As commander Grievous walked away I was very worried about the presence of a level 70 vampire in the city. My brother respectfully saluted then picked his deer back up and started walking.

“You didn’t mention you met commander Grievous.” my brother said.

“I didn’t,” I responded “he was just the leader of the guards who got us out of the jam with the bandits, who is he anyway?”

“He is one of the 5 commanders in this city, but the others are mostly there as political favours to the baron,” he whispered while looking around to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. “While I can’t say he can beat the Warden for certain I think he would be favoured. After I am done with my initial 10 years I hope to be able to find a position among his staff. He is very neutral when it comes to dealing with nobles, mostly leaving it for the other commanders, but he takes care of his own people. If it wasn’t for the eighth coming to the city he would be in contention for the strongest person here.”

The reverence in my brother's voice didn’t inspire much confidence in my secret being kept but at least from the sound of it this commander was a fair hardworking, if a little uncaring person. I left the matter at that. After all, I was acting suspicious and the man did give me permission to use the guard courtyard after everything was cleared up. I also had more important topics to get on with.

“Ok, the eighth, who are they?” I asked.

“Before this royal family came to power they were a strong if reserved noble house. Their one peculiarity was that their house head always had 30 people split into 3 groups of 10 that worked exclusively for him, the strongest people at the house's disposal. 800 years ago when they claimed the crown they extended the search for people into the entire kingdom and raised the number from 30 to 100 people.” he said.

“So these are the 8th group?” I said.

“Yes, it's rare to see them in an out of the way city like ours, after all as long as the king is in the capital so are at least 6 of the numbers, with the tenth always accompanying the crown prince or princess. If they weren’t hunting this vampire I doubt they would have bothered to pass through here.”

“Right, the vampire, how are you so calm with a level 70 beast roaming the city?”

“It might be level 70 but vampires are very peculiar creatures, I have a book with information on them if you want to know more, but suffice to say, he is very weak for his level.” my brother said, trying to calm me down

As I was so focused on our discussion I never realised we got to the house until he opened the door for me. I stepped inside and waited for him to lead the way into the basement where he then proceeded to hang up his deer then mine with buckets underneath to let the blood drain away.

“I know you spent some time in a butcher's shop, you think you can handle these two tomorrow or do I have to take them to the local? He asked.

“Yeah I can handle them.” I said.

We both headed upstairs where I could hear Kate, Alana and Judy talking as well as smell what would most likely be a delicious dinner. As we entered the room the discussion stopped. Unlike Kate who smiled and got up to greet Tom, Judy frowned and crossed her arms as she turned towards me.

“And when were you going to tell us you can use mana?” she said, frustration and anger clear in her voice.

Alana didn’t look upset at all but she didn’t seem surprised either so she clearly also knew, Kate on the other hand dropped her jaw to the floor as Tom looked from Judy to Alana.

“And you KNEW!!!” she said as she now turned her anger to Tom.

“Found out myself on this little hunting trip” he said as he pulled down his collar to show the almost healed marks where the cougar bit him.

“What happened?” Kate asked as she then mumbled something to finish off what I had started.

“Just a weak cougar got the jump on him, I got him out of the way but it managed to nip at me before I killed it. He freaked out and cast a healing spell.” My secret was clearly known, I didn’t blame him for telling the truth. “How did you find out?”

“Alana and I went to talk to our company's quartermaster. Imagine our surprise when he started asking when we met a mana farmer and if we managed to secure a contract with him.” she said.

That's when it clicked, on our way here we found out that the merchant I was usually selling to was just selling everything he bought off me on the way to the city for a good profit so my herbs never made it here before. Judy offered to have them inspected along with her own merchandise as well as help me get a good price for them afterwards. I didn’t think it all the way through that upon inspection, something that wasn’t an issue before, my use of mana in growing them would be brought to light.

“What did you tell him?” I finally said after a long pause.

“Alana told him we were just holding the plants for a friend, which is technically true, but you might want to be a bit more careful in the future or at least tell us about things like this up front.” The anger seemed to leave her body as she closed the distance between us and wrapped me up in a hug. “I understand not telling anybody about mana, but at least be more careful. What would I do if my little brother got rounded up?”

She held me there for a few seconds, a time in which I felt extremely guilty from having kept my skills a secret from her, before she let go and Kate worked her magic on the cuts and scrapes my own cougar left on me.

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly “After the scolding mom gave you about your rare skill I thought it best if nobody knew about me.”

I then turned to Alana “Thanks for covering for me, any chance you could not tell anyone else about this.

“Tell anybody else about what?” she asked as a small smile spread on her face and she threw me a wink.

“Thank you” I said as I pulled her into a hug.

“With that out of the way, how did the hunt go?” Kate said moving to switch the subject to something lighter. “Besides the small scramble you had with a cougar.”

“Managed to bag 3 rabbits and two deer. They are hung down in the basement. I'll gut them tomorrow.” I said, happy about the new topic.

“That’s quite the catch, nice work out there hunter, but Alana and I are expected to dine with the company's bigwigs tonight so we’ll see you all tomorrow.” Judy said as she made for the door. Alana took a quick look at me before moving to follow my sister.

“I’ll escort you and head back this way with whatever squad is patrolling the area” my brother quickly offered before they had a chance to leave.

“There’s no -” my sister started to say before Tom cut her off.

“There’s a vampire in the city, I will be escorting the both of you.” His tone made it clear that he wouldn’t entertain an argument. My sister just nodded, neither she or Alana looked all that worried but I bet that would change if they knew the thing was level 70.

The three of them left, while Kate and I had a quiet meal. My brother joined us halfway through. After we were done we all headed off to sleep deciding that we will have time to talk about everything in the month or more I was staying.

Tomorrow was the big day for me. I was glad to be out of mana and stamina from the hunt or else I don’t think I could have fallen asleep from the excitement. But before I turned in for the night I opened my status to get one final look at the child trait and all the hard work I put in these last 10 years.

Name : Ajax

Level :12

Experience : 5350/12100

Traits: Child Prodigy, Divine Witness

Health: 160/160

Mana: 260/260

Stamina :250/250

Vitality : 16.50

Strength :21.70

Endurance : 25.85

Dexterity :21.03

Intellect : 36.70

Wisdom :28.32

Mind : 26.98

Perception : 19.01

Stat Points : 242

Skills :

Common :[Mathematics Lvl 22] [Stealth Lvl 21][Drawing Lvl 30][Athleticism Lvl 20] [Running Lvl 22][Reading Lvl 20][Writing Lvl 20][Cooking Lvl 20][Sewing Lvl 20] [Cleaning Lvl 12][Haggling Lvl 19][Gardening Lvl 20][Axes Lvl 29][Hammers Lvl 21] [Deception Lvl 16][Sword Lvl 13][Shield Lvl 10][Bow Lvl 10][Spear Lvl 10][Throwing Lvl 10][Persuasion Lvl 10][Unarmed Combat Lvl 12][Knives 20][Skinning Lvl 10][Tanning Lvl 10][Dismantle Lvl 10][Climbing Lvl 5][Tracking Lvl 4][Heat Resistance Lvl 3] [Poison Resistance Lvl 4] Uncommon :[Meditation Lvl 36][Sense Mana Lvl 39][Expel Mana Lvl 39][Sprinting Lvl 13][Mining Lvl 10][Lumberjack Lvl 10][Smelting Lvl 10][Blacksmithing Lvl 10] [Chanting Lvl 10][Mana Farming Lvl 10][Increase Price Lvl 10][Lower Price Lvl 10][Danger sense Lvl 5][Leatherworking Lvl 10][Alchemy Lvl 10][Mana Milling Lvl 6]Precise Cut Lvl 13][Precise Blow Lvl 11][Judge Threat Lvl 2][Piercing Shot Lvl 1] Rare : [Manipulate Mana Lvl 18][Water Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Fire Aspect Mana Lvl 10] [Air Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Earth Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Inject Mana Lvl 14][Spot Weakness Lvl 4][Residue Recognition Lvl 1] Epic : [Mana Augmentation Lvl 5]

New :

Poison Resistance 0 -> 4

Judge Threat 0 -> 2

Piercing Shot 0 -> 1

Sense Mana + Expel Mana + Inject Mana + Manipulate Mana -> Mana Augmentation 0 -> 5

Upgrades :

Meditation 35 -> 36

Sense Mana 36 -> 39

Expel Mana 37 -> 39

Manipulate Mana 15 -> 18

Earth Aspect Mana 10 -> 14

Air Aspect Mana 10 -> 12

Inject Mana 13 -> 14

Deception 15 -> 16

Sword 10 -> 13

Hammer 20 -> 21

Precise Cut 10 -> 13

Precise Blow 10 -> 11

Heat Resistance 1 -> 3

Danger sense 1 -> 5