Chapter 35 – Rivals Appear – Intransient

“This beginner village’s Slime King… has been killed?”

Chen Mo had killed the Mutated Slime King nine times. He was on his tenth when he discovered to his shock that the Slime King was not in its customary spawn location.

The Slime King respawn time was three days. If he had killed the Slime King here two days ago then it had yet to respawn but Chen Mo knew that it was not he who had killed it.

Every Ayer Town map had a different serial number. This was Ayer Town 3014 and Chen Mo had never been here before.

He walked around the area to check if the Slime King had been lured away by other players. Nope, it had definitely been killed.

The Slime King was not a difficult BOSS to kill. It had only those few skills and if players had the right equipment and method, a party could take it down. The Richie Rich Club only managed to kill it using a sea of bodies because they simply had no real plan and just went at it. Take Chen Mo, for example. With the right method, it was possible to take it down single-handedly.

Chen Mo knew that it was just a matter of time before other players started killing the Slime King. Ten days had passed. He suspected that a party of players had gotten sufficient equipment from the 3 main human cities, and figured out a way to let all party members spawn in the same beginner village.

He did not think that his competitors were killing the Slime King one-on-one like he was. Players were always approaching the Slime King so it was not possible that they were digging pits to kill it. Even with Chen Mo’s current equipment, there was no chance that he would be able to take it head-on. He wouldn’t be able to dodge its attacks without the help of obstacles either.

Only a party with players who can attack, block and heal can kill the the Slime King in a face-to-face fight.

So, Chen Mo went on the forums and did some digging. He confirmed his hypothesis.

The situation was more serious than he’d imagined. Two parties had popped out of the blue and they were doing what he was – killing a Slime King BOSS a day. Someone mentioned them in a post of the forums two days ago but Chen Mo suspected that they had been active for some time before that.

One of the two parties had a video taken of them while they were killing the Slime King.

“It’s no wonder. They have a silencing skill as their weapon.”

The Slime King had a group attack too but it was not as powerful as the Mutated Slime King’s. However, the attack would in all likelihood insta-kill party members with low HP. Even if the members did not get insta-killed, the entire party would suffer great damage and have a very tough time in the fight afterwards.

The priest player in the party could use the “Silence” skill. Right before the Slime King used a skill, the priest used Silence and cancelled its skill. This ensured that the Slime King would not be able to use all its big moves and its death was only a matter of time.

Rivals had appeared – and not just one.

Chen Mo was unperturbed. This was an internet game after all. Rivals were as common as grass and nothing to agonise over.

There were quite a number of beginner villages and just these few rivals. The chances of them running into each other was not high and besides, he only lacked a few pieces of equipment. He would need to spend a few days more at most if his luck held.

Back in the game, Chen Mo promptly committed suicide.

He appeared in another beginner village. This time, after he left Goblin Valley, he went to the Slime Plains first to check if the Slime King was still there before levelling up to Level 10.

“It’s there.” This beginner village’s Slime King was still there. Chen Mo breathed a sigh of relief.

He was turning around to go level up when he stopped in his tracks.

Wait a minute… This Slime King’s colour is a little different from what he usually saw. It also seemed more mellow.

Was he just imagining things?

No! Chen Mo was very confident in his powers of observation. This Slime King was indeed slightly different.

Chen Mo thought for a bit, then took out a bottle of Slime Poison and downed it.

“Roar!”

A distance away, the Slime King roared aggressively. Its body swelled, emerald green skin darkened and its eyes filled with rage as it charged at Chen Mo.

“Its aggro range increased, body size increased, its attributes should have also gone up but… It’s not mutating!”

Chen Mo was surprised. He was only testing an idea but the result was unexpected.

This Slime King must have been killed once and was a freshly spawned Slime King!

It had not killed many players so its colour was not as deep as those which had killed dozens. It was also less aggressive.

Chen Mo had two hypotheses on why it did not mutate when he drank Slime Poison.

Hypothesis one: BOSSes only mutate once in a set period of time even if the mutation conditions were met. After it dies, it will only mutate after a certain period of time. BOSS mutations therefore, like player skills, have a cooldown time.

Hypothesis two: Not all conditions have been met for the BOSS to mutate. Slime Poison is just one of the conditions for mutation and the other condition is what a freshly-spawned BOSS lacks but an ‘old’ one has met – which was what Chen Mo had surmised at first. The BOSS needs to have killed a certain number of players before it can mutate.*

*ARGH! This guy writes in such circles sometimes! He must have very buff arms from beating about the bush so much.

The non-mutation could be due to one or both of his hypotheses.

Whatever it may be, he could not kill this non-mutating Slime King.

Good thing he had come first to check or he would have wasted a whole day getting to Level 10. Right now, he had wasted only over an hour of time spent in getting out of Goblin Valley.

Wordlessly, Chen Mo committed suicide and started over. He should still make it to Level 10 by nightfall.

After exiting Goblin Valley, Chen Mo checked on the Slime King again.

This beginner village’s Slime King was still alive and was a good, deep colour. It looked like it had not been killed by anyone yet.

Chen Mo turned back and quickly started on levelling up.

Those two parties did not have to wait for nightfall to kill the Slime King like he did. He needed to use his time wisely.

Chen Mo was not in that much of a hurry either. Even if he levelled up quickly, he still had to wait till night time to kill the Mutated Slime King. He did not want his method of killing the Mutated Slime King to be leaked or his rivals won’t just be these two parties. It’ll be difficult to even find a Slime King to kill if his method was known to all.

Luck was on his side. The two parties had not turned up while he was levelling up. Chen Mo got to Level 10, paid some players to dig him a pit and wasted no time in killing the Mutated Slime King.

“What… Skill Mutation Scroll again? Ha! A piece of Purple equipment too!”

The appearance of rivals made him waste an extra days’ time but Chen Mo found that his luck was returning. He got the third piece of Purple armour on top of the Skill Mutation Scroll!

Mercury Wrist Guards

Description: A pair of metal wrist guards made from Mercury with special poison resistance effect.

Equipment grade: Purple

Limit: Level 10 and above

Attributes:

Basic Physical Attack +12

Basic Magic Attack +15

Physical Defence +20

Magic Defence +25

Strength +15

Intelligence +15

Additional effect: Poison Protection

Poison Protection: Passive effect. When equipped, poison damage to player is reduced by 10% and there is a 10% chance to become immune to all poison damage.

A pair of Purple Grade wrist guards!

Wrist guards were unique among the five defence equipment. It was the only one which raised the Basic Physical Attack and Basic Magic Attack. On the other hand, the defence capabilities of the wrist guards were more or less the same as the other pieces.

However, players preferred to go for attack over defence, so the wrist guards, like shoes, were popular among players, and therefore priced higher than the other defence equipment.

Chen Mo was feeling pretty good about his day after getting one more piece of Purple Grade equipment; he committed suicide after putting his things in order.

About half an hour after Chen Mo committed suicide, a richly-equipped party appeared in the Slime King spawning area.