by Iliev, Neven
Well, that wasn’t to say that it would suddenly become a pacifist. Being a monster meant that Doppelgangers still thrived on bloodshed and carnage somewhat, even if it wasn’t the ‘correct’ way to raise the Job’s Levels. Besides, even if it could sate its hunger by filling up on termites or hylt fruit, the former mimic still wanted to dine on people. Eating tasty things was still more or less its main goal in life, so it saw no reason to avoid chowing down on people whenever possible. Those opportunities were few and far between, as Boxxy didn’t really have the option to skulk around in the sewers or back alleys looking for dinner. It had to work hard if it was to establish an identity, forge relationships and earn the trust of others. Doing so would allow it to gain Doppelganger Levels much faster than if it simply hid in a dark corner somewhere and only came out in order to buy or sell things. The more people it fooled, the more XP it would earn.
It was therefore important to stand out just enough to leave a favorable or lasting impression, but not too much so as to raise suspicion. Walking that fine line was quite challenging and had to be done carefully. Even if Boxxy felt like a wolf hiding among sheep, a lot of those sheep were heavily armed and more than a few of them were considerably stronger than the wolf.
Honestly speaking, the creature never thought it would find itself in such a position. If someone had told Boxxy’s past self that it would end up with social obligations, it would have stabbed them in the face and eaten them. Granted, it would’ve probably tried to do that anyway, but it would have done so much more maliciously. And yet it had spent an entire week talking to people without trying to eat them.
It couldn’t really complain though. It had already gotten up to Level 13 of its Doppelganger Job, despite doing relatively little fighting or murdering. Its schedule was a bit too full for that at the moment, but this was bound to change when it graduated from Faehorn’s Ranger class. After that, it would have a lot more free time to focus on its Artificer Job or just enjoy its ever-growing collection of shiny things. It was also to that end that it really wanted to establish a lair and use the dungeon core as a sort of security and home management system.
“Master,” called out Xera once again, “I think I’ve found the nest.”
Something which looked like it would happen sooner rather than later.
Part Five
Xera had spent a good half hour climbing up the narrow passage inside the hylt tree’s root. Thankfully it got a bit wider as she got higher up, though not wide enough to let spread her wings and fly up it. Eventually it stopped going upwards and evened out a bit, allowing her to crawl rather than climb. She really had no idea what her position relative to the ground was, as her entire world consisted of nothing but the chewed-up walls of a lumber tunnel.
A few minutes later, the tight passage opened up into the side of a large, hollowed out chamber that was vaguely cylindrical. It was mind-bogglingly tall, as it went so far straight up that she couldn’t even see the top. As for the shape itself, it was irregular to say the least. The termites had eaten away at the insides of the mighty tree with reckless abandon, leaving the walls of this tall cavern riddled with numerous ridges, cliffs and caves. In fact, the passage that Xera was currently poking her head out of was only one of what appeared to be hundreds of tunnels lining the walls of this space.
Looking down from her tiny perch, she saw the uneven bottom of the hollowed-out tree trunk some forty or fifty meters below. She assumed the bottom was down there, but she couldn’t actually see it. Hundreds of large insects crawled all over it, completely hiding the ground floor from view. The walls surrounding the succubus were also thick with what she now estimated to be thousands of the creatures.
The seasoned succubus cast her gaze further upwards and noted that, thankfully, the writhing mass of termites did not extend all the way up to the top of this place. The extra-large colony appeared to have been steadily eating their way downwards over the course of a long time, so the vast majority of the swarm was concentrated here. The succubus wasn’t sure what her current altitude was, but she had a sneaking suspicion these guys had started at the very top of the tree.
“Master, I think I’ve found the nest,” she reported with a hint of sarcasm.
“Can you take care of it yourself?”
“Probably, but… are you sure? I mean, using fire in a cave made out of wood is a little…”
“It’ll be fine. That timber is resistant to magic so it won’t catch fire. The elves do this sort of thing all the time.”
“Understood. What about the enemy? There’s quite a lot of them you know.”
“So?”
“So… wouldn’t they be good fodder for your Job Levels?”
“Those termites are way too pathetic. I’d just be wasting my time on them.”
If one were to kill something that was much, much weaker than themselves, then they would get practically no combat XP. There was nothing to be learned from stomping on a few defenseless ants, which was exactly what this would equate to, if Boxxy did things personally. Okay, maybe this particular hive counted as more than ‘a few,’ but that was beside the point.
“What about your Ranger Job?”
That one was a different story altogether. Since the ‘ganger’s newly acquired Ranger Job was still relatively low Level, it was bound to go up significantly with this much prey.
“Can’t let it grow too quickly, otherwise that Faehorn guy will realize something’s up.”
As expected of a seasoned elf Ranger, he had sharp intuition and easily spotted things that were out of place. Boxxy had to hold back immensely whenever that guy was around, and performing down to those other apprentices’ Level was surprisingly difficult. However, the monster learned quite a bit by doing so.
It was ironic, in a way. Faehorn’s teachings about being able to control one’s power to the utmost were intended as a way to maximize an adventurer’s effectiveness when fighting monsters. Yet a monster in his care was applying that approach in order to minimize its power in an attempt to blend in completely with a group of trainee adventurers. And it seemed to work beautifully.
Though a welcome boon, that control training hadn’t been why Boxxy enlisted as a Ranger. It wanted to be one because those nimble hunters were unmatched when it came to stalking, tracking, pursuing and cornering a target. Not only that, but it was a Job that benefited greatly from the monster’s already high Dexterity (DEX) and Agility (AGI) Attributes.
The bow was also a very useful and versatile weapon. Even if it lacked the destructive power of Spells and required expendable ammunition, it was perfectly silent and had a far greater range. One could also use special arrowheads to produce Spell-like effects. For instance, a forward-thinking shapeshifter might use its Artificer Job to create explosive projectiles that detonated on impact. The weight and weird shape of the arrow would greatly diminish its accuracy, but that wasn’t much of a problem considering it could just fire it into a crowd and have the shrapnel do the rest.
“So, I should take them on by myself?” Xera asked for confirmation.
“That’s right.”
If the summoned familiar were to take them out, then there would still be some improvement regarding Boxxy’s Warlock Job. That particular occupation could grow as much as it wanted since Spell-related Attributes and Skills had no way of interfering with a thoroughly non-magical bow and arrow. It also had no intention of revealing its identity as a Warlock to others. At least, none of the people knew its identity as a Ranger. It still didn’t have to go down there personally. A termite’s weakness was fire, and its favorite Snack, who had currently grown to a Level 39 Succubus and Level 28 Pyromancer, was more than suited to the task at hand.
“Wipe them out,” it ordered.
“Yes, Master!” she replied with an oddly enthusiastic voice.
The succubus did not particularly enjoy violence like a certain four-armed sex friend of hers, but she did have an intense desire to set the world on fire. And while ma
king the literal world go up in flame was beyond her means, turning these blissfully unaware insects’ reality to ashes was the next best thing. Her pyromaniac side hadn’t been given a chance to shine in a long while, so being able to incinerate so many squishy things at once practically made her giddy.
To begin with, she crawled out of the small tunnel she was in, spread her wings, and took flight. She snapped her fingers, causing her fake staff to appear out of nowhere and float idly next to her for a moment before she grabbed it out of the air. This wasn’t really a magic item, but more of an empty shell she held onto out of habit. Gesturing with it while casting her Pyroclasm Spells just felt… right. It was only natural to hold onto her long and hard thing while spraying a hot load all over-
“AHEM!”
Xera cleared her throat in order to help reign in her errant thoughts and focused on the task at hand. The termites were bound to notice her presence soon, so she had to take advantage of the element of surprise. She floated down to the bottom and pointed her imitation staff towards the writhing mass of insects beneath her and activated one of her Pyromancer Skills.
“Summon Molten Guardian!”
An intense red glow flashed for an instant within the crawling abyss, followed by an explosion of molten rock and flames. Numerous termites were sent flying everywhere as the Molten Guardian quite literally erupted from beneath them with a deep roar. It was a fearsome creature in the vague shape of a one-meter-tall lizard. Its thick torso and short, pudgy legs consisted of black, smouldering rocks with red-hot molten lava dripping slightly from the gaps between them, giving off the bizarre appearance of blood vessels filled with liquid fire. Its long, thick tail and short, flat face were pure fire given form. It had a row of white-hot stone spikes running along its back, right where its spine would be if it had one of those.
“Get ‘em, Smokey!”
The Molten Guardian obeyed with a roar as it leapt into the swarm that had noticed too late there was an intruder in their nest. However, their instincts were torn between repelling the intruder and not getting roasted alive, so the termites had fallen into disarray. ‘Smokey’ wasn’t going to give them a choice in the matter, though. Its fiery jaws and tail, burning claws and incinerating breath washed over the defenseless creatures with the heat of a miniature volcano. Smoke, steam and disgusting juices flew everywhere as the pests quite literally popped open en masse from the intense heat.
“Flamethrower!”
A cone-shaped torrent of flames erupted from Xera’s staff at her call, bathing the chamber’s wall in an almost-literal sea of fire. There was an ear-wrenching, squeaking hiss as dozens of termites burned to a crisp in a matter of seconds. Their flaming bodies fell down to the ground, causing Xera’s Devouring Flames to spread even further.
Noticing the airborne threat, the insects attempted to leap off the walls and latch onto the succubus. At least this was a target they could sink their mandibles into. Or so they thought.
“Blast Wave!”
A pulse of intense heat erupted from the winged demon, sending the termites who were about to envelop her flying in every direction while setting them ablaze. She turned her attention to another section of the wall and doused it in a Flamethrower Spell, followed by another Blast Wave. She then threw her trademark Inferno Spell towards the ground, right on top of the rampaging Molten Guardian.
Rather than being harmed by the roaring tornado of flames, the lava lizard actually absorbed them into itself, causing it to grow slightly in size. It gave off a gut-wrenching roar before flying into yet another bug-stomping spree, only this time with much more speed and ferocity.
A Molten Guardian was an elemental, a mindless golem-like construct conjured out of raw mana. This one in particular had been imbued with a composite magic that was attuned to both earth and fire. Much like other summoning-type Skills, it was a manifestation of the caster’s magical power. It fed off magical flames in order to momentarily grow stronger and was impervious to physical attacks, but the downside was that its summoner had to constantly supply it with MP to sustain it. Even Xera’s impressive capacity of nearly 4,000 MP would only allow it to exist for about six or seven minutes before she ran dry.
This raised a troubling question. The succubus looked at her surroundings, carefully gauging how much of the pests she and Smokey had managed to clear out.
“Slow. Too slow!” she complained to nobody in particular.
No matter how many termites were squashed or burned, more of them just kept pouring in from the tunnels that lined the walls. They kept coming, seemingly without end. Even if they were pathetically weak, there were just too many of them. If things carried on like this, she’d run out of MP before she could deal with all of those critters. The staggering amount of work it would take to fully clean up this place made her wish this blasted tree would just explode already.
“… Yeah, that’s a thing I could try,” she mumbled.
An idea had formed in her mind while she stared upward. It was a stupid idea, but one that might just work, given the size of the place. She was also sure to enjoy the outcome, even if it was a failure, so she decided it was worth a try. She lowered her altitude and touched down on the charcoal-like ground. She gave the order for Smokey to keep those things away from her and started chanting. It was a long incantation, one that went on for about eight seconds before she finished it.
“Meteor!”
The top of the impossibly tall cavern lit up with a bright yellow light. As illogical as it was, a huge ball of molten rock that was at least three meters in diameter fell through the air, directly towards the succubus and her summoned pet.
“Wow. That worked?”
She honestly felt surprised at this outcome. Although incredibly powerful, the Meteor Spell had quite a few problems with usability. The MP cost was high, both the incantation and the delay before it hit were long and it required a lot of headroom in order to pull off successfully. Trying to use it indoors would normally result in the Spell failing the caster’s body apart due to the magical backlash. This was rather disappointing, as the extreme masochist really needed some intense stimulation.
But even if she succeeded in casting the Spell due to the hollowed-out cavern’s absurd proportions, it still wouldn’t do much in the grand scheme of things. Sure, it would completely annihilate thirty or forty, maybe even fifty of the damned bugs, but that was a huge waste of magical power. A Flamethrower or Inferno Spell would be far more efficient, but calling down this miniature sun was merely the first part.
Xera pointed her staff directly at the rapidly approaching ball of death, and activated yet another Skill. One that let her detonate any of her Pyroclasm Spells while they were in mid-flight in order to massively increase their area of effect.
“Volcanic Burst!”
In the next instant, the mass of molten rock and flames exploded violently. Bright red-and-yellow debris spread in every direction, bathing the insides of the colossal hylt tree in flaming plumes of liquid lava. Hissing and popping noises could be heard from all over as the wriggling walls were coated in Xera’s magical flames, which clung incessantly to everything and anything they touched.
What Boxxy said earlier was the truth. Hylt trees were quite resistant not only to physical trauma, but magic in general. That was why buildings and gear made of their Ironbark were considered extremely durable, despite being made of wood. This trait also allowed the elves to purge termite nests they found with flames without fear of burning the trees. It took significant effort to set these things ablaze, and if that were to actually happen, then the mana-suffused material would burn with a heat that no other living thing could muster.
This was precisely what was going on around Xera. Her especially stubborn flames managed to ignite the insides of the hylt tree, rapidly turning it into a furnace. The cavernous space had plenty of air, too. If left alone, the magic-fueled flames would surely spread and consume the entire tree in a matter of minutes.
“Huhu
huhuhuhuhu. HAHAHAHAHA! AAAH HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!!”
The perpetrator herself didn’t seem to actually care, though. Her manic laughter echoed through the blazing chamber, accompanied by the crackle and pop of hundreds of termites losing their lives each second. She didn’t even notice that she was being burned by her own magic, nor would she care even if she did. She was engrossed by the wondrous sight of being surrounded by flames, smoke and ashes on all sides. It was as if reality itself was set ablaze, and she loved every single moment of it.
“Snack! What did you do?!”
Boxxy’s sudden communication broke the succubus out of her reverie. Her Master sounded less than pleased, to say the least. And now that she had partly regained her composure, Xera realized that it had good reason to do so.
“I, um, went a bit overboard…”
“A bit?! I can see the smoke from out here! Put it out right away!”
“Even if you tell me that… Oh! Right! Smokey!”
The Molten Guardian that was busy mopping up the few surviving bugs on the ground stopped what it was doing and ran back to her side. It stood at attention, ready to receive new orders.
“Eat all of the fire in here!” the succubus commanded.
The flat-faced lava lizard turned its stare to the roaring tower of fire. It then looked at its summoner, then back up, then back to Xera once more. It was as if it was trying to say, ‘Are you kidding me with this shit?’ Even if one could theoretically order a minion to drink up the entire ocean or leap up into the stars, impossible things were impossible. And it was impossible for a single Molten Guardian to consume a mountain of flames seemingly hundreds of times larger than itself—something the succubus realized moments later.
“Don’t question me just fucking do it!” she demanded.
The wholly un-sentient and completely mindless Molten Guardian rolled the bright red flames of its eyes as it ran towards the edge of the chamber and started climbing up the burning wall. It sucked in all the flames that blocked its path as it made its way upwards, but the charred embers it left behind reignited mere seconds later. The succubus would have more luck trying to put this raging inferno out by squirting her lewd juices all over it.
