by Neven Iliev
He sighed dejectedly. Even if he could kill the monsters by simply stepping on them, they were still a nuisance. After all, no matter how weak an opponent, washing off the blood and guts from his metal greaves took the same amount of time and effort. The same could be said for the rest of his full-plate steel armor, but at least the small creatures in this weak dungeon were only tall enough to stain his lower half.
Bogon turned his head towards his human companion.
“Look, Val, Ah’m tellin’ ye this job’s a waste of our time!” he complained for the umpteenth time.
“You’re free to fuck off at any time, Bogon. You’re the one who insisted on following me here,” she retorted. The black-haired, black-eyed woman was too busy inspecting the remains of five giant rats around them to pay attention to his whining. “Besides,” she continued, “it’s not a waste if I can find the cause of all these disappearances.”
“I’ll give ye the cause! Bloody greenhorns dunno what teh fook they’re doin’ in here! They get full a’ themselves and end up in some rat’s belleh!”
“It’s not that simple. The mayor said they’ve lost more people in here in the last two months than they have in the last two years combined,” she answered without averting her gaze. “Something must’ve snuck in here. Something besides the sudden influx of Mimics. If I find it, it’ll do wonders for my-Ah, I mean, I want to do my part in helping the newbies grow!”
Her eyes shone dangerously for a second before she tried to change her words. Bogon sighed again. That woman’s eccentricities were always grinding his gears. If she wasn’t a promising spellcaster he never would’ve even bothered with her.
But she was. And he needed her help for his next Quest. He had hoped to dissuade her at first, but that hope was now rapidly deteriorating. After all, he just saw her true intentions shine through her facade. She obviously took this as more than a simple job.
Bogon suspected she was hiding something ever since they teamed up two weeks ago. He had a pretty good idea what that ‘something’ was - the musclebound dwarf was sharper than he looked. However, he also knew better than to poke his nose into this strange woman’s personal business. A Necromancer wasn’t someone you want as an enemy.
“How can ye be so sure it’s not them Mimics that showed up recently?” he offered in desperation.
“The Mimics here are young so they’re feeble,” she explained. “Their HP is only about 20 or 30. One good hit from any offensive Job and they’ll be at death’s door. A Wizard or Rogue would probably one-shot them with a bit of luck.”
Once word got out that Mimics started appearing here, the various adventurer guilds acted. They made a sincere effort to educate and caution their newcomers about the new threat. After some time, those monsters became less and less of a threat. In time, the threat was reduced to the point that they ended up more popular than the wooden chests they were attempting to imitate. People these days were honestly disheartened when the box they attacked turned out to be just regular wood. They needed to defeat monsters to raise their Job Levels, so an easy kill was way more welcome than a scrap of worthless loot.
Most of the newbies even stopped looting the disappointing boxes entirely. A chest would disappear into dust soon after its treasures had been pilfered, so leaving it like that was a sign to others not to waste their time and effort on it. It was a sort of unwritten rule among them.
In fact, one such example was in this very tunnel, right next to Bogon and Valeria. A simple, unassuming box, closer to a crate than a treasure chest, stood against a wall. The rounded wooden lid had been cracked and a long, straight dent was clearly visible on it. Someone had obviously already tested it with an axe or sword.
Valeria, having finished her inspection, stood up and turned to her annoyed companion.
“These numbers go far beyond simple carelessness. At least forty-five people have gone missing recently, most of them reportedly seen heading towards this area. Whatever’s doing this is right here, and I’m going to find it! I’ll be fine on my own once I get my familiars ready, so can you seriously fuck off, now?”
“Haaaah. Fine Val,” said Bogon dejectedly. “Ye win. Ah’m goin’ back ter town. Hit me up once yer done, aight?”
“Pay’s good this time, right? I’m not working for peanuts again.”
“Ye’ll find out later,” said Bogon while pulling out a Portal Key.
He gripped the fist-sized stone firmly, causing it to break and crumble to white dust. The dust swirled around him for about a second before there was a flash of blue light. The armored dwarf Warrior was whisked back to the Waystone outside the dungeon’s entrance, leaving behind only a puff of white smoke.
“Finally!” spat Valeria. “What a jackass! Why’d he even come here if he was just going to complain?! Now I can do what I came here to do. Heh. Hehehe! Uhehk hehkk hehk hehk!”
Valeria grinned, a wide, crooked grin that sat wrongly on her lovely face. An unhinged gleam shone in her eyes as she cackled. Exhilaration filled her at the prospect of coming across a new type of low-leveled monster. To her, that was the most likely perpetrator of this disturbance. Probably something that lost its way and snuck in here looking for easy prey. Valeria could not wait to get her hands on it.
She cackled for a solid minute before she was able to calm down. Her face quickly adapted the ‘cool and collected’ facade she wore whenever people were around. She needed to be mindful of others. This was still a popular dungeon, so it was actually rather common to run into newbies who were still doing their first Quests. Valeria had been one of those same newbies less than a month ago, but she stuck to a completely different part of the labyrinthine cave system. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that she got lucky.
She straightened out the black Apprentice Robe she was wearing. It was a low-cut, short-sleeved dress-like garment with a knee-length skirt. The edges of the skirt and the sleeves were decorated with black frills. Black leather bootlets with slightly raised heels led into fishnet stockings that continued up her pale legs, all the way to the lacy underwear hidden beneath her skirt.
On the whole, this outfit was entirely mismatched with its name. It didn’t look a single thing like the chaste robes one would expect a Priest would wear. That was because the ‘Robe’ in the item’s name simply referred to its magic-boosting Attribute bonuses and effects, rather than the actual style of the garment. Truthfully speaking, the only thing that set Valeria apart from the prostitutes in the nearby town was the pointy wide-brimmed hat and the faint stench of rotting flesh.
“Status,” she chanted. A series of windows appeared at the forefront of her consciousness. She quickly verified the information.
[General Information]
Valeria Vortena
Human, Female, 21 years old
Member of the Order of the Black Wand
Level 16.35 Necromancer
Level 4.98 Monster Tamer
178/178 HP (+0.3/sec)
429/595 MP (+1.1/sec)
[Attributes]
STR 21, DEX 10, AGI 10, END 33, INT 119, WIS 119, MNT 43, FTH -68, CHR 34
[Necromancer Skills]
Necromancy - Lvl 5.43
Hexcraft - Lvl 4.23
Forbidden Power - Lvl 2.26
[Monster Tamer Skills]
Monster Domination - Lvl 2.97
[Other Skills]
Taboo - Lvl 4.34
Meditation - Lvl 3.45
Staff Mastery - Lvl 1.09
Wand Mastery - Lvl 2.30
A Necromancer with an overall Level of 20. In a place where the average monster was lucky to reach Level 3, she was unstoppable. Even with her pitiful physical attributes she could still easily punch anything in here to death.
This much was natural - both Jobs and Skills would provide an Attribute boost every time they went up in Level. Training and raising these was the best way of raising combat power, although not the only one. It was also possible to train one’s body and/or mind to increase specific At
tributes, but it was not common practice. In the time it took for a warrior to gain STR +1 through the ‘special action’ of physical training, he could just as easily have earned himself almost six times as much through Level Ups. The difference in efficiency was simply incomparable.
However, anyone who looked at this Status Screen without knowing Valeria would be left scratching their head.
To begin with, Monster Tamer was an odd choice of secondary Job for a Necromancer. The latter was famous for using waves of disposable undead, while the former revolved around painstakingly raising a small number of powerful pet monsters. There were merits and demerits to either approach, but they both amounted to the same thing - having something else fight one’s battles. Logically speaking, an adventurer would pick a secondary Job that either synergized with their main one or made them more versatile. Common sense dictated that this particular setup was a very poor one.
The truth was that Valeria did, in fact, make a logical choice, albeit for very different reasons. The Necromancer Job, while well suited to solo adventurers, also caused side-effects like negative Faith (FTH) and a high proficiency level of Taboo. This ostracized these adventurers from most religious societies, which meant they would end up shunned and despised by almost every single Priest, Monk and Paladin. Even the paganistic Shamans and Druids would avoid contact with these self-proclaimed Lords of the Dead. And something all these callings had in common was that they were healers - Jobs that could instantly mend wounds and restore vitality through their magic. This meant that a Necromancer never had a healer with them, which meant that the vast majority of other adventurers avoided them on principle. After all, nobody in their right mind was willing to risk their lives on grueling Quests without the safety net of healing magic.
In a way, Necromancers were almost always forced down the road of solitude. But that was perfect for them. Their desires were almost entirely selfish anyway, not to mention the questionable and unethical rituals they would sometimes perform were bound to shock and disgust others. In a way, the Necromancer Job was perfect for Valeria as a person. The Monster Tamer Job, on the other hand, was perfect for her secret hobby. After all, it was a simple fact that living monsters could do things that the rotting undead were ill-equipped to handle.
“Maybe the cause is a random cave troll that wandered in?” Valeria shuddered at the possibilities. Her facade was quickly breaking down again. ”Huhuehehehe! Or maybe a werewolf? Either one of those would be perrrrfect!”
In truth, there were several ways of being saddled with negative FTH and Taboo. To Valeria, her Necromancer Job was an excellent way of explaining her Status to people with a high-level Appraisal Skill. If questioned, she could simply put on a ‘can’t be helped’ sort of attitude and blow it over. In some ways, she was extremely fortunate the acts she committed did not put something truly damning on her Status Screen. Something like, for example, a Monster Breeder Skill.
Valeria desperately needed a new toy. Her last pet, a Level 7 Gray Wolf, could not keep up with her demands and had simply expired. It was a good ride, so his owner found it a pity when the beast’s life ran out from all the abuse. Just remembering those long nights was enough to drive her wet.
“MMmmnn…”
She moaned softly. It had been too long since the last session. She leaned absentmindedly against a wall and sheepishly snuck a few fingers into her damp panties. Two digits pressed against her sodden entrance, her lower lips quivering slightly in anticipation. She was in the middle of a dark dungeon where anyone could walk in on her. The excitement egged her on until she could no longer stand it. Her highly immoral fantasies ran wild. And just as she was imagining being penetrated, her dreams became reality.
[Critical damage sustained. HP -145.]
[The overwhelming force of the blow has left you stunned for 5 seconds.]
A sword had punctured through the nape of her neck. The sudden thrust had driven the blade completely through her throat, leaving the bloodied tip poking out from underneath her chin.
[You are bleeding heavily from an open wound. HP -10.]
The entirely unremarkable and wholly non-magical lump of iron was pulled out of her, leaving a large vertical slit on her bloodied neck. She collapsed like a puppet with her strings cut and fell to the floor with a thud.
[You are bleeding heavily from an open wound. HP -10.]
“Kuh! Kuhah! Koff!”
Valeria sputtered blood from her mouth when her head hit the ground. Her mind was still reeling from the effects of the Stun condition, unable to comprehend what was happening.
[You are bleeding heavily from an open wound. HP -10.]
“Keh… Ple-Kuh!” she coughed weakly, her blood splattering against the cold stone floor. She could not even muster a scream before darkness overtook her vision.
[You are bleeding heavily from an open wound. HP -10.]
[You are no longer stunned.]
[You died.]
Part Four
[Level up!]
[Congratulations, you are now a level 15 Mimic! All attributes +2.]
[Proficiency level increased. Assassination is now Level 4. AGI +2. DEX +1. STR +1.]
[Proficiency level increased. Stealth is now Level 3. AGI +2. DEX +1. END +1.
“Hissyah ssah ssah ssah!” the Mimic let out as it did its traditional celebratory jig. The tiny legs moved its rectangular body rhythmically side to side and the fleshy tendril of a tongue waved the bloody sword around to some unheard tune. It had just managed to fell a high-level opponent in a single strike - truly an achievement worth celebrating!
Valeria did not find the culprit behind all those disappearances. It had found her.
Forty-two of the forty-five reported missing persons were done in by the same monster. In these last two months it had learned how to shift its appearance to match that of an already ‘checked’ chest. Its prey would either ignore it and move on, or get greedy and approach. In the latter case, they would be stabbed and eaten. In the former scenario, they would be hunted down, stabbed and eaten.
This simple creature had found several devious ways to deceive and ultimately devour its victims. Truthfully, the difference in Level meant that it could probably charge a group of four newbies and end their lives with no difficulty. However, such things went against its instincts. And those had never led it astray so far.
A few minutes ago, when two strange-looking people entered its kill zone, those instincts screamed at the Mimic, warning it that it was no match for either one of them. The short metal one felt particularly dangerous. So this would-be-chest did the only thing it could - it focused every fiber of its being into cowering and hiding.
But the troublesome dwarf left all on his own. The human lingered in the area and began acting strangely. She grew more and more distracted until she stopped and leaned against the wall, leaving the disguised Mimic in her blind spot. Realizing its chance, the monster acted without hesitation.
It crept toward her silently. The Mimic’s Stealth Skill allowed it to suppress its presence and lessen the sounds it made when it moved, although it drained its Mana Points (MP) unless it stood perfectly still. The Agility (AGI) Attribute aided in this, as every point of AGI meant smoother and nimbler movements of one’s body as a whole.
Once it had reached her defenseless back, it thrust a sword into an unarmored weak point - the back of her neck.
Strength (STR) allowed the Mimic to carry heavier loads and enhanced melee attacks, such as sword thrusts. Dexterity (DEX) on the other hand governed how nimbly one could handle weapons and provided a power boost to piercing and thrusting attacks. Landing an attack on a vital point meant it would be at least two times stronger than it normally would have been.
And last but not least, it was an attack from behind on an unsuspecting opponent. These conditions allowed the Mimic to trigger its Assassination Skill, which overlapped with all other effects, boosting the overall power of that single strike threefold.
The res
ult was a devastating blow that exceeded 66% of Valeria’s HP, forcing her into the Stunned abnormal state which robbed her of her wits. She then bled out the remainder of her HP on the ground, without the need for a follow up attack.
Truthfully, if the Mimic had access to a better weapon, its prey would have died without ever realizing she had been ambushed.
Feeling awfully proud of its mild accomplishment, the Mimic stopped its little dance and used its tongue to fling the sword it had been holding into the air. The bloodied blade spun around several times before falling down towards the monster’s open maw. A swirling dark purple portal opened up between its dagger-like teeth. The weapon disappeared into it without making a sound. The Mimic closed the portal and its maw. Having lightened its load, the Mimic proceeded to the next order of business.
“Shashus!” it hissed. While it sounded only vaguely like ‘Status,’ some invisible force recognized the chant and brought up a series of windows to the forefront of the monster’s consciousness.
[General Information]
Mimic (Lesser), Genderless, 2 months old
Level 15.02 Mimic (+)
246/246 HP (+0.4/sec)
105/170 MP (+0.3/sec)
[Attributes]
STR 41, DEX 44, AGI 34, END 41, INT 34, WIS 36
[Mimic Skills]
Assassination - Lvl 4.05
Storage - Lvl 2.32
[Other Skills]
Shapeshift - Lvl 2.56
Stealth - Lvl 3.00
Sword Mastery - Lvl 4.87
The creature felt elated when it saw the (+) sign visible next to the Mimic entry in the Job section. That signified one thing - that the monster could unlock another Restricted Skill! Something like this happened twice before. The first time was at Level 5 when it chose the Assassination Skill, which allowed the creature to dispatch even heavily armored adventurers with ease.
