Ajax was quite miffed at the achievement. He was also a little upset that he wouldn’t get the weaker version of the +5 to all stats as well as the +10. Even so the amount of stats he gained was four levels worth so he was definitely glad about it.

That was not the only notice to be flashing for attention, as he took a look at his second one.

Achievement: The carrot and the stick

Suffer a Retribution and earn an Achievement.

Requires two Discoveries to earn :

Child Trait suppresses skill stat barriers. (Has been discovered by others before you).

The existence of Retributions. (Has been discovered by others before you).

Reward : +1 to all stats. +1000 Experience.

This was definitely a pleasant surprise. Not one but two Achievements. At this point he was kicking himself for asking Hatchet about all of this yesterday. If he had waited for just one more day he would have earned the Discovery for Achievements as well.

The Discovery method also somewhat explained why despite the fact that humans have been clearly developing for thousands and thousands of years with magic, no great strides in technology have been made. People were just not that willing to share or receive help from others in the hope of making Discoveries for themselves.

Pulling up his status screen to take a look at his new values he was slightly taken aback.

Name : Ajax

Level :24

Experience : 1150/35500

Traits: Prodigal Apprentice , Divine Witness

Health: 760/760

Mana: 790/790

Stamina :760/760

Vitality :65.12 -> 76.00

Strength :63.42 -> 74.00

Endurance : 65.17 ->76.00

Dexterity : 64.26 -> 75.00

Intellect : 70.06 -> 81.00

Wisdom : 68.43 -> 79.00

Mind : 67.99-> 79.00

Perception : 65.65 -> 76.00

Stat Points : 506

Skills :

Common :[Mathematics Lvl 22] [Stealth Lvl 23][Drawing Lvl 30][Athleticism Lvl 23] [Running Lvl 24][Reading Lvl 20][Writing Lvl 20][Cooking Lvl 20][Sewing Lvl 20] [Cleaning Lvl 13][Haggling Lvl 19][Gardening Lvl 20][Axes Lvl 30][Hammers Lvl 27 [Deception Lvl 16][Sword Lvl 20][Shield Lvl 20][Bow Lvl 20][Spear Lvl 20][Throwing Lvl 20][Persuasion Lvl 10][Unarmed Combat Lvl 20][Knives 25][Skinning Lvl 10][Tanning Lvl 10][Dismantle Lvl 20][Climbing Lvl 15][Tracking Lvl 20][Heat Resistance Lvl 10] [Poison Resistance Lvl 18][Pain Resistance Lvl 10][Trapping Lvl 12] Uncommon :[Meditation Lvl 40][Sense Mana Lvl 41][Expel Mana Lvl 40][Sprinting Lvl 22][Mining Lvl 10][Lumberjack Lvl 10][Smelting Lvl 10][Blacksmithing Lvl 10] [Chanting Lvl 11][Mana Farming Lvl 12][Increase Price Lvl 10][Lower Price Lvl 10][Danger sense Lvl 10][Leatherworking Lvl 10][Alchemy Lvl 10][Mana Milling Lvl 6]Precise Cut Lvl 20][Precise Blow Lvl 20][Judge Threat Lvl 13][ Piercing Shot Lvl 20] Rare : [Manipulate Mana Lvl 30][Water Aspect Mana Lvl 23][Fire Aspect Mana Lvl 23] [Air Aspect Mana Lvl 24][Earth Aspect Mana Lvl 25][Inject Mana Lvl 24][Spot Weakness Lvl 13][Residue Recognition Lvl 10] [Light Aspect Mana Lvl 22][Shadow Aspect Mana Lvl 22] Epic : [Mana Augmentation Lvl 20][Mana Conjuration Lvl 20][Lightning Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Metal Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Ice Aspect Mana Lvl 10][Magma Aspect Mana Lvl 7][Holy Aspect Mana Lvl 1][Void Aspect Mana Lvl 3] Legendary : [Mana Syphon Lvl 14]

It seems like these stat increases weren’t awarded the same way his Child Trait had added ten points to all his stats over the years. Instead it was treated as a point increase and leveling up to the next whole number. The only bright side to this was that his mind seemed to have passed the threshold sometime before he got the achievements.

He didn’t really care about the rest of the partial points since those would have been lost anyway as he didn’t have the time to wait any longer before spending his own points. Seeing as the system had already decided to start upgrading his stats, why should he wait? He then proceeded to spend all of his saved up points.

This was something he had discussed with Hatchet for quite a while during his training. Overall he wanted to have a balanced build, that being said due to the way his [Mana Syphon] allowed him to increase his physical stats he thought that a bit of a more magic stat investment would work out better for him.

A sixty-forty split was the best way to achieve this. Vitality, Mind, Intellect and Wisdom each got 75 points while Strength, Eduarence,Dexterity and Perception got 50 each. His Apprentice trait increased the gains to 90 and 60 respectively.

Name : Ajax

Level :24

Experience : 1150/35500

Traits: Prodigal Apprentice , Divine Witness

Health: 1660/1660

Mana:1690/1690

Stamina :1360/1360

Vitality :166

Strength :134

Endurance :136

Dexterity : 135

Intellect : 171

Wisdom : 169

Mind : 169

Perception : 132

Stat Points :6

He was left over with six points. A small part of him wanted to use those six points to try and even out a few of his stats to nice multiples of five. However he knew well that as long as five of them went into one single stat he would get an extra point there from the 20% boost.

The amount of limitations that he suffered, especially at the start of his training and his time in the city, led him to shove all six points into Vitality. With a final score of 173 and his Stat Points counter showing zero he finally closed his stat screen for the first time in almost five years allowing the changes to take place.

For an instant he couldn’t even tell the difference. He was soon assaulted by an incredible amount of information coming in from his senses. His perception effectively having doubled lead to a sensory overload, this combined with his mental capabilities being able to keep up with the stream of information meant he only got a nasty headache for about three seconds. The downside was that with his mind being able to process things so quickly now along with the pain those three seconds felt like a lot more.

The pain caused his arm to swing reflexively downward. It made contact with the nightstand that he had beside his bed and left a decent dent in it. Realizing what he had just done, he moved to stand up, this resulted in launching himself off the bed and headbutting the ceiling.

As he very carefully started to stand up, putting as little power into every motion then increasing it slowly until it could have the desired effect, he was finally on two legs. He looked a lot like a newborn fawn. His legs trebled, not from weakness but instead from uncertainty.

For the next hour he just walked around the room and carefully picked up anything and everything. An hour was usually quite a bit long for someone to get used to his stats after spending his points. Most people however didn’t suffer increases into the hundreds by doubling every stat. He took another hour before he finally had a decent handle on everything despite the supposed stronger increase his Trait provided to adaptation compared to the regular Apprentice.

After finally being comfortable moving he got changed and headed over to Hatchet, he even skipped breakfast.

“Morning” he greeted the old hunter, his voice much louder than he intended, coming across as yelling.

“Morning” Hatchet frowned at him for a moment before a look of realization crossed his features. “You finally decided to spend your points?”

“I did, yes.” Ajax replied , it still came out a bit loud but much quieter compared to his initial greeting. “ I even got an Achievement for holding off for fifteen years.”

“Yes, I suppose the two points in each attribute would be much more useful at your age.” Hatchet contemplated.

“I didn’t get only two points, I got ten in each attribute.” Ajax said with a grin forming on his face.

“Ten? I wonder why?” he frowned at the information. “Not two, yet not fourteen either, I wonder what makes the difference.”

“Why would you think that I would get fourteen?” That was something Ajax also wanted to know, if he had somehow missed out on thirty-two points he was going to be pissed.

“You are not the first person to not spend any points since birth. Though the others that have done so were imprisoned since birth and have never had the chance to level past level one before their fifteen years.” He said. “That's the thing with one off Achievements, getting one stops you from receiving the bonus from any of the others that are part of the same group.”

Thinking about this it made sense. Sure they might be rare but there had to be people who didn’t level since birth so he clearly wasn’t the first to get the Born Hoarder Achievement, the only question was, why did they get fourteen points and he only got ten.

“Maybe it’s because they completed all of the achievements at once?” He whispered under his breath.

“What do you mean?” Hatchet clearly heard the mumbled words.

“The only reason I can see as to why others would have gained more than ten points is that they completed all of the lower Achievements.” The look he received for those words made him expand a little on what he meant. “I didn’t meet the requirements for the lowest one, since my Stat Points weren’t zero for fifteen years.”

As he explained what each of the three Achievements were and their requirements he also thought about how they got to the number fourteen. Perhaps you also get half the reward for all lesser Achievements if you complemente all of them. It was the only thing that made sense to him. The total of the other achievements would be seven, if you rounded up half of that and added it to the ten you would get the fourteen the others had gotten.

“It might have to do with getting them all at the same time. Maybe receiving half the reward for all the lesser versions” Hatchet echoed his own thoughts on the matter. “Regardless, this is a matter for another day, for the next few weeks before you leave to join the Adventurers Guild we have to get you used to your new level of power.”