Creeper

"Hey, where did the person go?"

Elara and the other five were left staring in confusion.

They looked around but couldn't find any trace of Riven.

The tall male assassin in their group was a bit dazed, "Is this some kind of invisibility skill? Does this profession have invisibility as a starting skill? That's so overpowered."

He had chosen the 'Assassin' class, which didn't come with invisibility as a starting skill.

The group searched for a while but couldn't find Riven. Not daring to leave the safety zone, they reluctantly returned to Shell Town.

Elara spoke in a low voice, "It's too dangerous outside. We died once, and our remaining lifespans are halved. Let's search the town first, see if we can find something useful."

The soft-spoken long-haired girl brightened up, "Right, right! Let's look for treasure chests or NPCs."

The tall male assassin maintained a positive attitude, chuckling, "You guys are so nervous. Although this Eclipse of Eternal game is a bit weird, the idea that it can affect our lifespans? That's pure fantasy... I think we should just go out and finish off that Creeper."

Another male warrior said, "I agree. We almost took half of its health. I'm afraid it's going to be easy pickings for that guy we saw earlier."

Elara sneered, "With our five people's output, we barely got half the health of the Creeper down. He's probably relying on invisibility to save himself and thinks he can kill the Creeper? In his dreams."

...

Of course, Riven had no idea about Elara and the others' choices.

Even if he did, he wouldn't care.

Because there was nothing in the initial town that would help improve a player's power. It was just a safe place for players to rest.

At this moment, Riven used his 'Shadow Step' skill and walked across the dark, scorched earth.

Once invisible, all sounds—footsteps, breathing, heartbeat—were erased!

Aside from the collision volume, everything else made it seem as though the person didn't exist.

To see an invisible unit, there was only one way: an anti-invisibility skill.

Of course, Riven's class, Shadow, naturally came with a "+1 to invisibility level."

At this stage, no player or even wild monsters in the field could detect his invisibility...

Soon, Riven left the town and walked over 100 meters, arriving at a sparse forest.

From a distance, he spotted the shadow of a Creeper resting among the trees.

[Creeper (Lv1)]

[Rank: Normal (Evolving...)]

"Did this thing just kill those five players and is now digesting their lifespans?"

Riven narrowed his eyes.

He had seen this kind of thing many times in his previous life.

After hunting down players' lifespans, monsters needed time to evolve. This Creeper seemed rather greedy.

It had already hunted five players, and it could have found a safe place to evolve, but it stayed here, clearly wanting to kill more...

"Since that's the case, then spit out the lifespan for me."

Riven found a hidden corner.

When his invisibility wore off, he immediately activated 'Shadow Step' again. The two uses of invisibility merged seamlessly.

With the broken iron short sword in hand, Riven silently approached the Creeper.

Getting closer, he could even smell the rotting stench from the Creeper—it was foul.

The shadowy figure became clearer, revealing a faceless humanoid with gray skin, long limbs, crouching beside a tree, surrounded by gray-white mist.

That gray-white mist was the visible form of lifespan.

It indicated the Creeper was consuming lifespan to try to evolve.

"Lifespan that hasn't been digested by monsters will, after their death, be converted into loot in a certain proportion..."

Riven didn't hesitate.

Remaining invisible, he approached the Creeper from behind and struck!

The broken iron short sword appeared from the darkness, turning into a glint of cold light, accurately landing on the Creeper's neck.

The 'neck' was one of the Creeper's weak points. If you hit it, the damage would increase by 50%, meaning 1.5 times the damage.

-372 (Critical Hit)!

With a single strike, the Creeper's neck began to bleed gray-white blood and collapsed to the ground, paralyzed!

"This Shadow class is too strong!"

Riven was shocked himself.

But he knew very well that it wasn't just because of the Shadow class.

Most of his damage came from the 'Shadow Step' skill, which had evolved twice.

The additional 90 points of attack power made his damage multiply by two or three times.

If it had been the basic 'Shadow Step' skill, his damage wouldn't have even been half of what it was now.

[You have killed 'Creeper (Lv1)'.]

[You have gained 10 experience points.]

In addition, there was gray-white mist forming a fist-sized orb above the Creeper's corpse. That was the visible lifespan, and it could be collected.

Riven reached out and grasped the gray-white mist...

[You have gained 3 days of lifespan (tradeable).]

[You have gained 54 years and 155 days of lifespan (non-tradeable).]

The system prompt sounded, and Riven shook his head.

"They killed five people. Each one probably lost twenty or thirty years of lifespan, at least over 100 years combined."

"But from the Creeper, only 54 years came out..."

"Well, no worries. Non-tradeable lifespan isn't useful for now."

Riven knew this well.

As long as a person is alive, they will consume non-tradeable lifespan every second, but for now, it doesn't serve any other purpose.

It's only the tradeable lifespan that matters!

"By consuming tradeable lifespan, you can extract equipment, skills, and professions into reality!"

"But killing a small monster only gives three days of tradeable lifespan... that's too little."

"I can't extract any equipment or skills with that."

"I'll just keep looking for more monsters."

Riven didn't think about it for long.

Gray-white mist swirled around his body and was slowly absorbed.

He reached down and picked up two more loot items from the Creeper's body.

One was equipment, and the other was a skill book.

[Rotten Hide Boots (Low): Gray quality. Physical defense +3, movement speed +5%. Equipment requirement: Level 1]

[Skill Book: Ice Spear (Normal): White quality. Mage class skill book. Learning requirement: Level 1]

The Creeper was a level 1 ordinary monster.

The loot it dropped was mostly poor quality, with a small chance of being normal.

"Two items at once, not bad."

"Too bad neither of these helps me much..."

Riven put on the Rotten Hide Boots.

He felt a little regretful.

This monster didn't give him any evolution points, and it wasn't enough to level him up.

Riven continued to use 'Shadow Step' and walked deeper into the forest...

Meanwhile, inside Shell Town, other players began to venture out to explore.

Some formed teams, while others, unafraid, ran out alone.

Before long, a young couple arrived at the spot where RivenH had just killed the Creeper and immediately noticed its corpse.

"Did someone kill a monster here?"

"Looks like this game isn't so hard. I told you not to be so nervous, haha."

"Sienna, watch out. If a monster shows up, I'll handle it and kill it for you!"

However, the couple didn't notice...

Above them, on a tree, a large shadow appeared!