After dealing with his own points, he turned to Gunner. He looked through and saw that Gunner previously had 0.4 AP and SP, which when added to what he gained this time, brought his total to 3.6 in both categories.
Darius straightforwardly placed all 3 points into Endurance. Now, the stat was only a single point away from reaching the Adept threshold with the help of Earth's Guardian at 23 points from the previous 20.
As for his three SP, Darius placed it all into his only class skill, Engage. This brought the skill which had practically remained untouched since he acquired it from level 1 to level 4.
Now, the range of the skill had increased from 5 meters to 20 meters, which might not seem like much, but was enough to pull many foes onto Gunner.
Darius normally split the battle with Gunner as he feared for the large lad in this zone, but now things were set with his Earth's Guardian leveling up, while his own Endurance was raised.
Not to mention, Darius now needed to stay back and simply spam the Heal spell to debilitate and kill most undead they would encounter henceforth, so it was more productive for Gunner to tank while he dealt damage.
Satisfied with the changes made so far, Darius downed another Purification Potion and moved forward. Since the Journeyman band was over 600 kilometers wide, he didn't need to worry about a lack of enemies even with the intrusion of others.
However, night soon fell, robbing Darius and Gunner of their ambient light. The duo simply made a small camp right where they were, as Darius summoned Mikey and Joneson to keep watch.
They did not need any sleep and they could see in the dark, making them the perfect sentries, not to mention they had the strength and means to deal with most things that would come this way.
Darius and Gunner sat in the tent and had a small lunch that was preserved in their Inventories, then rolled up in their sleeping bags and nodded off. They might seem strangely casual about it, but there was no use making a big deal over nothing.
They would have to sleep anyway, so they might as well get used to how it felt to sleep in a land of death, with blighted earth right below them.
...…
When the sun eventually shone through the canopies, Darius and Gunner roused themselves awake. Both of them were extremely groggy and felt extremely unwell, almost vomiting on the spot.
Gunner quickly activated his Earth's Guardian while Darius quickly drank a Purification Potion, both of which made the duo feel much better.
Darius and Gunner took down their tent and went out to meet Mikey and Joneson, who were boredly chatting about something while they made some undead of various species of the Journeyman stage fool about.
When they saw Darius and Gunner come out, they greeted. "Hey there, bosses. How was your night?"
Darius sighed. "Not very good. This place isn't very hospitable for the living."
The undead liches nodded as if they understood, though Darius wondered how they possibly could. Gunner grunted and placed the tents into his Inventory and stood behind Darius quietly, waiting for their next order.
Mikey and Joneson also waited silently much in the same manner, unsummoning their captured undead throughout the night. Darius noted that they were now level 32, which meant that the duo of undead must've enjoyed some good battles.
Whatever the case, he removed six books from his Inventory. Three of them were identical to the other three, and Darius had spent his CP from the previous day making these, one of which he already had thankfully.
[Shadow Manipulation Spell - Manual
Durability: 5/5
Description: This manual was created through pure Transmutation. It is a spell designed to allow the caster to control ambient shadows within a short-range, and is perfect. There is a 100% chance to learn the spell within and its power is increased by 500%.]
[Shadow Blade Spell - Manual
Durability: 5/5
Description: This manual was created through pure Transmutation. It is a spell designed to create a controllable blade made of shadow that can be used as a close combat weapon or launched as a projectile depending on the caster's preference, and is perfect. There is a 100% chance to learn the spell within and its power is increased by 500%.]
[Hail of Spears Spell - Manual
Durability: 5/5
Description: This manual was created through pure Transmutation. It is a spell designed to generate a variable number of airborne ice lances of incredible sharpness to rain down on a large area of foes, and is perfect. There is a 100% chance to learn the spell within and its power is increased by 500%.]
Darius handed them to the two undead and gestured. "Learn these spells and use them in battle to make up for your lacking offensive power."
Mikey and Joneson nodded and learned the three spells. Only, unlike Darius and Gunner who were stuck with level-based spells that required SP, the two undead had the skills converted into abilities, so their effects were slightly different.
What was interesting was that they could learn skillbooks straight up like Darius and Gunner could. Darius had only made the assumption when they became Journeymen, so he thought that it wouldn't be too nonsensical if they could learn spells from tomes to add to their repertoire.
Just to be sure, he chose two spells from the Darkness element he had purchased from that library in Listo town the first day he got there, as well as one Ice element Journeyman spell.
He surmised that even if they could learn spells, it would be limited to a select few compatible elements because it would be a bit too far-fetched for them to benefit from his ability to learn any spell of any element thanks to his Magus subclass.
Darius checked their character sheets to assess how the new skills would function after being converted.
