He stopped here for now. There would be enough time to handle this later, but for now, there was something very crucial he had to take care of... so he started preparing a meal for himself and Gunner.

After eating their fill, Darius sat on the chair and sighed. He then spoke to the air casually. "Caesar, you are free to descend now."

{Hello, Darius Stone! It is I, the Central Assistant Entity for Slaves Acting Roles, CAESAR, here to congratulate you on your successful upgrade to the Journeyman stage!}

{After facing intense trials, the like of which would crush any contender, and coming out on top, you have successfully proven yourself to be worthy of a role greater than just being an extra in her grand play!}

{I myself am marginally impressed with you and your ability to turn around the situation, as well as the outcome of your actions to complete the Quest!}

{Watching you was greatly entertaining for myself and the Goddess, especially the part where you nearly got brutalized by hordes of undead so close to the finish line! Ha! Ha! Ha!}

{There are some things to note about your current changes. The first is that your System has been 'fixed', so your exp gain cap has been correctly limited to 5 levels above and 5 levels below your current one.}

{Secondly, your Transmutation's 5th rule had been sealed by me in order to see how effectively you would use the ability without such an easy shortcut, but has now been released!}

{Thirdly, the Supreme System upgrades by an entire version with each stage you climb. Major changes will be made to the system after I leave, so make sure to check the changelog periodically!}

{Finally, the Goddess was so impressed with your method to pass the Quest that she has granted you a 5-year reprieve! In this time, you do not need to worry as to whether your actions will incur her dislike or boredom! Treat it as a much-needed vacation!}

{That is all for now. I will descend again in the presence of a compelling situation, or to inform you of your Adept stage climbing Quest!}

{Always remember, Faust is here for YOU to conquer! Charter armies, lead nations, and tame dragons in your quest to supremacy!}

After that, Darius was certain that Caesar had left. He thought about the things the AI had said and smiled with mixed emotions.

The experience cap thing was something he had long since found out, but it was clear that Caesar had disdained coming down to inform him of it after he made the changes in the background, even using the excuse of 'fixing' the system when he had clearly wanted to trick Darius with it.

The matter about the 5th rule of Transmutation had greatly bothered him for a long while now. He had tried countless times to convert something he owned into points to add to his own so he could make necessities, especially those first few days in the wild.

Even when he settled in the homestead, he had tried to find the specific criteria for items, he still hadn't been able to convert anything. The same had been true in Listo, where he had once attempted to convert his property title deed just to see if it was possible, yet also to no avail.

Now, he was being told that it was all due to Caesar's meddling that he had been prevented from using this feature.

He could only sigh and calm his indignation. Whatever the case, the ability was no longer restricted now and he would soon see how useful it would be when he ran out of his daily 100 CP as long as he had useless items around that could be changed.

As for the upgrade of the Supreme System, he was only looking forward to it if the changes were significantly positive. Since he couldn't tell, he was quite ambivalent about it.

Finally, the 5-year break granted him by Vena was something he truly treasured. When he had first acquired Transmutation, his first idea had naturally been to sit within the safety of the cottage and spend each day transmuting various items he might need until he reached 19 years.

By then, he was certain he would have enough accumulated to allow him to deal with almost anything when he traveled the world of Faust.

Still, he had no way of knowing how the mysterious Goddess would react to that course of action. He had correctly feared that Vena would be dissatisfied by his approach and might have crushed his recently revived soul.

Perhaps she might not have taken such drastic measures right off the bat, but she would have certainly pushed him to leave after gathering his bearings, a choice which was foolish in the eyes of some, but necessary in his own.

With a nice 5-year break, he could now safely just do what he had planned. It was just enough to make a heap of unique items with Transmutation as well as wait out the calamity occurring in the Andrato Kingdom currently.

Whether or not the kingdom would survive was something Darius was curious to see.

The Supreme System's pop-up soon took over his entire view.

[Important System Announcement! The Supreme System will undergo a major update as a result of the User's increase in stage as per protocol.]

[Downloading… unpacking… updating… 10%… 40%… 80%… 100%.]

[Update completed!]

[Welcome to the Supreme System version 2.0! Please check the Database for the changelog of all updates made to the system.]

After this, the pop-ups disappeared. With a suitable amount of raw curiosity, Darius opened the Database and saw that it had greatly changed. Not bothering to manually analyze it just yet, he navigated to where he'd find the official changelog.

[Official Supreme System Changelog:

Version 2.0

Character

- Stamina stat will now be displayed. Calculation is Endurance x Level.

- Overall Stage will now be displayed.

- Skills have been recategorized into: Active, Passive, and Abilities.

Inventory

- Total space has increased by 30%.

- Maximum item size limit has increased by 50%.

- Smaller spatial items can now be stored within.

- Semi-sentient lifeforms can now be stored within.

Events

- Total number of active Events has increased from 1 to 5.

- Total number of queued Events has increased from 0 to 10.

Database

- Changelog has been implemented.

- Categories have been expanded and changed.

- Information retrieval can be done passively.

- Types of acceptable information has greatly expanded.

Map

- Minimap display options expanded.

- Cartographical display can be changed to topographical.

- Dynamic 3D view is possible within 1 km of the user.

Settings

- List of changeable options has been expanded following other upgrades.

- Options regarding Branded Servants, Execution of Abilities, and Skills have been added.

Version 1.03

Character

- Experience gain mechanic changed.

Version 1.02

Quests

- Added function

Events

- Added function

Version 1.01

Map

-Added function]