Fishing

Bai Xiaowen watched the auxiliary soldier walk to the river to fetch water, then return even more slowly with a bulging waterskin on his back. When the auxiliary soldier passed beneath the tree where Bai Xiaowen was hiding, Bai Xiaowen suddenly leaped down.

Before the auxiliary soldier could react, the sharp Fang Dagger slashed out!

The auxiliary soldier made a choking sound from his throat. Terror rapidly spread through his eyes as he fell backward.

System prompt:

"Your attack struck Imperial Auxiliary Soldier Mulan's vital point, dealing 11 damage (ignores defense)."

"The damage from the Vital Strike exceeded one-third of the target's Life Value."

"Imperial Auxiliary Soldier Mulan has died."

Bai Xiaowen let out a breath. Killing someone for the first time had not actually felt as awful as he had expected. This was the Spirit Realm; in the eyes of Awakened, they were merely NPCs in a game.

Besides, Bai Xiaowen had practiced on mutated monsters such as Plague Rats back on Earth. Whether it was seeing blood or cutting throats, neither posed much of a psychological barrier to him.

After the Imperial auxiliary soldier died, Bai Xiaowen's Equipment Specialty rose another notch. Using a dagger was also counted under the One-Handed Sword Branch's Equipment Specialty.

A slightly illusory small treasure chest appeared above the auxiliary soldier's corpse. This small chest was clearly a lower grade than the one Bai Xiaowen had gotten after killing the Elite Zombie Rat last time.

Bai Xiaowen placed his hand on the chest and silently willed it open.

This time, he received a C Tier Battle Rating (Pass), clearly because the auxiliary soldier had been rather weak. Had Bai Xiaowen not finished the fight so cleanly, his Battle Rating might have fallen to D-Tier (Poor) or even E-Tier (Terrible).

A C-Tier Battle Rating only gave him one chance to draw a Loot Card, though at least it was guaranteed to yield something rather than a blank card. A D-Tier rating had a one-in-three chance of yielding nothing, while an E-Tier rating was the worst, with a two-in-three chance of coming up empty.

From among four cards with bronze-colored backs, Bai Xiaowen casually picked one.

"You have obtained an Imperial Auxiliary Soldier Insignia."

"That's it? Nothing else?" Bai Xiaowen was somewhat taken aback. However, he quickly recovered.

"If I use this auxiliary soldier insignia to turn in the quest, it should still count as completing it. From that perspective, this loot is quite useful for newcomers. But what I want is not merely to complete the quest—I want to exceed it!"

Bai Xiaowen stored the auxiliary soldier insignia in his Temporary Storage Space and looked toward the camp.

"This place is about two kilometers from the Imperial Army Camp. In another twenty minutes, the Imperial Army Camp will discover that the water-fetching auxiliary soldier hasn't returned..." Bai Xiaowen stripped the Imperial auxiliary soldier's corpse bare, then began taking off his own clothes.

Of course, Bai Xiaowen did not have any peculiar hobbies. He dressed the auxiliary soldier's corpse in his own clothes, put on the auxiliary soldier's clothes himself, then rubbed snow across his face and neck before disturbing the surrounding snow to create the impression of a fierce battle.

Bai Xiaowen lay atop the auxiliary soldier's corpse, creating the illusion that they had killed each other, then began fishing.

Before long, faint tremors traveled through the ground.

"Two people in total." Once they drew close, Bai Xiaowen's 10 points of Spirit allowed him to clearly sense them. He could even hear that their footsteps were somewhat unsteady. They were about as strong as the dead auxiliary soldier, so they were probably the camp's other two auxiliary soldiers.

As for the Great Hammer Warrior, he was of noble status and had likely remained in the tent rather than personally coming out to search just because one auxiliary soldier had failed to return.

"Very good... the ideal situation has appeared. Execute the plan!" Bai Xiaowen remained silent.

The two auxiliary soldiers spotted the two overlapping "corpses" in the distance, seemingly having killed each other. After crying out in alarm, they rushed over together.

If there had been only one auxiliary soldier's corpse, the two would have needed to consider whether the attacker was still nearby. But now, the attacker had fallen too, meaning there was no danger in the area.

What they did not expect was that the danger came from the "corpse" on the ground.

Just as one of the auxiliary soldiers tried to roll Bai Xiaowen's body aside and bring this "comrade's" corpse back to camp, Bai Xiaowen's narrowed eyes flew open. He struck again with a vicious stab!

That auxiliary soldier crumpled to the ground.

The last auxiliary soldier cried out in shock, but Bai Xiaowen had already sprung up and lunged at him.

The two were roughly equal in strength, but Bai Xiaowen had planned this for a long time and had just killed two men, his fighting spirit blazing. The auxiliary soldier, however, had no idea how strong Bai Xiaowen was and had lost all will to fight, thinking only of escape.

With the Fang Dagger's bonus, Bai Xiaowen's Agility was as high as 6 points. He easily caught up to the last auxiliary soldier and stabbed him to death with a rapid series of dagger strikes.

At this point, all three auxiliary soldiers in the Imperial Army Camp had been wiped out.

Regrettably, these two auxiliary soldiers had not dropped treasure chests. It seemed not every slain target yielded loot.

From the first auxiliary soldier's corpse, Bai Xiaowen stripped off his own equipment: the Dirty Cloak. He caught his breath and, rather than changing back into his own clothes, stuffed the cloak into his Storage Space.

After thinking for a moment, he took out the item "Putrid Blood," which he had obtained from the Zombie Rat Black Fang, and smeared it over the Fang Dagger.

Bai Xiaowen looked up at the sky. Already dim, it seemed even more overcast as snowflakes drifted down.

"The visibility is just right."

Bai Xiaowen muttered, then, still dressed in the auxiliary soldier's linen outfit, staggered toward the camp as though some terrifying enemy were chasing him from behind.

Bai Xiaowen acted convincingly. He began his performance before he had even reached the camp. As it turned out, his caution was justified. With three auxiliary soldiers missing at once, the Imperial Army Great Hammer Warrior Bjorn, who found it unusual, had already left the camp personally.

"Help!"

Bai Xiaowen shouted hoarsely as he limped toward the Great Hammer Warrior.

Great Hammer Warrior Bjorn stared at him in uncertainty and shouted, "Why are you the only one left?"

"Dead, they're all dead!" Afraid his voice would be recognized, Bai Xiaowen kept his voice hoarse, forcing out words in broken fragments. "Rebels... rebels!"

When he reached Bjorn, Bai Xiaowen slipped and fell toward the Great Hammer Warrior.

Bjorn's attention was not on Bai Xiaowen, but fixed firmly on the end of the path. Seeing Bai Xiaowen fall, he instinctively reached out to steady him and said, "I'll hold them off. Go inform the other camps about the rebel attack first..."

However, in the next instant, a poisoned dagger plunged directly into Bjorn's vital point!