“A full year…” Ajax murmured, unlike everyone else here, a year was a decent chunk of time for him to plan out.Ajax and the rest of the team delving tomorrow weren’t the only ones who decided to call it an early night. While Theron might not have had the political know-how to know what it meant that he received those infant warms the rest of the royal guards were a bit more in the know so they all collectively left for the small courtyard the kingdom was renting out.

By the time Ajax and the rest made it back they came upon a very strange sight in front of the stables. Theron was surrounded by the rest of the guards as they all took their turns feeding anything they could get their hands on to two worms the size of Ajax’s arms.

“What is going on here?” Xavier asked, as a member of the royal family he did have some authority over the guards.

“Look, your highness, they’ll eat anything.” One of the youngest guards said with excitement as they fed a small chunk of unprocessed ore to one of the worms. A quick elbow to the side from one of his buddies did make him realize who he was talking to however. “I mean, we are keeping an eye on a potential political incident.”

“And I thought we had a potential political incident with us.” Xavier laughed good naturedly at the guards words as he also stepped closer to get a better look at the worms.

“They’re so young.” Xavier wasn’t the only one interested as Anna quickly approached the worms, her usual aloof attitude nowhere to be seen. “You still have around three months before they need to start with their taming. Also if you can get them some earth or life attuned cores to eat they will start their growth phase a lot quicker and you can get them into circulation in under a year.”

“A year is not that bad” Anna quickly picked up. “If our sources are correct the Empire is looking to maintain their monopoly on the worms for at least another decade. You’ll be able to get a few delivery contracts for them just for the prestige of other companies having their goods delivered by still-worm.”

“A year is still a little too long-term for me to plan out in advance.” Ajax said as he rubbed the back of his head slightly. “About a year and a half ago I hadn’t even set foot inside the capital.”

“Well you better start.” Oliver said with distaste. “A noble always looks not only to their future but that of their house as well.”

Ajax frowned at the combative attitude but chose to ignore him, instead he focused on Theron. “What are you planning to do with them?” he asked the beastkin.

“I won them as a bonus for a bet I placed with the money you gave me.” Theron said with a bewildered look. “I was planning to just give them to you, my Lord.”

Ajax was very much tempted to leave the worms with Theron, but that simply wasn’t how things worked in this world. Theron was his retainer, and while that meant that Ajax and the rest of his noble house supported him, it did mean that they also got to profit from his accomplishments. Seeing as Theron was initially getting a slot to delve into a dungeon that was very much in demand there was no reason for him to reject the worms.

“Judy and Alana are going to throw you a party when we get back.” Ajax said with a grin. “Interesting as they are, however I best turn in for the night.”

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“That’s a good idea.” Xavier nodded before turning to the guards and Theron. “Keep an eye out for the worms, make sure to keep them fed, I also suggest not taking them outside the compound before it’s time to leave.”

“Thank you and have a good evening, your highness.” Theron nodded back politely while the guards all snapped a quick salute to the royal.

Unlike their previous stay in the Empire, Ajax didn’t have any issues getting to sleep on this night. With a full compound secured by the guards there was nobody that could get past them, or at least nobody that he could do anything about, so he simply fell asleep.

When he woke up the next morning he quickly washed up and put on his proper equipment. Despite the lack of enchantment the gear still looked to be very high end for a level thirty-five, it was actually very much in line with what a baron’s main heir might actually use.

“Are you all ready?” two of the guards that the Goldmancer family sent with them were going to be escorting them to and from the dungeon.

While Ajax didn’t really feel any more stress than he normally did, the same couldn’t be said for the other four people. For three of them this would be the first time they will be entering a dungeon without a dedicated guard shadowing them at all times, for the forth he had a mission to fulfill that could very well get him killed if he wasn’t careful.

“It looks so similar.” The silence that had stretched out during the walk to the dungeon was broken by Ajax as he looked at the defenses that surrounded the dungeon arch. To the untrained eye the defenses looked very similar to the ones the kingdom had set up around their own dungeons through Ajax was pretty sure that they were in fact quite different.

“Ah the quests of honor.” The guard captain in charge of the dungeon was there to greet them as they moved past the line to the front. “Please pass all storage devices to my companion here for examination.”

Ajax was careful to pass his storage ring to one of the two Goldmancer guards. No way he was risking making any sort of contact with a trained analyst, he had learnt his lesson from the first spying attempt he had had to deal with. The analyst actually took his time to go through all the spacial rings before he returned them to the guard and whispered in the guard captain's ear.

“While everything seems to be in order, you did seem to have quite a bit of camping equipment. Be assured that you can exit the dungeon at any time and we will clear out anything that comes out after you.” the guard captain addressed all of them but his eyes were fixed on Ajax.

“Thank you for the offer.” Xavier responded with a polite tone that also marked the end of the conversation as he headed for the arch.

While the prince was the first of them to enter, Ajax was actually the first to follow. This could be seen as a little rude considering that everyone else was part of a ducal family both of the guards were actually pleased that Oliver wouldn’t even get a moment unsupervised with Anna.

“Mannerless commoner…” Oliver cursed under his breath as he followed Lexi and Anna into the arch.

Inside the dungeon the first thing that hit them was the warmth of the desert biome. Much as it added insult to injury, not only did the Empire not have good trading relations with most other nations on account of their more radical views, the first floor of their main dungeon was also based on a desert biome leading to very little consistent gatherable resources to train the craftsmen in.

“Well, I guess it's time to find the three of you a mini-boss to clear.” Ajax said as he quickly took a look around. Unfortunately he already surpassed the level thirty-two limit that would grant him the stat point for clearing this floor. “I doubt there is anything here that can threaten any of you.”

That was very much not the case as while the prince, Lexi and Anna would have no problem killing anything here in solo combat they could easily be overwhelmed through numbers. It didn’t take them long to find the first arch to the next floor and Xavier made quick work of the scorpion defending it while Ajax wiped out the rest of the pack.

“There is another mini-boss in the oasis.” Ajax nodded towards the decently concealed alligator. With it being submerged in water Lexi was the one to handle it since Anna was more of a fire focused fighter.

The final mini-boss of the first floor was a camouflage salamander which was actually half coiled around the arch it was defending, blending in perfectly with the surrounding rock. Unfortunately it’s perfect camouflage did very little to fool any of their sense mana from picking up on the constant heat spell it had active around its body.

Ajax was actually glad to see Anna use ice to kill the reptile as the surrounding temperature rapidly cooled to a much more pleasant range. It was here that the group seemed to face the first issue, who would be the first to enter the next floor.

Objectively it should be either Oliver or Ajax to ensure that there wasn’t any roaming monster near the entrance that could ambush them; however neither of them made a move to approach the arch, both looking at the other.