32 Evolution Points, combined with the 3 points remaining from before, totaling 35 points.
"Greedy Hand requires 210 points for the next evolution... I'll leave it for now."
"This Faith Temple might be dangerous. I'll evolve my passive dodge skill first."
To increase his survivability, Riven chose to evolve "Phantom Blur"!
[You have consumed 1+2+3+5 Evolution Points, leaving 24 points.]
[Ghost Shadow Blur (Gold → Epic): Assassin-type skill. Passively grants 15% → 75% dodge chance. When dodging, all damage is negated.]
After reaching Epic rank, the cost to evolve a skill further increased tenfold.
"Originally, it only needed 8 Evolution Points."
"But because it's going from Epic to Legendary, it now requires 80 points..."
Riven shook his head and set the skill aside for now.
A 75% dodge rate was already incredibly high.
He then continued evolving Shadow Strike, pushing it to Epic rank as well:
[You have consumed 13 Evolution Points, leaving 11 points.]
[Shadow Slash(Diamond → Epic): Blink in a chosen direction (max range 27m → 30m) and enter stealth (duration 9s → 12s). Deals 7 → 9 slashes to all enemies along the path. Cooldown: 12s (8.8s with reduction).]
[Slash width: 4.1m → 5m. Each slash deals 300 → 500 bonus attack power.]
From Diamond to Epic, Shadow Strike's bonus attack increased by 200 points.
Additionally, the number of slashes increased from 7 to 9.
Overall damage had practically doubled!
"Insane..."
In his previous life, Riven hadn't obtained Epic-rank skills until several years into the game.
But this time...
He had Epic skills right from the start!
Even though these skills weren't at their full potential due to his low level, they could be evolved infinitely!
"However, since evolving from Epic to Legendary requires ten times the points..."
"It's more efficient to evolve skills that start at a higher rank."
Riven did some calculations.
If a skill started at Diamond, evolving it to Epic would be its first evolution, requiring 1 base Evolution Point. Even when multiplied tenfold, it would only cost 10 points.
That meant it could quickly reach Legendary, Mythic, or even Ancient and Immortal ranks!
But if a skill started at Normal, it would need to be evolved seven times just to reach Epic.
By then, the base cost for each evolution would be 21 or even 34 points.
Multiplied by ten, that would be 210 or even 340 points.
Way too inefficient!
"But the advantage is, no matter what rank a skill starts at, I can upgrade it to Epic for very little cost."
"Which means… every skill I have will be at least Epic-ranked!"
With 11 Evolution Points remaining,
Riven decided to evolve his starting skill, Shadow Step.
[You have consumed 3+5 Evolution Points, leaving 3 points.]
[Initial Skill: Shadow Step (Silver → Gold → Platinum). Enter stealth for 16s → 20s → 24s. Attacking will break the stealth. First strike after stealth increases attack power by +90 → +120 → +150 attack power. Cooldown: 26s → 24s → 22s.]
The final cooldown of the skill was 22 seconds.
But thanks to Riven's 35% cooldown reduction, the effective cooldown was 16.3 seconds.
"This stealth skill still has too long of a cooldown."
"And its first strike bonus isn't high enough..."
"I'll have to replace it later."
After using up all his Evolution Points, Riven turned his attention back to the labyrinth ahead.
The "Devout Followers" slithered forward quickly.
As one rounded a corner, suddenly—a massive iron ball shot out from the wall, smashing into it!
-6666!
-99999!
The first hit came from the impact of the iron ball.
The second hit came from being crushed against the wall, leaving the Devout Follower a mangled mess…
Riven halted his advance.
He waited for his summon cooldown to refresh.
"This maze is complex and full of traps."
"I'll have to use my summons to scout ahead." Riven sighed.
It would take more time, but this Faith Temple was clearly connected to his Celestial Eyes. He had to explore it fully. Otherwise, he might miss out on an important secret…
Meanwhile, at the entrance of the Faith Temple...
A tall, elegant woman, known as Gray Rose, cautiously returned with her party—two men and three women.
They had prepared themselves to fight the two Silver-ranked mini-bosses guarding the entrance.
But when they arrived…
They were already dead.
Gray Rose, dressed in a gray robe, her black curls framing her graceful, curvaceous figure, frowned at the sight of the corpses.
"Someone already took them out?"
"At this stage, the only one capable of killing two silver-ranked bosses this fast… must be Shadow."
"So, Shadow is here?"
Her teammates were shocked.
They stared at the ashen bodies of the Devout Followers and exhaled in relief.
Even though they had prepared, they were still worried they might die again.
But Gray Rose looked conflicted.
"Last time, I saw a figure… talking to those silver bosses."
"Was that Shadow?"
"Did I see it wrongly, or…?"
The last time she had come, Gray Rose had stepped into the main hall. She had glimpsed a shadowy figure seemingly communicating with the two silver bosses…
But then the bosses roared, and she immediately retreated, only to get burned to death by their green flames. Now that she thought about it…
"Was that Shadow?"
"If so… why didn't the bosses attack him?"
"Does he have some kind of ability that lets him manipulate bosses?"
"Is that how he's killing so many of them?"
No matter how much Gray Rose speculated, she could never guess the truth!
As time passed, more and more players arrived in Shell Town.
The town had a maximum capacity of 10,000 players—and it was now at full capacity. Because of this, the monsters around town were no longer enough to sustain everyone. The influx of players had increased tenfold!
Even the Creepers and Polluters weren't expecting this many people. They scattered in fear, hiding. But the players dug them out and slaughtered them.
Even Marcus' elite team couldn't grind efficiently anymore. After three full hours, they had only reached Level 5. Lina's Gold-rank skill barely had a chance to shine.
Marcus frowned. "Looks like we need to teleport to a less populated town if we want to level up faster."
Lina nodded. "No problem. But before we leave, we need to trade with Shadow first."
Marcus agreed. "Yeah."
Nearby, Lyra listened quietly. She couldn't stop the smile creeping onto her lips!