Chapter 48: Chapter 48
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.
Chapter 49: Chapter 49
Darius sighed and rubbed his hair. There was no need to continue here then. He had come here initially to farm a bit more experience and raise his level by a little, but he had thoroughly lost his appetite for further fights after being hit with this revelation.
Darius estimated that his current level threshold might be 5 levels based on the level of the Plains Lion, so he would keep his eyes out for a level 6 enemy to test the validity of his theory.
For now, he took out a House Portal scroll and used it to return to the homestead. When in his room, he rummaged through the closet and found a nice blue cloak that could cover his entire body.
Darius immediately wore it and made sure his features were undetectable this way. Of course, there was nothing he could do about his height, but he decided that it shouldn't be much of an issue for what he was about to do next.
Darius raised his head and his hazel pupils suddenly became serpentine slits that would chill the heart of an onlooker, but such an onlooker would be rendered confused as they saw that his eyes returned to normal the next instant.
Was it a trick of the light or an illusion of sorts?
Whatever it was, Darius smiled widely as he blinked away. It was time to begin phase 3 of the plan.
......
35 kilometers southwest, there was a mountainous ridge that overlooked a small valley. The valley was a known merchant pathway and was even used by smugglers sometimes when coming to and from one of the nearby towns.
Above this mountainous ridge, there were 21 men dressed in a mishmash of hide and leather armor that was in poor quality and smelled worse than dead animals.
They all wielded either rusty swords, axes, or greatswords that had splotches of blood all over their edges. The men were currently laughing and feasting as they sat around their campfire.
Next to them was a mess of 7 caravans laden with goods ranging from jewelry to foodstuffs. Besides the caravans were a few people, male and female, tied up in a circle as they could only watch the men around the fire eat heartily while they starved, lucky to still be alive.
The men around the fire were the Diato Bandits, one of the three biggest groups that hung around Poleria's Homestead. They focused on raiding merchant caravans that occasionally passed through these valleys in order to make a profit.
They only got a good haul like this every other month since most caravans that passed here were well defended. In fact, this one had been too. Less than an hour ago there had been more than 50 bandits alive, now slightly less than half.
However, the guards of the merchant group had perished first and they could always recruit more cutthroats from the smaller, struggling bandit groups around.
They also kept captives for ransom, which was why they had killed anyone that looked common and reserved those who looked important as hostages. Right now, they held 7 hostages, 3 females and 4 males, all of them wearing fine attires that showed status and a good background.
They fearfully watched the Diato Bandits revel in their heist, which was technically an insult to them, but what could they do? The females especially were subdued as they had heard the stories about what bandits would usually do to captive women, and tried to make themselves as invisible as possible.
While the bandits reveled in their joy, they did not notice a cloaked figure suddenly appear near their camp. This cloaked figure sat down to recover his mana as he listened in on the conversation the bandits were having.
He spent his time assessing the location in total as well as 28 people. He quickly ignored the hostages as Darius had no interest in them. Taking any of them under his brand would be even more problematic than the villagers of Poleria's Homestead due to their backgrounds.
Once Darius' mana climbed above 250 points, he blinked into the midst of the bandits. It took the group a whole 10 seconds to even notice he was there as their chatter abruptly died down, replaced by shock, confusion, and awe.
Darius sat there quietly, a cloaked figure that one could not tell the features of. The only thing one could barely make out were hazel colored eyes that roved the group lightly and callously.
"The Diato Bandit Group. Led by Diato, ex-mercenary under the guild and his two vices, Kevin, dishonorably discharged footsoldier and Jorge, wanted thief and fledgling assassin."
Darius looked around. "Supposedly made up of more than 50 men, but seeing your current numbers, this must have been quite a battle. Less than half remaining means that your group must've faced at least 20 opposing guards with one of them at the Journeyman stage."
Darius's eyes then landed on the trio he had named, the leaders of this group. "With your three leaders at the pinnacle of the Amateur stage, they likely had to team up to handle the Journeyman guard, while the rest struggled to deal with their better-trained opposition."
Darius's eyes landed on the lovely ruby dagger by the side of Diato. "The thing that saved the day must have been the two vices creating a distraction while your leader used his Cursed Dagger to inflict a curse upon your foe."
The more Darius spoke, the more the bandits around the fire felt chills in their hearts. From his appearance to his sudden monologue, everything was eerie as hell. It was as if he had been there with them as they raised the caravans… for his assessments had been completely on point!
Eventually, Diato spoke in a heavy voice that tried to cover his fear. "And who are you? What do you want?"
Darius smiled but none of them could see it, obviously. Instead, he raised a single finger, making the sign for 'one' as he said: "As for me, I am nobody of interest. As for what I want from you…"
Darius' upraised finger suddenly doubled as he added his middle finger, but caught between the two digits was a Gold Ando Coin that shimmered in the light of the campfire.
"Attack the Poleria Homestead and slaughter everyone there."
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
6 Power
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