Darius Supreme

Darius smiled as this was within his expectations. His main plan in coming to the city had been to firstly acquire an identity and some resources for himself. The fact that he ended up gaining a strong political backing and sponsorship was a nice bonus.

Secondly, he had intended to reach the level cap for the Amateur stage and discover what he would need to do or achieve in order to reach Journeyman. Since he had tentatively fulfilled both, Darius was feeling extremely happy at the moment.

Of course, he was slightly miffed that the experience they were supposed to get was shared with those two Undead. However, they should earn a lot more once they reached the end of this cavern.

Case in point, Gunner was already at level 19, with only a little bit left before he would also reach the stage threshold. Darius decided it was no use worrying over this since there was a tunnel before them that led into another cavern that should be much like this one, but with foes at level 15-17 or so within.

Darius was pondering the almost unnatural incremental distribution of monsters on this first floor of the dungeon when he suddenly got interrupted by a familiar voice.

{Hello, Darius Stone! How are you today? Have you bathed? Brushed? Gussied up? Great, because I have some amazing news to share with you!}

{You have done amazingly well these past two weeks! You have established a foothold, set up foundations for a neutral as well as another affiliated power, acquired some local talents, and been blessed with the favor of a powerful backer!}

{However, your greatest accomplishment is the fact that you've reached the limit for the first stage of Faust, the Amateur! This is a feat only 60% of Faustians are able to achieve in their lifetime!}

Caesars' chipper voice suddenly became deeper and darker as the A.I-like entity chuckled. {Let's hope it's not your last.}

Darius frowned. He had expected this much, and he wanted to hear what Caesar had to say before he left as suddenly as last time.

{Darius Stone! Upon reaching the threshold of the stage, you have unlocked new functions for your Supreme System, the 'Quests' and the 'Events' tab in your menu.}

{You could have triggered them externally through special means, but you have chosen to reject that. I'm not allowed to tell you whether that decision of yours was wise or foolish, but it's no longer important now that we're here.}

{These functions come hand in hand with an update to the entire system, so look forward to it! More importantly, this update is directly tied to your progress!}

{That's right, Darius Stone. The Supreme System is a tool devised to help you acquire power quickly compared to other Faustians, allowing you to learn skills and master them without having to put in much of an effort on your part!}

{This is a benefit Vena and I have bestowed upon you to make part of your journey smooth. However, such a development is not that interesting to the eyes of a Goddess! After all, we're interested in watching you struggling to reach the top!}

{Not to mention that despite being the creator and owner of Faust, the Goddess cannot ignore some universal laws! Darius Stone, you've benefited from easy leveling and skill acquisition, as such, it has to be balanced out!}

{The difficulty you should have faced to grow - like every other Faustian - is compiled in your attempts to climb the stages! Since you grow almost 100 times faster than the average Faustian, your stage climbing will naturally also be 100 times harder!}

{As the system controls your growth, this is presented in the form of a task! A Quest if you will! This is the sole purpose of the 'Quests' mechanic, and you cannot use it to receive quaint directives like fetch 3 crabs for experience.}

{The 'Events' tab serves that function, but not for meager instructions. When you encounter rare or special occurrences in Faust, you may choose to partake in the corresponding Event. Such Events may be easy or difficult depending on the circumstances, but the rewards are always unique.}

{Events are another way for you to earn Ability Points and Skill Points for allocation outside of leveling up. As such, always keep your eyes out for such Events as they are crucial to your journey henceforth.}

{Back to your Quests. As this is your first Quest, I'm obligated to walk you through some important details while delivering it to you personally.}

{Whenever you reach a stage's cap, you're no longer able to level up, which should be obvious. However, you can continue to acquire experience points according to the same calculations as before.}

{The use of this experience is to fill up your experience bar that is set at the cap of the stage. With every revolution of your bar, you gain a small number of Ability Points and Skill Points that cannot be allocated until it reaches a whole number!}

{For example, as you are currently at the limit of the Amateur stage, your experience bar is now set at 2,000 points. Every 2,000 exp you acquire completes one revolution and gives you exactly 0.1 AP as and the same amount of SP at this stage.}

{You can accumulate up to a maximum of 20 points in each category while at the stage limit, although that is not advisable! After all, the Quests for your stage climbing have time limits in order to spur you on and keep you from wasting the Goddess Vena's precious time.}

{As you currently have leftover experience from your recent level up, it shall directly go to your current 'experience bonus' and give you some minuscule AP and SP.}

Caesar paused here for a bit like he needed to cool his tongue with some water before continuing his strangely long-winded but horrific revelation.

{To summarize, your system has been upgraded, you have gained new functions and you are stuck at your level until you complete an extremely difficult task.}

{All this is to prepare you for the next segment of my explanation, your specific Quest and what you have to do to achieve it as well as what you cannot do.}