Darius and Gunner walked through the pathways established in between the large forest trees that led to the same Lost River bridge he had visited twice this past week.

On the way, Gunner kept observing their surroundings with a mixture of curiosity and wariness, his alertness out to the max. Darius was pleased by Gunner's behaviors, as he had not needed to tell the other anything beforehand.

Then again, for someone who had likely been captured as a slave, it was natural to act wary in these kinds of places. Darius himself was calm as he walked along, confident in his perception and Mind Power.

Should anything ambush them, Darius was prepared to blink away in a split second before any attack could hit him. Then, it would meet the angry assault of Gunner as well as the bombardment of spells from the Magus, equaling a very sad fate.

Darius branched off into the forest around 3 kilometers into their walk as he sensed something strange. Once under the boughs of the trees, he had heard a stomping sound as well as felt that something shook the earth.

Gunner's eyes narrowed as he rushed forward before Darius could and placed his ears to the earth to pinpoint the origin of the sound. Darius was silent, allowing his Branded Servant to do as he wished.

Gunner soon rose and turned to Darius. "This should be the territory of a large beast. Not sure about the exact breed, but we should prepare for a tough fight."

Darius nodded and gestured forward. "Proceed, Gunner. Take the lead and begin the fight, I will be right behind you and assist if needed."

Gunner assented and rushed forward like a juggernaut, smashing through trees and rock alike as he entered a small clearing near a cave. Just in front of the cave, a large Ogre was trying to smash its way inside by using a large makeshift club.

Darius blinked right behind Gunner and watched as the large lad walloped the Ogre right in the small of its back, stunning the ogre and sending it crashing into the wall before it.

Darius used that time to Analyze the monster before him.

[Detected target is of an Enemy affiliation. Displaying details accordingly.]

[Name: Single-headed Ogre

Race: Ogre

Class: Warrior

Subclass: None

HP: 121/125

MP: 14/14

Level: 8

Strength: 13

Agility: 6

Endurance: 10

Intellect: 1

Charisma: 1

Luck: 1

Abilities: Stomp, Consume, Grapple

Weapons: Wooden Club]

Darius saw that this enemy was similar to the Blue Troll in many aspects, which wasn't surprising since Trolls and Ogres shared many traits. Darius did notice it had better stats than the former, but not by much.

However, what disappointed him was the fact that the monster was lower leveled than him. This meant that he would likely be leaving this battle with only 1 experience point as consolation, assuming he would get any at all.

As a consolation, Darius was hoping that Gunner would receive enough experience to shoot up the Ranks.

Before Darius could follow up with a casting of Sparks, the voice of Caesar suddenly sounded in his head as the world around him seemed to come to a complete standstill.

{Hello, Darius Stone! It is I, Caesar, your friendly helper during your journey in the wonderful world of Faust!}

{As you've been informed during your grace period, there are certain moments when you'll be given the opportunity to talk to me or I will descend to contact you.}

{The former can occur due to something you have accomplished that pleases my mistress, while the latter will mostly happen in instances where I will have to educate you about a crucial feature going forward.}

{Today, I'm here to explain the exp share mechanic of the Supreme System!}

{Your acquisition of the System Brand should never have happened, but it seems your luck is truly not bad, Darius Stone! Had it been up to me, you should have ended up with a rotten banana instead!}

{Well, that is beside the point. The System Brand allows you to brand compatible targets to act as your servants in battle, although you can naturally use them outside of it as well. These beings will be completely loyal to you and will possess the same means of growth as you, albeit with some detriments.}

{The esteemed Goddess is looking forward to seeing how the plans you have put in motion will turn out. As such, she has instructed me to share a bit more about this special item you have been granted.}

{It might interest you to know that you are actually able to brand a target no matter their stage. However, you should be warned that once branded, they will be forcefully reset to level 1 in all instances. Still, they will benefit from higher starting stats the higher their previous levels!}

{As you have already learned, you can only have a single servant at your current stage. You're able to release your Branded Servants at any time, although that will result in their deaths. As a Journeyman, your limit will double to two and there will be more as you climb the stages!}

{Now that I've shared that information, I shall address my initial objective in coming here, how experience is shared between master and Branded Servants!}

{Your relationship with your servant when in combat is that of party members, just like it has been the case of your games back on Earth. As such, you will directly share experience for every kill, split equally regardless of your wishes! Yay!}

{However, that is not the only important thing to note. In the case where there are level discrepancies, the experience modifier will be calculated by using the differences in levels of all involved parties. The formula used will be the difference between you and the enemy compared to the difference in the average level of your Branded Servant and the enemy.)

{To give a practical example, take your current battle! The Ogre is level 8 while you are level 11 making for 3 levels of difference. Since this is the first fight of your Branded Servant, he is at level 1 thereby 7 levels below the enemy.}

{The difference between your 3 levels of difference and his 7 levels of differs, results in the final experience modifier being 4 levels worth of XP!}

Darius was silent as he listened to Caesar, but the more the intelligent entity spoke, the more Darius' smile widened until it became quite twisted. He wanted to shout aloud in euphoria, as he had not heard a more foolish and abusable mechanic in his life!

The sheer loopholes! The benefits of exploiting them! The wealth of nefarious ideas running through his mind! Should he complete any of them, his path to becoming a Supreme would be smooth as silk!

However, Darius' joy bled away the next moment as his sharp mind noticed one big flaw in all this. With such an open-ended mechanic that even a toddler would understand how to abuse, how could Vena, a Goddess of Games as well as Caesar not notice this?

Exactly what had Darius missed in his calculations that made the one watching him unbothered by the many 'mistakes' he had encountered so far?