by Neven Iliev
Once it was finished devouring the populace, Boxxy checked the village once more to make extra sure that there were no people left, living or otherwise. After confirming that Carran was indeed deserted, it returned to the settlement’s centre and rested next to the large stone well that had served as the village water source. It wasn’t that it was particularly tired, but taking a lazy nap in the warm sun after eating its fill just seemed appropriate.
It slept contently until around noon, its body as per usual becoming active several seconds before its mind, causing it to flail half-consciously. It would seem that Boxxy had yet to master the subtle art of waking up.
“Master?! What’s going on?”
Xera’s telepathically-transmitted thoughts broke the Mimic out of its half-sleeping stupor, allowing it to once again think clearly.
“Nothing, just woke up.”
“Then what was that loud crash just now?”
“Just knocked over the well, nothing to worry about,” Boxxy said while digging itself out of the rubble.
“No, that’s plenty to worry about! Master, we need to start working on these bad habits of yours,” Xera scolded it. “How are you supposed to fit in with the elves if you wreck something every time you wake up?”
She had hoped that the shapeshifter’s Rank Up would have allowed it to bring its morning tantrums under control, but they appeared to have only gotten worse.
“Never mind that now. Did you finish looking for all the shiny things?”
The succubus had been instructed to join the other two in search of anything of value once she had confirmed that there were no survivors making a run for it.
“I believe so, Master. We’ve found a total of 5,530 GP worth of coins and about 1,800 GP worth of jewelry.”
“That much?!” Boxxy asked with surprised delight. “I don’t remember seeing so many shiny things in the houses last night!”
“You would be correct, Master. A lot of this came from the guild buildings you so graciously left open for us.”
Of the three adventurer guilds with a presence in Carran, the most influential by far was the branch office of Griffin Heart. It was the biggest fighter-oriented organisation in the Empire, though its size could probably be attributed to its shockingly low enlistment standards. The other two included the Brotherhood of the Third Eye, a much smaller, independent local magic guild, and the Union of Excavators, which supported the village’s mining community.
“I see. Anything else in them?”
“They didn’t have any magic items worth a damn,” Xera continued, “but we did find a cache of alchemical supplies in the mystic one. It contained about two dozen healing potions, half as many mana potions, seven fortification elixirs and five different jars of weapon oils.”
Elixirs and oils were alchemical products intended to provide long-lasting effects. Drinking a vial of the former would strengthen the body, while the latter imbued the equipment to which it was applied with a temporary magical effect. Boxxy was pleased to have some extra insurance, although it suddenly spotted something worrying in the distance.
“Snack, are you sure that there were no survivors?”
“I am certain of it, Master.”
“Then why is there a column of smoke rising towards the east?”
“Ah, your pet golem decided that rummaging through all those houses was beneath her, so she disregarded her orders and went to the smithy. Something about forging components. I tried to stop her, but she wouldn’t listen. I think some sort of punishment is necessary, Master.”
“It’s fine, I was running low on parts anyway. Get Arms and meet me where the smoke is coming from. We’ll be leaving soon.”
“Understood, Master.”
Boxxy strode into the deathly-silent streets with a small spring in its step. Last night had proved even more profitable than it had initially assumed, though it wished that it had been able to raise its Level more. It had barely made it to Level 6 of its Doppelganger Job, despite murdering nearly three hundred people. Even if the vast majority of them had probably been fairly low-Level, it had still expected more. And that wasn’t simple greed or impatience speaking, it honestly felt that this slow progression was unusual for a Job still in the single-digit Levels.
One possible reason could be that the maxed-out Mimic Job was still absorbing a portion of the XP, essentially wasting it, but upon reflection this seemed unlikely. The Rank Up process had made Doppelganger into the shapeshifter’s main Job, which meant that it should receive priority on murder-based XP. It could simply be that the Doppelganger Job required a lot more XP to Level up than either Mimic or Warlock, so perhaps it would be better to think of it as starting from Level 51 rather than Level 1. Maybe not exactly like that, considering how long the last ten Levels of its Mimic Job had taken, but something along those lines.
Regardless, it was a fact that achieving its next Rank Up would be nowhere near as easy as Boxxy had expected. In addition to reaching Level 25 of its Doppelganger Job, it also required that it raise both Biomass and Shapeshift to Level 13. It was highly likely that the Rank Up beyond that would require that both Skills be at Level 15, in addition to the Doppelganger Job being Level 50.
The pattern wasn’t particularly complicated, so Boxxy felt reasonably confident in its assumption. It would take a lot of work, but it would be worth it in the end. Especially if the monster could obtain high-class Skills like the one it had gotten upon reaching Level 5.
[Mirror Image]
The doppelganger creates body doubles to confuse and befuddle its opponents.
Requirements: Doppelganger Job, 100 END, 100 INT, 100 WIS
Type: Active
Activation Time: Instant
Cost: 400 MP
Range: 5 Meters
[Effects]
Creates an autonomous replica of the user’s body.
Mirror Images will last for 15 seconds per Level of the Shapeshift Skill.
Mirror Images will inherit a portion of the original’s Attributes equal to 10% per Level of this Skill.
Mirror Images cannot activate any Skills, Spells or Martial Arts.
The Skill seemed similar to the Conjure Fleshling Skill that Boxxy could have unlocked from its Mimic Job, but with far more potential. As described, activating it caused an exact replica of the shapeshifter’s current form to quite literally leap from its original body. The relatively high MP cost had been a bit daunting, but made sense considering that the Skill activated instantly with no diminishment to its Biomass reserves.
These Mirror Images behaved much like living dolls – they had no sense of independent self and readily followed any orders Boxxy gave them. However, they weren’t completely brainless like Valeria’s undead had been. They possessed a small degree of autonomous judgement, making them excellent disposable pawns, and the shapeshifter had used them extensively to speed up the culling process last night. Their actual fighting ability may have been lacking due to the Skill’s low Level, but it was nonetheless more than adequate to deal with some sleeping villagers.
Still, the potential power and versatility of the ability was incredible, even considering that it had come from a high-class shapeshifting species. The only real downside was that the duplicates couldn’t use active Skills such as Mend Flesh or Acid Spray, but they could still make use of the passive ones, like Adaptive Defense or Natural Armour. And while they initially spawned with no weapons of their own, they could easily create equipment as necessary through their Metal Mimicry. They would even be able to fight with a certain degree of expertise due to the various Mastery Skills at their disposal.
Though that wasn’t to say that the copies didn’t come with a myriad of downsides in addition to the Spell, Skill and Arts restriction. They would never be as quick-witted or ferocious as their original, leaving them hopelessly outmatched against skilled opponents fighting intelligently. Their bodies were also fairly light, with very little to work with in the Biomass department, and their shapeshift
ing ability was bound to suffer for it.
But the most troublesome problem by far was communication. The body doubles lacked the convenient telepathic link that Boxxy shared with its familiars, meaning that words and gestures were the only way to convey its orders. Killing by proxy also likely meant that only a portion of the XP would be transferred to the original, if its experience with Summon Familiar was any indication. At least its Mirror Image Skill Proficiency had risen relatively rapidly, allowing the ex-Mimic to reach Level 4 of the Skill in a single night.
It had wondered if it wouldn’t it be possible to use the Mirror Images as a sort of workforce to mass-produce traps and gadgets, but quickly dismissed it as a stupid idea. For one thing, it was highly unlikely that its Artificer Job would grow if it were to relegate the work to others. Not to mention that there wasn’t much that they could realistically accomplish with a lifespan of only a few minutes. Besides, if it wanted help with an Artificer project, then it already had someone on hand that would gladly give her all to assist it.
Boxxy began to pick up the distinct noise of metal striking metal as it made its way closer to the source of the smoke it had seen earlier. The rhythmic ringing echoed through the now-deserted village, like a funeral bell marking the death of the settlement.
When the former mimic finally reached the open-air smithy, it was greeted with the peculiar sight of Fizzy hammering and shaping a piece of red-hot iron with her bare hands.
“Oh, hey Boxxy!” she called when she noticed it approach. “Give me a minute to finish this up, okay?”
“Okay.”
Her smiling face once more became focused as she resumed pounding the half-molten metal shard. Sparks flew as her tiny fist smashed into the strip of iron on the anvil, which was probably why she had removed her clothes and was currently smithing in the nude. After all, Boxxy reasoned, her outfit might catch fire if she wore it under those circumstances, and it was the only set of clothes that would fit her, even if loosely.
“Master, we are here.”
“Hey, boss! Have a nice nap?”
Xera and Kora arrived shortly thereafter, the latter carrying a wooden chest on one shoulder and a leather trunk on the other. The first was filled with coins, jewelry and other valuables of note while the other held the alchemical supplies that Xera had mentioned earlier. The fiend set them down in front of Boxxy, then turned her attention towards the golem.
“Hey squirt. Nice rack as always,” she said, flashing two thumbs up.
“Huh?” Fizzy replied dumbly. “What are you- Oh for Rusty’s sake! It happened again!”
She stomped towards the pile of clothes in the corner and pulled them on hastily, huffing in exasperation. It would seem that her stripping habit had resurfaced without her noticing, and just when she’d finally thought she had it under control. She immediately returned to applying her Component Forging Skill without saying another word. Kora watched as the golem pouted noticeably before her attention was caught by precisely how the Paladin was working.
“Don’t your hands hurt, doing it that way?” she asked curiously.
“Nope!” Fizzy said, smiling broadly. “Don’t feel anything but the impact!”
“That’s convenient,” Kora said doubtfully, “but won’t your hand melt if you keep doing that?”
“Hah! As if such weak flames could hope to damage my glorious frame!” the golem replied proudly. “You shouldn’t underestimate a golem’s steel!”
“Hoh-ho! Is that right?” Xera asked with a small grin.
“Oy, better watch yourself, pipsqueak,” Kora cautioned. “The Slutinator is getting that mad look in her eye.”
“I’ll be sure to ram the handle of my wrench up her ass if she tries anything.”
“That’s exactly what she wants you to do, though…”
Fizzy chose to ignore the demons to continue shaping the iron plate.
“Oh! I almost forgot,” the tiny Paladin exclaimed suddenly. “I found a thing inside the smithy’s storage room.”
She reached into her back pocket, pulling out a rough, uncut and unpolished gemstone. It was about three centimetres in diameter and coloured a deep red, so dark it bordered on black. She went over to Boxxy, who was currently engrossed in appraising the loot that the familiars had brought, and presented the stone to the shapeshifter with a huge smile on her face.
“Here you go, Boxxy!”
The former mimic stopped what it was doing to inspect the item carefully. The rough surface was distinctly lacking in shininess, making this object seem more like a pebble than a precious stone. And yet the monster’s MLG couldn’t help but notice the strange flow of mana that seemed to swirl around it, like a frigid lump of ice which condensed the water in the air into a fine mist.
“What is this?” it asked curiously.
“I’ve never seen one of these before, but it was labeled as ‘unrefined Midnight Ruby.’ I thought you’d-”
“It’s a what?!”
Boxxy’s tentacle shot out immediately, seizing the stone from Fizzy’s grasp. Xera and Kora were momentarily shocked that the creature would ignore the literal bag of gold in favour of the thoroughly un-shiny rock, but then the succubus remembered why her master would want the magical gemstone so badly.
Other than a night when all three of Terrania’s moons were visible, it was the last component Boxxy would need in order to perform the Ritual of Unholy Wealth.
Part Two
Boxxy’s group continued their trek north for four more days without anything of significance taking place. Although the monster was quite eager to perform the ritual said to call forth ‘Unholy Wealth,’ it had no idea when it would actually be able to do it. It didn’t even know what moons actually were, let alone anything about their orbits or phases. ‘Big glowing things that sometimes appeared in the sky’ was the extent of its astronomical knowledge on the matter.
Thinking back, the first and last time that it had seen all three celestial bodies at once was the night when it had first left the confines of its dungeon birthplace, which was so far in the past that it felt like a lifetime ago. Could it be that the moons aligning was a comparatively rare occurrence?
Then again, it may have simply not noticed since it wasn’t really in the habit of staring at the night sky. The glittering, jewel-like stars were forever out of its reach, like an unobtainable collection of shiny things that existed only to taunt the simple creature. As a consequence, Boxxy made a point of thoroughly ignoring the night sky – a decision which it was now regretting.
Any attempts to consult its minions on the matter proved equally futile, but of course, none of them could be expected to have any knowledge of astronomy. After all, the two demons were more interested in their genitals than the cosmos, and Fizzy had always been the early to bed, early to rise type. While her new steel body no longer demanded sleep, she nonetheless remained ignorant on the subject of celestial movements.
She wasn’t the only one whose Rank Up had altered their sleeping habits. Apparently, a doppelganger’s higher cognitive functions demanded substantially more upkeep than a mimic’s, which meant that it needed nearly twice as much sleep. Whereas before Boxxy had been able to maintain its vigilance for almost a full week, these days it was finding it difficult to remain awake after as little as two or three days. It was worth it, though, because the monster’s ability to recognise and understand patterns had increased significantly. It was able to apply Xera’s acting lessons with far greater ease, likely due to its new species’ predisposition towards infiltration and subterfuge.
All in all, Boxxy was relatively pleased with its choice of Rank Up. It had yet to realise, however, that queen slimes were actually far more dangerous in combat than doppelgangers. Their amorphous bodies held not one, but dozens or even hundreds of slime cores, all networking together to form what was essentially a self-contained hive-mind. As such, their growth potential when it came to intelligence and critical thinking skills was frankly enormous. In addition
, their bodies were quite a bit more formidable than doppelgangers’, as the goop they controlled was supremely resistant to physical trauma in all forms. It could also be shifted about in a more free-form manner than doppelgangers, which would always need to maintain the integrity of their spinal column.
Queen slimes could also divide their bodies into smaller, fully-sentient blobs, though that was risky since it also meant splitting their Attributes and leaving parts of themselves more vulnerable. It was nonetheless a powerful survival tactic, as a queen slime could survive as long as at least a handful of its cores were left undamaged and would be able to make a full recovery if given enough time and food. At least physically, as losing too many of their ‘brains’ tended to result in permanent memory loss.
However, while a queen slime’s shapeshifting ability was a weapon in its own right, a doppelganger’s was clearly superior when it came to blending in with civilised society. Much like mimics, it was nigh-impossible to tell their false form apart from the genuine article. Body proportions, skin tone, hair, nails, internal organs, speech, mannerisms, gestures – every part of a person could be imitated to a near-ridiculous degree. They were so good at it that they had once been widespread enough to make up roughly five to ten percent of any given settlement’s population.
But that had been a long time ago. Once Scribes had become commonplace and Appraisal checks were the norm, it became harder and harder for them to live quiet, uninterrupted lives. The enlightened races of the world couldn’t just turn a blind eye to them, either, as a foetus had to be murdered in order for a doppelganger to be born. Additionally, they generally had no regard for sentient lives other than their own, gladly employing murder as a means of furthering their goals.
The tensions had eventually led to decades of open hostilities, a turbulent period that history now referred to as the Silent Rebellion. It had been one of the few times when the disparate races of Terrania had set aside their differences to purge the world of the shapeshifting menace. Though the specifics had since been lost to the ages, the fact that doppelgangers were now practically extinct made it clear which side had won.