Out of the four spectators both professor Silvertongue and the headmaster were less surprised by Ajax’s show of strength since they both did largely believe him when he made his claims. While the headmaster was ecstatic at the show of a new magic style the other two spectators were still stunned at the display even after the fight was over.
Both had expected him to be strong, having learned that he had passed the test for a level thirty-two but the show of power now was certainly way above anything they had expected. They finally started paying attention to the conversation again once they were reminded of the question that Ajax wanted answered.
“What achievements would you recommend for me, if the discovery requirement wasn’t an issue?” Ajax asked, knowing that the nobles would be keeping records of strong achievements for sure.
“You have the Trailblazer achievement!” the headmaster shouted with excitement. “To think that you are the first to unlock this kind of casting.”
Ajax was about to interrupt and correct him that it wasn’t his magical skills that granted him the Trailblazer achievement but he thought better of it. After all most farming skills usually had some attached skills to go with them and if any of them happened to be unique he could refresh his title. He didn’t doubt his beekeeping would be something that would be found out in due time but that should be enough for him to at least corner the market for a while.
“I do.” Ajax admitted.
“Hmm, what achievements would be good for you?” the headmaster now stroked his long beard. “You clearly have enough power for now, some extra stats would be nice but you could work your way up to them slowly in the future. Not to mention that they are some of the harder achievements to complete.”
“He could go for ‘Investigator’.” Professor Silvertongue suggested. “It rewards an Epic inspection skill that allows you to get the level, name, age as well as the top two stats of whoever or whatever you are inspecting.”
That achievement sounded much better to Ajax right now than a few extra stats. His [Judge Threat] was rather reliable in telling him just how dangerous an opponent would be, but it was useless at getting any other information.
“I have [Judge Threat].” Ajax confirmed. “It has been all I needed as an adventurer but I have yet to really run into its limitations, something I believe I will in the coming months and years here in the Academy.”
“The opposite could also be true.” Annabeth spoke, making all three of them look at her. “From what I heard he has no privacy skill at all, getting ‘Enigma’ might be the best option for him.”
“What does ‘Enigma’ grant?” Ajax asked, his paranoia almost pushing for him to give her a hug at the mention of a privacy skill.
“Enigma is the only achievement I know of that has a Legendary skill as a reward.” Annabeth said. “The skill shares the name with the achievement and it allows the user to block any sort of inspection skills, this isn’t just reading your status but also truth telling skills, though the crystals would still work on you.”
“That’s not all,” the headmaster added “The skill, like all other privacy skills would need to be overleveled heavily by one of lesser rarity to be surpassed but it also allows you to fool other inspection skills. While you can’t exactly specify the exact fake information you give out, you can influence it. For example you would have people read something about a level thirty pure mage.”
Stolen novel; please report.
“What are the requirements?” Ajax asked, this definitely sounded like a skill he wanted to get.
“The requirements are rather easy. First you must not have any sort of privacy skill, secondly you have to be subjected to inspection skills by twenty people within the span of one minute.” Annabeth said.
“That…” Ajax said thinking. “If it is that easy wouldn’t all nobles just gain the achievement?” After all, just getting twenty people with inspection skills together would be easy for them.
“The achievement requires twenty discoveries.” Professor Silvertongue huffed. “Not only that but nobles are often exposed to lots of inspection skills as we grow up so we almost always develop privacy skills before the age of twenty.”
Twenty discoveries was an enormous amount; without Trailblazer he would definitely not be able to save up that many for quite a while. With little hesitation he decided that this would be a good use of his Trailblazer reward, now he just needed to get everything set up to gain the achievement.
“Would the school be able to help me with getting the achievement?” Ajax asked after a long moment of silence.
“I can be persuaded into helping out.” the headmaster offered. “If you are willing to at least share the name of the skill that gained you the title.”
That made him a little concerned. Ajax thought about how he should deny that request when he thought of an alternative. “What if I said I’d be willing to share the skill at some point in my time with the academy?” Ajax made the counter offer.
“What difference would that make?” the headmaster asked, confused by the haggling.
“The skill was a recent acquisition, I want to see if I can gain anything else related to it that might also be a trailblazer skill.” Ajax explained
“I know the boost in rarity seems tempting but you’d be much better off selling information regarding the skill so others can try for the title as well.” the headmaster said, obviously a little cross with Ajax’s greed.
“Why shouldn’t I go for it again?” Ajax asked. “I would also like to get that inspection skill.”
“But you’ve already got the Trailblazer title!” Lexi finally joined the conversation with an outburst.
“You don’t know…” the words escaped Ajax as he made the realization.
“What don’t we know?” professor Silvertongue asked.
“The trailblazer achievement works just like the dungeon floor delving one, every time you gain a trailblazing skill you gain the reward again, that would mean I get another free achievement.” he explained his train of thought.
All four of them silently gaped at him at the revelation. “To think that it worked like that.” The headmaster broke the silence. “I will have to make the necessary changes in quite a few books in the library.”
“How come you didn’t know about that?” Ajax asked.
“Because the very achievement is a myth, or was a myth until now I guess.” Lexi sighed with exasperation. “We only know about it from very old texts, and they know about it from other old texts. There hasn’t been a person that claimed to have the achievement and had it verified in living history.”
“Given that you could gain more rewards from it I am inclined to agree to your stipulation.” the headmaster said. “But I will have you reveal the skill within the next six years, just in case you decide to stay on with the academy longer than that. If you can’t get anything more out of it in the next six years others will also have their chance.”
“That’s fine by me.” Ajax agreed, even if he didn’t share the skill he was sure that other people would take up beekeeping in two years at the most, it would be practically worthless to withhold the skill after that. Hell, the idea that young stuck-up nobles would be rushing out to start beekeeping in hopes of the title even brought a stupid smile to his face.
“What are you smiling about?” Annabeth asked him.
“Nothing important.” Ajax waved it off.
“Classes for the first years start tomorrow, after the fourth bell, so if you come back here at the second bell we should have enough time to get you that achievement as well as get your uniform sorted out.” Professor Silvertongue said.
“There is a required uniform?” Ajax asked.
“A uniform isn’t required outside of specific events where the students represent the school.” the headmaster explained. “However, a few sets are provided to all students and other members of staff. Our hope is to alleviate any financial difficulties some of our less well off students have in getting appropriate attire.”
Ajax quickly found himself agreeing with the model. He had not liked wearing a uniform all throughout middle school in his previous life on Earth and thought that such a voluntary model was much better, even if he would most likely be wearing it full time since he didn’t have anything in his wardrobe that would be able to compete with it in terms of quality, at least not without spending a good amount of gold coins.
“Oh, and can I please ask that the people with inspection skills tomorrow don’t have anything that can see my stats or skills.” Ajax quickly requested before departing, he had almost overlooked that big flaw with getting inspected by twenty different people who could be hand picked beforehand.
“Yes.” Though he didn’t show it with his posture or tone Ajax was sure that professor Silvertongue was planning on getting Ajax’s skills and stats tomorrow had he not mentioned this.
His suspicion was proven right when the man turned to the headmaster. “Would you be able to provide five people as well, headmaster, I’m not sure I can get twenty people on such short notice with that restriction in place.” ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✦𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮✦𝓷𝓮𝓽