The reason the completion rate of the reverse backstab skill is not high is because the force generated by his own spinning motion is still not strong enough!

Chapter 9: The Hidden Attribute of Reverse Backstab

Having realized his own shortcomings, William Carter kept practicing the reverse backstab skill on desert beetles, clearing out all the desert beetles around him. William Carter gradually found the feel for the reverse backstab, continuously consolidating the skill he had just learned.

Ding dong, the system sounded with a level-up notification.

William Carter had been practicing his skills so intently that he hadn’t checked his experience bar. Hearing this sound, he was momentarily stunned, then suddenly overjoyed.

He had leveled up three times. William Carter was a bit excited and checked the Evil Alliance’s level rankings. The highest-level player was level five, so he wasn’t too far behind. Although William Carter had been focusing all his energy on practicing skills, his leveling speed was still quite fast.

This achievement might seem insignificant, but for William Carter, who was playing the game for the first time, it was already very impressive.

William Carter put all five attribute points he gained into agility. After moving around a bit, he felt his speed had increased.

While William Carter was adding attribute points, a hissing sound came to his ears.

William Carter’s heart skipped a beat—it was a Desert Mamba!

The Desert Mamba was a level five monster, two levels higher than himself, with very strong attack power, and its attacks also carried a slowing poison effect! Once poisoned, movement speed would be greatly reduced, making it hard to escape. It was a very difficult monster to deal with.

The Desert Mamba lunged at William Carter. William Carter dodged to the side and finally got a good look at the Desert Mamba. It was a giant snake about as tall as a person, with a very thick body and a huge, oval-shaped head that kept swaying, its green, ghostly eyes fixed on William Carter.

Being forced into a sudden fight left William Carter not fully prepared, but he still reacted in time and avoided the Desert Mamba’s attack.

The Desert Mamba lunged at William Carter again.

Reverse backstab! Seeing the Desert Mamba’s huge head coming at him, William Carter had no time to think. Relying on his body’s memory of the reverse backstab skill, he dodged the Desert Mamba’s attack and unleashed a reverse backstab. It was an almost instinctive reaction—people can always unleash surprising potential in moments of crisis. William Carter found that this time, his reverse backstab was even more fluid and smooth than before, especially the final strike after the spin. William Carter felt all the strength in his body concentrate at the very tip of his dagger.

At the tip of the dagger, explosive power gathered.

A perfect execution—using the force of the spin, the power in his right hand was released to the utmost.

Pfft—the Desert Mamba’s tough back scales broke with a sound, and William Carter’s dagger easily pierced into the Desert Mamba’s body.

System: Reverse backstab completion 100%, dealing 300% skill damage, armor penetration effect triggered.

A damage value of 137 appeared above the Desert Mamba’s head—more than five times the damage William Carter dealt to desert beetles. He hadn’t expected the reverse backstab to have a hidden armor penetration effect. Armor penetration could ignore armor and level effects!

137 points—what powerful skill damage!

Seeing this damage value, William Carter was shocked and couldn’t recover for a long time. Was this really his own attack damage?

With a single strike, William Carter took out 62% of the Desert Mamba’s HP—and this was a level five monster, two levels higher than William Carter!

Level difference causes a certain level effect: when a lower-level player attacks a higher-level player or monster, the damage is greatly reduced and can be resisted by the higher-level player. Only when the higher-level player is in a weakened state can the lower-level player ignore the level effect.

The armor penetration effect could also ignore the level effect!

“What a powerful skill,” William Carter couldn’t help but exclaim.

Using the reverse backstab skill, William Carter successfully got behind the Desert Mamba and then slashed at it with his dagger. Normal attacks without skills could only deal single-digit damage to the Desert Mamba—compared to the armor penetration and 300% damage of reverse backstab, it was almost negligible.

Fortunately, the Desert Mamba only had 200 HP. After taking a reverse backstab from William Carter, it didn’t have much left.

William Carter checked his skill panel. The level one reverse backstab had a cooldown of 30 seconds. The cooldown was too long—he couldn’t wait for it to be ready again.

There was no other way. William Carter could only fight the Desert Mamba in close combat. Each slash with his dagger dealt less than ten damage. William Carter thought of a way: to minimize being attacked by the Desert Mamba, he had to try to get behind it as much as possible.

This tactic that William Carter came up with by accident wasn’t unique to him—it was actually the most basic kiting tactic for rogues. It was said that the strongest rogues could always stay behind their enemies.

While slashing at the Desert Mamba with his dagger, William Carter kept jumping to dodge behind it, using agile movement and jumps to reduce the number of times he was attacked. William Carter was clearly not very skilled at this kind of fighting style.

The Desert Mamba’s movement speed was also nimble.