Chapter 229

As Ajax woke up the following morning he felt more refreshed than he had been in months. With the tournament looming in the future like a black cloud he finally had a goal to charge towards and a good reason for getting stronger in the near future. Before he got to that however he still needed to settle a few matters.

That morning Ajax had spread out most of the duties that came from being the head of the household. He had left his sister in charge of the money, the bee hives should be enough to let her establish herself and from there the backing of her own noble name should help her prosper.

As for the party he was supposed to hold, he let his mother and grandparents work on that together. The event represented an opportunity not only for the three of them to reconnect but also one where they could present a united front.

“If you need me to give out any invitations in person do let me know and I’ll do it but I need to be focused on this.” he had told them before turning to his brother.

Ajax knew that his brother and Kate still had their commitments to the guards and the Healing Union respectively, the only thing he asked them for was to keep an eye out for anyone they could recruit into to work for their house. Ideally he would have Tom be the leader of his guards and fighters and Kate would be their head healer.

All that was left was his father. Ajax had asked him to look into recruiting any craftsmen. Despite taking time away from heavily pursuing his craft their family had lived off Sam’s crafting for a long time meaning that his skills were still decently high. Not only that but he had started out as an apprentice in the capital so might still have a few connections that he could reach out to.

The only thing Ajax had left for himself was the design of their official home. Having been an architecture major back on Earth he would find the project as the perfect way to relax after a long day of pushing himself. With that Ajax picked up his training gear and headed towards the Academy, it was time to see if instructor Gatecrasher’s open invitation still held up.

Finding the instructor took no time at all and the man was eager to help him train as well. One thing Ajax quickly realized was how different it was having someone as good as instructor Gatecrasher instruct you as an individual instead of as part of a class.

With the instructor being close to level one hundred Ajax didn’t need to hold back at all during their training. Anything he could throw out was easily dodged or parried, so far none of his strikes had even managed to make decent contact with the instructor's guard. Twenty minutes into their training and sweat was pouring down Ajax’s forehead and back.

“Your new form works much better for you.” the instructor praised, though it didn’t come off as genuine with him not having broken a sweat despite staying on the defensive for their entire spar. “You’ll have to find an outlet for your stamina however.”

One of the biggest problems Ajax’s fighting style suffered from was that his mana would dry up a lot quicker than his stamina, and that was without taking his [Berserker] into account as the skill would let him get more stamina as he got injured.

The issue wouldn’t be as pronounced once Ajax started incorporating his [cursed slash] into his attacks but that alone wouldn’t fix the issue entirely. “What do you suggest?” he asked between heaving breaths.

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“There are two ways you can go with this, one is simpler to achieve than the other but there is no guarantee you have the aptitude for either choice. In that case I would suggest that you progress deeper down your magic path relying on your enhancement to keep you relevant in terms of physical ability.” the instructor said. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“The easier path, and the one I can already see you made some steps towards is a more rogue focused physical style.” the instructor explained.

“How would that work to help me?” Ajax asked.

“I see, you view fighting beasts and monsters as totally separate from fighting other people.” the instructor nodded. “Not the worst idea as trying to approach humanoid combat in the same way one would a monster has gotten a lot of good adventurers killed, but in your case it is holding you back a bit.”

“I haven’t gotten all that good of a look at you fighting the beasts on the first floor of the dungeon but it matches up with your origins as a hunter, you don’t so much fight them as you hunt them down, traps, ambushes, ranged attacks.” the instructor said. “Now you just need to adapt that to your style against people. Like this”

With that the instructor finally went on the offensive, instead of the powerful swings and tight defense he usually held up during class his movements were very different. He had changed from a longsword and shield to a double shortsword style and his movements were intentionally tricky. His center of mass was never well placed until the moment his blow made contact and he needed to back it up with power.

More than that his usually useless bright red cloak had started taking an active role in his offense by concealing the angle of his strikes. In seconds Ajax had been put on the backfoot as lots of little nicks and pokes started appearing on his arms and legs. The one angle he had managed to finally read had ended up being a trap as [Danger Sense] yelled at him for his foolishness.

His parry was perfect but there was no pressure from the instructor's sword, it got tossed easily to the side as Ajax felt a knife press to his throat, a small drop of blood shoving that the instructor didn’t quite have the same mastery over this style as to stop before he drew blood on the fight ending strike.

“Despite your mobile leather armor, when you fight people you fight like a warrior or a berserker. You can get away with that for now but ideally you would lean into more tricky movements and hidden weapons. The high stamina cost that comes with the isn’t as big a burden to you as it would be to others.” the instructor Gatecrasher said. “That is to say nothing of the potential for poisoning targets this style would give you, seeing how you have also decided to pursue Alchemy.”

Ajax put down his weapons as he let himself fall to the ground and started healing all the open cuts the last minute of fighting had left him with. “And what is the other way?” Ajax asked, despite feeling like this path is one that seemed suited for him.

“What do you mean?” the instructor asked, slightly confused.

“You said I have to clear paths,” Ajax reminded him. “This is one of them, what about the other?”

“The other isn’t as realistic.” the instructor said. “It's the same path that the captain of the Tenth squad has taken. As a fully physically focused warrior he doesn’t stand out all that much from others of his level. Everyone who surpasses level one hundred and fifty has a quality all of their own but among them he isn’t special like the other squad leaders are.”

“So it’s a skill.” Ajax surmised.

“Indeed,” the instructor nodded. “And a Legendary skill at that, [Hero’s moment]. One of the very few Legendary combat skills possessed by anyone in our kingdom. Despite it being a Legendary skill it still comes with a massive drain on one’s stamina. In exchange however it grants a massive corresponding spike in power, speed and dexterity.”

That was a less appealing way to go but one that was simpler to achieve. His unique and overpowered trait would most likely make this path much easier to achieve than the instructor thought.

“It is also a very poor choice for you specifically.” the instructor dashed his hopes.

“How so?” Ajax asked.

“Besides the massive increase in stamina the skill comes with another downside, a strong backlash.” the instructor explained.

“That doesn’t make sense, such a powerful skill shouldn’t also inflict a backlash and have a massive cost.” Ajax argued, he knew that Legendary skills were much stronger than ordinary ones.

“This backlash doesn’t come from the skill but from the squad commander’s body. Using that skill puts such a pressure on his body that he is weakened once he releases it. The length of the backlash is proportional to the length of time and how hard he pushed his body while using the skill. In fact the only reason I suspect you haven’t been feeling similar effects from your own empowerment skill is because your physical stats are still high enough that your body can handle it.”

“Adding a skill like that on top would probably make the backlash much worse for me.” Ajax murmured as he understood the implications.

“Exactly.” the instructor nodded. “If you don’t manage to get the skill required for a more rogue inspired combat I suggest focusing on your magic and getting a recuperation skill to help with the backlash your own skill will end up causing you.”