Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Journey to the South

Even if the success rate was very high, Roger would not attempt this extremely dangerous feat of removing a trap with bare hands.

This skill seemed to be very useless for him.

On the contrary, [Moon Walk] had considerable development value.

In addition to being useful in traveling, it could also be used to pull distances in battles.

Roger thought about it for a while, then conveniently leveled the skill up to its upper limit.

…

[Moon Walk (84): In a place lit with moonlight, your running speed increases by 27%]

…

A nearly 30% increase was definitely significant.

When used together with Roger’s already agile body movements, it could definitely achieve unexpected results.

With the increase in level, other than Moon Walk, the upper limit of the points for other skills had also been increased.

For Hermit Ranger, the increase in the upper limit of skill points was stepwise:

Below LV5, for every level up, the upper limit of skill points was increased by 10 points;

Above level 5 and below level 20, the upper limit of skill points increase for each level up became 5 points.

Now the upper limit of skill points for each of his skills had been increased to 84.

Ten years of accumulation had given him a large surplus of skill points.

Whether it was life skills or combat skills, he had selected the most practical ones and filled the skill bar to the maximum.

For the rest of the free points, he would wait and see for the time being.

…

After he was done with the skills, he fixed his eyes upon the [chivalry points].

He currently had 54 chivalry points.

The number of secret skill tiers that he was able to learn suddenly increased.

After a simple calculation, Roger spent 39 chivalry points in one go.

In this way, he successfully mastered the first three stances of [The Nineteen Rays of Moon].

He had also mastered the second tiers of [Cloud Mist Footwork] and [Superior Breathing Method].

The increase in the tiers of secret skills learned directly raised Roger’s objective attributes.

Coupled with new skills and attribute points, his overall strength had increased by a small step.

However, although the benefits of the level increase were straightforward and obvious, Roger would not continue to invest his experience points.

One reason was because he wanted to hide his real strength.

On the other hand, he believed that the effect of [energy accumulation] was far more powerful than the level increase!

In Roger’s view, unless it was the kind of promotion that broke through the circle number suppression——

For example, LV19 to LV20. Otherwise the attribute changes brought about by the upgrade would definitely not be as good as a solid one hundred percent power bonus.

And the fact that he could accumulate lots of experience points and quickly upgrade was Roger’s real trump card.

…

The next day, the crusade team returned safely to Tongma Town.

The corpses of the Corpse Demon and the Suture Monster they brought back had created quite a stir.

Roger and the other team members had become heroes in everyone’s hearts.

The Lord’s Mansion took the opportunity to announce the official reorganization of the monster crusade team.

Dorothy was the captain, Terry was the deputy captain, and Roger was the monster crusade expert.

The residents of the small town spontaneously celebrated with lanterns and festoons.

This festive feast lasted for almost a week before it ended.

After the revelry, some of the townspeople wanted to thank the hero who had no sense of existence.

However, when they gathered under the dangling old phoenix trees, they found that the place was already empty.

Actually, in the early morning of the second day when everyone was celebrating, Roger received the bounty of the Corpse Demon from the steward of the Lord’s Mansion and set off on his journey to the south alone.

At that time, dawn was just breaking and it was drizzling.

Roger wore a thick cloak and walked through the muddy ridge of the pumpkin field.

When he looked back, he could no longer see the familiar scenery of Tongma Town.

No farewell, no resignation.

He knew that this was destined to be a journey by himself alone.

It took him a day to cross the southern mine.

Then he resolutely walked into the cold and wet land that seemed boundless.

…

13 days later.

The middle part of the [Great Wetland], an unknown place.

In the sky, there were dark clouds that never went away.

The heavy fog that was constantly hanging in the center of the swamp severely affected visibility, and the reeds, which were two people high, grew wildly like demons.

Among the reeds, there was suddenly a “swoosh” sound.

A sharp white feather arrow pierced the monster’s forehead and nailed it firmly onto the haystack which was rather sparse.

After a while, the reeds around it were then carefully brushed aside by someone.

Roger familiarly hung the Violet Wind on the weapon belt behind him.

Then he slowly pulled out the white feather arrow from the monster’s corpse and separated the arrowhead from the pole.

The frequency of usage of this arrow had exceeded the limit, and it needed to be polished the second time.

If he continued to use the arrow, not only would it be unable to kill anyone, but the arrowhead might also be completely damaged.

In this boundless wetland, he must cherish every single resource he had.

After patiently completing the recovery of the white feather arrow, Roger turned his gaze to the corpse of the monster.

This was a [Brambleback Jackal Monster] commonly found in large wetlands.

This kind of jackal monster usually lived in groups, with levels ranging from LV9 to LV11.

It was said that the elite jackal monsters’ level might be as high as 13 and 14, but Roger had not encountered one yet.

Roger and the jackal monsters’ ill fate began two days ago.

He was resting at the time when he was suddenly attacked by this type of jackal monster.

Although he fought off the enemies, Roger soon found himself being eyed at by an even greater number of jackal monsters.

Just in case, he decided to act first.

After killing a small group of jackal monsters, he followed the clues and found the lair of jackal monsters—

It was a small settlement built deep among the reeds.

Roger saw some human remains near the settlement.

This meant that after half a month of solo journey, it was finally possible for him to approach human territory.

With a small ruse, Roger then successfully cleared the entire jackal monster settlement.

But since he was alone, it was inevitable that there were some jackal monsters that slipped through the net.

In order to hunt down these escapees, Roger wasted a lot of effort.

This jackal monster before him was the last one.

“Finally got it done, the attributes given from them are not very good, but they do run really fast.”

Roger lightly lifted the corpse of the jackal monster and walked back.

On the data bar.

…

[You killed 1 Brambleback Jackal Monster, killing 27 Brambleback Jackals in total.]

[You’ve received 4 XP]

[Your resistance to rheumatic disorders is slightly increased]

…

When he first saw this attribute, Roger’s mind was instantly filled with question marks.

How was the jackal monster even related to rheumatic disorders?

After all, Roger’s body had been optimized by Hermit Ranger’s profession model, and basically he had no hidden risk of developing this kind of chronic disease.

Therefore, killing the jackal monster would not provide him with any attribute bonus.

This made Roger a little depressed.

Since entering the wetland, the rich variety of monsters here had widened his view.

But there was none that gave him top-quality attributes like the explosive magic frog.

Even if some of them had high-quality attributes, they didn’t have the powerful reproductive ability of the explosive magic frog.

Gaining attributes with the mark of evil was a very long process.

The attributes given by a single monster were extremely little.

Only after the accumulation with time could a qualitative change in attributes be formed.

“Take it easy, I can surely find a suitable monster.”

Roger adjusted his mindset and returned to the settlement with the corpse of the jackal monster.

In order to hunt down these escapees, he didn’t have time to collect his spoils.

He didn’t expect any superb treasures in the place where the jackal monsters lived. It would be nice to at least replenish some food and fresh water.

Just at this moment, a voice suddenly came from the reeds near the settlement:

“Eric, look at that…”

“The corpse of a jackal monster!”

“And there is one more here! God…”

Roger’s face turned sombre.

At the first instant, he put down the fresh vegetables in his hand and held the Green Beetle Sword.

…