Before Darius began his attack on the Grandmaster bugs, it was time to check their spoils from the previous slaughter of the Master bugs. A huge fight like that which had foes more than five levels above them had surely made for a great harvest.

They had fought almost 1,200 Master stage bugs in that bout, but around 700 had been killed by Darius alone. Of the 700, 50 had perished via magic and 650 from falling to the spear.

Gunner had killed 450 using his own strength, while Xela had dealt with about 50 using her Psychomancy.

This was fine, but the issue was that the spear seemed to be like Mikey and Joneson. Under the laws of the Supreme System and in order to facilitate their genuine growth, the experience that Darius should have gained had been taken in by them given them, allowing the vampires, and now the spear, to 'level up'.

Approximately 3,328,000 experience had been fed to the spear, which only got it from level 1 to 11. That would mean that each level averaged 332,800 experience, assuming that it was a fixed amount per level.

Whatever the case, the remaining experience gained by the trio was still a gross amount of 2,816,000 which was undoubtedly an impressive amount.

[You have gained 938,667 EXP, etc.]

[Gunner has gained 938,667 EXP, etc.]

[Xela has gained 938,667 EXP, etc.]

[You have leveled up x205! You are now level 40(+400). You have gained 20.5 Ability Points and Skill Points to spend as you wish!]

[Gunner has leveled up x145! He is now level 40(+400). He has gained 14.5 Ability Points and Skill Points to spend as he wishes!]

[Xela has leveled up x145! She is now level 40(+400). She has gained 14.5 Ability Points and Skill Points to spend as he wishes!]

[Name: Darius Stone

Race: Ancestor Dragon (Fledgling)

Stage: Journeyman

Class: Itemancer

Subclass: Magus

HP: 10,000/10,000 (5000 HP Surplus)

(Author's Note: Keep in mind, his current HP surplus is always 1/2 his total HP until Draconic Regen is increased.)

MP: 18,400/18,400 (17,600) (36,800 MP Surplus) (35,200)

(Author's Note: Remember, due to Darius' various stats, his MP surplus is currently two times his maximum mana until Magical Mastery is increased.)

STA: 4,000/4,000

Level: 40(+400)

Experience: 4,000/4,000

Strength: 100

Agility: 150

Endurance: 100

Intellect: 460 (440)

Charisma: 100

Luck: 100

Physical Status: Healthy

Mental Status: Calm.

AP: 2 (22)

SP: 0 (70)

Active: Elemental Breath - Lv.40, Analyze Lv.40, Combine - Lv.40, Lightning Bolt - Lv.40, Group Teleportation - Lv.40, Spawn - Lv.20, etc

Passive: Magical Mastery - Lv.20, Elemental Control - Lv.20, Draconic Regeneration - Lv.30, Spell Enhancement - Lv.100, Spell Mastery - Lv.100, Mageward Barrier - Lv.100, Spirit Barrier - Lv.100, Channeling - Lv.70 (1), Basic Lancer Arts - Lv. 5 (4), Weapons Mastery - Lv.1, Unarmed Mastery - Lv.1, etc

Abilities: Transmutation (Intermediate), Dragon Transformation (Intermediate), Limit Release (Intermediate), Super Instinct (Intermediate), Man of Steel (Intermediate), Intermediate Psychomancy (Advanced), Metamorph (Intermediate), Divine Favor (Intermediate).]

[Name: Gunner

Race: Half-Human, Half-Giant (Royal Blood)

Class: Vanguard

Stage: Journeyman

Subclass: Anti-mage

HP: 90,000/90,000

MP: 2,600/2,600

STA: 12,000/12,000

Level: 40(+400)

Exp: 4,000/4,000

Strength: 300

Agility: 100

Endurance: 300

Intellect: 80 (65)

Charisma: 50

Luck: 100

Physical Status: Healthy

Mental Status: Indifferent.

Affection: Friendly lvl max

AP: 2 (17)

SP: 0 (83)

Active: Engage - Lv.40, Earthen Stomp - Lv. 40, Earthen Punch - Lv.40, Earthen Lariat - Lv.40, Omega Blow - Lv.40, Eraser Cannon - Lv.40, Solid Defense - Lv.1, Unbreakable Ward - Lv.1 etc

Passive: Energy Ward - Lv.100, Mageward Barrier - Lv.100, Weapons Mastery - Lv.1, Unarmed Mastery - Lv.5 (1), Earth's Guardian - Lv.100, Extreme Speed - Lv.80 (1), Spirit Barrier - Lv.100 etc

Abilities: Unlimited Power (Advanced), Super Instinct (Intermediate), Immortal Body (Advanced), Mind Power (Basic), Morph (Basic), Divine Favor (Intermediate).]

[Name: Xieliartorsobotar Staonroefuso

Race: Elf (Royal Blood)

Class: Cleric

Stage: Journeyman

Subclass: Divine Maiden

HP: 5,000/5,000

MP: 12,000/12,000

STA: 4,000/4,000

Level: 40(+400)

Exp: 4,000/4,000

Strength: 65 (50)

Agility: 100

Endurance: 100

Intellect: 300

Charisma: 100

Luck: 300

Physical Status: Healthy

Mental Status: Calm.

Affection: Friendly lvl max

AP: 0 (15)

SP: 0 (15)

Active: Divine Blessing - Lv.40, Divine Ward - Lv.40, Divine Summoning - Lv.25 (10), Purify - Lv.19, Purge - Lv.40, Divine Restoration - Lv.40, Isolate Evil - Lv.40, High Cure - Lv.40, Super Heal - Lv. 40, Insect Soul Curse - Lv.1, Insect Blood Curse - Lv.1

Passive: Divine Sight - Lv.45, Light's Chosen - Lv.50, Pure Body - Lv.50, Pure Soul - Lv.50, Pure Spirit - Lv.50, Aura of Life - Lv.10, Spell Mastery - Lv.100, Spell Enhancement - Lv.100

Abilities: Explosive Strength (Basic), Super Instinct (Intermediate), Woman of Steel (Intermediate), Intermediate Psychomancy (Advanced), Metamorph (Intermediate), God's Chosen (Advanced).]

Darius allocated their points. First things first, they had finally reached the cap of the 'bonus round', which was +400 level-ups. It had been much easier than when they had to reach +200 during their foray into the Plains of Death.

They had happily accepted the 40 extra AP and SP which they had spent in bits and pieces, and now the final deposit had been made.

Unless they came upon another Event, it would not be possible to earn any more until the Quest ended.

Darius had chosen to increase his Intellect a bit more. His penchant for whole numbers had struck him again, making him leave a bit extra in the tank. Call it a type of OCD he had, or a quirk even.

He had also chosen to take a huge risk by spending his large stockpile of SP on a few skills, namely Channeling and Basic Lancer Arts. The former had been sent to level 70 while the latter had only received one more level, which showed the gap in importance.

Channeling was a vital ability that most talented mages relied on, but it was useless for Darius. Channeling allowed one to continually infuse Mana into a spell, increasing its power exponentially depending on the amount infused, with very little diminishing returns depending on how powerful your ability to channel was.

Channeling's only hard limit was your total Mana. If you had huge amounts, you could infuse it all into a single spell to make something as weak as level 1 Sparks turn into a show of lighting that rained upon an entire city, electrocuting everyone to death.

Channeling had a few weaknesses though. It was unable to increase raise the grade of an attack, only its power, range, and utility.

In the former example, it would not turn Sparks into a huge Thunderstrike that would cause an explosion, but make the electric sparkles that came out with the spell have a bigger range and deal far more damage.

Another example would be Blink. If Darius channeled Blink with all his mana, including the surplus, it was possible for him to power Blink up so much that he could jump from Safemoon to the southern end of Fallon in one go.

The point of all this was that now that Darius had a huge bank of Mana, he could utilize Channeling to achieve stupendous effects.

Channeling itself was slow and required heavy focus, but now that he had leveled it up so much, the speed of infusion and the mana wasted were so greatly reduced that it was almost hard to reconcile how it was before.

If he could get it to level 100, he could implement catastrophic spells from the simplest of things. Right now, he was looking forward to becoming an Adept, so he could channel Advanced spells which had higher base power than any Intermediate spell that they used currently.

Not to mention, he would finally be able to learn the passive skill, Double Casting.

But that was for later.

For Gunner, he had just increased the fellow's Intellect, and the lad was 20 points away from acquiring Elementary Psychomancy. For his skills, Darius had also taken a leap of faith and increased his Extreme Speed passive skill.

This multiplied his movement and attack speed by 5% for each level, making it 350% at the current level 70. This meant that for all intents and purposes, one could treat it as if Gunner had a permanent 450 points of Agility instead of a mere 100 points.

Whenever he upgraded the skill or added more points to his Agility, this would rise as well. Gunner had gone from a quick tank to literally Superman, especially if he activated Earth's Guardian.

At this point Darius was certain, that without his spells to help him, Gunner should be able to defeat him. A one-on-one fight did intrigue Darius, but he would pursue it later, after they had dealt with the Insects.

Aside from that, Darius had also increased Gunner's Unarmed Mastery but a bit, and planned to go the full distance if they got any extra SP from an Event later on.

For Xela, she didn't have much AP and SP since she always spent hers, but she was able to make some progress this time. She had increased her Strength by a bit, which was her only stat below 100, so that was understandable.

However, the skill she had chosen to upgrade this time was her Divine Summoning. This skill allowed her to call down avatars made of light that had a certain amount of her power.

In this case, she could spend 25 MP to summon 1 avatar with 25% of her total power (stats and all). What made this investment worthwhile in Darius' eyes was the fact that she could summon an infinite amount of them as long as she paid the MP cost.