by Neven Iliev
“Frostbite ~♪!”
Therefore, the monster kept barraging it with icicles, though not without restraint. This stupidly huge thing was bound to have HP for days, so the Mimic was pacing its MP reserves for once. It was in it for the long haul, which was why it abstained from using Power Overwhelming.
[Your target has been pierced by the magical ice. Target HP -319.]
The third set of projectiles hit true, but it appeared that was the last one. The queen was beginning to move around again, a clear indication she had recovered from the same Spell that Boxxy was currently chanting.
“Mind Blast ~♪!”
[Your target has been stunned for 2 seconds.]
The towering crustacean went limp again and sank into the soggy swamp as its consciousness was severed once more. Pitch-black flames then poured out of her shell as the monstrous Warlock unleashed an Ebonfire Spell, followed closely by another Frostbite. Xera landed on the ground next to her master and unleashed a Pyromancer’s Magma Missile. Globs of molten rock launched themselves out of the ground with gusts of steam and smoke, drawing large arcs through the air before splattering across the queen’s face.
*SKREEEEOOOK*
She definitely felt those last ones, but it looked like she’d already recovered from the Mind Blast. She ignored the Ebonfire engulfing her and raised a claw, preparing to take out both Boxxy and Xera with a single swing.
“Mind Blast ~♪!”
[Your target has resisted the Spell.]
The Mimic tried to stop her, but it was no good. This opponent’s mind had already sealed itself off due to the repeated assault and it would take time before Domination Spell would be effective again. This had happened much sooner than anticipated, leaving Boxxy wide open to the giant monster’s pincer swipe.
The shapeshifter wasn’t worried though because its backup had finally arrived.
“OOORRRAAAA!” yelled Kora as she leapt into the path of that wide swing.
The crab’s claw slammed into her double cross-arm block. It was a heavy blow as expected, but fiends were no pushovers. Kora grit her teeth, tensed every muscle in her body, and stood firm. Her powerful legs dug two narrow trenches into the soft ground as she was pushed back for about a metre, but she still stopped. She had successfully blocked a monster that was easily three times taller than she was. She hit the claw away with a double straight punch that left a sizable dent in the limb’s hard shell. The queen lost her balance and stumbled backwards, buying the trio a few seconds of time.
It was a good thing Boxxy didn’t have much in the way of common sense; otherwise, it might have been too shocked by that ridiculous display to take advantage of the opening.
“Snack – crabbies?” it asked.
“Dead, Master. This is the last one.”
“What do I do, boss?” Kora asked with a hint of anticipation.
Her master responded to her query by bonking her lightly on the head with the staff that its Xera-shaped upper body was still holding.
“Huh?” the fiend blurted in confusion.
“Dark Infusion ~♪!”
“Ohhhh, there we go!”
Kora let out a gasp of pleasant surprise as Boxxy’s Spell took hold of her. A dark, malicious aura enveloped her body, causing it to overflow with power.
“Kill it,” it commanded.
“Fuck yeah! Grit your teeth, Crabzilla, ‘cuz you about to get wrecked!”
She coiled her legs and leapt at the towering queen’s upper half. Her well-toned body did a half spin in the air, allowing her to plant a fierce dropkick right between the monster’s eye stalks. The toothy smile on the fiend’s face was so wide it almost looked like her lower jaw was about to fall off.
It was only natural Kora would be ecstatic. It wasn’t every day she got to fight an opponent bigger than herself, and she even got a dose of her favourite power-up to boot. This was the first thing resembling a challenge she had gotten after two weeks of babysitting that ruin of a warehouse, which made this encounter even tastier.
“Snack, support her.”
“Understood. What will you do, Master?”
Boxxy’s imitation of Xera disappeared and three tongues holding daggers took its place. Its MP reserves were already nearly dry, as even the most efficient of the Warlock’s Spells was quite demanding.
“I’m killing it,” it answered simply.
The harrowing battle that followed seemed like one without end. Not only did the queen appear to have nearly bottomless HP, but it was supported by many defensive Skills. She also started spewing a rain of acid once her mouth and face had recovered enough halfway through the fight. Boxxy and Xera were able to avoid it relatively easily, but Kora was caught up in it since she was at point-blank range. She survived the corrosive deluge but had to activate Demonic Carapace to lessen the damage and Second Wind to recover from it. The Mimic then took it upon itself to pull her away from subsequent acidic geysers whenever it noticed its target was preparing to fire another one.
Xera mostly circled around out of harm’s way while pelting the monster with magic whenever she could. She also had to use the Purge Spell on the other two several times after the queen released poisonous clouds around her. Her newly-acquired Magma Missile Spell seemed quite effective, but she had to land on the ground to use it. A spray of acid from a stray murk dweller blindsided her when she was doing so. The attack didn’t kill her outright but cost her the use of her wings, which drastically reduced her mobility. She was crushed under the queen’s claw a few seconds later.
As for Boxxy, it alternated between bombarding the massive monster with magic from afar and crawling all over it while stabbing away at her flesh. It even threw the last remaining bombs it had inside some of the deeper wounds, but their effect was minimal. As the fight dragged on, it altered its tactics, opting to cast Delirium whenever there was an opportunity to use Domination magic. The auditory and visual hallucinations that Spell caused made the confused creature attack thin air, though its random swipes did sometimes veer towards its enemies. All things considered, it was far safer to knock the thing out with Mind Blast, but the effects of Delirium lasted two to three times longer. The fight had been lengthier than the Mimic expected, which was why it had gone for the tactic that better reduced the overall risk involved.
Which was probably the right call, as the murk dweller queen did not go down easy. Members of her stray brood kept popping up every now and then as they were drawn in by its wailing, pulling either Boxxy or Kora away from the big one so they could deal with the new threats. At one point the murky water around the giant crab’s feet rose up in the air and splashed against its countless wounds, closing them up and restoring a significant portion of its vitality.
Yet Boxxy refused to give up. Dodging all those claw strikes, poisonous fumes, and acidic rain was nerve-wracking, but its opponent failed to land any clean hits on the spry box. It clipped it more than a few times, but it would take a lot more than that to scare off the Mimic. It had used up a small fortune on the explosives, so it refused to leave until it had gotten its money back by slaughtering this lumbering pile of meat.
The vicious chest’s perseverance eventually paid off. In a blind rage befitting that of a Berserker, Arms managed to rip off a piece of the queen’s battered and beaten shell. Boxxy seized the opportunity and leapt at the exposed muscle. It covered itself with sharp edges via Metal Mimicry and burrowed into it like the world’s deadliest tick, carving and ripping huge parts out of the thing’s side. The boss monster let out a series of pained screeches before finally keeling over sideways and collapsing on the ground, lifeless.
[Level up!]
[Congratulations, you are now a Level 41 Mimic! All Attributes +2.]
“YESSHAAAAA!”
Boxxy let out a triumphant half-scream, half-roar as it burrowed its way out of its victim’s insides. Its spider legs moved to an unheard rhythm as it danced a dance of triumphant joy on top of its defeated foe. That five-star difficult
y rating hadn’t been for show, as it had taken over ten minutes and precisely 1,065 GP’s worth of potions, explosives, and other supplies to bring the queen down. The Mimic would eventually be disgruntled at how it spent more money than it would make off its corpse, but right now it was too busy savouring the rush of victory.
It wasn’t the only one.
“Huff! Huff!” Kora panted as she leaned against the gigantic carcass. “Huff! Yeah! Take that! Huff! Fucking crab! Huff! Showed you who’s boss! Huff! Huff!”
The fiend was acting tough, but she was barely clinging to life. Both of her left arms had been melted away by the acid. Chunks of her body were also missing, particularly around the upper body and thighs. She’d have bled out or succumbed to the agonizing pain coursing through her body ages ago if she wasn’t a demon. The fact that she was still able to trash talk the dead creature was nothing short of a testament to the fiend’s resilience and stubbornness.
Boxxy didn’t get out of the fight entirely unscathed either. It took its fair amount of punishment as well but was able to pull through splendidly thanks to the incredibly delicious Skill it managed to unlock mid-battle.
[Mend Flesh]
A shapeshifter’s mastery over their body affords them a uniquely deep vitality.
Requirements: Level 40 Monster Job, Shapeshift, INT 150
Type: Toggled (ON)
Activation Time: N/A
Cost: N/A
Range: Self
[Effects]
Restores missing vitality at a rate of 100 HP/sec.
Consumes 100 MP for every 100 HP restored by this Skill.
Reduces the MP consumption of this Skill by 3% per Level of the Shapeshift Skill.
Increases the HP recovery rate of this Skill by 10 HP/sec per Level of this Skill.
This appeared to be the same ability the Fleshmaiden dungeon master near Monotal used to keep herself alive despite losing sizable chunks of her body to the Mimic’s attacks. Needless to say, this Skill made Boxxy’s survivability shoot through the roof. It was honestly like a dream come true. No longer would it have to rely on potions or dodging attacks like crazy in order to pull through gruelling fights. Or so it thought until it got a bit cocky when it took one of the queen’s acid splashes head on and lost about 850 HP in an instant. It had to quickly drink three of its more expensive potions to get its health back to a safe level, needlessly wasting resources due to its own hubris.
But that was then, this was now. And the Boxxy right now had one thing on its mind: dinner. The Mimic opened its maw wide and started chowing down on the mountain of fresh meat underneath it. And it was truly tasty, for it was the flavour of victory. It crunched and munched at the corpse, burrowing in deeper and deeper like some sort of flesh-eating parasite.
Almost exactly like that, actually.
Once it had eaten beyond its fill, it let out a satisfied burp. Tonight was a truly splendid night. Could it even get any better? Of course it could. There was still that one thing that would make this a perfect evening.
“Kadahah Akhsohsohn!” it chanted, full of anticipation.
Countless purple tendrils shot out in all directions, embedding themselves inside the walls of flesh and blood around it. The mountainous body shrivelled up at truly frightening speeds over the next two seconds as Boxxy’s Skill greedily slurped it up. When it ended, all that was left behind was a haystack-sized pile of soggy ash –
[Your Cadaver Absorption has failed.]
– combined with a feeling of profound disappointment.
Boxxy really needed to stop getting its hopes up like that.
[General Information]
Boxxy T. Morningwood
Mimic (Greater), Genderless, 3 months old
Level 41.23 Mimic
Level 25.00 Warlock (MAX)
Level 12.53 Artificer
1449/1449 HP (+3.7/sec)
503/1165 MP (+1.9/sec)
[Attributes]
STR 184, DEX 225, AGI 174, END 253, INT 233, WIS 194, LCK 83, MNT 150, CHR 60, PER 52
[Mimic Skills]
Assassination - Lvl 8.13
Storage - Lvl 7.23
Cadaver Absorption - Lvl 6.65
Biomass - Lvl 5.97
Natural Armour - Lvl 6.72
Metal Mimicry - Lvl 4.53
Mend Flesh - Lvl 2.40
[Warlock Skills]
Summon Familiar - Lvl 7.87
Power Overwhelming - Lvl 6.75
Demonology - Lvl 6.27
Crystallize Magic - Lvl 5.70
[Artificer Skills]
Clockwork Expertise - Lvl 3.85
Explosives Handling - Lvl 2.10
[Other Skills]
Shapeshift - Lvl 8.36
Stealth - Lvl 7.43
Sword Mastery - Lvl 6.65
Projectile Mastery - Lvl 5.01
Dagger Mastery - Lvl 8.33
Ruin Mastery - Lvl 8.41
Domination Mastery - Lvl 6.24
Shield Mastery - Lvl 3.68
[Spell List]
Ruin - Shadowbolt, Ebonfire, Frostbite, Dark Explosion, Shadowbind, Singularity
Domination - Mass Panic, Delirium, Dark Infusion, Mind Blast
Part Nine
Rather than being discouraged at how unreliable Cadaver Absorption was proving to be, the Mimic quickly reminded itself it wouldn’t even have the Warlock Job or either of its deeply useful familiars without it. The Skill provided it with the occasional Attribute boost and it had even lifted Shield Mastery off a dead adventurer. And there was that time it kick-started its Dagger Mastery free of charge. Indeed, the Skill was undeniably potent. Unreliable and random, but potent. Besides, tonight was still a pretty good night. It gained two Levels, the immensely delicious Mend Flesh Skill, and earned itself over a thousand gold pieces for completing both Quests. Therefore, the fact that Cadaver Absorption once again failed to gain anything from a powerful creature was really no big deal.
Yep.
It was fine.
Boxxy wasn’t the least bit bothered by this outcome.
“HUUUUUCK!”
Okay, it was bothered. It was bothered a lot, actually. Then it realised exactly how many potions and explosives were used up during the fight and its mood got even worse. Had tonight been worth it after all? Yes, it had. Maybe not so much on the monetary side of things, but securing the ability to rapidly regenerate its HP had been a huge win. It sought solace in the fact that life would be much easier from that point on.
“Hey Boss,” Kora called. “You okay?”
“Fine,” answered Boxxy.
That was actually the truth. Now that both the thrill of victory and the disappointment of losing a gamble were gone, it was actually left quite … serene. Peaceful, even. Almost like –
“Ack! No sleepy!”
The Mimic shook itself vigorously. It was so tired that it almost dozed off right then and there. This place was far too dangerous to do that sort of thing, especially while exposed. Deciding it had better get a move on, Boxxy briskly walked out of the gigantic pile of black ash and started inspecting the bodies of the lesser murk dwellers. A good bunch of them had been turned to goop thanks to that explosion, but there were still quite a few of them that were mostly intact. It then started systematically using Cadaver Absorption on them, one after the other.
And was met, as expected, with a string of failures. Its fickle mood quickly started to sour once more. But it kept using the Skill on one corpse after another. Persistence was key in this sort of thing, and it wouldn’t want to waste any chance to power up. Some small part of it considered whether it should store some of the bodies for breakfast but quickly decided against it. Objectively speaking, their meat was bad. Something in their green blood made it taste considerably foul. It wasn’t poisonous, just … bad. Without the ‘taste of victory’ around to smooth things over, it really didn’t want to bother with those unless absolutely necessary.
[Your Cadaver Absorption was a moderate success!]
&nb
sp; [16% of the target’s highest Skill Proficiency has been added to your own.]
[The body’s deteriorated condition has weakened this effect by 20%.]
[Proficiency level increased. Aci◻ Spray is now Level 3. END +9. INT +9.]
“Oh!” exclaimed Boxxy.
A brand new Skill popped up out of the second-to-last corpse. Cadaver Absorption actually pulled through in the end, didn’t it? Wait, something was off about that notification. And what was this … odd sensation it felt when it absorbed it? The Mimic quickly brought up its Status window and inspected the new Skill.
Aci◻ Spray
3͢Er̸ф̀гj͠fЯo͡fR҉ ͢ ͢P#́f̨l̸B̀>̴taQg̷ ;;;
Requirements: OVERRIDDEN
Type: Sustained
Activation Time: 1 second
Cost: 80 MP/sec
Range: 7.999999999999994 metres
[Effects]
Emit a spray of co̶rŗo̴s̶isi͠s͘ísi̸ve͘ aci◻.
Increases the volume and potency of the released aci◻ by 10% per Level of this $ḱil̢l̵.̷
“ … Wat?”
Okay, this was new.
Actually no, it wasn’t entirely new. The Mimic had already seen this sort of incomprehensible gibberish and weird squiggles once before. It was back when it was using Snack as collateral to summon Punchy. Attempting to view the Overlord’s Status gave it a list of garbled nonsense that seemed eerily similar to this one. Perhaps it was somehow related? It decided to double-check just to be sure.
1-800-7355-9687-7685
*Beep … Beep … Bee–*
*Click*
“Hello,” answered the familiar, raspy voice. “You have reached Demons ‘R’ Us. My name is Carl and I’ll be your liaison for today.”
“Hey, Carl. It’s Boxxy.”
“Oh! Good to hear from you, buddy! What can I help you with today?”
“I got this weird Skill and I need some help.”
“Is it directly related to your summoning contracts, bound familiars, the Beyond and/or eldritch abominations of terrible power?”
