress it was barely a good start.

When it came to smiths he had scouted out three different places that seemed good enough to him in terms of quality. One of them however could only produce gear up to level sixty, and while that was the limit that he could reliably wield right now he knew it wouldn’t be the same in a few months. That left him with two places to ask about : Al’s and Well Armed.

Al’s seemed to be run by a dwarf, his work was of very high quality. Of the numerous weapons displayed he could see that the smith had the capacity to create weapons that were ornate or simple while keeping them deadly. The quality however also came with a solid markup price, since the smith advertised items all the way up to level one hundred.

Well Armed was run by a bear beastkin. Unlike the Al’s who focused on tried and true solid designs this smith instead tried his hand at incorporating all sorts of different rare materials into his weapons. From the area marked ‘bargain barrel’ it was obvious that not all of his ideas always turned out as well as he hoped. His prices however would probably be much more reasonable if Ajax got his hands on any of the materials he wanted to experiment with.

When it came to leather workers there was almost no need for comparing the different shops as there was one that was clearly above the rest. ‘Skin and Hide Covering’ was a versatile place that was a step above all the others he had seen as he toured the market district. The only issue was with the sign that was posted on the counter.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

‘Only accepting customers by referral.’

The idea wasn’t novel to Ajax as he had read stories and watched movies where the same concept appeared back on Earth yet it was the first time he experienced it here. Exclusivity was by no means strange in this world, yet someone independent providing exclusivity through the need of a referral stood out like a sore thumb. He even wondered how it was that none of the noble houses recruited them or wiped them out.

He proved to have no luck finding an alchemist. There were a lot of alchemists scattered all over the merchant district however none of them were good enough to make the permanent stat potions. All the ones that were seemed to be either swept up by the noble houses or working under contract with different merchant organizations.

It wasn’t even like Ajax could blame them however since he knew that joining was their best not only for progress but also for safety. As for looking for a merchant Ajax knew it would take a lot longer than a single afternoon to find a trustworthy merchant, not only that but he still hadn’t decided what to do about his mother’s side of the family.

As the sun started going down Ajax made his way towards the noble district. He wasn’t even given a second glance when crossing the divide once he flashed the token that Luna gave him. As he made his way to Luna’s home he noticed the massive change in architecture.

Unlike the merchant district where all the buildings were touching each other down the length of the street in an attempt to squeeze in that little bit of extra room, here each mansion stood on its own plot with a clear path all the way around itself. Not only that but each one was also full of life with caretakers and guards dotted around.

He was slightly surprised to find that Luna’s home fit in perfectly with the rest. There was a servant that could be seen cleaning a room through the open window and a guard at the front door. None of this matched with the image Hatchet had given him of Luna on their way to the capital.

The guard only took one look at his token before he opened the door for him. After he walked inside a butler came up to him with a servant following behind.

“Lady Lighttouched has been expecting you, young Ajax.” the butler said. “If you would give your pack to Nigel here he will see it all placed in your room.”

“Isn’t that where I am going?” Ajax asked skeptically.

“Sadly I’m afraid that you arrived a bit later than we expected, you’ll be under a bit of a rush to get yourself washed and dressed in time for dinner as it is.” he said as his nose twitched a little from the smell that was coming off Ajax after a few weeks of travel with a caravan. “If you would follow me please.”

Ajax did as he was asked and handed over most of his packs. The sole exception being his coin bag. Despite the trust he had in Hatchet and by extension Luna, he wouldn’t be letting the two thousand gold coins out of his sight here in the capital.

Ajax was led into a luxurious bathroom that had an ornate tub filled with steaming water. Once the butler left Ajax undressed and slowly submerged himself in the warm water. It was the most relaxing bath he has taken since he was reborn in this world, sadly he didn’t have all that much time to enjoy it. After a few minutes of lying there bonelessly and just soaking his muscles to relieve the fatigue that had built up he started scrubbing himself clean.

By the time he had gotten out the water had taken on a brown hue. The layers of dust and crud that hadn't been all that noticeable to him throughout the journey were now all scraped away and he felt clean. As he turned around he also found that all of his own clothes were gone, in their place all that remained was his coin pouch and next to it was a set of clean clothes.

This was very surprising since he hadn’t noticed anyone entering or leaving the room throughout the entire time. After taking a moment to calm himself down he quickly got dressed, secured his coin pouch in an inside pocket and opened the door.

Outside he found the butler waiting for him. The man gave him a quick inspecting look, staring at his head all the way to his feet and back again. After a short nod he opened his mouth.

“If you’ll follow me, dinner is ready.”

Ajax simply nodded and followed him as he glanced about the house. The corridors were well decorated with all sorts of plants but noticeably absent were the portraits of different generations one would expect to find a noble house. He supposed this made sense seeing as Luna was the first generation of this noble house. As they entered and passed through a massive room with a long table that Ajax assumed was for feast they entered into a smaller room with a round table where Luna and Hatchet were sitting with a third seat left open for him.

“Thank you Alfred, that will be all.” Luna said, and Ajax had to bite the inside of his cheek in order not to react at the coincidence of the butler’s name.