Gainful Employment 8 (1/2)
The Murk Dweller Queen was, as expected, huge. About the size and shape of a two story peasant house, closer to a crab than a lobster. Its shell was much harder and one swipe of its massive claw would probably crush a person into paste. The Quest’s four-star rating basically said one would need to be a Level 100 adventurer in order to take one of these down by themselves. This may seem like overkill considering the Queen had only a Level of 65, but that assessment was pretty accurate. Because Queens never fought alone, regardless of species.
*SKREEK*
She let out another loud screech that echoed through the marshes. It caused every Murk Dweller in the vicinity to stir and wake up. Two dozen Murk Dwellers popped up out of the ground and started looking for the intruder that dared to attack their mother.
So why did a creature that was a Level 39 Mimic, Level 25 Warlock and Level 12 Artificer go off looking for one of these? Because it had a way of leveling the playing field, of course. But first it had to make some preparations, before the Queen’s disgruntled subjects found it. The thick fog wouldn’t help it in any way, either. Those Murk Dwellers seemed to have some way of tracking it that wasn’t reliant on sight and were rapidly approaching.
That was fine though, Boxxy was confident it could manage as long as they were bunched up. It opened its Storage and retrieve the apple-sized, twelve-sided Spell Crystal it had prepared in advance. It’s a good thing that Queen showed up so soon, otherwise it would have wasted a focusing crystal. Those things cost 120 GP and it didn’t feel like wasting that money by letting the Spell Crystal expire. Thankfully, the Level 5 Crystallize Magic Skill afforded it a generous 30 minute window in which to use it.
*SKREEE*
It would appear Queenie wasn’t wasting any time. Heavy footsteps and numerous splashing noises made it abundantly clear that she and her brood were sent tremors through the soft ground as it approached the Mimic’s location. A gigantic 8-meter tall and oddly cubic crab entered the Mimic’s magical perception. That particular trait had expanded its active range from 10 to about 11 meters thanks the Artificer Job and the Perception (PER) Attribute it gave on Level Up. It was a big help in ferreting out the hiding lobsters, as well. And right now it was telling it that its target was far too close.
Boxxy broke into a run.
“Snack! Arms! Come to me!” it commanded telepathically.
“Yes, Master.”
“On my way, boss!”
Kora had been ordered to stay about half a kilometer away since that fiend was the complete opposite of subtlety. She should still reach Boxxy pretty quickly given her physical ability and the size of her stride. As for Xera, she swooped in from above not two seconds after being called and glided along the ground on her demonic winds, just above the Mimic. It’s a good thing she had a telepathic link with it, or else she might not have been able to find the box at all in this thick fog.
“Snack, take the sucky thing and use it! Make sure you get all the small crabbies!”
Boxxy stretched out its tongue and handed the completely pitch black Spell Crystal to its familiar. The succubus grabbed hold of it and a rather troubling twinkle appeared in her eye.
“Do not get caught by the sucky thing! I will need your magic for the next part!”
“... Yes, Master,” she replied, with a hint of disappointment.
Her Master still wasn’t 100% sure about the nature of her eccentricities, but it had already noticed how… enthusiastic she got whenever she handled items of great destructive power. The succubus gave her wings a few powerful beats and ascended into the night sky. She was able to easily see the massive shadow of the Queen pass under her. The gigantic monster had no trouble keeping up with the agile spider-chest due to her massive gait, but her brood were still as slow as ever and trailed behind their mother in a tight-knit group. She wasn’t sure exactly how many of them had gathered by now or whether that would be enough, but orders were orders.
“Master, I’m going!”
“Okay.”
“Banana,” she chanted.
The pitch-black Spell Crystal in her hands shimmered slightly in response, indicating it had been properly armed.
“1… 2… Now!”
She let the item fall out of her hands and then rapidly ascended. The crystallized form of the Mimic’s Singularity Spell fell silently through the night sky. It landed squarely on top of the large Queen, shattering open and releasing its contents. A miniature black hole appeared in the next instant and started pulling everything towards.
The mud, the water, even the very air all got dragged towards a singular point. The Murk Dwellers following their mother unwittingly entered its effective range and began floating helplessly up into the air. Even the gigantic Queen was unable to break away from the sudden gravitational pull and had to resort to digging her massive feet and claws into the dirt in an effort to remain grounded. Some of her offspring did the same, but the vast majority of them floated upwards and coalesced into one gigantic ball of floating crayfish. Since the event horizon of that black hole was next to the Queen’s head, it almost made it seem like the giant crab had an afro hairstyle made out of smaller crabs.
Boxxy was also not quite exempt from the effects of this Spell. The distance between itself and the point of impact was only 16 meters, while the Singularity had an effective radius of just over 20 meters. Still, the pull was much weaker this far out, allowing it to also cling desperately to the ground and avoid getting caught up in it.
However, while Xera did indeed manage to hit the vast majority of the ‘crabbies’ with the ‘sucky thing,’ none of them were actually dying. Oh sure, the ones at the very center of that floating lobster sphere were getting crushed, the majority of their brethren were unharmed. The Singularity Spell did not do much in terms of damage. That was fine though, it brilliantly did its job of both grouping up and restraining those Murk Dwellers. The first part of its plan was done.
As for the second part, it simply had to open its Storage and start unloading a series of 8 brown satchels. The Singularity caught the lightweight hemp bags the instant they left the pocket dimension and swept them up into the air. They flew off and got lost somewhere inside the floating mass of angry crustaceans. The sheer force of gravity, combined with the small and flexible nature of those bags meant they should slip in between the writing Murk Dwellers and find their way into the middle of that!
“Snack! Light it up!”
Xera had, as instructed, managed to fly beyond the range of the Singularity in time and avoided getting sucked into that crawling mess beneath her. She hovered just on the edge of Singularity's range and pointed her staff downward while chanting her favorite Spell.
“Inferno!”
The towering pillar of magical fire illuminated the night and wrapped the entire floating ball-o-crab. It clung to the monster’s bodies, continuing to burn away at them. However, while that was an effective area attack, it wasn’t nearly enough to kill all those monsters. Nor was that the Spell’s main purpose.
*KABO-BO-BO-BOOOOOOOM*
The numerous Blast Powder explosives packed within those satchels were set off almost simultaneously. The already large mass of fire expanded to become an even larger fireball as many Murk Dwellers were ripped to shreds by a combination of shockwaves and shrapnel. The sheer force of the explosion sent a large number of charred Murk Dweller bits and green, sticky blood scattering in every direction, although only briefly. The pull of the Singularity’s gravity field quickly pulled everything back together.
Level up!
Congratulations, you are now a level 40 Mimic! All Attributes +2.
*SKREEEEEEEEE*
The Queen was, understandably, not entirely pleased with this development. Not only did that series of explosions hurt like hell, but they also did a number on her brood. The shell protecting her upper body was mostly in pieces, not to mention that the succubus’s magical flames clung persistently onto it.
“Snack, finish off the crabbies, I’ll get the big one!”
“Yes, Master.”
The Singularity’s effects ran out a few seconds later and the Queen, along with the few surviving Murk Dwellers, was finally released from her magical prison. She angrily swung down a massive claw towards the one who was doubtlessly responsible for all this. That infuriating half-spider, half-box, half… human?
“Mind Blast ~♪!”
Your target has been stunned for 3 seconds.
The massive crab recoiled and wavered mightily as the Domination Spell assaulted her consciousness, making her claw miss her target by a wide margin, hitting nothing but soggy swampland.
“Frostbite ~♪!”
Six icy fangs flew out from Boxxy’s sides, three from the left, and another trio from the right. They drew an unnatural horizontal arcs as they flew through the air, almost as if someone had thrown a bunch of boomerangs. They struck the Queen’s vulnerable upper body from both sides like a pair of icy jaws.
Your target has been pierced by ice magic. Target HP -319.
Granted, they didn’t do much. That big-ass monster was sure to have mountains of HP at its disposal and barely even flinched. The relative size between her body and those projectiles was pretty much like prodding a person with a toothpick.
“Frostbite ~♪!”
That was fine, however. Boxxy could fire off as many of these as it was necessary.
Frostbite
Requirements: Level 7 Warlock, INT 50, WIS 30
School: Ruin
Type: Projectile
Cost: 75 MP
Range: 25 meters
Effects: Launches an array of 6 icy fangs that converge on a single point.
Grows in power in cold places, dealing up to 50% more damage depending on the environment.
This Spell was one of the more efficient ones in the Mimic’s limited repertoire. Its damage was comparable to a Dark Explosion at only a fraction of the MP cost. The chant was also really short, to the point where it could be completed even faster than a Shadowbolt.
Your target has been pierced by ice magic. Target HP -319.
The problem with it was aiming. The odd path those projectiles took, not to mention their relatively slow speed, made it substantially difficult to hit a human-sized opponent if they were standing still, or downright impossible if they were moving around.
“Frostbite ~♪!”
But for a target that’s as big as a barn, that wasn’t much of a problem. What was important here was that it needed to be whittled down steadily.