Chapter 338

Just like that Ajax was once again the center of attention in a room where you could hear a pin drop. Unlike when he first revealed something like this, Ajax was now much stronger than the average soldier but in this room he was still the small fish in the big pond.

“That sounds different from the ‘Genius Apprentice’ trait I got.” Xavier threw in his two cents.

“It is different.” the crown prince confirmed. “In fact I never heard of a Prodigal Apprentice before. Is it from pushing a skill to seventy-five? I haven’t seen anything from you that would suggest you have a skill at level one hundred now let alone twelve years ago.”

“It’s not skill related.” Ajax put an early stop to the guessing game. “What does Genius apprentice grant?”

Ajax tried not to show his envy as asked about the opportunity he lost just because he didn’t know about it, he was sure he would have been able to push one of his mana skills all the way to level fifty if he knew to focus on it.

Genius Apprentice - Temporary trait

Status points allocated increased by 10%

Aging stopped for the duration.

Ease of forcibly increasing stat points increased.

Ease of forcibly increasing stat points related to skills above level fifty greatly increased.

Experience earned for activities related to skills above level increased.

Ease of adapting to increase in stat points increased.

Ease of adapting to increase in stat points related to skills above level fifty massively increased.

Ease of unlocking new skills related to skills above level fifty greatly increased.

As Ajax was told the increases granted he couldn’t help but compare it to his own apprentice trait.

Prodigal Apprentice - Temporary trait

Status points allocated increased by 20%

Aging stopped for the duration.

Ease of forcibly increasing stat points greatly increased.

Experience earned for doing skill related activities slightly increased.

Ease of adapting to increase in stat points massively increased.

Ease of unlocking new skills on the basis of skills earned before gaining this trait slightly increased.

Status becomes harder to reveal or approximate making appraisal and scan abilities harder to use.

Of the two it was clear that his own was the superior title, at the same time it was a lot harder to reach level ten before the age of ten compared to getting just one skill to level fifty. What really irked Ajax was that he was sure the two traits would have stacked.

Sure maybe the allocated stat points wouldn’t have added but he would have absolutely double dipped in the massive increase to forcibly increasing stats. Not to mention the increase in experience earned. Most valuable however was the great increase in gaining related skills, there was a good chance Ajax would have had a few extra general Epic tier magic skills if not an extra Legendary one had he gotten the trait.

Stolen story; please report.

“This is more focused.” Ajax broke the silence as he thought over the Genius Apprentice trait. “My trait was gained based on my level.”

“Based on your level?” The crown prince was surprised that he hadn’t considered that option.

“Level ten before the age of ten.” Ajax said to the surprised gasp of many in attendance.

“How many skills…” Xavier’s words died out before he finished his sentence but he had simply given voice to what everyone else was thinking. If Ajax had managed to get to level ten without having a single skill over level fifty, just how many skills had he had at such a young age.

As Ajax shared the details of his own trait he noticed one of the members of the first squad jotting it all down furiously on a piece of parchment before rolling it up and placing it inside his spacial storage.

“It’s a lot more focused on short term gains.” the king’s eldest son rejoined the conversation. “It’s quite a bit stronger as well. I can see why you would think of hoarding all of your stat points if you received a massive increase to just working for all of them.”

Xavier couldn’t help but be surprised at the spark of envy that reappeared in him at the reveal. He had thought he was completely past comparing himself to Ajax but it seems having his own trait compared like this pressed on an old wound. His biggest regret however was not taking advantage of Ajax’s training method, his Strength and Dexterity could have gained a much bigger increase if he hadn’t used his free points right as he turned ten years old.

“This certainly explains why your results were so much better than anyone we had using your method.” the king nodded. “Sadly it is also something that is near impossible to recreate, after all it isn’t like we weren’t already trying to get our children to as high a level as possible at an early age.”

“With how publicly the information was revealed I doubt we will be able to gain all that much from sharing it with the other nations.” the crown prince scratched his chin. “They will all put some pressure into finding the answer but it was never something we could have really sold. Getting a delve in each of Deepwood’s five dungeons is a better price than we could have expected for something like this.”

“Not to mention with this out in the open people will stop spying so closely.” Lexi said quietly. Unlike usual she was actually keeping a fair distance between her and Ajax. Despite understanding why he hadn’t volunteered the secret she was still slightly upset that he hadn’t shared it with her. She knew it was hypocritical of her considering how many family secrets she had from him but this one wouldn’t affect anything.

“I can safely say that nobody is going to be suspecting you of developing another Legendary skill that’s for sure.” the king’s oldest son said with an upbeat tone. “At least the end results were what we wanted, even if we didn’t get there exactly as we planned.”

While most of the people couldn’t help but let out a sigh at the prince’s antics there were a few people who almost choked at the words. “YOU HAVE ANOTHER LEGENDARY SKILL?”

Benedict had the good sense the blush and cover his mouth at the outburst, he had managed to contain himself the entire evening, he had even been quite pleased with himself for some of the verbal sparring he had managed with the elven princess but finding out that Ajax had gained a fourth Legendary skill broke the dam.

While Ajax wasn’t keeping the fact that he had Life mana a guarded secret after the discussion he previously had with the royal family about it he still gave the prince the stick eye for revealing it like this. Benedict hadn’t been the only one whose skill finally gave up as the crown prince failed to resist the urge to facepalm.

“Oh, oops I forgot that some people didn’t know about that yet.” the prince said with a strained laugh that fooled absolutely nobody. Ajax was sure that the prince was just trying to stir the pot since while he did let the cat out the bag he didn’t actually say what the skill Ajax gained was. “ My bad, I’ll make it up to you.”

While most people were ready to accept that this was simply the prince’s attitude and there was nothing they could do about it there was one person he wasn’t about to let him get away with this free of charge at her friend’s expense.

“It’s so kind of you to volunteer as the booster for Ajax’s delves in Deepwood as an apology, Your Highness” Anna said with such a pure and innocent smile that anyone who didn’t truly know her would have thought was genuine. “For someone in his position he might have needed to give up two of the ten spots just to secure an adequate booster considering just how high the floors he would reach might be.”

“That wasn-” the prince didn’t even get to object before he was cut off.

“How truly generous of you my son.” The king joined in and sealed the prince’s fate. This wasn’t because he wanted to do Ajax a favor or because he wanted to punish his son a little, those were simply perks. The real gain would be having an excuse to send his son into Deepwood with what amounted to full immunity. “I fully approve of your idea.”

The prince’s reputation for outlandishness combined with the fact that actually attacking any member of the party without an ironclad reason would absolutely lead to war considering how the delves were gained meant that it would be the perfect opportunity to send him in as reconnaissance.

“But… but…” the prince knew he had flown too close to the sun and burnt his wings so he decided to let the matter drop. “Oh whatever, I’m going to bed.”

Ajax was very much of the same opinion considering that he had a fight tomorrow, the hardest fight of the entire tournament. He was going to pull out all the stops for that one.