Darius left Foldo's little village with his new slave in tow. When he turned to gaze at the fellow, he also stared at Darius silently without saying a word, which made the old soul chuckle. 

"What is your name?" Darius asked genially. 

In a rough tone that was mostly pleasant to the ear, the slave answered: "Gunner."

Darius nodded. "Mine is Darius Stone. The reason I chose you, Gunner, is not because of your looks or heritage, but because of your intelligence which you have suppressed."

"I prefer followers who can actually think over ones who need to be told everything step by step." 

Gunner just watched Darius silently, his intense green eyes locked onto his owner like he was the only thing he could see. It was this very intensity in his gaze that made looking at Gunner feel oppressive. 

However, Darius felt no pressure from that glance. "What I need from you, Gunner, is for you to become my shield in battle. That doesn't mean you need to wear plate armor or the like."

Darius waved his hands lazily. "You can even choose offensive skills and abilities and be a frontliner if you want. The important thing to me is that you must be able to attract the attention of all enemies to focus on you. You must also have enough strength to beat them back while I lance them with my magic."

"Do you understand?" Darius asked the fellow. 

"I do, Master. However, I have no such power." Gunner affirmed and revealed frankly. 

Darius smiled and checked to make sure they were far enough from Foldo's place and that they were no prying eyes around. He then turned around and spoke to Gunner: "That should not be a problem."

"Kneel down, Gunner, and kiss my ring. If you are willing, I shall grant you a way to acquire power that will be much faster and will make you far more powerful than merely relying on a silly Spark."

Darius put forward his right hand in a fist with the System Brand visible while smiling at Gunner. For that matter, the larger boy gazed at Darius, then the System Brand, and then at Darius again. 

After a moment of silence, he knelt and gently kissed the ring. The very instant he did so, it was as if time had stopped and Darius saw a prompt appear before him.

[Detected target for branding with the System Brand. Proceed?]

Darius assented then watched as a strange light emerged from his ring and covered the body of Gunner in its entirety. While this went on, he noticed many messages appear in his mind.

[Target has been assessed to be a willing candidate. The candidate is healthy and below the stage of Amateur. All conditions met.]

[Candidate name: Gunner. Candidate race: Half-human, half-giant (Royal bloodline). Candidate class: None.]

[Overwriting existence… auto-educating with provided Infopack… quantizing statistics… establishing loyalty…]

[Congratulations, Candidate Gunner has succeeded in becoming your Branded Servant! 

Note: At the Amateur stage, you can only have 1 Branded Servant!]

The light subsided and Gunner rose to his feet with a shocked expression. His eyes when he gazed at Darius were no longer filled with raw intensity but respect and reverence. 

"I, Gunner, am your Branded Servant henceforth, Master Darius. Your enemies will be my enemies and clearing your obstacles shall be my utmost goal!" Gunner pledged sincerely, making Darius nod in contentment. 

"Worry not, Gunner. After becoming one of my own, you are now a different form of existence in my eyes. You can trust that I will use you, but I won't waste you." Darius admitted bluntly. 

"Firstly, tell me more about your class." Darius instructed him, as he wanted to make sure the fellow knew how to use his sub-routine. 

Gunner's eyes glazed over as if he was in a trance for a few seconds before he returned to normal. "Master, my class is called 'Vanguard'." 

Darius nodded and decided to test him a bit further. "What do you have in your Inventory?"

Gunner checked once again then shook his head. "Nothing lies within." 

Darius was surprised that the sub-routine was kind enough to give his Branded Servants an Inventory. He had expected they would only get the Character and perhaps the Settings menus at best.

"Is there anything else in your system menu?" Darius asked to be sure. 

Gunner shook his head once again. "No Master, that is all. Character and Inventory are all I can see."

Darius was silent as he pondered over this interesting development. The question now was what to do about the information he had acquired through this experiment. 

Firstly, he had found out that there seemed to be criteria involved for getting Branded Servants outside of being a willing party. The system prompt had stated that the target was healthy and below the stage of Amateur.

It was hard to say whether only those below the Journeyman stage could be branded regardless of Darius's level, or if that was currently the overarching limiter. 

Neither of these options really pleased him.

Unfortunately, since he was limited to 1 Branded Servant at his current stage, it was impossible to find out until he became a Journeyman. 

Darius realized that his choice not to brand Portia or Derek had been a wise one, as in the case that he could not unbrand a target, he would be stuck with them unless he climbed a stage. 

Or killed them, of course.

The third thing he had learned was that Gunner was originally classless, but had gained a class upon being branded. This solved one of Darius' pressing questions about the System Brand. 

Ever since he got it, he had wondered what the brand would grant a person chosen by him in terms of power and progression. After all, he had come to learn that the natives of this world had their own system of power that was totally different from the System's. 

However, as the prompt stated, Gunner's existence was overwritten by the Supreme System, so he was now bound to its rules as opposed to that of Faust's. 

This meant that like Darius, Gunner could no longer achieve organic growth and could only grow via stats or skill points.

Of course, to be sure that he wasn't just needlessly speculating, Darius checked his theory by opening Gunner's character panel for himself.