Gamer Reborn
Chapter 510

Chapter 510

Breakfast the following morning was just as charged as dinner was last night in House Hearthbound’s manor. While everyone might have done a lot to process everything that Ajax had revealed to them hours before they now had questions.

“How come you only have a little over one hundred Skills?” It was Kate that started with a question that shocked everyone.

“Darling, are you feeling okay?” Tom asked, hearing the question.

“It’s actually a good question.” Lexi joined in. “I didn’t question it last night but considering the sheer breadth of fields Ajax has Skills in one hundred is actually not that many.”

For the average commoner living in a village they might get to have ten skills in their entire lifetime. A commoner living in a city might get to fifteen just from the extended social interactions and increased variety of opportunity leading to better alignment between the person and their field. But once people got to nobles that number continued to increase considerably. Not just because of extra opportunities and shared knowledge but also the increased lifespan.

“It has to do with how I approached my training for Skills.” Ajax explained. “Most of my fields have actually only surface level training I received for a few months. Things like butchery, or farming.I didn’t focus on them to progress them further.”

“And you probably shouldn’t.” Elija pointed out. “They would form the perfect foundation for you to focus on when you get older and become bored. A new way to progress and level, you are going to live a very long life.”

“My Trait’s increased proficiency for Skills also comes with a downside, and a decently sized one at that.” Ajax said. “As far as I can tell the way Skills are gained is worked out between personal potential towards the Skill and effort put into unlocking it. It’s part of the reason I wanted students to learn multiple professions for extended periods, so they can see if they have multiple talents.”

“I don’t see how that is a disadvantage.” Judy said, a little jealousy now working its way back knowing that she didn’t get the same advantage from birth her brother had. It had been a while since she had gotten over her previous jealousy and she was working to do the same again.

“If you are only looking at one rarity of Skills there is pretty much no down side.” Ajax nodded. “But that changes when you look at all Skills and their overlaps.”

“You’re gaining higher rarity Skills and it’s stopping you from gaining lower rarity ones!” Lexi was the first to put it together. “Specifically you are gaining wider Skills, Uncommon or Rare ones. Stuff like [Blacksmithing] or [Accounting].”

“That’s right.” Ajax nodded. “In fact I got [Alchemy] so quickly that the only alchemical Common Skills I have are [Gardening] and even that is barely tangential. This stands in clear opposition to my combat Skills that were slowly worked up from when I was very young with perfect targeting. I have more than ten of them.”

“I wonder how that works with specialized Skills.” Tom said as he thought aloud. “I recently got the Uncommon Skill [Short Swords], this grew out of my [Swords] Skill and it was my main weapon. Seeing as you don’t have it yet it might not work that well with specialized Skills.”

“No it does.” Ajax shook his head. “I have [Mana Farming], I gained that before I even gained [Farming] because I used to play with my Mana and plants around the house when I was little before I even tried farming.”

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“You most likely haven’t seen any specialized Skills in terms of combat because your combat style uses so many different weapons and magic.” Alana pointed out. “How about your alchemy, do you have any specialized Skills there?”

Ajax found himself nodding along with Alana. His [Alchemy] Skills had progressed nicely, he had a number of Rare and Epic specialized Skills to support it and he kept gaining more as he focused on specific elements of the craft when pushing himself to create new or harder mixtures.

“In that case I suggest you focus on your weapons one at a time as you unlock their specific Uncommon variants.” Kate recommended.

“Why is that?” Ajax asked.

“Because I know there is a Rare Skill [Weapon Master].” Kate explained. “The man I knew who had it was talented with multiple weapons. He claimed he had four different weapons Common Skills and that he had their accompanying Uncommon Skills. But you might just skip the Uncommon part and get the Rare Skill. Or more likely you’ll only get one or two Uncommon Skills before you get it.”

“This works out well since you wanted to commission some specific weapons anyway.” Aurora jumped at the idea. “This way you can spread that out and only get another weapon after you're trained with your most recent one. This will make it much cheaper since you can wait longer to find the reagents and you won’t be paying for them all upfront.”

Ajax nodded at the idea but they didn’t have a chance to discuss it further as Jake joined them for breakfast along with Jari and Nashara.

“Can Jari not switch classes and come with me and Nashara?” Jake asked, not for the first time since school started.

This hadn’t initially been a problem as school started but since Jari was seven years old that meant he was part of the class teaching children from ages seven to ten. This also meant that he was going through the material faster and was now a few lessons ahead of where Jake and Nashara were.

All three of them were still taking to the lessons well but their training in crafting professions didn’t come without surprises. Jake’s talent for farming and growing wasn’t all that surprising, the boy had almost no patience for the meticulous tasks most crafting professions required but he had plenty for the neverending work of gardening or farming where attention to detail wasn’t as big of a challenge.

Nashara’s interest and skill at blacksmithing tasks however came out of left field for Ajax. The girl had already had [Leatherworking] something Ajax was now regretting thinking that it might hold her back but as it turns out she was more interested in blacksmithing instead. Her [Heat Vision] helped with properly identifying the temperature better than any other student and she had started helping Sam every now and then.

Jari’s [Mining] Skill seemed to be a tangential Skill as he had already unlocked [Carving] and was deeply interested in how enchantments worked, all the time he had been working in the mines he had only made it by trying to learn how to use the pick to carve away at the stone instead of relying on brute strength his body just didn’t have.

“No, he can’t.” Tom stood firm on the subject. It wouldn’t do to change the rules as a show of favoritism right now.

Unfortunately for Jari, House Hearthbound didn’t have any great enchanters. With the expensive nature of the craft as well as the secrecy around different enchantments there were simply barely any unaffiliated enchanters and none at all once they passed the journeyman level with all being snatched up by one noble house or another days after they made their breakthrough.

“Speaking of lessons, how likely do you think it will be that the ambassador comes through?” Ajax asked.

A week ago Lexi had sent a letter to her father in the capital asking him to drop a hint to Brightstone’s ambassador regarding House Hearthbound looking for a skilled enchanter to help teach some of their retainers. The man had been looking to get on their good side and Ajax was sure the dwarves would be extremely interested in cement once word got out about it.

“I haven’t heard back yet.” Lexi said. “This is how most things usually go politically, it just takes time.”

This was an aspect of politics Ajax hadn’t encountered so far. Up until now he had either been the commoner on the noble’s bad side which meant instant retaliation or he had been the prodigy they were looking to recruit or make friends with, this also led to quick responses to any requests he made.

“My Lord, My Lady.” Lancel announced himself as he stepped into the room. “Sorry for the intrusion but a matter has come up that requires your attention.”

Lacel handed Lexi a letter with a royal seal on it. Only it wasn’t the royal seal of House Gryndor, it instead bore the seal of the emperor. Lexi quickly and carefully opened the letter, she made sure not to damage the envelope, her frown deepened the more she read.

“What is it?” Elija asked though he already had a good idea what was written.

“The emperor sent his congratulations for our engagement.” Lexi said as she pushed the letter to the center of the table where everyone else could also read it. “More than that his grandchildren will be visiting us to deliver a royal present in person. And their visit will coincide with that of Arianwyns visit to delve the dungeon.”

Silvia picked up the letter out of curiosity and to familiarize herself more with official correspondence but everyone knew the gift for Ajax’s and Lexi’s engagement was just the excuse they used. The Empire was planning something and it would all happen right here in less than two months.