Battle with Mountain Bandits Again

"This guy looks a bit fierce."

I Want to Become Immortal hid behind a bush, watching the Lost Soul Bandit before them, and said with some concern.

It was a burly man wearing Studded Leather Armor. The dilapidated armor could not hide his powerful physique; he was broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, carrying a large saber on his shoulder. The rusted blade seemed to still have traces of blood on it, making him look murderous.

He casually picked up the Strategy Guide at his side and flipped through the monster descriptions.

[Lost Soul Bandit: Humanoid monster, randomly possesses one combat skill, drops various white-tier weapons and equipment. If lucky, can even drop primary skill books. However, their combat power is quite formidable. Do not touch them alone in the early stages; I once soloed one and almost died.]

"Don't worry, I've fought these things before. It shouldn't be a problem with two people." Xiao Jie's tone was calm, yet carried a hint of bitterness. It was here that Han Luo had died.

He shook off the gloom in his heart and began to arrange their tactics.

"We only fight one at a time, absolutely do not aggro more! If you pull two or more, just run.

Shoot arrows first to whittle down the bandit's health as much as possible, then finish him off at close range.

Once we enter melee, we must surround him from both sides. The person facing him head-on should focus on defense, while the one attacking from behind handles the damage. If the bandit starts glowing red, retreat immediately to dodge.

I'll be responsible for tanking. Alright, on the count of three, we fire together."

"1... 2... 3!"

As he spoke, both of them drew their bows—and fired!

Swish! Swish!

The accuracy of their aimed shots was quite good. The bandit was hit by both arrows and immediately came charging over, howling.

"Keep shooting!"

Xiao Jie shouted and drew his bow again, firing an arrow that struck the bandit in the chest. -9!

I Want to Become Immortal, however, was a bit flustered. He didn't manage his aim well on the second shot, and the arrow flew right over the bandit's head.

Seeing the bandit getting closer and closer, Xiao Jie didn't fire again. Although he could have gotten one more shot off, there wouldn't have been enough time to switch weapons.

"I'll take the aggro!"

Quickly switching to his shield and Wild Goose Feather Saber, Xiao Jie charged straight at the bandit.

I Want to Become Immortal also switched to his sword and shield, circling around to the bandit's back.

The bandit swung his large saber down at them. Xiao Jie didn't try to clash blades with him, but instead raised his shield to block.

Blocking with a shield was much simpler than parrying with a sword; all one had to do was right-click.

Bang! Bang!

The large saber in the bandit's hand kept hacking against Xiao Jie's shield.

Xiao Jie didn't counterattack. In a 2-on-1 situation, one naturally had to play the game of righteous backstabbing.

I Want to Become Immortal circled behind the bandit and thrust his sword out at the bandit, who was still busy swinging his large saber.

-17!

The damage from the Fine Steel Longsword was quite impressive.

The bandit roared and turned around to swing his saber, but I Want to Become Immortal was prepared and immediately raised his shield to block.

"Good, just like that! Now it's my turn to deal damage!"

Xiao Jie looked at the bandit, who now had his back turned, and unleashed a One Cut Two Pieces.

Splurt! -56!

With 300% weapon damage, this strike was explosive, instantly shaving off a quarter of the bandit's health.

After the strike, Xiao Jie immediately raised his shield. Such high damage would definitely draw the bandit's aggro back to him.

Sure enough, the bandit's large saber came hacking over the next second.

The two of them traded blows, one sword and one saber, and after two or three rounds, the bandit's health was bottoming out.

The bandit didn't choose to flee, however. He let out a loud roar and suddenly performed a dragging-saber charge-up motion.

"Back off!" Xiao Jie shouted.

Both of them retreated simultaneously.

The bandit took a sudden step forward, dragging his saber as he moved toward Xiao Jie, and swung it out in a sweeping motion.

Combat Skill—Sweeping Strike!

Unfortunately, the two had already retreated several meters away, and the strike hit nothing but air.

Xiao Jie, however, took advantage of the bandit's wide-open guard after using his combat skill and closed in rapidly.

Combat Skill—One Cut Two Pieces!

Shing! Where the blade passed, a line of blood appeared across the bandit's face. He let out a miserable shriek and collapsed to the ground, dead.

Only when he saw the bandit fall did Xiao Jie finally let out a sigh of relief.

Even with a high degree of confidence, it was hard not to feel a sense of trepidation when fighting this monster that had left him with such psychological trauma.

Fortunately, the battle went exactly as he had calculated, and he managed to finish off the enemy without losing a single point of health.

He checked the loot: 24 copper coins and a pair of trousers.

[Linen Trousers (Legwear/Poor)

Leg Defense +4.

Item Description: Simple trousers made of linen, providing the wearer with a small amount of warmth and protection.]

What trashy loot; it was even gray-tier, but—it was better than nothing.

"Do you want these trousers?" Xiao Jie asked out of habit.

"Uh, you take them first, Brother Feng."

Xiao Jie had only been trying to be polite; I Want to Become Immortal already had leather armor legwear, so he naturally wouldn't care for this junk.

He put the trousers on directly. In other games, such trash equipment would be considered embarrassing to even sell to a shop, but in this resource-scarce game, it was actually a decent find.

If they farmed a few more, he might be able to complete a full set.

"Let's keep going."

The ensuing battles were exceptionally repetitive.

The two strictly adhered to the plan they had established earlier, specifically targeting lone bandits.

Using arrows to whittle down health and double-teaming with backstabs, it took them a full hour to successfully wipe out all the lone bandits on this hillside.

They had killed a dozen or so in total; the combat itself didn't take much time, but most of it was spent scouting and maneuvering around enemies.

There was no helping it; Xiao Jie felt confident in a 2-on-1, but he didn't dare attempt a 2-on-2.

It wasn't that they couldn't win; in fact, after an hour of fighting and becoming familiar with the bandits' combat style, he was 80 or 90 percent sure he could solo one.

While I Want to Become Immortal's mechanics weren't as sharp as his, they were definitely not weak, and with his good gear, he likely had a 50 or 60 percent chance of soloing a bandit.

But even if there was only a 10 percent chance of failure, he would never take that risk.

Grinding monsters for levels was a long-term endeavor. If there was a 10 percent failure rate each time, what about after 10 or 20 times? Sooner or later, they would crash and burn.

Fortunately, these bandits were distributed across this hilly region with its undulating terrain, featuring many protruding hilltops and slopes. As long as they found high ground to observe in advance, determine the bandits' distribution, and plan their route, it was relatively safe.

These bandits dropped not only three pieces of White Equipment but also over 300 copper coins. The two split 150 each, which was much faster money than firewood chopping or herding sheep, though unfortunately, no skill books dropped.

It seemed his luck that day had truly been good; he had actually gotten a skill book from the very first monster.

Xiao Jie checked his Experience Points; he was only a little over 100 away from leveling up.

However, the lone bandits in the vicinity had all been killed. The ones remaining were in groups of two or three, or they were positioned close enough that they would easily ADD. On a distant hilltop, he could even see a crude stronghold surrounded by a circle of wooden stakes, with several tents inside where the silhouettes of multiple bandits were vaguely visible.

That must be a Bandit Outpost. Such strongholds might spawn Elite Monsters, and there might even be good loot or treasure chests. However, considering that even fighting two bandits at once made his heart race, he shouldn't even think about raiding a bandit stronghold for now.

Xiao Jie didn't even dare risk getting any closer.

"Brother Feng, how about we pull two at a time? I feel like I should be able to handle it."

"No! Two is too dangerous." Xiao Jie refused decisively. Even though 2-on-1s felt easy, Xiao Jie knew very well that their stats and damage weren't higher than the bandits'. If they fought one-on-one, while they had a certain chance of winning, a single failure would mean game over. A bandit only dropped a few dozen copper coins and trash White Equipment; it wasn't worth risking their lives for such meager gains.

"Then let's go farm Soulless Walking Corpses."

"Soulless Walking Corpses?"

"Those guys that look like mummies. They're the trashiest monsters around. You can kill them easily. The experience is a bit lower, but it's still more than deer or sheep or whatever."

"Have you killed them before?"

"I've 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 must have been what they were.

"Alright, let's go farm Soulless Walking Corpses."

Bandits usually spawned on hillsides and slopes, animals in the forest, while Soulless Walking Corpses generally liked to spawn around roads and ruins.

The two carefully walked down the hillside, passed through the Small Woods, and arrived at a path between the trees. This was where I Want to Become Immortal had been farming Soulless Walking Corpses that day, yet they found the area empty.

"Huh? How come there isn't a single Soulless Walking Corpse? I ran into several here the other day." Just as I Want to Become Immortal was feeling puzzled—

Suddenly—Ding-a-ling! Ding-a-ling!

A cold and eerie sound of copper bells suddenly rang out from the distance.