A Legendary Thief

The sandworm's venom was lethal, able to damage an infected player each second.

Stealth travel has failed!

This was merely a level-1 monster. Would he end up dead before he could even reach his goal? Xiao Yu was enraged and charged forward with his dagger raised. He plunged himself into battle against the sandworm, finally killing the monster after a violent scramble, but he only had 27 health points left.

Xiao Yu wiped the venom from his face with the back of his hand and smiled wryly as he looked at the sandworm that had been slashed by his dagger. This was his first time killing a monster, and it was an embarrassing experience for him. Xiao Yu felt a bit disappointed since he hadn't used any of the skills he had learned during the fight.

Close-range combat employed a freestyle way of movement, and the use of each skill had certain requirements. One had to study these skills thoroughly before using them.

Xiao Yu picked up the items dropped by the sandworm: 11 bronze coins. One hundred bronze coins equaled one silver coin, while 100 silver coins equaled one gold coin. Though it wasn't much, it was his first victory in the game.

The poison effect hadn't disappeared yet, and -3 poison points kept popping up over his head. Xiao Yu sat down helplessly, waiting for the poison effect to disappear and for his health to recover.

It was undoubtedly a failure for his first encounter with monsters. As a thief, it was easy for him to kill a monster of the same level. All he needed to do was get behind the monster via stealth travel, knock it unconscious by way of a sneak attack, and then use all sorts of attacking skills to finish the sandworm off in a matter of seconds.

However, his first attempt at stealth travel was a failure.

After his health recovered, Xiao Yu stood up and continued looking for the next monster. Soon enough, he found another sandworm. He tried using stealth travel again, approaching the sandworm slowly and carefully.

Xiao Yu had learned his lesson. He moved forward more slowly and carefully than before. He had to get used to this pace. Chaotic or frantic steps during stealth travel would make it easy for his enemies to spot him. Knowing the reason for his failure last time, Xiao Yu was more careful this time and tried his hardest not to make the same mistake.

It was probably because his stealth travel skill was not good enough, and so he was discovered by the sandworm before he could get near it and use a sneak attack. Seeing the sandworm turn around and about to attack him, Xiao Yu dashed forward and engaged the monster in close-range combat. In the end, he killed the sandworm in a very messy way.

He had no choice but to take a break after he killed each sandworm. He was not very adept at slaying enemies, which ultimately put him behind those regular players in the ranking.

But he was not convinced that he couldn't learn something as simple as stealth travel, his stubbornness once again rearing its head.

Stealth travel was a very important skill for thieves. If a thief couldn't learn it, then they would have no hope of becoming a qualified thief. A skillful thief had to master the rhythm of the footwork during stealth travel until it became second nature. Otherwise, they would be easily discovered, which meant that stealth travel would lose its advantage, whether it be during PK or when killing monsters.

This is why Xiao Yu had no choice but to seek out sandworms to practice his stealth travel skill and get accustomed to the movements.

Most of the beginning players who chose the profession of a thief had a hard time perfecting the footwork. They would usually opt to upgrade it first. After all, thieves could still kill level-1 monsters without using stealth travel and sneak attack skills. As time went by and their levels improved, they'd gradually get used to the footwork and master it in time. There was no need to spend so much effort perfecting the stealth travel skill from the very beginning.

However, Xiao Yu was pig-headed. Since he was aware of the importance of stealth travel, he was determined to master the skill in an attempt to pass others in the Level Rankings List.

Xiao Yu spent the whole morning practicing stealth travel. Taking a look at the Level Rankings List, he found that the highest rank in the Evil Federation had already reached level 3. That person might probably reach level 4 pretty soon. His experience bar was only at 96%. If he couldn't beat the other players in the ranking, how could he become a professional player and make money playing games?

Still, Xiao Yu was very patient in practicing stealth travel. He had gotten the hang of the footwork after a while; he was really good at changing the rhythm when going from his normal state to stealth travel.

Xiao Yu had impressive muscle memory, and so, his body could remember the stealth travel skill. He spent one hour practicing the skill over and over again to get used to the rhythm of steps during stealth travel and the changing rhythm of steps after stealth travel.

This was a delicate movement. Xiao Yu was aware that he would be able to master this stealth travel skill after a little while.

He found yet another sandworm in the endless desert. He approached the sandworm slowly, used the stealth travel skill from a distance of about ten meters, and then went around behind it.

Sneak attack!

The cold glow of the dagger darted toward the back of the sandworm's head, successfully piercing into its soft flesh.

"I've done it!" The sneak attack and staggering punch skills were not very difficult, so long as the enemy's weak point was found and then struck. But this was the first time Xiao Yu accomplished the combination of stealth travel and sneak attack, and he felt a sense of triumph.

The sandworm lay unconscious.

A level-1 sneak attack could only render a sandstorm unconscious for a few seconds. Xiao Yu took out his dagger and assaulted the sandworm a few more times right then and there. The sandworm had merely 30% health left. As it turned around, Xiao Yu engaged it in close-range combat, ultimately killing it. He looked at his own health and found he had 78% left.

It was a relatively successful fight and not as awkward as before. All he needed to do was rest briefly before the next fight

Ding!

The system had finally given an upgrading notification. After taking a look at his stats, Xiao Yu added points to his agility without hesitation.

Agility was the most important stat for thieves. Adding agility could help strengthen the defense ability, the rate of fatal strikes, the attack power and the rate of evasion for thieves. High agility was immensely advantageous to a thief.

Xiao Yu wanted to become a purely agile thief, which was also the bonus chosen by most thieves.

Xiao Yu picked up the bronze coins on the ground. He hadn't lost that much health when killing this sandworm, and the time he needed to rest was significantly shorter. That meant that he was becoming more proficient as he practiced, and it was much safer to kill those monsters now. As he mastered the rhythm of the stealth travel skill, he had no need to flee when he encountered two sandworms at the same time. He went behind the two of them using stealth travel, knocked one of the sandworms unconscious by using a staggering punch, then took the other out via sneak attack. A staggering punch could render the sandworm unconscious for seven seconds, so he could kill them one by one.

The difference between a staggering punch and a sneak attack was that the target struck by the punch would stay unconscious longer, but they would wake up after the strike; on the other hand, the target struck by a sneak attack would wake up sooner, but they wouldn't be able to get their strength back as fast.

Outside of stealth travel, staggering punch, and sneak attack, Xiao Yu didn't know that much about the other skills, and he would have to figure out how to use them gradually. As for stealth travel, Xiao Yu was already quite familiar with it. Though he had some mishaps with the skill, he would be able to successfully master it so long as he was careful.