Upheaval 10 (2/2)
Boxxy raised a hand to silence Snack, so that it could focus on its conversation with Carl.
“As for the third one,” continued the otherworldly demon, “that lucky bitch is… just… about… There! She’s all set up and waiting on you.”
“Thanks, Carl.”
“Yeah, no problem. Though you gotta tell me how the hell you managed to escape old skull-face.”
“Can’t chat right now - I have a life to piece back together. Such as it is.”
The alarm that had been flared up ever since that hapless elf walked in here a while ago was still blaring, meaning that whatever trouble Snack and Claws had stirred up hadn’t been resolved yet. And if Boxxy hoped to take advantage of it, it really needed to get a move on.
“Sure thing. By the way, buddy, in case I gave you the wrong impression earlier - I’m really glad to have you back.”
“Yeah. Me too. Bye.”
*Click*
As per usual, Carl did fast, efficient work. And now that Arms was once again bonded with her former master, it invoked the Voidcaller staff’s unique ignition ability and summoned her post-haste. A bright-red gateway opened up, and the familiar and all-too-welcome sight of the six-armed Archfiend stumbled out of it. It took her a while to get her bearings, but when she did, she threw all her arms up into the air and let out a loud a roar.
“Alriiiiiiiiiiight! I knew you’d find a way to cheat that bonehead, boss! Hahahaha! Koff, koff! Oh, and I just won a bet of 400 Essence of Rage - Koff! - thanks to you!”
“What’s an- Nevermind. Arms, listen, I need you to-”
“Koff! Koff koff koff! Koff koff!”
Much to Boxxy’s surprise, the fiend suddenly started coughing violently, uncontrollably even. Xera might have been surprised too, but she was still basking in her Master’s presence, so she didn’t even register her colleague’s arrival to begin with. As for Kora, her fit ended a few moments later when she finally dislodged the thing stuck in her throat, which fell to the metal-covered ground with an audible clatter.
The object in question was a pink, square-cut gemstone about 5 centimeters in both height and width, and roughly 1 centimeter thick. It was undoubtedly the same mystic jewel that Boxxy, or rather Keira, had inherited from Faehorn, which still retained much of the bright glow and gentle hum signifying its magic charge. How and why it had ended up in Kora’s throat was, of course, a total and complete mystery. In fact, its sudden reappearance made so little sense, that the Mimic almost didn’t want to pick it back up.
Almost being the operative word there.
The greedy creature really couldn’t help itself, so it reached down to pick up the shiny gem after barely a moment’s consideration. The instant it grasped it, however, the gem suddenly flashed with a blinding light as something activated. There was a loud screeching noise and a rush of air that accompanied the sudden light show, followed by the unmistakable clatter of gold on gold, among other things. It wasn’t until a few seconds later that the pink gem that Boxxy was still stubbornly holding onto finally relented and returned to a significantly more inert state.
Once the dust had settled, the Mimic found itself buried knee-deep in gold coins, with a few precious (and entirely unmagical) gemstones jutting out here and there. Amidst the pile of treasure it spotted many familiar things, such as several stacks of bombs, precisely 5 kilograms of a certain dryad’s specially prepared human jerky, a few pieces of armor like shields, gauntlets and sabatons, a bunch of clothes of various sizes and makes, and a toolbox filled with a tinkerer’s odds and ends. Most important of all, however, was the jeweled hilt of an enchanted mithril rapier, which was sticking out of the valuable mound as if demanding to be grasped.
Boxxy slowly, almost reverently reached down and gripped the nostalgic weapon, with Kora and Xera looking on in stunned silence while it gently pulled it out of the money pile. The creature didn’t know how or why, but the contents of its Storage it had all but give up on were now piled up in front of it. And while that mana sponge of a gemstone was certainly responsible, Boxxy had more important things to do right now than ponder the academic ramifications of this anomalous event.
Namely putting everly last piece of gold or equipment back in its rightful place.
*RRRUMBLE*
Just as it finished reclaiming its loot, however, the underground base was once again shaken by something that seemed much too localized to be an earthquake.
“What is that, anyway?” asked Boxxy.
“Ah, those would be the idiots I bamboozled into helping me achieve vengeance for your sake, Master.”
“Idiots? What idiots?”
“Well, you see…”
One brief explanation from Snack later, and Boxxy was finally able to grasp how she was able to make it this far down.
“Alright, I can work with this,” determined the Mimic as its mind began churning away.
While it schemed, it threw the relentlessly smiling djinn a sideways glance. It almost hated to admit it, but it was thoroughly impressed with her actions, as even while thinking her Master was dead, she still took care to maintain its Facade. Which, while certainly unexpected, was by no means unwelcome, and definitely deserving of a special reward.
However, before Boxxy could re-integrate back into society, it first had to make sure to cover its tracks.
“Arms,” it called out.
“Sup boss? Got a job for me?” she asked while hopping in place expectantly.
“Yeah. There are some things in this base that I need you to smash for me.”
“Alriiight! … Is what I want to say, but I could really use a play-by-play here, boss. The big man hasn’t shown us a single episode of the Boxxy show ever since you… y’know, so I have no idea what’s been going on. Like, you won’t just suddenly keel over and drop dead or anything, right?”
“No, I won’t. At least, I don’t think I will. I still need to finish comparing notes with Snack, but for now-”
The Mimic reached into the recently restored contents of its Storage and pulled out a mana potion, which it immediately chugged. It then used most of the replenished MP to create a brand new Mirror Image. The clone assumed the Sandman’s guise, complete with billowing cloak, armored limbs and masked head, while the original slipped back into Keira’s well-tanned skin.
“Follow my clone, it will show you the way to your objective.”
When Boxxy strangled Professor Honoka to death earlier, it didn’t just eat the body after gleefully watching the life drain out of her eyes. As much as it wanted to satiate its hunger, it had instead decided to use the Broken Reflection Skill on her corpse. Through the use of that Doppelganger ability, it was able to glimpse into a few hours’ worth of the Alchemist’s most recent memories. Originally it had done this so that it could use said information to screw with Zilla’s head, but as a bonus it also learned a great deal regarding this ‘Foundation’ they both belonged to. Both the nature of the organization and much of this facility’s layout was now imprinted in its mind, and it was going to use that information to pick up where that delusional House Mimic had left off.
“Go! And crush anything or anyone in your way,” it ordered.
The Archfiend smashed her left fists into her right palms with a huge, toothy grin. It didn’t take an expert on demon behavior to understand she was really looking forward to this assignment.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way, boss!”
Boxxy then covered Keira’s naked body in a ripped up bedsheet it had lying around, and began practicing her ‘desperately tired’ face as it slipped into character. Rather than her usual cheerful self, the catgirl would appear exhausted, tortured, and vulnerable in order to garner as much sympathy as possible from those two VIPs. Doing so would certainly keep them from asking too many questions. After all, if there was one thing that living as Keira had taught it, it was that a cute girl in tears was one of the deadliest weapons known to man.
“Snack, you’re with me. The story is the Sandman and Arms broke in through an alternate path, found me, freed me, and had you escort me out of here. We’ll work out the details along the way.”
“Understood, Master.”
Boxxy, its clone, and the two demons all went out of the dome-shaped holding cell as one with sirens blaring in the background. While on the move, and before they could run into any more enemies, the Mimic went over its newly-unlocked Skill options and settled on the next step in its death-defying rise to power.
Proficiency level increased. Hylt Metabolism is now Level 1. END +5. INT +3.
Hylt Metabolism
Description: Allows the Creeper to find sustenance in any environment by imitating the formidable constitution of the mighty Hylt trees.
Requirements: Level 30 Doppelganger, Hylt Creeper, END 250, INT 200
Type: Passive
Activation Time: N/A
Cost: N/A
Range: Self
Effects: Can draw nutrients from soil, water, sunlight, or ambient mana to satiate hunger.
Increases automatic HP and MP recovery by up to 20% per Level of this Skill when in direct sunlight.
Increases automatic HP and MP recovery by up to 50% per Level of this Skill when in a mana-rich environment.
The Mimic had gone back and picked a Skill it had passed over at Level 30 of the Doppelganger Job in favor of Spirit Echo. The ability to eat a whole bunch of things it couldn’t before, not to mention the rather outrageous potential boost to its HP and MP recovery were both sure to make the creature significantly more adaptable to hostile environments. The involuntary diet it had gone through while it was caged was not something it wanted to repeat if it all possible. After all, it didn’t come all this way, kill all those people, and survive the wrath of an honest-to-goodness Goddess just to die of starvation in some dark hole in the ground.
Truthfully speaking though, while expanding its survival skills was definitely a pragmatic decision on Boxxy’s behalf, there was also another, far less practical reason it settled on this particular Skill.
The relentlessly curious Mimic really wanted to know whether intangible things such as sunlight or the mystically-charged air of a dungeon were actually tasty.