Chapter 60: A Star

Kazht's power was truly not to be underestimated.

Even at a disadvantage, once he was hit head-on, the situation would instantly flip upside down.

The fact that Alex had been avoiding the battle earlier wasn't entirely due to Kazht's formidable power.

In his opinion, since he was able to easily kite Kazht to death, why would he risk a melee fight?

It was just that Kazht had changed his strategy in time, sacrificing his defense for speed, thus sticking to him and forcing him to take the fight head-on.

In this situation, Alex had no choice but to engage.

The punch that contained the strongest power he had at this stage hit Kazht's wounds in a rather underhanded manner.

This punch not only beat Kazht to the point where he suffered internal injuries, but it also crushed Kazht's guesses mercilessly.

Kazht thought that Alex's strength couldn't be that strong.

Otherwise, Alex wouldn't have avoided the battle altogether if he really had the strength.

Therefore, when Kazht attacked Alex, he could be said to have left no room for error.

But after receiving a punch from Alex, Kazht realized that he was wrong.

And he was so wrong.

"You..."

Kazht glared at Alex in anger, and just as the words left his mouth, he spat out another mouthful of blood.

He really couldn't understand what Alex was doing.

He clearly had the strength to fight head-on, but he had to engage in some underhanded tactics to disgust people.

"Me?"

Alex smiled.

"Shameless...!"

Kazht endured the pain that churned in his abdomen and could only use these two short words to express his feelings.

Bang!

Without warning, Alex pulled out his flintlock pistol and shot toward Kazht's uninjured knee.

Plop!

The lead bullet pierced into Kazht's knee, bursting out a blinding flower of blood.

"What did you just say?"

Alex slowly put away his pistol.

The sound of the gunshot was just enough to cover what Kazht said afterward, causing Alex to not hear it.

Kazht stared at Alex with his eyes wide open, and after half a second, there was another roar that resounded through the night sky.

"Usopp!"

Suddenly, Kazht's entire body transformed.

However, instead of attacking Alex, he turned decisively and ran toward the shore, dragging his injuries.

Alex raised an eyebrow and chased after Kazht.

A few seconds later, Alex gripped his dagger and pointed it straight at the back of Kazht's heart.

Right at that moment, Kazht turned violently, and the violent movement caused the wound on the inner side of his thigh to collapse, splashing out arrows of blood.

However, he didn't even frown.

[Double Strike]

With a ruthless look on his face, Kazht struck out with his left hoof first, aiming at Alex's throat.

Alex raised his dagger in an attempt to block this death-defying counterstrike from Kazht.

Clang!

The strong force knocked Alex's dagger away, and it landed in the sea.

Joy swept across Kazht's eyes, and his right hoof came out immediately, aiming for Alex's chest.

If he hit it, he was confident that he could take Alex's life in one move, thus instantly reversing the situation.

However, Kazht didn't see the slight smirk on the corner of Alex's mouth.

The black hooves pressed in!

Alex fiercely shortened his body, allowing that black hoof to graze his scalp.

Clank!

Dodging the black hooves, Alex drew out the Dark Raven with his right hand, and between flexing his elbow and stretching, he stabbed into Kazht's heart with an unskilled stab.

The sharp blade instantly pierced a third of the way in.

Kazht's body, which was maintaining the stance of the move, suddenly shook, and he looked down and froze at the long knife that pierced into his heart.

Without giving Kazht any chance to catch his breath, Alex fiercely pressed his other hand toward the hilt of the knife, and his foot simultaneously advanced forward.

Snort!

The blood-stained blade abruptly drilled out of the back of Kazht's heart.

Thump...

Alex propelled Kazht's body until he nailed Kazht to the top of the mast before stopping.

"Shot in the knee and you're still thinking about running for your life? I wouldn't believe it if you believed yourself."

Alex curtailed his laughter and looked at Kazht's twisted expression of indignation and resignation with a blank face.

"In fact, there is originally no grievance between us. It is just...that I need some stepping stones."

Alex drew the Dark Raven back, while taking two steps back, watching the dead-eyed Kazht fall softly to the ground.

Around them, the remnants of the Pointed Bull Pirates were all looking at the scene in front of them in disbelief.

"Captain Kazht!!!"

Alex, on the other hand, was holding the bloodstained Dark Raven and inclined his head to look at them.

The blood aura that had not dissipated caused the remaining members of the Pointed Bull Pirates to tremble on the spot, not daring to move.

"Right now, it's not the right time ah..."

Alex's eyes were lowered.

Within his consciousness, above the cover of the notes, the "☆" located on the right side of the physique had turned into a solid "★".

"Sure enough, it's filled up, huh? It's coming..."

Alex's heart was delighted, followed by subconsciously gripping the hilt of the blade with force.

In vain, a marvelous feeling like a hundred pairs of luxuriant jade hands gently kneaded on top of Alex's spirit.

Unexplainable comfort made the six senses become extremely sharp in an instant.

At the same time, warm currents flowed through his limbs and bones.

Every sinew, every cell, as if it was deeply sunk into warm and soft cotton.

It was also like an inch of just the right massage that had never been missed.

Sour and numb, exceptionally comfortable.

Alex slowly closed his eyes and immersed himself in this long-lost deconstruction.

The six senses that were instantly heightened by the short, but can always lock the remnants of the Pointed Bull Pirate group on the deck, as well as "see" the crowd swarming out of the shadows.

The remnants of the Pirates watched as Alex suddenly closed his eyes, and immediately afterward, they heard the sound of firecrackers coming from Alex's body.

I don't know whether it was an illusion or not, but they felt that Alex's body had slightly bulged.

While looking at each other in dismay, they wanted to make a move, but they had the feeling of being stared at by a fierce beast, so they could only freeze in place.

A moment later, Alex opened his eyes.

The baptism had ended.

"Comfortable."

Sheathing the Dark Crow, Alex couldn't help but stretch.

A solid star representing his physique made him take the first important step.

At the same time, based on the characteristics of the Hunter's Notes, the metaphorical ceiling of the physique of the pirate world was ten stars.

Alex was well aware that the further along he went, the more difficult it would be to form a star frame as well as fill it.

It was an even tougher and longer road to raise a requirement to ten stars.

In his previous life, due to filling up the requirements too quickly, it resulted in a serious diversion of [earnings] in the early stages.

Therefore, until he was killed by the unreasonable [Wishing Machine], even if Alex had opportunistically gone to brush a few waves of experience, the highest of the four requirements was only four stars out.

Having had one experience, Alex actually considered raising the star level of [Physique] alone first, but that would be too extreme, so he called it quits.

The current needs in terms of Physique and Blade Skill would allow for a more focused experience gain in the early stages.

As for the next need, it was undoubtedly Hegemony.

But considering the premise of unknown own talent and the scarcity of prey, Alex was not in a hurry to fill the demand.

If one had a Seeing Color Hegemony talent above the qualifying line, then one could consider filling in the demand for a single item such as Armed Color Hegemony as a way to accelerate the speed of star leveling.

The opposite was also true.

Alex no longer thought much about it and turned to look at the shore.

Dense and hurried footsteps came from the shore.

The pirates with blades in their hands, who came with bad intentions, tumbled onto the Pointed Bull Pirate Ship one after another.

In an instant, there were seventy to eighty pirates on the deck, divided into three groups.

This group of pirates looked toward the corpses all over the ground.

At the sight of Kazht's corpse, they all leapt over their heads and turned to look at Alex in silence.

They were like jackals; although they had gathered in a crowd, they would only get stuck between advancing and retreating.

They would not take the initiative to attack their prey, nor would they easily give up their prey.

Rather, they would wait for the prey to fall before opening their bloody mouths to eat its flesh and blood.

Alex saw the other party's intentions at a glance.

Compared to the property of the Pointed Bull Pirates, Alex was more concerned about the prey named Gabaldon.

Coldly scanning this group of wolves, Alex walked toward the shore.

When the pirates who came to grab food saw Alex take a step, they all secretly gulped and withdrew a step backward while making an avenue.

Ignoring them, Alex stepped across the avenue and disembarked from the ship to leave.

"Gulp."

After Alex walked away, there was a pirate who had been closest before who swallowed hard.

"Alex, it's too scary."

That pirate's legs trembled slightly.

Just now, he was only a few steps away from Alex.

When Alex walked past, the image of himself being chopped into several pieces by Alex's knife inexplicably popped up in his head.

Around him, no one was making fun of this pirate's reaction.

The Pointed Bull Pirates, surprisingly, fell into the hands of this teenager named Alex.

While marveling, their eyes filled with greed suddenly looked toward those few members of the Pointed Bull Pirates.