Everybody Loves Large Chests

Xera was brought back to ‘life’ a mere 10 seconds and 260 MP later. The succubus had fully prepared herself for yet more snack time, but it seemed like that wasn’t on the Mimic’s immediate agenda.

“Wait here,” it commanded.

“Yes, Master.”

It seemed that the Mimic would be using its corpse-related Skill on those four. It sat right next to the pile of corpses and a number of transparent purple tentacles appeared from its faux-wood surface. They pierced one of the bodies and swiftly drank what little remained of its flesh, leaving behind little more than a pile of chunky ash. It was a scene the succubus had seen multiple times, so she was loosely aware of what was going on, including the hefty MP cost of that weird Skill. That would explain why it didn’t want to devour her over and over right now - it would much rather eat those corpses than eat her.

Xera felt slightly irked at this realization. This wasn’t because she was disappointed that ‘snack time’ did not continue, okay? It’s not possible to be jealous of a bunch of dried up skeletons, alright? She just felt awkward that her master was taking her sloppy seconds like that and didn’t want to particularly stare at the gruesome act, so she turned around on the spot and waited for it to finish.

The Mimic was likewise sitting patiently, waiting for its MP to recover. The first use of Cadaver Absorption failed as expected, but at least the Skill seemed to be usable on these leftovers. It seriously doubted the Skill would demonstrate its full effects, however. These corpses technically had everything attached, but they looked even less delectable than those ghouls. Still, it wouldn’t do to just pass them over.

However, the MP limitation was getting to be a problem. The INT stat was growing steadily, but WIS was falling behind, meaning the automatic recovery was lacking. This wasn’t an immediate concern since the Mimic was in no particular rush and it didn’t mind sitting idly while the MP recovery did its thing, but that didn’t mean this would always be the case. Xera, for example, became quite useless if she ran out of MP in the middle of a fight.

The animate chest had witnessed the sight of its familiar running out of MP just before she could finish off the ghoul. The undead creature then leaped on top of her and ended up seriously injuring her body. It very nearly killed her before the Mimic could slice it into ribbons. It had to stop playing with its gold to do that, which made it a bit irritable. This was not a particularly tasty situation, but it proved a point. Running out of MP in combat could mean death. And if the Mimic should need to use magic to fight, then it would run dry extremely quickly.

“Snack,” it called. “I want more magic.”

The bare-bones explanation somehow managed to get its point across, giving the demoness a good idea of what it was talking about. She hated to admit it, but she was getting better at translating from Mimicanese.

The succubus was keenly aware of the MP issues that all Warlocks faced. How could she not be? Every single one of her previous masters was a Warlock, after all.

“Have you tried using a staff?” she suggested. If it were any other Warlock, they might think she was patronizing them. However, Xera was being dead serious. She had no doubt that the idiotic chest she called a master did not even consider something so basic.

“Is staff tasty?” it said, quizzically. The succubus’s educated guess was dead on.

“It’s like a sword for magic,” she explained. “Holding one when using Spells can increase their damage or reduce their MP cost, depending on the quality of it.”

“So... tasty?”

“Yes, Master. Tasty,” she confirmed with a sarcastic tone. This time she was patronizing it. Not like the moron would notice the not-so-subtle meaning hidden in her voice anyway.

“Good! How do I get the tasty thing?!”

“Here, one of these guys had a staff.” She picked up the weapon in question off the floor and presented it to her master. It almost looked like a walking stick when compared to her fancy succubus staff, but it was a staff nonetheless. The apple-sized blue crystal ball at the top of the plain wooden shaft was evidence enough to that effect.

“This? Ah, I’ve eaten many of those. Not very tasty,” it said dismissively. This time it meant that literally. Wood did slightly fill up its belly, but the flavor was not at all to its liking. Not bad, but also not good would be the way to describe it.

Xera thought it would be best to point something out. “Master, you don’t eat this,” she said. ”You just hold it when casting magic.”

“Like Snack does?”

“Yes, Master. Just like-”

Realization hit her and she immediately stilled her tongue, but it was too late. Words spoken out loud could not be taken back. And indeed, the Mimic accepted the staff from the succubus’s hands. Using her own hands, that is. The albino mockery of Xera’s true form had appeared from inside the chest. Seeing it curiously hold a staff the wrong way around somehow made it worse. And how come those nipples were always erect?

“Fffffuuuuuuck!” screamed the real Xera while turning around as quickly as she could. However, this time she was more upset at herself rather than the simple Mimic. Of course it would do things exactly like her, right down to the body. She walked into that one all on her own.

*Swish swish*

She could hear it swinging its new toy around. But then she had a thought which brought chills down her spine. It probably wanted to try out its new weapon. And there were no suitable targets around, except for one.

“Shadowbolt ~♪!” came her own oddly cheery-sounding voice from behind. In the next instant, she was hit in the back by the Spell in question.

Xera screamed in pain while falling to her knees. Sticky demon blood and flesh flew around the place as the Shadowbolt took a literal piece out of her lower back. She couldn’t see it, but she could feel it. Right now her lower back was missing a chunk of flesh roughly the size of a fist.

But the Mimic wasn’t done. It dropped the staff on the ground with a slight cluttering sound.

“Shadowbolt ~♪!” it called out again.

The Mimic verified that the Spell was ever so slightly stronger with the staff equipped. It didn’t seem to reduce the MP cost, but it was still something! It picked the weapon back up and did a little celebratory dance. Its spider legs tilted the milky-white, chest-bound woman left and right while she held the staff above her head with both hands. The massive milky-white breasts swung left and right indecently. It also started chanting “Staff is tasty ~♪! Staff is tasty ~♪!” over and over for no good reason.

Xera was becoming even more and more mortified. She stared at the spectacle the same way one might stare at a hurricane. Her own oddly melodic voice was singing such an absolutely retarded tune while a mockery of her body was performing a fittingly childish ‘dance.’ Eventually she managed to tear her eyes away from whatever that was and turn away from it entirely.

“Please, just kill me now,” she muttered sarcastically.

“Okay!” called out the Mimic in good humor. It was in a good mood, so it decided to grant the familiar this simple request. Xera, understandably, immediately tried to stop it.

“NO! I didn’t mean-”

But it was too late. Words spoken out loud could not be taken back.

“Shadowbolt ~♪!”

“GUHAAAHA!” she screamed. That third spell to her back made her fall flat on her face.

“Hm? Still not dead?” asked the Mimic. Indeed, she wasn’t. She was barely alive with only 2 HP left.

“It’s okay, I fix ~♪!” it added. It then started walking closer to her. Xera was too busy coughing up blood and red goop to protest. She could only turn her head just enough to see her own face looking down on her with a dumb smile. It let out a “See you soon ~♪!” before bringing down the wooden shaft of its new staff towards her head.

Oddly enough, the succubus found herself mirroring that goofy smile right before the staff cracked her head open. She had realized that she was her own worst enemy. In more ways than one.

The Mimic, on the other hand, was happy. It learned a new thing and helped its Snack out with a request. But then it got a bit sad when it realized it had used every last drop of its MP on that third Spell. That would delay the absorption process, not to mention it would need to summon its familiar yet again. Well, ultimately it just had to sit still and play with its coins while the automatic MP recovery did its thing, so it wasn’t that big of a deal.

Just to be sure, it double-checked its Status, but its Ruin Mastery didn’t budge. It seemed that using its own familiar as a punching bag wouldn’t actually raise its Mastery Skills. Well, she was born of its own MP so doing that was more or less like hitting itself. Which, it knew for a fact, also couldn’t be used to train up Skills.

And so it spent the next half hour or so idly regenerating its MP while playing with the gold coins. First it summoned back Xera and told her to keep checking the camp for anything else that looked useful. Then it absorbed one more corpse, which ended in another failure. The third one, however, was a hit.

The Skill itself was not that great, but the Attribute gains were tasty. Now that the Mimic thought about it, it was still carrying that oddly shiny dagger it had picked up when it was still Level 10. It used the fake Xera’s white hand to reach into its Storage and pull it out. The weapon in question had a deep blue gemstone embedded in the pommel. The short steel blade glistened with an unnatural light blue sheen and a faint icy fog drifted down from it.

This was a magic weapon, enchanted with the power of ice. Anyone stabbed by this would have their insides freeze over, causing additional HP damage. The downside was that it needed more maintenance than plain steel blades, not to mention it was almost 5 times more expensive. The simple Mimic obviously had no idea about any of this. It was just coveting the shiny thing that looked like a tiny sword.

However, now that it had the knowledge of Dagger Mastery, it realized this short blade was more suited to ambushing targets. It could be thrust in and out of flesh with much greater ease and speed. Xera’s white, tender hand changed into a grotesque red tongue-tentacle as it gave the weapon a few experimental swings. The actual Xera stiffened up when she heard the familiar swishing sounds, but felt relief wash over her when it became obvious it didn’t feel like stabbing her.

Well, not for the moment, at any least.

After some more waiting around, Xera had finished checking all the belongings.

“I’ve found a few… ‘tasty’ things, Master,” she reported.

“Show me!” it replied eagerly.

“They were carrying a few low-grade Healing Potions. Er, you do know what a Healing Potion is, right?”

“Yes,” it confirmed. “Glass thing with liquid. Gives HP when I eat it. Moderately tasty.”

It was already familiar with this alchemical product. A few of those potions were present in the satchels and pockets of its previous victims and spilled out into its mouth while it chewed on the remains.

“Oh okay. Here they are.”

Xera held out three crystal vials. The Mimic put them in its mouth, crunched down on them and swallowed. Just because it knew what potions were didn’t mean it would realize you could save them for later. Food was meant to be eaten before it got all rotten and un-tasty, after all.

As for the succubus, she actually felt herself die a little on the inside. Just when you think that chest would behave rationally, it proved you wrong. She was still overestimating it. Or underestimating, depending on the point of view. All that was left for her to do was let out yet another sigh before continuing with her findings.

“There were also two swords over there that you’d probably like.”

She pointed to the unsheathed blades on the ground a few meters away from her. The simple blades looked practically brand new. The Mimic was quite enthusiastic about this as the ones it had were woefully unmaintained and horribly over-used. They were actually starting to rust and would snap in half any day now.

“I also found some more gold for you - 63G in total.”

Next, she took out a small purse and dumped its contents on the floor. Dozens of coins rained down from it. They hit the brick-covered ground with a bit of a racket, then bounced or rolled all over the place. Rather than being annoyed, the Mimic simply marvelled at the sight. It began picking them up one by one with great glee, carefully appraising each piece before putting it safely away inside its Storage.

Most of them were tiny ones, barely bigger than a thumbnail and just as thick, worth 1G each. A good number of them were also slightly bent from changing hands so many times. The rest were about twice as large in diameter and a tiny bit thicker, worth 5G apiece.

“They had a map, too,” she added with a tinge of hope in her voice. “The thing you’re looking for is actually less than minute away from here.”

However, saving the best news for last proved to be a mistake. The Mimic was too enthralled by the shiny things to pay her any attention. Eventually it calmed down enough to process the good news. After she repeated them, of course. It still had one more corpse to absorb, though, so it went over to do just that.

It quickly verified this mysterious new addition to its Status.

If it was the Mimic from two weeks ago, it would definitely scoff at this seemingly useless Attribute. The one in the present instead considered how effective Snack was at deceiving others with her looks. If it could become an irresistible treasure chest, then it would undoubtedly be much easier to fool its prey. After all, it thrived on ambushing those blinded by greed, so something like this was sure to be useful.

Unfortunately, the monster was being a bit too optimistic for its own good. Even with 10,000 CHR it would still be just a really clean and sparkly treasure chest and nothing more. This Attribute had almost no impact on how an inanimate object looked, after all. It would be a different story for someone who was naturally beautiful, however. For example, if Xera had a five-figure CHR Attribute she could make both men and women alike fall madly and hopelessly in love with her with just a glance. A wink and a smile would make them orgasm on the spot. Indeed, entire kingdoms would willingly line up to receive the honor of having their life sucked out of them by such an unimaginable beauty.

Getting back on topic though, the only way CHR would be useful to the Mimic right now was if it gained a new Job that could make use of this Attribute. Even if it morphed into half-a-Xera, the lower half of that form would be a dead giveaway to anyone with half a brain. Indeed, it would probably attract more ‘customers’ if it just stuck with its tried-and-true chesty visage.

Now that all four corpses were gobbled up and its MP was mostly replenished, it decided it was time to move out. It went over to where Xera was waiting. The bored succubus picked herself up off the ground when she noticed her master approach.

“We go,” said the Mimic. “Show me where the Dungeon Core is.”