Darius observed his Branded Servant who had changed just as greatly as he had over the years. The previously 6"5 Gunner was now at a scary 6"9.
He towered over everyone and everything else, looking just like a… mini-giant. His looks had also matured greatly, from his handsome babyish face to a more sculpted and manly visage that would move the hearts of women who loved masculine men.
Just Gunner's jawline alone was enough for him to beat any handsome male celebrity from Earth into a fit of tears, much less his burning green eyes that had become more intense during their vacation.
Now, it literally felt like Gunner was crushing you when he stared at you, like the sky was falling on your head. He had also trimmed his long spiky hair greatly, now making it stand up instead of allowing it to flow down his scalp.
To Darius, Gunner's previous hairstyle had been like that popular character from that anime all his kids had loved… erm… something about having to collect 7 balls to summon a wish-granting dragon.
It was similar to that main character when he had been in his third transformation from the end of the series when Gunner was young, but with it being trimmed, it looked more like the hair of the protagonist's side-kick ally with a short temper.
His body had become even more buff and muscular, his skin tone darkening slightly to reach Darius' level. He also wore a Synthetic Polymer Suit Version Version 6.0, as well as a flexible skirt tied around his waist.
Darius stopped inspecting his Branded Servant, who was surprised to see his master here. When he looked at the pool, then at Darius who no longer had the First Resurrection Stone tied around his neck, he instantly understood everything.
No longer calm, Gunner was excited as he rushed over like a storm. His Agility hadn't increased from 25 points, yet his speed and ability to control his body had climbed leaps and bounds.
He no longer needed to accelerate, being able to instantly hit his top speed if he so chose, thanks to the effects of a Journeyman skill.
Darius hadn't been spent 5 years just transmuting, eating, and shitting. With the Batch Transmutation feature, he could spend all his 100 CP in a matter of minutes. What was he supposed to do for the rest of the day then?
As such, the now young man had spent the first few days making a variety of skill- and spellbooks. Around the time he had sent some over to Foldo's groups and the Torniam family through Gunner.
It was crazy how much he had gone all out. He figuratively slapped Vena and Caesar on the faces by doing the unthinkable.
He had not only created a spellbook for every basic spell and learned it, but had also created a skillbook for every weapon style and learned that too!
Darius was convinced that under Faust's system nobody had ever learned all the basic spells in existence, and he strongly believed that it would help on his path of Supreme.
After all, the Supreme had been described as a perfect being across all the ages. It made sense then that he should know everything that he could, shouldn't it? Otherwise, how come absolute powerhouses like Thanatos and those of that power tier were not Supremes after living for so long?
The reason Darius had learned the skillbooks though, was not to become a jack of all trades, but a scholar of all forms. In other words, if he knew the techniques of swordsmen, archers, lancers, axemen, etc, he would be able to counter them because he knew the science and mechanics behind their techniques and weapons.
This would be making full use of his heightened Intellect, as the faster calculating speed would allow him to break down any enemy's fighting style with a few glances while comparing it to the knowledge the skillbooks had inputted in his mind.
He would be able to counter any enemy he met perfectly!
That wasn't all, because he had also learned a shocking variety of Journeyman spells of every element. Right now, Darius couldn't even display all his spells and skills on his character menu, but his eidetic memory allowed him to remember them all, so there was no fear about forgetting crucial skills at important moments.
From Amateur to Journeyman was a huge change for most people, but for Darius, he had gone from notably powerful to insanely overpowered. The same also held true for Gunner, who had been granted a plethora of skills similar to Darius.
He could counter all weapons types and even had the Journeyman versions of these skills. He also had many skills to complement his bloodline and fighting style, as well as skills that patched up his weakness like the currently displayed one that canceled out his acceleration and increased top speed.
This sounded mindblowing, right? You're already shivering in fear from how terrible this is, right?
Well, there's more!
It was one thing to buy these so-called skillbooks and spellbooks and then learn them, but that was impossible. So how had they come into being? With the elitist Transmutations ability of course!
This meant that every skill and spell they had was 5x as effective as the normal version at its prime, so one would have to factor that in when thinking of their array of skills.
However, where there was good, there was bad.
It didn't matter how many skills Darius and Gunner piled onto themselves, they would always remain at level 1 until skill points were thrown in. These left the powerful skills that had great potential in their weakest states.
Even if you had an army of 10,000 men and the other side had 100, if the 10,000 men were aged grandpas and young toddlers even unable to walk properly, they could only be slaughtered by the 100 adult men trained harshly from a young age.
This was the flaw in Darius's clever idea, but he had ways to make up for it now that they were done with their seclusion.
