Two hours later, Mel was awakened from his eyes-closed state.
"Mel! You've got a nosebleed!" Lily said anxiously.
Mel Carlo did feel something cool trickling down, but he had gained 1,200 effort points. Including the 5 points from [Stealing], that was already quite a substantial increase.
[Stealing] Proficiency: 20/10000 [Assassin's Breathing Technique] Proficiency: 1810/10000 Current Effort Points: 2548
[Assassin's Breathing Technique] could indeed focus his mind, but the strain on his body was real. Otherwise, he would not have gotten a nosebleed. It seemed he needed to take better care of himself. When it was time to sleep, he had to sleep properly.
He could shorten that period a little. After finishing [Stealing] practice in the future, he could add an hour of [Assassin's Breathing Technique] practice. At night, he could rest directly. Daytime could not be wasted.
And at this rate of cultivation, Assassin's Breathing Technique should be the first to reach 10,000 proficiency.
Mel Carlo spent the entire afternoon sleeping. That night would be the final [Stealing] training session. The food was hardly lavish, but at least it was no longer quite so hard to swallow.
The leisurely days passed one after another. Mel Carlo did not spend all his time cultivating. Occasionally, he went looking for leftovers with Chubby, or simply did nothing and lay in the courtyard basking in the sun.
Lily was still as gentle as ever, and Akai was as optimistic as always. That was good.
During this time, Mel Carlo had also figured something out. This continent was indeed called the Kandewen Continent, but another problem was that it was impossible to understand how vast this world truly was from these maps alone. Unless there was a complete world nautical chart—but this world might not have even entered the Age of Exploration yet.
Late June, Imperial Calendar Year 200. That was perhaps when he had arrived in this world. Three months had already passed since his rebirth, and the temperature had noticeably dropped.
"The imperial capital of the Gard Empire... If we head east, it might take one or two months to reach Oak City." Mel Carlo looked at the map on the table. He still recognized far too few words and could only compare it with the game setting he remembered to determine the rough locations.
In the game, Oak City was the players' starting city. The surrounding areas were filled with low-level demons. There were grasslands to the north, a great forest to the east, and the Exar Theocracy to the south.
If he wanted to level up, he could either enter the imperial capital's sewers and hunt rats, or go to Oak City to accept adventurer missions, such as dealing with low-level slimes. Missions issued by villages usually did not pay much, but the danger level was practically nonexistent. They simply took time.
"Master Anke, do you have any paper and pens?" Mel Carlo asked.
"No. Do I look like a scholar to you?" Anke lay in a chair with his legs slanted across the table.
"No. You're a street thug, a gang member."
"Exactly." Anke spread his hands helplessly.
After studying the map, Mel Carlo left the room and walked down the steps.
Akai was practicing sword swings. This was a gang, after all. No one could give him professional instruction. If he had wanted to learn stealth or stealing, there might have been someone in the gang who could teach him.
Lily was spacing out nearby. She truly had nothing to do.
Mel Carlo sat down beside her and checked the system panel. Over the course of a month, he had saved up quite a few effort points:
[Flying Blade] Proficiency: 10000/10000 (Elite) [Assassin's Breathing Technique] Proficiency: 10000/10000 (Master) [Dagger Attack] Proficiency: 10000/10000 (Elite) [Back Hop] Proficiency: 1601/10000 [Stealing] Proficiency: 320/10000 Current Effort Points: 31807
He had not drawn any rewards during this period because he had not even used the prizes from before. Mel Carlo felt a vague sense of unease, as though someone had been watching him, yet he could not find that person.
So he could only be more cautious. Aside from his normal cultivation, he had not done anything else over the past month.
The good news was that maxing out a skill's proficiency brought astonishing returns. The rewards were basically proportional to the proficiency progress. Maxing [Flying Blade] did not just grant a 100% hit rate; it also gave the skill almost no cooldown. As long as he had enough throwing knives in reserve, he could keep throwing them. Its [Elite] trait was Piercing. He had tested it too—it could easily pierce through targets. If an opponent tried to block it, they would likely still suffer piercing damage.
After [Assassin's Breathing Technique] reached max proficiency, he could keep it active continuously. It did not have any major effects for the moment, though the use he had developed for it was focusing his mind. Its [Master] trait was Movement, allowing the skill to be maintained even while moving at high speed.
Maxing [Dagger Attack] granted a 100% attack bonus for dagger-type weapons. Its [Elite] trait was Critical Hit, giving dagger-type weapons an additional 50% critical hit effect.
Then there were the traits, which Mel Carlo found extremely useful. They were modifiers similar to those in the game. Skills with maxed proficiency were marked with colors: [Elite] was purple, while [Master] was gold.
If nothing unexpected happened, white, green, purple, gold, and red should correspond to Apprentice, Proficient, Elite, Master, and Legendary. Those were the quality tiers for skill modifiers.
For potions, equipment, and other items, white, green, purple, gold, and red should correspond to Common, Fine, Excellent, Rare, and Divine Artifact.
Thinking about this, Mel Carlo only felt that his brain was not enough. It seemed he absolutely had to buy paper and pens. These concepts were still deeply imprinted in his mind now, but as time passed, he might forget important information one day. He had to write down everything he could still remember.
"Lily, practice with Akai. I'm going out for a walk." Mel Carlo stood and headed toward the courtyard gate.
"Let's go together! Or I'll go with you." Lily stood up, wanting to go out with Mel.
It was not that Mel Carlo did not want to bring them. He had originally planned to do this secretly. Paper and pens in this world did not seem cheap, since poor people would not bother learning how to read and write.
But if there were too many people, more people would definitely learn about it. The matter of him paying from his wallet might be exposed as well.
"Please, Mel. I really want to go out and play with you. And so does Akai." Lily pouted, grabbed Mel's arm with both hands, and squatted on the ground.
Over the past month, Mel and Akai had only cared about cultivating and had no time to play with her. She always felt as though they had become somewhat distant.
"Fine. Then let's go for a walk together." Mel was somewhat helpless.
He did not plan to use the money stolen from that wallet anytime soon. The only money he could use was these copper coins, especially since he no longer had to pay tribute every day.
He still had 83 Orens in copper coins from his previous thefts. Out of ten theft attempts, aside from the one time he had been caught and beaten, he had basically earned something each time.
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