"A voice rang out from behind Xiaoyu. Xiaoyu turned around and saw that it was the Elemental Mage from earlier."
"Is there something you need?" Xiaoyu asked. The light was growing dim, and the dim glow of the magic lamps along the street made it a bit difficult for Xiaoyu to make out the Elemental Mage's appearance clearly.
"I bought a piece of equipment from you just now. My name is Jihuo," the Elemental Mage introduced himself.
"My name is Xiaoyu," Xiaoyu replied. He was puzzled. Why had this player hurried over to stop him? Surely he didn't want a refund—all sales were final, no returns or exchanges. Still, out of politeness, Xiaoyu stated his name.
"It's like this, I'm looking for a player to form a party with to grind levels. I'm level four, a Fire Mage. I saw you selling so much equipment at your stall, and your level shouldn't be low either—at least level three, right?" Jihuo said.
His guess was quite accurate. Xiaoyu glanced him over. This player named Jihuo was a young man in his late twenties, wearing the gray mage robe he had just bought from Xiaoyu. Now that they were closer, through the dim lamplight, Xiaoyu could see his facial contours; he was quite handsome. He held a nanmu staff in his hand and had better equipment than Xiaoyu, having put together a full set of white gear.
"I'm level three. As for partying..." Xiaoyu hesitated. This player actually wanted to team up with him. A level-four Fire Mage was quite high for the current stage of the game; the highest-level player in the entire Evil Alliance was only level six. Still, since the other party was a Fire Mage with high damage output, being a level higher than him made sense.
"A Thief and a Fire Mage make a great combination. Would you like to grind monsters together tomorrow?" Jihuo asked with a hint of anticipation. He happened to be lacking a melee class to tank in front so he could unleash his maximum damage output. Although partying meant splitting experience, two people grinding together would definitely be faster than going solo, and the leveling speed could be significantly higher. Jihuo had searched the small town for a long time without finding a suitable teammate, which was why he had thought of Xiaoyu.
Xiaoyu was used to being alone most of the time and didn't really like partying with others to level up. Leveling on his own was already very fast, and furthermore, he still wanted to practice his skills more—especially Backhand Backstab and Eviscerate, which he hadn't fully mastered yet. Therefore, he shook his head and said, "I have things to take care of tomorrow. Maybe we can party another time if the opportunity arises."Xiaoyu was clearly making excuses. Since Xiaoyu didn't want to party, Jihuo let the matter drop, saying with a hint of disappointment, "Alright then, let's keep in touch if there's a chance in the future."
Jihuo was merely being polite; the two parted ways without even adding each other as friends.
After selling his equipment, Xiaoyu logged out of the game to grab a bite to eat, then logged back in. With nothing in particular to do, he began wandering around the night market.
"The boss sent me a message saying he's currently in Diya Capital, Underworld Night City."
"Does he have any instructions?"
"He said that level 5 monsters, Desert Pythons, have a 0.01% drop rate for the Primary Instant Healing Potion recipe. He wants us to hunt more Desert Pythons. This recipe is crucial for establishing a guild in the early stages, so we need to try our best to get our hands on it."
"The drop rate is ridiculously low, and the respawn rate for Desert Pythons is terrible too."
"Low drop rate or not, we have no choice. Let's just do our best; whether we can get it to drop depends on our luck."
Xiaoyu glanced sideways at the two players chatting nearby—one was an Undead Warrior, and the other was a Dark Witch. The content of their conversation piqued Xiaoyu's interest. A Primary Instant Healing Potion recipe? He happened to need that item himself. It looked like he would have to hunt more Desert Pythons next. Hunting Desert Pythons two levels above his own would be challenging, but entirely doable. He decided he would head over to the Desert Pythons' spawning area tomorrow.
Strolling through the night market, Xiaoyu knew that if you paid close attention, you could often overhear some very useful information.
When dinnertime arrived, Xiaoyu logged out of the game. Xiaoyu had already returned and was busy cooking. She had changed out of her white dress, which was neatly folded and placed by the bedside, and was now wearing a somewhat worn, patched white shirt. Her long hair was tied into a single ponytail that rested against her back. This simple attire lent the young girl an extra touch of pure, innocent charm, while the oversized white shirt could not conceal her graceful figure.
Xiaoyu was blossoming into an increasingly radiant beauty; she must have no shortage of male admirers at school, Xiaoyu thought with a faint smile.
Perhaps because it was a bit warm, fine beads of sweat dotted her clean, fair face. Xiaoyu wiped her smooth forehead with her hand.
"Brother, you're out," Xiaoyu said happily upon seeing Xiaoyu climb out of bed, her lips pressing into a smile that revealed two shallow dimples at the corners of her mouth.Xiaoyu was always so full of vitality and youthful spirit. Her sweet smile was like that of an angel, making Xiaoyu forget all his troubles. She was his only remaining family in this world, the sole reason Xiaoyu had to keep on living. If not for this sustaining will, Xiaoyu feared he wouldn't even have survived until today.
"Hmm."
"How is the game going?"
"Not bad," Xiaoyu replied. Mentioning the game immediately brought Eviscerate and Backhand Backstab back to Xiaoyu's mind. Why, after trying so many times, had he never succeeded? Where was the problem? Thinking of the game, Xiaoyu couldn't help feeling a stir of fascination again.
Xiaoyu brought the food over to the table.
No matter what he did, Xiaoyu always had a habit of being extremely focused and earnest, striving to do his best. Once he became interested in something, he would put his whole heart into it. He had completely forgotten that it was time to eat.
Seeing Xiaoyu's expression, Xiaoyu assumed things weren't going smoothly for him in the game. Not wanting to disturb him while he was deep in thought, she rested her chin in her hands and watched him in a daze.
"Brother, I believe you can definitely do it." A faint mist veiled Xiaoyu's bright, clear eyes, filled with adoration. In Xiaoyu's eyes, Xiaoyu was omnipotent, always like a towering tree that gave her warmth and sheltered her from the wind and rain.
"What did you say?" Xiaoyu snapped back to his senses and asked.
"Alright, stop thinking about it. You're practically married to the game—it's time to eat." Xiaoyu playfully pouted her little mouth.
Hearing Xiaoyu's words, Xiaoyu couldn't help smiling, affectionately flicking the tip of her nose. "Let's eat."
Xiaoyu crinkled her dainty nose to express her dissatisfaction, though two shallow dimples formed at the corners of her mouth.
After dinner, Xiaoyu logged back into the game. Dawn was just breaking.
Xiaoyu went to an NPC shop and spent one silver coin to buy ten Minor Instant Healing Potions. Bread was an item used to recover health; if a player suffered severe health loss after killing a monster, sitting down to eat bread could increase the rate of health recovery, thereby boosting the efficiency of killing monsters. These were things one shouldn't skimp on.
Xiaoyu headed straight for the respawn point of the Desert Pythons. Desert Pythons had a relatively slow respawn rate, but because most players were still low level, there were still plenty of them around. Once players reached slightly higher levels and swarmed the area, respawning Desert Pythons would become extremely difficult.
To maintain a level advantage, one had to stay a step ahead of the vast majority of players. Otherwise, constantly grinding the same monsters alongside a massive crowd of players would severely impact leveling speed.
Xiaoyu checked his skill bar. Eviscerate and Backhand Backstab still hadn't been successfully executed; they had been playing on his mind for a long time. These skills were too important, so no matter how many times he failed, he had to keep trying.
Compared to Eviscerate, the Backhand Backstab skill seemed slightly easier. I wonder if there is any connection between Backhand Backstab and a regular Backstab? Could it also rely on the force generated by twisting the body to pierce into the enemy's body?
At this thought, Xiaoyu's eyes lit up. Maybe it was worth a try.
He used Stealth to creep toward a Desert Python, hooked his dagger, and drove it straight into the back of the python's head. A perfect Stealth Ambush stunned it.
Xiaoyu shifted his body slightly, executing a lateral spin of about thirty degrees. Leveraging the momentum generated by the spin, he drove his dagger viciously into the Desert Python's body.
*Thud.* The dagger sank all the way into the Desert Python's body with a dull sound.
A damage value of over twenty popped up over the Desert Python's head.
System: Backstab skill completion rate 63%, deals 68% skill damage, obtained 1 combo point.
Although the completion rate wasn't high, this was the first time Xiaoyu had successfully executed the Backstab skill, and the significance was profound.
Following the Backstab came a flurry of basic attacks. When the Desert Python turned around and tried to attack Xiaoyu, he sidestepped to dodge and unleashed a Backhand Backstab. The dagger in his hand smoothly cleaved through the Desert Python's back scales—100% completion rate.
The coherent string of attacks directly inflicted over 160 points of damage on the Desert Python.
Xiaoyu continued to use hit-and-run tactics to deplete the Desert Python's health. When Xiaoyu still had 78% of his own health left, the Desert Python collapsed limply to the ground.
Too powerful! If he could coherently chain all his skills together, killing monsters above his level would be an absolute breeze. Xiaoyu was extremely excited by this discovery. But what exactly did the single combo point obtained after executing the Backstab skill mean? Could it be related to the classification of combo skills and finishing moves?Since the Backstab skill still needed practice, Xiaoyu began pondering Eviscerate as well. Mastering both skills and training them simultaneously would save a considerable amount of time.
Both Eviscerate and Backhand Backstab belonged to finishing moves, while Backstab was a combo skill. What exactly was the difference between a finishing move and a combo skill?
Xiaoyu pondered. The description of Eviscerate was quite limited, and with no one to teach him the techniques of Eviscerate, he had to figure it out entirely on his own, step by step.
From the description of Eviscerate, Xiaoyu roughly understood that the principle behind the skill was to use a dagger to pierce into the gaps between bones, fiercely slicing apart flesh and bone to drastically reduce the mobility of a monster or enemy.
It seemed accuracy was the key to Eviscerate. An Eviscerate attack required finding the weaknesses and soft spots in a monster's armor, which demanded an extremely calm mind and precise strikes from the user; otherwise, it would be difficult to hit the vital parts directly.
After thinking for a moment, Xiaoyu felt he needed to give it a try. Practice was the sole criterion for testing truth.
Finding another Desert Python, Xiaoyu slowly crept forward in Stealth, stunned it with an Ambush, and swung his body in a sideways rotation. Leveraging the momentum of the spin, he thrust a Backstab into the Desert Python's body, dealing 69% Backstab skill damage and earning one combo point. Following the Backstab, Xiaoyu's gaze swept over the Desert Python's body and landed on its neck.
"Hit a snake at its seven-inch mark." Xiaoyu remembered this old proverb. The dagger in his right hand twisted flexibly in an arc and then plunged fiercely toward the Desert Python's vital spot.
With a muffled *puff*, the strike hit the target accurately, sinking the dagger into the Desert Python's body. Xiaoyu dragged his dagger downward, but the blade struck the Desert Python's bone and could not slice through another fraction of an inch.
System: Eviscerate skill completion 60%, dealing 60% skill damage.
The base damage of Eviscerate was 20 points, and 60% meant 12 points. Xiaoyu's own base damage, minus the damage mitigated by the Desert Python's armor, was 10 points. Logically speaking, this Eviscerate skill should have dealt 22 points of damage, but the damage number surprised Xiaoyu: the Eviscerate attack dealt 33 points of damage, and this time Eviscerate hadn't even triggered a critical hit! It was unexpectedly high.
He was still in combat and had no time to ponder further. When the Desert Python turned around, attempting to attack Xiaoyu, Xiaoyu executed a Backhand Backstab, killing the Desert Python outright.
Current HP 100%, zero health lost! A completely flawless battle! Xiaoyu was extremely satisfied; the fight had gone unexpectedly smoothly.
He picked up eleven copper coins and a piece of Thief equipment dropped on the ground.
Snakehide Armor: Defense 12–17, leather armor.
It was a common-tier leather armor piece, slightly better than what he was currently wearing, so Xiaoyu equipped it.
Looking back at the previous system prompt, having finally succeeded in executing the Eviscerate skill, Xiaoyu broke into an excited smile. Eviscerate required finding the weaknesses in a monster's armor, which demanded a certain level of combat experience. For his first successful execution of Eviscerate, Xiaoyu felt it went pretty well. However, what puzzled him somewhat was why the damage value of the Eviscerate skill was higher than its inherent skill damage. That hardly seemed logical.
And what on earth was the meaning of the terms "combo skill" and "finishing move"? Could it be...
"Was it because of that single combo point?" A thought flashed through Xiaoyu's mind, and he eagerly wanted to find a Desert Python to verify it.
The poor Desert Python became Xiaoyu's test subject. After killing several Desert Peasants—no, Desert Pythons—and conducting repeated research, Xiaoyu finally confirmed his hypothesis.
When Xiaoyu used Eviscerate alone to attack a Desert Python, barring a critical hit, the damage dealt by Eviscerate was fixed—for instance, a 60% completion Eviscerate would deal 22 points of damage to a Desert Python. But if he used Backstab first, followed by Eviscerate, at the exact same 60% completion, it would deal 33 points of damage to the Desert Python.
That was the difference! To put it concisely and clearly, finishing moves were executed after combo skills. For example, Backstab was a combo skill; casting Backstab generated one combo point, and then using the finishing move Eviscerate would significantly boost Eviscerate's attack damage. The more combo points there were, the higher the damage dealt when released with a finishing move.
Common sense like this would undoubtedly be searchable on the forums after a few days. But trying to search for it now would probably prove very difficult. Most players who figured out skill traits tended to keep them closely guarded secrets, refusing to widely disseminate the information they discovered so they could quickly pull ahead of ordinary players—because right now, the vast majority of players still knew nothing about skill execution and the like.
Stumbling upon these various skill traits meant Xiaoyu had already taken a step ahead of ordinary players, allowing him to build up his own level advantage using what he had discovered.
Players who could figure out the tricks to all basic Thief skills as quickly as Xiaoyu accounted for a tiny fraction of Thief players. Xiaoyu could be considered to have stumbled into it blindly, yet hit the mark dead center.
Backed by these skills, a Thief's leveling speed was no slower than that of a powerful Mage, and might even surpass it. A fully-skilled Thief had a damage output that rivaled a Mage's; at the same time, a Thief didn't need to consume massive amounts of mana while leveling. That was the advantage of a physical-combat class.
Xiaoyu's Backstab and Eviscerate skill proficiencies still needed practice, so the unfortunate Desert Pythons became his sparring partners. Having grasped these skills, killing Desert Pythons was no longer a difficult task for Xiaoyu; in fact, it was quite effortless.
System: Backstab skill completion 71%, dealing 78% skill damage, gained 1 combo point.
System: Eviscerate skill completion 85%, dealing 85% skill damage.
Xiaoyu continuously trained these two skills, searching for the tricks to both, and their completion rates slowly began to rise.
Just like Backhand Backstab, the key to the Backstab skill lay in the force generated by the rotation. The greater the rotational force, the higher the damage of the Backstab skill. Through practice, Xiaoyu discovered that the function for Backstab damage relative to the degree of sideways rotation reached its maximum value at a sixty-degree sideways rotation. The damage dealt at this point was highest; as long as one controlled the degree of sideways rotation and enhanced the force during the spin, the Backstab skill could be executed with high efficiency.
As for the Eviscerate skill, it relied entirely on muscle memory. Much like a butcher who, when cutting meat, would never challenge the hardest bones with his cleaver, the moment one used Eviscerate to pierce an enemy's weakness, the wrist had to remain flexible. Encountering hard bone meant rapidly dodging away to cut the enemy's soft flesh, which allowed the Eviscerate skill to be performed to perfection.
This was a virtual game, naturally different from ordinary games, and it was precisely this intense sense of realism that attracted so many players.
Xiaoyu was immersed in the thrill of this combat.
Respawning Desert Pythons in the same spot, he wiped out over a hundred Desert Pythons in three hours, raising his level once again. These hundred-plus Desert Pythons contributed over sixty silver coins and seven or eight common-tier equipment pieces to Xiaoyu. He replaced his entire gear set with common-tier leather armor dropped by the Desert Pythons, which greatly increased his defense and made killing Desert Pythons even easier.
Regarding the drop rate, the recipe for the Minor Instant Healing Potion was a bit too difficult to obtain, leaving Xiaoyu with no choice but to tirelessly keep respawning Desert Pythons.
His use of Backstab and Eviscerate grew increasingly proficient, and with it, his monster-hunting efficiency climbed higher and higher.
"There are so few monsters around here." Xiaoyu searched the desert for Desert Pythons, thinking it was a good time to swap to a place with more monsters. Suddenly, he noticed a Desert Python slightly larger in size than ordinary ones roaming among the sand not far away.
Was it a Boss monster? Or a regular Elite monster?
Seeing that Desert Python, Xiaoyu couldn't help hesitating. If it was an Elite or Boss-grade monster, could he beat it if he went up against it?
Yet Xiaoyu was unwilling to just walk away. Whether an Elite or a Boss monster, they were extremely rare. An Elite monster would appear among several thousand or even tens of thousands of regular monsters, while a Boss monster appeared once among hundreds of thousands. Xiaoyu had been wandering here for over three hours before running into one.
Killing an Elite or Boss-grade monster yielded very substantial rewards, with a 100% probability of dropping currently high-tier equipment or items.
It would be far too much of a pity to leave just like that, especially after managing to encounter one with such difficulty. Xiaoyu scouted the surrounding area. There were no other Desert Pythons around this Elite monster; what he had run into was a stray Desert Python.
"To engage or not to engage?" Hesitating, Xiaoyu switched between his three skills. The dagger spun in an exquisite arc in his right hand before landing back in his palm. *Screw it, fortune favors the bold. Even if I die, I'll only drop a level. I don't know how strong an Elite-grade monster actually is, but I might just be able to handle it.*
A thief's audacity knew no bounds; perhaps only this phrase could describe Xiaoyu at this moment.
Xiaoyu slowly crept closer toward the giant Desert Python.