Players used items on themselves or on the Slime King, causing the Slime King to mutate. There could only be one of these two possibilities.
As for which one it was, Chen Mo leaned toward the former possibility.
The two messages about the mutated Slime King did not mention the existence of other players, so it was very likely that other players used some kind of item from a distance, causing the Slime King to mutate.
However, it could not be ruled out that the two people who sent the messages deliberately concealed the important clue of the mutation condition.
But no matter which possibility it was, the item that caused the Slime King to mutate must have been obtained from the Novice Village or the surrounding areas.
This item would not be too common, and there would be a certain degree of difficulty in obtaining it. If players could actively use it, then the item description should have nothing to do with the Slime King. The mutation of the Slime King was just a hidden attribute of the item.
There were not many items in the Novice Village. With these conditions, he could eliminate them one by one. Even if he could not immediately find out which item it was, he could still eliminate a large portion of it.
The items obtained in the Novice Village could only be obtained from killing monsters, buying from shops, and quest rewards.
As for the items bought from shops, Chen Mo walked around the town of Aier and immediately eliminated them.
In the town of Aier, the items sold in shops were pitifully few. There were only novice weapons, novice HP, MP potions, and some random quest items given by the system.
For example, fishing rods, shovels, hoes, and so on were needed in some quests.
All that was left were the items dropped from killing monsters and quest rewards.
There were many items dropped from killing monsters. Chen Mo knew that he would not be able to figure them out in a short time. As for the quest rewards, he would be able to figure out 90% by checking on the forum.
The game had been open for more than a day. The quests in the Novice Village were already on the game forum with all sorts of guides. The quest flow and quest rewards were clearly written.
Going to the forum, Chen Mo looked at the quests one by one.
He had only completed the first few quests in the Novice Village, and the latter quests were only for the Slightly Poisonous Crossbow skill quest.
Overall, the most likely items are 'Braised Pufferfish,' 'Expired Liquor,' 'Rotten Apple,' 'Seductive Breast,' and 'Discarded Dog Food.'
Chen Mo finally locked onto five items that could only be obtained through quests.
Braised Pufferfish. A chef in the town of Aier would ask players for a pufferfish. To get a pufferfish, players would need to buy a fishing rod from the general store and go fishing in a river outside of town to have a chance of catching.
The chances of players catching pufferfish were not high, and it would take a lot of time to complete this mission. After completing the mission, players would be able to receive 10 pieces of "Braised Pufferfish" from the chef.
The effect of the Braised Pufferfish was to increase all of the player's attributes for 10 minutes. However, due to the poison of the Pufferfish, the player would lose 5 HP every second during the 10 minutes.
It wasn't easy to complete this quest. It would take at least half an hour to catch a Pufferfish. Half an hour in exchange for 100 minutes of an item that would increase all stats by 10 points and continuously deplete HP was not worth the loss. Therefore, players who knew what the reward would be were not interested in this quest. There weren't many Braised Pufferfish in the game, and the item was poisonous. It was highly likely that it would cause the Slime King to mutate.
The Expired Liquor was obtained by completing a commission from a drunkard in Aiur Town. The Expired Liquor's effect was to instantly recover 300 MP. However, for the next 10 minutes, players would not be able to use MP Recovery Potions.
The Corroded Apple can be obtained when the owner of the orchard outside the town accepts the task of clearing the weeds in the orchard.
The Corroded Apple was not an item that could be obtained at the end of the quest. However, there was a chance of picking up a special item like the Corroded Apple when clearing weeds. Other than that, it could not be found anywhere else.
This item had the dual effect of recovering both HP and MP. However, after eating it, the player's Strength and Intelligence would both decrease by 10 points. It was the same as the Braised Pufferfish, both of which had negative effects.
There was a chance for the Corroded Apple to appear. Not all players who accepted the task of clearing the orchard could obtain it. Naturally, it was also on Chen Mo's list of candidates.
There were also the Seductive Lust and the Discarded Dog Food.
The Seductive Lust was actually a quest item. A lot of rats appeared in the basement of a resident in Aiur Town. After the player accepted the quest, they could obtain the Seductive Lust through the quest. Using the Seductive Lust in the basement would kill the rats and complete the quest.
However, the Seductive Lust was not limited to the quest location. Some players had tried using it in other places. It worked, but the effect of the Seductive Lust did not work on other monsters.
However, would it work on the Slime King?
That player had not tried it. Of course, Chen Mo would not miss this kind of thing.
There was also the Discarded Dog Food.
The origin of this thing was very strange.
A resident in Aiur Town wanted to dig a well. After the player accepted the quest, they went to the grocery store to buy a shovel. In the process of digging the well, there was a small chance of obtaining the Discarded Dog Food.
No one knew what the use of this thing was.
However, when Chen Mo saw the Discarded Dog Food, he knew that this thing was very likely to be used to lure away the hound guarding the mayor's house.
However, it was not easy to get the Discarded Dog Food. The chance of it appearing was less than one percent.
Chen Mo took some time to investigate the items dropped by the monsters in the Novice Village.
At first, he thought it would be very complicated. However, after a little investigation, Chen Mo eliminated most of the items dropped by the monsters.
The reason was very simple. The items dropped by the monsters that players could use were almost all potions. The rest of the equipment and materials could not be directly used by the players.
Of course, many of the monster materials could be exchanged for items that players could use through the quest. However, Chen Mo had already eliminated these items obtained from the quest.
In that case, he could use the items that were suspected to be able to mutate the Slime King to confirm.
However, these items were not easy to obtain. If he were to get them one by one, he might not be able to get them all in half a day. It would be too much of a waste of time.
Moreover, after confirming the conditions for the Slime King's mutation, he also had to purchase a pair of exquisite shoes that increased the upper limit of his movement speed.
All of these required money. Chen Mo had reached Level 10 and saved five silver coins. However, it was impossible to buy so many things.
After thinking about it, Chen Mo decided to make a paid post to earn some extra money!
"Make You Stronger – Freedom Skill System Revealed!"
A few minutes later, a pay-to-view post appeared on the forum.
The Freedom Skill System was something that would not be a secret sooner or later. Now, he was definitely not the only one who knew about the existence of this system. However, the other players did not publicize it, probably because they had their own thoughts.
Chen Mo actually did not want to publicize this system too early. This was because the Freedom Skill System was like a key. Once the players knew about it, there would definitely be people who would be inspired. People would also know that the holographic virtual network was more powerful than they had imagined.
However, in order to get the start-up funds, Chen Mo thought about it and decided to publicize it.
If this commission did not succeed, at least he would not lose out.
After posting the post and being online for so long, Chen Mo also felt hungry. He went offline to get some food and drink.
After eating and drinking to his heart's content, Chen Mo returned to the forum. He wanted to see how much income his post had brought him.
"What's going on?
Only ten thousand people paid to watch it? "
Chen Mo had left the forum for almost half an hour. After half an hour, Chen Mo thought that there would be at least a hundred or two hundred thousand people who paid to watch it. He did not expect that in the end, there would only be a pitiful ten thousand people who paid to watch it.
Chen Mo quickly found the reason.
"The Nouveau Riche Club will unlock the Freedom Skill System for you for free!"
A few minutes after he posted the post, a guy called "Brother Jiu" posted such a post.
"F * ck!
F * cking Nouveau Riche Club! "
Chen Mo quickly scanned the contents of the post and could not help but curse.
This time, he had been ruthlessly scammed by the Nouveau Riche Club!