Ray really couldn’t be blamed for thinking he was looking at the sky. Alright sure, the heavens looked weird through the seemingly missing roof. But how was that supposed to clue him in that a mimic would not only take the form of a ceiling, but would also disguise itself by looking like the sky?
Insanity.
Just as he was about to pass through where the ceiling should have been, the sky split. A line of pure darkness opened up, then widened, all in a fraction of a second. Ray didn’t even see the teeth before they snapped close around him.
He was already halfway through before his heart had lurched at the change and he had desperately brought his ascent to a halt. Too late. The huge mouth closed around him, and the only reason the fangs didn’t gore him all over was because of his wings drawing in close, providing the minutest of buffers against the teeth.
Primordial Gauge finally activated and told him there was an Imitator above him. Well, thanks.
Above Ray, the darkness was changing in colour. It was becoming that chrome material again, the white-grey consistency that had made up the last Imitator. And it was rapidly closing around his head.
Muttering out a curse, and still stuck at his spot, Ray called up his trusty mimic-killer. The draconic maw materialized somewhere outside, because he could feel the mental connection, but definitely couldn’t see it. It made him wonder just how far away from his body he could make a construct appear.
Of course, such considerations were quickly snuffed out as he was being eaten.
Ray tried to lift up his feet as his True Mana construct got to work. It was hard. For the first time, he could feel the scorch of his own powers upon him. The sensation was painful, to say the least, and he had to apply a good bit of his Recovery to his lower body.
Thankfully, it was even more effective on the actual target. The Imitator’s giant mouth opened wide as a throaty scream deafened Ray. But at least that let him go.
He had to reconstruct his mostly crushed wings to keep himself from landing hard on the floor, but he was now free. More than that, he was now capable of dishing out just the payment a tricksy little mimic deserved from tempting him and trying to bite him in half.
This time, he just spammed Spiritsorb after Spiritsorb. The monster took some beating. It had tried to change its shape to something smaller and more agile after the draconic maw had unleashed its fiery ire. But with Ray piling on with the relentless attacks, it had little to no space to do anything. In moments, it was simply a burnt out puddle.
[Enemy Defeated—Lesser Imitator]
Tier 8 Monster: Lesser Imitator [Level 21] x1
Essence: +1,680
Knowledge: +3
True Mana Restored: +210
Essence to Level 23: 28,920/30,500
Knowledge to next Threshold: 612/800
[Lifeblood Graveyard Activated]
Spiritsorb has absorbed the soul of a defeated Lesser Imitator. Please select which Aspect of the targeted soul to retain.
Soul Aspects
* Mimic Form [Tier 5]: Assume the full form of any being that you have consumed. While in this form, your true nature is suppressed and cannot be detected. Activating any other ability dispels this form. At Tier 6, this skill can store up to 6 different forms.
* Fluid Form [Tier 6]: Partially combine current form with other forms. At Tier 7, this skill can combine up to 7 different forms at once.
* Digest [Tier 5]: Absorb a portion of whatever you consume so that you may adapt it to your form.
* Malleable Matter [Tier 5]: Passive ability that makes your physical form fluid and malleable, that can be shaped around and into anything. Can be condensed to harden and vice versa.
* Reconstitution [Tier 4]: Use pieces of similar matter to add to your body. Added matter can bring in new forms, if such forms were stored in the original vessel. At Tier 4, this skill can draw from 4 different sources at once.
* Lesser Imitator Glob [Tier 7]: Amorphous chunk of a Lesser Imitator that can change shape due at a moment’s notice and be combined with other Globs.
Ray blinked at the offerings. He realized he could create his own mimic. How insane was that?
He couldn’t do it just after killing one of these monsters, though. By the looks of things, he would need at least two more kills with a Spiritsorb thrown into the fights. It looked like Imitators needed Mimic Form, Malleable Matter, and most likely, Lesser Imitator Globules to function fully as a mimic.
That’s what he understood from all that, at least. A hefty cost, just to have his own mimic. But then again, he didn’t have anything better to replace the useless Brighthorn Soul Aspects at the moment.
Ray also understood that he already had the entire function of a mimic. That was how his powers worked, after all.
He absorbed the skills and other aspects of his opponents, then created his own versions of them. That was, in a sense, mimicry. Not much different from the Imitators he had fought so far.
For now, Ray took in Malleable Matter. The other two he’d get from his next kills.
Before moving on, he look straight up. Where the Imitator had been, there was indeed a ceiling. Flat and white like the floors and the walls. He tutted.
“Figured,” he muttered, staring accusingly at the ceiling.
Ray couldn’t help but be suspicious as he moved on. In the first fight, he had seen a glut of those Globules that made up the Imitators coming from everywhere. Plus, there was the one that had copied the ceiling had tried to eat him alive. He dismissed then resummoned the Greater Windbane Maw again.
“Shoot fire at everything here,” he said. “Leave no stone unburnt, got it?”
The draconic maw couldn’t answer—although it would have been nice if it had been capable of nodding—but it began following his order. As soon as they headed out, it started torching the dungeon. Perfect.
He crushed a True Mana shard as they moved. Just one was enough to fill him up to capacity. That was good. He’d have to see how he could acquire more, but before that, he didn’t want to use them all up too soon.
Ray was pretty certain he was killing off dozens upon dozens of the little critters, but he didn’t receive any notification for doing so. He supposed they had to be an actual monster. After all, just as there were monstrous and alien animals in this Tower, there had to be monstrous and alien bacteria too. It wasn’t like he got experience for annihilating hordes of those daily.
Although, he supposed he ought to be thankful he hadn’t caught some rare disease yet. No Essence, but no illnesses either. A good trade-off.
If only these things were the Elementals from his Objectives. Then he could at least be making progress towards Objective completion.
Ray did end up meeting more Imitators. He had been right to be suspicious of everything.
His next would-be killer was the floor. A literal stretch of stone tiles that looked no different from the rest. Ray had only noticed without his construct torching it because its form had rippled as the walls and ceiling was washed with chaotic flames.
Hmm. This could be a good spot for testing. Ordering his construct to halt its arson, Ray used his new spells.
First went Project Presence.
The sensation was rough. His whole body shivered from within, the sizzling sensation almost making him want to scream. It lasted only a second though, thank goodness, though the subsequent disorientation was very difficult to get used to. Primordial Gauge had warned him to prepare by closing off as many of his body’s senses as he could, but it still hit hard.
It felt as though Ray had lost his body. He was definitely incorporeal now. His eyes saw more colours than he could name, his ears heard strange sounds he couldn’t, and his sense of smell made the dungeon seem impossibly musty.
Even his perception had heightened. He could sense the life of other creatures—Imitators, of course—farther off.
When Ray looked around from his new spiritual vantage, he found himself looking at… himself? Oh, so the spell’s description was literal. It had physically projected his spirit and transferred his consciousness to said projection. This was wild, to say the least.
He looked weird. Standing there with his eyes closed and hands held to the side like an overly polite schoolboy.
Then the floor rumbled. He looked down to see the Imitator was assuming its real form, opening its mouth wide to swallow him up. Huh. So it had detected his spirit and considered it edible. So strange.
Ray was almost tempted to see what happened if it ate him, but he had another spell to try. As such, he activated Spectral Step.
Stolen novel; please report.
Back in his physical form, Ray found himself transported into the Imitator’s mouth.
With no small amount of screaming and some desperate help from his draconic maw construct, Ray eventually killed off the Imitator before he was eaten.
[Enemy Defeated—Lesser Imitator]
Tier 8 Monster: Lesser Imitator [Level 20] x1
Essence: +1,600
Knowledge: +3
True Mana Restored: +200
[Level Up!]
Reward
* +5 Intellect, +5 Spirit, +2 Vitality +2 Agility, +10 allocatable free stats.
* 1 True Mana Tier Point
Essence to Level 24: 20/33,900
Knowledge to next Threshold: 615/800
Ray clambered upright, breathing hard. Damn. He hadn’t aimed Spectral Step properly, so it had directed him to his last-used spell. Plus, the disorientation had contributed to the chaotic feeling and the True Mana drain had been big. Well, lesson learned.
But hey, there was the level up he was looking for. He assigned the Tier Point to Lifeblood Graveyard to take it to Tier 10 and assigned all of his free points to Spirit. There. Now he’d hit Spirit’s next Tier threshold with his next level up.
Since he had used Spiritsorb, he was free to grab the Mimic Form ability. One more left.
Ray also tried testing Abstract Conversion. It looked like he could pick one kind of Mana to absorb, then immediately pick another to convert that absorbed Mana into, so long as he had something of the target Mana in his possession or vicinity.
This had the potential of being quite powerful. He tested it then.
A quick poke around with Primordial Gauge showed him the dungeon was stuffed to the brim with strange, colourless Mana. A variant he didn’t recognize.
The bigger problem was that Ray didn’t have a specific target he wanted to convert to. Sure, he had the Flight Mana crystal, but would Abstract conversion use it up if he tried converting to Flight Mana? He kind of wanted to keep it in reserve till he found a way to get more Flight Mana…
Oh. He had an Empty Mana crystal too. Its name made him think there was something called Empty Mana, but that wasn’t the case. The crystal was just hollow.
So, Ray focused, using up a small amount of his own True Mana, alongside the strange Mana he drew in—Primordial Gauge informed him it was Mimic Mana, interestingly—and filled up the Empty Mana crystal.
In seconds, it glowed silvery-grey, just like the Flight Mana crystal. Which hadn’t been used up. Ray smiled. So all Abstract Conversion needed was the target Mana to be in Ray’s presence. It didn’t need to consume any bit of the target Mana. Neat. He’d have to remember that, going forward.
For now, Ray focused on completing the dungeon. He came across two more of the Imitators. The third one gave him the Lesser Imitator Globules, the last just granting him some nice Essence.
[Enemy Defeated—Lesser Imitator]
Tier 8 Monster: Lesser Imitator [Level 21] x2
Essence: +3,360
Knowledge: +6
True Mana Restored: +200
Essence to Level 24: 3,380/33,900
Knowledge to next Threshold: 621/800
Eventually, Ray came across another little Dungeon Obstacle. It was a blank wall.
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]
Imitation Wall
In their efforts to contain their failures within the dungeon, the succeeding Imitators decided to employ trickery as a means of imprisonment. One cannot get out if one cannot even find the exit. As such, a simple wall of mimicry prevents anything from emerging. Even force fails, for the consistency is too great to barge through.
Ray stared. He was pretty sure this was the direction he had to go. Except, there was no doorway or exit or anything like that, apart from the one he had just come through.
Well, the Dungeon Obstacle had said that this was a prison of trickery. Something to fool the Imitators. Because that’s what he got from the description. One of the three walls that had no doorways was fake, and Ray was going to have to find which one and get through it somehow.
Although… had the dungeon’s creators sought to fool the Imitators with more Imitators? That seemed strange.
Ray focused on his objective. He could burn through the fake wall, just as he had burned down the others. But then, there was the rest of that warning.
The idea that he couldn’t destroy or get through the mimic-made barrier with just the brute power of his construct nagged at him. He had already used the chaotic fire continuously enough, even if at a much reduced capacity, that he’d had to use another True Mana shard. Not good.
Then Ray recalled he had a completely new construct to try out. Holding out his hand, he cast Lifeblood Graveyard once more.
The Imitator that formed wasn’t like the ones he had fought so far. His was a shapeless, somewhat slimy blob. Instead of the chrome skin that the others boasted, this one was dull reddish-black.
At least it was moving in its spot a little. A sign of life. Otherwise, Ray would have started to worry he had done something wrong with his summoning.
“Hey, little buddy,” he said. Like his other construct, it didn’t respond. “Can you help me figure out which of these walls is a mimic just like you?” It didn’t move. “Uh, my bad. An Imitator just like you.”
At that, the little red-black blob got moving. Huh. Temperamental little mimic, wasn’t it?
It was also pretty small. Ray wouldn’t have had trouble cuddling it. Wasn’t it supposed to be at Tier 10, thanks to the Tier of Lifeblood Graveyard? He would have expected something much more… substantial at that Tier.
The constructed Imitator reached the wall to Ray’s right. Then it dove right into the wall.
Ray blinked. There had been a small ripple, like the plain white surface was liquid instead of solid stone. For a moment, he wondered if he was supposed to follow his construct inside the wall too, though that seemed ridiculous and dangerous.
Then the seemingly smooth stretch of the dungeon flickered. It became an Imitator, its surface going from the white of the stone to the shiny grey-white of the rest of its kind.
Except for one spot where it was reddish-black. A rumble emanated from deeper within the wall, and Ray tensed. But all that happened was that his constructed mimic burst out like it had been spit from a mouth.
“Welcome back,” Ray said.
In answer, its form glimmered and changed until it looked just like the wall.
“Well, now I see how you can turn into stuff. At least you’re big now.”
It was indeed as tall and wide as the actual wall. In other words, its original size was misleading. It basically didn’t matter.
Ray scratched his head. “But how does this help…?”
He was really starting to think the entire exercise had unfortunately been fruitless. Even the draconic maw flew in closer, almost grudgingly so, like it had been fearing it would need to step up. Ray froze.
“Hold on, hold on.” He turned around looking back at the way he had come. Then he headed back. “Hey, Imitator. Come over here.”
His constructed Imitator reassumed its original bloblike form and followed. The plan was simple. So simple, in fact, that it actually worked. When Ray led his mimic back to the wall that was actually an Imitator—that had again transformed back to copying a blank wall—it dove in again. This time, though, it didn’t disappear.
Instead, it formed a tunnel.
Ray grinned. “Can’t believe that actually worked.”
After seeing the construct take the form of a wall, Ray had gotten a new idea. All he had to do was tell his own little mimic to take the form of the entryway between the wall instead of the wall itself. And the passage beyond too, of course.
Right as he had planned, his Imitator attached itself on top of the actual Imitator and began to transform. If there was a struggle between the two, if the actual one was resisting the intrusion of the constructed mimic, then Ray wasn’t able to tell. To his eyes, it just looked like the wall was dissolving in the middle to reveal the same kind of corridor he had walked through.
With a tiny hint of trepidation, Ray proceeded in. His draconic maw followed.
“No, you don’t have to burn anything here,” he said.
His flying draconic maw almost looked disappointed.
The trek was long. Not surprising. Ray had been warned that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to brute force his way through the mimic wall. He realized it was because of its sheer mass. The wall was so long and thick, he probably would have ended up expending way too much True Mana.
“Thanks, little buddy,” Ray said to the mimic as it returned back to normal after depositing him in another chamber. This one thankfully had an exit.
He dismissed it, then began moving. There were another couple of mimics in his path. Both were easily taken care of thanks to his construct spewing its chaotic flames.
[Enemy Defeated—Lesser Imitator]
Tier 8 Monster: Lesser Imitator [Level 20] x2
Essence: +3,200
Knowledge: +6
True Mana Restored: +200
Essence to Level 24: 6,580/33,900
Knowledge to next Threshold: 627/800
Then he finally reached the last chamber.
[Primordial Gauge—Dungeon Obstacle]
Room But Not
The exit to the dungeon remains shrouded in imitation. After all, the Imitators decided that if there was a Lesser Imitator that could pass through their trickery, here would be one final guardian that would prevent any from getting out. By force, if necessary.
Ray was really starting to wonder who were these more successful Imitators. Had the one he had just passed through been one of them? It had been pretty big. Similarly, the one before him was huge too.
It wasn’t hiding. The monster made it clear that it was the entire large room before him, the walls, ceiling, and floor all the same greyish-white chrome in colour.
Primordial Gauge was acting up too. He had dismissed the spell the last time against the wall Imitator, imagining that he would see something he had already seen. But maybe it was different. So, he let it run its course this time.
[Primordial Gauge]
Greater Imitator [Monster] [Tier 9] [Level 23]
Artificial creatures that have gained sentience and control to such a degree that they are now more or less independent. Capable of assuming nearly any form, given the consumption of the right pieces, their potential for growth as both individuals and as a society is thought to be frighteningly potent. The greater variants are often ones that have attained a certain level of intelligent proclivity above the level of mindless animals.
Skills:
Mimic Form [Tier 6]: Assume the full form of any being that you have consumed. While in this form, your true nature is suppressed and cannot be detected. Activating any other ability dispels this form. At Tier 6, this skill can store up to 6 different forms.
Fluid Form [Tier 7]: Partially combine current form with other forms. At Tier 7, this skill can combine up to 7 different forms at once.
Channel Mana [Tier 5]: Channel up to 5 different kinds of Mana to create different effects, depending on the variant of Mana channelled.
Digest [Tier 5]: Absorb a portion of whatever you consume so that you may adapt it to your form.
Malleable Matter [Tier 6]: Passive ability that makes your physical form fluid and malleable, that can be shaped around and into anything. Can be condensed to harden and vice versa.
Reconstitution [Tier 5]: Use pieces of similar matter to add to your body. Added matter can bring in new forms, if such forms were storied in the original vessel. At Tier 5, this skill can draw from 5 different sources at once.
Advanced Form [Tier 6]: Advanced stage of transformation that allows the Imitator to occupy and mimic anything upon observation. At Tier 6, this skill allows attaining a mass of up to 60 tonnes.
Most of the list of abilities were the same, but the sixty tonnes at the end took Ray aback. That was a lot of mass.
It also, it allowed transformation with just observation. That sounded way too overpowered, if you asked him.
The description also said a greater amount of intelligence. It made sense if these things had been put here on purpose to prevent anything from getting out. That also suggested he wasn’t going to be tricking his way out of the encounter. Though… he didn’t want to.
Ray could feel a little grin etching itself on his face. He wanted to face and beat that thing. How else was he going to get all the Essence he needed?
So, Ray stepped forward and attacked.
For just a second, the ridiculousness of fighting a room almost made him laugh. Then, just as his draconic maw flew in with its mouth flaming, a spear of the same material that made up the Imitators struck his construct. The maw flew back, zipping away from the spike.
But the Greater Imitator had achieved what it wanted it. It began to change form. The monster turned…
Ah, shit. It turned into Ray.