Clever Ambush

Sounds of battle rang out occasionally in the shady forest map.

Players knew what they had to do after meeting Moorcher - collect Forest Crystals and eliminate other players.

After an hour and a half, less than 10 out of the original 15 teams were left.

"Bah! Bunch of poor beggars! What pros? These six guys only had 13 Forest Crystals!"

Cold Belle counted the Forest Crystals on the ground and huffed in dissatisfaction.

"Almost done. We just have to kill a few more Elite monsters and we'll have 60 Forest Crystals." Cold Flow just nodded.

Getting 60 crystals when there were only 300 to go around was not an easy task.

"Heehee… Killing monsters is too slow - it's best for us to run into other players. Their equipment can't even be compared to ours!" Cold Belle said arrogantly.

Their team had gone Slime King hunting for a few days so the loot, combined with the equipment they'd bought for the hunting, made for equipment sets which very few Level 10 players could beat.

Level 10 players did not have many skills, so equipment played a dominant role. Several pieces of their equipment had skills and special effects and their party was well-coordinated. Killing other parties was not a problem for them.

With Cold Flow at the head of the group, they swaggered forward to search the forest.

With their equipment, nothing could threaten them except the map defender and Lil' Building of Storms' party.

Elite monsters attacked on sight but to them, who were able to slaughter even Slime Kings, the map's Elite monsters were easy pickings. They were not worried even if other players tried to ambush them.

"Someone's ahead!" Cold Belle's eyes lit up.

"You're right! Chase him! Kill the enemy quickly before he discovers us!" Cold Flow and the other party members had also spotted the back of a solitary player.

That party was also moving forward. It was a good opportunity for them to ambush the other party from the back.

Cold Flow signalled his team to move with him, using the cover of the trees to sneak up quickly to their target.

"What the…?!" Cold Flow suddenly saw a flash of unnatural colour in the corner of his eye as he passed a big tree.

He turned his head to see a pair of adorable black eyes, which sparkled as they looked back at him.

Seeing him turn his head towards it, the owner of the eyes roared and jumped into the midst of Cold Flow's party.

"Mutated Slime King!"

Other players could be unsure, but how could Cold Flow not recognise this big amethyst fellow?

"Retreat!"

Cold Flow's expression changed as he yelled.

It was too bad but he was too late. A large number of little purple balls shot from the Mutated Slime King. The party had no time to react and were hit several times by the move.

Level 10 players stood no chance against just two of those little purple balls. Even the fighter player in the party had no time to react to the Slime King's ambush or use a defensive skill and was insta-killed.

Six high and mighty fellows were insta-killed just like that by a Mutated Slime King which came out of nowhere.

"Shit! What the fuck was that?"

Cold Flow cursed after he revived at the revival point.

They were about to collect 60 crystals and fulfil one of the requirements for passing and this BOSS level monster had just jumped out like that and slaughtered them all.

He felt like something was off about the whole situation but could not be sure about the monsters in the map.

"Haha! So many crystals!"

In the map, Itsy Bitsy Fighter's eyes shone as she looked at the crystals littering the forest floor.

"Pick crystals till you have 20. I'll take the rest." Chen Mo was very satisfied with the result of this encounter.

Chen Mo had spotted Cold Flow's party when they were fighting the other party but did not choose to ambush them at that time. He'd instructed Itsy Bitsy Fighter to act as bait while Fatso and himself lay in wait.

Cold Flow and his party had let down their guard while chasing Itsy Bitsy Fighter, enabling Fatso to surprise and insta-kill them effortlessly.

Credit should be given to Cold Flow's party too. If they had been less arrogant, it might not have worked so well.

Chen Mo and Itsy Bitsy Fighter had also killed about ten additional Elite monsters. Add that number to the number of crystals Cold Flow's team dropped and they had 92 Forest Crystals.

After tasting sweet victory, Chen Mo told Itsy Bitsy Fighter to hide in a more secluded part of the forest. He took Fatso with him to hunt for other players and when he found them, he revealed himself on purpose and let Fatso ambush them.

It was a well-tried method. Though the players still alive in the map were all above average, none could survive Fatso's attack.

In under an hour, Chen Mo had wiped out four parties and gained over 80 Forest Crystals.

The total number of crystals Chen Mo had was well over half the number available in the map!

"The Elite monsters should all be more or less dead by now, and there should be four parties left, at most." Chen Mo guessed.

The map had been opened for almost three hours. Lil' Building of Storms' party was the strongest in the map, so they should have a fair number of crystals too.

"Brother Lil' Building, you say there's a Mutated Slime King in the map?" Wang Wen asked. His expression grew thoughtful.

"There's no mistaking it. Many parties were ambushed by it and insta-killed. We have to be careful too." Lil' Building of Storms nodded.

He'd logged off to contact other teams and check on their situation but discovered that Glacier Game Club parties had been killed.

"All those parties died in different locations?"

"Yes. That Mutated Slime King is mobile but it looks like it will jump out and attack only when players get very close to it." Lil' Building of Storms nodded.

Announcement: There are less than 10 players alive left in the map. The map defender will appear close to the location (3088, 6369). Kill the map defender in 60 minutes or everyone in the map fails the Trial!

The announcement pinged and Lil' Build of Storms and his party members' expressions changed.

The number of people had gone down to less than ten without them realising it!

"Does this mean we're the only party left in this map?" Wang Xu guessed.

"The possibility is low. It's likely that there is another party and that party has even more crystals than us." Wang Wen shook his head.

They had less than a hundred crystals. If no other parties survived, the remaining crystals would have been re-distributed and more Elite monsters would have spawned but that had not happened.

"Let's go check the area around Moorcher. The map defender coordinates are around there too. The other party should also be there. We can hurry over and discuss how we shall approach the BOSS." Lil' Building of Storms suggested.

They had six in their party so the other party must have four, at most. It was too difficult for four people to kill the map defender on their own, no matter how you looked at it.

The others had no objections and all six headed for Moorcher's location.

The group hurried but they were careful not to let anyone ambush them either.

"Doesn't look like the other party is here yet."

They had arrived by the lakeside and could see Moorcher just ahead, but did not see any other players.

"Go up to Moorcher and see if anything has changed."

The party stepped on the spongy fallen leaves on the lakeside, towards Moorcher.

"Eh?"

A few metres away from Moorcher, Wang Wen suddenly paused. The leaves below his feet now felt different from the leaves he'd stepped on earlier.

"Roar!"

He had no time to warn the others. A huge amethyst blur burst out from underneath in a cloud of leaves.

A great number of purple balls shot at them and though they tried their best to avoid them, it was impossible in such close proximity.

Only Wang Wen, the first to sense something wrong, had dodged right away. Only one purple ball had hit him and he'd survived.

Under normal circumstances, he would have gotten away from this inconceivable attack, but this underground-hiding Mutated Slime King seemed to sense that he was still alive. It moved and crushed him mercilessly.

Wang Wen, his HP low, died almost as instantly as his party mates!

A large number of crystals dropped from the party's corpses. A few metres away, Moorcher's eyes lit up and he moved to pick them up, but the Mutated Slime King jumped aggressively to block him.

In the forest not far away, a figure emerged and bent to pick the Forest Crystals.

"Mr. Moorcher, you want these Forest Crystals?"

Chen Mo turned to Moorcher with a smile.