One of the Polluters was swiftly taken down.
The pressure on Wang Meng's team immediately lightened.
The beautiful girl holding the staff, her eyes sparkling with excitement, exclaimed, "Someone's helping us! Could it be the Shadow from the rankings?"
In truth, with her face and body covered in mud and her health barely hanging on, her beauty was hard to discern. Only her captivating figure remained, naturally drawing a few extra glances. Her long, slender legs moved gracefully, displaying a lively agility that exuded energy and flexibility.
"Hold on!" Wang Meng urged as his skill cooldown ended.
With a grim expression, he activated Divine Shield. A golden light enveloped his sturdy frame, granting him three seconds of invincibility, buying precious moments under the relentless attacks of the Swift Runner.
The rest of the team now had room to maneuver.
With one Polluter down, the threat from long-range attacks diminished significantly.
Almost half a minute later, Qin Feng appeared again behind another Polluter.
Without any warning, he struck swiftly, once again instantly killing the Polluter.
"No evolution points..."
"Greedy Hand!"
"Huh, a skill book dropped?"
Qin Feng casually picked up the skill book that the Polluter dropped. He checked his inventory:
[Venomous Dart (Normal)]: Assassin skill. Throws a venomous dart up to 12 meters. Inflicts 40 attack damage and applies the 'Venomous' status. Cooldown: 5 seconds. Requirement: Level 2.
[Venomous]: Deals 30% of attack power per second as damage over five seconds. Cannot stack.
Finally, an attack skill, and one with mid-range and sustained damage!
Even for ordinary players, learning a skill like this early on could dramatically speed up their progression. However...
Skill books dropped by regular monsters were rare. Out of the many regular monsters Qin Feng had killed, only two had dropped skill books.
The first was a Crawler, which dropped the 'Ice Spike' spellbook, and now this one, fetched by Greedy Hand.
"Equipment and skill books still have higher drop rates from bosses..."
"But for ordinary players, without the basic equipment and skills, defeating even the weakest bronze-level boss is nearly impossible."
Qin Feng reflected on this as he spent 3 evolution points to evolve the Venomous Dart twice.
[Venomous Dart (Normal → Bronze → Silver)]: Assassin skill. Throws a venomous dart up to 12→13→14 meters. Inflicts 40→80→120 attack damage and applies the 'Venomous' status. Cooldown: 5 seconds. Requirement: Level 2.
[Venomous]: Deals 30%→40%→50% attack power per second as damage over five seconds. Cannot stack.
After two evolutions, the total damage of this skill more than doubled!
Qin Feng acted swiftly, picking up the skill book, learning it, and evolving it, all in one smooth motion.
Before the last Polluter could react, turning to aim a mud attack at him, Qin Feng raised his hand, launching a Venomous Dart.
The dart struck the Polluter's head with pinpoint accuracy.
Unlike new players, who would struggle with such precision, Qin Feng's nine years of experience in the forsaken game made him a master of long-range attacks.
The Venomous Dart hit the head directly, triggering a weak spot attack.
-237 (Weak Spot)!
The damage might not seem high due to the lack of stealth, backstab bonuses, or Shadow class passives that double damage. But right after attacking, Qin Feng vanished.
The Polluter, now green from the venom, saw two more damage numbers pop up above its head.
-158!
-158!
Two ticks of the venom's damage took their toll, and the Polluter finally collapsed.
"This sustained damage is pretty high."
"And when I attack and then go into stealth, the damage gets doubled by my class passive?"
Qin Feng quickly noticed this detail, realizing that Shadow's third passive doubled damage when not in enemy sight.
This advantage explained the doubled damage from sustained effects after going stealth.
Unfortunately, the last Polluter also dropped nothing valuable.
Now only the bronze-level boss, the Swift Runner, remained.
Wang Meng was already drenched in sweat. "I can't hold on much longer."
The team's middle-aged priestess was casting healing spells non-stop, but the effect was limited. Wang Meng's health bar continued to drop steadily toward zero.
Clearly, despite reaching level 2 by killing small monsters, the team hadn't gotten any useful gear or skill books, leaving their combat strategy quite basic.
Just then, a figure suddenly appeared behind the Swift Runner.
Timing his attack perfectly, Qin Feng launched a Venomous Dart just as the Swift Runner lunged at Wang Meng, hitting the boss squarely in the head.
-845 (Weak Spot)!
The attack landed with precision, maximizing stealth, backstab, and weak spot damage.
Wang Meng and his team, who were tense with worry, stared wide-eyed as the boss's health bar dropped by half in an instant.
"Holy crap!" Wang Meng couldn't help but curse.
Their entire team had barely scratched the boss after all this time, and now, a single attack from this mysterious figure had cut its health by half.
And that was just the dart's base damage!
The true terror was yet to come.
-324!
-324!
-324!
-324!
With the Swift Runner turning green from the venom, four continuous damage ticks sealed its fate. The boss collapsed before it could even struggle.
Of course, Wang Meng and his team couldn't see Qin Feng's damage numbers.
They only saw the boss's health bar plunging with each tick, their hearts racing in unison.
Witnessing the seemingly invincible bronze-level boss succumb to the venom, the team was left in awe.
"That damage… Is he even human?"
"Wait, is this guy really a player who started the game at the same time as us?"
"You guys don't get it. The key is how he hit the boss's head with that dart, even with the boss moving erratically!"
"Exactly, we struggled to land a hit on the boss, and he nails the weak spot with ease…"
The six of them inhaled sharply, their eyes fixed on the loot dropped by the boss.
Yet, they knew they had no claim over it. In the forsaken game, loot ownership was determined by the highest damage dealer, whether it was a team or an individual.
Since Qin Feng dealt 90% of the boss's health, all the loot rightfully belonged to him.