Horde of Creepers

[You have killed 'Sprint Runner (Bronze-tier)'.]

[You have gained 600 experience points.]

[Congratulations! You have reached Level 3!]

[Congratulations! You have gained 2 evolution points!]

[You have obtained 55 days of tradeable lifespan.]

The moment the boss collapsed, a series of system notifications echoed in Riven's mind.

After throwing the Toxic Dagger, he immediately activated Shadow Step, vanishing back into stealth.

"Right now, Shadow Step's cooldown is still 26 seconds… That's a bit too long."

"It's affecting my efficiency in farming monsters…"

"But since I have evolution points, it's best to evolve Greedy Hand first."

Riven thought to himself.

Silently, he approached the Sprint Runner's corpse and picked up the loot.

To Marcus and his team, this scene looked incredibly eerie.

They hadn't seen a single figure.

Yet, the loot next to the boss's corpse suddenly vanished into thin air?

"Friend, thank you."

Marcus knew the expert was still nearby, so he clasped his hands in gratitude toward the empty space, speaking with sincerity.

"Thank me?"

Riven's voice echoed from all directions, carrying a cold detachment. "In the wilderness, don't trust others so easily…"

Hearing this, Marcus's expression grew solemn. "I understand. Thank you for the warning, brother."

In Eclipse of Eternity, only towns were safe zones.

Outside the town, players could kill other players. If a player died, they would lose half of both their tradeable lifespan and non-tradeable lifespan!

Of course, only tradeable lifespan could be looted by other players.

As for non-tradeable lifespan, it couldn't be directly obtained, unless absorbed by a monster. Only by killing that monster afterward could 50% of the lifespan be reclaimed…

Clearly, if Riven had ill intentions toward Marcus's team, he could easily eliminate them. But there was no need. They were too poor—nothing worth looting!

At this moment, Marcus also realized this.

If this expert had truly wanted to kill them, he wouldn't have warned them at all.

This made Marcus even more grateful.

"Then we'll be on our way. We won't disturb you while you check your loot. My name is Marcus Strong. If you ever need help in the future, just let me know."

Marcus was quick-witted. After speaking, he prepared to lead his team away.

However, the mud-covered ponytailed girl suddenly waved her hand excitedly.

"Big bro, big bro! I'm Black Yefa Nali! Can I add you as a friend?"

"…"

Hearing this absurd in-game name, Riven almost burst out laughing.

Of course, he recognized this girl—at least, from his past life.

Her real name was Lina Faye. Her father's last name was Faye, and her mother's last name was Lina. That's how Black Yefa Nali was born…

She was indeed beautiful, lively, and had a fiery figure.

As for her class, it was the hidden profession Seer, which was significantly stronger than ordinary mages.

In his past life, Riven had teamed up with her a few times.

"Looks like her start is the same as before—teaming up with Marcus right away."

"Later, she became an official representative of the Great Empire of Ross…"

Riven shook his head slightly.

There was no need to get involved with her now.

So, he simply said, "Sorry, I'm not interested."

The girl was unwilling to give up and tried to pester him further. But before she could, the middle-aged priestess in their team sighed helplessly, grabbed her by the arm, and dragged her away…

Watching their backs as they left, Riven felt a bit nostalgic.

Marcus's profession, Holy Shield Warrior, was definitely tanky.

And that middle-aged priestess? She was also a hidden class—Oracle Priest, whose healing output was twice that of an ordinary healer.

If not for that, their team wouldn't have survived this long.

"My attacks seem like instant kills…"

"But because of Shadow Step's cooldown, my attack intervals are too long."

"From start to finish, it took nearly two minutes to deal with this boss and three Polluters…"

Two minutes.

For an ordinary team, they would've been completely wiped out by the Sprint Runner in that time…

Riven shook his head, not thinking too much about it.

This fight had been extremely rewarding!

After Marcus's team left, Riven activated Greedy Hand on the Sprint Runner's corpse.

[Congratulations! You have gained 2 evolution points!]

[You have obtained 55 days of tradeable lifespan.]

A single bronze-tier boss had granted him a total of 4 evolution points, 110 days of tradeable lifespan, and five loot drops.

"Not bad."

"Three of the drops are equipment, and two are skill books…"

Only one of the equipment pieces was useful to him.

In Eclipse of Eternity, with so many professions, it was common to get loot for other classes.

[Sprint Runner's Hide Legguards (Bronze): Assassin-class gear. Physical Defense +9, All Elemental Resistances +5. Cooldown Speed +15%. Requirement: Level 2]

The defense and elemental resistance weren't particularly useful to Riven.

But that 15% cooldown speed? Now that was nice.

He equipped it immediately!

Shadow Step's cooldown dropped from 26 seconds to 22.61 seconds—pretty effective.

In Eclipse of Eternity, there was no concept of cooldown reduction, only cooldown speed.

In the late game, players could stack cooldown speed into the hundreds of percent.

For example, 400% cooldown speed meant cooldowns were four times faster, effectively reducing the cooldown to one-fifth of its original time. A skill that originally had a 20-second cooldown would now only take 4 seconds.

In simple terms:

Final Cooldown Time = Base Cooldown Time / (1 + Cooldown Speed).

"Time to keep farming."

"Just one more evolution point, and I can evolve Greedy Hand to Emerald-tier."

Riven remained in stealth as he advanced deeper into the Darkwood Forest.

Meanwhile, his tradeable lifespan had already reached 268 days!

"I've also picked up a lot of gear and skill books for other professions."

"Once my inventory is full, I'll head back to town and trade everything for lifespan…"

"After that, I can start considering transferring gear and skills into reality!"

At this moment, Riven's combat strength and resource reserves were already on par with what took him one or two days to achieve in his past life.

That might sound slow… But, there was a reason for it.

As more players gathered in towns, the monsters outside would also begin to cluster together.

New players would find it increasingly difficult to hunt monsters!

In fact, many player squads ended up being hunted by monsters, constantly losing lifespan!

For example, back in Shell Town…

Marcus and his hidden-class team had already returned to an area closer to town, where only Level 1 monsters spawned.

But to their shock, they soon saw a six-player team being surrounded by over a dozen Creepers!

If it were just one Creeper, most teams could handle it.

But…

Over a dozen?!

"So many Creepers?! What the hell is this?!"

A young man in the besieged team cursed in panic—before being tackled by three Creepers and torn apart!