The black ooze slithered and bubbled, the grotesque mass undulating while heading towards us. The light in the room only seemed to highlight how shiny and black it was. Shadara’s feline eyes narrowed as she pulled her arrow back. With a silent nod, she informed me that she was going to attack.
As Shadara’s arrow soared through the air, it collided with the ooze. Instead of penetrating or dispersing it, the arrow embedded itself and fizzled out, absorbed by the dark substance with a sizzle.
I hesitated at the sound of her arrow dissolving. My eyes darted around the room, hoping there weren’t more creatures. I glanced at my arm blade. That seems like a bad idea.
Raising my magical revolver, I unloaded a round. As the bullet flew through the chamber, it struck the amorphous form, undulating as it crawled on the ground towards us. Bits of it splattered out onto the wall. The wall where the splatters struck sizzled and hissed. The ooze creature warbled and gurgled as it surged forward with renewed vigor.
“I think we made it angry.” Shadara drew back another arrow, pulled it back even further than before, and fired.
This time, the arrow plunked into it with a squelch as it again dissolved into nothing. “Yeah, your arrows aren’t doing anything to it.” I fired another round as I stepped out of the room.
My shot took another chunk of the monster as it charged forward with abandon. I looked at where the slime was and saw that sections of the stone were dissolved slightly. How did anyone stick that thing in a safe if it’s dissolving stone?
Shadara growled as she gripped her bow even tighter. “What is with these monsters and their resistance to non-magical weapons?” The panther woman ran to the corner before turning around with another arrow drawn. “Until I can afford a magical weapon, this will just take a while.”
Something I’m at fault for. She has forty thousand shards less because of me. But it did get us out of the life-or-death situation we were in.
The ooze’s movements were painfully slow. I followed after Shadara and fired two more shots at it. Each shot took more and more away from its body. As it climbed over the wall, it looked noticeably smaller, and there was a small red glow in the center of it that I couldn’t see earlier.
“What’s that glowing thing inside it?” I pointed at the little red sphere before firing a shot at it.
“That’s its core. We need to destroy that.” Shadara fired more arrows. “How can you see inside that thing?”
My bullets glanced off the sphere but kept ripping more chunks of it off. This thing isn’t all that threatening to us. We can easily keep out of its reach and shoot it until it’s dead. Or at least, I can.
Shadara’s arrows flew at a surprising speed, but they only seemed to be consumed by the encroaching black mass. Each shot only seemed to frustrate her more, causing her to shoot faster and harder. I emptied the last shots in my gun and saw my mana bar was nearly empty.
The ooze only made it halfway towards us as I drank a mana potion and scooped up some dirt to fill the chambers in my gun. It was also only half its original size. I fired a few more shots at the core, and one hit the red sphere, causing the whole writhing mass to bubble up and disperse for the briefest moment.
“Do that again,” Shadara said as she pulled back another arrow.
I could hear the bow groan in protest at how hard she drew it. Carefully aiming, I shot the core again. The same thing happened, but before it could pull itself back together, Shadara’s arrow stabbed into the red sphere and split it like a coconut. There was even a steaming red liquid pouring from the destroyed core. But the ooze stopped moving and spread out, slowly being absorbed by the dirt of the tunnel.
“Don’t touch that.” Shadara pointed at the broken sphere and black puddle. “I imagine the acid is still pretty potent, and that liquid is solidified mana. Probably a lethal amount too.”
I stared at the sphere. “Shoot!” Shadara jumped at my sudden exclamation. “Sorry, I’m supposed to be trying to focus on the feeling of mana when I shoot my gun so I can learn magic.”
“Let me guess, you never paid attention.” The panther woman grinned.
I frowned. “Yeah.”
“You’ll have a chance later.” She patted my shoulder. “That thing, as easy as it was, was worth quite a bit.”
“It looked like a slime, but why did it look like it was going to attack us?” I glanced at the puddle, which was mostly dispersed.
Shadara shook her head. “That was an ooze, not a slime. Yes, there’s a difference. Slimes can obtain sapience, while oozes can’t. An ooze is more like a golem that is made of some dangerous liquid, frequently acid, held together by magic.” She pointed to the core. “Destroying their core or removing it from the collected liquid are the only two ways to stop it.”
“And if it is made of acid, removing it is way too dangerous.” I nodded.
“Exactly.”
I hopped over the last remnants of the ooze and returned to the room. “Well, there was a locked box in there. And that thing came out of the one closed safe.”
The panther woman’s eyes went wide. “Oh, a chest!” she squealed.
She bolted into the room. I lazily kept up with her and watched as she kneeled in front of the metal box.
“Are you sure we should be opening it?” I pointed at the lock. “Isn’t that stealing?”
“Pft. Nonsense.” She waved her hand dismissively. “This is loot created by the Nexus as a reward for exploring the dungeon.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Uh, nobody told me about them before. And the dungeons I have been in didn’t have any.”
“That’s because they are on the rare side.” She grabbed the padlock and pulled it tight, then pointed to a spot above the keyhole. “Shoot your gun here. It should be able to break it.”
I looked at the chest. “This still doesn’t feel right. It feels like we’re stealing.”
Shadara’s shoulders slumped as she stood up. “Really? Weren’t you a thief in your world before you died? What gives?”
“I won’t steal again,” I said as I took a step back. “I did what I did out of necessity. This isn’t a necessity.”
My friend frowned and then pointed to the chest. “We need shards. What’s in that chest is worth shards. We need more powerful weapons and armor, or magical items. One of those could be in that chest. This is a necessity if we want the best chance to stay alive.”
I scowled. She’s not completely wrong. I looked down at my gun. With a flip, I extended the handle to her. “Then you do it. I can’t bring myself to do it.”
“Everyone has something they won’t do.” She took it, and without hesitating, she fired at the lock.
There was a loud bang and a lot of ringing that forced me to cover my ears. When the dust settled, I thought I saw the chest move. That’s not possible. The gun isn’t that powerful.
Shadara extended the gun back to me. “Wow, that thing has some serious mana drain. Your arcane stat must be close to two hundred.”
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“It’s one-fifty.” I filled the chambers with spit before putting it away.
Shadara raised an eyebrow as she watched me. “Does that thing really work with spit?”
I nodded. “It’ll work with anything I can fit in there. Dirt, spit, rocks, small bits of leather, probably blood too, if necessary.”
“Huh.” She shrugged before turning back to the chest. “Nice magic weapon.”
“You wouldn’t survive what I went through to get it.” I absentmindedly rubbed my arm blade.
The panther woman only nodded as she removed the padlock. She opened it, and inside was a small glowing orb, metal coins, and a headband. Shadara’s tongue lulled out as she reached for the coins. But as she reached, sharp white triangles started protruding from the edge around the lid.
I ran over, grabbed her, and pulled her away. I put too much effort into my actions. As Shadara flew backwards, she carried me with her, and the lid slammed down like a pair of jaws.
“What the…” Shadara tumbled backwards but rolled with it to her feet.
My heart raced as I scrambled to regain my footing, my eyes fixed on the chest. The lid remained shut as the orb continued to emit its glow through the teeth that weren’t there before. Shadara dusted herself off; her eyes narrowed with caution as she eyed the chest warily.
“That was close,” I muttered.
“Did that chest just try to eat me?” Shadara pointed at the chest while giving me a sideways glance. “I’ll admit, that’s a new one for me.”
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, just startled.” Shadara’s eyes darted between the chest and me. “So what now? Do we just leave it? Or…”
She paused as the chest started breathing and shifting.
“Did we just stumble upon a mimic?” Shadara raised an eyebrow, her feline eyes narrowing in suspicion.
“A what?” I frowned, keeping a safe distance from the mimic’s snapping lid.
As if responding to my question, the lid opened up, and out came a long pink tentacle. Both of us ducked under its attempt to grab us. The chest bounced as it turned to follow our movement.
Shadara extended her bow, readying an arrow. “I don’t know how to fight a mimic. I’ve only heard about them in stories.”
I pulled out my gun from its pocket. “That thing has a tongue?”
No, stop panicking. It’s just another monster.
The mimic lunged forward, lid snapping ferociously. Shadara unleashed an arrow, aiming for the mimic’s center. The arrow struck the lid just as it snapped shut, but instead of piercing it, the arrow bounced off harmlessly, as if she had struck solid metal.
“Great, my arrows aren’t enough here too.” Shadara gritted her teeth.
The mimic’s tongue lashed out again. As it whipped from side to side, I ducked under it, and Shadara tumbled to the side. She twisted and fired another arrow towards the base of the tongue. The mimic bounced, and the arrow hit the metal base. I fired a shot at the thing.
My bullet pierced through the metal and opened a small hole where blue blood seeped. The mimic’s body slid backwards as the tongue recoiled, and the thing went frighteningly still.
“Did I get it?” I looked at the corner of my HUD and saw that I didn’t receive any stats or shards.
Suddenly, the chest leaped into the air and towards me. I stepped to the side as it snapped its vicious teeth. When it kept snapping and lunging once more, I backpedaled easily, keeping out of its reach. Another shot from my gun opened another hole in the creature. Despite its injuries, the mimic’s movements were surprisingly agile.
Shadara growled as she shot at the inside any time it opened its maw. But each time, the creature would always close its mouth just in time. After firing a third shot, the mimic’s movements exploded into a ravenous fury when more blood poured out. But as I kept my distance, I noticed it was leading me into a corner.
It made a rather desperate lunge towards me. It came up short, but it forced me into a corner. Seizing the opportunity, I pushed off the wall with the full effort of my legs. Everything lurched forward as I went up and over the mimic. But something caught my leg and stopped me mid-jump. The mimic’s tongue, wrapped around my leg, slammed me to the ground.
My vision flashed white as my head struck the stone floor. I tried to roll over and gather my barrings, but the mimic decided I wasn’t tenderized enough. It slid me across the rough ground and slammed me into a wall.
Dizzy and seeing blood pouring into my eyes, I felt my nanites working on healing an injury on the back of my skull and a cut above my eyebrow. Before I could make sense of what was happening, the mimic started pulling me towards it. An arrow pierced its tongue, but that didn’t slow it down. My fingers desperately clawed at the ground to keep me away from that thing. But my metal fingers simply glided over the stone.
The mimic’s maw of vicious teeth opened up as it lifted my leg to devour it. Just as it brought down its jaw, it lurched forward, and its lid came down at an odd angle. Several of its teeth punctured my leg, compelling a yelp from me. When it opened its mouth again, I saw that one of the hinges was broken, with a hole through it.
I leaned forward, sliced the pink tongue with my arm blade, and yanked my leg away, opening a small cut on its bottom row of teeth. Shadara fired another shot and hit another hinge. A single hinge kept the top of the mimic’s chest from falling off completely. The creature shrieked as it shuffled away from me. It turned to face Shadara; it was hard to tell, but it seemed to be pleading as it whimpered.
Shadara dropped my gun, panting as she walked up to the thing. “No mercy for you.”
She grabbed the lid and put her foot on the base before pulling. The mimic let out an ear-piercing shriek as it fought against her. But as it lashed out with its tongue again, I dashed over and sliced it off as far as I could. With a heavy heave, Shadara yanked off the lid and threw it across the room.
The mimic wasn’t dead, but it was clearly in a lot of pain. As I looked inside, the coins weren’t there anymore, like they were replaced by the pink tongue that was bleeding profusely. I took my arm blade and stabbed it into the center. It writhed around, so I stabbed it again. And again and again until it stopped moving and shrieking. And I received five stat points and four thousand two hundred and twenty-one shards.
Blue blood from the mimic dripped from my arm blade as I felt the nanites finish healing my injuries. I pointed to the mimic’s corpse. “Well, was that exciting enough for you?”
Shadara’s face went from furious to calm, uncomfortably quick. “Okay, maybe it was a little too exciting.” She pointed at my gun on the floor near the center of the room. “That thing really takes it out of you.”
I shrugged as I went to pick it up. As I walked, I flicked my arm at a blindingly fast speed, cleaning most of the blood off. After I scooped up my gun and refilled the chambers, I saw Shadara holding both the headband and the glowing orb.
“So, a mana battery and a magic headband. Not bad.” She grinned as she studied the headband.
“How can you hold that thing?” I asked as I pointed to the mana battery.
Shadara looked at the orb then back to me. “Uh, because it’s safe?”
I snorted. “Not for me. Last time I touched one, I drained it of mana, and my hair turned white and grew to as long as you saw it.”
“Good to know.” Her eyes went wide as she shook off most of the mimic’s blood from the orb. “We’re still keeping it. It’ll make a good trade for shards later. Do you mind if we put it in your bag of holding?”
I shook my head. “Not at all.” I grabbed the bag and held it open for her to put it in. “So, what’s with the headband? You said it was magical. How do you know, and what does it do?”
Shadara placed the mana battery in the bag and put the headband in too. “No idea what it does, but I can feel the mana flowing around it. Until we can find someone who can identify it, it stays tucked away. Only an idiot uses random magical items they find without properly identifying them. They could be cursed.”
“Just like how chests can be dangerous too?” I nudged her with my elbow as she walked past me to the metal door, which I hadn’t recognized existed until that point.
“Yeah, yeah.” Shadara rolled her eyes. “Thanks for pulling me out of that again, by the way.”
I smiled. “What are friends for?”
“Now you’re getting it.” Sharara gave me a warm smile before opening the door into a stone hallway lit by tiny crystals. “It seems we’re done with dark tunnels now.”
As we headed further into the dungeon, I put my points in toughness and checked my status.
Name: Rina Lone Augments: Level: 22 Cellular Regeneration Synthetic muscle (arms) lvl. 1 Agility: 220 Synthetic eyes: lvl. 2 Arcane: 150 HUD Power: 65 Epidermal plating (arms) lvl. 1 Quickness: 405 Epidermal plating (hands) lvl. 1 Resilience: 125 Arm blade (right) Toughness: 150 Synthetic tendons (legs) lvl. 1 Unassigned Points: 0 Synthetic muscle (legs) lvl. 1 Shards: 13558 Synthetic tendons (arms) lvl. 1
The Soul Nexus really is trying to kill us at every opportunity. Hopefully, now that we know more of what we’re up against, we’ll be safe. Now, how can we figure out if something is a mimic before it attacks us?