How did he do it?

Chapter 11: How did he do that? Even though it's the first BOSS of the first dungeon... but because the name was too difficult to remember, Iver had long forgotten it.

In order not to waste his teammates' time, Iver always skipped all the cutscene CGs in these four-person dungeons.

He had no idea what Ademar looked like outside of combat. He only remembered that he was a hunchbacked giant with purple spiderwebs all over his skin.

They called Ademar Little Purple back then.

Because he was the first enemy of the Transcendence Path. In the early stages, players rarely saw other BOSSes and NPCs with purple light effects, so they named him so directly.

The reason he was called Little Purple was because there was also a "Big Purple" later in this dungeon. And there were also enemies called "Old Purple" and "Purple Sister" in another dungeon. After version 1.2 started, and there were more and more enemies of the Transcendence Path, they stopped calling them that.

Along with the memories, the simple mechanism of the "Villainous Bartender" was also revived—

Ademar was seen supporting himself on the counter with both hands, his arms swelling up at a speed visible to the naked eye, directly bursting his sleeves.

He suddenly slapped out his right hand, extremely fast, as if wrapped in a gust of wind.

"[Steadfast Demeanor]."

And Iver even predicted it before he waved his palm, and commanded in advance from behind.

The moment she heard the order.

Hai Na's body acted spontaneously before her brain could. The light wheel at the bottom of her pupils suddenly turned, she turned the sword body horizontally, and held the front half of the sword body with her left hand. Her center of gravity sank, and her right leg kicked off the ground. In the blink of an eye, she made a posture to resist the impact.

—Clang!

It was clearly the contact between the palm and the thin sword, but it made the sound of a sledgehammer hitting an anvil.

The sword body blessed by the Path of Authority's Law Tactics firmly blocked this blow! Hai Na could clearly feel a surge of great force rushing along the sword body.

If she hadn't reflexively obeyed Iver's command and used "Steadfast Demeanor", she would probably have been knocked flying and smashed into Iver in the wheelchair behind her!

But at this moment, her body was like a cast foundation, completely transferring this power into the earth! After one blow, she instinctively aimed at the opponent's opening and launched a sharp counterattack! With a backhand sword, she slashed along the lower side of the bounced right arm, all the way to the left shoulder.

Blood spurted out, and the Villainous Bartender staggered back in pain, crashing into the liquor cabinet behind him.

Some wine bottles fell down due to the collision, hitting the ground and making a crisp cracking sound.

She kept in mind the instructor's teaching of "not being rash", and instinctively wanted to return to the initial standard stance.

However, Iver issued the order at just the right time.

"[Giant Strength Strike]."

—Is it really okay?

The hesitant thought flashed through her mind.

Giant Strength Strike requires charging, and cannot be moved or parried before it is slashed out; and after it is slashed out, it cannot be changed easily, and it is easy to be dodged and counterattacked by agile enemies.

According to the instructor's teaching, this move should be used when it is confirmed that the opponent is unable to fight back or cannot dodge, forcing the opponent to choose defense—and then shatter the opponent's defense.

After gaining an advantage in the first confrontation, you should use [Honing Blade] to temporarily increase the sharpness of the blade, or use [Rebuke Spell] to take advantage of the opponent's defeat to issue intimidation and make the opponent further powerless. You must control the distance between the opponent and yourself, not too close, not too far. You must keep the opponent within the influence range of [Charge Slash], and at the same time ensure that there is enough open space behind you, leaving yourself room to retreat, dodge, and parry.

...Oh, no, it seems that Mr. Iver is behind me. So should I move aside first?

But if that's the case, wouldn't I be exposing him...

As her brain rapidly engaged in complex thought, Hai Na's body, honed through countless battles, moved on its own in a moment of distraction.

Upon receiving Iver's command, she took a deep breath, switched to a two-handed grip on her short sword, and hunched her back slightly like a cat before a hunt.

After about half a second of charging, her figure shot out like lightning.

A sharp, cold white light, like a crescent moon, flashed in the air as she directly cleaved the counter in front of the wild elf bartender in one strike.

The immense impact instantly froze the bartender in place.

Along with the bartender's subconscious block, his left arm, which he had raised in defense, was also severed! His forearm bones had a ghastly break. His purple left hand, swollen as if severely edematous, fell to the ground, and the bartender let out a shrill scream as the purplepatterns (wénlù -patterns: patterns/lines) rapidly receded along the original path.

The scream was so piercing that it startled Hai Na.

And his posture after disengaging from combat made Hai Na unsure whether she should continue fighting him.

At this moment, Iver's stern voice came again.

"Hai Na, get out of the way."

She shifted her feet and nimbly jumped half a step to the side.

—Only to hear a gunshot.

The bartender's left eye was pierced by a bullet, and blood splattered from the back of his head. Blood bloomed like a flower on the liquor cabinet behind him.

His body slid down weakly, dragging a trail of crimson blood.

She didn't even see where Iver had hidden the gun. He was still sitting in his wheelchair, quietly motionless. A faint wisp of white smoke rose from his black cloak, and the corner of his mouth under the cloak turned up slightly.

From Iver's perspective, tiny white light spots gradually emerged from the corpse and poured into his body.

[Killed a Second Circle Transcendent, gained 14 free experience]

Iver revealed a happy smile.

Let me steal a kill, thank you.

Although the direct monster-killing experience in "Ouroboros Ring" is quite small, leveling up mainly relies on quests, crafting, buying books and reading, and the daily dungeon reward experience... but every little bit helps.

Not to mention, he is currently at a low level. The benefits of using free experience to level up are still quite high.

These 14 free experience points, plus the 24 points from the counter-kill of that Demon Scholar, can be evenly distributed among the Demon Scholar's three skills, which is enough to level up about four times.

He can also allocate some experience to the Priest class, leveling up to the second level to unlock a Path. Then, he can upgrade the Demon Scholar by three levels, which is the most profitable plan in the short term.

Or he can save it a little, wait until he learns other skills of the Dedication Path—such as "Sacrificial Fire", "Illumination Spell", and "Blessing", which are more useful than "Prayer" and difficult to level up—and then add the experience. At the very least, this experience can directly raise the Priest level to five. This is the most cost-effective way to improve in the long run.

After all, "Demon Knowledge" can be steadily leveled up by reading mysterious books on Demonology; "Basic Prayer" can be steadily improved by praying at least twice a day for three minutes each time; and "Demon Contract" allows him to slowly replenish his power from the Shadow Demon without doing anything.

Only "Basic Ritual" is a bit troublesome. The main trouble lies in the word "Basic".

Its level is too low. The ritual level of Iver's previous creation of the "Shadow Blade" was too high, and it couldn't even gain experience. Iver really can't remember such low-level rituals—the rituals that can make him memorize formulas must at least be the ones he uses more often, or the recipes that can be hung up to slaughter noobs.

From this perspective, the Demon Scholar can level up even if left unattended. And the improvement of the Priest class is much more difficult, basically only slowly grinding.

If he can raise the Priest to the Second Circle as soon as possible, he can prove that he is a "person willing to Dedication".

Otherwise, how could he walk so smoothly on the Dedication Path?

Is your Dedication Path level as high as mine? If it's not, why do you say I'm not a good person?

That's an invincible life-saving card! He can also justifiably become a key student, enjoying the resources of the seminary... This way, he won't be a "bad student who took a three-month leave as soon as school started" but a "frail but devout and kind genius."

But in that case, these 38 experience points are a bit too few...

Iver's mind raced, and in an instant, he came up with a new wicked idea.

Hai Na looked at the corpse, her whole being somewhat dazed. Clearly, she wasn't as composed as she claimed to be, just because she had "killed someone" before.

Before she could react and question why Iver suddenly killed that person,

Iver preemptively accused her, asking, "Why didn't you just behead him? He couldn't have stopped it."

"...Ah?"

Hai Na's brain short-circuited for a moment before she explained softly, "Because he's much weaker than me. I saw that he had already lost the ability to resist, and I thought I could capture him alive..."

Indeed. This person's combat intuition was quite accurate.

Iver secretly agreed with Hai Na's statement in his heart.

If things had stopped there, and they had left directly with the captured "Villainous Bartender", the case could have been closed.

However, Iver couldn't really let the Bureau of Supervision interrogate him—what if he exposed me? Although the Moriarty Family has some influence, he couldn't say for sure whether he, as an adopted son, would be convicted with clear evidence.

So Iver shifted the topic from before, sternly saying, "Did you notice? When he saw you display your Path, his first reaction was to resist, even attack you.

"What does that represent? It means he had no intention of pleading guilty!"

--Nonsense, a desperate and vicious bandit with lives on his hands and a murder weapon, suddenly encountering a cop who came alone, how could he just give up? Even if he didn't fight back, he would at least try to escape.

Iver complained in his heart.

But his face didn't waver in the slightest.

He simply said, word by word, "You knew he was much weaker than you as soon as you took action, or even before you took action, so wouldn't he know that too? Since he knew, but still actively resonated with his Path and attacked you—what does that represent?"

It represents that he knew he couldn't outrun you, and in desperation, he could only risk his life.

Iver thought to himself.

"...Represent what?"

Hai Na hesitated.

She felt her brain was blank—if she saw this kind of question on a test paper, she believed she could give a perfect answer after careful consideration. But now, the fresh corpse was emitting a bloody smell, and she felt her heart was a little chaotic.

"Think," Iver suddenly changed the subject, "At the beginning, he said the dishes here were very expensive, just to dissuade us. This shows that he doesn't want to confront the Bureau of Supervision head-on..."

"Yes, I understand."

"But later, I just asked you to draw your sword, without even asking you to attack—in this situation, he took the initiative to attack you, instead of running away or quibbling. Why would he dare to do this?"

"...So, he should have an ability that costs a lot to use, so it can't be used normally... but at the same time, it's very powerful?"

Hai Na tentatively replied.

Iver nodded with satisfaction: "Exactly."

Don't mention it, there really is.

This reasoning isn't wrong either. This is also one of the reasons why the "Villainous Bartender" chose to fight desperately, because he was indeed not without a chance of winning.

The "Villainous Bartender"'s profession is "Fiend" of the Transcendence Path. When entering a heavily injured state, he can recover half of his maximum health in one go, and then enter a demonized state of rapid health deduction and enhanced all attributes.

It's just that your damage is too high, and you skipped stages with just two slashes.

Using correct information and a wrong direction of thinking to deduce an equally correct answer. No one can realize what the problem is here—even after she takes the body back, she will only get the result that "Iver's judgment is correct."

"...So that's how it is!"

Hai Na was sincerely convinced: "Thank you, Iver! You saved me!"

Iver nodded steadily: "So when facing vicious bandits, you must not hesitate. You want to keep them alive, but they don't think so."

See, she even has to thank us.

"Then what do we do now," she is now used to asking Iver questions and obeying his commands, "Do we pack up the body and take it back?"

"Not in a hurry."

Iver pulled his cloak and said calmly: "It's not his turn to be the mastermind behind this.

"The real culprit is in the basement of this bar. She has been listening here for a long time.

"No need to confront her head-on—pour the liquor in through the crack in the door, and then set the place on fire."

"...Isn't that a bit too bad? What if she comes out?"

"Then let you deal with her."

After repeatedly verifying Iver's correctness, this time the thought of arguing no longer subconsciously appeared in Hai Na's mind.

She just looked expectantly at the basement, gripped the unsheathed short sword, and was eager to try.

"...This is really surprising."

Sure enough, a woman's voice then sounded from the direction Hai Na was watching.

She slowly pushed open the basement door.

That was a bald woman wearing a bright red robe, with a strong physique and skin as pale as a corpse. She was at least 1.7 meters tall, her left arm pushing the door open was full of muscles, her chest was high, and a faint purple light shone in the depths of her pupils.

Hai Na gripped the short sword in her hand, lowered her center of gravity, and was about to charge over.

But then her pupils suddenly shrank, and she stopped in place.

On the woman's right arm, several purple runes appeared, as if grasping a ball with her five fingers in a void grip.

Ethereal spirits, like wronged souls, entwined around her fingertips, and slightly blueish pale gray mist gathered to form an irregular sphere about the size of a baby's head. Visually discernible icy energy emitted bursts of fluctuations like a heartbeat, causing almost visible deep cold gray winds to roll towards them wave after wave along the floor.

Hai Na didn't recognize this spell. But she did clearly feel the threat.

And the woman also clenched this long-prepared magic ball, without launching an attack.

This is correct.

If she threw the magic ball over, Hai Na might be able to dodge it at this distance; if she used it to attack Iver, then she would inevitably be unable to withstand Hai Na's charge.

But Hai Na didn't dare to rush over either, because she wasn't clear on what the specific effect of this spell was.

If she were to take this magic orb at close range, it might lead to a direct defeat.

So she stood slightly to Iver's side and front, but without blocking the trajectory of Iver's shot. The three fell into a brief stalemate.

"...Why do you know I'm in the basement?"

The bald woman stared at Iver expressionlessly and asked, "Where did I reveal the evidence?

"...How did you do it?"

"It's experience."

Iver replied simply, because this dungeon had more than one BOSS.

——As expected, it's deduction again!

How did he guess it?!

Hai Na, who was on the side, felt invigorated and excited about this.

Today is another 8,000-word update!

Seeking follow-up reading, monthly tickets, and rewards——