A Legendary Thief

The backstabbing skill still had room for improvement, and Xiao Yu began to mull over the evisceration skill. If he could comprehend both skills, he would be able to practice both at the same time, saving considerable time.

Both the reversed backstabbing and evisceration skills were lethal attacks, but on the other hand, the backstabbing skill was a combo attack. What was the difference between lethal and combo attacks then?

Xiao Yu was thinking hard about this. The description of evisceration was quite limited. Nobody could teach him the skill, and all he could do was figure it out by himself a little at a time.

According to the summary of evisceration, Xiao Yu realized that the principle of the skill was to pierce a dagger into the cracks between bones and separate the flesh from said bone. That would reduce the mobility of the monsters and opponents.

After some consideration, Xiao Yu decided that he had no choice but to try it, since, as the saying went: "Practice is the sole method by which a theory can be proven."

He had spotted another sand salamander. Xiao Yu approached it carefully using stealth travel, then used a sneak attack to knock it unconscious. He then rotated to the side and relied on that rotating force to thrust his dagger into the body of the sand salamander using the reversed backstabbing skill. This caused 69% damage, and he also gained one combo attack point. After completing the backstabbing skill, Xiao Yu swept his gaze over the body of the sand salamander and then fixed his gaze on its neck.

He remembered the old saying: "Hit the snake seven inches below its head." After the dagger flipped into the air above his palm, Xiao Yu jabbed it seven inches below the sand salamander's head with all his strength.

Hiss!!!

He had struck the spot precisely, with the dagger being thrust into the body of the sand salamander. Xiao Yu sliced the dagger downwards but failed to cut it open further because the dagger was thwarted by the bones of the sand salamander.

System: the success rate of evisceration is 60%, causing 60% skill damage.

The basic damage points of the evisceration skill were 20 points and 12 points for a 60% damage value. The total value was the basic damage value dealt by Xiao Yu minus the 10 damage points caused by the armor defense of the sand salamander. Normally, the evisceration skill he used would have caused a damage value of 22 points. However, to his surprise, the evisceration strike caused a damage value of 33 points, and the burst attack didn't happen because this evisceration skill was applied. He was both glad and surprised.

He didn't have time to mull it over because he was still in the middle of combat. As the sand salamander turned around to attack him, Xiao Yu used the reversed backstabbing skill to strike, killing the sand salamander.

His current health was 100%. None of his health was lost! This was a perfect fight for him. Xiao Yu was quite satisfied, as the result of the fight was much better than he had expected.

He picked up 11 bronze coins that were dropped on the ground as well as an item for thieves.

Snakeskin armor: defense 12-17, leather armor.

It was white-level leather armor, and it was better than the armor he currently wore on his body. Xiao Yu put it on to replace it.

After looking at the notification system, Xiao Yu revealed a content smile; he could finally perform evisceration. One needed to find the weakness in the protective armor of the monsters in order to complete this skill. One also had to have enough experience in actual combat. Xiao Yu felt pretty good about the completion of the evisceration skill the first time. However, he couldn't understand why the attack with evisceration had a higher damage value than the damage using the skill alone. This was a bit illogical.

And, what was the true meaning of the terms of combo and lethal attacks? Maybe…

"It is because of the combo attack points?" The idea briefly struck a chord in Xiao Yu's mind, and he was anxious to find a sand salamander to confirm this.

The poor sand salamanders became his test subjects. Xiao Yu had eventually confirmed his idea after killing a few sand salamanders and studying them closely.

When Xiao Yu attacked the sand salamanders with the evisceration skill alone, the damage value of the evisceration attack was stable, with around a 60% success rate and 22 damage points minus the burst attacks. If he used the backstabbing skill first and then the evisceration skill, he could deal 33 damage points against the sand salamander when the success rate was 60%.

This was the difference! To put it more precisely, the lethal attack should be used after the combo attack. For instance, the backstabbing skill was a combo attack, and one combo attack point was earned after completing the backstabbing skill. If the evisceration skill was used after the backstabbing skill, then the damage of evisceration would increase a great deal. The more the combo attack points, the higher the damage value of the lethal attack.

He believed that he would find such common knowledge on the forums in a few days, but it would be hard for him to find this information right away if he went online now. Most of the players would want to hide the things they had figured out from their many experiences. They wouldn't want to share them so casually since they would want to level up faster than the other players. This was also because a vast majority of players didn't have the slightest clue about the full features of their skills.

He had accidentally figured out these skill features based on his own experiences, indicating that he was already ahead of those other players. Xiao Yu could make use of the discovered features to further his advantage.

Among the thief players, a very low percentage of them could figure out the basic skills as quickly as Xiao Yu had. In fact, Xiao Yu had done so by accident.

A thief with the aid of these skills could level up as fast as the powerful mages, maybe even faster. A thief with the mastery of all skills could inflict more damage than a mage while not having to use up so many magic points. This was the advantage of taking on a shabby profession.