Ajax was mentally exhausted by the end of the night. The prince had managed to spare him and Lexi the wrath of the nobles who lost their money to archduke Goldmancer’s schemes, he did so by taking them to the king’s balcony where they were exposed more than a few nobles

What Ajax had lost in willpower that evening however his grandfather's people had managed to gain in terms of alchemy reagents. Having left the kingdom of Gryndor Ajax now had access to some different common reagents than the ones he was used to for alchemy. The idea of trying out new recipes all the way to the next dungeon filled him with energy.

It had already been a month since the convoy left Gryndor by the time that they made it to the next dungeon and this was their first mail stop. Any non-emergency mail was going to be coming for everyone that was part of the convoy and with the amount of nobles here most would be getting an update on their estates or families.

All Ajax got was an indepth update from his mother and father about how his niece was growing up and how Tom and Kate were keeping on top of their responsibilities. Even with such mundane information it had been a long ten page letter that had come.

Elija, Aurora and Judy got a whole stack of papers from Alana and Silvia who had remained in charge back in the kingdom. It seems that the massive gap that formed in the market from the absence of everyone who had left wasn’t something they had appropriately planned for and now they were playing catch-up.

Their planning issue thankfully was one of oversaturation of the market, while still a screw up it was something easily overcome by simply not selling at the current prices and waiting for the market to pick back up. It would mean that they would be left with a lot less liquid capital than they would have liked but the situation was manageable which it is why it was a non-priority mail.

“It’s been decades since the last tournament we took part in.” Aurora let out a sigh. “We only looked at the market changes after the last tournament held but since we didn’t take part in that one we didn’t account for the amount of crafters that would be leaving or losing their customers.”

“At least we know we aren’t the only ones to make this mistake. Almost everyone else reacted the same.” Elija let out a breath.

“Ajax come on, they finally caved and they are going to let us take a look.” Lexi burst into the small boxy room on top of the worm.

“Really? I’m coming too.” Judy was quick to join up, even Ajax dropped the preparations he was making for his next potion and headed out.

The main attraction of the auction and the one item that Ajax was disappointed not to see being auctioned off from the Goldmancer balcony had been a griffin egg. Much like the salamander egg he had helped house Silvertongue secure way back when this one had a very high chance of hatching, the hatchling would then have a high chance of bonding the person who raised it. Unlike the salamander however the griffin was not only an almost exclusively combat bond, it also doubled as a flying mount making it one of the best choices out there.

The winner of the very heated finale to the evening had been House Steelblade. It had cost them a substantial sub of 150k gold but Benedict’s cousin and fellow tournament competitor had recently had his bonded fox pass away and was in prime age to pick up a baby griffin that would all but surely last him the remainder of his life.

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“You all got here so quick.” Benedict teased them as Lexi, Anna, Judy and Ajax all arrived at the carriage that now exclusively housed Benedict’s cousin and the egg. “Make sure you all clamp down on your mana emission, there should be no leakage.”

Surrounding the eggs in their mana was something that a lot of monsters did, griffins being among their numbers, it had also been heavily researched that following the same pattern after obtaining the egg by the one who is looking to bond it increases the chance of a bond forming by 30%.

Despite there being no tests done to see what happens if multiple different types of mana were used to surround the egg nobody was willing to risk their investment and good luck by allowing others to leave their mana around it.

The egg in question was much bigger than the salamander egg Ajax had seen, while the salamander egg had been the size of an ostrich egg this one was easily four times as big. More than that this egg wasn’t red in color it was instead a silvery gray and it stood nestled against Benedict's cousin.

Ajax could feel the mana surrounding the egg, this time however he had more than a few skills he didn’t have last time he saw an egg and was quick to put them to good use. [Inspector’s Eye] was quickly used and the information it brought was quite good.

Name : Swiftwing Griffin Egg

Level : N/A

Age : 12 months

Hatchling : Healthy

Incubation time left : 1 month

Alchemical uses : Strong mana catalyst, unstable mana catalyst, high quality sample.

“How long is he going to stay with the egg like that?” Ajax asked as it seemed rather uncomfortable.

“For as much time as he can until it hatches.” Benedict answered. “Apparently it was retrieved four months ago so he’s got a good long while. At least our appraisers tell us its a viable egg.”

Ajax had to bite his cheek to not let it slip that it only had a month to go. Despite the friendship he had developed with Benedict it wasn’t as close as his connection with House Goldmancer or Manashaper, this meant that he wasn’t willing to reveal his high tier inspection skill on something so irrelevant.

“There are more than one type of griffin?” Ajax asked instead.

“There are. This one is a swiftwing.” Benedict confirmed. “How did you know?”

“[Alchemist’s Examination]” Ajax answered, it was something he didn’t mind people knowing he had and provided a good cover. “It’s also a strong mana catalyst, an unstable mana catalyst, as well as a high quality ingredient.”

“That is not an ingredient!!!” Everyone present had joined in on that, if not all for the same reason. While Benedict, his cousin and Lexi were all outraged at the idea of using a potential baby griffin as part of a fancy omelet and calling it alchemy Anna and Judy were outraged on having something that costs 150k gold be used as part of an experiment in a fancy omelet hoping it would turn out well.

“Come on now don’t look at me like that, I’m just telling you what the skill told me.” Even Ajax wasn’t that wasteful as to actually use something so expensive in one of his alchemy projects. More than that however Ajax very much wanted to find a Bond for himself and from the looks of things it seemed that raising one from a baby might just be his only choice as his power was starting to dwarf anything he could find wandering humanoid areas. “Are you bringing it into the dungeon?”

“Yes.” Benedict's cousin confirmed. “The prince offered to safeguard it and keep it isolated from outside mana while I fight.”

Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, the delve that took place over the next three days was nothing out of the ordinary. With a level difference of eighteen between floors even Ajax had only managed to gain a stat boost for three floors.

One of the only highlights of the delve was that the second floor had been a feeder floor and the group had managed to grab a rather sizable amount of meat and fur. The animal in question seemed to be a giant version of chinchilla as far as Ajax could tell. While he wasn’t keen on eating the giant rodent he was forced to admit that it had some of the softest fur he had ever felt and made sure to skin as many of them as he could before they left that floor.

With the second dungeon cleared and no other reason for a detour the convoy finally started heading towards the capital where the last two dungeons awaited and the tournament was getting closer with each passing day.