Mind Games 2 (2/2)

“We could always walk, if you want to risk being seen.”

“Oh, and delivering us in the middle of a forest like this is secure?”

“Of course it is. My familiars have already swept the area. There’s nothing within three kilometers of this location but trees and gnolls.”

“I see. You secured it as a fallback point, did you?”

“Of course. There’s no way I’d meet with the Foundation without first preparing an escape plan. Or three.”

“I guess you’re not a total amateur, at least. Now if you’ll excuse me, I should probably rebuild my disguise.”

Stain began steadily shrinking as she forced her body into a more condensed and solid state. It wasn’t anywhere near as large as the one she had during the ‘tour,’ but she still struggled with it quite a bit. The winter clothing that was still floating around inside her floated to the surface and wrapped around her while a layer of pseudo-skin wrapped her up completely. It took her about half a minute, but the slime’s Facade - flimsy as it was - was successfully recreated.

“Wait, you’re done?” asked Fizzy once the transformation ended. “What about your eyes?”

“What about them?”

“Shouldn’t you change away from that freaky silver and blue combo?”

“Oh, darn! I thought I did!”

Stain closed her eyes and focused for a few seconds before opening them back up.

“How’s this?”

“Now it’s blue and silver. Swapping them doesn’t really solve anything.”

“Well, I can’t help it. Eyes are tricky. Besides, it’s not like I need this form all that much.”

Stain very rarely got visitors, so it was only natural that her people skills were practically non-existent. In fact, Xera was the first in about six years. Well, aside from her Foundation contacts, but she didn’t need to hide what she was in front of those guys and gals.

“So what happens now,” she asked.

“Now, we wait,” Boxxy answered. “I need to recover my MP a bit and resummon Snack, then send her on ahead.”

“That tasty morsel? How will she aid us in our travels?”

“Transfamiliar works by swapping places with a familiar. Snack can fly and turn herself invisible with magic, so she will go on ahead in my stead. Once she gets far enough ahead we swap places, then I repeat the process.”

Aside from the djinn, Boxxy could also use Claws. The webstalker was always good at traversing terrain, but her recent Rank Up had made her even nimbler. She could keep up with Snack’s flying speed, and her demonic constitution meant she did not get tired easily. However, it was important to keep her by her Master’s side as much as possible. Just in case Stain got any ‘bright’ ideas. That was why she had been lurking around the meeting spot prior to their departure, and why she hitched a ride on Boxxy’s back during Transfamiliar. She was much lighter than either Fizzy, Stain or Boxxy, so she was hardly even a burden on the monster’s MP pool.

As for Arms, she was currently on standby in the Beyond until Boxxy brought her out with Voidcaller in case of an emergency.

“Seems like a needlessly roundabout way of doing things,” the slime complained. “Why not just use a Gate Spell?”

“Because I do not know the Gate Spell. Besides, doing it this way lets me scout out the destination before going there. It’s not ideal, but it’s still faster and safer than just walking. It also helps me make the most out of the time I have. Speaking of which, Fizzy and I have work to do, so if you’ll excuse us...”

“Work? What work could you possibly have to do?”

Boxxy paid no attention to Stain’s question as it opened up its Storage and spit out a small table, a bunch of tools and a couple of toolboxes. The Mimic and its ‘trophy wife’ immediately began assembling an explosive device each. The self-proclaimed slimetator did not appreciate being ignored so brazenly, but at the same time she found herself strangely captivated by their work. This was her first time seeing an Artificer at work - let alone two of them - and it was hard to deny it was something of a spectacle.

On one hand there was Boxxy, who was using a total of six snake-like limbs instead of arms. Various metal bits and pieces were being added onto the device in front of it at dizzying speed. Bolts were tightened, amounts measured and parts soldered together all at once. As something of an expert on the subject of multitasking, Stain found it curious the Mimic could do that much. It was, of course, nowhere near as impressive as single handedly running an entire mithril mine, but it was still admirable.

As for Fizzy, she was a lot less hands-on. Her heavy armor covered every part of her, including her hands and fingers. This made precision handiwork exceptionally difficult, so she was using her Geomagnetic Grip Skill to manipulate the various metallic components into position. The task seemed to take an immense amount of concentration, given how she was staring at the floating parts in front of her while being completely and utterly motionless.

Still, even if it was a sight to behold, Stain couldn’t help but give voice to her curiosity.

“What it is you are making there?”

“Special items for the upcoming fight,” Boxxy replied. “I’ll be using them to try and counter or at least hinder the Gilded Hand’s operatives.”

One of them, for instance, would disperse a bronze-laced dust in a large area. The metal’s magic disruption properties would make it easier for Boxxy to track Edward through its Mana Locator Gland. The man had the Obfuscate Skill, which hid the wearer and his equipment from most forms of magical detection. However, the magic disruption properties of that bronze dust would make it possible for the Mimic’s supernatural sensory organ to easily detect his presence. Sort of like smearing a bucket of bright paint onto an invisible target. It wouldn’t be possible to tell any minute details, but it would be simple to see there was ‘something there.’

At least in theory. Boxxy hadn’t had the chance to test this out properly yet, but it had high hopes for it. The other trick grenades it was preparing included one that would pepper the area with needles laced with a powerful hallucinogenic. Another payload would produce a blinding flash that would momentarily petrify whatever it shone upon, an item called the ‘Basilisk Flashbang.’ There were a plethora of fragmentation explosives as well, but the Mimic needed to be prepared to have its ordnance bounced back towards it. That was why it stuck to things that would not inconvenience it terribly.

“And you are making these now?” asked Stain. “Why did you not prepare adequately for the mission before we left?”

“This expedition was short notice and, uh, procuring the necessary materials took time.”

Also an exorbitant amount of gold and gems, but Boxxy was trying really hard not to think about that.

“Hmm, better late than never, I suppose.”

“What about yourself? You’re not just going to stand there staring, are you?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. Even though I am out here, I still have a prison to run. Besides, I alone am all that I require.”

“Suit yourself, then.”

Boxxy turned its full attention back to the task at hand while Fizzy continued pouring all of hers into an experimental device she had been designing inside her head for the past week or so. When detonated, it would violently pull all ferromagnetic metals towards itself. And considering a lot of equipment, weapons and armor had iron in them, it was sure to make quite the impact during armed conflict. At least that was the theory, though it wouldn’t be long before she was able to field test it.

You have created a Mag-pulse Grenade of Poor quality.

A new invention has been born! Arclight Artificer experience increased.

Proficiency level increased. Electromagnetism is now Level 2. INT +5. END +3.

“Alright!”

Fizzy let out a cheer as she picked up the amalgamation of copper coils, exposed wiring and iron fragments.

“Look, Boxxy! It worked!”

“What, already? I thought you said you’d need at least a few more days before you perfected it.”

“I did, and I still stand by those words. This one is just an initial prototype, so don’t expect much from it.”

Though it was an item of Poor quality, it was the most one could expect under the circumstances. No matter how talented Fizzy was, she still needed to fine tune and improve upon the design after some field trials. She didn’t even bother making a casing for it yet since that was the easy part. It also lacked an internal power source, meaning that the dynamo golem would have to charge it with her own electrical output. That was by design though, as it would be impossible to make it so compact otherwise. What mattered was that Fizzy’s creation was functional enough to be recognized as an original invention.

“Don’t sell yourself short,” stated Boxxy. “Making something original work on your first try is incredible. I know for a fact how hard it is to make an original idea into a reality. I always knew you had the shiny mind of a genius, but I see now I had been sorely underestimating you!”

Those words of sincere-sounding praise made the golem’s core buzz with delight. As expected of the monster that made her into what she was today, it knew just what she wanted to hear.

“Hmm? Where’s that Stain woman gone off to?”

Now that she had allowed her concentration to slacken, Fizzy noticed their slimy escort was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh, she got bored about an hour and a half ago and said she was off to get some food.”

“Hour and a half?” The golem paused for a second while she consulted her internal clock, courtesy of the Tick Counter Skill. “Holy shit! I’ve been at this for almost five hours?!”

Not having any of those pesky biological functions made it terrifyingly easy for Fizzy to lose track of time, especially when she was engrossed in her work. This was a problem, because they had to act fast if they were to catch up to the Gilded Hand before the Foundation’s mole was exposed. And considering it would take about two hours for Xera to secure a new transfer point, this meant that they were already behind schedule.

“Why didn’t you say anything?!” she protested.

“You look especially shiny when you’re concentrating, so I just let you be. Time may be of the essence, but spending a few extra hours on preparation is not a bad thing.”

Back when the Gilded Hand attacked the Aurora Eve party, they had caught the Mimic woefully unprepared to face them. This time around, however, was different. This time, the monster would be the one to have the drop on Edward and his posse. And it would descend upon them with the full martial, mystical and monetary force of Boxxy T. Morningwood.

The chest-at-heart then abruptly curled up into a ball and encased itself in wood and steel as it retreated back into its ‘safe space’ of a plain-looking treasure chest.

“Boxxy? What’s the matter?”

“… Nothing. I just got a little depressed when I remembered how much money I’ve been spending recently.”

A little over fifty thousand gold pieces, to be precise. Materials, potions, elixirs, oils, enchanted armaments and jewelry - all of the highest quality it could obtain. The entirety of Boxxy’s Storage was filled to the brim with a private arsenal vast enough to outfit a fifty-man platoon of elite soldiers. It was pulling out all the stops for this, but understanding that it was a necessary sacrifice did little to ease the pain from the gaping hole in its private treasury.

“There, there, it’s okay,” said Fizzy while gently stroking its lid. “You still have me, and I’m all the shininess you’ll ever need.”

She couldn’t comfort the sulking box of greed for long, as she heard a rustling noise from behind. She abruptly turned around and aimed her Magitech Cannon in the direction of the disturbance, just in time to see a pack of over thirty gnolls emerge from the treeline. She held her fire, however, as she noticed that each of the canine humanoids had a pink blob attached to their heads. And sure enough, these creatures’ new owner could be seen sloshing alongside them in an extremely casual manner.

“There you go, Boxxy,” she declared with a triumphant tone. “I caught quite a few of them for you.”

The pink mini-Stains leapt off their victims all at once as they rushed to reunite with the main body, allowing the gnolls to fall into the snow like puppets with their strings cut. The murder-box leapt from its sitting position and pounced on them, devouring them one by one with a sort of zeal Fizzy hadn’t seen in a long while.

“Wow, look at it go,” commented the queen slime as she backed away from the feeding frenzy. “Must have been hungrier than I thought.”

“That definitely isn’t hunger,” Fizzy chimed in. “Boxxy already gorged itself before we left for the meeting. I think this is just stress eating. It’s willingly headed into a life and death battle for the first time in its life, so the pressure is probably getting to it.”

“Oh, I see. I must admit, I too am prone to binge-drinking when faced with a troublesome problem.”

“You seem quite relaxed right now, though.”

“Of course. I have the benefit of a backup body in case this one falls. I have only committed as much of myself to this endeavor as I feel comfortable losing. I daresay the same could not be said about your box-boss.”

The two monstrous women continued watching Boxxy splatter blood all over the place as it tore into the gnolls like a ravenous beast. It even went so far as to lick up the red snow, as if not to waste a single drop of this offering.

“Come to think of it, how come you did this for Boxxy?” Fizzy asked after a while.

“I had some time to kill,” Stain shrugged. “Also, I was offered something in return.”

“… Dare I ask what that is?”

“Boxxy has promised to share its Snack with me. It is something I am looking forward to. *SSSSLUUURRRP* Immensely.”

“Oh, I see. Good for you.”

Though the golem said that outwardly, inside her head was a different story altogether.

Looks like Boxxy caught another one, she grumbled inwardly.

“She does seems like a bit of a pervert,” commented Plus.

“Definitely a pervert,” Minus agreed. “That creepy tongue movement just now made my spine crawl. And I don’t even have one of those!”

One-sidedly branding Stain as a sexual deviant was perhaps one of the quickest unanimous decisions the trio had reached yet. Hardly a surprising one considering Boxxy’s track record. First it was the depraved demonic duo of Kora and Xera, then the twisted lich-bitch that shall forever be known simply as ‘Nasty’. Fizzy thought she had seen it all with the dryad that had a breast-feeding fetish and the strangely obsessed stalker, but even Keira’s girlfriend was apparently becoming more and more lecherous by the day. The irony of a genderless creature with zero sex drive somehow surrounding itself with all manner of lewd women was so thick that one would probably need to dig through it with a pickaxe.

And yet despite knowing all that, all three of the golem’s personalities failed to recognize that getting excited from walking around naked in broad daylight was not exactly a wholesome attitude either.