Darius Supreme
chapter-23

Darius moved under the bough of the tree and placed his back against it once more. He ate the khebab while drinking his Pure Water leisurely. He had to admit, the hot meat combined with the peppery spice was lovely.

Trying to eat this without water nearby would have been asking for a world of hurt, but with the lovely Pure Water that was cool and smoother than typical drinking water from Earth, Darius was more than fine.

He had expected the bear meat to taste gamey or hard to chew since he normally ate more... 'tamed' sorts of flesh from animals, but he was positively surprised to find that it tasted fine.

Whether it was a unique property of the meat itself, or the benefits of his Skinning, Butchery, and Cooking skills, he did not know but resolved to explore at some point in the future.

Now that he had some food in his belly, Darius patted his bum and rose to his feet. He was a bit bothered by the fact that his 'default' noble attire was practically in tatters now and he himself didn't smell all that good, but what could he do?

He could only trudge onward like that, the scorching sun beating down on his lightly tanned skin as the sweat continually poured out from his pores, further soaking his poor clothes.

Without the ability to create water, Darius would never have made it to his destination. Even though a normal person would likely have increased their Endurance stat with such an arduous task, Darius could not even gain that as a consolation.

Caesar had made it perfectly clear in his explanation, the existence of the Supreme System's stat points meant that his growth was controlled solely by them. If he wanted to become stronger, faster, or smarter, he was forced to invest his Ability Points.

Still, it was a fair tradeoff. He might have lost the ability to organically grow like others, but he could perfectly grow himself as much as he wished artificially with no drawbacks, provided he had gathered the necessary EXP first of course. Why would he complain about such a boon?

Darius checked the main map and noticed that there was a river nearby that he would have to cross. After it, he would be merely 23km from his destination. While such a distance was easily traversed by car, on foot it was at least a day's journey if not more.

He contemplated using up his Short Warp scroll, but the thought of having to use 3 Conversion Points to create a new one made him sigh and continue moving on foot.

At least the world had taken pity on him or perhaps it was just his above-average Luck stat working, whatever the case no predators had disturbed him until he reached the banks of the river.

It was a large and clear river, being about 300 meters in width. As for the length, Darius could only tell with the help of the main map that it crossed over from the dark area of the map into another dark area, practically running through the entire Andrato Kingdom.

It was labeled as the Lost River on the map. Along with that, Darius read in the Database that the river had some cultural significance to the Andrato Kingdom and possibly other neighboring kingdoms or empires.

'Hm, it must be something like this world's Nile or Amazon River, then?'

Darius first checked the water only to find out that it was startlingly clear. There were a few strangely colored fish swimming about within, while many animals, predators, and prey alike, peacefully drank or bathed within.

It was as if the river had a special significance to animals, to the point where they'd put aside their issues to drink and bathe, making it hard to believe that one party usually killed the other for a living.

Darius walked over to a free spot and gazed into the water before he Analyzed it.

[Unique Water - Liquid

Durability: ?/?

Description: Water from a source unknown to any man, this unique flow has the ability to cleanse the dirt from anything placed within and dissolve it into beneficial nutrients. However, consumption over long periods of time can corrode the internals of any living organism.]

Darius whistled quietly. So this was basically the best bathing and washing water around, but as drinking water, it was no better than poison. Maybe the humans of this world - as well as other sapient species - had realized this over the years, but the animals certainly hadn't looking at how they were drinking from it happily.

Or maybe they had adapted to it over time? Perhaps the time needed to corrode their internals matched their natural life span in the first place.

Darius stopped thinking about it too deeply. He carefully removed his clothes until he was naked and took them with him into the water. It was cool and refreshing, but warm enough that he didn't freeze up thanks to the sun hanging in the sky.

Darius focused on clumsily washing his clothes by hand for a bit before he simply stretched them out in the water and let the current pass through them trusting in the water's effect.

As could be expected…

[Congratulations! You have learned the skill, Washing!]

[Washing - Level 1 Skill

Cost: 2 Stamina per minute

Description: Clean clothes, property, or various items without leaving a stain. The quality of all washed items is raised by 5%.]

Darius sighed. This system and its creator were truly evil. A fool who got excited by the ease of learning skills and wanted to expand their skill set might have fallen into the trap of wasting his precious skill points on useless skills.

The fellow in question would then become the bitch of the system, begging for skill points and doing anything for them once they had wasted them all. Now that Darius considered it, such an end should truly be amusing for a deity, displaying the typical foolishness of mortals.

However, he was not one of those fools. To him, these skills were nifty gimmicks that he only used in special situations. Once he reached society, he would find specialists to handle all this stuff, allowing him to focus on his own pursuits.

After washing up for a few minutes, Darius exited the pool and shook his clothes harshly in order to clear the water in them. Obviously, this was not enough to dry them, so he made another fire similar to the one before and hung his clothes over them, hoping the heat would dry them faster.