Two hours later, Mel was awakened from his closed-eye state by someone calling out to him.
“Mel! You’re bleeding from your nose!”
Lily’s voice was full of anxiety.
Mel Carlo felt cold, but his Effort Points had increased by 1200.
Adding the 5 points from [Steal], it was already a significant gain.
[Steal] Proficiency 20/10000
[Assassin’s Breathing Technique] Proficiency 1810/10000
Current Effort Points: 2548.
The [Assassin’s Breathing Technique] could indeed focus the mind, but the physical strain was still real.
Otherwise, there wouldn’t be a nosebleed.
It seemed he still needed to take better care of his body and sleep properly when necessary.
This time could be shortened appropriately.
In the future, after finishing [Steal] practice, he could add an hour of [Assassin’s Breathing Technique] training, and rest at night.
Daytime couldn’t be wasted.
At this cultivation speed, [Assassin’s Breathing Technique] should be the first to reach 10000 proficiency.
Mel Carlo slept the entire afternoon.
At night, he planned the last [Steal] training.
The food wasn’t sumptuous, but at least it wasn’t so hard to swallow anymore.
The peaceful days passed one after another.
Mel Carlo didn’t spend all his time cultivating.
Occasionally, he and the little fatty would look for leftovers, or simply do nothing and lie in the yard basking in the sun.
Lily remained gentle as always, and Akai was as optimistic as ever.
That was good enough.
During this period, Mel Carlo figured out one thing.
This continent was indeed called the Kandevin Continent.
But another problem was that with just these maps, it was impossible to grasp how big this world really was.
Unless there was a complete World Nautical Map, but this world probably hadn’t even entered the Great Voyage Era yet.
The end of June, Imperial Calendar Year 200—that was probably the time he arrived in this world.
Three months had passed since his reincarnation.
The temperature had noticeably dropped.
“Gallard Empire Royal Capital… heading east might take one or two months to reach Aok City.”
Mel Carlo looked at the map on the table.
There were still too few characters he could recognize, so he could only match the approximate locations with the game backgrounds in his memory.
In the game, Aok City was the players’ starting city.
There were low-tier demon races nearby, grasslands to the north, great forests to the east, and to the south was the Aiksar Theocratic Kingdom.
If you wanted to level up, you could enter the Royal Capital’s sewers to hunt rats, or go to Aok City to take Adventurer quests, like subjugating low-level Slimes.
Such village-issued quests didn’t offer high rewards, but the danger was almost nonexistent—just time-consuming.
“Uncle Anke, do you have paper and pen?”
Mel Carlo asked.
“No. Do I look like a scholar to you?”
Anke was lying on a chair, his legs slanted over the table.
“Not at all. You’re a gangster, a mobster.”
“Exactly.”
Anke spread his hands helplessly.
After looking at the map, Mel Carlo left the room and walked down the steps.
Akai was practicing sword swings.
After all, this was a gang—no one could give him professional guidance.
If he wanted to learn stealth or stealing, maybe someone in the gang could teach him.
Lily was spacing out nearby; she really had nothing to do.
Mel Carlo sat beside her and checked the system panel.
A month’s worth of Effort Points had accumulated:
[Throwing Blade] Proficiency 10000/10000 (Elite)
[Assassin’s Breathing Technique] Proficiency 10000/10000 (Master)
[Dagger Attack] Proficiency 10000/10000 (Elite)
[Backstep] Proficiency 1601/10000
[Steal] Proficiency 320/10000
Current Effort Points: 31807
He hadn’t drawn a lottery during this period because he hadn’t used the previous prizes either.
Mel Carlo felt a sense of unease, as if someone was watching him, but he couldn’t find who.
So he could only be more cautious.
Besides regular cultivation, he hadn’t done anything else this month.
The good news was that skills at full proficiency gave astonishing returns—almost proportional to proficiency progress.
[Throwing Blade] at max proficiency not only brought a 100% hit rate but also made the skill almost cooldown-free.
As long as his supply of throwing knives was sufficient, he could keep throwing.
The [Elite] trait was penetration, and he’d tried it—it was easy to pierce targets.
If an opponent tried to block, they’d probably take penetration damage as well.
[Assassin’s Breathing Technique] at full proficiency could be sustained continuously, though for now, the effect wasn’t huge.
The function he developed was focusing the mind.
The [Master] trait was movement—it allowed skill maintenance even during high-speed movement.
[Dagger Attack] at max proficiency gained a 100% bonus for dagger-type weapons.
The [Elite] trait was Critical Hit, giving dagger weapons an extra 50% Critical Hit effect.
And the appearance of traits made Mel Carlo feel they were very useful.
They were like game tags; skills at max proficiency were marked in color: [Elite] was purple, [Master] was gold.
If nothing unexpected happened, white, green, purple, gold, and red probably corresponded to Apprentice, Skilled, Elite, Master, and Legendary—quality divisions for skill traits.
For magic potions, equipment, or other items, white, green, purple, gold, and red likely corresponded to Normal, Fine, Excellent, Rare, and Divine.
Thinking about these, Mel Carlo felt his head wasn’t enough.
It seemed he had to buy paper and pen.
The concepts were still clear in his mind now, but with the passage of time, he might forget important information.
He had to write down everything he could still remember with paper and pen.
“Lily, stay with Akai and practice. I’m going for a walk.”
Mel Carlo got up and headed outside the courtyard.
“Let’s go together! Or I’ll go with you!”
Lily stood up, wanting to go out with Mel.
It wasn’t that Mel Carlo didn’t want to take them, but he was planning to do this secretly.
Paper and pen seemed expensive in this world because poor people wouldn’t learn to write.
But if more people were involved, the matter would definitely be known by others, and the wallet issue might be exposed as well.
“Please, Mel, I really want to go out and play with you, and Akai too.”
Lily pouted, holding onto Mel’s arm with both hands and squatting on the ground.
For the past month, Mel and Akai had been busy with cultivation, leaving no time to play with her, so she felt a bit distant.
“Fine, let’s go out together then.”
Mel felt helpless.
The money stolen from that wallet wasn’t going to be used anytime soon, so only these copper coins could be spent.
After all, he didn’t have to make offerings every day now.
There were still 83 Aurens left from previous thefts.
Out of ten thefts, aside from the one where he was caught and beaten, he generally managed to earn something each time.