When Riven saw the 'Sprint Runner,' he instinctively checked his agility.
Due to his Shadow class bonus and the agility bonus from the Bronze-tier 'Corroded Dagger,' Riven's agility attribute had now reached 34 points.
In the Eclipse of Eternity game, doubling agility didn't mean doubling movement speed.
Instead, there's a related calculation formula.
"With the initial 10 points of agility, the normal movement speed is about 3 meters per second, and at full sprint, it reaches 9.5 meters per second."
"Now that I have 34 points of agility, my normal movement speed is 5.83 meters per second, and at full sprint, I can reach 17 to 18 meters per second."
Riven's speed was nearly double that of some new players!
Even so, it was just enough to match the 'Sprint Runner's' speed.
"That's enough."
"As long as I can catch up to the Sprint Runner, I don't need to worry about it escaping."
Riven hid in the shadows and looked ahead.
He saw that the Sprint Runner was chasing a group of players.
The leader of the group was a burly man, holding a low-quality shield, trying to block the Sprint Runner's attacks while retreating.
This burly man was the second-ranked player in Shell Town, codenamed 'Marcus Strong!'
Behind him were five players with hidden classes, all releasing skills with serious expressions, attacking the Sprint Runner.
Unfortunately...
No matter if they were archers or mages, the two ranged classes, a man and a woman, couldn't land a hit on the Sprint Runner!
Meanwhile, the Sprint Runner darted back and forth, using its corrupted claws and sharp fangs to quickly reduce the health of the 'Holy Shield Warrior' class Marcus by half.
It's important to know that the Holy Shield Warrior had high basic tankiness.
His health and defense were over 30% higher than those of other new players.
During the process of their team leveling up to level 2, Marcus had been in the front, taking all the hits, and they hadn't encountered anything too dangerous.
But now…
Facing this Bronze-tier BOSS, the Sprint Runner, Marcus clearly couldn't hold up anymore.
On the other hand, the Sprint Runner still had at least 90% of its health left!
At this moment, the young 'Sharp-eyed Archer' in Marcus's team missed two shots, his face turning grim: "This BOSS is too fast, it's hard to hit with ranged attacks!"
Marcus kept his calm: "Just keep attacking. Even if we can't kill it, we can chip away at its health and kill it after we respawn."
But unfortunately, Marcus's plan was a bit too optimistic.
As the battle stalled, other monsters appeared in the nearby forest!
[Polluter (Lv2)]
[Grade: Normal]
This was a level 2 normal monster, also humanoid in shape, but covered in dark brown mud. It was a ranged monster.
In the forest, three Polluters appeared, directly launching mud attacks at the backline of Marcus's team!
Pfft!
A beautiful young girl, holding a staff and with a great figure, was suddenly hit in the chest by a blob of mud.
The impact made her black robe tremble violently...
-32!
"Ugh, so smelly!"
The beautiful girl felt a wave of foul stench hit her face, making her feel extremely nauseous.
And this was just the beginning.
More blobs of mud flew quickly towards the backline of the team!
The speed of these mud projectiles was too fast for them to dodge.
The problem was…
There was still the Bronze-tier BOSS, the 'Sprint Runner,' right in front of them!
If they started running to avoid the ranged attacks, Marcus wouldn't be able to block the Sprint Runner for them… and if they were hit by the Sprint Runner, they would die in a few hits.
For a moment, Marcus's team was in grave danger.
The team's health rapidly decreased!
"Marcus Strong."
Riven squinted his eyes, observing the team.
To be honest, he knew this person.
Of course, not now.
But in his past life.
At that time, Riven was one of the top 100 global players. Although he was at the bottom of the top 100, he was still just an ordinary 'warrior' class.
To achieve such a rank with an ordinary class was already legendary.
Countless people idolized Riven.
Including this Marcus.
After all…
Marcus was a hidden-class 'Holy Shield Warrior,' with class bonuses and skills far stronger than Riven's ordinary warrior.
However, his combat power couldn't match Riven's.
This made him extremely respectful of Riven.
As for how they knew each other, Marcus was the representative of the Great Empire of Ross and was responsible for the collaboration with the 'God Slayer' guild, which Riven had created.
When Riven gathered extra gear and skill books that the guild didn't need, he would give them to Marcus, who would sell them to the Great Empire of Ross in exchange for tradeable lifespan.
"In my past life, I formed the guild to protect Lyra Kael better."
"This time, I don't need to."
"However… he is still worth befriending."
Riven was now planning to convert all the extra equipment and skill books into tradeable lifespan to improve himself.
Thus, finding a stable sales channel was crucial.
Marcus was a reliable person, and the Great Empire of Ross behind him had enough 'financial power.'
"Anyway, I'm going to kill these monsters."
"Since that's the case, I'll help him out a bit..."
Riven didn't plan to make an abrupt connection with him.
He just wanted to leave an impression first.
After observing the situation, he quickly made his way to one of the 'Polluters' from behind.
Suddenly, he launched a surprise attack!
This Polluter, who was throwing mud at the beautiful girl with the staff, had no idea that an assassin was behind it.
The Corroded Dagger flashed with a cold light and struck the Polluter's neck!
-441 (Critical Hit)!
With just one fatal hit, the Polluter instantly turned into a puddle of mud, splattering onto the scorched earth.
[You have killed 'Polluter (Lv2)']
[You have gained 20 experience points.]
[You have gained 1 evolution point!]
[You have gained 4 days of lifespan (tradeable).]
The system prompt in his mind surprised Riven. This little monster gave evolution points—lucky!
He casually activated 'Greedy Hand.'
[Skill 'Greedy Hand' successfully activated!]
[You have gained 4 days of lifespan (tradeable).]
"Too bad, no evolution points."
The chance of ordinary monsters dropping evolution points was already low.
The additional reward from 'Greedy Hand' was an extra loot drop, as if Riven had killed another identical monster instead of copying the same reward.
So, no evolution points was quite normal.
"Still, only killing bosses gives stable evolution point rewards!"
Having killed one Polluter, Riven didn't rush.
Before the monsters or players could react, he had already returned to his invisible state.
"Who?!"
Seeing a Polluter suddenly turn into mud and collapse, Marcus and the others were dumbfounded.
All they saw was a black figure flash by, and the Polluter fell instantly!
"How is this possible?"
"Even a level 1 Creeper takes us over ten seconds to kill, but this level 2 Polluter was killed instantly?!"
For a moment, all six members of Marcus's team were stunned!