Chapter 508
“Still… not good… enough.” Ajax took greedy gulps of air as he took a break from his training.
All around him were nurous broken rocks, wooden boards, wooden weapons and even a few broken eggs. The retainers in the training grounds mostly watched him with admiration but a few of the veterans had a different expression as they watched.
“I need a break.” Ajax said as he quickly used an earth spell to cause the earth to swallow the remains of his training aids.
“You don’t have to push yourself so hard.” Lexi said as Ajax returned to the manor soaked in sweat. “You barely got done with the tunnels.”
Ajax had managed to finish the tunnels, he had drawn maps and was working with Lancel and Elija to establish what security asures were needed. The tunnels spread for miles around the estate allow for a clean escape even should the manor fall.
Ajax’s next project after the tunnels had been to focus on [Telekinesis]. The new skill was certainly the second most versatile Skill Ajax had seen as a stand alone, second only to [Manipulate Mana]. Its training however was a mixed bag.
Ajax excelled using [Telekinesis] destructively. He had no issues spending hundreds of Mana at a ti to produce a vast amount of force, his recent training had even helped give him so control over the force even after the initial application but it was still very much a blunt instrunt.
In terms of fine control Ajax was no better off than when he first started. Internally he blad this on both [Mana Augntation] and [Mana Syphon], both skills were a staple of his combat style for a long ti now yet they worked nothing like [Telekinesis], controlling those skills was only a matter of mastering the input.
[Telekinesis] simply didn’t work like that, Ajax knew the skill was more nuanced, it was simply him that wasn’t using it correctly. His use of [Telekinesis] always ca with the most amount of power he could apply, the amount of Mana fed only determined how long the Skill would last.
“It’s so frustrating.” Ajax complained to Lexi, letting out his frustration in hopes of better coping with them. “I know the Skill should be capable of being so much more, but I can’t use it for anything other than crushing things.” Deep down Ajax feared that [Telekinesis] was simply a skill humanoids were simply not ant to gain and that he had only gained it because of his ‘Divine Witness’ Trait.
“What if you are going about this all wrong?” Lexi asked. “What if you are just missing the Skills needed to make full use of [Telekinesis]?”
“How would I be missing just that?” Ajax asked.
“You are missing quite a few Skills when it cos to high end spellcasting.” Lexi corrected him. “You’ve just not had to rely on them since your spells are mostly a simplified application with intent to guide it or a copy based on what you saw soone else or sothing else use. What if you can’t use [Telekinesis] for anything else yet because the only thing you’ve seen the floor boss use it for was brute strength, you don’t have the knowledge how to apply it in any other way or the building blocks to learn how by yourself.”
Ajax found himself nodding along to Lexi’s explanation. The way [Telekinesis] channeled his Mana was different from any of his other spells. It was like an entirely different transformation, sothing he supposed was correct seeing as his other spells transford pure Mana into one elent or another whereas [Telekinesis] transford it into pure physical force.
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More than that he had only co across the Skill a single ti, when he faced the beholder. Even then he didn’t allow the beholder much ti to use the Skill and the only way the floor boss had used it was to try and crush him with it. Looking at it that way it was no surprise he wasn’t able to use the skill in a gentler manner if he was using the beholder’s spell as a starting point.
“What Skills do you think I would need?” Ajax asked.
“I don’t know.” Lexi answered. “You are the first person that I heard of gaining [Telekinesis], it’s probably sothing you’ll need to work on for yourself. But I think you should change your approach, your training might have given you so control over how you deliver the destructive force of [Telekinesis] but it hasn’t helped with your output. Maybe you should try gaining the Skill that helps you first.”
Ajax could see the logic, and while he was usually stubborn when it ca to training, mostly to his benefit, he would give Lexi’s thod a chance, seeing as his own approach wasn’t working. But that was sothing for another ti. For now he had sothing else he wanted to focus on.
Ajax had asked everyone to attend dinner today. Family dinners had been the norm as of late but it also happened that soone might miss the al because they were busy with one thing or another, Tom and Silvia being the main culprits but everyone had found themselves absorbed in what they were doing at one point or another over the last few weeks that they missed dinner.
Today Ajax planned to reveal ‘Divine Witness’ to his family. It was sothing he had been debating for a while now and he had decided it was finally ti for all of them to know about it. The only exception to this was Jake who was too young to be trusted with a secret of that magnitude.
Dinner started much the sa as it usually did with idle chatter about how that day's activities had gone. The biggest focus of the discussion was how to best help their people now that Death has started. The lack of moisture combined with the below freezing temperatures and the cutting winds was a harsh combination, one that also limited any outdoor professions imnsely.
Sadly Ajax didn’t have an answer to that. Even back on Earth there hadn’t yet been a technological answer to bad weather, they had simply created things to help manage shelter but nothing but an improvent of protective gear when tackling things head on.
The best House Hearthbound could do was the sa as every other noble House that tried to help their people, do their best to make food, shelter and warmth as cheap as possible to help people outlast the season.
School was a particular successful endeavour in this approach. Not only did it feed the older children but it also kept them warm. Excitent over the rapid Skill gain was still building as now almost a full third of the students had managed to gain at least one Common Skill.
One thing that Tom was keeping a very close eye on through the guard however was the cliques that had started forming. Because of the constant supervision at school and lack of interaction outside of it this hadn’t yet resulted in any bullying but Ajax was sure it was only a matter of ti once Spring ca and children would run into each other outside of school on a more daily basis. Of note however was that there had yet to be a social skill gained, Lexi’s take on it was it was too much of a controlled environnt for it to happen yet and that they should expect social skills to not just appear but appear in clumps once Spring starts.
“So what was it that you wanted to tell us?” Tom asked, he noted Lancel’s absence, who was usually Lexi or Ajax at all tis and didn’t like the exclusion of Jake from the family al.
“Sothing I have kept secret for a long ti.” Ajax said as he felt his mouth dry and liked his lips as he got the words out. “I gained a Trait a long ti ago, and it’s one that helped
imnsely.”
“You were born with a Trait?” Judy was the one who asked the question everyone was thinking.
“I wasn’t born with it.” Ajax said, technically he had had it before he was even born.
“When did you gain it?” Elija asked.
“I don’t know, it’s been part of my Status ever since I can rember.” Ajax's answer was technically correct. While he knew he had gained it the Trait as a result from interacting with a god and having his original Trait ‘Warning of misfortune’ removed he had no mory of it happening since it was only his soul that interacted with the god and souls don’t have a mind or mory.
“What is it?” Lexi asked, curious as to why Ajax would make such a big deal of this.
“Divine Witness - Permanent trait
Affinity with all skills greatly increased.
Ease of levelling skills increased.
Ease of forcibly gaining stat points slightly increased.
Stat points gained per level increased by 2.
Skill level limits increased by 50.
This trait cannot be forcibly revealed.”
The reveal left everyone speechless, all of them opening and closing their mouths as they tried to form words yet couldn’t. He couldn’t bla them, there was so much to unpack. The na of the trait first and foremost but with each line of the description he read out to them he was sure it got more and more ridiculous.
“Well, that explains a lot.” The first to find his words after the reveal was Sam. Ajax was so glad to see his father didn’t look at all disappointed that he had kept this to himself for so long.
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