"Good, I still have 45 minutes."
Riven let out a sigh of relief.
These special bosses had strict time limits. They would only remain in one location for a short period before vanishing.
Now, with 45 minutes left, that was more than enough time for him to take down the Golden Ghost Ship.
"Let's do this."
He glanced at his Shadow Step skill—it was off cooldown. Without hesitation, he launched an attack on the Golden Ghost Ship.
Shadow Slash!
-549!
-549!
-549!
…
Five consecutive damage numbers popped up from the ship.
Riven's figure flickered in and out of sight. A moment later, a Toxic Dagger shot through the air, striking the ship's golden bell.
-621 (Critical Hit)!
-207!
-207!
…
The weak point of the ghost ship wasn't the skeletal rowers but that golden bell. After executing both skills, Riven immediately activated Shadow Step and retreated at full speed!
Moments later, the skeletal rowers on the Golden Ghost Ship let out eerie creaking noises, their hollow eye sockets flaring with ghostly fire.
Suddenly, the surrounding swamp waters began to surge! Dozens of high-pressure water jets erupted from the swamp around the ship!
Riven knew that with his current fragile build, getting hit by even one of these water jets meant instant death.
Luckily, he had prepared for this. He had retreated right after his ambush, but even so, the water jets erupted all around him, nearly sealing his fate.
"The closer I am to the ship, the denser the water jets."
"Unless you're a warrior in full silver-tier armor, there's no surviving a direct hit."
Calm and composed, Riven dodged the water jets with precise movements and positioning, keeping his distance from the ghost ship.
At the same time, as the jets subsided, rotten Drowned Wraiths began crawling out of the swamp… There were twelve in total, each with the combat strength of a Silver-tier boss!
And the worst part? Killing them didn't yield any rewards.
This was what made the Golden Ghost Ship such a nightmare of a boss.
Ignore the Drowned Wraiths? Twelve silver-tier monsters were enough to wipe out any party.
Kill them? They wouldn't give any loot, and it wasted precious time.
The real terror was…
The Golden Ghost Ship summoned twelve Drowned Wraiths every three minutes!
If a party's damage output wasn't high enough, the number of wraiths would keep stacking until a total wipeout was inevitable.
And as for the ship's HP…
Even with Riven's current damage output, his two powerful skills had only shaved off 10% of its health.
That meant this boss had at least 40,000–50,000 HP!
For most players who could barely deal 20–30 damage per skill, taking down this thing was nothing but a pipe dream.
"Black girl, I'm going have to die once."
While dodging attacks, Riven opened a private chat with Lina and gave her an instruction: "Don't worry about the boss. Just wait for me to come back."
Lina was stunned.
Black Yefa Nali: "Who's black girl?"
Riven: "Isn't that you?"
Amy nearly lost it, but she was speechless… After all, she had chosen the in-game username "Black Yefa Nali."
Meanwhile…
On the road from Shell Town to the swamp, several players were searching around.
"Damn it, does he really think he can mess with me and get away with it?"
A middle-aged man clad in heavy armor, his face marked with a cross-shaped scar, was scowling as he scanned the area.
This man was known as Ironclad. Moments ago, one of his subordinates had been instantly killed by Riven.
"Back in my prime, I was already dominating games and destroying guilds while that kid was still sucking on a milk bottle!"
Ironclad was very interested in Riven.
He had been trying to track him for a while, but Riven had been in stealth ever since leaving town, making it impossible to find him.
Finally, now, he had an opportunity. Riven had left town with a girl.
"Hah, kids these days… They can't resist bringing a girl along to show off," Ironclad smirked.
Even if Riven could stay invisible, that girl definitely couldn't. As long as he tailed her, he could uncover Riven's secrets. But what he didn't expect…
Was that Riven had doubled back and slaughtered all his men instead. Now, Ironclad was leading twenty players in a wide search in Riven's last known direction.
Several of his underlings got killed by monsters along the way, but Ironclad didn't care. As long as he could uncover Riven's secret, anything was worth it. Finally…
"Boss! We found the girl—she's on a cliff!"
"There's a swamp ahead. That shadow guy is soloing a boss!"
Ironclad's eyes lit up with excitement.
He immediately called his men together—twenty players in total—and rushed toward the swamp!
At this moment…
Riven continued dodging the Golden Ghost Ship's relentless water-element attacks, striking whenever he found an opening with Shadow Slash and Toxic Dagger.
Due to the boss's frequent attacks, he had limited opportunities to strike. By the time the boss's HP dropped to half, nearly ten minutes had passed. That meant, on average, Riven could only land an attack every two minutes.
Just as the boss reached 50% HP, the golden ghost bell at the front of the ship suddenly rang. A wave of invisible soul energy rippled outward, spreading over 100 meters!
The moment the wave touched Riven, he was paralyzed! Even though he was in stealth, the soul wave still exposed him! The next second, a water jet erupted beneath his feet, swallowing him whole.
-1059!
Instant one-shot!
This was the Golden Ghost Ship's half-HP mechanic was a five-second unavoidable AoE stun that left players completely defenseless.
And Riven had already anticipated this.
[You have died. You have lost 326 years of lifespan (Non-tradeable).]
[You have died. You have lost 1087 days of lifespan (Tradeable).]
Half of his stored lifespan was gone.
The loss was significant, but not fatal.
As long as he returned, he could retrieve the lost tradeable lifespan.
As for the non-tradeable lifespan, even if he looted it back from monsters, 50% would still be permanently lost.
But that minor loss was nothing compared to the item drop from this boss.
Just as Riven was reviving…
Ironclad and his men arrived.
They witnessed Riven's death and the massive orb of lifespan he had dropped.
"Hahaha! The gods must be on my side!"
"This arrogant bastard actually thought he could solo a gold-tier boss?"
"Boys, let's go! We'll finish off the boss and pick up all that lifespan he dropped!"
"That gray-white orb… It's gotta be at least a few hundred days' worth of tradeable lifespan!"
Ironclad led his crew straight for the Golden Ghost Ship!
But within seconds…
The swamp erupted.
Thirty to forty Silver-tier Drowned Wraiths and an endless barrage of water jets utterly annihilated Ironclad's entire team.
They couldn't even get close to where Riven had died.
Gray-white orbs of lifespan scattered across the swamp, shining ominously.
A boss that even Riven had to die once to take down—how could it possibly be so easy?
Back in town, Ironclad and his men stared blankly at their respawn screen.
"Shit… this boss is insane."
"How the hell did that guy even get it to half HP?! What kind of freak is he?!"