That discussion had ended with both Tom and Kate taking their time to comprehend his situation. Ajax was most likely one of the top five fighters in this unit and could make the push to get into the top three, which was not something they had expected.

Tom knew that both the commander and his right hand man were both over level fifty despite not knowing their exact lavel. With Ajax being one of the strongest people around in this skirmish Tom felt a lot more relieved, this meant there was little chance he would get hurt.

In the meantime Ajax had finished his breakfast and went to meet with the hunters.

“Alright everyone. Today is going to be quite packed.” the leader started. “We will first of all go around our original zones to replace all the old traps that got triggered yesterday. Do not place down any new ones, this exercise is not only to increase your knowledge at placing traps but also to find the best infiltrators for the upcoming months. As such we need to make sure the playing field stays even throughout this testing.”

“Afterwards we will all be moving on to a new area.” He continued without missing a beat. “We are under a time crunch today as we have to get all of this done as well as catching something to eat by the third hour after noon. After that we all have to report for training, with the entire army moving in as little as two days the commanders want to have the army moving through its paces.”

With his orders received Ajax just nodded and went off to reset the traps. The process of resetting the traps was rather easy, though he did have to take very special care and follow a map to dodge the new traps placed there by his fellow hunter the previous day. With the small amount of time available Ajax barely had the time to set new traps in the area he was assigned while also only catching a single bear, even then he only had time to gut and skin without the time to properly drain it of blood leaving that for the cooks. It seems that their presence has scared off the local fauna so they will be needing to venture further.

As he made it back to camp and prepared to head off to join the rest of the unit at the main base for the military training he found out that he had joined the lead hunter in not triggering a single trap that day, whereas the veteran hunter triggered two and the rookie a total of six. Not only that but all three of the other hunters complained about the lack of game and that they will be needing to head out further. These complaints were cut short by the leader saying that they will be heading out further after their traps have been set up as a group.

As they arrived at the military compound he saw some halfway organized marching taking place in the fields. The hunters all split up and went their separate ways to join their friends in the unit. Ajax himself made his way over to Tom as Kate was in the center of a mob of conscripts who had gotten injured during the training. Her and the other five healers had quite a bit to deal with it seems.

The group he kept the closest watch on as he made his way over were the mages. Unlike the expected dozen or so mages from three guard companies there were almost three times that many gathered at the firing range. He knew he would need to be very careful as any one of them would easily catch him if he wasn’t careful when using his mana.

“Hey, Tom” He greeted his brother as he finally found him, though doing this brought him a lot closer to the command group than he would have liked. “How come there are so many mages, has Lessis been really unlucky in recruiting?”

This was a fair question as it seemed that each of the cities had 1 or two healers but the number of mages was unexpectedly large. Tom returned his greeting with a nod before he responded.

Stolen novel; please report.

“No, each guard unit brought four mages with them, the rest of them come from the two baron’s retainers,” he said. “ Since the archduke’s daughter only brought herself, her friend and one bodyguard, we will be down in numbers during this battle. Your bug actually evens the playing field, if not turning it to our advantage. The reason we are moving out in three days is because of information we picked up on their formation.”

The rest of the day saw the guard units sticking separately in the groups they came in as they all drilled on how to move silently through a forest. This was something that Hatchet had ensured Ajax knew how to do early on in his training so it was more just a refresher course for him.

“How come we are training on stealth?” Ajax asked Tom.

“We’re technically not supposed to share this, but” Tom quietly whispered as he looked around quickly, “The information we picked up on was that they will be using multiple flanks for their initial engagement. In response we will be sending out our guard units to intercept and delay the flanks while winning the main engagement with a numbers superiority .”

This plan sounded very well thought out to him so he continued practicing for the rest of the day while also helping out Tom, for once he was more knowledgeable than his older brother. With Ajax’s help Tom quickly became one of the stealthier people in the unit, even going so far as to unlock the [Silent Movement] skill. A weaker version of Ajax’s own [Stealth] skill that was gained by those who put in time and effort but didn’t quite have the talent to unlock [Stealth].

“How did those noble girls seem to you?” Ajax asked once they were taking a break following their last drill of the day.

“Why are you asking about that?” Tom asked with a slightly befuddled look. Wasn’t he supposed to stay under the radar of nobles, why would he go about asking about them.

“I heard in the last two days around the camp that they are very talented, not only that they are similar in age to me. I want to know how I compare with some of the more talented nobles around my age.” Ajax explained his curiosity.

“That makes sense.” Tom nodded. “Sadly I haven’t seen either of them in action, both of them have been a lot more focused on the strategic side of the battle as that is what they came here to practice in the first place.”

“It also seems they might be looking to give you a reward.” He added on. “Their bodyguard started to ask me about the spy who planted the bug before heir Stillwater chased me out and looked to focus attention back on himself. He didn’t follow me as he doesn’t seem to leave the girl’s side for anything.”

Ajax didn’t know how to feel about this. He was both happy at being recognised and offered a reward for his initiative, at the same time he was a bit distressed at having not one but two noble families at least looking into him. The biggest regret he had was this all having happened too early. If he could have at least made it to level thirty-five, or better yet forty, he would have felt more confident in the spotlight. As he was he was strong enough to get noticed but too weak to stand up for himself. If only this conscription had happened in a few years, he lamented silently.

“I guess the best I can hope for is to kick the can down the road.” Ajax said as he shook his head, silently lamenting the use of the odd turn of phrase. It did indeed sound quite odd in the local language as opposed to English and he could see Tom frown and open his mouth to ask about it when it happened.

A large explosion reached his ears from the direction of the firing range close followed by a weak air blast. He reflexively placed his shield between himself and the source of the blast as well as putting himself in position to guard Tom as well. Shockly however that was not where his preparations ended as he also seemed to have triggered his [Mana Skin] skill by accident, it briefly covering his whole body in a protective layer of mana.

As he lowered his shield a little he saw the back of tho girls standing close to the firing range, one had deep blue hair while the other a platinum blonde. They were holding hands while extending their free hands in front towards the blast zone, next to them he could see a heavily armored knight in expensive equipment.

He quickly guessed at their identity and looked around in case he had blown his cover. Luckily they were surrounded by the other mages in his unit who mostly seemed to have put up a quick raw mana shield, so his activation got lost in the crowd.

“I’ll head back first” was all he said to Tom before heading back towards the camp.

Tom nodded wordlessly, he had also caught a brief glimpse of a light blue sheen covering Ajax’s skin for a second as he covered him and knew he was in danger of revealing his mana. As Tom watched Ajax leave neither of them noticed the pair of emerald green eyes that also followed Ajax. The duke’s daughter turned his way after feeling one of the fastest and briefest mana responses she had felt from a human.