Ajax was deep in the forest as he used his knife to carefully collect the piece of glowing moss that was growing up the side of the tree. He hadn’t thought much about the request to do three jobs for the Healing Union but he had now spent well over four hours just collecting moss.

It was also pretty easy to see why the Healing Union had such a hard time getting people to take on the jobs they kept posting. All of their jobs required large amounts of plants to be collected all at once, not only that but the job payed barely more than a merchant would for the ingredients, since most people didn’t have a storage bag it was just simpler to sell to a merchant after every collection that stockpile and turn them in at the Union.

As for the reason why they needed so many ingredients. This one was simple, the city housed easily more than one hundred thousand people and the Union had to treat all of the lethal or debilitating injuries and illnesses.

The easy work around would be to simply lower the amount required to finish a job. The problem was that this would actually lower the amount of plants they would receive as a whole. Unlike in other cities, in order to be considered for the test of joining the Union, in the capital one had to first complete five tasks. It didn’t sound like much but a position in the Union was coveted by all the poor people as it would allow them and their families priority access to healing should something like a plague take hold of the capital.

A snap of a twig instantly brought Ajax’s focus from the moss to a bush where the leaves were still swaying. He didn’t even hesitate to charge in the direction of the bush and in a quick strike he embedded the knife through the snake and into ground, pinning the animal.

The reason Ajax was collecting moss wasn’t because it was the fastest to collect, in fact it was somewhere among the slowest plants that the Union had jobs out for. The reason was that the moss could be found in the same part of the forest where both the bees and poisonous snake could be found. The bee’s didn’t pose a threat to anyone that was above level five but the snake was a different matter.

Despite a specimen above level seven not having been spotted in the last century they were renowned for having a potent enough venom that one bite was enough to kill a human up to ten levels higher than them. The number wasn’t an exact science as some invested more heavily into vitality but it was still enough to keep most people out of their corner of the woods.

The poison was also very versatile. Not only was it great for creating antivenoms, but if diluted correctly it could be used as medicine. Sadly all attempts at breeding the snakes in captivity failed as the species seemed to actively stop breeding in confined spaces and in larger ones once they reached a certain population density.

This was Ajax’s tenth and final snake. His [Dismantle] skill allows him to quickly and efficiently remove the poison sack. Unlike most of the people who hunted the snakes Ajax was going to be damned if wouldn’t make at least a bit of money by selling the skin to merchants instead of handing over the full snake.

With the poison sacks all collected and the moss mostly done as well Ajax started moving faster through the forest in search of bees. Since he noticed that beekeeping wasn’t tried here yet he fully intended in setting up a few hives of his own in hopes of having easier access to honey, the only problem he came up with was: where would he set up his hives?

Last night's conversation had prepared a convenient cover for Ajax, it wouldn’t last him all that long, maybe two months at the most, but after discussing it with Luna the night before his best course of action was to join the Healing Union as a trainee hopeful. Since people of all ages and levels tried out for the Union he wouldn’t seem out of place at all. Even his presence on the dungeon delve team would be seen as a simple test.

Another benefit was that he would be living in the trainee housing. Giving himself time to find and rent his own house without being desperate for a roof over his head. Lastly, and most importantly he would be effectively immune to noble interference in his time there.

Although the Healing Union was seen as a stand alone guild by the people, all the nobles knew that it was run by the royal family. As such grabbing one of their trainees was seen as grabbing someone that was looking to join the royal family and was heavily discouraged. The few times it was attempted with talented individuals the houses in question lost both lands and titles. The royal family’s notice was also what stopped him from staying a trainee for longer as once they took notice of him he would quickly be fast-tracked into a position to serve the royal family.

As he headed back towards the capital Ajax could see the sun was already starting to go down. He had spent a total of seven hours collecting the materials and another two on travel. With the next delve slot the Union had being tomorrow Ajax knew the team was already selected so he would have to be patient and wait for the delve that was four days from now.

The line and search to get back into the city was no quicker than it was when he first arrived here. Getting out had been easy since all he had to do was show the empty bag and receive a quick pat down. Another wasted half an hour and Ajax took a quick jog to hand in everything he collected. The Union worker was surprised to see the venom sacks already extracted but he simply made a note of it in Ajax’s file before thanking him for the work.

With that out of the way and little time before the curfew the trainees had Ajax quickly take off to both sell the snake skins and also look for a carpenter who could build him his hives. Finding a leather worker to buy the skins was easy, though he didn’t make more than a few copper off the lot of them, he appreciated it since almost all his finances took the form of gold coins that were a hassle to deal with when making small purchases.

Finding a carpenter that would make his hives proved to be much more of a challenge. It wasn’t that there weren’t more than a few of them that were capable of doing it, it was that they were all either busy for the moment or asked ridiculous prices for making them. They quoted the lost opportunity of working on building a house despite them not being hired at the moment.

“Hi sir.” Ajax greeted the sixth carpenter he went to see that day.

“Evening lad.” the old man greeted, “What can I do for you?”

Ajax pulled out the scroll where he drew the design for his hive. He had his [Drawing] skill and the one random Discovery channel episode he watched for his ability to provide a somewhat accurate diagram.

“I’m looking to have a few of these made.” Ajax said as he spread the scroll across the desk.

“Hmm, it certainly is an odd design.” the man nodded “But it doesn’t seem all that difficult. I think I could make it for you for half silver. How many would you need?”

“I’d like two hundred of them.” Ajax said, planning on setting up enough hives that honey would be a solid piece of income he could pass off to his sister once she moved here.

Seeing how he would only be actually able to harvest the honey in a year or so, people wouldn’t even know it is a viable market that they could compete in. He could set up a base infrastructure for the market with the Union that would give his sister a strong base to build her company in the capital.

“Two hundred!” the man exclaimed as he looked at Ajax.

“Yes.”

“Two hundred is a lot, lad, would you need them all at once or very soon?” he asked, he wouldn’t be the first to make a reasonable offer but turn Ajax down once he heard the amount he wanted.

“I’d like a few very soon.” Ajax said as he was hoping to set a few up in the days before the delve. “But the rest I’m in not that big a hurry for.”

“I’ll tell you what then. I’ll make five for you as a priority, after that I’ll be making them as long as I don’t have another order and you can pay for the rest as you pick them up.” This was a very generous offer as most works were paid for upfront to prevent customers from renegotiating products after they were already made and use the spent materials as a bargaining point with the crafter.

Ajax quickly accepted the deal and then headed off towards the trainee housing as the curfew was approaching.