Chapter 65: Chapter 65

Darius left his room with Gunner in tow, a pacified Portia left seated in his bed with a mesmerized expression. Whatever infatuation she had with him before had now evolved into something else, and Darius did not like that change one bit.

Still, he recognized her goodwill and amended his plans a bit for her sake. As for her feelings, she would have to deal with them on her own, as there was nothing Darius wished to offer her.

Darius turned to Gunner and saw the large lad smiling. With a hint of amusement, he asked: "Well, Gunner, you have been bored to death the whole day, and now you get to let loose. Are you ready?"

Gunner grinned toothily as he clapped his hands together. "Very ready, Master. I look forward to the battle!"

Darius nodded his head. "Good! Take the lead and engage them, you don't need me to hold you back."

Gunner bellowed with laughter as he jumped up and broke through the ceiling of the farmhouse, his body shooting through the air as he reached the outskirts in almost one jump.

One could see a greenish aura surround his body that had been absorbed into his skin. The moment he landed, there was a small earthquake in the area as the large lad broke his fall with the body of a Goblin.

Well, it couldn't be called much of a body after Gunner had practically crushed it into paste. The monsters and bandits currently in combat with the few able-bodied men of the homestead paused to take in Gunner's form with shock.

They could not fathom such strength and power, but Gunner had only just begun. He raised his leg and cast one of his new skills granted to him by Darius, Earthen Stomp!

[Earthen Stomp - Level 1 Skill

Cost: 20 MP

Description: Possessing an affinity with the earth element, channel its power into your legs as you destroy the area around you with a minor quake. This damages an area of 20 meters around the user.]

The moment Gunner's foot - which was charged with greenish energy - collided with the ground, it was as if a meteor had hit the earth. The ground directly around the half-giant cracked and shifted, those who stood above it falling over themselves and ending up concussed at the least.

Gunner laughed loudly and charged forward into an Ogre that had two heads which dual-wielded a club and mace. Unlike his companions, this one wore some stolen hide armor that barely fit its body.

Gunner's movement speed at 15 points of Agility was too fast for the Ogre to follow, since it merely had 8 or 9 points in the same statistic at best. As such, it could only be blown back into many of its fellows once Gunner used another skill granted him by Darius.

[Earthen Punch - Level 1 Skill

Cost: 15 MP

Description: Possessing an affinity with the earth element, channel its power into your fists as you deal more damage to armored or larger enemies. This skill deals 10% blunt damage.]

Gunner's fist glowed with a green light just as he connected his punch with the unlucky Ogre, forcing the monster to spit out a load of blackish-blue blood that smelled disgusting.

Gunner's performance on the battlefield was all-encompassing, forcing all attention on him. The benefit of this was that those fighting for the homestead got a huge boost in morale.

The downside though, was that all enemy attention was focused on him. Many of the monsters charged him while the bandits with ranged weapons focused on him.

Before he could make his next move, hundreds of arrows and various projectile attacks rained towards his position.

Gunner was the only real threat here apart from Shanks, who was also tearing up his side of the battlefield.

Gunner noticed all the enemies and attacks coming towards him and laughed. He activated his bloodline skill, Earthen Guardian that had been increased to level 9!

At this level, it increased his Strength, Endurance, Damage, and Defense by 50%!

Now that Gunner had brought both his Strength and Endurance stats to 20 points, that means he got a free 10 points added!

However, the consumption of the skill had grown as well, as it now cost 10 MP per second to use. With how much Gunner had left, he could only realistically use it for about 7 or so seconds.

Still, the half-giant lad was unperturbed by this, as Darius had already given him many Transmuted mana potions that were increased from lower grades. With them, Gunner could easily restore his MP over the course of the battle.

The half-giant lad received all the projectiles on his body, his hard muscles, and polymer suit repelling everything like they were just small stings of a mosquito. Not even a lick of damage was dealt unto Gunner, who proceeded to rush into the fray of charging enemies.

With his damage and defense buffed by 50%, he did not need to think about protecting himself or doing any fancy moves nor activate any other skill. All he had to do was punch, smash and destroy, nothing more, nothing less.

Unsurprisingly, Gunner was very good at that. He was not adept at using weapons, and from what Darius had read about the Giant race, they weren't the type either.

As Gunner slowly tore through the enemies on the battlefield, Darius finally blinked into the area with a raised eyebrow. Portia had warned them that there were monsters among the lot, but there were far more here than he had expected from the bandit groups.

Foldo really did overwork himself to see the plan through, but Darius had to admit, he had pulled it off spectacularly.

He could see the Diato bandits, lead by Diato, Jorge, and Kevin fighting against Shanks, while the Garwen Bandits were the ones mostly made up of archers who were bombarding Gunner fruitlessly.

As for Foldo and his crew, they were here, but not exactly either. Only a few of his men actively did something on the battlefield, and he sent the ones who were known troublemakers as well as those who were weeds in his group here to represent his group… and to perish.

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Chapter 66: Chapter 66

Darius chuckled. This Foldo fellow was truly incorrigible. After being pardoned once, he still had sub-consciously schemed towards his own benefit by sending rogue elements from his group for Darius to kill on his behalf.

Nevertheless, Foldo's methods were clean and faultless. He had accomplished his task in a way that would benefit both the apprentice and his master, just enough that it wouldn't cause any problems later on.

Before entering the battle, Darius decided to Analyze Shanks to check whether anything had changed since he last had done so in secret.

[Detected target is of a Neutral affiliation. Displaying details accordingly.]

[Name: Shanks Torniam

Race: Human

Class: Great Axe-Knight

Subclass: Royal Guard

HP: 992/992

MP: 816/816

Level: 34

Strength: 31

Agility: 29

Endurance: 32

Intellect: 24

Charisma: 14

Luck: 13]

Darius was once again left awed by Shank's stats. He had already checked his host out a week ago, back when he had introduced Gunner to him and Derek.

The revelation had been enough to make Darius freeze up for a split second in shock.

So far, Shanks was the only person to have a subclass like himself. His Great Axe-Knight class was self-explanatory, but Darius wondered what benefits his Royal Guard class brought the man.

Since Shanks was like Derek in the sense that he did not entirely open up to Darius, the old soul could not see much of his status according to the Supreme System.

Still, Darius was not discouraged by this. After today that should no longer be a problem for him.

He cast the basic spell of the death element he had added to his repertoire just yesterday, Spawn.

[Spawn - Level 1 Spell

Cost: 1 MP

Description: Channel the purest death energy through your body to form undead servants that do your bidding. Only two undead skeletons are summoned at this level.]

A black light enveloped Darius for a split second before it passed through his body, down to his feet, and lastly into the earth. The next second, the ground before him cracked apart slightly as two skeletons pulled themselves out.

They both wielded rusty swords that looked ready to crack in the next instant, as well as two wooden shields that were mostly broken and rotten. Yet despite this, they eagerly rushed into the fray before Darius could even command them.

The fellow frowned at this, but decided to leave it for now. Perhaps he might gain more control over them at higher levels, but that would require him to spend his SP.

As it was, he had used up all the Skill Points from his three level-ups to upgrade Blink to level 10. Now, Darius could travel anywhere within 100 meters instead of a mere 10.

The effectiveness of the improved spell immediately showed itself on the battlefield when Darius soddenly appeared behind a Goblin warrior who was engaged with one of the inhabitants of the homestead.

The fellow had been struggling to keep his life under the relentless onslaught of the monster, but Darius quickly swooped in and placed a hand on the short green monster's head.

Before it could cry out in surprise, Darius cast Sparks at point-blank range. The formerly struggling fighter got to watch his enemy being electrocuted to death in one hit before Darius smiled and blinked away once more.

Like this, Darius kept appearing behind many monsters spread out on the battlefield. His single cast of Sparks either lancing his targets to death or dealing enough damage that they were close to it.

Interestingly, Darius avoided targeting the bandits for now. After all, he knew that it would require more firepower to kill a human - or non-monster/beast Darius theorized - whose HP was calculated slightly differently under the Supreme System.

With both Gunner and Darius tearing through the battlefield, the hundred or so monsters were quickly suppressed and dealt with. Once Gunner grabbed the last Goblin, he raised him over his head and tore him in half.

At that time the battle came to a pause, as both sides stepped back to assess the damages.

On the side of the homestead… it was devasting.

Out of the 50 or so able-bodied men that had gone forth to defend their wives, mothers, daughters, or sisters, only about a dozen remained. It had been hard to notice in the heat of battle, but once they broke away, the full scope of the disaster had revealed itself.

The remnants gazed with shock and depression at the mostly ruined corpses of those who had stepped forth to fight alongside them. Despite this sight, deep down in each and every one of their hearts, they were relieved that they had been the ones to survive.

As for the bandits, they were mostly at full tilt. The Diato, Garwen, and Foldo bandits gazed at Shanks and his homestead with hungry gazes. So much wealth, women, and food! If they could take it for themselves, they would be set for a long time!

Diato, Garwen, and a strange man who looked eerily similar to Foldo stepped forward. Shanks and Derek did the same, while Darius and Gunner stood back and watched calmly.

"Do you fools even have an inkling of an idea of what you've just done and what you're about to do? If I hadn't made it clear enough before, I'm Shanks Torniam, ex-Royal Guard, discharged with honors after using my own body to protect the Princess and getting permanently injured in exchange." Shanks began.

Darius's smile stiffened. 'Shanks is injured? That would certainly explain why despite being young and fit enough to work as a guard, he has chosen to retire. … but doesn't that mean that his stats at level 34 are lower than they should be normally?!'

As the only Journeyman Darius had met so far, the latter had no way to gauge his strength with others, but the gap in stats couldn't possibly be that high at that stage… could it?

While Darius was conflicted and worried for his future, the leader of the homestead continued to berate the bandits with a cold glare.

"On top of that, I'm an agent of the Royal Court's Equality Faction, and it's with their backing that I've started a homestead here. However, you all should have already known this, so what manner of stupidity suffocated your brains to try this move?" Shanks finished with a dark gaze.

The man, who judging by the age difference, had to be Foldo's brother, stepped forth and gazed at Shanks arrogantly, which made Darius frown.

"Because, you old sack of shit, we're gonna kill you, take your wives and daughters, and enslave your sons. By the time the Equality Faction will hear of your demise, we'll be long gone!"

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