Before Darius could even begin allocating Gunner's points, Mikey and Joneson started to shine, a black light enveloping them like cocoons. They folded into a fetal shape as their forms within began to change greatly.

Interestingly the ambient blight around these 'cocoons' was being cleansed… no, absorbed and the rate was no joke. Darius and Gunner shared a look before stepping into the normal barren earth.

The moment they did, they felt as if a weight that had been pressing down on them had been lifted, or an illness that often relapsed had finally come to an end. They both sighed with pleasure and continued with their own matters while the two undead evolved to reach their new forms.

Gunner's stats were easier for Darius to allocate since he had to deliberate a lot less. He placed 1 point in Strength to bring it from 24 to 25, 4 points in Endurance to bring it to 24 points, and the remaining 10 into Agility to bring it to 25 points.

Now, all three of his physical skills had a base value of 25. Of course, thanks to Earth's Guardian 110% increase Gunner also unlocked the basic ability for Endurance.

Congratulations! You have reached 50 points in Endurance and have acquired the ability: Fast Regeneration.

Fast Regeneration - Basic Ability

Cost: Stamina per second

Description: You have achieved the ability of one with the flesh and are now able to control most of your cognitive

/motor functions manually. This allows you to split cells faster and regenerate from harm or illness faster, but saps the body of energy greatly.

Darius had guessed as much, but the actual ability turned out to be much better than he had anticipated. With it, Gunner could control most of his body's functions that were normally left to his subconscious.

Even though the 'most' was not very precise, there were a LOT of things that the human body performed in a second that were automated by the subconscious. Breathing regularly, blinking, and keeping the heart beating, just to name a few.

Darius, unfortunately, was not much of a biologist, but he figured he and Gunner could slowly figure out extra tricks in increasing their battle prowess, daily livelihood, and general health by controlling various parts after acquiring this ability.

Now that Gunner had unlocked 2 out of the 3 physical basic abilities, albeit only in tandem with his skill, Darius decided to move onto his skills.

Darius remembered that he had not used his CP for today and wondered if he should create a tailored skill for Gunner that would be worth investing all 15 points.

He did not really want to increase Earth's Guardian from level 20 upwards. While a higher level meant more power, it also increased the cost of the spell.

If it climbed above 20 points per second, Gunner would no longer be able to keep it up like a base aura and would have a limited amount of time with it.

As such, it seemed wiser to keep it where it was for now. Once they both became Journeymen, their levels would climb and so too would their regeneration. Of course, Darius could just buy or transmute something that increased mana regeneration.

He had items with such an effect in Polivar's Treasure House, however, they had been subpar. Maybe for natives and under the laws of Faust, it made a difference, but the mechanics of the Supreme System made it such that they would only add decimal points to Darius' and Gunner's regen at best.

Darius considered the skills he wanted to give Gunner.

'Another offensive skill? No, he already has Earthen Punch, Earthen Stomp, and Basic Martial Arts. All of these basically cover what he needs for his fighting style.'

'So, a defensive skill perhaps? Then again, Earth's Guardian fulfills that role perfectly on its own by increasing BOTH his Endurance and Defense.'

Endurance meant his basic body defenses and was what was calculated against the Strength of an opponent.

Defense naturally meant the compiled stats of his equipment that had such values. So basically, the 30 points from the Synthetic Polymer Armor, the 12 points from the Soldering Gauntlets, and 4 points from the Elven Boots of Speed.

This was why the fellow could attack even Journeymen unhinged. Even without Earth's Guardian, his crazy Defense made it so that most attacks on his person would deal 0 damage, only that being swarmed by enemies was dangerous as it led to other problems like strangulation, smothering, and possibly lucky hits on weak points.

With a boost of 110% for Endurance and Defense, Darius was sure that Gunner might even stand a chance against early-stage Adepts, at least the non-magical kind since his Resistance was low.

Thinking so far, Darius opted for a magical defense skill. He too could use one, as the Supreme System did not have any basic stat that could mitigate spell damage.

In other words, if you did not have an anti-magic defense skill

/spell in your arsenal nor a piece of equipment

/item that granted Resistance, you would eat raw spell damage.

Darius had not fought mages so this had mostly been meaningless, yet it was likely that the Stonekeeper Marasmus could be an Adept mage. If Gunner was hit by any advanced spells, he might just turn to ash in one or two hits.

However, that was assuming Darius would go for a frontal confrontation with Marasmus, which had never been the case. He would be foolish to assume that anything he could muster when fooling the Stonekeeper directly would result in his victory.

His best bet would be to use chaos to strike Marasmus with the Dagger of Death, and to get from whenever he stood at the time to the back of the Stonekeeper would likely require all of his 'extra lives' under the Stitch of Time, which was likely what Caesar had meant.

The moment Darius reached this conclusion, he felt his loose foot on one of the paths of 56 strengthen greatly, the other one even coming to join. This reassured him, as it meant that he was largely right, and had guessed the progression of events for success.

The reason why his other foot had yet to also touch the ground had to be because he still had to do the tough part, executing the sequence of events to perfection.