Ajax P.O.V

The last seven days had blurred together as I pushed myself to stay awake working deep into the night every day making sure that I had all I needed to publish the discovery in my name and ensure I would get the rewards for doing so. The biggest obstacle to this was the simple fact that we were in the school day part of the cycle so half of my day was spent in class learning or in the training yard.

My main helper throughout all this was Balthazar, the old man had sped up my efficiency by leaps and bounds having taken it upon himself to guide me through the process of reporting a discovery. All the old man asked for in return was that he be listed as my guiding professor for the specific project, this was something I was more than willing to let him have as it didn’t take away anything from my reward and simply let him gain something for helping me.

The first two days we had worked together deep into the night as he helped me word the process correctly. Admittedly he had called me an idiot when I first explained what my discovery was and the next hour was spent by showing him how it worked and then listening to him as he played with the display setting on the status page.

It was after the last five days that had been a lesson in frustration for me. An idea in theory was all well and good but you had to obtain backed officiated proof of it working before you could make the claim that it did. For the rest of the five days I would go to classes in the morning, training in the afternoon and spend the rest of the day running around either showing the discovery to a few more trustworthy people and then getting all of their statements officiated with a truth telling stone.

Despite the medieval setting of this work it seemed like the scientific method was still alive and well as I had to get different tests to prove that it worked. The samples had to contain all different categories too, people with a noble title, people without, men, women, children, people with free stats points available (finding someone like this had taken three hours of searching by itself and the rest of the day to convince him to try and then get that testimony recorded).

All of my hard work was going to pay off as I stood in front of the royal palace and approached the gates. This was a formal process where I would present my work and it would be taken before the royal court for scrutiny, this world's version of peer review. Evelyn was standing there to meet me, her presence made the two palace guards a little jumpy but me and the old man had asked her to deliver this in person to ensure that some ambitious guard and cunning guard didn’t take all of my hard work for themselves.

“I submit my discovery for review.” I stated loudly as I handed the box filled with scrolls to Evelyn.

“It is accepted and shall be delivered to the court.” She spoke in her normal voice and then simply left with the box.

With that finally done I let out a heavy sigh as I started my trek towards my bed, it was out of my hands now and with the royal court convening today I would, according to both Balthazar and Evelyn, be granted a baron title by tomorrow at noon.

Duke Goldmancer P.O.V.

The Royal court was just as boring today as it always was. I knew well why it was necessary for it to be held two to three times a month as it offered the nobility ample opportunity to air out grievances while they were still small so they wouldn’t fester into civil war. The issue was that for the last decade and a half I was forced to take a more active role in the management of the house due to the internal fracture the birth of my daughter had caused.

“It’s just a little longer father.” she whispered from the seat next to me.

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I had taken to having her join me for court since she started attending the Academy in hopes exposing her more to noble society after keeping her so isolated in her youth but after the first few gathering the shine had worn off and I knew she was just as bored as I was with the petty squabbles of knights and barons even if her face betrayed nothing but interest in the claims brought forth.

“Is there anything else?” the king asked as the last grievance over an annulled wedding between two knight families had been dealt with.

“There is the matter of a discovery being brought forth before the court.” I was surprised to see that Evelyn of the Forth was the one bringing the discovery in person, rules dictated that for chain of custody the person to receive it at the gate had to bring it forward.

Groans and frowns of displeasure rose quickly from the Knights, Barons and Viscounts present while the dukes and my two fellow archdukes seemed to have some life breathed into them. Rules of the court said that a representative of all Ducal houses or above had to be present for every meeting as well as the royal family whereas the rest of the nobles could attend more sparelying .

“Who is the author of the discovery?” the king asked.

“Ajax, a teaching assistant at the academy.” Evelyn said. “The guiding professor is Balthazar Young.”

The name Ajax sounded familiar, though I couldn’t recall why off the top of my head. Balthazar Young however was a different beast, while he might not have looked it he had been considered old since my grandfather had been born and I knew for a fact certain nobles had bets going that he would outlive us all.

My memory however was quickly refreshed as I noticed Annabeth, Alexis and even Benedict stiffen at the name. None of them should have reacted to Balthazar so this Ajax was the same Ajax that was the teaching assistant for their class, my memory skill quickly brought up the information packet I had read about the boy previously.

The boy was a certified genius, having not only an astounding level but even more unbelievable stats for his age and to top it all off he had managed to get Trailblazer achievement, using it to unlock [Enigma].

“The discovery claimed it is a method to increase all stats of a person by somewhere between ten to thirty points.” Evelyn continued but following her words a deafening silence filled the throne room.

Everyone knew just how absurd an increase of thirty to all stats was, a total of twelve levels for free. If the method worked the boy had just won himself a dukedom. You could see the greed in everyone's eyes as they listened intently. Archduke Steelblade looked ready to jump down from his seat and yell at her to get on with the explanation quicker.

The next hour however saw all of the nobles present go from greedy and excited to angry and regretful. The method did seem to work, I knew because during the explanation myself and most likely most of the nobles who had followed the instruction had been able to change our status screens. The outline of the method was also truthful as if used at the age of ten most anyone would see a gain of ten points to each stat and maybe more depending on how they exercised.

The issue was that this method was extremely limited and specific, nobody present could even take advantage of it but I knew that the future potential of this discovery was going to have overarching effects that I sadly wouldn’t live to see.

“I move that we grant the boy a Viscount title.” Steelblade was equally wise to the overarching effects of the discovery but his proposition drew frowns from quite a few of the barons and knights present.

“With all due respect to Archduke, I believe that the title of Viscount is a bit much. Afterall nobody of note can benefit from this method.” the shortsighted were always quick to speak sadly. “Perhaps knighthood would be a better reward.”

“Knighthood?” Steelblade, like most everyone who grasped just how big this discovery was, seemed shocked into silence for a moment, sadly for the baron who had spoken Steelblade was the first to regain his speech and laid into him for his foolishness.

“The only reason I proposed he be granted a Viscount title and not a ducal one is that he is still only sixteen years old. Despite this Discoveries extremely limited potential for our current forces it is invaluable in the long term." Despite the Archduke’s high diplomatic skills his voice had started to get louder as he talked.

“I agree with Archduke Steelblade.” Archduke Silvertongue quickly jumped in. “The fact that this method has no cost beside the period of weakness extending from age ten to age fifteen it can be implemented en masse among the commoners. In the next two hundred years we could see the average stats of our entire army rise by up to five or six levels worth.”

Five to six levels was a very conservative estimate in my opinion, with the increase in stats coming at such an early age it would allow commoners to safely delve the first few floors of the dungeon while gaining the floor clearing bonuses, I expected to see the growth to be at least eight levels.

“The claims of this discovery are as magnificent as they are unbelievable.” the king’s tone commanded silence as he spoke. “With the proof provided I am going to grant Ajax the title of Baron here and now.”

Muttering started almost immediately but the king continued talking before myself or any of the other Archdukes could protest the decision. “This is not to be considered the reward. This is simply a placeholder, the court will review this discovery in ten years after extensive trials have been run to decide on a worthy reward.”