"How many gold coins does it cost to upgrade to level 4?" Xiao Yu asked Thief Teacher Ode.
"Young man, it will take you a long time to upgrade to level 4. Don't set your sights too high," replied Thief Teach Ode with a smile.
"I know. I just want to get some information so that I can prepare for it," explained Xiao Yu. He thought that he had to prepare the gold coins needed beforehand. Otherwise, he would be in trouble if he couldn't afford the upgrading by then.
"Fifty gold coins for upgrading the reversed backstabbing and evisceration skills to level 4, and five gold coins for the stealth travel skill," said Thief Teacher Ode.
Hearing this, Xiao Yu took a deep breath; it was really expensive. The three main skills would cost him 50 gold coins each and 150 in total. Where would he find that much money?
"I'll find a way because I still have a lot of time to earn money," Xiao Yu thought.
He bade farewell to Thief Teacher Ode and went to a dark and gloomy street in the small town of Tabarka. Looking at his own items, he found he had three daggers in total. He had to give it some consideration regarding how he should assign these daggers between his dominant hand and his other hand.
The escape dagger was a short dagger. Though it had a powerful basic attack, its attacking range was too short, so it was not fit as a dagger for his dominant hand. As such, Xiao Yu thought he should continue using the snake-tooth dagger as his main dagger. The escape dagger should be smeared with the adder's tongue poison and used in his other hand. As for the white-level dagger, that should also be smeared with the adder's tongue poison, and it would replace the escape dagger if necessary.
"The adder's tongue poison is all used up now." Xiao Yu sighed when he saw the empty vial, thinking that he should get some back-up poison potion next time.
What the spirit wizard said made sense: a thief should have three daggers. The dagger smeared with poison could only be used once, which meant that Xiao Yu couldn't use the poison each time he struck a monster. As a result, he couldn't put the poison on his main dagger because the dagger in his dominant hand had to be ready to fight at all times. Meanwhile, the dagger in his other hand was mostly going to be used for supporting attacks, and it didn't need to be ready to attack all the time. However, if necessary, the subordinate dagger could launch a lethal blow to monsters that had a lot of health but weak attacks. When the speed reduction poison was inflicted upon those monsters with powerful and fast attacks, their slowed movement speed could greatly assist Xiao Yu in combat.
If there were three daggers, switching the daggers during a fight would become a serious issue. This would put a lot of pressure on the fighting skills and response speed of a thief during battle.
"I should be able to do it." Xiao Yu turned his left wrist dexterously, imitating the move of switching daggers. He had extraordinarily flexible and agile wrists and fingers.
"It seems too early to buy the special waist belt for thieves." Besides, Xiao Yu didn't want to spend 10 gold coins on a special waist belt for thieves.
Xiao Yu left the small town of Tabarka and arrived in the area inhabited by level-5 sand salamanders. He planned to kill some level-5 sand salamanders today. Though leveling up would be slow by doing so, he was still content with the progress. It was truly too dangerous to fight against monsters at night. He might encounter some monsters that he couldn't beat if he was not careful enough. Xiao Yu didn't venture any deeper even though he had the night jade necklace.
He felt tired after midnight. The tiredness was programmed into the games. If one felt tired, then their bodily functions would be compromised, and they wouldn't be able to deal with monsters effectively. When the tiredness set in, a player should find an inn or go offline to recuperate.
Xiao Yu went offline and rested the whole afternoon.
By the time he finished eating dinner and went back online, it was already dawn in the game.
The early morning sunlight shone down on the small town of Tabarka, but the small town was still covered by a thick dark fog that floated over the entire town.
Xiao Yu took a deep breath and felt considerably energized.
The dagger in his right hand rotated in an elegant circle and landed on his palm squarely, and strong confidence filled his chest. "I'm going to succeed!" Xiao Yu was headed in the direction of the mercenaries' trade union.
Five players were talking in the square in front of the mercenaries' trade union. They were none other than An Yu and his teammates.
"You came." Seeing Xiao Yu, An Yu approached him cheerfully.
Xiao Yu nodded silently.
"We can set off now since you're here." An Yu was not offended by the cold temperament Xiao Yu gave off. He took out a light blue potion and handed it to Xiao Yu, saying, "This potion is the antidote for the speed reduction poison. You can have it for now. It might be useful for the task."
Xiao Yu took the vial of potion from An Yu and said, "Let's go."
"Alright." An Yu spun his head around and said to his teammates, "Hey, guys, let's head out."
Xiao Yu, An Yu, and the other four players were headed outside the small town of Tabarka.
"Xin Huo, what poison did that guy smear on his secondary dagger?" An Yu turned around and asked the thief in their team. The escape dagger in Xiao Yu's left hand emitted an eerie red glow, looking like a snake's tongue.
The thief took a look at the dagger in Xiao Yu's left hand and said while shaking his head, "I can't tell. It should be some sort of lethal poison. Both of his daggers are pretty good." Xin Huo, the thief, looked at the daggers in his own hand and couldn't help but feel embarrassed because one of his daggers was a piece of shabby green-level equipment and the other one was a white-level equipment item.
"That guy has a cold temperament," remarked the dark wizard, who was walking about three meters away from Xiao Yu. He could sense the desolate quality in Xiao Yu as if Xiao Yu always wanted to keep some distance from everybody else.
"The place we are going to is the gnolls' camp, in the middle of a valley. The gnolls' camp is surrounded by a fence with only two entrances…" An Yu related the content of the task to Xiao Yu in detail because he knew that every little thing might be crucial and come in handy, ultimately affecting the outcome of the task.
Xiao Yu remained silent the entire time, trying to remember the detailed information to the best of his ability.