"This thing looks kind of fierce."
I Want to Become Immortal hid behind a bush and looked at the Lost Soul Bandit in front of him, saying with some worry.
That was a burly man wearing studded leather armor. The dilapidated armor could not hide his mighty figure. Broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, he carried a heavy saber on his shoulder. Blood seemed to still linger on that rusty blade, and he looked murderous.
He casually picked up the strategy guide to the side and flipped through the monster introduction on it.
[Lost Soul Bandit: Humanoid monster, randomly possesses a combat technique, drops various white equipment, and with good luck can even burst out low-level skill books. However, his combat power is relatively formidable. Do not touch him alone in the early stage. I soloed one back then and almost kicked the bucket.]
"Don't worry, I've fought this thing. If there are two people, it's not much of a problem." Xiao Jie's tone was calm yet carried a hint of bitterness. Han Luo had died right here back then.
He shook off the upset feeling in his heart and arranged the strategy.
"We only fight one at a time, absolutely don't multi-pull! If you pull more than two, just run away.
Shoot with arrows first, reduce the bandit's HP as much as possible, and then close in for follow-up strikes.
Once entering melee, you must surround from two sides. The person facing front should defend as much as possible, the one attacking from behind is responsible for output, and as soon as the bandit glows red, immediately back up and dodge.
I'll be responsible for taking the aggro. Alright, I'll count 1, 2, 3, let's loose arrows together."
"1--2--3!"
While speaking, the two simultaneously drew their bows--and released their arrows!
Swish, swish!
Fixed-point shooting still had a very accurate hit rate. The bandit was hit by two arrows in a row and immediately charged over, howling.
"Keep shooting!"
Shouting, Xiao Jie drew his bow again and fired an arrow that struck the bandit's chest, -9!
I Want to Become Immortal panicked a bit. His second arrow's crosshairs weren't mastered well, and the arrow flew right past the bandit's head.
Seeing the bandit getting closer and closer, Xiao Jie didn't keep shooting. Although he could fire one more arrow, there wouldn't be enough time to change weapons after that.
"I'll take the aggro!"
Quickly switching to a shield and Wild Goose Feather Saber, Xiao Jie rushed forward to meet the bandit.
And I Want to Become Immortal also switched to a sword and shield, circling around to the bandit's back.
The bandit brandished his heavy saber and chopped down from the head. Xiao Jie didn't clash blades with the opponent, instead raising his shield to parry.
Shield parrying was much simpler than using a saber to fend things off; all one had to do was press the right mouse button.
Bang! Bang!
The heavy saber in the bandit's hand continuously slashed against Xiao Jie's shield.
Xiao Jie didn't counterattack. In a 2-v-1 situation, of course they had to play righteous backstabbing.
I Want to Become Immortal circled behind the bandit and thrust a sword at the bandit who was currently brandishing his heavy saber.
-17!
The damage of this Fine Steel Longsword was still quite powerful.
The bandit let out a roar, turned around, and slashed with a saber. I Want to Become Immortal had been prepared for a long time and immediately raised his shield to parry.
"Alright, like this, now switch to me for output!"
Xiao Jie looked at the bandit with his back turned to him and slashed over with a move of One Cut Two Pieces.
Pfft! -56!
300% weapon damage, this knife's damage exploded, instantly knocking off a quarter of the bandit's HP.
After finishing the strike, Xiao Jie immediately raised his shield. With such high damage, it would definitely draw the bandit's aggro back.
Sure enough, the next second the bandit's heavy saber chopped over.
The two of them traded blows, you a slash and I a stab. After two or three rounds, the bandit's HP bottomed out.
Yet this bandit didn't choose to run away. He let out a loud roar and abruptly made a dragging-saber charge motion.
"Retreat!" Xiao Jie shouted.
The two simultaneously retreated backward.
That bandit abruptly took a step forward, dragging his saber along as he moved toward Xiao Jie, and slashed at Xiao Jie, taking advantage of the momentum to cut down.
Combat technique--Sweeping Strike!
Pity that the two had already retreated several meters away, and this slash completely hit empty air.
Yet taking advantage of the bandit's wide-open vulnerability after using his combat technique, Xiao Jie closed in rapidly.
Combat technique--One Cut Two Pieces!
Swish! Wherever the blade light passed, a bloodline appeared on the bandit's brow. He let out a miserable scream and crashed to the ground, dead.
Only until seeing the bandit fall did Xiao Jie's heart finally relax.
No matter how confident he was, facing this monster that had left him with psychological shadows, fighting it still inevitably made one feel trepidation.
Fortunately, the combat process had no discrepancy whatsoever with his calculations; he solved the enemy without even losing HP.
He checked the drops: 24 copper coins, and he also dropped a pair of trousers.
[Linen Trousers (Legguards/Inferior)
Leg defense +4.
Item description: Simple trousers made of linen, able to provide the wearer with a modest amount of warmth and protective effect.]
Such trash drops, and they were even gray, but--they were useful after all.
"Do you want these trousers?" Xiao Jie asked out of habit.
"Uh, Brother Feng, you take them first."
Xiao Jie was originally just being polite anyway. I Want to Become Immortal had leather armor legguards, so naturally he looked down on this piece of junk.
He directly put on the trousers. Throwing this kind of trash equipment into a shop in other games would probably be considered embarrassing, but in this resource-short game, they were also good stuff.
Grinding a few more, maybe he could put together a whole set.
"Let's continue."
The subsequent battles were exceptionally repetitive.
The two firmly adhered to the previously formulated plan, specifically picking on straggling bandits to attack.
Bow and arrow to drain blood, melee attacks from both ends with backstabs; it took a full hour's effort before the two successfully wiped out all the straggling bandits on this hillside.
They killed a good twelve or thirteen of them. The combat portion didn't take up much time, as most of the time was spent on scouting and circling around monsters.
No help for it; Xiao Jie was still somewhat confident about a 2-v-1, but if it were a 2-v-2, he didn't quite dare.
It wasn't that they couldn't win at all. In fact, through this hour of combat, having familiarized himself with the bandits' combat style, he already had an 80% to 90% certainty that he could solo a bandit.
And although I Want to Become Immortal's micromanagement wasn't as good as his, it definitely couldn't be considered weak either. Added with a set of good equipment, soloing a bandit probably still gave him a 50% to 60% chance of victory.
Yet even if there was only a 10% possibility of failure, he would absolutely not take that risk.
Killing monsters and leveling up was a long-term job. A 10% failure probability once—what about 10 times or 20 times? Sooner or later they would flip over.
Fortunately, these bandits were distributed across this hilly region with undulating terrain and many protruding hills and earthen slopes. As long as they found a high vantage point to observe in advance, determined the bandits' distribution, and planned their route, it was relatively safe.
These bandits not only dropped three pieces of white equipment, but also dropped over 300 copper coins. The two split 150 each; this made money much faster than chopping firewood and herding sheep, though unfortunately no skill books dropped.
It seemed his luck really hadn't been bad that day after all, since the very first monster had dropped a skill book.
Xiao Jie checked his experience points; he was just over 100 away from leveling up.
However, the surrounding straggling bandits had already been killed off, and the ones remaining were all in groups of twos and threes, or else their respawn locations were relatively close, making them prone to ADD. On a hill in the distance, a crude stronghold enclosed by a circle of wooden fences could still be seen, with several tents inside where the figures of quite a few bandits could faintly be seen.
That should be a bandit outpost. Elite monsters might respawn in this kind of stronghold, and perhaps they could even scavenge good things like treasure chests. However, considering that they currently felt terrified even fighting two bandits at once, they shouldn't even think about raiding a bandit stronghold for the time being.
Xiao Jie didn't even dare to risk getting a little closer.
"Brother Feng, how about we pull two at once? I feel like I should be able to manage."
"No! Two is too dangerous." Xiao Jie decisively refused. Don't look at how relaxed it was during two-on-ones; Xiao Jie knew very well that the two's attributes and damage weren't higher than the bandits'. Once they went one-on-one, although there was a certain chance of victory, as long as they failed once they were done for. Meanwhile, a bandit only dropped a few dozen copper coins and trash white equipment; risking their lives for this little bit of gain really wasn't worth it.
"Then let's go grind Soulless Walking Corpses."
"Soulless Walking Corpses?"
"It's those guys that look like mummies. That stuff is the trashiest monster, you can kill them at will. The experience is a little less, but it's still way more than deer or sheep or whatever."
"Have you killed them?"
"Killed plenty."
Xiao Jie recalled the pile of corpses he had seen when he went to find I Want to Become Immortal that day; that should have been the stuff.
"Alright, let's go grind Soulless Walking Corpses."
Bandits generally spawned on hillsides and rolling terrain, animals spawned in forests, while Soulless Walking Corpses generally liked to spawn around roads and ruins.
The two cautiously walked down the slope, passed through the small woods, and arrived at a path between the woods. This was the place where I Want to Become Immortal had grinded Soulless Walking Corpses that day. However, the two found that the surroundings were completely empty.
"Eh, how come there isn't a single Soulless Walking Corpse? I ran into quite a few here that day." Just as I Want to Become Immortal was feeling puzzled,
Suddenly--jingle-ling! Jingle-ling!
A chilling and strange copper bell sound suddenly rang out from afar.
Before you continue