Thinking through what the most recent Achievements he received meant I calmed down a lot. It seemed that 500 was the minimal threshold for which someone would receive an Achievement like this. Getting a total of 500 in four of the stats by the end of the Apprentice trait didn’t seem that difficult to him. But that was just his own perception from experience.

On average a normal person would average around fifteen in their stats. So before adding anything extra they would have a base of sixty. The next issue came with them only raising up those stats through levels meant that they would gain at most forty stats forcibly upgrading them. That left people with a total four hundred stats to make up for. Including the 10% boost from the Apprentice trait they would need 380 stat points to spend, meaning being level twenty.

Most people made it to level fifteen in their apprenticeship, those who got to eighteen were very rare and dedicated. His brother had made it to seventeen and was viewed favorably in the guard because of it. This meant that the knowledge of such break points at the end of Apprentice was something that was kept under wraps by the nobility. To be honest this was probably a good thing as all but absolute talents or people with a cheat like him had no chance of reaching it so it only served as a way for people to skew their spent points in hope of a miracle leveling speed.

After thinking that whole thing through he took another look at the rewarded skills. They showed up differently in his status.Both [Berserker] and [Mana Skin] had a different font than the rest of the skills. As he focused on [Mana Skin] he suddenly had an instinctual idea of what the skill did and how to use it. The skill could create a membrane of mana around any portion of his chosen body, he could incase his hand, arm, or his full body. The patch could be as little as his palm. The other choice he could make was on whether he would use the skill with a set amount of mana, or link it to his mana pool.

This was different from all other skills he had ever gained. Usually gaining a skill didn’t come with knowledge of how to use it since you had to have completed an action to gain it. Even his [Mana Syphon] skill which he gained in a moment of desperation still worked the same way.

He then focused on his other skill, [Berserker] this skill worked differently. This skill could be used only upon receiving an attack, it would then amply that attack against you slightly in return for generating stamina. This could be very useful when facing quick weak enemies, or wave style tactics meant to run someone's resources dry before killing them.

Being quite pleased with his rewards he got out of bed and headed in the kitchen for breakfast. There he found his parents and after a congratulatory meal he spent the rest of the day with either one of them as he was looking to leave tomorrow.

The next day, after breakfast and a more emotional goodbye from his parents than he would like to admit, he headed over to say his goodbye and thanks to Hatchet before leaving.

“Morning Hatchet” he said.

“Morning” he responded “ You heading out?”

“Yeah, I came to say goodbye, and to thank you for putting up with me for the last five years, I know I can’t have been the easiest of Apprentices.”

“That you weren’t. Wondered why I ever accepted you more than once or twice but I’m glad I did.” as he said this he had walked over to the house and grabbed something by the front door. “I would have given this to you yesterday, but when I came by you were spending time with your parents so I didn’t want to interrupt.”

He extended a rather large old looking backpack. From all respects it looked just like an old backpack, if one that had been maintained in good condition. Examining it with his sense mana he felt a large and complex rune inscribed on the inside of the pack.

“What is this?” I asked, “ I can feel a rune on the inside.”

“The pack is enchanted to increase the amount of space on the inside. It won’t do anything for the weight of whatever you want to carry, but it should be large enough for you to carry a whole cart's worth of things.”

Thinking back to the amount of bags and packs he had left over by his front gate in preparation for the trip he gripped the gift slightly tighter. Not wanting to waste two weeks on a trip again he planned on heading to Lessis by himself. This would let him make full use of his stats and should probably shorten the trip to three days. Making two overnight stays in the villages along the route he should arrive a little past noon in the city.

“This will definitely come in useful.” He said with a dumb smile spreading across his face.

“A little bit of advice, make sure whatever you put inside of it is clean, washing it out is a real pain.” Hatchet leaned in to whisper.

“Speaking of advice, I got an Achievement this morning that related to my completing the Apprentice period. It gave me a skill, but it’s unlike any skill I’ve had before. Do you know anything about that?” This was the final question he had for his mentor before he would be ready to strike out on his own.

Hatchet frowned a little at this before his eyes went wide as he continued to listen. “You got a reward skill?”

“A reward skill, if it is what it sounds like then yes.” Ajax wentured with an easy guess.

“I don’t mean that you got it as a reward.” Hatchet was slightly exasperated as he gestured with his hands. “Rewards skills or active skills, they are called both since the only way to get them is from Achievements. They show up differently in your status, you have an instinctual knowledge about their base uses and they aren’t a passive effect like other skills.”

“Yeah that’s what I got.But why call them both reward and active skills?” he confirmed with a nod.

“Because you can also be awarded non-active skills, but all active skills are rewards, that doesn’t matter right now. You should keep them to yourself . Reward skills are thought to be a whole tier higher than their shown tier and a lot of people will likely question you thoroughly on how you managed to get them.” he said, his tone dropping as he delivered the warning.

With his final explanations about the skills and his affairs in order Ajax headed back to his home and easily fit all of his bags and supplies inside the backpack with room to spare. His mother noticing him doing this came out to check on him. Once she found out that he had space to spare she went and got a whole heap of things to take to his brother and sister. All in all the amount of space taken up increased by almost half, if the weight only by about a fifth.

With all this he gave his mom a final hug and headed on towards the road with his gifted gloves on his hand, a small hatchet at his hip for self defense and as a memento to his teacher and a backpack on his shoulders.

As he exited the village he caught a glimpse of a group of rather finely dressed people as well as some wearing armor, all riding horses, waiting in the space for the caravan while another armored person holding the reins to his horse talked to the headman. As they didn’t seem like the kind to cause trouble while active so diplomatically he continued on his way out of the village and broke into a jog once he exited.

The road to Lessis was not noteworthy. Unlike his last two trips on it he had no problem the whole way and even easily traded the deer and boar he hunted on the way at the two villages in exchange for a house for the night and cooked food.

He arrived at Lessis as expected at around noon, but was met with a long line at the gate. He had to wait around for a few hours until he finally got his turn with one of the few guards who were handling the intake.

“Reason for visiting?” the guard said before even looking at him. As he finished the words and glanced at him his eyes sparked with a slight touch of recognition. “You’re Tom’s brother, Jax right? No, Ajax.”

“Yeah that’s me.” He thought the guard's face looked familiar but he couldn’t place it or remember his name.

He looked a little around before he made a quick ‘get on with it’ motion. “In you go, tell your brother that Darren sends his regards.”

Ajax nodded his thanks and entered the city, considering the time he decided to first head over to the Adventurer’s Guild hoping to get there before it closed, being excited to finally become a member and only after go by his brother’s place.

After only getting lost once and getting directions from a friendly shop owner Ajax made it to the Adventurers Guild hall. It was a rather large building that was made of fine materials but sported a half bar half reception on its bottom floor. The bar was slated perpendicular to the help desk with most of the floor being taken up by tables. After being given a quick glance by everybody in the building he was promptly ignored as he made his way to the desk.

“Welcome to the Adventurers Guild, how can I help you?” a beautiful perky young woman greeted him.

“I’m looking to join the guild.” Ajax said while trying to restrain his enthusiasm.

Her smile faltered and her eyes dashed off to the person sitting on the stool closest to the desk at the bar. Her eyes returned to Ajax and with a slightly defeated and irritated voice she said “I’m sorry to say but we haven’t been allowed to take on new members for the past three days.”

Just as soon as she finished her words the man that had been sitting on the stool had come up to the side and standing in a formal stance said “Hello, by order of the lord you are hereby conscripted, you are to present yourself to the Guard hall in two days time”