Ajax woke up late the following morning as the sun was already bathing the entire room in sunlight through the window. Despite he had no desire to move Lexi who was still sleeping with her head on his chest. He let her have five extra minutes before he finally gently nudged her awake.

“Is it morning already?” She asked while yawning.

“I think we’re already late.” Ajax answered.

“You can’t be late today.” Despite the urgency in her words her tone and actions had her moving in slow motion as she got out of bed and Ajax did take the time to appreciate that sight before he followed her and quickly got washed and dressed.

As he was heading downstairs Ajax couldn’t help but think back a little on the small secret his inspection spell had found on Elara. It was the first time a person he was inspecting had a trait that ranked so highly.

Witch

Increases mana based curse skills limit by 40. Small increase in affinity and progression of mana based curse skills.

Increases mana skills limit by 20. Minor increase in affinity and progression of mana skills.

Increased bond affinity with felines and toads.

The only traits that he saw which surpassed it in his opinion were Royal, increasing the limit of all skills by 50. And his own Divine Witness, which was head and shoulders above everything.

Now Ajax hadn’t seen so much as a spec of curse mana during their entire fight so he was guessing that she either didn’t have any curse skills or that she might have picked up a few early in life for the experience and didn’t push them much after that as she focused on her storm domain. The main theory right now was that she was focusing on removing curses, such skills would also benefit from her trait after all as they were curse skills.

“Good morning Ajax. Good morning Lexi.” Xavier greeted them as they joined the royal family for breakfast.

Both Lexi and Ajax were a bit embarrassed at arriving late to breakfast together like this but they simply blushed slightly, nodded back in greeting and pushed through it. Breakfast was light since Ajax, the king’s oldest son and the first squad captain would all have to fight today, not only that but all of their fights were going to be much harder than the first round had been.

As they finished breakfast everyone left with the exception of Ajax, the king and the crown prince. “You managed to find something damaging about Elara?” the king asked.

Ajax was a little surprised that it was only the three of them here for this discussion, then again it was only concerning a young noble who won’t be a concern for some time so it was best to limit access to this information as much as possible. “I wouldn’t say it’s damaging, but in the right circumstances it could provide a lot of distrust.” Ajax answered. “She has the Witch trait.”

Both the prince and the king were a little surprised at what the news turned out to be. “A witch.” the prince started thinking out loud. “There is almost no way that she managed to push her magic so much while also focusing on curses, at best she might have dabbled a bit and found it not to her liking or she focuses on dispelling curses.”

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Having so recently had their own issue with a rogue noble curse user they both knew that the trait wouldn’t make that much of a stir, but the moment any curse related outbreak happened she would always be the first suspect and the one the common people would first focus on.

“Thank you for that.” the king said. “Keep this confidential.”

Ajax simply nodded and the three of them walked out of the room. Ajax went to grab his gear while the two royals went to make their own preparations for watching day two of the tournament.

The small trip to the arena was a lot more somber today than it had been yesterday. Yesterday nobody had known who it was they would be fighting, today would see the prince fight Shadow, and the captain of the first squad fight Aranor. Both of them were going in as the underdogs.

Ajax’s match was actually the one where the people representing Gryndor had the best odds of winning. Seeing as how in the level one hundred tournament yesterday only one of their three representatives had managed to win and they would be fighting the old elf in their second round today.

The biggest change could be seen in the king’s oldest son. Gone was his careless attitude and gone were the jokes, he was now serious and marching with perfect posture towards the arena. He still sported a grin on his face but instead of the smug or teasing grin he usually had on this was one of excitement he barely ever showed as he knew he would be fighting a strong opponent.

“You got this uncle.” Xavier had caught on to the negative atmosphere but despite it he still pushed through it and continued to believe in his idol.

The king’s oldest son didn’t answer the encouragement from his nephew with fake bravado, he knew most of all how the fight was most likely going to play out. “It’s going to be fun.”

As everyone was entering the arena Ajax felt [Enigma] spring to life. He had been targeted by about ten very weak inspection skills. None of them had managed to even break Enigma’s thin wall protecting his name, but that wasn’t the point. Ajax knew that this was a warning sent by both the elves and the Republic about Ajax’s own inspection skill and what he does with any information he gains on their next generation of elites.

“Should I not be using my inspection skill any further?” Ajax asked. He knew it was way too strong, he had gotten everything about Elara except her skill list in their previous match.

“You can keep using it.” the crown prince answered. “Just be sure that after the tournament is over you are willing to make a promise about disclosing any of the information you found out. That way if the information ever does leak they’ll be forced to target our kingdom as a whole for retaliation and not just you.”

“May I have a word?” Elara’s father the Duke intercepted Ajax before they all got to the Gryndor seats. Elara was also there as was Aranor.

Seeing as how the oldest prince was going to be taking part in the first match the captain of the first squad looked questioningly towards his kings. At the king’s nod he, Ajax and crown prince all moved to a more private location to the side.

“I would like to apologize about my behavior yesterday.” the duke started. “I had gotten a bit emotional especially towards the end of the match. I would be in your debt Baron Hearthbound if you were to forgive me.”

“Your apology is accepted, Duke.” Ajax responded, he had already talked with people he trusted and all of them had told him not to make a big deal about the Duke’s behavior and accept any apology gift he offers. A blank favor like this was on the high end of what they expected him to offer.

“Would you be willing to spar with me after the tournament?” Elara asked, much to the surprise of her father who was turning to walk away.

“I don’t see how sparring against me would be beneficial to you.” Ajax answered honestly. “I wouldn’t mind but my style is unique and almost a perfect counter to your own.”

“I want to experience your mana drain field again.” Elara confessed. “I felt so close to gaining my domain as I was struggling to maintain control of the mana as you were drawing it.”

Ajax wasn’t all that surprised to hear her reasoning. More than a few mages had expressed a small increase in their mana control skills for a short while as they adapted to fighting against [Mana Syphon]’s constant pull. None of the mages had managed to even slow down the drain but they did succeed in keeping their spells stable as they were drained away.

“I would be willing to help…” Ajax left it open ended as he turned towards the crown prince just to see if there was anything the royal wanted to add.

“A few days of joint training between the promising youths that came here for the tournament would probably be the best way to do this.” the prince offered. “I’m sure they all have a lot to learn from one another.”

The duke managed to keep his face neutral as he nodded to the prince’s request before everyone went back to their seats. The arena was the same sloped mountainside Aranor had fought on the previous day, the only difference was the lack of snow. It seems that the arena was a lot more limited in terms of layout and it only tried to make up for it with different weather.