Bandit Night Raid

Three days later, at night, they arrived outside a forest on a mountain and set up a temporary camp in the open.

They could not continue any farther. On a pitch-black night, it was best to stay in open ground, where they could react immediately to anything approaching.

The dark forest was dangerous, so they could only rest here for the night and pass through the forest ahead the next day.

Mel Carlo was practicing Back Hop beside the campfire. He absolutely could not reduce his daily fifty repetitions; that was how he could quickly reach maximum proficiency.

Of the four skills—[Mighty Slash], [Cut], [Thrust], and [Rising Uppercut]—he could perhaps pick one to practice. After all, he currently had no training lined up.

People were prone to slacking off, and Mel Carlo was no exception. After obtaining [Flying Blade], he had not continued learning upper-body skills, because they were all close-combat skills. With his current physical condition, facing an enemy in close combat was basically a death sentence.

"Maybe I can choose one between Mighty Slash and Cut."

One was a Warrior class skill, while the other was a Thief class skill. Speaking of warriors, there was one right in front of him. In the game, swordsmen were classified as warriors and shared the same Skill Tree.

[Steal] proficiency increased by 35. Current proficiency: 505.

[Back Hop] proficiency increased by 350. Current proficiency: 3451.

Current effort points: 33842.

"Hey, little thief, is practicing like that even useful? You only practice such a little bit every day."

"Really? I thought I was already working pretty hard. Maybe I'm just talented, so that much practice is enough." Mel Carlo sat back down beside the campfire. He knew when his skills would reach their limit—when he had practiced them ten thousand times.

This kind of talent could not be called genius. A true genius might learn something with a single glance and reach the peak after only a few attempts. But his efforts were guaranteed to bear fruit, fruit he could see from the very beginning.

Mel Carlo then began practicing Mighty Slash. Since he already had a Thief class skill, learning a Warrior class skill at such a low level would clearly give him more room for error. In the future, he would have no problem using weapons such as longswords or clubs.

He stood up again, picked up a wooden stick from beside him, and began practicing [Mighty Slash].

But the moment Mel Carlo swung once, Kate beside him instantly became much more alert. As a swordswoman, she naturally recognized it as the swordsman's basic skill, [Mighty Slash].

"Little thief, have you learned swordsmanship before?"

"No. I practiced it ten times by myself, then learned the technique."

He planted his feet, twisted his waist, and swung with all his strength.

"Impossible. Who do you think you are, learning it after ten tries?"

Kate clearly found it hard to accept. Back then, she had studied it seriously, and it had taken her a whole month just to get started. Every day, she practiced until she was exhausted.

Even the legendary swordsmanship genius of the imperial capital had taken a full day to learn this move.

"Believe it or not. You can show me your Mighty Slash if you want, because when I've practiced it ten thousand times, the gap between us will truly show." Mel Carlo did not stop swinging. All he needed was time.

The ten-thousand-time limit—he did not know whether that was good or bad. He had obviously reached maximum proficiency, yet not all skill qualities were red. White, green, purple, gold, red. Just from that ranking, he could tell red was the highest, while right now only [Assassin's Breathing Technique] was gold.

"I'll think about the future later! I just need to do what's in front of me!" Mel Carlo cast aside his stray thoughts and continued swinging without pause.

If he could practice five hundred sword swings a day, this skill would only need twenty days—at most, no more than a month—to reach maximum proficiency.

Since they were resting today, Mel Carlo only tried ninety-nine swings before stopping.

[Mighty Slash] proficiency: 100/10000.

Current effort points: 33941.

Tonight, Mr. Freli was keeping watch, so Mel Carlo and the others went to sleep without worry.

They had only just drifted into dreams when faint sounds reached their ears, as though someone were talking. But by the time they woke up, sharp blades had already entered their camp.

"Who are you people?" Freli was pinned to the ground.

Kate's entire body was bound by ropes, tightly tied off to one side. No one had been keeping watch. They had been far too careless.

Looking carefully around, there were roughly five enemies. Their levels were 5, 7, 8, 9, and 5. None of them were above level 10.

Although Mel was not tied up, he only had a dagger, while the other side had five people. Claire was still just a child.

"What are you trying to do? I'm the young lady of the Green family! If my father finds out, he won't let you get away with this!" Kate was somewhat panicked as well. Tied up as she was, she could not resist. She had slept far too deeply and had not noticed the danger at all.

"Is that so? Looks like we caught a fat sheep. There are so many monsters around now—after we kill you, who could possibly suspect us?" One bandit licked his dagger with his tongue. It was obvious this was not their first time. They had begun committing crimes while monsters were increasing in number.

After all, during this period, it was very difficult to trace clues. Everything could be blamed on monsters.

Mel Carlo was also thinking of a way out. Even if he tried to run, it would be difficult. His little arms and legs could not outrun adults.

Against these desperate criminals, threats were useless without absolute strength.

He instinctively tightened his grip on the dagger.

One bandit slowly approached Kate, seemingly intending to take something other than money before robbing them. With the carriage nearby, disposing of the bodies would not be difficult.

"Let her go!" Mel Carlo instantly threw his dagger.

But the bandit merely sidestepped it. The other four bandits immediately drew their blades and watched the child with interest.

"You want to die first, you little brat!" The bandit drew his sword and charged at Mel Carlo, who quickly used Back Hop to open the distance.

Almost at the same time, a sword pierced through the bandit from behind. Then came Cross Slash, and the bandit in front of him was directly dismembered.

The other four bandits immediately tried to flee.

Mel Carlo's dagger had not missed at all. He had aimed to cut the ropes binding Kate from the start. That was what a one-hundred-percent hit rate meant.

Kate was also their only hope. Mr. Freli was clearly not skilled at fighting, and Claire went without saying.

The sharp sword flashed coldly in the night, and the remaining bandits were swiftly dealt with. Everything was clean and efficient.

"Level 15—you're Level 15, right?" Mel Carlo slowly walked toward the bandits' corpses, preparing to loot some spoils.

Kate stood to one side and said confidently, "Looks like you guessed right. So? I'm pretty amazing, aren't I? But how did you tell?"

Mel Carlo had wanted to answer that [Cross Slash] was a skill that could only be learned at Level 15, but this world might also have geniuses capable of crossing level boundaries. This game world was not exactly the same.

"I guessed." Mel Carlo reached out and searched the corpse that had not yet gone cold.

After searching all four corpses, he only found three hundred Oren in total. There was also Mr. Body Parts, but he did not plan to search that one.

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