“You’re weaker than me?”
The words, laced with slight surprise, reached the ears of the thief man, igniting his fury while also stirring some bewilderment.
This black-haired kid was suspicious!
Clearly a magic caster, yet his agility was in no way inferior to his own.
His attack was easily blocked?
An expression of disbelief flashed across the thief’s eyes.
Tang Zheng stomped forcefully on the ground and charged quickly toward the thief man. Now was not the time for idle talk.
“Seeking death!” The thief man roared angrily when he saw Tang Zheng initiating the attack. He raised his left hand to his waist, and a short dagger appeared in it, which he hurled fiercely toward Tang Zheng.
A sharp sound of the dagger cutting through the air rang out.
Tang Zheng’s eyes scanned swiftly, effortlessly catching the dagger’s trajectory. He swung his short sword and struck the incoming dagger away.
However, this caused his forward momentum to slow.
The thief man hissed under his breath. In the already dark night, his body quickly became blurry, as if blending into the shadows.
Tang Zheng immediately became alert, but the next moment, his face showed shock.
He saw the thief not attacking but instead turning around and running away.
He couldn’t let him escape!
This thought flashed through Tang Zheng’s mind instantly as he raised his hand forward: “Magic Arrow!”
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
Three magic arrows formed midair and shot swiftly toward the thief man.
The hurried footsteps behind forced the escaping thief to stop and roll to the side to dodge.
Taking advantage of this opening, Tang Zheng quickly closed the distance.
“Four Light Combo Slash!”
Tang Zheng’s short sword instantly transformed into four afterimages that stabbed toward the thief man.
Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!
Four bursts of blood blossomed before the thief’s chest, eliciting a piercing scream of agony.
Due to the “Silence” magic effect, the man’s scream could not spread out.
The thief’s eyes were bloodshot as he lay bleeding on the ground. “Impossible, Gejiefu’s...”
Before he could finish speaking!
The thief man completely lost his breath and died.
‘Gained 380 experience’
Tang Zheng panted, staring at the corpse on the ground, finally exhaling a breath of relief.
Seeing the bloodstains on his clothes and the blood dripping down the edge of his short sword, Tang Zheng fell silent for a moment.
He had just killed two people at once.
This was something Tang Zheng had never imagined before. He did expect to kill someday, but never thought it would come so soon.
Instead, it felt natural and automatic.
“What a terrible, hateful world,” Tang Zheng muttered softly in disgust.
Tang Zheng quickly scanned the street surroundings and found no other figures throughout the entire process.
These two guys had indeed chosen a good spot!
Tang Zheng wiped the blood off his cheek, then quickly walked over to the two corpses and reached out to place them into his item box.
He even collected the bloodstained floor tiles.
This item box, similar to a spatial backpack, had no restrictions except that it couldn’t store living beings.
After cleaning up the scene, Tang Zheng left quickly and headed back toward the small inn.
Passing through an alley, Tang Zheng went in and put away his bloodstained clothes, changing into a clean set.
Luckily, he had bought quite a few ordinary clothes beforehand, so he wasn’t without options.
Inside the small inn.
“Eh, the guest is back.” The innkeeper, a somewhat plump middle-aged woman named Marixi, with freckles on her face, said.
Tang Zheng smiled gently and nodded to Marixi, then went up the stairs to his guest room on the second floor.
“Ha~” Marixi yawned while watching Tang Zheng’s back ascend, “Such a polite young man.”
As the door closed, fatigue showed on Tang Zheng’s face.
With a total of 13 mana points, he had cast “Magic Arrow” twice in a row and was now unable to cast any more spells. If that thief had escaped, he would have faced serious trouble ahead.
Luckily, he resolved it with “Four Light Combo Slash.”
Tang Zheng had never had the chance to use this technique before. After this battle, he finally understood what the consumed “concentration” meant.
To be precise, it was a consumption of “energy,” similar to running a 200-meter sprint in his previous life. Not extremely exhausting, but fatigue was definitely noticeable.
Through this unexpected battle, Tang Zheng had a clearer understanding of his own strength.
That black-robed magic caster could use second-tier magic “Shield Wall,” clearly level seven or above, but not very high.
The thief man fighting alongside was probably at a similar level.
Normally, Tang Zheng was only level five. Facing two enemies attacking simultaneously, even by surprise, he should have been completely overwhelmed.
The black-robed magician didn’t fully leverage his advantage, fine, but the thief was weaker than Tang Zheng in both speed and strength.
There was only one explanation!
Tang Zheng’s base stats must be higher than those of the thief man!
“Since the ‘Genius’ attribute doesn’t increase base stats, I put all my experience into the intermediate class ‘Sword Saint.’”
“People in other worlds don’t have this convenient player ability, so most can only raise base professions. Whether they even have intermediate professions is unknown.”
Tang Zheng thought of his own attribute values, recalling his physical attack at 53 points and agility at 53 points, beginning to realize:
“In this situation, my base stats should be higher than the normal level for a level 7 human in another world.”
A dark brown magic wand, a translucent white necklace, a short staff, and a dagger faintly shimmering with purple light appeared on the bed.
Besides these four, the two men hadn’t even carried a single copper coin, let alone any identification.
Was this an “Eight Fingers” regulation or just their usual habit when capturing prey?
If the former, then “Eight Fingers” was far more terrifying than portrayed in the anime!
“Too bad I haven’t mastered the ‘Item Identification’ magic. Otherwise, I could learn the exact effects of these four magic items.”
Tang Zheng glanced at the magic items on the bed and sighed quietly to himself.
The only certainty was the short staff with the “Silence” effect. He could feel fluctuations of magic power and assumed it still had uses left.
There were quite a few magic casters who mastered the “Item Identification” spell, but if he took these magic items after killing members of the “Eight Fingers” and identified them, it could easily attract their attention.
These people held grudges fiercely.
Tang Zheng had no time to play with them.
“Maybe I’ll have to visit the Magic Guild tomorrow,” the thought flashed through Tang Zheng’s mind.
With a wave of his hand, he put away the four magic items on the bed, then took out the remaining three magic scrolls.
“Papermaking,” “Warming,” “No Scent”!
He tore up these three magic scrolls one by one and consumed skill points to learn them.
Fortunately, these three magic scrolls were auxiliary magic, so they wouldn’t cause a big commotion like “Magic Arrow.”
“No Scent” could erase one’s own scent, which would help avoid a lot of trouble when heading into the forest later.
“Papermaking” needed no further explanation.
“Warming” was a temporary purchase by Tang Zheng to test his theory, and it wouldn’t matter if his guess was wrong.
After all, this magic was quite convenient, allowing adventurers to heat food and water without lighting a fire and revealing their position.
All in all, an essential survival skill for the wild!