For a moment, the dozen or so solo players watching from the sidelines were completely stunned.
"W-What the hell? A single dagger… and the boss got one-shot?!"
"The boss only had a third of its HP left. Makes sense, right?"
"Are you hearing yourself? A Silver-tier Boss with thousands of HP—getting one-shot just like that?!"
"This is Shadow's true power?"
"I thought he was just abusing some exploit to farm the Gold-tier Boss earlier… but now I see—this guy is the real deal!"
"That damage output is absolutely insane!"
"We deal, what, a few dozen damage per skill? And he's hitting for thousands? That's a hundred times our damage!"
"Are we even playing the same game?"
…
Everyone was in complete shock as they stared at the Two-Headed Blaze Fiend, its health bar completely emptied.
The massive boss collapsed with a thunderous crash, its corpse engulfed in crimson flames, leaving behind scorched earth in the valley.
Nearby, Riven appeared next to the boss's fallen body.
In his hands, he toyed with a pair of Platinum-tier Ghost Twin Blades, his gaze sweeping over the stunned solo players like a predator eyeing prey.
"Run, move it!"
"Shit—do you think he's going to kill us?"
"Don't just stand there! Move if you want to live!"
"Go, go, go!"
Panic instantly spread among them, and in the blink of an eye, they all fled from Wailing Gorge, disappearing into the forest like rabbits running for their lives.
In Eclipse of Eternity, dying meant losing lifespan.
They weren't willing to take that gamble!
Sure, Shadow had killed Elias and his people, but that didn't necessarily mean he was on their side.
From what they had just witnessed, if Shadow wanted to kill them, it would be as easy as slaughtering livestock…
How could they not run for their lives?
Riven simply watched them flee, unconcerned.
Then, he activated the Ghostfire Bell's active skill—Soul Shock.
Ding-dong-ding…
A ghostly chime echoed eerily through the valley, freezing any enemies within a 100-meter radius in place!
If there had been any players in stealth nearby, they would have been paralyzed and forcibly revealed.
Luckily, the area was now empty.
Riven turned away and raised his hand toward the Two-Headed Blaze Fiend's corpse—casting Greedy Hand!
Immediately, three additional loot rewards burst from the Silver-tier Boss, glimmering with silver light—and even faint traces of gold!
Riven calmly picked everything up.
"My inventory slots are almost full from just one boss fight…"
"I really need to hit Level 10 and leave the starting town—that'll free up my storage limit."
He shook his head.
Leveling from 9 to 10 required a huge amount of XP.
Even after defeating the Silver-tier Boss, he was still short by about one-third of the required experience.
"If only Greedy Hand could duplicate XP as well…"
Riven sighed.
But that would make the skill ridiculously broken.
Of course, the most valuable reward this time was the 16 Evolution Points.
Riven opened his Skill Menu and immediately upgraded Divine Reprieve.
[You have consumed 10 Evolution Points. Remaining: 9.]
[Divine Reprieve (Epic → Legendary)]
Passive Effect: Critical Hit Accuracy +100% → +200%. Critical Damage Multiplier Doubled.
Cutthroat (Active): The next attack applies Cutthroat, dealing 100%→ 150% of the attack's damage every second for 3 seconds. Cooldown: 30s (22.2s) → 25s (18.5s).
His Critical Hit Accuracy had doubled again, now at 200%.
This meant every enemy in front of him now had a twice-enlarged weak spot!
"If this gets any bigger… even my Shadow Slash will count as a critical hit!"
Riven took a deep breath.
The Critical Damage Multiplier hadn't increased, but Cutthroat's bonus damage had jumped from 3x to 4.5x, while its cooldown had been reduced.
"Now I can definitely one-shot a Gold-tier Boss…"
He couldn't help but marvel.
This skill was absurdly strong—truly an assassin's god-tier ability!
"The power of an Epic-tier starting skill is insane."
"Just 10 Evolution Points, and I've already pushed it to Legendary."
"But… upgrading it to Mythic-tier requires 100x the cost?"
"Originally, the second skill evolution requires 2 evolution points."
"So from Legendary to Mythic, it jumps to 200 points?!"
Riven clicked his tongue.
Evolution Points… were never enough!
"At this rate, my Greedy Hand, which is currently Epic-tier, would cost 210 points to upgrade to Legendary…"
"And once it reaches Legendary, pushing it to Mythic will cost… 3,400 points?!"
The sheer number made him feel exhausted just thinking about it.
But at least, with Greedy Hand, farming a few hundred points after leaving the beginner towns wouldn't be too difficult.
Riven checked his remaining 9 Evolution Points.
Then, he spent 8 points to upgrade Backstab Enhancement.
[You have consumed 8 Evolution Points. Remaining: 1.]
[Initial Skill: Backstab Enhancement(Gold → Platinum)]
Passive Effect: Attacks from behind deal +30% → +40% damage.
After finishing his upgrades, Riven gathered all the lifespan orbs left on the battlefield.
He had gained a total of 1,400 tradable lifespan days!
On top of that, the Boss had also dropped several decades' worth of untradable lifespan.
"All done. Time to head back."
Riven cleaned up the battlefield, then vanished into stealth as he left Wailing Gorge…
But at that very moment!
Back in Firefly Town's central plaza, Elias was furious over his defeat.
One of his archer-class fangirls, who had a detection skill, approached eagerly.
"Elias! My Eagle Eye skill can detect enemies in stealth!"
Another fangirl, a mage wielding a staff, stepped forward excitedly.
"Elias! I learned a wide-area control skill—Froststorm! Even that Shadow guy won't be able to escape!"
Elias burst into laughter.
"Perfect! Let's go kill Shadow!"
With anti-stealth detection and area control skills, what did he have to fear?
With so many fangirls by his side, they only needed to reveal Shadow's position—then they could blast him to death with sheer numbers!
Some of the other fangirls started mocking Shadow as well, "That Shadow guy is such a coward, relying on sneak attacks! He doesn't have honor at all!"
"Yeah! Let's capture him so Elias can execute him personally!"
"If he dares mess with our Elias, he must pay the price!"
If Riven had been there to listen, he probably would've thrown up from the cringe.
With that, Elias and his fangirl army marched straight for Wailing Gorge—ready for revenge!