While Ajax left his father at the estate as he was working on something, the rest of his family was either going to be joining him or were waiting to say goodbye at the convoy. Both Kate and Tom would be staying behind, Ajax’s nephew wasn’t yet old enough to travel and neither would handle being away from their only child for months at a time well.

Ajax had taken a great interest in his nephew Jake. Not only did he want to give him as good of a head start as was possible but he was also keeping a close eye on him to see if he was also a reincarnation like was. As much as Ajax knew that the chances of that were slim it wasn’t something he was going to overlook.

Being half beastkin it wasn’t that much of a surprise to Ajax when he noticed that Jake had managed to sense mana after he had been using it around the child for the first few years of his life. Ajax had taken to play with his nephew in hopes of him unlocking as many skills as possible.

“There you are!” Aurora scolded Ajax once he finally arrived. “It’s a good thing you don’t take meetings all that often; your punctuality would be the nail in the coffin for our reputation.”

Much as Ajax wanted to refute that he knew very well how accurate the statement was. He would always get absorbed into one thing or another, his schedule was more of a guideline of where people could find him throughout the day than an accurate list of what he was doing.

“You be careful out there.” his mother said as she crushed him in a hug. “I know what happened last time you went into a foreign dungeon so don’t take any chances, and no going past level one hundred.”

Ajax was still kicking himself for leaving Lexi alone with his mother so early in their relationship. Lexi had spilled the beans on just how Oliver had tried to kill Anna in the dungeon and Ajax had been hearing about it to no end.

The level one hundred warning was a prudent one however. Once the monster level range passed one hundred the level jump between floors doubled, even worse it would happen even if it was by a single level, a dungeon with a nine level jump between floors would go from a 87-92 floor straight to a 105-110. This big increase in floor ramp up was why most nations didn’t let people past level one hundred and five into dungeons, the reward was too small and the risk of something going wrong too high, especially when considering that all floors had a floor boss waiting to be unleashed.

“I’ll be careful, I am only doing a single delve of each dungeon in the Republic and it will most likely be with some very high level people going along for the ride.” Ajax tried to placate her.

Unlike most other nations the Republic was the only one to only have four dungeons instead of five. Much like the other they had two high step dungeons with sixteen and eighteen levels between floors but also two very small step dungeons with the five and eight floor dungeons.

“We’ll be sure to take care of him.” Ajax’s grandfather tried to help him, considering his usually silent nature a whole sentence was already him going above and beyond.

Ajax’s section of the convoy was the strangest by far, or it was more fair to say that his Judy’s and his grandparent’s section was the strangest as the worms belonged to them. The empire had only started distributing extremely limited amounts of worms to the other nations using Gryndor as an intermediary about two months ago so the king had requested that the Hearthbound family bring both of their worms with them as it would add to the prestige.

Stolen novel; please report.

Ajax did have to admit that now that they were more grown the two hundred-feet long worms were quite the sight. Unlike their previous slimy and squishy nature they had a tough layer of skin and a very flat back where goods could be loaded on. Despite the number of people going, the worms going one after the other made up a quarter of the length of the entire convoy.

“Bye-bye uncle Ajax, bye aunt Judy” Jake gave both of them a hug before returning to stand by Kates side holding her arm.

It wasn’t even noon by the time the convoy departed. This however didn’t mean that Ajax could just sit in a carriage and relax like last time. He quickly left his sister and grandparents to worry about the cargo as he made his way over to the kings moving palace of a carriage.

“Your Majesty.” Ajax bowed as he entered.

“Welcome Baron Hearthbound, take a seat.” the king joyfully invited him inside.

Despite the king’s carriage looking like an unimpressive 9 foot sided cube on wheels from the outside with a few decorations placed around it the inside was easily ten times that big. Ajax had known about the carriage that came from a dungeon floor where the top level was 167 but it was still a very impressive sight. Despite being in the royal family for millenia now no enchanter had figured out how it worked.

Inside the carriage about half of the tournament participants had already gathered. The members of the first squad we obviously inside but so were quite a few members of the Steelblade family, including the patriarch himself.

“Ajax, take a seat.” Benedict offered the open seat next to him and Ajax took it.

Throughout their years at the academy Ajax had gotten along great with Benedict, even Xavier had become a lot more friendly once he stopped looking at Ajax as a potential rival, at least not for the time being

“Baron Heathbound, I heard you were also participating.” Benedict's cousin Richard greeted.

Richard Steelblade had turned forty-eight earlier this year and was one of the deadliest fighters of the new generation. A person was considered an elite when their leveling speed by the time they turned fifty averaged one and a half levels a year, true geniuses approached the one and three quarters mark. As a level seventy-eight was decently into that camp with most of his levels coming directly from combat.

“Lord Steelblade.” Ajax nodded in return.

Despite not having met Richard before today Ajax knew that there was nothing to wary about with him like there had been with Oliver. The Steelblade family’s succession wasn’t as tumultuous as the Goldmancers.

Much like most members of the Steelblade family Richard was a combat nut. He specifically specialized in leading small elite strike squads and was a very versatile burst caster. He was also not someone Ajax was worried about when it came to the tournament, a glass cannon caster would be dangerous but without the element of surprise Ajax was confident in keeping his distance and taking him out from range while he used [Mana Syphon] to weaken his spells.

“Professor Silvertongue!” Ajax was surprised to see his previous ‘boss’ also present in the carriage.

“Did you miss me, Ajax?” Despite the pleasant and relaxed tone Ajax could help but give the professor a pitying look.

Both of them knew that House Silvertongue had dragged Abbot Silvertongue into this due to his connection to Ajax, Benedict, Lexi, Anna and Xavier who were all going but after six years being forced to teach Abbot wanted nothing more than to go back adventuring.

“I hadn’t expected you to also be coming.” Ajax replied honestly.

The pristine poker face Abbot Silvertongue had on dropped for a moment at those words and an expression of helplessness showed for a moment.

“We finally got moving eh father?” the king’s oldest son came barreling into the carriage. He was dressed in his full heaviest runic gear that Ajax could help but marvel at. Despite having his own set of highly enchanted and improved gearset it was nothing compared to the former crown prince. He would also be one of the participants for the tournament but he was going to be part of the unrestricted bracket, his style was the one Ajax was most looking forward to watching.

“Close the door and come in, Your Highness.” the leader of the first squad said as the king was rubbing his bridge of his nose in an attempt to avoid facepalming at his son’s actions.

“I’m not alone so that would be rude.” With an obnoxious had gesture the prince cleared the entrance and Archduke Goldmancer, Anna and Lexi entered the carriage.

“Your Majesty.” They all greeted politely with a bow.

Lexi quickly made her way to sit next to Ajax and Anna and her father followed. Anna because she wanted to sit next to her friends and her father because she wanted to seat next to Anna.

“Now that most of us are here I think it’s time to discuss why we are leaving four months before the tournament is set to begin.” the king spoke once the door close.