After a delightful dinner, Henry bid farewell to the William family and returned to his own home, over three hundred meters away. It was already past 8:30 PM.
Henry's house was also a two-story Victorian-style wooden house, with each floor spanning over two hundred square meters.
The first floor contained the living room, study, utility room, kitchen, and a training room.
The second floor had three bedrooms, a bathroom, and another utility room.
The training room was equipped with a sandbag, boxing gloves, and two Swift Swords.
Although Henry felt sticky all over, he wasn't in a hurry to wash up.
He focused his thoughts on the progress bar and the panel.
[Name: Henry Bruce (Zhang Tianyuan)
Level: 2
Health: 100%
Constitution: LV2
Skills: Rifle Shooting LV4; Pistol Shooting LV3; Horsemanship LV4; Lasso LV4; Boxing LV1; Swift Sword LV1, Swimming LV1, Billiards LV1, Skiing LV1]
6.6% of the progress bar was lit up.
He still needed 934 gray beads to fill the progress bar and advance to Level 3.
Below, there were 5 gray bead shells, 3 white bead shells, and 2 green bead shells.
He also had 66 gray beads, 10 white beads, and 1 green bead.
Among the 10 white beads, 6 contained a skill aura, and so did the green bead.
Excellent. It meant that once the number of gray beads reached 100, the progress bar automatically updated, and the panel advanced to Level 2.
Henry focused his thoughts on the dark gold sphere. The radius of his storage space expanded to 2 meters, and its volume reached 33.49 cubic meters.
Then he focused his thoughts on "Constitution" and received feedback—it required 400 gray beads to upgrade to LV3.
The number of release beads he currently possessed was equivalent to 126 gray beads, still far from enough.
He then focused his thoughts on the skills and received feedback—LV4 was equivalent to a top-tier level, one in ten thousand, a master-level ability; LV1 was an introductory level, equivalent to about 3 years of diligent practice for an ordinary person.
Upgrading from LV4 to LV5 required 1000 gray beads, which was not something to hope for at the moment.
However, upgrading from LV1 to LV2 only required 10 gray beads.
Henry locked the front door of the house, then went up to the utility room on the second floor. After locking the door, he sat on a wooden stool and took out his Patek Philippe gold pocket watch, opening the lid and placing it aside.
It showed the time as 8:46:46 PM.
Henry focused his thoughts on the white beads and green beads, silently chanting: "Use all white beads and green beads."
Henry was instantly enveloped by a warm sensation again, and a memory appeared out of thin air in his mind—his perception was exceptionally keen, his Intuition astonishing, often allowing him to avoid danger before it arrived.
Following that were vast amounts of tracking and anti-tracking techniques and experience.
Then came extensive lock-picking techniques and experience, skill Flying Dagger techniques and usage experience, experience with black powder and dynamite for demolition, experience operating cannons and howitzers, and piano theory and playing experience.
After a long while, the memory infusion stopped. These skills were deeply ingrained in Henry's body as if they had been tempered through countless trials, no different from those he had painstakingly trained himself.
As Henry had expected, 7 minutes had passed.
He focused his attention on the skills displayed on the panel.
[Skills: Rifle Shooting LV4, Pistol Shooting LV3, Horsemanship LV4, Lasso LV4, skill Flying Dagger LV3, Demolition LV3, Heavy Artillery LV3, Reconnaissance LV3, Lockpicking LV4, Piano LV4, Boxing LV1; Swift Sword LV1, Swimming LV1, Billiards LV1, Skiing LV1]
He felt that the Piano LV4 was particularly glaring, like a wild duck mixed in with a flock of swans.
Among the six skills acquired this time, only Piano and Lockpicking were LV4.
Moreover, the feedback from the panel informed Henry that unless the target's skill level was at least 3 levels higher than his own panel's, he couldn't extract and overwrite the same skill.
However, any skill that could be extracted had to be at least LV3, which was already the level of an industry elite.
But it wasn't a guarantee that a deceased bandit with LV3 or higher skills would necessarily have extractable skills; the proportion of extractable skills was very low.
It seemed that many elites were among those bandits who had survived for years.
In other words, the five skills on Henry's panel that were only LV1 could only hope to be rapidly improved in the future by extracting equivalent skills of LV4 or higher.
Other skills could basically only be improved through diligent self-practice or by adding points.
Just by seeing the power of Brian's Rifle LV4 skill, one could understand how difficult it was to reach such a rare, one-in-ten-thousand level.
Those without talent would probably never reach it, even if they practiced until the end of time.
As for LV5, Henry could only hope to try it when he accumulated 1000 gray beads in the future to feel how powerful it would be.
At this moment, the LV1 skills on the panel were flashing—Henry had just absorbed the energy from 10 white beads and 1 green bead, which was equivalent to 60 Level 1 gray beads of energy, enough to raise a skill to LV2.
Henry focused his thoughts on the 66 gray beads and silently chanted: "Use 40."
Instantly, 40 gray beads turned into dusty empty shells, and at the same time, the LV3 skills on the panel also began to flash.
The energy of 100 Level 1 gray beads could raise a skill from LV3 to LV4.
Henry upgraded skill Flying Dagger to LV4.
Instantly, the panel stopped flashing, and Henry was once again enveloped by a warm sensation appearing out of thin air. A large amount of skill Flying Dagger techniques and usage experience surged into the depths of his brain.
One minute later, the upgrade was complete.
There were no silent pistols in this era, and even if there were, ordinary people couldn't get them.
Improving skill Flying Dagger would be very useful in many situations, and Henry was about to use it.
With a thought, Henry retrieved two sets of throwing knives from his storage space.
These throwing knives measured 15cm x 2cm x 0.3cm, were made of steel, weighed about 40 grams, had sharpened tips, and came with a set of six in a sheath.
There were ten sets of throwing knives in the space, totaling 60 knives.
He removed all these throwing knives from their sheaths and then put them back into the space, allowing for instant retrieval.
These throwing knives were not used by the bandit who provided the LV3 experience; instead, he obtained them by looting bodies at Jackal Hill.
As for lock-picking tools, Henry acquired a simple set, a combination of wire, hooks, and tooth molds, similar to a "master key" from the 21st century.
The complete set should be on the body of the bandit killed this afternoon; he would check the police station tomorrow to see if he could find it.
As for that peculiar sense of danger, Henry was convinced that he must possess a talent, but the Level 2 panel couldn't manifest it yet; it would probably only appear at Level 3.
Now, below the progress bar, there were 45 gray bead shells, 13 white bead shells, and 3 green bead shells.
He only had 26 Level 1 gray beads as release beads.
He did not plan to use these gray beads for now, just in case he suffered from negative statuses such as injury, severe illness, or poisoning.
Huh?
When Henry focused his attention on these release bead shells, he received feedback—when Henry was in a vehicle, the bulletproof range of the empty shells was a sphere with a radius equal to the panel's level in meters, with double the consumption.
His current panel level was 2, so the coverage was a sphere with a radius of 2 meters, centered on his abdomen.
If Henry was riding a horse, he could completely cover the horse within the bulletproof range.
This would prevent him from worrying about his warhorse getting shot and causing him to fall off, as happened this afternoon.
Moreover, Henry could actively use his thoughts to prevent this coverage.
Of course, a larger coverage area would significantly increase the chance of being hit, and the consumption of bulletproof empty shells would definitely increase, becoming even greater with the doubling effect.
However, it was all worth it.
With the temporary upgrades complete and his satisfaction, Henry went downstairs and out, using the cover of night and the shadows of houses to stealthily move towards Ronald's house, over 400 meters away.
One chapter is updated daily at 00:01 AM and 01:01 PM.
Many thanks to the familiar and warm Nuan Nuan for the bug corrections!
Many thanks to fellow reader Lietu Fenghou for the 100-point reward!
This is also the author's first reward, so an extra chapter will be added. Many thanks!