It was the end of my first week of apprenticeship, and I was exhausted. Moving heavy metals all around the smithy, learning how to quench, being cooked by proximity to the forge, and running for hours with weighted gear was all very tiring work.

  Though for all the work I had done, the gains were equally impressive. My strength, intelligence, and wisdom had already increased by 1, with my focus increasing by 2. I gained two levels in heat resistance and another in comprehension, rounding out my gains for the first week.

  Darius was fairly impressed by my improvement, and decided to swap from increasing the running weights every other day to doing it two days in a row before skipping one. At the start, it was decided that the most I could handle without causing damage was about 2.5 kilo on each limb. They increased by 2.5 kilo every other day, leaving them at 7.5 kilo on the last day. Staying with this pattern, I’d be running with 37.5 kilo on each limb by the end of training, or nearly 150 kilo total. On the newly decided pattern, I’d end up running with 190 kilo total at the end of the training. Even though this new plan would be harder on me, Darius knew I’d be able to handle it.

  Due to how passive experience gain worked, the {System} giving one experience a day, I was already almost leveled up just from the week passing by. Most people’s first few levels were gained this way, though children of hunters and others in a similar vein usually leveled a few times from accumulated experience from before their {System} activated. I was no different from normal in this regard.

  “Well, Amara,” Darius was mulling over my training regimen. “It seems like you’ll hit the baseline we need earlier than expected. Honestly, your growth is impressive, even with the tough work we’re having you do here.”

  “Mr. Darius, how high do you think my strength would be by the end of training if we stuck it out through the full month at this rate?” I was curious about my rate of growth as well.

  “I’d estimate it would be around 12 or 13 at the rate you’re improving now. Honestly, it’s almost scary how quickly your strength is increasing. And it would increase even faster with the new weight schedule as well. If we went for the whole month, it might end up at 15.” Darius did some quick math in his head to estimate the gains.

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  “Wow! More than doubling my strength in such a short time seems so unbelievable!” I was stunned with the estimate.

  “To be honest, it’s kind of unbelievable to me as well. Normally a kid like you wouldn’t hit 15 strength until they were in their mid-teens, though that’s not including those with physical classes. Most [Apprentice Blacksmith]s would run into that level of strength around their 12th or 13th year. We should probably keep your stat growth a little quiet. Some people might think you’re doing something unsavory to grow quickly if they found out, but I've known you long enough to know better.” Darius said warily.

  Darius was rightly cautious about this explosive growth, as this kind of growth might only be seen once in a few centuries. Amara’s innate connection to the heat of the forge, and the clashing of heated metal was a great motivator for her work, and her higher determination and focus was translated to faster gains, as well as having an unnatural amount of karma.

  “Well, it’s time to get back to work Amara.” Darius started heading towards the forge. “Tomorrow should be the day you level up right? Has anyone explained how that’s gonna work?”

  “No sir, they haven’t.” I was always interested in the things Darius taught me.

  “So, once you wake up tomorrow, you should have a notice in your {System} telling you that you’ve leveled up, how many stat points you gained, and any special class-based improvements you earned. That last one usually only happens after you do a lot of work with it, and is usually a passive or active skill, or a related title, though these usually give notifications between levels, as soon as they’re earned.”

  “Is there a way to know how many stat points I'll be earning?” I asked as I started towards the cooling ingots.

  “Normally, stat points earned is equal to your previous level plus a tenth of karma, rounded up, so it’s usually two stat points at level 2, 3 at level 3, and so on. In the past, people assumed it was just the number of the level you were, which honestly, wouldn’t have changed a whole lot. Any last questions before we focus on work?” Darius was going through his hammers to find the one he needed.

  “Just one last thing, what stats should I focus on for my levels?” I started moving one of the ingots.

  “I’d usually recommend just using them all on your main stat for your first level, but at the rate your strength is increasing, you should rotate between your other stats until the natural gains start to slow down. Let’s get to work then. It's going to be a long few weeks if we get sidetracked like this every day.” Darius began hammering away at the glowing metal taken from the forge.

  I filed the new information away, and started moving faster, eager to finish work tonight, and distribute my points in the morning.