Chapter 1 A Round of Skills

After a round of skills, the Dansji (Back Breaker) skill had cooled down again. Nie Yan continued to unleash another round.

The Man Niu (Barbarian Bull) warrior relentlessly swung his giant axe at Nie Yan, appearing incredibly fierce, yet he couldn't touch Nie Yan at all. Nie Yan continuously used the Shadow Dance technique to evade the Man Niu warrior's attacks, while executing one skill after another. The Man Niu warrior simply couldn't keep up with his rhythm and was helpless against him. Their speeds were on completely different levels.

As the Man Niu warrior swung his axe down, Nie Yan suddenly shifted his body to the side and executed a Shadow Evasion Assassination. The Sword of Zannard in his hand pierced the Man Niu warrior's throat in one strike.

The Man Niu warrior let out a deep moan and collapsed to the ground with a thud.

It took about two minutes to kill the Man Niu warrior, which was quite exhausting.

System: Shadow Evasion Assassination has been upgraded to level three.

When attacking the Man Niu warrior, the skill proficiency increased dramatically, rising sharply in chunks, which was incredibly satisfying.

After upgrading to level three, Shadow Evasion Assassination can add 100% of attack power and cause a 5% chance of a critical strike effect. Each level increase adds 50% attack damage and a 1% critical strike effect.

If Shadow Evasion Assassination could be raised to about level seven, it would add 300% attack damage and a 9% critical strike effect. Combined with Nie Yan's current high attack power, it would be ridiculously powerful!

Currently, Nie Yan's five free skills, Dansji and Shadow Evasion Assassination, are already level three, Reverse Backstab is level four, and Instant Strike and Counter are level two. He hadn't had time to practice these skills properly before, so he wasn't very familiar with them and didn't use them very smoothly. But now, Nie Yan could use them relatively skillfully, with a completion rate of over 60%.

As for how to make the completion rate even higher, there seemed to be some other tricks, but Nie Yan hadn't figured them out yet.

The Man Niu warrior seemed to have dropped something. Nie Yan bent down and picked it up. It was a warrior's skill book, Tendon Break Enhancement. Learning it would cover the Tendon Break skill and increase the effect of the Tendon Break skill by 30%. This skill book was relatively rare, and it was basically impossible to find it on the market.

"Good stuff, I wonder if Dao Guang (Saber Light) and Yan Tou (Cigarette Butt) have this skill. I'll ask them when I get back," Nie Yan thought, throwing the skill book into his backpack.

The harvest was pretty good. The only thing that made Nie Yan a little depressed was that the Man Niu warrior didn't give any experience after he died. Such a thick health bar and such high defense, yet he didn't give any experience points, which was really stingy. It also meant that if Nie Yan continued to practice his skills here, he would never be able to level up.

Nie Yan looked at his level, ninety-seven. There were only two people on the level ranking over eighty. Once you reached level eighty, the difficulty of leveling up was several times higher than before. If they wanted to catch up, it would be impossible for a month or so. Players who leveled up slowly might not be able to reach level ninety in two or three months.

So even if he stayed here for twenty or thirty days, he wouldn't have to worry about the levels of the players behind him catching up.

"Practice skills first!" After making up his mind, Nie Yan continued to look for the next target.

In the distant plains, another Man Niu warrior was wandering around.

Nie Yan slowly sneaked over, reaching behind the Man Niu warrior, about five yards away.

At close range, the structure of the armor on the Man Niu warrior's body was completely visible in Nie Yan's eyes. He could vaguely identify the various parts of the Man Niu warrior: the scapula, the heart, the abdomen, and the central spine.

Nie Yan suddenly had some strange ideas. Free skills should have some unique meanings. Dansji, the name of this skill, like Backstab and other skills, has a very strong literal meaning: severing the opponent's spine, causing the opponent to be crippled.

All along, he thought that as long as he attacked the spine, he could perform the skill according to the description in a standard manner, but the completion rate had been hovering around 60%, and sometimes even only around 50%.

Could it be that the Dansji skill has some tricks?

Looking at the back of the Man Niu warrior, Nie Yan couldn't help but wonder, what effect would it have if he incorporated some fighting techniques into these skills?

Many skills in Faith are derived from reality. For example, kicking skills, if the kick is on the leg, the effect is relatively weak. If it happens to kick the joint, it can cause a tingling sensation, and the effect is much stronger than usual.

Some memories came back to his mind. In his previous life, when he was level 160, he had fought against a Shadow Dancer. That Shadow Dancer basically didn't use any powerful skills, just the simplest kicks, backstabs, and assassinations, which made him unable to fight back at all. One kick made his legs tingle for five seconds. How could he fight like that?

That Shadow Dancer master was very skilled when kicking. That guy was wearing pointed boots, and instead of kicking his leg or knee, he kicked the depression next to the kneecap, which crippled Nie Yan all at once.

Looking back now, that Shadow Dancer might have used fighting techniques.

Nie Yan was a little dazed and lost in thought. He had mastered many Shadow Dance techniques and could be said to be a quasi-Shadow Dancer, but what could he learn after advancing to Shadow Dancer? What kind of system was it? Why were the Shadow Dancer players in his previous life always so secretive, and why couldn't he find any information on the game forums?

These things still required Nie Yan to explore little by little.

Staring at the back of the Man Niu warrior, Nie Yan slowly approached. At this moment, he completely forgot that the other party was a monster and regarded the Man Niu warrior as a burly man.

If the other party was a burly man, what kind of skills would he use to make the other party lose resistance if he ambushed him from behind?

Nie Yan seemed to have realized something. He turned his body to the side, accelerated with a sixty-degree lateral rotation, used his waist strength, and swung his arm out.

This is a fighting technique that uses lateral rotation to increase the strength of the hand. Using the waist can concentrate the strength of the whole body on the arm. Just when Nie Yan completed this action, a small stream of heat was generated in his body out of thin air, like ants, drilling randomly in Nie Yan's body, and rushing towards the arm, and the strength of the arm suddenly increased a lot.

"What is this?" Nie Yan was shocked, but the skill that was halfway through could not be interrupted.

"Dansji!"

Nie Yan shouted in a low voice and stabbed the spine of the Man Niu warrior in the abdomen with a sword.

With a bang, the Man Niu warrior was penetrated by a powerful force, staggered a few steps, and fell into a crippled state, unable to move.

System: Dansji skill completion 73%, dealing 150% damage, causing 3 seconds of stun, and gaining 100 skill proficiency points.

Unexpectedly, this time the completion of the Dansji skill could reach 73%, 150% damage and 3 seconds of stun, this effect is too strong, and with the successful use of the Dansji, the skill proficiency gained is also doubled compared to usual.

"Is this the real Dansji skill!"

Nie Yan was overjoyed. He had a little bit of a clue. In fact, he could perform better. It was the first time he used the Dansji skill in this way, and his movements were not particularly skilled. He still needed to explore a little bit.

But this successful use of the Dansji skill undoubtedly opened a door in front of him, and what was shown in front of him was a whole new world.

It turns out that the use of skills in the game is common with some fighting techniques in reality. Combining the two can form a new fighting technique, which can maximize the lethality of the skill!

Having figured out the trick of Dansji, Nie Yan decided to practice the Dansji technique and proficiency, as for the Reverse Backstab and other skills, he would explore them later. With a successful precedent, those skills should not be difficult to practice.

Nie Yan used the Shadow Dance technique to avoid the Man Niu warrior's attack, and after a while, the Dansji skill cooled down again.

Nie Yan gave the Man Niu warrior a Counter and quickly retreated.

The Man Niu warrior roared and pounced, raising the giant axe in his hand high and slashing at Nie Yan's head.

Nie Yan used an Illusionary Dance Step to dodge the Man Niu warrior's attack, reached behind the Man Niu warrior, accelerated the body with lateral rotation, and used his waist strength. This time the movement was much smoother than the previous one, and it felt more powerful. He only felt a horrifying and surging force rushing out along his arm, and the force was much greater than before. With a muffled bang, the Man Niu warrior staggered forward a few steps and fell into a crippled state.

A crisp system prompt sounded, the Dansji skill has been upgraded?

Nie Yan was a little surprised, how could it be so fast? He took a look and the system prompted that the Dansji skill had been upgraded to level four, and then looked at the previous system prompt.

System: Dansji skill completion 93%, dealing 270% damage, causing 5 seconds of stun, and gaining 300 skill proficiency points.

This system prompt surprised Nie Yan a bit. Just using a skill resulted in 300 skill proficiency points. This was too terrifying. If ordinary players wanted to gain 300 skill proficiency points, they would have to practice all day long.

Under normal circumstances, when using the Dansji skill outside, when the completion reaches about 60%, you can get 1 skill proficiency point, when the completion reaches about 70%, you can get 2 skill proficiency points, and when the completion reaches 90%, you can get 6 skill proficiency points. In this map, the skill proficiency gained is fifty times higher. Therefore, after using the Dansji skill, he suddenly gained 300 skill proficiency points. So many skill proficiency points made Nie Yan's Dansji reach level four all at once.

The base damage of the Dansji skill is 120%, and the completion reaches 93%, and the damage reaches 270%. This skill effect also made Nie Yan a little excited.

In his previous life, he heard that Shadow Dancers could kill lord monsters above level 100 by skipping levels. Nie Yan thought it was just an ethereal legend. Lord monsters above level 100 were not the same as the Scale Frogs that Nie Yan killed before. Now it seems that as long as he learns enough free skills, and the completion is up to par, such high damage can easily break through the defense of high-level monsters, and killing lord monsters by skipping levels is no longer a distant myth.

If he could upgrade all five free skills to level six or seven, his combat power would at least double. Thinking of this, Nie Yan couldn't help but feel ambitious.