BXBX NOVEL Chapter 176 Stealth Skill
Seeing the notification, Arthur was quite surprised and almost let go of the dead bandit.
\'Shit! Gotta take care of him first.\' Arthur put the bandit down slowly, to prevent making any noise and then dragged him further away.
He didn\'t want to be discovered by a random bandit that had also come here to relieve himself after all. Only when Arthur was a hundred meters away from the previous location did he stop.
"Haa… now to take a look." Arthur pulled up the pending notification and saw the details.
~DING~
——
<Stealth>
Type: Support/ Combat
Rank: Rare
Proficiency: F
Effects: 1. Allows the player to hide his presence and blend well into the surroundings. If the player is spotted, the effect is gone. [Passive]
2. Mildly reduces the sound of the player\'s footsteps. [Passive]
——
\'Didn\'t think I would get it at this time… Cannot be at a more perfect time than this!\' Arthur was ecstatic upon seeing the skill.
After all, the Stealth skill was something he had been yearning for a long time now. It was a highly beneficial skill that was also considered as the bread and butter of the Thief class.
Of course, other classes could also obtain the skill, but it was harder for them. Thieves could obtain this skill naturally with little effort. But for other classes, they would have to rely on the skill books to get it which was not a simple or cheap task.
Due to how useful the Stealth Skill was, its skill books always sold for a lot being comparable in price to magic spells.
Of course, there was a method of learning the Stealth skill which was to simply obtain it by fulfilling certain conditions. These were basically sneaking around, hiding in the darkness, avoiding making noise as well as killing enemies without it being known to others.
Arthur only knew the basics of them as the condition themselves was a bit vague. There had been quite a lot of information about it on the forums, but it wasn\'t accurate. Players had varying experience in obtaining the Stealth Skill, with there being a difference in the conditions.
Eventually, they came to the conclusion that there wasn\'t a set number of times one needed to repeat a condition. If one was lucky, they could obtain it on the first try, if not they might need to repeat it for hundreds of times before they got it.
Arthur had been trying to fulfill this condition and was finally rewarded.
\'Guess killing that Bandit by breaking his neck counted as a stealth kill and finally pushed the game to give me the skill.\' Arthur reckoned.
With the skill added to the list, Arthur now had additional safety.
He dismissed the information window and got to removing the armor of the dead bandit and hiding the body. Once that was done, he removed the Ember Bellow Set, as well, hiding it in the leaves. Arthur even left behind Dietrich, as it would be too easy to spot due to its unique shape.
Not to mention, there were the bandits from before that had seen it too. If they saw Arthur here by chance, things could get complicated.
\'Even with a lower quality weapon, I\'ll still be fine.\' Arthur thought to himself.
Thankfully, the weapon that the dead bandit used was also a spear, due to him being a Shield Bearer.
Arthur quickly equipped the dead bandit\'s armor and put on the helmet, completing his disguise.
"Here we go… this should be good enough." Arthur took a look at himself and found it to be indistinguishable from the bandit.
Satisfied with it, Arthur returned along the path that the bandit had come. He held his breath as he finally appeared in the open. A couple of bandits looked at him but showed no interest returning to their work.
\'It works!\' Seeing that they hadn\'t noticed, Arthur was relieved. \'Now as long as no one uses an Appraisal skill on me, I\'ll be fine.\' He thought.
That was the only way Arthur could get found out in an instant. Thankfully, though, the difference in his level would prevent most bandits from using it on him. As for those that were stronger than him, they wouldn\'t use it either, as long as they didn\'t find him suspicious.
And with how many bandits there were here, blending in became easier. Arthur continued to walk through the settlement while listening to the conversations of the bandits. Some of them caught his ear, and made him focus on them..
"Are last week\'s recruits ready?" one of the bandits asked.
"Nah… they are still adjusting. Though I don\'t know how long the Chief can tolerate that, his temper has been getting worse lately. Those cultists are really putting the pressure on him." Another replied.
"Shh! Watch your mouth. We don\'t want them to hear this." The bandit warned before looking around. "You don\'t want to end up in the death squad, do you?" he asked.
~gulp~
"You mean… the ones from yesterday?" The bandit swallowed his saliva.
"Yeah. They are part of the new death squad that Chief has made." The second bandit nodded.
"How did they agree though? They attacked Roran town fearlessly. I could never do that." The bandit said with anxiety on his face.
"It\'s those cult bastards. They did something magic on them. It turned them crazy, I say." The second bandit said in a low voice.
"Damn… I now regret coming here."
"Well, too late for that. If you leave now, Dozla will have you sent to those cultists for their sacrifice."
"Shit, do we not have any way out now?" The bandit asked in fear.
"There is only one way now. We gotta keep our heads down and wait it out. I heard the chief will be heading to the Six Forest Gathering soon enough."
"The Six Forest Gathering? But isn\'t that gonna happen far beyond the mountains?"
Hearing the words of the Bandit, Arthur was a bit surprised.
\'The Six Forest Gathering… isn\'t that the one where a few merchants and mercenary groups meet?\'