Elias was by the riverbank, leading his squad of fangirls as they cleared out monsters along the way.
Many of the creatures, seeing such a large group approaching, instinctively tried to flee.
But Elias and his followers had invested heavily in Agility. Their speed was insane. The moment they charged forward as a swarm, the monsters barely had time to escape before being cut down…
Elias was having the time of his life.
But he had no idea—
Shadow was already on his way toward him at full speed!
Meanwhile…
Riven sprinted along the riverbank, following Sylvia's directions toward Elias' location.
Whenever he encountered monsters, he eliminated them with a quick strike.
However, most of them were low-level, so they barely gave him any experience.
Just as he reached a large tree, he suddenly stopped.
At that moment, Sylvia sent him a private message.
"Hey, where are you?"
She had been keeping an eye on Elias but couldn't see Riven—after all, he was still in stealth mode.
Instead of answering directly, Riven pointed at the tree in front of him.
"Check if there are any more trees like this nearby."
"...Huh?"
Sylvia was confused.
"Weren't we looking for Elias? Why are you searching for trees now?"
Still, it wasn't a hard request.
About twenty seconds later, she sent him an update.
"There are two more trees like that within a hundred meters of you!"
Riven walked around the three trees, carefully inspecting their bark. Before long, he found a series of strange markings on them.
Sylvia, hovering above, grew curious.
"What are those symbols?"
"Take a guess."
Riven smirked and traced his finger along one of the markings.
Then, he moved to the second tree and did the same.
Finally, he reached the third tree, activating the final symbol.
As his fingers passed over the markings, they began to glow one by one.
The moment all three trees lit up, a shimmering, emerald-green chest faintly appeared in the center of the trio!
Sylvia's eyes widened.
"Whoa!"
Ignoring her excitement, Riven stepped closer and waited for the chest to fully materialize.
"Didn't expect to find an Ancient God's Blessing in the starter village…"
He chuckled.
Ancient God's Blessings could appear anywhere in the Land of the Abandoned Gods.
They always took the form of strange symbols.
Like now—
The three trees had a total of thirty to forty different symbols. Depending on which ones were activated, the outcome would change.
Some combinations summoned powerful monsters.
Some triggered traps.
Some created treasure chests.
And a few… granted truly unique rewards.
For new players, figuring out these combinations was pure guesswork.
But Riven was a reborn player.
In his previous life, over nine years of experience had given him deep insight into these mechanics.
Not to mention, entire online forums had once been dedicated to decoding the patterns.
So now, he effortlessly activated the best possible combination—an Emerald-Tier Chest!
For an average player to stumble upon an Emerald Chest, the odds were less than 0.1%.
"Open!"
As the chest fully solidified, Riven reached out and unlocked it.
Watching from above, Sylvia nearly lost her mind.
"Emerald-Tier?! That's worth at least a thousand days of lifespan! That's like… tens of millions in cash!"
Currently, the outside world had started placing real-world value on lifespan.
From Riven's memories, the first day's trade rate was 1 day = $10,000 to $20,000.
But that was just the beginning.
By the second day, the rate would soar past 1 day = $50,000.
And after that?
The price would keep rising until money itself became worthless.
This was why the world's governments would soon become terrifyingly powerful.
In the early days of Eclipse of Eternity, they had hoarded an unimaginable amount of tradable lifespan.
After all, with unlimited cash printing, who could outbid them?
Sylvia's heart raced.
She stared hard at the three trees, committing their appearance to memory.
"Maybe I can find more of these in the wild…"
But Riven wasn't worried.
Ancient God's Blessings never appeared in the same place twice.
And the symbols changed every time.
With thousands of possible combinations, Sylvia had a better chance of triggering a trap than finding another Emerald Chest.
If she got lucky, she might get a Golden Chest at best.
But in most cases?
She'd probably just summon a swarm of monsters.
Meanwhile, Riven had already opened the chest.
A system notification popped up—
[You have opened an Emerald-Tier Chest!]
[You have obtained the Emerald-Tier Skill Book: 'Curse of Blooming'!]
Riven froze for a moment.
"Curse of Blooming? What kind of skill is that?"
Even after nine years in his past life, he had never heard of it.
He glanced at the glowing green skill book in his hands.
Its cover featured a blood-red flower with eerie, twisting patterns—
Patterns that vaguely resembled a wicked, smiling face.
He activated Skill Info—
[Curse of Blooming (Emerald-Tier)]
Type: Universal Skill Book
Effect: Can be cast on a player's corpse within 15 seconds of death. The target's body will sprout a Cursed Bloom, which will continuously drain their tradable lifespan until it reaches zero. No cooldown.
Riven sucked in a sharp breath.
"This skill is broken."
If he killed a player, he could forcefully extract all of their tradable lifespan.
Normally, when a player died, they only dropped half of their tradable lifespan.
But with this…
As long as he guarded the corpse, he could drain everything.
Of course, the Cursed Bloom would have an HP bar, meaning enemies could destroy it.
But—
If Riven wiped out everyone nearby, who would be left to stop it?
"Elias is about to have a very bad day."
A sly grin formed on Riven's lips.
Without hesitation, he learned Curse of Blooming.
The hunt was about to begin.