Without a large caravan the group's travel speed increased considerably, not only that but with them not making stops at every city and taking a much more direct route it also meant that their usual training time was cut down and adapted to be practiced inside the carriage as much as possible.

While Ajax wasn’t glad about the loss of his physical training he had no issues dumping his mana into his Alchemy ingredients twice a day. Lexi was also in the same boat as she had no issues dumping out her own mana in repeated attempts of forming her Domain.

“Come with me.” The prince told Ajax in a commanding voice the first time they stopped to renew their provisions.

“What are we doing?” Ajax asked curiously.

“Starting your training.” The prince said, a small smile on his otherwise serious face. “Originally this was supposed to have waited until you accepted your position as Duke and had a much deeper tie with Gryndor, considering the amount of good will you managed to create in the last few months however it’s been accepted that you can begin earlier.”

“What training?” Ajax was confused as he was already training for multiple things.

“I was informed that a few years ago you showed a high level of interest in learning [Empowering Restriction].” the prince explained. “As one of my most used skills I can see why a hybrid fighter would be interested in that.”

Ajax was a little conflicted at the news. One the one hand he was extremely eager to learn the skill, on the other he couldn’t help but question if they really needed to wait this long.

“The first thing I need to tell you about this skill is that it will also be detrimental to you.” The prince’s words brought Ajax out of his internal debate. “Unlike most other skills [Empowering Restriction] actively slows the progress your skills will make, this is another reason it isn’t taught too early. The only reason why you are even a candidate at your current age is that you have an abnormal number of different skills already.”

That was a reason Ajax agreed with a lot more but there was one thing he wanted to clarify first considering the possible downsides. “Does it also make it harder for me to gain new skills?” Ajax was aiming for things like Vibration mana and most likely a number of additional mana types, he wasn’t ready to sacrifice all that just yet.

“Yes and no.” the prince answered with one of the least useful answers there was. “Skills brand new to you like for example an additional mana type will not be affected. Derivative skills however that are in part recreated with the use of this skill will be almost impossible to gain and if gained even harder to level.”

“Derivative skills? Like what?” Ajax asked.

“You currently have [Sense Mana].” The prince explained. “That is an Uncommon skill. [Mana Sight], [Mana Scent], [Mana Touch] are all Rare examples of Derivative skills that you can recreate by using [Empowering Restriction] on [Sense Mana].”

“Wouldn’t it just be better to get [Empowering Restriction] since they can be recreated?” Ajax questioned as he thought about it.

“As a stand alone skill yes.” The prince nodded. “I however have both [Sense Mana] and [Mana Sight]. The way [Empowering Restriction] works after it is initially gained is that only a short restriction can be placed on a skill, it is only after it passes level fifty that a more detailed or multiple restrictions can be used. Restricting [Mana Sight] from both eyes to only one would create a much stronger skill than simply restricting [Sense Mana] to sight only.”

Ajax took a moment to think through the consequences of getting such a skill this early when he was already pretty sure he would live for millenia. In the end however the answer he always came back to was that at worst all this would do would be to offset the advantage his Divine Witness trait gave him in acquiring certain skills.

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“I’m ready to start training.” Ajax said with determination.

“Allright.” the prince nodded. “The best way to unlock this skill is by adding non-beneficial restrictions to your skills.”

“Isn’t that something that anyone can figure out?” Ajax sounded a little bummed out as that was something he had already tried back when he first heard about the skill.

“The skill isn’t that easy to figure out.” the prince said with a pitying smile, no doubt guessing he had already tried that. “Unlike most other skills [Empowering Restriction] is meant to be exclusively a support skill. Focusing on the restriction you voluntarily place on your skill won’t help you unlock it.”

“Then why are we doing it if I am not focusing on it?” Ajax asked.

“So that you can also add a punishment.” Ajax could swear that the prince’s smile turned a little sadistic as he answered. “The restriction isn’t meant to be focused on since maintaining it is what the skill will do once you gain it. You must instead strive to show you can use a restricted skill as intended by adding a restriction, not focusing on it, and finally paying a penalty every time you break your own restriction.”

“Okayyyy” Ajax didn’t sound so trusting but he was willing to give this a go.

“The first and easiest skill to start this with is an [Inspect] skill.” the prince continued. “It is very often used and the touch only restriction is very limiting while also being relatively simple.”

“Okay.” Ajax acknowledged.

“Now the most important part.” the prince explained. “The penalty has to be something either challenging or personally unpleasant. You don’t have to tell me what you decided to go with. I always make it a small game every time I teach someone this skill to figure out what their penalties are. It also works better if the penalties get worse at each breach.”

Ajax had just been about to start a brainstorming session for just what his penalty should be but stopped once he heard the prince’s explanation.

“Once you are able to go three days without breaking the condition let me know and we can get started on the next one.” the prince said as he turned to leave.

“The next one?” Ajax asked, surprised.

“Oh yes, once you get the hang of one restriction you add another different restriction to a second skill.” the prince nodded. “The restrictions also have to be as diverse as possible, after three days of no penalties you add another. The quickest anyone I ever taught gained the skill was after adding the fifth restriction. The average for those who actually gain the skill is usually ten.”

With that both Ajax returned to the carriage in silence as Ajax tried to think of a good penalty for himself. Initially he had wanted to add some form of training punishment similar to one hundred push ups but that wasn’t something he considered a true penalty any more, rather it was just quality training.

By the time they returned to the carriage Ajax finally settled on a comfort penalty. Every time he broke the restriction he would have to go one night without sleep. Considering how all of his stats were already past three hundred going a few days without sleep in a row wouldn’t be dangerous for him it but it would place additional mental pressure on him, he could only hope that since the penalty would also make it harder for him to remember the restriction it would help in unlocking the skill.

With that settled Ajax tried his best to put his restriction out of his mind as he focused on interacting with the others as they each returned and got ready to leave, their next stop wouldn’t be until they reached the next dungeon.

The first day back on the road it hadn’t been all that hard for Ajax to stick to his restriction, on the second day however he had caught sight of an odd movement through the trees on the side of the road and he had activated [Inspector’s Eye] more by reflex than anything else.

Name : N/A

Speciase : Stufftailed Squirrel

Level : 14

Health : 500/500

Mana : 200/200

Stamina : 760/1000

Vitality : 50

Strength : 40

Endurance : 100

Dexterity : 105

Intelect : 20

Wisdom : 19

Mind : 20

Perception : 80

Skills : [Climbing][Running][Danger Sense][Grooming]

Ajax managed to hold in the curse as he realized he had broken his restriction.

“What’s wrong?” Lexi asked him, noticing him tense up for a moment.

“Nothing…” he said a little dejectedly. “Just failed at something.”

Lexi had learned over the years they had been together that Ajax was always doing something or other odd, she had also learned to not always question it until he was ready to share as it was usually something odd that most of the time ended up working out for him.

“And so my watch begins.” Ajax mumbled later that same night as he stayed looking out the window of the moving carriage. He had at first been tempted to move away from the window so that he wouldn’t fail again on a twitch reaction but that would go against the focusing on the restriction part of the training.