With the first Polluter neutralized, the pressure on Titan's backline eased instantly.
"Someone's helping us!" the mud-covered Priestess cried out, her eyes gleaming with a mixture of terror and hope. "Is it him? Is it 'Shadow'?"
Her long black robes were tattered and soaked in filth, her health bar dangerously low, but she didn't stop moving. She repositioned with a desperate grace, her legs trembling but steady.
"Hold on!" Titan roared. His "Divine Protection" skill finally refreshed. "Holy Aegis!"
A radiant golden barrier erupted around his massive frame, granting him three seconds of total invulnerability. It was just enough time to tank a flurry of claws from the Swift Runner and buy his team a moment to breathe.
Thirty seconds later, Silas reappeared.
He materialized behind the second Polluter like a whisper of smoke. The Corrosive Dagger sang through the air, and another Level 2 monster was erased before it could even gurgle.
[No Evolution Points dropped...]
[Activating Hand of Greed!]
[Loot Acquired: Skill Book , Poison Dart (Common)]
"Finally, a ranged utility," Silas muttered, snatching the book.
He glanced at the stats:
Poison Dart (Common): Assassin Skill. Range: 12m. Initial Damage: 40. Applies 'Toxic' state (30% Attack Power per second for 5 seconds). Cooldown: 5s.
To a normal player, this was a rare, lucky drop. To Silas, it was raw material. He had 3 Evolution Points stored. He spent them instantly.
[Consumed 3 Evolution Points. Poison Dart: Common -> Silver]
Range increased: 12m -> 14m.Initial Damage: 40 -> 120.Toxic Damage: 30% -> 50% Attack Power per second.
The damage potential more than doubled. Silas learned the skill and evolved it in a single, fluid motion. As the final Polluter turned to spray him with sludge, Silas was faster.
He flicked his wrist. A dark, metallic needle hissed through the air, guided by nine years of veteran muscle memory. It took the Polluter squarely in the eye-socket, the weak point.
-237! (Weak Point Critical)
Silas vanished back into the void immediately. The Polluter turned a sickly shade of green as two separate damage numbers ticked rapidly over its head.
-158!
-158!
Because Silas was in stealth, his "Shadow" passive, doubling damage dealt from out of sight, applied to every tick of the poison. The Polluter dissolved into a puddle of toxic sludge before it could even find its target.
Now, only the Swift Runner remained.
"I can't hold it much longer!" Titan shouted, his shield arm buckling. Their middle-aged Priestess was spamming heals, but they were barely offsetting the boss's savage DPS. They had been fighting for minutes and had barely scratched 10% of its health.
Suddenly, a shadow detached itself from a tree trunk behind the boss.
As the Swift Runner lunged at Titan, a single dart whistled through the air. It buried itself deep in the back of the creature's skull.
-845! (Weak Point Critical)
Stealth bonus, Backstab evolution, and Weak-point precision, all stacked into one devastating impact.
Titan's eyes nearly popped out of his head as the Boss's HP bar plummeted by nearly half in a single heartbeat. "What the hell?!"
But the real horror was just beginning. The Swift Runner's body flared green.
-324!
-324!
-324!
-324!
Four ticks of amplified poison damage tore through the creature's remaining health. The Swift Runner didn't even have time to shriek. It staggered, collapsed, and disintegrated into ash right at Titan's feet.
The six members of the elite team stood in stunned silence. They couldn't see Silas's damage numbers, but they had watched the HP bar of a Bronze Boss vanish like water in a desert.
"That... that's not human," the Archer whispered, his bow lowering. "Our best spells did single-digit damage. He just deleted it."
"It's not just the damage," Titan muttered, staring at the spot where the dart had hit. "The accuracy. The timing. He hit a moving weak point while staying invisible. That's a Master."
A pile of glowing loot sat on the charred ground, but none of them could touch it. In the God-Abandoned Game, loot belonged to the one who dealt the most damage. Silas had contributed over 90%.
The loot was his. And the legend of "Shadow" had just become a terrifying reality.