Darkcavern’s layout was very different from any other city Ajax had seen. Having first been a giant ant hive it made perfect sense that its topside landscape would look like a small hill filled with holes, there were a few human houses dotted around but it mostly looked like two or three villages surrounded by holes.

The underground however was a much more expansive series of tunnels that rivaled even the dwarven capital in structure if not in size. The convoy made good time as it managed to arrive an entire two days before the auction giving everyone time to add whatever steampunk item they wanted to the festivities.

“Which one do you think we should put up for sale?” Elija asked Ajax.

“Come on now, don’t pout.” Judy poked Ajax in the side as he remained silent at the question.

“Three whole days you kept me in here.” Ajax complained though he wasn’t all that upset as Lexi and Anna just changed to spending most of their time in this carriage instead. “But fine, I’d say you should sell this.”

The piece Ajax selected was part of a half mask that covered one eye. It was the smallest of all the items he had collected but also the most technologically advanced as evidenced from the eye it sported.

“Does that one not work?” his grandfather asked.

“It does seem to work but that’s not the issue with it.” Ajax responded. “The problem with all of them is that we don’t know how to attach them and that will take some trial and error. Doing so with hands, arms, legs , even shoulder and back armor isn’t all that dangerous, if the connections are implanted incorrectly all you do is remove them, heal up and retry.”

“The same could be done with the eye.” Judy said. “The person that will be getting it would be blind in that eye already anyway.”

“Yeah but the optic nerve is too close to the brain for comfort.” Ajax pointed out. “You make a mistake connecting it you might hit the brain and just kill the person, as far as I know there is no healing that.”

“So the mask goes.” his grandfather agreed with that logic, especially since they, and duke Goldmancer, decided to keep their functionally secret until they got to the capital.

“Too bad it's so risky, it seems to have a filtration system.” Ajax let out a sigh.

“How do you mean?” Judy asked.

“The mask covers the mouth and nose so it has to let air enter. It also seems to be filtrating it when it is powered up. I am not sure just how many types of poisonous or deadly fumes it would keep out but I think a few of them at least.” Ajax answered.

“Any way we can separate the mask into the eye and the lower face cover?” his grandfather was quick to look for ideas.

“Maybe?” Ajax answered with a shrug. “But I don’t know how we would do it and you might just ruin both if you try. At worst you could just not connect the eye at all and just have it sit in the socket and you can use the filtration part.”

“Alright, come on then.” his grandfather nodded. “You’re coming with us to add it to the auction and after that you can go explore the city.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Why do you need me to come with you?” Ajax asked.

“Because you collected them, you can vouch for their uniqueness, or at least their source, under a truthstone, that will increase the value.” Judy explained.

The three of them weren’t the first to show up at the auction house, already there were four other nobles in line to get their items added so Ajax just headed towards the back of the line.

“Oh please go ahead.” the noble in front of the quickly spotted who he was and was quick to get out the way.

The same thing happened over again as Ajax and company jumped to the front of the line. All of the others hoped to increase their value after having him authenticate the item’s source.

The organizers were more than happy to add their item to the auction. Their audience did seem a little strange to Ajax however as halfway through a second representative entered. Ajax could see from his clothing that he was of a higher rank than the one currently assisting them. This representative drew attention from the others in the room but with a simple hand signal they all ignored him and got back to haggling.

“Three thousand gold seems like a fair starting bid.” The first representative finally finished the agreement with Elija and Judy. “As for our cut we would take a modest f-”

This was when the higher ranked representative stepped in. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance Baron Hearthbound.” he bowed slightly towards Ajax. “As a thank you for your testimony and a meeting gift we will lower our cut to 1% of the final price. We do hope that you have a successful run in the upcoming tournament.”

“He’s taking part in the tournament, why he can’t be older than thirty-fiv…” The employee that had come in carrying the truth stone slowly lost his voice as he figured out what Ajax’s participation meant about how strong he was. More frightening was the glare both representatives had locked onto him.

“Do enjoy your visit to Darkcavern and this is an entry ticket for you to attend the auction.'' The representative’s voice was a little strained following their employee's outburst but he maintained a pleasant smile until Ajax and the rest of his family left the room.

With his freedom finally gained, Ajax and Lexi took to exploring Darkcavern on their own. They would have taken Anna with them but instead she joined Elija and Judy as they went to scope out the local markets.

Unlike a normal city the tunnels dug by the ants made the underground city have a very different structure to even other dwarven cities. The biggest difference was the complete absence of side streets. All of the houses were built into the side of the tunnels. This meant that instead of their being a bad side of town there were only tunnels that the locals knew to keep away from unless they wanted trouble.

“Look what we have here boys.” A voice came out from in front as three dwarves approached Ajax and Lexi. “A couple foreigners who look like they could use a guide.”

“We’ll be happy to offer our services, in exchange for something in return.” A voice came from behind the pair as two more dwarves approached.

Ajax was quick to identify all of the dwarves, all of them had their levels in the mid to late fifties, certainly impressive for a commoner living in the city but not enough to pose any sort of threat to him. He casually summoned his sword from his spacial ring, instead of having it come out in his hand however he just summoned it on his hip sheath and all.

Frowns followed the appearance of the sword as all five dwarves got into combat position. Despite how young Ajax and Lexi clearly were, Ajax commended them on not underestimating them that much, a lesson that the five had learnt long ago the hard way.

Ajax finally felt an inspection skill land on him, surprisingly enough it was one he knew well as [Enigma] let him know it was [Judge Threat]. Instead of blocking the skill Ajax simply let the skill pass, it wasn’t as if it would gather any in depth information on him.

One of the dwarves froze as dread worked its way over his features and his skin paled a few shades. “Now, now. We don’t want this to get ugly in front of the pretty lady.” Despite the change in body language the leader still spoke with a surecocked tone. The words however caused the dwarf frozen in fear to move as his head jerked towards his boss with a ‘what the fuck are you doing he’ll kill us all expression’.

“H-how about w-we just le-let them go, boss.” the dwarf managed to shakily get out.

“What are you on about?” one of the others shouted but the leader simply turned and looked at the speaker with a serious yet questioning look.

“I judge this to be a very bad idea.” he said, trying his hardest not to give away what happened, having no idea Ajax already knew.

The leader took no time to catch on and quickly course corrected. “Actually it seems that you know exactly where you are going, please have a pleasant evening.”

“Wait a moment.” Ajax said as they slowly started backing away causing them all to freeze as all five had understood the situation. “Which way was the auction house? We would hate to miss the start.” Ajax was having a bit of fun as he put his hand on the sword handle.

The leader was quick to give some very precise directions before the five quickly got away from the scene. “What did you do to them?” Lexi asked once they were out of earshot.

“I didn’t do anything.” Ajax said as he showed the most innocent expression he could. “One of them had [Judge Threat] so I simply had [Enigma] let the skill through.” Both had a bit of chuckle at that as they made their way towards the auction house.