As he watched the final member fall, knowing his arrow took him in the heart, Ajax slowly closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. Despite dodging the first hammer blow and the battle not lasting even a dozen seconds his adrenaline was surging through him since from the previous chase through the forest. Despite still being high on mana his stamina was starting to bottom out, the leader had been right when he said their stamina was higher than his.

Having caught his breath Ajax stopped using his [Mana Syphon]. Next thing he needed to do was inspect the kills, specifically he was looking for anything magical that could be tracked. As he carefully looked over the bodies he was satisfied that none of them carried any sort of locator. It was now time for the best part of winning a fight, looting.

As Ajas looked over the equipment that the five had on he had to admit it was all rather high end. None of it was enchanted and the steel didn’t seem to be mana infused so it wasn’t anything that would be all that useful past level sixty for most people but it was very well made.

As he looked over the five suits of plate armor he dejectedly shook his head since he knew he wouldn’t be using them. They were way too restrictive for his high mobility style of fighting. This leads him to another problem, should he stash them somewhere or leave them behind as evidence?

Gear like this was easily worth more than a hundred gold, maybe close to three hundred with a good negotiator. The problem was that it was also highly distinctive, selling something like this now was like shouting I looted the bodies of the five guys who went missing.

After thinking it over for a minute Ajax decided that there wasn’t any point in leaving the gear, anyone who looked into this even a little would know that it wasn’t a monster who killed them so leaving the armor behind would just be throwing away money. With that decision made he got to work stripping the bodies of armor.

As he was removing the blood soaked gear of his fourth victim Ajax found himself focused on the armguard the man had used to block his sword. While the attempt had been entirely fruitless courtesy of the lightning he had been channeling into the blade Ajax was surprised to find barely a slight dent in the armguard.

Looking at the dent Ajax thought to also compare it to his own sword. As he examined his sword Ajax was surprised to find that the contact had not only chipped his blade, but it went so far as to even crack the handle. The Strength he put behind the strike was clearly too much for the wood to handle.

As he inspected the hammers, swords and daggers the five had brought with them Ajax found that they outclassed his own weaponry. Even the plate chest piece that had been pierced by his arrow didn’t let the arrow go out the other side. After selecting the two swords, daggers and hammers Ajax felt much better about the reward he had achieved.

He carefully used his magma to melt down any distinguishing marks on the handles before he placed them on his person. He even left behind the best dagger since it clearly bore a sigil, he assumed of house Steelboot, and he didn’t want to take a risk with it.

When it comes to money and other accessories Ajax was dejected, they had nothing of value on them and barely twenty gold put together. With the loot picked clean, Ajax carefully wrapped it up in two of their cloaks. He was planning to bury it somewhere in the forest and sell it later after the heat on it died down.

He did think about trying to find a shady merchant to sell it to right now but his paranoia wouldn’t let him knowing it would mean handing over a big lever on himself. With everything of value gathered Ajax moved onto the next step of his plan.

As he looked around the forest he found himself to actually be ahead of schedule since he hadn’t expected to race through the forest so quickly. Now it was time to find a pack of wolves. He wasn’t sure just how outrageous any investigative skills could get out here in the capital so he knew the best way to muddy the water would be to get something to eat the remains.

Ajax had to admit the wolves in this forest were a lot smarter than the ones back home. Despite not being as high level as the ones he grew up hunting towards the end of his training the first two packs he came across quickly fled from him without showing any hostility. Ajax had ended up needing to approach them similarly to how he would a dog in order to get the third pack to reluctantly follow him back to the clearing.

Once the wolves got there Ajax knew he was free to go and bury the loot. The process was extremely simple with his earth manipulation to open up a small pocket in which to stash everything before closing the opening and bridging everything back to how it had been on the surface.

With that handled Ajax was now back to his original objective as he came out here, hunting bees. He really wanted to just go back and look for Hatchet and Luna to discuss what happened but it wouldn’t look good to come back empty handed. Once he collected enough honey to complete a mission Ajax carefully moved the bees into his own hive

Despite the massive level difference Ajax found that his base Endurance wasn’t enough to completely nullify bee stings. It hadn’t been an issue when he was just collecting honey since he could just kill anything that approached. The one upside was that his poison resistance was high enough to nullify them meaning the stings were more similar to an ant bite,a mild annoyance.

With the hive filled up Ajax went on a run all the way to his newly bought farm land. A small hut could be seen off the side from trees that took up the center of the parcel. Seeing the land in person AJax could see why it was so bad for farming, it had a slope that was easily ten degrees high, meaning watering the field evenly would be a nightmare.

After carefully setting up the first hive of many Ajax went to take a quick look through the hut before he headed back. The hut was sturdy but clearly lacked maintenance, inside the dust was at least an inch thick over the few pieces of furniture the previous owner had left for the guards he had stationed out here. Ajax though it would make for a nice hideaway should he ever need some peace and quiet.

The trip back to the city was thankfully uneventful. The guards on duty did give him an incredulous look when they saw him alone, clueing him in that they had known about the ambush, before they schooled their expression.

“You left with a big wooden box on your back.” One of them pried for information. “What did you even put in it?”

“It was empty.” Ajax said nonchalantly hoping to make it seem like he hadn’t run into the five at all.

“Then where is it now?” they asked.

“I’m trying to raise something in it.” Ajax answered,

“And what makes you think those snakes are going to gather into your box?”

The guard laughed, every year there came a few people who tried to find a way to breed the poison snakes. None had succeeded but their high value meant people would always try.

“Who knows?” Ajax shrugged, not looking to correct the misunderstanding, after all the snakes were found in a different part of the forest than where he led the five. “Maybe I’ll get lucky.”

Ajax thought that this might buy more time for the wolves to remove evidence. He doubted there would be anything left of the five come morning but bones. After entering the capital Ajax made a straight shot to the noble district. He quickly made his way to Luna’s villa. There he was greeted by Alfred with a horrified look as the butler took in the state of his clothes after a day in the forest.

The butler insisted on Ajax getting cleaned up before he allowed him an audience with Luna and Hatchet. Ajax relented after Alfred assured him they would be informed of his arrival while he cleaned himself.

“What is it now kid?” Hatchet exclaimed once Ajax sat down at the table with him and Luna.

“It’s good to see you’re getting back to your old self.” Ajax smiled, Hatchet had been much quieter and restrained after he lost his arm, he accepted the beer the old hunter passed to him.