Vortena
Page 7
As for the lich, she scowled at the shiny dagger sticking out of her chest, pulled it out and tossed it aside. No blood dripped from the wound, nor clung to the blade. She hadn’t expected that the stupid box would be able to not only endure her Sonic Scream but mount a counterattack as well. Otherwise she would have activated her Ethereal Body Skill to avoid the blow completely.
Both of those abilities were leftovers from her days as a banshee, a ghost-type species of monster. It was what Valeria had become following her death and what she had remained until her Rank Up into a lich. The leftover racial Skill from that period allowed her to become intangible, but maintaining that state as a non-ghost rapidly consumed MP. She couldn’t use it very often, but it was enough to occasionally get her out of tight spots.
However, that shrieking voice was hardly her only means of attack. She held up a hand, pointing her open palm at the Mimic currently tearing its way through her minions.
“Frostbolt!”
A brilliant white orb shot out from her outstretched hand. It left a glowing trail of blue light as it hissed through the air and hit the Mimic dead-on, splashing over it like a glob of goo.
[Your body has been frozen by magic. HP -351.]
This was different to the Cryomancer magic that Boxxy knew about. Instead of impaling it with enchanted ice, the Spell instead instantly froze a large part of its body. It could feel itself slowing down as the ice sapped its HP while also restricting its movement. It could barely even feel the side where the Spell had struck.
Wondering where its own magical support was, the Mimic briefly turned its attention back to Fizzy, only to realise that she had passed out from the intense sonic assault. She still had a respectable amount of PER but lacked Boxxy’s well-developed Mental Fortitude (MNT) and absurdly high Endurance (END). She hadn’t been able to withstand the strain of the sonic attack nearly as well as the murderous chest.
A fact that Valeria had also noticed as she moved to aim at the much easier – and arguably more troublesome – target.
“Frostbolt!”
But she failed to hit the gnome, as Boxxy instantly disengaged from the remaining two wolves and leapt into the path of her Spell.
[Your flesh has been mended. HP +160.]
[Your body has been frozen by magic. HP -288.]
As it absorbed the hit, it wrapped a spare tongue around the gnome and chucked it into its Storage. The lich’s eyes widened at the sight of the monster apparently swallowing its companion whole, but she quickly composed herself. She had already seen the Mimic’s Storage Skill in action, so she knew better than to assume that it had literally eaten its one ticket to victory.
And she knew that for a fact, because a monster would only sacrifice itself to protect something if that something was immensely useful. It wasn’t sentimentality or kindness, but cold-blooded pragmatism. Which meant that Boxxy needed the Paladin in order to defeat her. In other words, it had no way of damaging her spectral body on its own. In which case, she was confident that she could easily defeat the simple creature. All she had to do was watch for surprises and manage her MP.
“Frostbolt!”
She was therefore quite glad that she’d practiced using her new Spells. In particular, she was proud of her Frostbolt accuracy. She cackled as the third consecutive hit struck the Mimic. It had tried to dodge the Spell by leaping to the side but the ice encasing its body had rendered it unable to move out of the way in time.
[Your target’s body has been frozen by magic. Target HP -288.]
Once again, the Spell took a hefty chunk out of its HP. The damage, however, was significantly lower than Valeria had expected, thanks largely to the final Skill granted by its Mimic Job.
[Adaptive Defence]
Monsters are notorious for how rapidly they can adapt to their environment, and none exhibit this better than shapeshifters.
Requirements: Level 45 Monster Job, Shapeshift, END 200, INT 100, WIS 100
Type: Passive
Range: Self
[Effects]
Taking elemental damage temporarily increases your damage resistance to that element by 10%.
Increases the elemental resistance granted by this Skill by 3% per Level of this Skill.
The effects of this Skill last for a limited duration equal to 1 second per Level of the Shapeshift Skill.
Can only defend against 1 element at a time.
Unfortunately, Boxxy hadn’t gotten as much opportunity to develop the ability as it would have liked, which left the Skill at only Level 2. Still, reducing the power of a spellcaster’s attacks by a sixth was certainly nothing to sneeze at. It was a good thing it had decided to hide Fizzy away, or she would have died in two hits, maybe three if she was lucky.
As to why the Mimic had chosen to protect her, it was because the gnome was its best shot at actually killing the lich, just as Valeria had deduced. Although it would appear that such an outcome was rapidly becoming an impossibility, as the best way to fight a Caster was to kill them before they even realised an enemy was aiming for them. Fizzy was unfortunately necessary to ensure the successful completion of its Quest, but there was no telling when she might wake up.
Just then, while Boxxy had its tentacles full blocking the Frostbolts with a bronze-plated shield, it suddenly had an epiphany. All the mass of teeth, violence, and murder needed was some time to think and strategise in order to make use of its idea.
But it couldn’t do that in its current situation. It needed to run, but the stairs leading down were all the way on the other side of the decrepit library. Going out that exit would be difficult, but that was by no means the only way out. Having made up its mind, the Mimic leapt backwards and skittered up the steps, past the fifth floor and all the way to the top. It barged into the wide hall connecting the three rooms, only to find Valeria already waiting for it.
“Did you think you could get away?”
Boxxy realised that she must have phased through the floors to block it off. And her final two pets were already clambering up the steps behind it, completing the pincer attack.
“Frostbolt!”
The lich resumed her assault, but Boxxy hopped nimbly to the side, narrowly evading the glowing projectile. Those few seconds it had bought while climbing the stairs had allowed the Mimic to fully recover its HP and regain most of its mobility. It needed to avoid getting frozen again, or it was bound to turn into an ice cube.
“Ice Floes!”
Valeria tried a different Spell, which covered the ground beneath the spider-chest with a thin sheet of ice, clearly intent on forcing the monster to slip. Boxxy, however, had no intention of allowing that and jumped onto the wall before the ice could fully form. It crawled steadily along the vertical surface, dodging the Frostbolts the lich continued to fire at it.
The Mimic circled halfway around the edge of the hall, ducking though one of the side offices to reach the adjacent bedroom’s balcony. It sprouted a pair of bat-like wings and leapt into the night, but was unable to properly gain control of its fall. It slammed into the ground. Hard.
[You have suffered blunt force trauma. HP -311.]
[Your flesh has been mended. HP +160.]
The Mimic took a moment to dig its rectangular body out of the dirt and began circling the tower, searching for something.
The nature of its earlier revelation was simple. The floating woman was indeed the lich it was looking for – or so she claimed. Which meant that she was the target of its Quest after all, but the task in question said only that it had to defeat her, not kill her. The Mimic had assumed that those two things were synonymous, but that clearly wasn’t the case. If anything, killing her had only made things worse.
In the few moments it had to think, it realised another thing. The way that she had come back to ‘life’ in perfect condition, with memory and Skills completely intact, was eerily familiar. Not to mention that that body of hers made no sense on the inside. It was highly likely that she was a being somewhat simil
ar to a demon – something with a conjured physical form and an immortal soul. Even if it were to kill her again, there was a good chance she’d only come back.
That was okay though, because it just had to defeat her.
Circling the tower’s base, it finally spotted what it was looking for – the set of heavy steel doors that led into the basement. Boxxy should have realised it earlier, but the tower’s layout was identical to the building where it had had its Jobs taken from it. Which meant that it also had a basement filled with various magical reagents and ritual markings. If the source of that lich’s rebirth was anywhere, that would surely be the place.
“Frostbolt!”
Boxxy hopped back from the doors the instant it heard the chant. Valeria was directly overhead and floating gently downwards as she prepared yet another Spell. She had found the Mimic quickly. Too quickly. Boxxy had broken from her line of sight, but she’d already managed to find the shapeshifter. Regardless of how she had done so, she was obviously quite intent on keeping it out of the basement.
This only served to reinforce the creature’s ad hoc theory, but the Mimic still needed to distract her long enough to get through the door. Once more, it reached into its Storage and flung something directly at her. Valeria only caught a glimpse of the object, which looked to be a metal cylinder about the size of a sword’s handle. She had no idea what it was, but immediately turned incorporeal anyway, wary of being damaged by whatever the thing was.
Unfortunately for her, it wasn’t designed to inflict damage. It was a flashbang, a leftover from Boxxy’s Artificer days.
*PANNNN*
It did exactly as its name suggested as it flashed and banged right in the lich’s face, bathing the area around the tower in brilliant white light. Valeria screamed and covered her eyes, but it was already too late. Boxxy had noticed that, even when she was incorporeal, she still relied heavily on her sight. And as it had just learned first-hand, where there existed a sense, there was also a way to confuse it.
It took the lich several seconds to regain the use of her eyes, but her vision was still clouded by colourful blotches. By the time she had recovered enough to see properly, the Mimic had already picked the lock and was nowhere to be seen. Using her Detect Life Skill allowed her to track the monster’s life force through the walls and confirm that it had already gone inside and was currently scampering around the interior.
“No…” she muttered. “Noooooo!”
She sailed forward, desperate to intercept the hateful creature. But even at maximum speed, she wasn’t nearly fast enough. While she could float through solid objects, she could only move at a rate comparable to a low-Levelled human’s running pace, which was much, much too slow when compared with the eight-legged freak-box. She could feel the hastily-raised minions she’d left in the basement as a last line of defence being taken out one after the other. If she’d still had control over the five Death Knights down there, they could have easily stopped the stupid box, maybe even killed it.
But that was merely a what-if. Her rash, vengeful actions had weakened her preparations. She had also underestimated her opponent. Not its combat strength – she was still confident that she could beat it when it came to a direct fight. However, the simple-looking monster had turned out to be a lot more resourceful than she’d thought, especially when it came to giving her the run-around.
Still, she couldn’t give up. She rushed through the basement and headed for the far corner of the large chamber. She arrived just in time to watch in horror as the Mimic coiled its tongue around the shiniest item in the decrepit room.
The thing that had caught its attention was an egg-shaped object about ten centimetres wide and fifteen tall. Its smooth, glassy surface was a rich blue colour that would put even the brightest sapphire to shame. An intricate golden pattern of thorns, crows, skeletons, grasping hands and other grim imagery danced across it, covering roughly half of its brilliant surface. But the highlight of its design was the golden skull depicted on one side, a duo of shining, blood-red gems faceted inside its eye sockets.
The expensive-looking item had been held on a custom-designed silver tripod, which had been placed on a waist-high stone pedestal. Its extravagance and pride of place clearly marked it as an object of some importance. It was also the only thing in the entire tower that seemed to be worth more than a few coins, so it stood to reason that it belonged to the lich.
And it was indeed both hers and important, for the thing was her phylactery – the vessel that held her undying soul. It was through this object that she was able to regenerate her physical body as many times as she wanted. However, it was also her weakness. Not only would her power weaken if she were to stray too far from it, but breaking it was the only way to truly destroy her. Losing the linchpin binding her to this mortal coil would be nothing short of checkmate.
Time seemed to slow as she tried desperately to stop the Mimic, but it was clear she wouldn’t make it in time. Just how in the world had the moronic box figured out her weakness right in the middle of the fight? It certainly hadn’t known before, so why had it suddenly made a beeline for the phylactery? And for that matter, how had it managed to unlock the damned door so quickly?
The questions rushed through her thrice-rotten head during the split second it took for Boxxy to toss the shiny thing into its open maw – all of which could be answered with a single word:
Experience.
The lingering knowledge of demons. The trauma of having its Jobs and Skills severed from it. The insight granted by the Lockpick Skill. The time it had spent as an Artificer. Its aptitude for confusing and befuddling its opponents. And last but not least, the instinctive need to covet and collect all things shiny. All of these factors had conspired together to make what happened next, in this singular point in time, a reality.
The Storage portal inside Boxxy’s maw snapped shut, stowing away its prize. With the link between her soul and body severed, Valeria’s physical form fell limply to the ground. It then started crumbling, returning to the dust whence it came.
The Mimic, understandably, had no idea exactly why that had happened, as it had in no way deduced the phylactery’s purpose. It had come here looking for some sort of ritual circle or glowing sigil, similar to the ones it had used during demonic rituals. When it had failed to find anything like that in the mostly empty basement, it had decided to pocket the shiny thing while it had the chance, then run away with all due haste.
Thus, seeing the lich instantly collapse and disappear caught it more than a little off-guard. Although certainly not unwelcome, this sudden development was completely outside the Mimic’s scope of understanding. It just seemed like a massive coincidence, which hinted that this outcome was the very thing Christie had had in mind when she had sent Boxxy on its errand. But the Mimic didn’t have to wait to learn if there was any merit to its assumption.
Because not only was the ‘Defeat the lich’ Quest now marked as complete, but Boxxy once again found itself sitting at a table in an endlessly white room.
*Clap*
*Clap*
*Clap*
With Jill, the applauding Goddess of Uncertainty, for company.
Part Five
“So,” said Paul, “I suppose congratulations are in order.”
The Mimic, who had once again been forced into the shape of a young child, just smiled dumbly in response.
“What just happened?”
“You defeated the lich.”
“How?”
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out shortly.”
The three-tailed iguana snapped its windows as per usual, enveloping Boxxy in a bright light and flooding its consciousness with a series of messages.
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
[Level up!]
…
…
[Level up!]
[Congratulations, you are now a Level 25 Warlock! INT +50. MNT +50. END +50.]
[Proficiency level increased. S
ummon Familiar is now Level 7. INT +14. WIS +7. MNT +7.]
[Proficiency level increased. Power Overwhelming is now Level 6. INT +24.]
[Proficiency level increased. Demonology is now Level 6. WIS +2. MNT +2.]
[Proficiency level increased. Crystallise Magic is now Level 5. INT +10. WIS +10.]
[Congratulations, you are now a Level 12 Artificer. DEX +24. WIS +24. PER +24.]
[Proficiency level increased. Clockwork Expertise is now Level 3. DEX +6. PER +6.]
[Proficiency level increased. Explosives Handling is now Level 2. DEX +4. WIS +4.]
[Feat of strength performed! You have unlocked a new Perk: Hero of Chaos.]
[Proficiency level increased. Chaotic Disposition is now Level 1.]
[Proficiency level increased. Agent of Chaos is now Level 1.]
[Proficiency level increased. Essence Concealment is now Level 1.]
The Mimic stood with its mouth agape for a good minute while its mind underwent what could only be described as a reboot. Its newly-restored mental capacity allowed it to look at the past three weeks of its life with a fresh set of eyes. The escape from its flying cage, Fizzy’s training, their journey through the woods and subsequent trek through the Blight, everything up to the confrontation with the lich.
“All better?” LaQuisha asked, seeing the thoroughly enlightened look in its red eyes.
“Yeah… I think I understand now.”
Granted, it still didn’t know what a ‘phylactery’ was and merely thought of the shiny egg as the lich’s real body, but it was a close enough guess. It had also deduced that there was a good chance that she might reappear the instant it removed the gilded egg thing from its Storage. For all it knew, she even had the power to materialise inside its pocket dimension, so it would need to be extra careful when accessing that particular space.
“Good, then I can skip having to explain things. The undead are so predictable that the topic bores me to tears.”
“… Zaffron?”
“What?”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it,” Theodore said with a wave of his liver. “It all happened as expected in the end.”