Originally, Lina thought that if Riven could just give her a silver-level mage item or skill book, it would be great. But unexpectedly...
Two golden-level items?
"This skill, this necklace..."
"It has directly multiplied my damage several times, and my mana recovery has more than doubled!"
Originally, Lina recovered 2 mana per second.
Now, with the necklace, it was 5 mana per second.
Her endurance had skyrocketed! It could be said that now, her monster farming efficiency was faster than the entire team's had been before!
"Thank you so much!" Lina's eyes were filled with joy, almost moved to tears.
Riven shook his head. "No need to thank me, it's just as agreed. Hand over the storage ring."
Besides, this girl had been chased by Ironclad and his team just to help Riven... Though Riven hadn't really needed her help. But it was clear that this girl had a good personality, and was worth getting to know.
Hearing Riven's words, Lina woke up from her thoughts, her pretty face turning slightly red as she quickly handed over the 12-slot storage ring.
"Oh, I have something to tell you."
Lina thought for a moment, then said, "Just now when I was running through the woods, I found a hole in the ground. It seemed like some sort of entrance to an underground ruins. Are you interested?"
Ruins entrance?
Riven was a bit surprised.
"First the golden ghost ship, now the ruins entrance…"
Riven looked at the pretty girl in front of him and felt that befriending her was certainly worth it. He thought about it for a moment. If he hadn't given her any equipment earlier, she might not have told him about the ruins entrance. Sincerity was mutual.
"It seems like these two golden items were enough to buy her off?"
Riven couldn't help but smile. He slipped the storage ring onto his left pinky.
"The storage space is finally 27 slots."
Riven breathed a sigh of relief.
The backpack slots in the Eclipse of Eternal game were quite limited, and even the starting towns didn't have any places for storing items.
Now with 27 slots, everything would be much more convenient.
Riven said to Lina, "Your team leader hasn't logged in yet, so I'll wait to sell you the items once they arrive. I'll go check out the ruins you mentioned first."
The girl nodded. "Okay."
Lina was now extremely excited.
She pulled out a rolled-up parchment map from her backpack and marked a location for Riven.
"This is the entrance to the ruins. It's a stone slab on the ground. I was planning to move the slab and hide inside, but when I stepped in, I heard ghostly screams from inside, so I panicked and ran out... Otherwise, I wouldn't have been caught by Ironclad."
Lina explained the entrance while walking with Riven.
"Got it."
Riven remembered the location.
In fact, each starting town's landscape was essentially the same...
These newbie towns were all replicas of the same terrain. However, things like ruins and golden ghost ship bosses appeared randomly—some towns had them, others didn't.
Riven's previous town hadn't had them. But this Shell Town actually had both ruins and a golden ghost ship.
After bidding Lina farewell, he went into stealth mode and left Shell Town once again!
"Originally, I wanted to find a place to farm to level 10."
"Since there's a ruins, there's no need to farm elsewhere. Clearing the ruins will definitely get me to level 10..."
The ruins found in the starting towns typically fell into one of three categories:
The first was the "Tomb."
The second was the "Cursed Ruins."
The third type was the "Faith Temple."
The Tomb was fairly straightforward—just a lot of monsters with a high difficulty, usually culminating in a golden boss at the end.
The monsters in the Cursed Ruins were cursed by ancient or evil gods—once human, some had gone mad, while others had died and transformed into ghosts or monsters.
The Faith Temple housed followers of ancient or evil gods. You could choose whether to fight them or not, but the temple's layout was complex.
The latter two types of ruins, when successfully cleared, often rewarded adventurers with special items or skill books. For instance...
Riven's Celestial Eyes, or the "Judgment Eye," came from a Faith Temple.
No matter what type of ruins Lina had discovered, Riven wasn't about to miss it. Even the smallest monsters in these ruins were at least bronze-level, if not silver-level! That meant a significant number of evolution points for him.
"With my epic-level Greedy Hand, defeating a bronze boss will grant me 8 evolution points."
"And if it's a silver boss, that's 16 evolution points!"
Compared to high-level bosses, taking down multiple small bosses yielded far more evolution points!
Soon, still in stealth mode, Riven arrived at the location marked on the map. Amidst the dark overgrown weeds, he spotted a stone slab.
He moved it aside, revealing a staircase that descended below. As expected, the moment the slab was shifted, eerie, wailing cries echoed from the depths of the tunnel...
But Riven wasn't fazed. He entered the tunnel, replacing the stone slab behind him.
In an instant, the surroundings plunged into complete darkness, with only a faint yellowish glow ahead, illuminating the stone walls of the tunnel.
By the dim light, Riven's expression shifted ever so slightly.
"The wall paintings on these stone walls... how are they exactly the same as those in the Faith Temple from my previous life?"
"This is a Faith Temple!"
"And it's probably the Faith Temple of the Judgment Ancient God!"
Riven owned the Judgment Eye, having Judgement Authority which made him have Immortal-tier talent.
The appearance of this temple made him feel that it was anything but ordinary!
"Let's go check it out."
Riven took a deep breath, keeping his stealth active, and proceeded down the path, moving forward!
...
While Riven was exploring the mysterious Faith Temple, players from various starting towns were all leveling up at an incredible pace.
Of course, they couldn't compete with Riven, who was farming bosses in the ruins. However, others were lower level, so they needed fewer experience points to level up.
Soon, someone reached level 5!
The teleportation array for their town was lit!
Every player had one free teleportation opportunity per day to travel to other starting towns.
As a result...
Soon, many players from other towns teleported to Shell Town!
Because, the global first kill of the golden boss had been achieved by 'Shadow' at Shell Town! The town was becoming increasingly crowded!