by Neven Iliev
The Frostbolt had been necessary since a shapeshifter’s flesh was highly unstable, and any severed parts would turn to nondescript piles of mush the instant they lost contact with the main body. Boxxy wasn’t sure whether this applied to its unchangeable insides, but it wasn’t about to take any chances, as it really didn’t want to undergo the excruciating procedure more than once. That was where Valeria’s Permafrost magic came in. Freezing the organ solid meant that it would retain its shape even after it was technically dead.
And now that its ever-useful magical perception had kicked back in, Boxxy was able to gain all kinds of information regarding the frozen lump of flesh. The Mimic committed as much as it could to memory before the gland thawed and fell apart. It would appear that freezing it had indeed been the correct move, as it had provided the creature with a blueprint with which to work. Granted, it wasn’t exactly ideal, but it was a start, which was all Boxxy T. Morningwood ever needed to get down to business.
It immediately attempted to replicate its observations inside its mouth cavity. The Mana Locator Gland appeared to be in the shape of an hourglass, with two smallish lumps connected by a thin stretch of flesh. The bulbous parts actually seemed as though they were made up of dozens of layers of membranes upon muscles upon membranes upon muscles, all the way down to a dense nerve cluster at their center. Its knowledge of anatomy and living tissue helped the Mimic to determine that, based on its structure, the organ was meant to pulse continuously. Like a human heart, but at a much higher frequency.
Meanwhile, its minions had recovered somewhat from their earlier shock. Boxxy had healed its wound and gone silent, indicating that its sudden act of self-mutilation had served its purpose, and as a result the four of them had calmed down significantly. They silently agreed to give the Mimic some space, lest they distract it from… whatever it was doing, and moved to a spot some twenty metres away.
“Nnnnnk,” Valeria whimpered. “I hope my darling doesn’t hate me for this…”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Xera reassured her.
“Do you really mean that?!”
“Of course. Master has never liked you in the first place.”
“As if! You’re just jealous!”
“Sure, keep telling yourself that, Nasty.”
“Humpf! At least I’m not something meaningless like a Snack!”
“Indeed, woe is me,” the succubus chortled. “Forever destined to receive Master’s attention and provide it with joy. To be devoured over and over and, hmmm, over…”
“W-well, that’s only because of your supposed flavour,” Valeria insisted. “I’m sure my darling can easily overlook something so superficial!”
“I doubt it.”
“Ditto.”
Neither demon was under any illusion about that.
“Actually, Boxxy also cares about shiny things,” Fizzy said smugly.
“I suppose that’s true,” Xera mused. “Although you’re not nearly shiny enough to satisfy it.”
“I’m not?!”
“Of course not. Steel just doesn’t have the same lustre as gold or mithril.”
“Hmm… that’s a good point. Maybe I should look into finding some metal polish.”
“Could always try using vinegar,” Kora suggested. “I remember one of my brothers saying that it was a great way to get the blood and guts off his spear. Also, something about how it made stroking the shaft a lot of fun.”
Fizzy flashed the fiend a suspicious look.
“Was he talking about his weapon or his penis?”
“… Now that you mention it, I’m not really sure. Could be either, or both.”
“Ugh, should have known,” the golem groaned.
“Are all demons like this?”
Valeria couldn’t help but be curious since every other word from Kora’s mouth seemed to be a double entendre.
“Haah,” Xera sighed. “Please don’t judge the rest of us by this meathead’s standards. While it’s true that all she ever thinks about is fighting and/or fucking, that only applies to fiends.”
“But you don’t seem to be all that different.”
“Of course I am. Unlike dick-on-legs over there, I don’t let sex dominate my life. I only take part because I don’t see a reason to decline pleasure because of petty things like pride, honour, or dignity.”
“I see… Still, I feel like I’ve been missing out. I should’ve been a Warlock rather than a Necromancer.”
Having a fiend familiar sounded like something she would enjoy very much. If she’d known more about demons and Warlocks while she had still been alive, she likely would have made some radically different life choices.
“Hah,” Xera scoffed. “You wouldn’t last a week before your familiar got you killed.”
“As if I’d give them a chance. I’d only be using them for their dicks, anyway.”
“That’s exactly why you’d die, honey. A fiend would rip a little girl like you in half without even trying.”
“She’s right, you know,” Kora chimed in. “It hurts to say this, but mine’s actually on the small side by fiend standards, and even then, the only reason this bitch over here can take it is because she’s way bendier than mortals. Any one of my brothers would shatter your spine on the first thrust if you let them.”
“Oh my God!” Fizzy shrieked in frustration. “Are dicks all you meatbags ever think about?!”
“Kinda.”
“Pretty much.”
“More or less.”
The golem put her palms over her face as she walked away.
“Where you off to all of a sudden, squirt?”
“I’m going to sit next to Boxxy where I can be quietly appreciated.”
“Hah! Now whose head is filled with lewd thoughts?!” Xera taunted.
“Bet she’s frustrated because she can’t feel anything down there,” Kora smirked.
“Bite my shiny metal ass!” Fizzy snarled. She gave them all the finger and headed back to the Mimic’s side.
“How rude!” Valeria sniffed.
“Indeed,” the succubus agreed, surprisingly. “I should speak to Master about disciplining her more thoroughly. It would not be good if her cocky attitude pissed off the wrong person and compromised its cover.”
The steel golem’s desire to publicly accompany Boxxy wherever it went was something of a potential issue, though it paled in comparison to the lich-sized red flag next to her.
“So anyway, tell me more about these brothers of yours, Red!” the obstacle in question changed the subject.
“Right, so get this. I have this older brother called Junfirpilak, right? But everyone just calls him Four-head.”
“Let me guess,” Xera rolled her eyes. “It’s because his physical form has two actual heads and two dicks, right?”
“What? No! I mean, my sister Sthrirniszath does, but she’s an archfiend. Anyway, we call him Four-head because he told us about this one time with a hydra-”
Several hours passed idly as Kora and Xera relayed the tales they’d heard from their kin during their time in the Beyond. Stories were one of a demon’s main venues of entertainment, so they often shared their interesting experiences amongst themselves. Kora herself had bragged incessantly about getting to take part in the Calamity during the few weeks of ‘vacation’ she’d had after her contract with Boxxy had been terminated. It had made her quite popular among her peers.
Fizzy, on the other hand, had seated herself next to Boxxy, basking in the knowledge that the Mimic was keeping its ‘eye’ on her. While her golem body didn’t need rest, exactly, her gnomish mind still accumulated stress and mental fatigue, so taking a break to relax like this every now and then was a good thing.
As for Boxxy, it had been silently working on replicating the MLG from memory. The two nerve clusters were proving tricky to duplicate, and actually hooking it up to its nervous system wasn’t particularly easy either. Once it had managed to reconstruct the organ, it then had to try actually t
urning it ‘on.’ This had proved to be immensely difficult, as the gland normally functioned autonomously. It briefly considered attempting to gouge out another one, but decided to keep trying as is. After all, painful things were painful, so it wouldn’t subject itself to them unless it was necessary.
And finally, after dozens, if not hundreds, of failed attempts, the hourglass-shaped mass of flesh finally started pulsating. It vibrated wildly, its frequency so high that the wrinkled flesh almost appeared fuzzy. Just as Boxxy had theorised, this mode of operation was the main reason it had so many layers of springy muscle – the MLG would have surely torn itself to pieces otherwise.
A second magical perception field started feeding information into the Mimic’s mind, nearly overloading its mental capacity. Thankfully, unlike the incident with the twenty eyes, it had well developed INT, WIS and MNT Attributes that helped it to remain conscious and in control, albeit severely disoriented. Now that both Mana Locator Glands were capable of seeing each other and Boxxy was able to get a sense of how the original worked in real time, it was able to fine tune its replica to correct some of its flaws.
When it was finally satisfied with its manufactured MLG, it dissolved the gland back into formless flesh and reconstructed it once more from scratch. When the sensory organ was once more up and running, it repeated the procedure time and time again, growing more and more accustomed to the process. The sun had already set by the time it finished making its fourth working MLG.
[Proficiency level increased. Shapeshift is now Level 10. END +2. DEX +1. AGI +1.]
“… Eh?”
Boxxy couldn’t help but be confused, as it hadn’t expected the Skill to Level up quite so quickly. Even if it had been at seventy-something percent Proficiency when it began its endeavour, it had assumed that it would need at least another few days to push its flesh-shaping ability to this point. Then again, the seemingly-innocuous bundle of muscles and nerves was the most intricately complex thing it had attempted to replicate thus far, so reaching Level 10 already actually made a good deal of sense.
Mild surprise aside, it wasn’t as though this was a bad thing. It needed Shapeshift at Level 10 in order to Rank Up, and now it was. That said, Boxxy uncharacteristically showed a bit of restraint and put off its Rank Up in order to practise making the MLG, until it was confident that it could make one at will.
It definitely wasn’t putting off its decision because it was worried what its Rank Up screen would say. That was not it at all.
Once it was done having doubts, it summoned its minions to its side to inform them that it would be undergoing the next stage of its evolution. The women were delighted at the news, as all of them were quite eager to see what would become of Boxxy once it Ranked Up. However, the Mimic certainly wasn’t about to do it right here and now. The last time it had gone through a Rank Up, the process had taken a number of days, during which it had been passed out and entirely defenceless.
A dungeon was no place to enter into such a vulnerable state, so it led its posse over to a small opening in a nearby cliff. It was more of a hole at the bottom of a rock wall than an actual cave, but it was a far more defendable resting spot than an open field or a golem-infested hedge maze. After instructing its minions to stand by, Boxxy finally spoke the two words that it had been simultaneously dreading and anticipating.
“Rank Up!”
[Rank Up – Mimic (Greater)]
Requirements: Level 50 Mimic Job, Level 10 Shapeshift, END 200
The Requirements have been met.
You may now Rank Up by using one of the following options:
[Doppelganger]
[Queen Metal Slime]
[Queen Shadow Slime]
[Cancel Rank Up]
… Well, choices were probably a good thing. Curiously enough, two of its options appeared to be queen slime variants. It knew about their lesser versions, as it had hunted them as part of its Quests for the Mercenary Guild. They were amorphous blobs of differently-coloured liquid with a small, black nucleus that served as their brain. As far as their shapeshifting abilities went, they were actually fairly impressive. They could bend their bodies into pretty much any shape and were generally much more flexible and free-form than a chest-bound mimic.
A queen slime would logically be a tougher, more advanced version, and if the name was any indication they would also be capable of reproduction. Not that Boxxy had any interest in that particular biological function, though. At least, not while it was still a mimic, but there was no telling what weird new instincts the metamorphosis might instill. That aside, it had very little idea what this ‘doppelganger’ thing even was.
Thankfully, a quick mental poke at each of its options showed a detailed list of what each path would entail.
[Doppelganger]
Additional Requirements: Biomass Level 5
[Effects]
Species will become Doppelganger (K̶̛4͏̕͏f̸̴̀i̢%̵l̵̛e͘̕͜>̕).
The Doppelganger Job will be awarded at Level 1 and will become the Main Job.
The Level Cap on the Biomass Skill will be increased by 5.
The Level Cap on the Shapeshift Skill will be increased by 5.
All Attributes +10.
[Queen Metal Slime]
Additional Requirements: Metal Mimicry Level 5
[Effects]
Species will become Queen Slime (Metal).
The Queen Slime Job will be awarded at Level 1 and will become the Main Job.
The Metal Mimicry Skill will no longer consume MP.
The Level Cap on the Metal Mimicry Skill will be increased by 5.
All Attributes +5. STR +10. END +10.
[Queen Shadow Slime]
Additional Requirements: Excessive exposure to darkness magic
[Effects]
Species will become Queen Slime (Shadow).
The Queen Slime Job will be awarded at Level 1 and will become the Main Job.
The Darkness Affinity Skill will be awarded at Level 1.
The Level Cap on the Ruin Mastery Skill will be increased by 5.
All Attributes +5. INT +10. WIS +10.
The two slime variants seemed obvious enough. Metallic slime bodies would most likely be some type of liquid metal and would undoubtedly be quite durable. Normal slimes were already highly resistant to physical attacks, so this specialised version should be practically invulnerable to everything but magic. The fact that its Metal Mimicry would be upgraded as well was also awfully enticing. Raising that all the way to Level 15 would likely allow Boxxy to morph its body into a wide range of weapons and armour, making it an even deadlier melee combatant.
Shadow slimes, on the other hand, appeared to be more proficient in magic than martial combat. It would appear this variant had been made available thanks to the Mimic’s experience as a Warlock. The listed Darkness Affinity Skill would render Boxxy completely invulnerable to harm from darkness-attuned Spells while also empowering its own shadow magic. This would not only increase both its offensive and defensive capabilities, but also allow for some interesting strategies. It could coil itself around an opponent and rip them to shreds with a point-blank barrage of Big Bang Balls while it itself remained unhurt. And even if there was some damage from the aftershock or whatever, it would be nothing that its Mend Flesh Skill couldn’t handle.
But would that regenerative ability even work on a body composed almost entirely of liquids? That was an extremely dubious point since a Monster Job and its related Skills were very closely tied to its corresponding species. Then again, Nasty was a lich and she could phase through solid objects, which Valeria had testified was a leftover from her previous species as a spectral banshee. She was still able to use the Skill, it just demanded a lot more MP in order to function.
If Boxxy took the lich’s case as an example, then it was highly likely that Mend Flesh would still work, but with some kind of penalty like increased MP cost or reduced healing speed. There was also a chance that it wouldn’t suffer any los
s in effectiveness or efficiency at all, as the slime’s liquid body would technically be the monster’s flesh.
Yet even though the Mimic could make educated guesses about either slime variant, it knew next to nothing about its final option. It had never even heard of doppelgangers, though it had made a point of collecting as much information as it could regarding other monsters during its time in Erosa.
It attempted to inspect the species name to learn more about it, but its lack of knowledge on the matter meant that the listed traits appeared as incomprehensible gibberish. Like the time when it had first received its Acid Spray Skill, this was completely beyond the Mimic’s understanding. The Status screen was a handy thing, but even it couldn’t reveal information so completely foreign to the user that not even the doppelganger’s variant was legible in the Rank Up screen.
However, there were at least some things that it could deduce from the information said screen had already provided. For one thing, the doppelganger species seemed extremely proficient in both Biomass and Shapeshift, so they had to be a type of flesh-based monsters with a shapeshifting ability superior to that of mimics. The increase in maximum Shapeshift Level in particular would be extremely tasty, since advancing the Level of the Skill beyond 10 would greatly benefit Cadaver Absorption and Mend Flesh, two of Boxxy’s strongest Skills. The former would absorb additional Attributes or Levels whenever it succeeded, while the latter would gain a noticeable increase in MP efficiency.
Putting its thoughts in order, the Mimic considered each of its choices. Should it evolve into an even more versatile shapeshifter as a doppelganger? Or perhaps the close combat specialist of a queen metal slime? The magically-oriented shadow slime variant could not be easily dismissed, either.
Each option seemed as though it would reinforce a different strength, but it was wary of making a mistake based solely on educated guesses and assumptions. Its theories had been born from experience and knowledge, true, but they were still conjectures which could easily prove incorrect. And while it was in no particular rush right now, the threat of the man Edward still loomed over it like a dark cloud. Boxxy would need to choose, and soon.
