Darius chuckled. This Foldo fellow was truly incorrigible. After being pardoned once, he still had sub-consciously schemed towards his own benefit by sending rogue elements from his group for Darius to kill on his behalf.

Nevertheless, Foldo's methods were clean and faultless. He had accomplished his task in a way that would benefit both the apprentice and his master, just enough that it wouldn't cause any problems later on.

Before entering the battle, Darius decided to Analyze Shanks to check whether anything had changed since he last had done so in secret.

[Detected target is of a Neutral affiliation. Displaying details accordingly.]

[Name: Shanks Torniam

Race: Human

Class: Great Axe-Knight

Subclass: Royal Guard

HP: 1,443/1,443

MP: 816/816

Level: 34

Strength: 37

Agility: 38

Endurance: 39

Intellect: 24

Charisma: 27

Luck:13]

Darius was once again left awed by Shank's stats. He had already checked his host out a week ago, back when he had introduced Gunner to him and Derek.

The revelation had been enough to make Darius freeze up for a split second in shock.

So far, Shanks was the only person to have a subclass like himself. His Great Axe-Knight class was self-explanatory, but Darius wondered what benefits his Royal Guard class brought the man.

Since Shanks was like Derek in the sense that he did not entirely open up to Darius, the old soul could not see much of his status according to the Supreme System.

Still, Darius was not discouraged by this. After today that should no longer be a problem for him.

He cast the basic spell of the death element he had added to his repertoire just yesterday, Spawn.

[Spawn - Level 1 Spell

Cost: 1 MP

Description: Channel the purest death energy through your body to form undead servants that do your bidding. Only two undead skeletons are summoned at this level.]

A black light enveloped Darius for a split second before it passed through his body, down to his feet, and lastly into the earth. The next second, the ground before him cracked apart slightly as two skeletons pulled themselves out.

They both wielded rusty swords that looked ready to crack in the next instant, as well as two wooden shields that were mostly broken and rotten. Yet despite this, they eagerly rushed into the fray before Darius could even command them.

The fellow frowned at this, but decided to leave it for now. Perhaps he might gain more control over them at higher levels, but that would require him to spend his SP.

As it was, he had used up all the Skill Points from his three level-ups to upgrade Blink to level 10. Now, Darius could travel anywhere within 100 meters instead of a mere 10.

The effectiveness of the improved spell immediately showed itself on the battlefield when Darius soddenly appeared behind a Goblin warrior who was engaged with one of the inhabitants of the homestead.

The fellow had been struggling to keep his life under the relentless onslaught of the monster, but Darius quickly swooped in and placed a hand on the short green monster's head.

Before it could cry out in surprise, Darius cast Sparks at point-blank range. The formerly struggling fighter got to watch his enemy being electrocuted to death in one hit before Darius smiled and blinked away once more.

Like this, Darius kept appearing behind many monsters spread out on the battlefield. His single cast of Sparks either lancing his targets to death or dealing enough damage that they were close to it.

Interestingly, Darius avoided targeting the bandits for now. After all, he knew that it would require more firepower to kill a human - or non-monster/beast Darius theorized - whose HP was calculated slightly differently under the Supreme System.

With both Gunner and Darius tearing through the battlefield, the hundred or so monsters were quickly suppressed and dealt with. Once Gunner grabbed the last Goblin, he raised him over his head and tore him in half.

At that time the battle came to a pause, as both sides stepped back to assess the damages.

On the side of the homestead… it was devasting.

Out of the 50 or so able-bodied men that had gone forth to defend their wives, mothers, daughters, or sisters, only about a dozen remained. It had been hard to notice in the heat of battle, but once they broke away, the full scope of the disaster had revealed itself.

The remnants gazed with shock and depression at the mostly ruined corpses of those who had stepped forth to fight alongside them. Despite this sight, deep down in each and every one of their hearts, they were relieved that they had been the ones to survive.

As for the bandits, they were mostly at full tilt. The Diato, Garwen, and Foldo bandits gazed at Shanks and his homestead with hungry gazes. So much wealth, women, and food! If they could take it for themselves, they would be set for a long time!

Diato, Garwen, and a strange man who looked eerily similar to Foldo stepped forward. Shanks and Derek did the same, while Darius and Gunner stood back and watched calmly.

"Do you fools even have an inkling of an idea of what you've just done and what you're about to do? If I hadn't made it clear enough before, I'm Shanks Torniam, ex-Royal Guard, discharged with honors after using my own body to protect the Princess and getting permanently injured in exchange." Shanks began.

Darius's smile stiffened. 'Shanks is injured? That would certainly explain why despite being young and fit enough to work as a guard, he has chosen to retire. … but doesn't that mean that his stats at level 34 are lower than they should be normally?!'

As the only Journeyman Darius had met so far, the latter had no way to gauge his strength with others, but the gap in stats couldn't possibly be that high at that stage… could it?

While Darius was conflicted and worried for his future, the leader of the homestead continued to berate the bandits with a cold glare.

"On top of that, I'm an agent of the Royal Court's Equality Faction, and it's with their backing that I've started a homestead here. However, you all should have already known this, so what manner of stupidity suffocated your brains to try this move?" Shanks finished with a dark gaze.

The man, who judging by the age difference, had to be Foldo's brother, stepped forth and gazed at Shanks arrogantly, which made Darius frown.

"Because, you old sack of shit, we're gonna kill you, take your wives and daughters, and enslave your sons. By the time the Equality Faction will hear of your demise, we'll be long gone!"