I woke up the following morning at a very early hour. I was still very tired but, I guess, subconsciously I wanted to see what my new stats had in store. For the second time my stat screen opened without me prompting it to do so.

Name : Ajax

Level :12

Experience : 5350/12100

Traits: Prodigal Apprentice , Divine Witness

Health: 180/180

Mana: 280/270

Stamina :270/270

Vitality : 18.50

Strength :23.70

Endurance : 27.85

Dexterity :23.03

Intellect : 38.70

Wisdom :30.32

Mind : 28.99

Perception : 21.01

Stat Points : 242

Skills :

Common :[Mathematics Lvl 22] [Stealth Lvl 21][Drawing Lvl 30][Athleticism Lvl 20] [Running Lvl 22][Reading Lvl 20][Writing Lvl 20][Cooking Lvl 20][Sewing Lvl 20] [Cleaning Lvl 12][Haggling Lvl 19][Gardening Lvl 20][Axes Lvl 29][Hammers Lvl 21] [Deception Lvl 16][Sword Lvl 13][Shield Lvl 10][Bow Lvl 10][Spear Lvl 10][Throwing Lvl 10][Persuasion Lvl 10][Unarmed Combat Lvl 12][Knives 20][Skinning Lvl 10][Tanning Lvl 10][Dismantle Lvl 10][Climbing Lvl 5][Tracking Lvl 4][Heat Resistance Lvl 3] [Poison Resistance Lvl 4] Uncommon :[Meditation Lvl 36][Sense Mana Lvl 39][Expel Mana Lvl 39][Sprinting Lvl 13][Mining Lvl 10][Lumberjack Lvl 10][Smelting Lvl 10][Blacksmithing Lvl 10] [Chanting Lvl 10][Mana Farming Lvl 10][Increase Price Lvl 10][Lower Price Lvl 10][Danger sense Lvl 5][Leatherworking Lvl 10][Alchemy Lvl 10][Mana Milling Lvl 6]Precise Cut Lvl 13][Precise Blow Lvl 11][Judge Threat Lvl 2][Piercing Shot Lvl 1] Rare : [Manipulate Mana Lvl 18][Water Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Fire Aspect Mana Lvl 10] [Air Aspect Mana Lvl 12][Earth Aspect Mana Lvl 14][Inject Mana Lvl 14][Spot Weakness Lvl 4][Residue Recognition Lvl 1] Epic : [Mana Augmentation Lvl 5]

With the expiration of the child trait all my stats went up 2 points, I wonder if I will be able to feel the difference? I then pulled up the new trait to see what I had in store.

“Prodigal Apprentice - Temporary trait

Status points allocated increased by 20%

Ageing 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.

Time remaining : 75 cycles. “

Well that was quite a bit to take in, I focused a bit to see what the difference was between my version and the normal one. Firstly, the increase in spent points jumped from 10% to 20%. Secondly I don’t have increased fertility, something I was glad for since I wasn’t looking to start a family right now, but I didn’t see how that was an upgrade. The greatly increased forcibly raised stats was a step better. The biggest change was the last one, at least in my opinion. The increased ease to unlock higher tier skills based on the ones I already had was something I was looking forward to. Adding this to my already increased affinity with all skills meant I could look forward to a few more rare epic and maybe even legendary skills. .

I then closed the screen with the trait explanation and moved on to try closing the stat screen as well when a different prompt appeared.

“WARNING :

Closing the stat screen without assigning free points will result in the loss of said points.”

I freaked out for a second but slowly closed the warning and continued looking at the screen. What was the best choice for how to spend my free points? Should I consult my brother, I guess I see why dad always had this talk the night before the system opened, it needed to be fresh in our minds for when we woke up.

I decided to try minimising it, after all quite a few of my stats were past the halfway into upgrading, I especially didn’t want to put any points in mind right now. As expected minimising the stat window managed to bypass the forced spending of the points, though the lightly flashing icon in the bottom left of my vision will take some getting used to.

I slowly got dressed, drowsiness coming back to me now that the exciting part of my morning was done and the boring butcher work was coming up. I could slightly tell the difference in my increased stats but I had perfect control of the increase, most likely thanks to the new trait. As I was almost down the stairs I yawned and missed the final step, almost tripping.

“Woah there Ajax” Tom was already up despite the early hour. “ I know it’s tempting to not spend your points with the increase to the exercise way of raising them but you can’t walk around with the status open all the time.”

Tom came up to me, put his hands on my shoulder, and led me to sit down at the table. He was right, I realised, most people couldn’t not spend their points without hampering themselves so they spent them or lost them. I on the other hand could hold on to them and get as much growth naturally as I could squeeze out.

“How many points do people usually get that way during their apprenticeship?” I asked Tom.

“Depending on how quickly they level and how well they planned for it they can get anywhere from 40 to 60 usually, I managed to get 57.” he said.

“How about nobles, don’t they get more?”

“Nope, they actually get less, they have less time as they tend to level faster than us. Most gain anywhere from 20 to 40 but some even less.” He sat down to explain it to me. “Increasing stats like that gets harder and harder the higher they are, since nobles level more as children their stats are higher and harder to grow.”

This left me sitting at the table contemplating what I should do now. Kate and Tom both left, since they were on duty, before I had decided, thinking I was still spending my points. All they said was a quick goodbye.

In the end I decided I will hold on to the points, I could spend them whenever I wanted and right now having low stats will not only help me raise them but also raise my skills faster. There was no danger forcing me to spend them, well besides the possible vampire, but he was level 70 or higher, I doubted 26 - 27 levels worth of stats would help me if I ran into something like that.

Making my decision I got up and headed in the basement to begin my work on the deer I bagged yesterday. The work was relaxing, having higher level skills and stats compared to when I last did any butcher work made it much easier. Two hours later I had the meat separated and put in the ice cooler, ready for tonight when Kate and I would salt most of it to help it last.

As I finished up the pulsing icon got the better of me and I pulled up my stats again, to no surprise nothing had changed. I had the same stats and none of my skills had gone up. Before I closed it though I caught a glimpse of something odd. My EXP total was different, it had grown by 100. Even this amount of easy safe work was enough to grant me the same amount of EXP as gaining 2 skill levels as a child, no wonder people quickly levelled as soon as they reached apprentice.

Done with my work I wondered what I should do now. It was too late to go start a day at the guard courtyard and everyone I knew in the city was busy. This left me with two options, exploring by myself and reading the book on vampires my brother helpfully brought out yesterday.

My curiosity over the legendary speciase, as well as my self preservation instinct, won out and I headed back upstairs, grabbed the book and laid on the bed to read. The book was a heavy tome, it covered a lot of different creatures, a bestiary of sorts. A few of the creatures caught my eye as I scanned the index but I decided to focus on the immediate danger first.

Vampires were, according to the book, one of the best case scenarios. They were very rare however due to their creation process. A vampire was a beast type monster, contrary to the humanoid presentation a vampire came about when the runt of the litter in a bat swarm managed to be the one to evolve from creature to monster. They were always very weak for their level, usually only having the direct combat ability of a monster half their level. This piece of information finally explained why the city wasn’t in a panic, sure the vampire was level 70 but a level 40 could probably kill it in a 1v1 fight.

The biggest challenge when dealing with vampires was catching them. They were intelligent, possessed shapeshifting abilities as well as detection camouflage. The only time their specific magic signature could be detected was when they were fighting or feeding. The rest of the time they could pass for humans or elves.

I personally saw no reason why one of the top 10 squads in the kingdom would be hunting down a level 70 one, they had to outlevel it heavily, maybe even double. That changed as I read the last bit on their section. Vampires needed to feed on blood to survive and could turn their victims into lessar vampires. Their hunting patterns were infiltration of a community and a slow turning of it into food and army. Their skills also included strong illusion magic which let them hunt higher level prey through ambush tactics, with night being their preferred hunting time.

What all of this told me was that I would, under no circumstances, be outside the house at any time after the sun went down. I could see now why Tom insisted on escorting Judy and Alana yesterday as well as why he joined a patrol on the way back. Being in a group was the best way to stay safe.

I got up as I headed downstairs to start setting up for lunch. I was expecting Judy, Alana, Tom and Kate to all show up. Today I will plan out the rest of my stay. I was expecting at least a month, as I would head back only once the subjugation force returned.