A Legendary Thief

Having realized his weakness, Xiao Yu began to search for sand beetles to practice his reversed backstabbing skill. Eventually, the sand beetles in the area were wiped out by Xiao Yu, as he had gradually gotten a hang of the reversed backstabbing skill and kept enhancing the skill he had just learned.

Ding!

An upgrading notification rang out from the system.

Xiao Yu had been focusing on practicing and didn't pay attention to his experience bar. Upon hearing the sound, he was slightly taken aback, though the initial shock immediately turned to excitement.

He had upgraded to level 3. Feeling excited, Xiao Yu took a look at the Level Rankings List for the Evil Federation, where the highest-ranking players were at level 5. He wasn't that far behind. Though he had focused primarily on practicing his skills, the pace at which he was leveling up was impressive.

His performance itself was not so great, of course, but it was fairly remarkable nonetheless. This was the first time Xiao Yu had ever played this game.

He added all five points to agility. Then, he moved about and felt that his speed had also improved.

As Xiao Yu was adding the points, he heard a hissing sound close to his ears that startled him.

It had to be a salamander!

The sand salamanders were level-5 monsters, two levels higher than his current level. Their attacks were very strong, and a threat of poison also came with it, which would significantly slow down a player once hit and make it harder to escape. All of this meant that they were a difficult type of monster to deal with.

The sand salamander charged at Xiao Yu. He dodged its attack and took a good look at it. It was as tall as a human and had a robust body. Its huge oval head was swaying back and forth, and its green and gloomy eyes stared at him intensely.

He wasn't prepared for the fight because it happened so suddenly. However, he still dodged the salamander's attack by reacting in time.

The sand salamander dashed toward Xiao Yu again.

Reversed backstabbing!

No sooner had the huge head of the sand salamander charged toward him did Xiao Yu evade its attack and use the reversed backstabbing skill to strike it. He didn't have time to think about the situation; all he did was use reversed backstabbing as he had remembered it. It was a sort of instinctive reaction. Xiao Yu realized that one could often perform remarkable feats of power at crucial moments. He also realized that he had used the reversed backstabbing skill more smoothly and effectively this time, especially the last strike after the rotation. He felt that he had focused the full power of his body to the tip of his dagger right at that moment.

The tip of his dagger was full of explosive force.

The power in his right hand was fully released when the skill was performed perfectly.

Crack!!!

The hard skin on the back of the sand salamander was pierced through as the dagger in his hand easily entered the salamander's body.

System: the success rate of reversed backstabbing is 100%, causing 300% skill damage; armor-breaking achieved.

One hundred and thirty-seven damage points appeared above the head of the salamander, which was five times more than the damage he had earned attacking the sand beetles. He hadn't expected the reversed backstabbing skill to be able to break through armor. Armor-breaking was able to negate the protection of the armor and its level effect!

And 137 points made it quite a powerful skill!

Seeing the damage points, Xiao Yu couldn't help but feel surprised. He was completely lost in thought as he wondered if the damage was indeed caused by his attacks.

His strike reduced the sand salamander's health by 62%, even though the level-5 monster was two levels stronger than him.

The difference in level could lead to a level effect. When players of a lower level attempted to attack players or monsters of a higher level, the damage they caused would be significantly reduced, and they would be resisted by the higher-level players. The lower-level players could bypass the level effect only if the higher-level players were weakened.

The armor-breaking effect could negate that very level effect!

"What a powerful skill!" Xiao Yu exclaimed.

He had successfully gone behind the salamander and then slashed the salamander with his dagger by using the reversed backstabbing skill. However, slashing couldn't cause skill damage except for single-digit damage. It was almost negligible in comparison to the 300% damage value earned by breaking the armor with the reversed backstabbing skill.

Fortunately, this sand salamander only had 200 points of health and had little health left after Xiao Yu struck it with the reversed backstabbing skill.

Xiao Yu took a look at the skill panel and found that the cool-down time for reversed backstabbing was 30 seconds. It took a bit too long for the skill to cool down, and there was no way he could wait for the reversed backstabbing skill to cool down before he struck again.

He had no choice but to fight with the sand salamander in close-ranged combat. He could only cause less than 10 points of damage to the salamander each time he slashed it with his dagger. But he thought of a way to deal with that: As long as he could reduce the chance of being attacked by the sand salamander, then he would be able to find a way to sneak behind the sand salamander.

Xiao Yu knew that this was not a method he came up with; it was a basic position strategy for thieves. It was said that the best thieves and robbers always stood behind their opponents.

Xiao Yu was jumping around in an attempt to hide behind the sand salamander as he slashed the monster with his dagger. He jumped around to avoid being attacked, but it was evident that he was not very familiar with this fighting tactic.

The sand salamander could move just as swiftly and with as much agility as he did.

Xiao Yu felt a sharp pain in his right shoulder; he was struck by the sand salamander, and his body turned a greenish color, a sign that he had been poisoned. The venom of the sand salamander was not fatal, but rather a sort of poison that could reduce the players' speed.

Xiao Yu couldn't jump anymore, and his speed slowed down. The most he could do at the moment was slash. He waved the dagger in his hand as he retreated, blocking the attacks of the sand salamander.

Seeing that he had only 19% health left, Xiao Yu leaped to the side and dodged a strike from the salamander. The dagger rotated in Xiao Yu's palm and pierced the head of the sand salamander as he struck downwards, causing nine points of damage. The sand salamander finally collapsed to the ground.

Though he caused merely 10 points of damage each time, Xiao Yu still managed to injure the sand salamander little by little.

Having killed the sand salamander, Xiao Yu sat down on the ground, panting heavily. That was really dangerous just now. His nerves had been stretched as tautly as tight zither strings that could snap at any moment. Xiao Yu felt like he would pass out after he killed the sand salamander. If he were finished off by the sand salamander, his hard-earned level would have been downgraded to level 2.

This sand salamander was truly powerful. If he were bitten by it, Xiao Yu believed that he would have been finished. Fortunately, he had successfully dodged the creature's last strike. This incident reminded him that he could evade physical attacks through physical movement, like what he did with the reversed backstabbing skill. This was the benefit of adopting the freestyle mode of games. However, it was impossible to completely avoid damage in combat since he was in a game rather than a "martial-hero" type of movie. He lacked a powerful dodging skill like "rippling micro-step," which was seen in those types of movies.