After finishing a harmonious dinner and bidding farewell to William's family, when Henry returned to his own home over 300 meters away, it was already past 8:30 PM.
Henry's house was also a Victorian-style two-story wooden house, with each floor covering over 200 square meters.
The first floor had a living room, study, storage room, kitchen, and a training room.
The second floor had three bedrooms, one bathroom, and one storage room.
The training room had hanging punching bags, boxing gloves, and two rapiers.
Although Henry felt sticky all over, he didn't rush to wash up.
He focused his consciousness on the progress bar and panel.
[Name: Henry Bruce (Lucas Warren)
Level: 2
Health: 100%
Constitution: LV2
Skills: Rifle Shooting LV4; Pistol Shooting LV3; Horsemanship LV4; Lasso LV4; Boxing LV1; Rapier 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 were 5 gray bead shells, 3 white bead shells, and 2 green bead shells.
There were also 66 gray beads, 10 white beads, and 1 green bead.
Among the 10 white beads, 6 contained skill essence, as did the green bead.
Very good—once the gray bead count reached 100, the progress bar automatically updated and the panel advanced to level 2.
Henry focused his consciousness on the dark gold sphere, and the storage space's radius expanded to 2 meters, with a volume of 33.49 cubic meters.
Then he focused his consciousness on "Constitution" and received feedback—it would require 400 gray beads to upgrade to LV3.
His current Liberation Bead count was equivalent to 126 gray beads, still far from enough.
Focusing his consciousness on skills, he received feedback—LV4 represented one-in-ten-thousand top-tier level, master-level ability; LV1 was entry level, equivalent to about 3 years of diligent practice by an ordinary person.
Upgrading from LV4 to LV5 required 1000 gray beads, which was temporarily out of reach.
Upgrading from LV1 to LV2 only required 10 gray beads.
Henry locked the front door, then went upstairs to the storage room, locked the door, and sat on a wooden stool, taking out his Patek Philippe gold pocket watch and opening the cover to place it aside.
The time showed 8:46:46 PM.
Henry focused his consciousness on the white and green beads, thinking: Use all white beads and green beads.
Henry was instantly surrounded by warm breath again, and memories appeared in his mind—his perception was particularly acute, his intuition amazing, and he could often avoid danger before it arrived.
Then came extensive tracking and counter-tracking techniques and experience.
Followed by extensive lockpicking techniques and experience, throwing knife techniques and usage experience, experience using black powder and detonators for blasting, cannon and howitzer operation experience, and piano theory and playing experience.
After a long while, the memory infusion stopped, and these skills were deeply imprinted in Henry's body as if through countless refinements, no different from skills he had practiced himself.
As Henry expected, 7 minutes had passed.
He focused his attention on the skills section of the panel.
[Skills: Rifle Shooting LV4; Pistol Shooting LV3; Horsemanship LV4; Lasso LV4; Throwing Knives LV3; Demolition LV3; Heavy Artillery LV3; Reconnaissance LV3; Lockpicking LV4; Piano LV4; Boxing LV1; Rapier LV1; Swimming LV1; Billiards LV1; Skiing LV1]
The Piano LV4 felt particularly jarring, like a wild duck mixed into a flock of swans.
Among the six skills acquired this time, only piano and lockpicking reached LV4.
Moreover, the panel's feedback let Henry know: unless the target's skill level was 3 levels higher than what was on his panel, he couldn't extract the same skill to overwrite it.
However, any skill that could be extracted necessarily reached LV3 or above, already at industry elite level.
But not every LV3+ skill possessed by dead bandits could necessarily be extracted—the extraction rate was very low.
It seemed many of those who could survive as bandits for years were elites.
This meant Henry's five LV1 skills on the panel could only hope to extract LV4+ equivalent skills in the future for rapid advancement.
Other skills could basically only be improved through his own practice or point allocation.
Seeing Bryan's LV4 rifle skill's power showed how difficult it was to reach such one-in-ten-thousand level.
People without talent probably couldn't 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 experience how powerful it would be.
At this moment, several LV1 skills on the panel were flashing—Henry had just absorbed energy from 10 white beads and 1 green bead, equivalent to 60 first-level gray beads of energy, enough to upgrade skills to LV2.
Henry focused his consciousness on the 66 gray beads, thinking: Use 40.
Instantly, 40 gray beads became gray shells, while LV3 skills on the panel also began flashing.
Energy from 100 first-level gray beads could upgrade skills from LV3 to LV4.
Henry upgraded throwing knives to LV4.
The panel instantly stopped flashing, and Henry was again surrounded by warm breath that appeared from nowhere, with extensive throwing knife techniques and usage experience flooding his mind.
One minute later, the upgrade was complete.
In this era, there were no silenced pistols, and even if there were, ordinary people couldn't get them.
Upgrading throwing knives would be very useful in many situations, and Henry would need to use it soon.
With a thought, Henry retrieved two sets of throwing knives from his storage space.
These throwing knives measured 15cm×2cm×0.3cm, were made of steel, weighed about 40 grams each, had sharpened tips, and came six to a sheath.
There were ten sets of throwing knives in the space, totaling 60 knives.
He took all these throwing knives out of their sheaths and stored them in the space, allowing for instant retrieval.
These throwing knives weren't from the bandit who had provided LV3 experience, but obtained from looting at Coyote Hill.
As for lockpicking tools, Henry had acquired a simple set—combination picking tools made of steel wire, iron hooks, and tooth templates, similar to 21st-century "master keys."
The complete set should be on the bodies of bandits killed this afternoon—he'd check at the police station tomorrow.
As for that mysterious danger premonition, Henry was certain he had acquired a talent, but the level 2 panel couldn't manifest it yet—it would probably appear at level 3.
Now below the progress bar were 45 gray bead shells, 13 white bead shells, and 3 green bead shells.
He only had 26 first-level gray Liberation Beads remaining.
He temporarily didn't plan to use these gray beads, in case of injuries, serious illness, poisoning, or other negative conditions.
Huh?
When Henry focused his attention on these Liberation Bead shells, he received feedback—when Henry rode transportation, the shell's bulletproof range was a sphere with radius equal to his panel level in meters, with double consumption.
His current panel level was 2, so the coverage was a sphere with a 2-meter radius centered on his abdomen.
If Henry rode a horse, he could completely cover the horse within the bulletproof range.
He wouldn't have to worry like this afternoon about his warhorse being shot and causing him to fall.
Moreover, Henry could actively prevent this coverage with his consciousness.
Of course, with larger coverage area, the chance of being hit increased greatly, and the consumption of bulletproof shells would definitely increase, especially with the doubling effect.
However, all of this was worth it.
Having completed his temporary upgrades, the satisfied Henry went downstairs and left the house, using the cover of night and building shadows to stealthily approach Ronald's house over 400 meters away.