After absorbing all the basic knowledge he needed, Darius ended his session with Portia. The young lady seemed to want to say something but gave up in the end.
Her brother had berated her when she had wanted to come with him, so she was aware that Darius would likely not respond kindly to her pursuing and she didn't want to ruin the friendship they had now.
Darius himself noticed her actions but did not attempt to assist her as that would lead him down a dangerous rabbit hole. He went to his room after dinner and idled on the bed, thinking as he usually did.
When alone like this, he liked to reminisce about Earth. Darius loved his family dearly and wished to know how they were doing, but that did not seem possible.
He then thought about his Conversion Points. There were many times in the past where he could have solved minor issues like clothing and washing water with Conversion Points, but that would be foolishness.
Conversion Points were not some plaything and neither was his Transmutation ability. Conversion Points were a strategic resource he used to accomplish tasks that were pertinent to his current circumstances and were often used for things he could not accomplish on his own or do without.
It was only in the last 3 days that Darius had used them a bit less strictly because he was indoors and there were no pressing concerns requiring him to throw himself into the way of danger.
Even then, he still prioritized items and things that were impossible for him to acquire through easier means.
His mentality towards his Conversion Points would never change. They would only be used strategically and intellectually, not willy-nilly or because he was feeling creative.
Of course, that didn't stop him from using the remaining CP he had in upgrading his Iron Spear to a Steel one for 3 CP.
Darius eventually fell asleep with much comfort.
...…
In the morning, he performed his usual routine of bathing and having breakfast. This time, he wasn't in a rush to spend CP as he would be going out.
Darius left the manor with a light gait. He paused when he reached the old cart on the outskirts of the homestead and then activated Blink. Immediately, Darius disappeared from where he stood and re-appeared exactly 10 meters away.
Darius rubbed his chin and quelled his boyish excitement as he performed the spell again. He then did it twice in a row to see what would happen and just as he thought, he only barely manifested as an outline before he was moved again by the second spell.
Even more excited, he cast the spell 5 times in a row. It took about .3 of a second for him to execute all five casts. Darius then stopped to let his mana refill as he calculated the distance in his mind.
From here to the Lost River was 23 kilometers. Since Blink allowed him to go up to a max of 10 meters and cost 1 MP, Darius could use his 550 MP to move a total of 5.5 kilometers before he ran out!
Of course, he could make things easier by using a Short Warp scroll, but that would be a waste of 3 CP since he had alternate means. He wasn't in a rush and wouldn't even mind walking to his destination if need be.
Darius checked his map and the area before him before mentally spamming the Blink spell at its maximal efficiency. Immediately, the young fellow turned into a blurry outline as he raced along the pathway.
It looked like some poorly rendered evil demonic spirit was flitting across the landscape, chasing after some innocent prey. It was truly a weird sight to an onlooker depending on their point of view.
Someone looking through a screen would find it bizarrely funny how Darius appeared to 'glitch' his way through the surroundings while someone at the location seeing it live would be chilled to their bones and probably traumatized by a ghostly form of a boy appearing for a split second.
Darius eventually stopped after 5.2 kilometers, just so that he would have enough MP to deal with any issues while he waited for his mana bar to refill. Emptying his mana bar in the wild would be quite silly of him, even if he did have his Lancer Arts.
He lay against the body of a tree and focused on the feeling of rapidly blinking across the landscape. Like his other spells, Darius 'auto-cast' them, meaning that he cast them without knowing how they worked specifically, and the execution was handled by the Supreme System.
As such, he just had to think of what he wanted and how he wanted it, and the rest would occur as he wished. This was great for a beginner like him, but might be problematic at the higher stages for mages. Adept mages and above almost only used their self-created spells.
If he always cast the spells of others that were widely known, he would fall behind his peers. That was why Darius wished to learn more about the Magical Method, but that would come for later.
One downside of having more MP was how much longer he had to wait for it to recharge. At level 11, it took him 1 minute to refill his mana bar meaning that he sat there for a short while.
In this time, Darius had not been attacked by anything to his slight surprise, although he was unsure whether it was a result of his high Luck stat or the various beasts sensing his increased life level and taking him as a serious threat now.
Whatever the case, it was a good thing for him. He rose to his feet and continued his Blink Train. Once he crossed another 5.2 kilometers in roughly half a minute, he paused to restore his MP before repeating the same action over again.
Eventually, less than 10 minutes later, he appeared at the bridge where one crossed the Lost River to head to the Plains of the Green. Darius paused to look at the pristine water and the various beasts bathing within.
Once his eyes went across the shore, he saw an old friend and his family, the Plains Lion. Interestingly, the fellow looked rather grumpy today. Then again, one of his lionesses had mysteriously disappeared and never returned!
Darius grinned and walked over to it, slowly raising a finger as he did so.
Before Darius slaughtered the beast and its family, he Inspected and then Analyzed the leader of the pride.
[Plains Lion - Level 5 Beast
HP: 40/40 MP: 10/10]
[Detected target is of an Enemy affiliation. Displaying details accordingly.]
[Name: Plains Lion
Race: Lion
Class: Predator
Subclass: None
HP: 40/40
MP: 10/10
Level: 5
Strength: 8
Agility: 9
Endurance: 8
Intellect: 3
Charisma: 5
Luck: 1
Abilities: Maul, Shred, Overwhelm, Roar
Weapons: Tooth & Claw.]
Darius nodded with no surprise on his face. He had long since guessed that stats were not fixed to levels, and that stat distribution varied per existence. The Plains Lion might just be a level 5 and a mere beast, but its stats neared the level 8 Blue Troll.
It made sense then that the Troll and the lion had not met. Both were very similar in power except for the matter of HP, and neither of them would wish to risk their lives in a fight.
Darius had no doubt that if the Blue Troll had been stronger, it would have long since killed the lion and captured all the lioness for unholy purposes, rather than stalk a single one out.
The Plains Lion was likely a formidable foe. With an Agility of 9, it likely could avoid Darius's spells and call its pride to help him overwhelm this puny pink skin.
Unfortunately, it never got this chance because Darius blinked right in front of it and used Sparks.
[You have gained 0 EXP.]
Darius was too surprised by the sudden system message popping up in front of him to continue his assault on the rest of the group. In the split second he had roasted the leader of the pride to death, its family roared with anger and grief as they pounced on Darius.
The young fellow blinked away from their point of impact and cast Ember out in an arc. Unlike Sparks, his fire spell had a marginal area of effect bonus that he took advantage of this time to roast many of the young cubs trying to flee.
[You have gained 0 EXP.]
Darius was even more baffled, while the lionesses were enraged to the point some were frothing at the mouth. First, the male of the pride was killed, and now their cubs?
Their pride, their family, was practically ruined in just a few seconds for reasons the beasts couldn't even comprehend.
Darius turned towards the angered Plains Lionesses and blinked behind them one by one as he used Sparks to kill each of them in one hit. It didn't matter how they tried to maneuver or dodge, one cast of his spell would bring Darius right behind the beasts, within the 10-meter range.
This was why Darius had chosen the Blink spell in the first place. Coupled with his maxed out Sparks, it made him a fighter that was impossible to kill unless someone's Agility was above 15 points where they could move before Darius even appeared behind them.
Despite his now seemingly infallible combat prowess, he still received the same message from the system, informing him that he got zero experience points for his effort.
Darius was confused as to why this was the case. He tried to think of a few reasons why this would even be a thing but came up with only one theory that was too cruel to consider.
Still, Darius knew that he had to investigate this as it was a crucial aspect of the Supreme System's mechanics and could affect his leveling up speed in the future.
He then processed what happened. The Plains Lion had been level 5, whereas the Plain Lionesses had been level 4. As for the cubs, they had been between level 1 and 2 depending on their growth stage.
Darius himself was a level 11 Itemancer, so when he considered this, the earlier theory he thought up but feared came back to his mind. The reason it scared him was because it would show the cruelty of Caesar and Vena in the truest sense.
On his second day in the world of Faust, Darius had made use of the river to kill many weak beasts, leading him to believe that killing anything below his level would grant him a base minimum of 1 experience point. As his level rose, the amount of experience needed to level up once also rose linearly.
However the system message clearly proved him wrong. His new theory was that below a certain level threshold, a user of the Supreme System would no longer gain experience points. While this seemed like a sensible and fair mechanic, it was truly horrendous for Darius!
This made it impossible for him to act like a major villain at higher levels who might simply genocide a city or location to farm masses of weaklings once enemies around his level became either too scarce or too troublesome to fight.
Even if the Supreme System might have only given him a pittance instead of the full 1 experience point, a city should have about a hundred thousand people in it, no? With that, he should have been able to reach whatever level he needed and complete his task.
But why would Vena and Caesar make it so easy? It was also clear that they were likely not even bothered with his early stage escapades since there would be little suffering at this point.
At level 11, it wasn't a problem yet. But what when Darius reached level 89? How many level 89 foes naturally existed in this world, and how easy would it be to kill one of them when so many powers and abilities would be in play at that stage?
Assuming he even found such a level 89 foe and killed them when they were the same level, that would grant him a total of... 5 EXP. At that level, he would need 8,900 experience points to climb once, so he would have to find more than a thousand other such foes!
As Caesar had warned him, the Supreme System did not care about how much effort it might take him to slay an enemy. All it cared about was the level difference between him and his prey.
Darius was chilled to the bone by this. Assuming that he could even reach the Supreme stage… how long would it take? Years? Decades? Centuries?
Would Darius even have to create his own enemies and then slaughter them like farm animals to grow? Was that why he was given the System Brand?!
Darius' thoughts became chaotic and spiraled into a mess from this horrendous revelation about his limited ability to gain experience. His expression changed many times, from fear, depression, to anger, and then to frustration.
Eventually, Darius' mind quaked as his high Intellect forcibly calmed him down. It was only then that he noticed that all the other prey animals had run away, making the closest few meters around the bank of the river clear of all life.
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