Increasing amounts of pressure started to be applied to all the students of the Academy. The end of the year exams and tournament were quickly approaching and it was starting to show. The students in the first year who managed to bond had it the worst as they needed to not only focus on getting in sync with their bond but also not become too reliant on it as it was not something they could bring with them for the tournament.
Ajax was initially surprised that the bond couldn’t take part alongside its partner but the theory behind it quickly made sense as his brother would have had a decent chance at winning the third year tournament off simply letting Fluffy do all the work.
If Ajax thought the week in the class was bad with the new bonds the delve that followed it was an even bigger headache. Not so much because the students couldn’t work well in tandem with their own bonds but because the new bonds were all beasts commonly found in the forest.
Complaints of friendly fire started from the first day and by the second a few fights had almost broken out, if it wasn’t for professor Silvertogue quick intervention more than one or two people would have gotten hurt.
Much to Ajax’s surprise Annabeth had also brought her companion with her. Much to his surprise the creature was magical in nature despite its small size, not only that but it looked like a massive chipmunk with a kangaroo pouch.
“What is that?” Ajax asked as he looked at the creature curiously.
“You brought Grubby?” Lexi excitedly bounced around her friend before picking up the tiny creature. “Who’s a good boy? Yes you are, yes you are.”
As she said Ajax could see her taking out a silver coin, polishing it on her tunic before offering it to the little guy. Grubby having Lexi’s undivided attention didn’t sit well with her own bonded companion who tried taking a chunk out of the furball.
“No! No!” Lexi was quick to rebuke the reptile. “Grubby is not food.”
“What was that?” Ajax as he peered close to the little creature.
“What was what?” Lexi asked as she refocused on the furball.
“I sensed a strange mana when he placed the coin in his pouch.” Ajax said.
“That would be space mana.” Annabeth filled it as she recuperated her bond.
“But I thought the whole idea of getting a non magical first bond was to prepare the skill for bonding a stronger magical greacture later on.” Ajax said without taking his eyes off the creature.
“Hoarders are one of the few exceptions in that regard.” Annabeth said. “Despite being magical creatures their lifespan is only sixty years.”
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“How is their lifespan so low?” Ajax was surprised since he knew Fluffy’s lifespan was already at least over two centuries.
“Their lifespan is actually very similar to a human.” Lexi answered as she petted her own bond. “It’s just that their natural instincts focus only on gaining and hoarding wealth, there are very few skills that can be gained for such a task and this usually results in them never getting past level ten.”
“As a first bond they are actually one of the best you can get.” Lexi continued. “Not only can they only be bonded as a baby and that will help your skill develop faster and further as you accompany it throughout their entire lifetime but you also make yourself look more favorable to any other bonds with magic. The jackpot however is the chance at getting space mana affinity, more than any of their treasure related skills.”
“Why is that?” Ajax asked, now a lot more keen on trying to figure out the creatures trick with the disappearing coin.
“Space mana is a Legendary affinity.” Annabeth explained. “Not only that but it is one of the best defensive affinities to have.”
“Oh yeah.” Lexi said as she nodded her head. “Trying to defend against attacks by creating a space shield isn’t all that effective as they are easily overwhelmed and broken, redirecting attacks through a portal in the enemies blind-spot is however a top tier ability.”
Ajax found himself fully agreeing with that, he had no idea how mana expensive it was to open a short range portal like that but he could definitely see the appeal.
“There are also a few downsides to being bonded to one.” Annabeth said with a sigh.
“Oh?” Ajax was curious about that.
“First of all they are extremely expensive to keep happy, they are constantly appropriating anything shiny from their environment and get easily depressed if they haven’t had anything new in a while. Not only that but by bonding one of them you essentially become their babysitter as they aren’t all that self-sufficient and bonding young makes them heavily dependent on their bond, failing to care for them will also mark you as a bad bond.” Annabeth said.
Ajax couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment, spending sixty years as a babysitter for a greedy baby seemed like a pretty big commitment to make for simply improving one’s bond skill.
“Ajax I heard a very interesting rumor in the last few days.” Benedict said as he approached, his wolf loyalty following a step behind. “Are you going to participate in the 6th year’s tournament?”
Ajax wasn’t surprised to hear that word had gotten around, with him being granted a seeded spot among the rest of the 6th year class he knew that quite a few people had been made aware of his participation.
“Yes I will be.” Ajax confirmed.
“Oooohhh, are you looking to break His Highness's record?” Lexi asked conspirationaly.
“What record?” Ajax asked not having looked into anything like that.
“The crown prince’s older brother had joined the academy at sixteen but from the time he was twenty to the time he was twenty-six he participated in the sixth year tournament and won every time giving him the record for winning it six years in a row.” Benedict explained.
“Exactly!” Lexi said as she nodded her head. “If you win this one while still being only sixteen you have a chance to double his record.”
“Seventeen” Ajax said by instinct. “I will be turning seventeen before the tournament begins” he explained when they all turned to look at him.”
“Oh that’s right you have your birthday coming up.” Lexi said doing her best to infect everyone else with her boundless energy. “What are you planning to do for that?”
“Nothing all that special” Ajax admitted.
“What do you mean?” Lexi said sounding a little confused.
“Besides the tenth birthday, which is a pretty big one, I haven’t had all that large celebrations for my birthdays before.” Ajax explained.
Benedict looked a little awkward hearing that while Annabeth gave him a sympathetic look, having been kept isolated for most of her childhood she had at least a small point of reference to relate with. Lexi however looked downright horrified at the prospect.
“Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.” She said as she shook her head more in an attempt to deny such a reality. “You are a baron now, you can’t just not celebrate your birthday.”
“It really isn’t that big a deal.” Ajax tried to convince her. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⟡𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⟡𝓷𝓮𝓽
“I know, this year I will throw you a birthday party.” she grinned victoriously at the idea. “It falls perfectly as a way to destress before the tournament.”
Ajax looked like he wanted to attempt to talk her out of it but Annabeth patted him on the shoulder with a slight shake of the head. “Don’t try to talk her out of it, it will only make it worse.” From the looks of it it seemed like she was talking from experience.
Just great, that will be two parties that he will have to attend in the near future. Ajax could only hope that one of them would actually end up being a little relaxing for him, for all her eccentricities Lexi was actually very insightful. If anyone could end up throwing a party where he might actually have fun it would be her.