Before moving to the next floor, Jared assigned his stat point to mental Alacrity to bring even with physical, then spent a little while collecting more mana crystals. He wanted to make sure he always had food for Mimi on hand, and the system had said they were both rare and valuable, and useful for crafting. So he filled his rucksack and was about to move on, when Naomi nudged his foot, then opened her mouth.
“What, are you hungry again? I just fed you.”
The chest just sat there, waiting. Sighing in resignation, he pulled another crystal off the wall and tossed it into her mouth. She closed her lid, then after a moment, opened again, lifting the crystal back out.
What? Is she trying to get me to eat it? Or does she want something different?
He took it hesitantly, but when he went to put it back in his backpack, Mimi bumped into his foot again. She opened her mouth wide, waiting expectantly. Jared just looked at her, confused.
“I’m not sure what you want. You seemed to be happy with these before.”
Mimi closed her mouth with a snap, then leaned up against Jared for a moment concentrating on something.
[Juvenile Mimic{Naomi}](lvl 5) invited you to her party. Do you accept?
He did, and Mimi’s nameplate appeared in the top left of his vision. When he focused on it, he got another prompt.
Your party member has made her profile visible to you. Would you like to view it?
Once again he accepted, and a now familiar screen appeared before him, but with different information than he was used to.
Name: Naomi(Mimi)
Race: Juvenile Mimic
Subrace: Treasure Mimic Lv. 5
Ascension: Basic
Hunger: Satiated
Stats:
Free points: 0
Physique: 7
* Physical: 3
* Magical: 4
Alacrity: 4
* Physical: 2
* Mental: 2
Projection: 8
* Evocation: 2
* Manipulation: 6
Skills:
Racial (2/3)
* Consume(Skilled V) - Eat anything you can fit in your mouth. Amount of satiation gained based on material and subrace.
* Adopt Shape(Skilled II) - Take the form of an inanimate object you can see or have eaten. Size and quality of transformation increase with Skill level. Can be used 1x per day. You may make minor adjustments to your form without resetting this cooldown
Subrace (2/10)
* Treasure Eater(Skilled V) - You gain much more satiation from items that other races consider valuable, such as currency, crafting materials, tools, and weapons. Amount of extra satiation gained increases with level.
* Extradimensional Stomach(Proficient III) - Store things in your stomach for later use. Can consume items stored here directly, or leave them untouched. Size increases with Skill level.
Titles:
* Friend of Jared Moore - You successfully befriended a creature that could have easily killed you, and in most cases would have. Your desire to help your savior allows you to push past your limits and take forms you may have been unable to otherwise.
Effect: Other humans will not immediately be hostile towards you.
Interesting. She’s got some useful skills. I bet she was trying to get me to store stuff in her stomach. I imagine it levels up faster when it’s full.
Taking the mana crystals out of his rucksack, he placed them all into Mimi’s mouth, watching them vanish one by one. Then, he started pulling his equipment out, but before he gave any to Mimi, he gave her a hard look.
“When you get hungry, you can have those mana crystals. I’m going to let you carry my stuff, but you aren’t allowed to eat it. Alright?”
Mimi flapped her lid in assent, so Jared started loading his gear into Mimi’s mouth, keeping only his ghillie suits and spare ammo in his rucksack.
Turning to the body of the afanc laying nearby, he frowned.
I bet that creature has some good useful parts. Definitely the teeth and claws, and maybe the fur. But they’re probably not going to be easy to remove.
First, he went to the creature’s head, and found the hilt of his sword sticking out of its throat. Retrieving it, he saw that it was still in passable condition, so he put it to work chopping at the base of the afanc’s claws. After a few moments of hard work, he was rewarded.
Subterranean Afanc Claw(Uncommon, Shoddy) - The claw of a subterranean afanc. It is quite sharp, and would be a suitable material to make a bladed weapon. Due to the unskilled manner with which it was removed, the quality has been lowered substantially.
Skill Unlocked! Field Dressing(Unskilled I)
Field Dressing(Unskilled I) - You have proven able to harvest useful materials from creatures you kill. You are able to find and harvest useful parts slightly easier. This bonus increases with Skill level.
Skills:
Primary Class(5/10)
* Marksmanship(Exceptional II)
* Stalking(Skilled IV)
* Trap Detection(Proficient III)
* Desperate Marksman’s Concentration(Unskilled I)
* Field Dressing(Unskilled I)
That’ll be useful. And it looks like I had the right idea with the teeth and claws. Maybe when I find civilization I can sell them to make some money to live off of.
Jared spent the next hour or so collecting afanc teeth and claws. Most of them were shoddy, but as he got a better handle on what he was doing and leveled his skill a little, the final couple claws and teeth were a bit better.
Subterranean Afanc Tooth(Uncommon, Average) - The claw of a subterranean afanc. It is quite sharp, and would be a suitable material to make a bladed weapon. Due to the unskilled manner with which it was removed, the quality has been lowered.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Skill Field Dress Upgraded from (Unskilled I) to (Unskilled VII)
He was a little concerned about taking so much time when he had a deadline, but he was pretty sure it wouldn’t have given him a quest he couldn’t complete. He would do his best to move quickly, but if these materials could help him get a headstart and a bit of money when he reached civilization, it would be worth it.
As he was finishing, Jared remembered the effect from his latest title, Eye Hunter. He didn’t know if it would have activated, since he only got the title after killing it, but he checked anyway. He did his best to cut out the afanc’s one remaining eye, and managed to avoid damaging it. It seemed he did a pretty good job.
Skill Field Dress Upgraded from (Unskilled VII) to (Unskilled VIII)
Subterranean Afanc Eye(Uncommon, Excellent) - The eye of a Subterranean Afanc. Due to its nature, this eye can impart traits relating to seeing through water and other liquids when used in crafting.
He didn’t know if the use in crafting was something innate that it would have had regardless, or if it was due to his Title, but he would compare it to the next eye he got. Another thing he noticed was that when he identified items, they now showed more than just the name and basic description. It also listed a couple of descriptors. He guessed they were indicators of rarity and quality, but he couldn’t be sure.
Finally finished collecting his loot, Jared gave it to Mimi.
“Are you ready to go?”
Mimi jumped up and down in excitement, and he took that as an affirmative. Pulling up the prompt about moving to the next floor, Jared selected yes. Instantly, a featureless gray portal appeared in front of him, similar to the rift that had pulled him into the dungeon. And like that one, this portal sucked him and Mimi in.
Jared found himself in a massive cavern, unable to make out anything but the cave wall behind him, which curved upwards until fading into darkness. Ahead of him, the cave stretched on seemingly endlessly. Despite the lack of light sources, his immediate area was well illuminated, and he could see several hundred meters in most directions.
Retrieving his Leupold mark 4 spotting scope from Mimi, he lifted it to his eye and scanned the surroundings in all directions. He didn’t immediately see anything other than the stone floor of the cave, with some stalagmites.
Deciding that going straight forward was probably the best course of action, he set off, Mimi trailing behind him. Every hundred meters he stopped, looking around with his scope. For a while he saw nothing other than the cave, but the fourth time he stopped, he found some footprints in a sandy portion of the ground.
They looked like they had come from a large rodent, such as a rat, but they were about the size of his hands. Far larger than tracks from a rodent had any right to be.
“So we’re probably dealing with giant rats or something. And I would guess there are a lot of them. But why haven’t we seen any yet?”
It was concerning. The dungeon was supposed to be bursting at the seams with monsters, and yet, Jared had only come across the dozen goblins, the afanc, and Mimi.
Shaking his head, he continued making his way forward. He would only find out by clearing the dungeon. The next time he stopped to look through his scope, he saw something at the edge of his vision move. Zeroing in on it, he saw a writhing gray mass made up of what must have been hundreds of smaller creatures. He tried to identify one and got a surprising result.
[Stone Rat King](lvl 19)
Skill Unlocked! Target Detection(Unskilled I)
Greater than Average competence shown…Assessing true Skill level…
Skill Target Detection upgraded from (Unskilled I) to (Exceptional II)
Skill Synergy detected! Target Detection, Trap Detection, and Identify have combined to create Marksman’s Vision(Proficient VI)
Marksman’s Vision(Proficient VI) - A skilled Marksman can spot even a hidden target from a great distance and take it down without being noticed. You can detect, identify, and kill targets at a distance of up to 1 kilometer, as long as the target is within your field of vision. Additionally, it is 16% easier for you to spot hidden creatures and objects. This bonus increases by 1% per level in the Skill.
Skills:
Primary Class(5/10)
* Marksmanship(Exceptional II)
* Stalking(Skilled IV)
* Marksman’s Vision(Proficient VI)
* Desperate Marksman’s Concentration(Unskilled I)
* Field Dressing(Unskilled VIII)
Interesting. So if I get a certain number of related skills, they can combine to form a better skill. It looks like it took the average level of the skills that combined. Hopefully I didn’t lose too much functionality from any of the skills. I can’t imagine that Marksman’s Vision can do everything all three skills could, along with its own effect. That would be too much, wouldn’t it?
It didn’t matter right now. What mattered was taking out the rats. Or rather, the rat king. From what he knew, a rat king was a cluster of rats that had gotten their tails all tangled and knotted together. He didn’t know if what the system called a rat king was different, but at least it seemed to be a large, powerful creature made up of hundreds of smaller rats.
It’s too bad that I don’t have my rifle. This is the perfect situation for it. I can easily see my target, but it hasn’t noticed me yet. The distance between us would allow me to get at least several shots off, depending on how fast the rats are.
He looked down at Mimi, a thought striking him.
“Hey, Mimi? You can transform into stuff you’ve eaten before, right? Could you become my rifle? I know it was in three pieces when you ate it, but it would be really helpful if you could.”
It was a long shot, but it was worth asking. The mimic looked at him, considering. Then it morphed into a puddle of gray goo and slowly started reforming. But this time, the form was one he knew well. The sleek black barrel, complete with suppressor, the action and mounted scope, the collapsible stock. It was a perfect recreation of his M2010 Enhanced Sniper rifle.
He picked her up and ran his fingers along the metal.
“You’re beautiful.”
Mimi vibrated happily at the praise. Pulling a 6 round magazine from his bag, he clicked it into place. He went to get his bipod to steady the rifle, but then he remembered he had given it to the mimic to hold onto.
“Hey, could you get me the bipod to rest you on?”
Instead of opening up to follow his request, two pseudopods erupted from the mimic, waving at him, before solidifying into a v shape coming from the bottom of the barrel.
“I guess that works.”
He laid down, getting into position and put in ear plugs. Pointing at the rat king, he took aim at the center of the mass, and was surprised when the rifle’s action moved by itself, chambering a bullet.
“Thanks, Mimi.”
A resounding crack filled the cavern as he squeezed the trigger, sending his first bullet streaking towards his target. A couple of rats went flying from the mound, and a terrible screech arose from the rat king, making Jared glad he had both distance and ear protection. For a moment he worried about Mimi, but she seemed fine.
Without waiting for more than a second in between each shot as Mimi chambered the next round, he emptied his magazine and retrieved another from his ruck, which he had placed beside him on the ground. The rat king was slightly diminished in size, and seemed to be moving slowly in his direction. Jared grinned. It looked like he was going to have plenty of time to do lots of damage. He only wished he had a .50 cal rifle. That would tear through the rats by the score.
He emptied the second mag, then most of a third, sending rats flying with each shot. As he was aiming, ready to take the last shot of the mag, he caught sight of something solid at the center of the mound. He activated Desperate Marksman’s Concentration, and the writhing movements of the rats slowed to a crawl, giving him time to line up the shot. With a final crack, time sped up once again, and the rats gave one last shriek before going still.
[Stone Rat King](lvl 19) Slain!
Your Party Gains EXP!
Level Up!
Level Up!
Level Up!
You have free stat points to assign.
Ascension Threshold Reached! You may begin your Ascension.
Skill Marksmanship upgraded from (Exceptional II) to (Exceptional III)!
Skill Desperate Marksman’s Concentration upgraded from (Unskilled I) to (Unskilled V)!
Skill Marksman’s Vision Upgraded from (Proficient VI) to (Proficient VII)!
Skill Stalking upgraded from (Skilled IV to Skilled V)
Naomi Levels Up!(x5)
Naomi is ready to Ascend!