Chapter 5

A third-level professional!

It's a bit troublesome!

However, for Marvin, it was only a bit. Now that there was only one opponent left, his pressure had eased considerably.

The gang member with a machete, who had both high agility and strength, was most likely a [Gang Machete Fighter]. This special first-level profession was a variant of a warrior, but more inclined towards offense, with average constitution.

Marvin quickly glanced at the data panel. After killing four members of the Akron gang, he gained 59 points of slaughter experience, and a second-level ranger needed 50 points!

He quickly allocated 50 points of slaughter experience to the ranger, and a wave of heat passed through his body, immediately making him a second-level ranger!

With the level increase, his health increased by 13 points, totaling 50 health points. At the same time, he gained 24 new profession skill points, with no free attribute points. Free attribute points were a precious resource obtained only after advancing two profession levels.

He allocated four points to stealth, and temporarily retained the remaining 20 points.

The gang machete fighter came with a fierce slash!

He wanted to split Marvin in two!

Marvin remained calm, effortlessly dodging and circling behind a large tree.

Bang!

The machete fighter swung his blade again! Marvin jumped back, and the blade struck the tree, splintering the bark and sending wood chips flying!

"Die!"

The machete fighter roared with a grim face. He suddenly exerted force, pulling out the machete, but at that moment, Marvin suddenly lunged forward, colliding with him!

The machete fighter was caught off guard, staggered back several steps from the impact, and almost dropped his machete!

This is it!

Even at high speed, he could still quickly make various combat-related judgments, a combat instinct.

A flash of cold light, the curved blade sliced horizontally, aiming for the machete fighter's waist!

The next second, a sharp pain shot through Marvin's right hand. The machete fighter sneered, grabbing Marvin's wrist with both hands.

"Think you can hurt me, huh?"

Marvin said nothing, ignoring the pain and the frequent combat logs:

[Ordinary attack failed, right wrist caught, resistance check in progress...]

[Strength suppressed, unable to break free!]

Just as the machete fighter was gloating, Marvin's left hand, like the coldest and most venomous snake, appeared near the machete fighter's neck.

In his left hand, he held a dagger. This was the only usable item left from the loot of the thief.

"Ahh!"

A piercing scream tore through the night sky, and Marvin mercilessly slit his throat!

The machete fighter's hands loosened, and he fell to the ground in terror.

Blood gushed out, and soon the convulsing gang machete fighter died.

Marvin rubbed his painful wrist, thinking the machete fighter's strength was at least 16 points. Unfortunately, his combat experience was extremely weak.

Dying at the hands of the former Night Master was not unjust.

He briefly searched the machete fighter, who was quite wealthy, with a total of 29 silver coins and some miscellaneous items of low value.

Unfortunately, Marvin did not find any information on the bodies of the Akron gang members about why they wanted to kill him.

Why would a gang target a penniless and fallen noble?

This didn't make sense.

Murdering a noble was a very serious crime. If exposed, the Akron gang would surely be destroyed, even if Marvin was just a fallen noble who had lost his land.

Killing him would not gain anything. The risk and reward were not proportional, which was very strange.

Roughly disposing of the bodies of these five people, Marvin had no heart to catch crabs. He planned to return to Riverbank City to find out who wanted to kill him.

At this moment, he suddenly noticed that the soul-bound task in the task bar had changed.

In the task description, the following text was added:

[... The pursuit near the Songzi River beach has made you realize that something is wrong. Someone wants to kill you, and this is likely related to the strange appearance of the hyenas around your former territory. Riverbank City is a mix of good and bad, but no matter who the mastermind is, as long as they still want to achieve their goal, the truth will eventually come to light.]

At the same time, this main task had an additional side quest [Mastermind], which was to have Marvin find the mastermind behind everything.

The reward for the side quest was also substantial, 100 points of general experience. Since Marvin definitely needed to find out the truth, these 100 points of general experience were almost free.

...

On the way back to the city, he carefully chose a quiet and safe path, avoiding any possible other members of the Akron gang.

As he walked, he reviewed the combat logs. This was a good habit, allowing him to analyze the battle afterward, calculate gains and losses, and summarize problems.

Over time, his combat skills would definitely improve.

However, what surprised him was that he found these few lines in the combat logs:

[You repeatedly used a standard technical move in combat, with over 98% similarity to the Shadow Assassin's Throat Slit skill. It can be converted into your personal exclusive skill for 500 points of slaughter experience.]

[You repeatedly used a standard technical move in combat, with over 95% similarity to the Shadow Assassin's Shadow Slice skill. It can be converted into your personal exclusive skill for 2000 points of slaughter experience.]

[Due to your repeated use of technical moves from other professions, one of your personal specialties will lean towards this aspect. Specialty formation progress: 9/100]

...

"Using skills from other professions can actually convert them into personal exclusive skills?"

Marvin was slightly stunned; he had never heard of such a thing before.

However, he quickly realized it wasn't that simple. The combat log clearly stated that it had to be a "standard" technical move, and the similarity had to exceed a certain level. Only then could it be converted into a personal exclusive skill by spending slaughter experience. Personal exclusive skills could not be increased with skill points and could only be improved through constant practice, slowly raising the skill level.

Marvin also noticed that the higher the similarity between the repeatedly used standard technical move and the original skill, the less slaughter experience was required. Throat Slit and Shadow Slice were both signature skills of the Shadow Assassin, but the slaughter experience required for each was vastly different.

"500 points of slaughter experience..."

To be honest, Marvin was somewhat tempted, but also somewhat bitter. Slaughter experience was very difficult to obtain, being the highest level of experience. If he spent slaughter experience on this, it would undoubtedly slow down his leveling speed.

However, this issue wasn't urgent, as he only had 39 unallocated points of slaughter experience, far from the 500-point threshold.

What he was more concerned about was the personal specialty. In his previous life, he had never heard of repeatedly using skills from other professions forming a specialty.

Personal specialties were divided into three types: innate, trained, and awakened. Marvin's body was quite weak, with no innate specialties, so he could only increase them through training. For example, the specialty currently forming was likely of this type.

As for the last type, awakened specialties, they were quite rare. Marvin never expected to have one, although his race was clearly marked as "Human/?" indicating he had some blood from other races, albeit very diluted.

Regardless, forming a specialty was a good thing. Specialties were helpful to adventurers beyond attributes and skills.

It was already late at night, and Riverbank City had a semi-curfew. Although the city gates closed relatively late, no one was allowed to walk on the streets after midnight. The city gates were tightly closed, and to enter the city, one had to use some unconventional means.

When Marvin was the Night Master, he could easily enter the city at night by using his wall-walking specialty and some special magical devices. Now, he could only look for some loopholes.

He knew that cities like Riverbank City, which did not have stubborn monster forces nearby, often had some sections of the city walls that were in disrepair. After carefully searching along the wall, he found a suitable gap. His slim figure could barely squeeze through.

After entering the city, he had to be careful of the patrolling guards. These guys were not to be trifled with; being sent out by the mayor at midnight already made them resentful. If caught, the consequences would be dire. As for resistance, please, these guards were at least second-level professionals, and the leading duty officer might even be third-level, far beyond what Marvin, a newly appointed rookie, could resist.

Avoiding the main roads, he moved through the narrow alleys at night like a fish in water, successfully avoiding the patrolling guards and unknown dangers within the city. However, when he circled around to the back door of the Wild Horse Inn, he noticed a suspicious figure.

"Someone is tailing me?" Marvin's heart stirred; this was not common. The owner of the Wild Horse Inn was rumored to have a terrifying background, and no one dared to cause trouble on her territory.

He silently circled to the front door and indeed found two hidden guards. However, these guards were too unprofessional. Although they were professional thieves and knew some basic hiding techniques, they were full of flaws in Marvin's eyes.

He repeatedly checked and finally confirmed that there were three thieves tailing the Wild Horse Inn: two at the front door and one at the back door.

Their common feature was that they all had a bleeding dagger embroidered on their sleeves. Although the embroidery was poor, it was at least consistent.

Marvin had seen this symbol before, just an hour ago.

The Akron gang.

"Damn, they want to kill me and are also after Sister Anna?"

Marvin's heart burned with anger. He gripped his curved blade, activated stealth, and slowly approached the thief tailing the back door.

(Sorry for the late update by half an hour, I was too tired yesterday... Also, please give me some recommendations.)

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