As the group got moving again Ajax did his best to help heal up the members of the squad. While none of them were injured as severely as Frank had been, all of them had taken a substantial amount of damage thanks to the mage artillery tactics they had gone up against.

“Too bad you became a Duke.” Frank joked as he watched Ajax provide healing. “You’d be accepted in the squads as you are now, would be the youngest ever.”

“Squads wouldn’t be a good fit for me.” Ajax shook his head. “Too limiting in terms of growth potential.”

“Just got word that another squad is coming to pick up our prisoner.” Patrick said as he finished his report to the King. “We are also to give you this.”

Ajax watched with curiosity as Patrick pulled out a rather large mana gem the size of a golf ball. “What does it do?” Ajax was curious.

“It’s a recall beacon.” Quinn explained. “It is made specifically for long ranges that stretch further than a single kingdom and cross high Mana density areas. You won’t be able to send messages but if something really bad happens and the King wants to call you back he’ll be able to get that to light up.”

“You just have to make sure you actually take it out of your spacial storage every night to check it.” Frank said with a teasing laugh that was interrupted by a bloody cough.

“That only happened once.” Quinn protested in a higher pitched tone than usual as she cuffed Frank over the head.

“Hey, I’m bleeding here.” He protested.

“You’re not, actually.” Ajax joined in the ribbing. “Already healed all the wounds in your lungs, that’s just the blood that leaked out coming out, once you feel up to it it might actually be best to force yourself to cough up as much of it as you can before it starts to really coagulate and you’ll end up coughing half a lung up with it.”

“Coagu- what?” Franked asked in confusion but started to force his coughing anyway.

“Scabbing over.” Quinn explained with a sigh. “Just like it does when you get a cut on your arm only this time the blood won’t scab over a wound just in your lungs as a solid piece.”

“Can you get me a poison that does that?” Frank asked, suddenly interested.

“There are a few but you’d be better off with a hemorrhagic or neurotoxic one instead.” Ajax pointed out “At least for direct combat. Hemotoxins are best used when poisoning via food for anonymity.”

Ajax wasn’t sure if the squad took the chance to question him in depth about poisons just to get their mind off the battle they had just survived or if they were debating hiring a support staff with alchemists but he nevertheless took the time to explain the different types of poisons he knew to them, the only one he left off was necrotic poison as he still hadn’t been able to create a proper necrotic poison. He could tell Quinn already knew about all of them, though it was clear that was because she had dealt with them on the healing side of the table, not the crafting and applying.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

“I’m going to get some sleep while I still can.” Ajax said after he finished the discussion, he knew they were less than a day away from the border and this was probably the last time in a long while that he would be able to fall asleep without being all that worried about his surroundings.

Ajax slept for most of the remaining journey yet the squad didn’t leave their guard down in the least. Just because they had finished taking out more than twenty elite spies didn’t mean that there weren’t more, it was just highly unlikely that they would be coming from the beastkin.

“You know who’s coming to pick up the prisoner?” Quinn asked.

“Evelyn and her squad.” Patrick answered.

That the Forth squad was coming just for a prisoner showed how important the king deemed interrogation that was to follow actually was. Then again Quinn also rationalized that the king might have sent the Forth as a way to attract any of the assassins heading for Ajax and bait them out.

“You think he’ll be okay out there?” Frank asked Quinn as they approached the fort, he looked at the sleeping Ajax with concern, he had gotten attached to the young Duke.

“He’s stronger than most of us were the first time we headed out there.” Quinn said. “But he’s also going alone, more than that he’s inexperienced when it comes to conserving his resources, the most he’s had to do it was inside dungeon floors.”

Thinking of the dungeon's Quinn couldn’t help but shiver slightly. She knew of at least two dungeons out there, even if their floor jumps were on the high end the amount of Stats Ajax stood to gain before he returned between his increased experience gain and the extra dungeons he would be delving she started to suspect he just might come back at champion level if he found enough things to push his stay close to the two year mark he had planned for when stocking his provisions.

Once they arrived at the fort the squad started to settle in for their month-long stay yet nobody woke Ajax. The Forth were less than a day away from the since they weren’t traveling by carriage and instead were dashing mounted across the country-side.

“We’re already here?” Ajax asked when he woke up to find that the carriage wasn’t moving anymore.

“Been here for a bit, the Forth will be here soon and they’ll have any last minute message from the King before you go.” Patrick informed Ajax.

True to their word it didn’t take longer than another hour before the Forth arrived. Ajax had to admit he was a little awestruck by the griffin bond he saw the Squad’s mages arrive on. The griffin was the size of the carriage and could carry the two mages, a healer and a scout without issue while the rest of the squad had the physical stats to push themselves to run halfway across the kingdom in a matter of days.

“Ajax it’s good to see you again.” Evelyn greeted Ajax.

Ajax returned the greeting, he had gotten to know the mage quite well during their time working with Curse Mana. “Any message from the King or Prince before I head out.”

“Just to be careful.” Evelyn relayed. “House Silvertongue did send you something, however.”

“That’s quite something.” Ajax’s eyes widened as they took in the large one handed axe.

“Their newest rising crafter Nina said that this was the best she and her salamander could do right now. She also sends her apologies that it took so long to get it to you.” Evelyn said as she tossed Ajax the axe.

Ajax remembered Nina and the rest of House Silvertongue’s crafting delvers fondly, in all honesty he had completely forgotten about the weapon he had bargained for when he left them have the egg.

“Is this still good for you?” Evelyn asked, some slight doubt crept in her tone.

“It’s better than what I have now.” Ajax said as he took in the rather sizable Magma gem in the axe.

In truth Ajax was already close to outgrowing the axe already. He was simply growing too fast, despite Nina being able to make gear for stronger people than him back when he gave her the egg, it had taken a long time before the salamander grew enough to help her with crafting. The best that Nina could now craft was the bare minimum that Ajax could use, though he was sure she would continue to develop quickly now that she was working in sync with her Bond.

“I’ll be off then.” Ajax said as he took off past the fort and headed into the desolate moat.

The desolate moat had really earned its namesake. There was nothing alive as far as the eye could see. Nothing but a rock hellscape that was cracked all over from the large difference in temperature between night and day.

“I’m not surprised that it works effectively to keep strong monsters from wandering into Gryndor” Ajax said as he continued to jog while he used the dwarven pathfinder to ensure he was running in a straight line.

Ajax continued running for hours yet at some point the horizon both in front and behind him looked exactly the same as he pushed himself to make it into the Wild Lands. Usually groups took a few days to cross the moat but Ajax didn’t want to waste time with something so boring.

“I wonder if I can actually find any Ascended races that are willing to even consider a bond.” Ajax mumbled to himself as he tried to take his mind off the boring surroundings.