Chapter 28: Higher Base Stats, Harvesting Four Magic Items

You are weaker than me?

The tone, filled with surprise amidst the unexpected, fell into the thief's ears, leaving him both burning with rage and filled with uncertainty.

There is something wrong with this black-haired brat!

Despite being a magic caster, his combat skills were not the least bit weaker than his own.

His own attack had actually been blocked with such ease?

A look of disbelief appeared in the thief's eyes.

Bang!

Tang Zheng stomped hard on the ground and charged rapidly toward the thief; this was no time for idle talk.

"Court death!" Seeing Tang Zheng take the initiative to attack him, the thief roared in shock and rage, swept his left hand to his waist, pulled out a short dagger, and hurled it violently at Tang Zheng.

Whoosh!

A sharp whistling sound cut through the air.

Tang Zheng scanned with his eyes, easily tracking the dagger's trajectory, and swung his short sword to knock the flying blade down.

However, his forward momentum slowed because of it.

"Stealth!"

The thief let out a low cry, and in the already dark environment, his body rapidly blurred as if he were about to merge into the night.

Tang Zheng immediately became alert, yet a moment later, a look of astonishment appeared on his face.

For you see.

The thief did not attack; instead, he turned and ran.

Can't let him escape!

This thought flashed through Tang Zheng's mind instantly, and he raised his hand toward the front: "Magic Arrow!"

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three magic arrows condensed in mid-air and shot rapidly toward the thief.

The urgent sound coming from behind forced the fleeing thief to stop and roll to the side to dodge.

Taking advantage of this opening, Tang Zheng caught up.

"Four-Light Consecutive Slash!"

The short sword in Tang Zheng's hand turned into four afterimages in an instant, stabbing toward the thief.

Pfft! Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!

Four sprays of blood bloomed on the opponent's chest, drawing a shrill scream from the thief.

However!

Due to the effect of the "Silence" spell, the man's scream could not spread at all.

"You, you..."

The thief lay on the ground, his eyes bloodshot and his body covered in blood. "How is it possible, Gazef's..."

Before he could finish his sentence!

The thief completely lost his breath.

[Experience gained: 380]

"Hoo."

"Hoo."

Tang Zheng panted heavily, looking at the corpse on the ground, and finally let out a sigh of relief.

Looking at the blood staining his clothes and the droplets sliding off the blade of his short sword, Tang Zheng fell silent for a moment.

Killing two people at once.

This was something Tang Zheng had never thought about before; he had indeed anticipated that he would kill people in the future, but he hadn't expected it to come so soon.

Disgusted?

No.

Guilt?

None either.

Instead, there was a feeling that it was only natural.

"What a terrible, hateful world." Tang Zheng cursed under his breath.

He looked up.

Tang Zheng quickly scanned the surrounding street and found that there was no one else around during the entire process.

These two guys had indeed picked a good spot!

Tang Zheng reached up to wipe the blood off his cheek, quickly walked to the two corpses, and reached out to store them into his item box.

Even the blood-stained floor tiles were collected by Tang Zheng.

This item box, similar to a spatial backpack, had no other restrictions besides being unable to store living things.

After cleaning up the scene.

Tang Zheng quickly left the area and headed back toward the small inn. While passing through a small alley, he went inside to store his blood-stained clothes and changed into a clean set.

Fortunately.

He had bought a large quantity of ordinary clothes beforehand, so he wasn't without a change.

Inside the small inn.

"Oh, the guest is back." The innkeeper was a somewhat plump middle-aged woman named Malixi with freckles on her face.

"Ms. Malixi."

Tang Zheng wore a gentle smile, nodded at Malixi, and headed toward his room on the second floor.

"Ha~" Malixi yawned as she watched Tang Zheng's back as he went upstairs. "Such a polite young man."

Click!

As the door closed,

A look of exhaustion appeared on Tang Zheng's face.

With a total of 13 mana points, he had used "Magic Arrow" twice in a row and could no longer cast spells; if he had let that thief escape, he likely would have faced significant trouble later.

=9+Shu_ba

Fortunately, he managed to finish it with "Four-Light Consecutive Slash" in the end.

Tang Zheng had never had the chance to use it before; after using the martial art this time, he finally understood what the consumed "Concentration" was.

To be precise, it was a consumption of "stamina," much like the state of having run 200 meters in his past life; it wasn't exactly tiring, but he could certainly feel the fatigue.

Most importantly!

Through this unexpected battle, Tang Zheng had gained a relatively clear understanding of his own strength.

That black-robed magic caster could use the second-tier spell "Shield Wall," so his level was clearly above seven, but not very high.

The thief who was with him should have been at a similar level.

Under normal circumstances.

Tang Zheng was only level 5; facing a pincer attack from the two, even with the element of surprise, he should have been completely suppressed.

But the result...

It was one thing that the black-robed mage didn't utilize his advantages, but in Tang Zheng's eyes, that thief was weaker than him in both speed and strength.

There was only one reason for this situation!

And that was that Tang Zheng's base stats were higher than the thief's!

"Since 'Genius' does not increase base stats, I put all my experience into the intermediate class 'Sword Saint'."

"People in this other world don't have such convenient player abilities, so most can only improve their base classes, and it's even unknown if they have intermediate classes."

Tang Zheng recalled his own attribute values, thinking of his 53 points in physical attack and 53 points in agility, and had a realization:

"In this case, my base stats should be higher than the standard for a normal level 7 human in this other world."

Next—

A thought flickered in Tang Zheng's mind,

A dark brown magic staff, a glowing white necklace, a short wand, and a dagger with a faint purple shimmer appeared on the bed.

4 magic items!

Besides these 4 items, the two men didn't even carry a single copper coin on them, let alone anything to prove their identities.

Was this a rule of "Eight Fingers," or just a habit of theirs when capturing prey?

If it were the former, then "Eight Fingers" was far more terrifying than it appeared in the anime!

"It's a pity I haven't mastered the 'Item Appraisal' spell, otherwise I could have learned the specific effects of these 4 magic items."

Tang Zheng glanced at the magic items on the bed and sighed to himself.

The only thing certain was that the short wand with the "Silence" effect still had mana fluctuations, so it should still have uses left.

The number of magic casters who mastered "Item Appraisal" was not small, but if he were to take these magic items to be appraised right after dealing with people from "Eight Fingers," it would easily attract the attention of "Eight Fingers."

That group was very vengeful.

Tang Zheng had no time to play with them.

"Perhaps I'll have to go to the Adventurer's Guild tomorrow." This thought flashed through Tang Zheng's mind.

With a wave of his hand!

He stored the 4 magic items on the bed away again and took out the remaining three magic scrolls.

"Papermaking," "Heating," and "Odorless"!

One by one, he tore open these three magic scrolls, then consumed skill points to learn them.

Fortunately, these three magic scrolls were all support magic and would not cause a big commotion like "Magic Arrow."

"Odorless" could eliminate his own scent, which would allow him to avoid quite a bit of trouble while heading into the forest later.

There was no need to say much about "Papermaking."

"Heating" was something Tang Zheng had decided to purchase on a whim to confirm his hypothesis; it didn't matter if his guess was incorrect.

After all, this magic was still very convenient, allowing adventurers to heat food and water without having to light a fire and expose their position.

All things considered, it was a wilderness essential!

(End of this chapter)