Tom P.O.V.

“Wow, he must be really talented then. After all, he caught up in level with you.” His light statement rendered the room silent for a few long seconds.

“HE WHAT???” Kate, the commander and myself all exploded after we processed what Walter just said.

“How do you even know this?” I quickly followed up.

The information left me stumped. I know for a fact that even if Ajax really is already level twenty-four there is no chance he would even think about sharing that piece of information with anyone. Even Kate and myself would probably have to notice something off and ask about it before he would share it with us. Walter was an alright guy, he was two years ahead of me and got promoted to be the commander's aide one year after he joined the unit, but he was definitely not someone Ajax would share any personal information with.

“I can see it.” Walter chose to answer me after a few seconds recovering from the shock of our reactions. “It’s why I got promoted so quickly, I have the ability to tell the level of any being. Sadly anything else such as name ,age , stats or skills is not available but it still makes for a great ability, especially since the ability comes with some innate privacy penetration.”

That piece of knowledge was the second bomb dropped in the span of a ten seconds, any type of scanning skill that had privacy pennetration was a rare skill. So why is he being so open about it? It took me a few seconds to put it together and a quick look at Kate let me know we came to the same realization. His ability was already documented as part of his file so us knowing meant nothing with so many others already aware of it.

In fact many had known about him for a while and this had led to him receiving privileges, that could be why he was so nonchalant about sharing Ajax’s level. That and I doubt he was aware of just how young Ajax was, he was a decent bit taller than me after all.

“Commander, would it be alright for me to ask to keep Ajax’s level private.” Kate seemed to be a lot quicker to come to a decision and asked the commander.

“Hmmm … , yes, I can see why that would be appropriate. While I have no problem with doing that he will not get to skimp out on his duties, both as a hunter and as part of this unit should we be involved in any skirmishes.” the commander rubbed his chin as he thought everything through.

Both Kate and I let out a heavy sign and slumped down a little. With that out of the way all that was left was to inform Ajax of all this. Though askin Ajax to be secretive about himself was a lot like asking water to be wet.

“But that’s all I will do.” the commander continued. “I’ve been told that beside Baron Stillwater’s heir we will be having two others invited over for this excitement. I don’t know who they are but if any of the brats come with someone that can pick him out there’s nothing I can do.”

His words were like a bucket of cold water. He was right nonetheless. It was in fact highly likely that whoever else was coming here to lead will have someone with the ability to view people’s levels, we just had to hope they couldn’t see their age as well. His words also seemed to have a different effect on the other person in the room.

“I will follow your orders, sir. But can I ask why we are keeping this all a secret? We’ve been all but shouting about how talented Tom here is for the past two years. His brother being a bit more talented shouldn’t matter all that much.”

“You’re both right and wrong there Walter.” the commander gently said. “Yes we’ve been bragging a little about Tom’s potential and talent, but Ajax is more than just a bit more talented. If I’m not remembering wrong from five years ago Ajax should have turned fifteen just last week.”

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“Oh, he is a bit younger than I thought, but being level twenty-four at the age of twenty shouldn’t be that big of a deal that it would need to be kept quiet.” Walter seemed to have misunderstood.

“You misunderstand, Walter.” I said. “The commander met Ajax when he was ten years old. He turned fifteen last week, and he is eight years younger than me.”

Walters' eyes went wide at this, and he finally put together why Kate and I were so worried about his level getting out. The fact that Ajax was participating at the age of fifteen was downright common, that a level twenty-four was taking part in this skirmish was actually a little below the average, as most people recruited for this were around level twenty-seven. That a fifteen year old was level twenty-four however was a big deal. I could only imagine what chaos it would cause if they found out he could actually wield mana as well.

“He’s level twenty-four at fifteen years old” Walter all but shouted and I turned a worried look towards the entrance of the tent while Kate gave him a look colder than ice.

“Yes, and I would appreciate it if you tried to keep that to yourself and not announce it to the whole camp.” the general said while shaking his head.

“Thank you once again commander” I said as both Kate and myself bowed our heads in gratitude.

“Oh! Enough of that. Let's just go out and get something to eat.” the commander waved us off.

As we exited the tent it was already getting dark out and all the small fires did more to light up the camp than the last few rays of sun. As we were approaching what would be the mess tent I could see the three other hunters of our unit all sitting around on makeshift chairs while the cooks were nearby busy preparing what looked like a deer and two boars for dinner, it would seem that the commander would have to wait a bit for dinner to be ready.

At this point I was looking around for Ajax, I knew he left an hour earlier than the other hunters and that was three hours ago. It took me five minutes to spot him, and when I did he was only now returning to camp empty handed. The only thing he was carrying was the oversized backpack that only seemed appropriate because of Ajax’s own size.

“Well, well, well. It seemed we picked up a dud hunter for a ride along.” Spencer said right as Ajax approached the mess area. “I’m sorry that the other hunters will have to overwork themselves without Wayland here.”

Spencer is the narcissistic asshole who took a liking to Kate. He is also the third born son of a first generation landed knight. Despite his mother only being a concubine, or perhaps because of it, he seemed to have a discriminatory view on commoners. That Kate would rather choose to be with me rather than him seemed to have needled him some and after three years of getting nowhere with me he was looking to take that out on Ajax now.

The other hunters threw dirty looks at his statement, though they didn’t throw any friendly ones towards Ajax either considering he did in fact come back empty handed. For all the commotion Ajax didn’t seem to do anything other than take in the area, throw a scowl in Spencer's direction and head towards the cooks who were butchering the animals.

After getting to the cooks workstation he proceeded to take off and open his backpack a few feet away. He then pulled out the body of a deer, a large boar that couldn’t have been lower than level seventeen and to the surprise of everyone a bear. They were all already gutted and skinned as well as bagged in something leakproof.

“Where would you like me to put these? I would like to have the bags back before tomorrow as carrying corpses without them makes the pack all dirty and it’s a pain to wash out.” Ajax said.

“Vlad, you take the boar and the deer and start making dinner, we're behind schedule as it is, Eddy you keep butchering the rest of these and start preserving them, I’ll handle the bear.” The head cook quickly took in the situation and gave instructions. “ I’ll make sure to have the bags cleaned and ready for you in the morning, thanks for butchering them yourself.”

Seeing Ajax just nod he continued, “I have to say, I am curious as to why you would bring in a bear though.”

“Ah …” Ajax seemed to blush a little at this, to the good natured amusement of the guards who took in the scene. “My village had to let deer and boar population build back up after a kobold group entered our hunting grounds, they never made it to the village but bear was the only thing we could hunt for ourselves for a while so I kind of got a taste for it.”

“Well then I’ll make sure to have a big bear steak ready for you tonight!” the cook said and he patted Ajax on the shoulder twice before dragging the bagged bear after Vlad towards the kitchen tent.

Following that Ajax took a quick look around and his eyes stopped once they landed on me. As soon as he saw me he pulled the pack up on his shoulders with considerably less weight than it had before and headed straight for me. Much to my and a few others amusement he passed the slack-jawed Spencer without so much as sparring him a glance.

“I left before accommodations were put up, do you know where I can lay down my pack?” as he said this he also leaned in for a quick hug which I thought was a little out of character for him. As he wrapped his arms around me and squeezed slightly for a quick hug he also whispered in my ear. “I also have the body of a level twenty-five bear still on me, but I’d rather not draw that much attention to myself.”

I looked at him wide eyed for a brief moment before shaking my head.”Yeah come with me, I think we can figure this out.” This was more like the paranoid Ajax I remembered, a quick nod to the commander and Kate and I led Ajax off in the direction of our three person tent. Now I had to figure out how we would deal with the butchered corpse of a level twenty-five bear.