Darius Supreme

At this point, more than half of all the Master bugs that had been present at the beginning of the battle had moved on to the afterlife. A thick trail of blood and flesh was crossing the battlefield to connect to Darius lance, ignoring the distance as well as interference from the battle.

Gunner had just piled up and blown up a huge chunk of Insects, and he had to cover his face as charred flesh and innards fell upon him. He took his time to analyze the battle and came to the conclusion that there were only dregs left.

As such, Gunner sprinted to Xela's side in less than a second and cleared the bugs that had been busy trying to penetrate her ward. As for the Elven Princess, she was having the easiest time in their group.

Maintaining the ward didn't take too much out of her, so she made use of this opportunity to practice her Psychomancy on these foes. It was much harder since their stats were at the Master stage, allowing them to put up some sort of resistance, however this helped hone the lass even more.

When Gunner arrived at her side, her eyes were closed as she was using the body of some dead Insects with relatively intact corpses as puppets with her mind to attack their former brethren.

This was a level of proficiency that even Darius could not boast to have reached. Then again, he hardly used his Psychomancy as he had much better options available.

Darius noticed the actions of Xela and pondered it even as he still fought. He realized that this specialization might be better for Xela until they reached the Adept stage and he could provide her with Advanced Light spells.

There was nothing wrong with Intermediate Light spells, but there was no point learning them when they were on the cusp of the Adept stage. That was generally why Darius was hesitant to allocate their collective SP anywhere, as it could be better spent in other fields.

As Darius struck yet another bug in the chest, he noticed that his thoughts had led him to forget to pull the spear out. However, the spear interesting devoured the corpses starting from when it was poked, like a syringe sucking in a liquid.

This act allowed Darius to recognize that he had been using it wrong this entire time. Instead of letting it feast on their entrails, the correct way would have been to allow his spear to remain in contact with slain foes, so that it could absorb their material even faster.

Trying it out on a dozen more Insects, the efficiency far surpassed the slow streams that had been absorbed from multiple corpses.

Once again, the spear shone with a golden light as Darius felt its power visibly grow even as he held it. He checked its parameters hurriedly to see if his suspicions had been right.

[Dragon Ancestor's Lance of Destruction - Unique Weapon (Lv. 3)

Durability: 130,000/130,000

Quality: Perfect

Damage: 3,800-7,800

Description: A one of its kind spear that has never existed in the history of Faust. It is made from the broken shaft of the Dragonlance, Holy Gold, and a little bit of Mithril, God's Steel and Soul Essence. During its creating, it was mixed with Lunar Dew and the heart blood of the Ancestor Dragon, granting it Supreme might and a sentient spirit that can grow the weapon's power endlessly as long as it is wielded by someone worthy.]

Darius' charge froze as he stood in one place with not a really shocked expression, but one of pleasant surprise and confusion. His body automatically moved to dodge an attack from a Master bug even as he was still lost in other thoughts thanks to his Super Instinct.

At level 1, the durability had been 100k and the damage range 3.5 to 7.5k. At level 2, the durability had been 110k and the damage range 3.6 to 7.6k. Now at level 3, the durability was 130k and the damage range 3.8 to 7.8k.

… did this mean that the increase per level was not linear as he assumed, but exponential? If that was the case, then this weapon he was holding was truly beyond the level of 'divine'.

Darius tried to gauge how powerful it would be at level 100, but easily drew a blank. His mind could not process that kind of power because he had never seen anything like that.

Could it be that the increase in the amount of power gained by the spear was affected by the quality of materials it was given?

No, that was unlikely. All he had killed so far were Master bugs who had the same level of power throughout. There were not enough differences to justify the change.

Could it be because he had allowed his spear to absorb a target directly?

He had initially suspected this, but now it made little sense. Just like before, the quality of flesh and materials were the same, so whether it was absorbed quickly or gradually should make no difference.

In fact, this was the Supreme System, and its mechanics were different from the laws of Faust. Maybe under the Faustian System, such things might occur but not under this one.

The Supreme System dealt with it as 'levels'. Probably the Faustian System would deal with it as 'grades' and such things could occur. The spear would absorb the material and organically turn them into its own power.

If he was correct then giving it the flesh of a Journeyman dragon should be even better than giving it a Master bug due to the quality of flesh. However, the Supreme System converted such materials into 'exp' for the spear.

The spear was not organically devouring them, but rather collecting them for the Supreme System to convert into power that allowed it to level up.

It was the difference between making something by hand and 3D printing it. An item made with the hand would have variations from each other, even when made by the same crafter. Some would be better and some would be worse, but they would hover around the creator's general skill level.

A 3D printer had no such flaws. As long as it was given the blueprint and the materials, it would perfectly replicate the same item with a margin of error so low it was practically non-existent. This ensured uniformity in all creations.

Applying this to the spear, it meant that Darius' theories were wrong. The simple fact was that the spear itself possessed the ability to exponentially grow with each level gained. To truly understand the algorithm, Darius would need to send it to at least, level 5.

By then, he would have a preliminary grasp on how the spear's growth worked. With that in mind, his amber eyes flashed as he gazed at the remained Master bugs who he had been surreptitiously avoiding with ease all this while.

He then struck out with a violent thrust, one that a Master bug before him also tried to dodge using its Super Instinct. However, as great as the ability was, it was not infallible.

One simple counter that worked in this situation was both parties having Super Instinct while one had higher computational abilities or - at least - Elementary Psychomancy while the other did not.

Darius could see the trajectory of its movement and could calculate how to overcome its autonomous movement with ease by twisting his spear towards where it was heading. The bug could not easily change direction, and so was pierced through the head as those before.

This was how Darius had been able to kill the bugs with ease so far, despite them all having at least Master stage stats like the Bugsy boys. He made sure to drain the flesh of the bug he pierced while dodging other attacks, then continued like this.

At the same time, trails were coming from other bugs he had killed previously. Darius could almost feel that his spear was about to take another step forward, and this naturally excited him greatly.

Gunner and Xela watched on with fascinated expressions. Due to Darius's charge, he had taken up the interest of most of the remnant bugs, so they were mostly free apart from the occasional idiot who would be struck into pulp by Gunner for trying to attack the Elven Princess

At this time though, Xela noticed something strange. At the very backline of the bugs, there was a group of moth-like bugs that were similar in looks to Mothlina, while there was another group similar to Ladyba.

The moths flew above the battlefield, near the ceiling, and let down some strange purplish power that covered the corpses of all slain bugs. To the surprise of Gunner and Xela, the corpses quickly regenerated and rose to their feet, their mandibles clacking with confusion.

Those that had either been drained by Darius or smashed into too many pieces remained dead, while those with relatively intact bodies were able to recover quite a lot before standing up once more.

So then, was this the trump card of the bugs?

This left Gunner and Xela speechless.

No seriously, how was anyone supposed to defeat such an overpowered race? If one did not cull them early or use overwhelming force, they were practically unstoppable.

It was practically akin to an Unlivable-grade Apocalypse.