Mithril Heart Armor

Shadow Cloak (2nd Ring Feat): When you are in dim light or darkness, you can use this feat to enter a state of invisibility; the invisible state will last until you launch an attack, cast a spell, or enter bright light.

Note: When you activate Shadow Cloak, there will be a 0.3-second lag state. If the lag state is interrupted, activation will fail.

Roger carefully examined the description of Shadow Cloak.

The feat was extremely powerful.

Especially in a dim environment like the Underground City, it could practically be used as a weaker version of Stealth Spell or Evasion Technique.

It might have looked as though Ke Yi's Shadow Cloak had just been broken easily by Roger.

That was because the distance between them had been far too close, while Roger had also been plotting this for a long time.

If she had pulled away just a little farther, the outcome might have been different.

Obtaining Shadow Cloak gave Roger, who had been forced to level up twice in a row, a small measure of comfort.

At least, those two levels' worth of experience had not gone to waste.

He carefully put away Red Moon.

Then he happily began searching the drow girl's corpse.

Actually, from the first moment he saw Ke Yi, Roger had already grown suspicious.

Their subsequent interactions only made him more wary.

Just as he had said while stalling for time, everything had happened far too conveniently.

Roger knew this very well.

When a series of coincidences occurred together, there was a good chance that someone had arranged them.

In fact, in his eyes, Ke Yi's biggest flaw was that she had done no "thinking"! How could a drow who had spent years traveling alone through the Underground City—

lower her guard so quickly and even take the initiative to invite a stranger to become her partner?

After learning that she had been cursed and could sense the caster's location, how could she rush over to kill someone without a second thought? Had she not considered that while she could sense the caster, the caster might also be able to sense her location?

Had she not suspected that the Bloodline Curse's sensing mechanism might itself be a trap?

She had not even considered how she would escape after killing them!

Even if they successfully killed the Great Prophet on the Gray Dwarves' territory, what then? Would they simply flee separately and rely on their own abilities?...

Ke Yi had never mentioned any of these most basic considerations.

Roger had even hinted at them during their conversation.

Yet she still did not mention a single word of them.

If she truly had not thought of these things.

Then she could not possibly have survived until now! Therefore, only one possibility remained—

This girl was a mole! Using "thinking" to identify moles.

It had been Roger's usual method when playing Werewolf in his previous life.

Compared to ordinary villagers, moles often needed to spend more effort disguising themselves.

They used all their energy on acting and deception, so the thought they could spare for anything else naturally became painfully limited.

After confirming that Ke Yi was a mole.

Roger chose to play along with her scheme.

This would not only numb the enemy's vigilance, but also let the mole lead him, saving him a great deal of trouble.

Sure enough, along the way, aside from one or two sentry posts, they had not encountered any other Gray Dwarves at all.

This was the bait Ke Yi had thrown out.

Roger was happy to accept it.

All he needed to do was deal with Ke Yi before the enemy formed a trap and caught them all inside.

And in this regard, Qi Divination Technique had an overwhelming advantage.

Even in the Underground City, he could judge the number of monsters by the concentration of blood aura ahead.

When passing through this cavern, Roger noticed that the blood aura ahead had increased more than tenfold.

He knew the time was about right and chose to strike early.

Actually, before testing the result, all of this had merely been Roger's speculation.

Roger had also considered how he would handle the situation if Ke Yi truly had a simple mind while being intimately familiar with the terrain.

Unfortunately...

The sudden interrogation threw the already tense Ke Yi into disarray, completely exposing her identity as a mole.

At that point, Roger had nothing more to say.

He simply served her the Qing Fu Sword.

Ke Yi was sufficiently alert, too, managing to evade Roger's first three strikes through sheer instinct and reflexes.

Her strength was considerable.

Although she might not have been able to defeat Roger, it truly would not have been easy for him to take her down quickly.

Because of this, Roger could only stall for time and let the battle enter cooldown.

This was to accumulate the effect of Ten Years One Sword.

Then he decisively leveled up twice in a row, catching Ke Yi completely off guard.

Only then did he cut the LV15 Drow Warrior in half.

In conclusion.

Roger's instant kill of Ke Yi might have appeared effortless, but it had been anything but.

Every step had been the result of meticulous calculation.

The slightest mistake could have changed the outcome.

The drow girl did not carry many items, but every one of them was a fine piece of equipment.

First were those two sharp scimitars.

Although they were merely plain equipment, their material was excellent, most likely mixed with some rare metal.

Roger's scimitar proficiency was very low.

His purpose in taking these scimitars was to prepare materials for a Hidden Hero weapon later on.

Next was a butterfly knife with "Sharpness 8."

Roger found the thing on the inner side of Ke Yi's thigh—

The drow girl had weapons hidden all over her body. Removing this butterfly knife took Roger a great deal of effort, as he was terrified of triggering some deeper concealed weapon.

The butterfly knife's material was of the same origin as the scimitars.

It was plain equipment as well, but its advantage lay in its flexibility and concealability. It could be hidden in all sorts of strange places.

Roger toyed with it for a while, utterly reluctant to put it down.

Then he hid it in—

his sleeve.

The third item was defensive equipment: Mithril Heart Armor.

"Mithril Heart Armor (Damaged)"

"Rating: S+"

"Defense 9 Sturdiness 7 Material 6 Durability 1"

"Special Trait: Weakness Nullification (Unavailable)"

"Weakness Nullification: When the Mithril Heart Armor receives a powerful attack, it automatically releases this special trait. During the duration of the special trait, the wearer will ignore attacks against vital points."

This piece of Mithril Heart Armor had originally been an exceptional piece of defensive equipment.

Unfortunately, it was only a small damaged fragment, barely enough to protect the chest.

One point of durability meant that it would automatically break after receiving a single attack, while the unavailable special trait also reminded Roger that this armor had already endured too much damage over the years.

Roger found it rather regrettable.

But on closer thought, if this thing had been intact, he might not have been able to kill Ke Yi.

He casually hung the Mithril Heart Armor over his chest.

He did not know whether it was merely his imagination.

He seemed to catch a faint, unusual fragrance as well.

The final item was a mysterious badge.

Compared to the craftsmanship of this era, the patterns on the badge looked extraordinarily intricate and advanced.

It depicted an erupting volcano.

Beneath the volcano were countless human figures crawling and kneeling in worship.

Aside from identifying the name "Badge of Icadore's Believer," Qi Divination Technique had detected nothing but a series of question marks in all the other fields.

It looked like proof of identity granted to a believer by some deity.

Roger thought it over, then ultimately put it away.

In fact, besides the items listed above, the drow girl also had some concealed weapons on her that greatly interested Roger.

But he had no time to examine them further.

Qi Divination Technique detected a large number of monsters surging toward this direction. The Gray Dwarf Great Prophet might have noticed something was wrong.

He waited in place for a brief moment.

Only after the first group of Gray Dwarves spotted him

did Roger plunge headfirst into the deep and complicated cavern.