Pass the Trial

"Of course. These things are useless to you Adventurers. But to an old man living alone in the forest like me, it is a very valuable thing. Give me the Forest Crystals, Adventurer, and I guarantee that you won't lose out."

Moorcher looked at Chen Mo and spoke sincerely.

"If you tell me what these Forest Crystals can be used for, I may consider giving you some." Chen Mo took out a Forest Crystal and turned it over in his hands. The semi-transparent green crystal seemed to hold a mysterious power.

"This is not a secret. Forest Crystals hold a special energy that is used to power ancient magical items." Moorcher took out a half metal, half glass ball about the size of the palm of a hand. "This is a monster detector. If I have a Forest Crystal to power it, it can easily detect monsters within a 300metre radius. The stronger the monsters, the clearer it is shown. I have no need to worry about monster attacks if I have Forest Crystals, but the monsters in the forest are all too powerful and I ran out of Forest Crystals long ago. If I didn't, I could show you how this monster detector works."

Moorcher spoke regretfully.

"Monster detector? Interesting! Itsy Bitsy, hand a Forest Crystal to Moorcher so he can show us how it works. You won't refuse, will you, Mr. Moorcher?" Chen Mo's eyes lit up and he let Itsy Bitsy Fighter approach.

A monster detector - this is good stuff!

"Of course! It is no effort at all." Moorcher replied quickly.

Itsy Bitsy Fighter walked to Moorcher and moved her hand to take out a crystal.

But at that moment, a green light suddenly shot from Moorcher's palm and struck Itsy Bitsy Fighter!

-1000!

A damage number of exactly 1000 floated above Itsy Bitsy Fighter's head. Equipment-less Itsy Bitsy Fighter was killed right away.

Moorcher quickly moved to Itsy Bitsy Fighter's corpse and bent to pick up what she dropped.

He was flummoxed.

This human Adventurer had been killed by him but she hadn't dropped anything - not even one Forest Crystal!

"You dirty old fox! You've revealed your true colours now, huh!" Chen Mo smiled at Moorcher.

Moorcher was the map defender. Chen Mo had been swayed after Golden Phoenix and Little Demon were kicked from the map, but he was quickly convinced that his initial speculation was correct.

Moorcher had to be the map defender to explain why the Ancient Tree Spirit was hidden close by!

Golden Phoenix and Little Demon were kicked because Moorcher's identity was still that of an NPC at that time!

The rules were very clear that they needed 100 Forest Crystals or 10 or less players left in the map for the map defender to appear. Even if players suspected Moorcher, they were unable to prove anything since Moorcher was still an NPC before the conditions were met.

Like in console games, you'd know an NPC's real identity when you see the game strategy but if you don't find the right item to reveal the NPC's identity, you won't be able to proceed to the next stage.

Outside this map, if you suspect an NPC and sneakily attack him or her, nothing bad would happen. However, this was the Hell Trial and it had stringent rules to increase difficulty. The rules of this map were totally biased towards the map defender.

Chen Mo was sure that Moorcher was the map defender and he had also hypothesised that the Forest Crystals were a sort of tool used to increase Moorcher's power!

The more Forest Crystals Moorcher gained, the more powerful he would become. Players who didn't think he was the map defender and traded crystals for items were just falling for the trap and digging their own graves.

But with Golden Phoenix and Little Demon's demise, nobody could know for sure if Moorcher was the map defender except for Chen Mo, who knew where the Ancient Tree Spirit was. If they tried to attack Moorcher, they would be kicked out, so nobody was willing to take that risk.

Even Chen Mo, who knew about the Ancient Tree Spirit and was almost 100% sure that Moorcher was the map defender, did not dare to initiate the attack and instead thought of a way to make Moorcher attack for the sake of crystals first.

It was not due to sheer luck that Moorcher attacked first.

The Ancient Tree Spirit was Moorcher's ally, so of course he would know about Chen Mo attacking it.

Moorcher could not be sure if Chen Mo, who knew about the Ancient Tree Spirit, would exchange crystals for items to use against it.

In this situation, Itsy Bitsy Fighter was the perfect target as she had Forest Crystals and no equipment. Of course, Moorcher would attack her.

Moorcher was weak without Forest Crystals but it was still a piece of cake to kill an equipment-less Level 10 player.

Kill this Adventurer and he'd gain Forest Crystals! This Adventurer should have at least ten Forest Crystals! It was not much but it was enough for him to deal with the other Adventurer, and if that wasn't enough, he could get the Ancient Tree Spirit to help!

Moorcher did not expect the human Adventurer to have no crystals at all. Giving him one to let them show how the item worked was a lie!

His cover blown, Moorcher turned without a word and ran towards the Ancient Tree Spirit.

"Running away?" Chen Mo smiled coldly.

Chen Mo used ten crystals to revive Itsy Bitsy Fighter, and brought Fatso with him to chase Moorcher.

Itsy Bitsy Fighter did not follow after reviving but ran to her previous hiding spot in the forest.

Twenty Forest Crystals were hidden there.

Forest Crystals were not tradeable. To carry out his plan, Chen Mo first had Itsy Bitsy Fighter kill him, dropping all his crystals. After Itsy Bitsy Fighter revived him, he killed her, then revived her. That was how they got the 20 Forest Crystals.

Chen Mo did this to reduce the risks and test Moorcher. He was going to attack Moorcher directly if it didn't work, but Moorcher had unexpectedly shown his hand first.

Moorcher had no crystals at all and his attributes were at their lowest. He was only a little more powerful than regular NPCs. Chen Mo used Slime King's Roar and him and Fatso caught up to Moorcher in no time.

"Die!" Moorcher would not go down without a fight. A magic staff appeared in his hands and he raised it. A green light shot at Chen Mo.

A whole party would not find it easy to kill Moorcher. This, here were just one person and a pet!

He just needed to hit that weak human Adventurer two or three times to kill him!

However, Chen Mo was not just any regular guy and Fatso was not just any other pet.

As expected of the map defender, the green light that shot out had target-locking attributes. Chen Mo used Fatso to block the shot without hesitation.

Hey, it's a 100,000HP meat-shield. Why waste it?

"Roar!" The green light hit Fatso for over 1000 damage. Fatso roared in anger and hit Moorcher.

As a mage, Moorcher was not the best at dodging attacks. Chen Mo summoned another Mutated Slime to join Fatso in battle and Moorcher was toast.

Chen Mo did not want to drag things out, so he used all his best stuff.

Moorcher had only 50,000HP. Without any Forest Crystals and without undergoing any mutation, Chen Mo and his slimes, big and small, killed Moorcher in under two minutes.

System prompt: Your party has killed the map defender!

System prompt: Conditions fulfilled. You passed Hell Level of the Trial of Natural Skill!

System prompt: Your party is the first in GENESIS to pass Hell Level of the Trial of Natural Skill. You have gained the achievement "Strongest Skilled One"!

System prompt: You gained the Achievement Title "Strongest Skilled One"!

Title: Strongest Skilled One

Description: Only given to the party members of the first party to clear Hell Level of the Trial of Natural Skill. It is a badge of honour and strength. This Title does not need to be equipped to apply attributes.

Attributes:

Honour +10

Special effect: Skill Strengthening

– Skill Strengthening: Boosts the effect of the player's Natural Skill. Different Natural Skills have different boosting results!

Holy shit!

Another passive Title, and one that strengthens Natural Skill!

He'd struck gold, participating in this Hell Trial!

However, Chen Mo knew that the main event had yet to come.