Max followed the thieves sneakily. It was kind of ironic because usually, it was thieves who would follow their targets sneakily before using some sleight of hand to pick their pockets.
The den of thieves was a vast organization in the Sigma universe, the strongest members of the organization were rumored to be at the legendary tier 6 power level, and it was said that the greatest heist performed by the organization was worth a whopping 1.4 billion universal gold.
The recruitment into the organization started early as they only trusted thieves that had been a part of the organization from tier 0 and had been trained and nurtured by the organization on their journey up.
While there were no confirmed reports about their hideouts, it was rumored that they had a secret hideout in the forests of Angur because of how often the members were seen roaming the forest.
It was because of this reason that Max planned on roaming the forest until he spotted a member of the group, and then tail him back toward the hideout.
Now that he had found a group of 3 men wearing the den of thieves' masks he tailed them while walking extremely carefully so as to not break a single twig or make the slightest of sounds.
Thankfully for Max, the thieves in front of him did not seem to be that experienced, despite him making many rookie mistakes such as running from tree to tree without proper cover or accidentally swatting a bug that landed on him a little too loudly, the thieves did not notice his presence.
Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly for Max and after 40 minutes of tailing the thieves, Max reached a clearing in the forest where a mini village was set up.
Everyone in the village seemed to wear the den of thieves' masks, however, despite the mask hiding their faces, their body features were on full display from which Max could discern that the organization was definitely not an all-human organization at all.
Although humans were the majority, one could make out the disgusting hairy outline of werewolves from a mile away amongst orcs, dwarves, and elves.
What perplexed Max was how was a bulky and dexterity-less species like the orcs a part of the den of thieves organization? Unless thieving was only one of their many lines of work.
Max waited for answers as he observed from a distance by laying low in the grass.
Max wanted to wait for a solo member to wander off into the forest by himself after which Max would silently take him out and steal his mask to gain entry into the Den Of Thieves village, however, his plans were foiled when a kunai knife landed an inch in front of his right ear.
BZZP!
Max was jolted upright as he looked around for the attacker, however, he could spot no one.
BZZZP!
A second kunai knife came flying toward Max and grazed his right knee.
10 HP
Max was hurt and he lost a bit of his HP however he now knew the rough direction of the attacker as he started running away from him.
A nimble figure dressed in black robes followed Max through the jungle on his escape as kunai knives kept flying around Max's body.
Max had to run in a zig-zag and haphazard manner to not be hit by the kunai knife.
The figure following him definitely had a powerful throw, but at tier 1 it was not accurate enough to always guarantee a hit, as Max was lucky to have evaded as many hits as he did.
The opportunity for Max to counter came when he swerved past a thick tree and knew that he had momentarily exited the vision of his attacker.
Using his wits Max stopped dead in his tracks and instead of running away he started to climb the tree at a frantic pace.
Perched on a branch 10 feet above the ground, Max waited as right on cue about 20 seconds later the pursuer came right below him looking around trying to figure out where Max had run away to.
Max jumped from the branch and landed straight on the attacker's back with a heavy thud as he could hear the sound of the enemy's spine cracking.
CRACK!
A shrill cry of pain escaped the opponent's mouth, however, Max did not care for it.
Quickly taking a kunai knife hanging by the human's side, Max violently stabbed him repeatedly in the neck killing him off.
-100
-100
-100
-100
-400 CRITICAL HIT!
[ System notification ] - You have killed ' Jadewazi Maka ', a named player at the tier 1 rank in the wild zone, no penalties given.
•You have achieved a feat that is nearly impossible for a level 1 player, the EXP reward doubled.
+Level UP!
+Level UP!
+Level UP!
+Level UP!
•You have reached level 5, the stat panel is unlocked.
[ System Remark ] - You are lucky that the opponent you were facing had a weak constitution, the backs of tier 1 opponents don't snap so easily.
Don't get too cocky because of your small lucky encounter, facing a tier 1 opponent at your measly strength is akin to suicide.
Max frowned at the system remark, there was something definitely off about the system, it was definitely snarky about Max's assessment.
However, he was more shocked that the opponent he had just killed was a freaking tier 1 player! The system was spot on with its assessment that Max would not be this lucky twice and it was only through circumstantial luck that he was able to kill such a strong opponent.
Max facepalmed himself and laughed thinking about how it took him 14 days in his past life to reach level 5, this time around however it only took him 1.
Level 5 was an important milestone because you unlocked the stat panel at level 5, and could finally start distributing the 2 Attribute points one got for leveling up from level 1-5.
" Display stat panel" Max commanded and a system screen opened in front of him.
------ xx ------
[ BASIC INFORMATION ]
[ Name ] - Unnamed ( Not Yet Assigned )
[ Race ] - Purebred Human ( Planet #H2047 )
[ Alignment ] - Neutral
[ Languages ] - Bipedal English
[ Titles ] - None
[ Level ] - 5 ( 43% )
[ Tier ] - 0
[ System Remark ] - ( Who the hell do you think you are? TRASH! )
~~~~~~~
[ STATS ]
[ Mana ] - 0
[ Health ] - 30
[ Stamina ] - 30
~~~~~~~
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
STRENGTH - 10 DEXTERITY - 10
AGILITY - 10 CONSTITUTION - 10
INTELLIGENCE - 10 ENDURANCE - 10
Unassigned AP - 10
~~~~~~~
[ HIDDEN ATTRIBUTES ]
LUCK - ??? / 100
CHARISMA - 15 /100
WISDOM - ???
KARMIC VALUE - ?????
~~~~~~~
[ SKILLS ]
•Ball Crushing
~~~~~~~
[ EQUIPMENT ]
- None
~~~~~~~
[ RESISTANCES ]
- None
~~~~~~~~
[ PET / MOUNT ]
- None
-----xx------
Max was both happy and sad after looking at his stat panel, he was happy that he had 10 points across all attributes which meant that he was considered an above-average human with the average human only having 7 points across all attributes.
However, he was sad that his mana stat displayed a solid 0, meaning he was still a manaless trash.
/// A/ N - The stat panel will often be either attached as an image in the comments section or as text inside the author's notes.
I will not waste chapter space with the stat panel after every level-up and will only print it within the chapter if there is a significant change. ///