Morningwood: Everybody Loves Large Chests (Vol.1)

by Neven Iliev

  Her arms, like the rest of her, had a significant amount of muscle that was clearly visible along her bare shoulders and upper arms. Her biceps didn’t bulge out that much, but looked to be quite dense all the same.

  Heavy-looking metal gauntlets were strapped to her forearms, however these didn’t seem like armor. Her palms, fingers and the underside of her forearms were left unarmored, for one thing. Actually, given the way the gauntlets naturally covered the knuckles and the back of her hands in metal plates, they were probably intended to be weapons that enhanced punching attacks. They also looked like they’d add a significant amount of weight to each strike. Also, there were four them. An extra pair of shoulders grew out from behind the primary ones to give her a total of four powerful arms.

  Well, she was definitely ‘handy,’ though perhaps not quite in the way the Mimic meant. It made a mental note to be as unambiguous as possible the next time it spoke to anyone from Demons ‘R’ Us.

  As for the newly summoned fiend, she seemed to do a few flexes and twists to get used to her physical body while looking around the room. Her line of sight stopped on Xera, who was standing off to her left.

  “Huh? You’re my new master?” she asked with a dumb look on her face.

  “No. Demons can’t summon other demons, you dimwit,” replied the succubus as she pointed at the other demon’s feet. “Your master is down there.”

  The confused tower of muscle looked down to see a simple wooden treasure chest. The Mimic was currently still busy appraising his new minion. She seemed to be slightly more armored on her left side than on her right, which was a bit odd. The various metal plates strapped to her body appeared to be made from something resembling steel, but the strange red sheen they gave off meant it was anything but. Her horns seemed to also be made of that stuff. Her top and bottom garments, on the other hand, were made of a flexible white fabric that hugged around her womanly bits snugly without obscuring movement.

  Still failing to comprehend, the newly summoned fiend squatted down to get a closer look. It looked exactly like an unassuming wooden treasure chest no matter how much she studied it.

  “This thing?” she asked Xera while pointing curiously at it with her two right hands. “How’s a box supposed to be my master? Or anyone’s for that matter?”

  “Lean in closer,” came the first command.

  “Ugeh! It really is the box!”

  That order definitely came from the thing in front of her. It would seem that the succubus in the room wasn’t just fucking with her for shits and giggles like she thought.

  “I said lean in closer!” it demanded.

  The fiend was still dumbstruck, but did as ordered. It was part of the contract she just agreed to, so she put her face even closer to the treasure chest without much thought. She was now close enough to it that she could lick it if she stretched out her tongue.

  And then the Mimic jumped at her and bit her across the face. Its powerful teeth sank into her skull, but failed to crush it.

  “Uraah!” she screamed, more in surprise than pain. The sudden shock of having a vicious chest clamp onto her face made her stumble backwards from her squatting position and fall on her tight rump.

  “What the fuck! Are you trying to eat my face or something?!”

  She tried to pull it off her head, but couldn’t put any strength into her arms since that would count as attacking her master directly.

  “Yes,” was the immediate reply.

  “Why?!”

  “The other demon is really tasty. I want to know if you’re any better.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  She immediately stopped her struggling and let the Mimic do as it pleased. It nibbled on her face for a while and the fiend just sat cross-legged without uttering a sound. Xera was, understandably, completely baffled at the turn of events. Not the Mimic trying to eat things, that was expected. But a demon willingly accepting that sort of treatment was strange, to say the least.

  Eventually the Mimic had enough and detached from the red woman, landing deftly on its spider legs. It had gone for her face because her other limbs were all armored up and didn’t seem like they would break under its jaws. The skull was also much thicker and tougher than it seemed, which was only to be expected of a species that thrived on close quarters combat.

  “So,” said the fiend while black blood streamed down her forehead, “how was I?”

  The Mimic replied by sticking out its tongue and making a ‘Bleh!’ sound. “Not tasty at all! Snack is much tastier!”

  “Oh, come on! I can be tasty, too!”

  “Impossible.”

  Xera always tasted the same no matter how many times it ate her, so it was unlikely this new demon would just change suddenly.

  “Grrr!”

  A fact that seemed to somehow tick her off.

  “What, you want to be eaten alive?!” retorted the succubus, wide-eyed.

  “No! I mean, not particularly! I just hate losing! Especially to a-wait, Snack?!”

  “Ah, that would be my… job description,” said the junk food in question, albeit a bit hesitantly.

  “Pfu! Puhahahahaha!” The fiend broke out into mocking laughter. “You’re a snack! Hahahaha! To think one of you stuck-up whores would end up as nothing but some box’s afternoon meal! Ohohahahaha!”

  She kept rolling around on the ground, clutching her stomach and unable to hide her enjoyment of her compatriot’s suffering. Well, all demons did that, but this situation was extra tasty for her. After all, fiends and succubi never got along with one another. This was hardly a surprise considering the two species of demon were pretty much polar opposites of one another.

  “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up while you can.”

  Xera casually dismissed the other demon’s mockery with a wave of her hand. This much humiliation was nothing compared to what that Mimic had put her through. Also, she was secretly looking forward to watching this newcomer go through the same level of abuse.

  As for the chest in question, it had already lost interest in their shenanigans and was moving towards the whole reason it came to this dungeon in the first place - the dungeon core. With its previous owner dealt with, the core’s automatic defense system no longer activated and anyone could approach it. And when the Mimic got within a meter of the floating red orb, it suddenly got an offer.

  [The Litigar Dungeon Complex has recognized you as its rightful ruler.]

  [Do you wish to become the master of this dungeon?]

  [Yes]

  [No]

  The two demons in the room seemed to notice it was doing something and stopped their bickering so they could see what happened. Xera had no idea why her master wanted to come here, but she had a pretty good guess. The newcomer had no idea as to much of anything right now, so her curiosity was on an entirely different level.

  And then the Mimic took out a sword and slashed at the dungeon core. The steel blade was knocked backwards the instant it made contact with the crystal, as if someone had forcefully deflected it with a shield.

  [Your attack has been repelled.]

  “Huck!” it cursed out loud.

  It tried once again, this time by putting as much strength and weight into it as it could. The over-used and under-maintained weapon was repelled with even greater force when it struck the red crystal, causing the blade to break off at the hilt and fly off into the air. It then promptly sheathed itself inside Xera’s torso, right between the breasts.

  “Yeeeow!” she screamed. It stung like a bitch, but it was still more tolerable than snack time. “What the heck are you doing?!” she chided her master. “You can’t break a dungeon core with a shitty weapon like that!”

  “Oh,” replied the Mimic. Then how about a different weapon? Ah, but the mithril daggers might break as well against that indestructible ball. That wouldn’t be tasty at all.

  “You there,” it called out to the red fiend. “Name?”

  “Fufufufu… You did well to ask me that, mortal!” Sh
e took a haughty pose with her arms crossed and started monologuing while looking smug for some reason. “Know that this one’s name will one day be known throughout the lands as-”

  “Your name is now Arms,” it interrupted.

  It remembered it could just check her Status rather than asking directly. Her name was incredibly long and difficult to say, so it just went with a nickname. It could have just as easily have shortened it to ‘Kora,’ but that would mean acknowledging her as a ‘sentient being’ rather than the ‘thing’ she truly was.

  “Go break the shiny thing,” it ordered.

  She seemed to have a good bit of STR and her species looked to have considerably more muscle mass than Mimics, so it was as good a time as any to see just how powerful she really was. The demon herself seemed to be looking forward to finding that out as well, as she had completely forgotten her self-introduction was cut short and was already getting oddly psyched up.

  “Oh! I can smash it?”

  “Yes. Smash it.”

  “Alright!”

  Fiends thrived on violence and combat, and loved smashing things in general. Therefore, Kora felt overjoyed when her first real order was to smash a thing. She walked over to the comparatively tiny dungeon core and lowered her stance to the extreme. The Mimic quietly walked away from her since it had a sneaking suspicion of what would happen next.

  Kora turned to her side and started winding up. The muscles on her right arms and shoulders bulged out even more. She then hurled them forward while spinning on her heel, putting all her body weight behind the blow. Her metal gauntlets made a duo of heavy-sounding hits on the core, but were bounced backwards all the same. The sudden change in direction would undoubtedly have snapped her arms in half if those metal plates didn’t absorb much of that counter-impact.

  “Gah!” shouted the fiend in frustration. It seemed her power wasn’t enough to bypass whatever defense that thing had.

  Not that she cared.

  Alright, she did care.

  She cared immensely, actually.

  “You stupid ball!” she shouted. “Don’t think you can make a fool of me! Ora!”

  She then took another swing at it with one of her right arms.

  [Your attack has been repelled.]

  “Orrra!” and then a follow up strike with one of the lefts.

  [Your attack has been repelled.]

  “Ora! Ora! Ora!” she kept calling out with each failed swing while picking up the pace. If a single big hit wouldn’t do, then how about five hundred smaller hits?

  “ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!”

  Her hands became a blur as she unleashed a torrent of punches on that infuriating crystal orb. All of them failed to do a single point of damage. She grew more and more frustrated until she did a final attack with a spinning roundhouse kick while screaming “HHOOORRRRRAAAA!”

  Her armored foot made an almost echoing thud when she struck the core.

  This attack didn’t get repelled.

  It didn’t break the core either. What happened was that the glowing crystal ball was dislodged from its magically affixed position and was sent flying towards the edge of the room as if it were a kickball. The core hit the stone brick wall hard enough to shake the entire room, then fell to the ground with a clear gong-like sound.

  “Take that!” screamed Kora after it. “Piece of shit ball! Showed you who’s boss, didn’t I?!”

  “It’s still perfectly whole, though,” pointed out Xera. “You obviously can’t break a dungeon core with just brute strength. Only moronic muscle-heads and retarded boxes would keep trying despite knowing that.”

  “… Showed that ball who’s boss!” insisted her red-skinned co-contractor while completely ignoring the succubus’s snide attitude.

  The Mimic, on the other hand, walked closer to the still glowing core. It seemed that Snack was right and cracking this thing open was beyond its means. It really wanted to get its revenge on this place, so leaving without breaking the core seemed like it would leave a bad taste in its mouth. Then again, it did kill the Dungeon Master. That was rather satisfying on its own, so it decided to consider its mission fulfilled.

  On second thought, not breaking the core might be a good thing.

  “Arms. Pick it up and bring it outside.”

  “‘Kay!” she replied in high spirits.

  Fiends hated being used for menial labor, but Kora was pretty happy right now. How could she not be? It had been a really long time since she’d last been to the physical realm and then she was told to smash a thing almost immediately. Being able to move around so much with an actual body felt amazing.

  “Master, why are you telling her to bring that thing along?” asked Xera, dumbfounded.

  “I want the shiny thing.”

  *

  [General Information]

  Koralenteprix Khusuuszun Caonthioxxaa

  Fiend (Pit), Female, 312 years old

  Level 12.55 Fiend

  Level 8.88 Berserker

  615/615 HP (+1.0/sec)

  67/67 MP (+0.1/sec)

  [Attributes]

  STR 100, DEX 42, AGI 58, END 100, INT 16, WIS 16, MNT 84

  [Fiend Skills]

  Demonic Armaments - Lvl 4.64

  Second Wind - Lvl 3.51

  [Berserker Skills]

  Bloodlust - Lvl 4.64

  [Other Skills]

  Idiotic Strength - Lvl 3.04

  Brawling Mastery - Lvl 4.00

  Part Three

  The Mimic and its two familiars were finally going to depart the core chamber. They had spent a bit too long in there and the monster had gotten hungry. There were a few left over wolf corpses in Storage, but those were not enough to completely satiate it. It wanted to go before the debilitating starvation conditions started to set in. They still had that map they looted earlier, so they wouldn’t get lost on their way out, at least.

  Next would be the matter of the one meter wide crystalline dungeon core. The Mimic wanted to bring the shiny thing along, but it wouldn’t fit in its Storage. The swirling portal to the monster’s pocket dimension could only expand to about sixty centimeters in diameter, which was considerably better than the ten centimeter hole it was at Level 1. It was still far from enough though.

  And so the solution would be for Kora to carry it. The core weighed in at about eighty kilograms, which, all things considered, was relatively light. Not that the female fiend had any trouble handling that sort of weight. She hoisted it up with one hand and put it on her shoulder, cradling it between her head and forearm. Even its awkward size was no problem for someone of her stature. If anything, the way she casually handled it would make one think it was just a fancy beach ball rather than the crystallized heart of a dungeon.

  “Okay,” said the Mimic after confirming there was nothing of value left in the desolate room. “We’re leaving!”

  It headed off towards the chamber’s exit with its familiars leading the way.

  “Master, why are walking?” asked Xera with a bit of annoyance. “Let’s just use Portal Keys to get out!”

  “Portal Key? What’s that? Is it tasty?” came the rather predictable response from the chest.

  “Can I smash it?” chimed in the fiend with a sharp glint in her eye.

  “Haah,” sighed the succubus.

  She began educating the two airheads about the common albeit slightly expensive items known as Portal Keys. Crushing one of these would teleport an adventurer to the safety of the dungeon’s Waystone. It was convenient, but came with a few limitations. The user had to stand still when using it, it could only bring out one person at a time due to weight restrictions and the item was lost after a single use and had absolutely no function outside of a dungeon with a Waystone. Not observing any of these rules meant the item would simply fail to activate properly.

  “Do we have something like that?” asked the Mimic once the explanation was over.

  “We do!” she demanded. “Those white stones we looted earl
ier, they’re still in your Storage, right?”

  “Oh, the dusty things!” exclaimed the Mimic. It had seen a few adventurers using the item, but didn’t quite understand its effects. That was, not until Xera explained them just now. To its infantile mind it just seemed that the other party disappeared. It didn’t want to disappear, so it took extra care to avoid accidentally eating those stones until now. There was just one problem, though.

  “Can we bring the shiny along with us?”

  “… Probably not,” said Xera while hanging her head. The very weight restrictions she mentioned earlier would not allow for the extra-heavy dungeon core to be transported.

  “Then we walk. Arms, can you fight while holding the shiny?”

  “Sure. I still got three spare hands you know.”

  She gave them a wave to prove her point. Satisfied, the Mimic ordered them all to make for the exit. They proceeded down the long, spiraling corridor at a brisk pace. The spider-chest had to skitter along faster than normal to keep up with Kora’s wide stride. Xera gave up on walking altogether and just glided along behind them on her wings with her staff floating idly by her side. Overall, it was almost a pleasant walk. If only it wasn’t for that one, nagging thing disturbing the Mimic every now and then.

  [The Litigar Dungeon Complex has recognized you as its rightful ruler.]

  [Do you wish to become the master of this dungeon?]

  [Yes]

  [No]

  This offer kept reappearing no matter how many times it declined. It had been coming up every five or so seconds ever since Kora managed to dislodge it from its spot earlier. However, Mimics were ultimately creatures of patience. This particular individual was pretty much a specialist at ignoring others, to boot. It would take a lot more than some nagging windows to annoy it into submission.

  [Just pick [Yes] already! Please?! I’m begging you here!]

  [Do you wish to become the master of this dungeon?]