A Brave Thief

Xiao Yu still needed to practice his backstabbing and evisceration skills, and these poor sand salamanders became his practice partners. After learning the core of these skills, it was not a difficult thing for Xiao Yu to kill the sand salamanders; in fact, it became an easy task for him.

System: the success rate of backstabbing is 71%, causing 78% skill damage and gaining 1 point for the combo attack.

System: the success rate for evisceration is 85%, causing 85% skill damage.

Xiao Yu kept on practicing these two skills, trying to get the gist of how to use them. As time went on, he gradually improved as he studied these skills.

Like the reversed backstabbing skill, backstabbing relied on the rotating force. The greater the rotating force, the higher the damage points. In practice, Xiao Yu discovered that the damage of the backstabbing skill could reach maximum levels if the attack was done at a 60-degree sideways rotation. The maximum amount of damage would be caused at this angle of rotation. The high efficiency of the backstabbing skill would be achieved as long as the degree of rotation was controlled properly and the force was changed slightly.

As for the evisceration skill, it all depended on the feeling as you did it. This was just like how butchers wouldn't try to slice through the hardest bones when they chopped meat with a butcher knife. The moment one pierced the weakest part of the enemy by using the evisceration skill, they would have to keep their wrists flexible and evade the hard bones to cut into the flesh of the enemy to complete the attack.

This was a virtual reality game and so naturally different from other common games. As such, it would generate a sensation of reality, which was why it had attracted so many players.

Xiao Yu was immersed in the blissful feeling of fighting against the monsters.

He had been causing the sand salamanders to respawn, and he killed more than 100 of them within three hours. He leveled up once more.

More than 100 sand beetles had contributed more than 60 silver coins to Xiao Yu, plus seven or eight items of white-level equipment. Xiao Yu put on a full set of white-level leather armor that had dropped from the sand salamanders. As a result, his defense had improved tremendously, and it was much easier to kill the sand salamanders now.

The burst rate is 0.01%.

It was truly difficult to collect a formula for an instant health potion. All Xiao Yu could do was diligently wait for the sand salamanders to respawn and then kill them.

He was increasingly more proficient now with the backstabbing and evisceration skills. As such, his success rate of killing monsters was much higher now.

"There are few monsters in the area," Xiao Yu told himself as he was searching for the sand salamanders. When he was about to go to another area to find more of them, he suddenly discovered a sand salamander, one larger than the regular ones, wandering in the desert.

Was it a boss monster? Or was it a general monster leader?

Seeing the sand salamander, Xiao Yu couldn't help but feel hesitant. If it was a leader or a boss-level monster, would he be a match for it?

But Xiao Yu didn't feel comfortable just walking away. Encountering a leader or a boss monster was rare. The monster leader was one out of several thousand or even 10,000 monsters, and the boss monster was one out of 50,000. Xiao Yu only met one after he had wandered around for more than three hours.

The gains would be outstanding if he could kill a leader or boss. There was a 100% chance of him procuring some higher-level items.

It would be a pity to walk away from such an opportunity. Xiao Yu surveyed the surrounding area and found that this monster leader had no other sand salamanders with it. What he encountered was a solitary sand salamander.

"Should I take the challenge or not?" Xiao Yu was hesitant, thinking of the three skills he had. The dagger landed squarely in his palm after flipping it up into the air.

"I should risk it and try to win all the glory in a dire situation," he told himself. The worst that could happen to him was being downgraded a level if he died. It was unclear what power the monster leader had.

"Maybe, I can handle it," Xiao Yu thought.

"The brave thief has a heart as big as the sky." This saying was applicable to Xiao Yu at the moment.

Xiao Yu approached the large sand salamander slowly and carefully.

This sand salamander was double the size of a regular one. It kept wandering around, which gave Xiao Yu trouble in using his sneak attack and stealth travel skills.

His stealth travel skill was at level 2 now, meaning he wouldn't be discovered. If he couldn't successfully pull off stealth travel and sneak attacks, he would be defeated without a doubt.

He stayed in the concealed state while approaching the large sand salamander by using stealth travel. Xiao Yu could feel the cold sweat in his hands as he drew nearer to it. The ever-moving body of the large sand salamander made him feel uneasy.

The sand salamander stopped short.

"Now's my chance." Xiao Yu hastened to approach behind the salamander.

Five meters… three meters… one meter…

If the sand salamander had turned his head around at that moment, he would have been in big trouble. His right hand trembled uncontrollably as he held the dagger.

He drew nearer to the sand salamander. Xiao Yu could clearly see the sharp spikes on the skin of the sand salamander. He forced himself to calm down, holding the dagger in his right hand firmly as he sought out an opportunity to strike.

The large sand salamander seemed to have sensed something and was about to turn its head around.

"I won't have another chance if I don't strike now!" The pupils in Xiao Yu's eyes shrank abruptly as he suddenly leaped up. He struck down with the dagger in his right hand as fast as a fleeing bird.

Hiss!!!

The dagger was driven into the back of the large sand salamander's head, and it fell into an unconscious state. The moment the dagger was successfully pierced into the head of the salamander, Xiao Yu felt relieved; his sneak attack was successful.

Sand salamander leader: level-5 leader

Xiao Yu was surprised to find that this sand salamander leader had a health of nearly 1,000 points. Xiao Yu thought that this was way too high, and he felt a bit uneasy since it would be hard for him to kill this sand salamander leader.

Fortunately, it was a leader rather than a boss monster. Otherwise, he would've had to high tail it out of there. No matter how difficult killing it was going to be, Xiao Yu had no other choice at the moment.

Evisceration!

He shoved the dagger seven inches below its head and then sliced downwards. As he encountered hard resistance, he moved the dagger sideways to avoid the difficult spot. As a result, he had cut a long gash on the body of the large sand salamander, the blood of the creature gushing out like water from a spring

System: The success rate is 87%, causing 25 damage.

That was not a bad outcome.

Because of his nervousness, Xiao Yu fully concentrated on the task and accomplished the skill satisfactorily.

Guessing it was time for the sand salamander to wake up, Xiao Yu slashed the body of the sand salamander a few more times, causing some more damage to the monster leader.

The sand salamander leader moved its head a little, meaning it would wake up faster than Xiao Yu had expected. His skill control had decreased when he attacked the monster leader; as a result, the sand salamander leader remained unconscious only for a brief moment.