Darius wasn't disappointed at all. They were eventually served with Braised Pork and Steamed White Rice, along with Tapian Sauce. The pork was said to be from a special boar from another town's dungeon, while the rice came from the second floor of this town's dungeon.
Darius tried both and found that they were prepared to perfection. For a brief moment, Darius felt tempted to go and Analyze the Cook and find what level he had taken his Cooking skill to, and whether he should bother investing in that himself.
Shaking his head, he rid himself of such thoughts. He knew the psychological trap Vena and Caesar had left in the design of the Supreme System in regards to SP, so he guarded himself against it at all times.
As for the Tapian Sauce, it was a special cream-like topping that was meant to be eaten with the pork and the rice together, perfectly complimenting both meals. Darius was also surprised to find that Tapian Sauce was made from the extract of the Killer Mushrooms.
Once they were done with their meal, with Gunner once again gorging himself greatly to the shock of onlookers, Darius paid up the extra and trekked alongside his Branded Servant to their suite room.
Once in their abode, Gunner moved to the bath to clean himself up without Darius needing to prompt him. It wasn't that Gunner was unhygienic per se, but he often forgot to bathe at the right time, preferring to do it at his own leisure.
Darius though, went to the bar and poured himself a drink. He thought deeply about how he was going to complete his quest and how to steer himself towards the path of the 56.
The key method to do so lay not in his considerations, but in the three hints that Caesar had provided. They were simultaneously vague and really telling, giving Darius a headache.
In all 56 paths, there were three things he had done or utilized that served as a common denominator. Naturally, the AI had not been nice enough to list them in any particular order, so they could have occurred at different points in all the paths.
Not only that, but they also did not give him any clues as to what he should do in the interim to patch the holes in his sequence of actions/choices that led to a successful outcome.
The most important thing was what Caesar hadn't said, which was what quantified as a 'success'. Sure, he had claimed Darius would succeed in 56 paths, but what if in 30 of them, he had lost an arm or/and a leg?
What if in 15 of them, he had to sacrifice Gunner after stealing the item and them getting besieged? True, he would have passed the quest, but that did not constitute success to Darius.
What he needed and wanted was an outcome where he took no permanent damage to his physical self, lost no item of value nor a servant/true ally. To him, that would constitute a total success of the mission.
Darius sipped his ginger ale lightly and smiled with amusement as he shook the glass. 'Just look at me, in a situation where I have such a low chance of success and I dare to make demands. Hah, I'm truly a typical human. Still though, it's not wrong to want the best, is it? Only when I know the perfect outcome is unachievable will I compromise and settle for the next best thing.'
Highlighting these things gave Darius more ideas as he sat there. When Caesar had explained everything to him and gave the three hints, he had come up with his first and second steps already.
Well, technically they were all one thing that was separated into part a and part b, but it was a matter of semantics.
Darius needed to preserve three things, A Stitch In Time which gave him 9 chances to reset any 'bad end', the Dagger of Death gave him 3 'insta-kill' chances on any target, and the duo of now undead Liches.
So he did not add them to his plans, not yet. Part A was to first spend the next 7 or so days holed up in here, researching everything he could about the Plains of Death by any means necessary.
In the meantime, he would use his CP for each day to make a bevy of absolutely valuable items like Awakening Scrolls, Spark Potions, and more. He would also throw in some Journeyman spells as well as the Red Enchant he had been holding onto all this while.
This was all for part B of the plan, creating an opening. You see, after learning about Blight and his quest, Darius realized that it was impossible for him to complete this quest by singularly barging into the Plains of Death and sneaking towards his goal.
There would be too many enemies in his path to avoid them all and every little battle on his way would just make things worse, compiling their stress and fatigue.
As such, the best way was to create utter chaos in the Plains of Death, a situation where the Undead there would be too busy and too spread out, allowing for Darius and Gunner to slip through the cracks and arrive at their destination relatively unscathed, or as whole as fate and the circumstances would allow them to be.
To achieve this, he needed to create a scenario where chaos would reign supreme in that land. However, because of the blight infection, no one wanted to risk the journey, as it made it dangerous for the living.
With that in mind, Darius had to create a reason for people of all ranks to rush into the Plains of Death like crazed animals, upsetting the Undead there and turning the local balance upside down.
That was by using these items he would create during the week of research as a reward!
That's right, Darius was going to head into the Mercenary Guild on the 7th day and create a mission for the entire Andrato Kingdom, to head to the third band and kill the Stonekeeper!
