Diary of a Traveling Mimic
First Regicide 1
The next morning Delilah was blushing instead of overheating, which probably meant the matter was handled. So Shiina focused on trying to figure out what Zanya was going to be teaching her fighting wise. She'd tried to get some info out of her yesterday while they were wandering around town, but the ophidian woman refused to go into details.
After breakfast she'd led them all to the guild's training ground. Set in the basement, it was way too bright. Magical lighting shown down pretty much everywhere from crystals hung from the ceiling. The nice stone was covered in sawdust as well, though Shiina supposed that made sense for people who could bleed. There were fighting circles, straw dummies, racks filled with wooden practice weapons and one of the longer walls was dedicated for practicing ranged attacks.
At least it was mostly quiet. A few groups were doing sword drills or archery practice in some rings, but there was plenty of room. It'd probably fill up after the morning dungeon runs. Shiina doubted the guild would pay for space that didn't get used.
Zanya sat down on one of the benches at the side, and Shiina plopped herself nearby. Delilah and Ife followed suit. "So, first we need to discuss how we fight as a group. Based on that last run, Delilah you should stay close to me or Ife. Shiina, you should stand between Ife and the attackers. Ife, you finally get to be a stationary caster."
Ife fanned herself. "At last, the position I was always destined to fulfill~"
That seemed off to Shiina. "Isn't it usually the rogues job to attack the weaker monsters? Kill the vulnerable ones while the warrior distracts the big monster?"
Zanya raised an eyebrow briefly, her slitted eyes considering the question. "Hm, perhaps you saw that in the books you read? That is the popular view in this land I guess. The reality is the fighter does their best to kill the most dangerous foe. The rogue is a mobile distraction. Dancing around avoiding attacks, but demanding attention because ignoring them invites a lethal blow.
"You meanwhile have no legs." Zanya pointed at her chest body. "You will not be dancing around."
Shiina stuck out a tongue. "I can move fast when I need to."
"It's not about fast, it's about quick precise positioning." Zanya tapped her on the head. "You're a mimic. We start with what you're good at and work from there. And what you're good at is being an immovable obstacle with a lot of dangerous abilities."
That did make a fair amount of sense to Shiina, so she swallowed her pride. "Okays. I'll do my best to learn."
"Right." Zanya stood up. "Let's turn to practical matters."
To Shiina's surprise Zanya led them to the shooting range first. "We'll start with Delilah's training because Ife can supervise." Zanya pulled out ten rocks that were a little bigger than Delilah's fist. "You need something to do in order to defend yourself and help when healing isn't needed. So you're going to learn how to throw rocks."
Delilah looked at the ammunition. "Shouldn't I be learning how to sling rocks?'
"And why rocks. Why not a crossbow?" Shiina asked. Ife's ears twitched curiously as well.
"We're starting with throwing because you aren't going to be good enough with a sling to properly use it for several months," Zanya said. "At the ranges most dungeon fights happen at, throwing will work almost as well."
She turned to Shiina and Ife. "And crossbows are slower, harder to maintain, much more expensive, and only shoot arrows. A sling can use all sorts of magical contraptions and gets much better enchantments. They do take more space, but she should be at the back of the fight."
Zanya wound up and then threw a stone that slammed into the center ring of the target with a heavy thud. "That's your starting goal. For today work on building strength and aim."
As Delilah took a deep breath and started sizing up the rocks, Zanya led Shiina to a sparring ring. The woman tossed off her cloak and grabbed a wooden spear from the weapons rack. Shiina moved to the center of the ring, while looking over the weapon. Spears were pretty dangerous to mimics like her. She could match the range, but not without putting her tendrils in danger.
"Shiina we're going to need to work on two things." Zanya took a practiced stance with the spear. "First your defense. Your mimic hardening is like my scales. A last resort so the hit hurts you less. Which is why we're going to learn proper defense. Get your shields out please."
With a thought she located where she'd put the buckler and shield and grabbed them. After a moment she added a third 'arm' and grabbed her knife too. "Like this?" she said, showing all the weapons.
A smile flitted across Zanya's face. "Yes actually. Very good. You might want to hide your extra arms until you need them, but this is fine for learning."
Shiina felt a little excited at Zanya's words. Not only was she getting praised, but Zanya had apparently thought about how Shiina could use her awesome mimic skills. This session was getting a lot more interesting. "Okay, so how do you use these shields?"
"The small buckler is designed to help parry strikes. When I thrust," she gave a weak stab that stopped short. "You bat it aside. Don't block it directly. It won't stand up to a strong attack."
After a moment Shiina slapped the spear aside with her buckler. That made some sense. It was safer to use the hard metal thing to smack sharp weapons then her knife or a bare tentacle. "And the big shield?"
"Could you hold it at an upwards angle?" Zanya asked. Shiina followed her instruction. This time her spear shot out, and the shield tendril rocked backwards into Shiina's head as the spear deflected up above her. "That is the best way to use a shield. Turn a direct hit into a grazing shot."
That was a little worrying Shiina though as she looked up at the wooden spear's tip. The spear point being over her head was better than it being in her head, but that still was a hard hit. She'd have to reinforce her arm.
Zanya continued. "However, this will be your backup defense. Armor doesn't really work for you, so the shield will work for that as well. Sacrifice it to keep sharp things out of your body."
Shiina considered the suggestion, then drew it back so the shield was sitting embedded in her front like a bit of heraldry. "So like this?"
That earned a raised eyebrow. "Not bad. Angle it down so the point hits the floor when it impacts."
She tried the alteration. It felt weird, but it was a good idea. She'd have to practice. "So what's the second thing?"
"Overriding your monster instincts," Zanya said. "When you got hurt you reverted to fighting like a mimic. That's not the worst thing. It's better than freezing up. But grabbing and biting someone is great for killing one person and bad when there's a group. As I'm sure Mali taught you."
That was a painful truth. Shiina knew very well that most mimics didn't last past their first adventurer encounter. They'd either get caught and blasted or kill a single person before getting torn to shreds. And now that Zanya pointed it out she had kinda flipped out when she'd been poked. "Uh, but how are we going to test that?'
"Simple." Zanya said, returning to a ready stance. "I'm going to try to hit you. At some point I'm going to succeed. Your goal is to keep fighting smart, and not lose your cool or your form."
"Oh." Shiina's enthusiasm slipped away and was quickly replaced by resigned dread. She prepared herself and asked the question she knew she had to. "When do we start?"
"Now."
Zanya's spear was already in motion. A lazy stab at her side. But Shiina managed to bend her arm and swing it fast enough to back the spear away with her buckler. "Hah!" She was a mimic! She knew about surprise.
She also knew about pain as the butt of the spear smacked into her body. Shiina glared at Zanya as the woman stepped back from the follow up strike. "Better, but you've still got work. Reach out and grab a practice knife so you can punish me if I step in like that."
As she did what Zanya asked she mollified herself with the fact that she'd kept from falling into mimic instincts at least. Hopefully the blocking would come quickly as well.
Obviously I can talk a lot about us mimics, and what we can mimic. There's probably an entire book there, because mimics are amazing. But I figure I'll start small. So : Basic Facts About Mimicry!
First, it's mimicry, not transformation. We can't turn into metal or fur or wood. We just alter our outsides to be hard and shiny, or soft and fluffy, or tough and grainy. While any proper mimic tries to get all the features in, it's not easy. So we prioritize appearance. I have a hard time being firm and soft at the same time, so usually I default to firm. But you'll never know until you touch me.
Second, we don't follow humanoid biology. All your bones and muscles and stuff get in the way. Not a problem for us! We can bend any amount, unfuse and refuse, and stretch long distances! That's how I get my wheels working when I'm a wagon. However the smaller the area the less force we can use, so I have to push myself.... You can use that to catch younger mimics, since they need big chest hinges to get bite power. Older ones like me learn to refuse right before we slam down on something. (Please try diplomacy with young mimics if you do catch them.)
Third, the more things we control the harder it gets. I'm really proud of being able to mimic fingers for example, because ten independent digits are really hard to handle at the same time. Apparently when I'm really focused on that, my other features tend to lock up a bit. For combat three or four tendrils are the best the average mimic can manage at the same time.
After breakfast she'd led them all to the guild's training ground. Set in the basement, it was way too bright. Magical lighting shown down pretty much everywhere from crystals hung from the ceiling. The nice stone was covered in sawdust as well, though Shiina supposed that made sense for people who could bleed. There were fighting circles, straw dummies, racks filled with wooden practice weapons and one of the longer walls was dedicated for practicing ranged attacks.
At least it was mostly quiet. A few groups were doing sword drills or archery practice in some rings, but there was plenty of room. It'd probably fill up after the morning dungeon runs. Shiina doubted the guild would pay for space that didn't get used.
Zanya sat down on one of the benches at the side, and Shiina plopped herself nearby. Delilah and Ife followed suit. "So, first we need to discuss how we fight as a group. Based on that last run, Delilah you should stay close to me or Ife. Shiina, you should stand between Ife and the attackers. Ife, you finally get to be a stationary caster."
Ife fanned herself. "At last, the position I was always destined to fulfill~"
That seemed off to Shiina. "Isn't it usually the rogues job to attack the weaker monsters? Kill the vulnerable ones while the warrior distracts the big monster?"
Zanya raised an eyebrow briefly, her slitted eyes considering the question. "Hm, perhaps you saw that in the books you read? That is the popular view in this land I guess. The reality is the fighter does their best to kill the most dangerous foe. The rogue is a mobile distraction. Dancing around avoiding attacks, but demanding attention because ignoring them invites a lethal blow.
"You meanwhile have no legs." Zanya pointed at her chest body. "You will not be dancing around."
Shiina stuck out a tongue. "I can move fast when I need to."
"It's not about fast, it's about quick precise positioning." Zanya tapped her on the head. "You're a mimic. We start with what you're good at and work from there. And what you're good at is being an immovable obstacle with a lot of dangerous abilities."
That did make a fair amount of sense to Shiina, so she swallowed her pride. "Okays. I'll do my best to learn."
"Right." Zanya stood up. "Let's turn to practical matters."
To Shiina's surprise Zanya led them to the shooting range first. "We'll start with Delilah's training because Ife can supervise." Zanya pulled out ten rocks that were a little bigger than Delilah's fist. "You need something to do in order to defend yourself and help when healing isn't needed. So you're going to learn how to throw rocks."
Delilah looked at the ammunition. "Shouldn't I be learning how to sling rocks?'
"And why rocks. Why not a crossbow?" Shiina asked. Ife's ears twitched curiously as well.
"We're starting with throwing because you aren't going to be good enough with a sling to properly use it for several months," Zanya said. "At the ranges most dungeon fights happen at, throwing will work almost as well."
She turned to Shiina and Ife. "And crossbows are slower, harder to maintain, much more expensive, and only shoot arrows. A sling can use all sorts of magical contraptions and gets much better enchantments. They do take more space, but she should be at the back of the fight."
Zanya wound up and then threw a stone that slammed into the center ring of the target with a heavy thud. "That's your starting goal. For today work on building strength and aim."
As Delilah took a deep breath and started sizing up the rocks, Zanya led Shiina to a sparring ring. The woman tossed off her cloak and grabbed a wooden spear from the weapons rack. Shiina moved to the center of the ring, while looking over the weapon. Spears were pretty dangerous to mimics like her. She could match the range, but not without putting her tendrils in danger.
"Shiina we're going to need to work on two things." Zanya took a practiced stance with the spear. "First your defense. Your mimic hardening is like my scales. A last resort so the hit hurts you less. Which is why we're going to learn proper defense. Get your shields out please."
With a thought she located where she'd put the buckler and shield and grabbed them. After a moment she added a third 'arm' and grabbed her knife too. "Like this?" she said, showing all the weapons.
A smile flitted across Zanya's face. "Yes actually. Very good. You might want to hide your extra arms until you need them, but this is fine for learning."
Shiina felt a little excited at Zanya's words. Not only was she getting praised, but Zanya had apparently thought about how Shiina could use her awesome mimic skills. This session was getting a lot more interesting. "Okay, so how do you use these shields?"
"The small buckler is designed to help parry strikes. When I thrust," she gave a weak stab that stopped short. "You bat it aside. Don't block it directly. It won't stand up to a strong attack."
After a moment Shiina slapped the spear aside with her buckler. That made some sense. It was safer to use the hard metal thing to smack sharp weapons then her knife or a bare tentacle. "And the big shield?"
"Could you hold it at an upwards angle?" Zanya asked. Shiina followed her instruction. This time her spear shot out, and the shield tendril rocked backwards into Shiina's head as the spear deflected up above her. "That is the best way to use a shield. Turn a direct hit into a grazing shot."
That was a little worrying Shiina though as she looked up at the wooden spear's tip. The spear point being over her head was better than it being in her head, but that still was a hard hit. She'd have to reinforce her arm.
Zanya continued. "However, this will be your backup defense. Armor doesn't really work for you, so the shield will work for that as well. Sacrifice it to keep sharp things out of your body."
Shiina considered the suggestion, then drew it back so the shield was sitting embedded in her front like a bit of heraldry. "So like this?"
That earned a raised eyebrow. "Not bad. Angle it down so the point hits the floor when it impacts."
She tried the alteration. It felt weird, but it was a good idea. She'd have to practice. "So what's the second thing?"
"Overriding your monster instincts," Zanya said. "When you got hurt you reverted to fighting like a mimic. That's not the worst thing. It's better than freezing up. But grabbing and biting someone is great for killing one person and bad when there's a group. As I'm sure Mali taught you."
That was a painful truth. Shiina knew very well that most mimics didn't last past their first adventurer encounter. They'd either get caught and blasted or kill a single person before getting torn to shreds. And now that Zanya pointed it out she had kinda flipped out when she'd been poked. "Uh, but how are we going to test that?'
"Simple." Zanya said, returning to a ready stance. "I'm going to try to hit you. At some point I'm going to succeed. Your goal is to keep fighting smart, and not lose your cool or your form."
"Oh." Shiina's enthusiasm slipped away and was quickly replaced by resigned dread. She prepared herself and asked the question she knew she had to. "When do we start?"
"Now."
Zanya's spear was already in motion. A lazy stab at her side. But Shiina managed to bend her arm and swing it fast enough to back the spear away with her buckler. "Hah!" She was a mimic! She knew about surprise.
She also knew about pain as the butt of the spear smacked into her body. Shiina glared at Zanya as the woman stepped back from the follow up strike. "Better, but you've still got work. Reach out and grab a practice knife so you can punish me if I step in like that."
As she did what Zanya asked she mollified herself with the fact that she'd kept from falling into mimic instincts at least. Hopefully the blocking would come quickly as well.
Obviously I can talk a lot about us mimics, and what we can mimic. There's probably an entire book there, because mimics are amazing. But I figure I'll start small. So : Basic Facts About Mimicry!
First, it's mimicry, not transformation. We can't turn into metal or fur or wood. We just alter our outsides to be hard and shiny, or soft and fluffy, or tough and grainy. While any proper mimic tries to get all the features in, it's not easy. So we prioritize appearance. I have a hard time being firm and soft at the same time, so usually I default to firm. But you'll never know until you touch me.
Second, we don't follow humanoid biology. All your bones and muscles and stuff get in the way. Not a problem for us! We can bend any amount, unfuse and refuse, and stretch long distances! That's how I get my wheels working when I'm a wagon. However the smaller the area the less force we can use, so I have to push myself.... You can use that to catch younger mimics, since they need big chest hinges to get bite power. Older ones like me learn to refuse right before we slam down on something. (Please try diplomacy with young mimics if you do catch them.)
Third, the more things we control the harder it gets. I'm really proud of being able to mimic fingers for example, because ten independent digits are really hard to handle at the same time. Apparently when I'm really focused on that, my other features tend to lock up a bit. For combat three or four tendrils are the best the average mimic can manage at the same time.
This is a very interesting little story with a lot of small details I would love to see in more stories.
I am not the biggest fan of Litrpg but making it so the stats are not well defined or easy to see is great if it is going to be one of those. Too many that then get lost in the trap of *numbers go up* and forget to make a story instead of a spreadsheet.
The story being about someone that works mostly outside this level and stat system thanks to assassination is another great way to avoid this and allow the story to be fresh.
Making the story about a dungeon monster isn't new… but making it so intelligent monsters are a known and non controversial part of society is and is far better IMO to all those stories that try to make their protagonists super duper special by being the only intelligent monster or something along those lines. As does all mimics having assassination.
Finally, I am a fan of non human perspective being treated as actually having a different way of thinking from humans, and your protagonist does have that.
Good work, happy to wait for more.
I am not the biggest fan of Litrpg but making it so the stats are not well defined or easy to see is great if it is going to be one of those. Too many that then get lost in the trap of *numbers go up* and forget to make a story instead of a spreadsheet.
The story being about someone that works mostly outside this level and stat system thanks to assassination is another great way to avoid this and allow the story to be fresh.
Making the story about a dungeon monster isn't new… but making it so intelligent monsters are a known and non controversial part of society is and is far better IMO to all those stories that try to make their protagonists super duper special by being the only intelligent monster or something along those lines. As does all mimics having assassination.
Finally, I am a fan of non human perspective being treated as actually having a different way of thinking from humans, and your protagonist does have that.
Good work, happy to wait for more.
First Regicide 2
The inn room was a nice reprieve from the bright lights of the training grounds. Shiina had enough new sensations to deal with. Apparently pain could linger, which was absolute bullshit in her mind. She didn't even HAVE the parts that Zanya had hit anymore but there was a general feeling of pain lingering no matter how much Delilah had healed.
At least Zanya had needed healing too. Shinna had given the woman a few nice bruises with the practice knife. Sure the warrior had been going easy on her, but any success was good.
Delilah seemed similarly sore from all the throwing. Shiina had a sneaking suspicion she'd have to learn that too. At least she could experiment with good ways to toss things. Following humanoid examples seemed like a losing game. Especially with their weird eyesight.
That left Ife as the only person who wasn't hurting. And she was somehow being smug about it without actually acting smug. Shiina was starting to suspect she was a secret princess or something. She was too good at it.
The fox woman waited until everyone else had found a place to start resting before pulling out a thick envelope from under the bed. "It seems our agents have delivered the information we need."
Shiina forced herself to slide closer to take a look. The arbiter duo had explained that local agents usually did most of the spying, setup, and cleanup work for assassinations. They would only need to handle the killing. Of course that was the hard part, but having someone else do most of the legwork would help both groups avoid suspicion.
Ife carefully pulled out the documents and spread them out. "Ah 'wonderful.' This is going to be another runic extraction mission." She showed the platinum orb to the group before handing it to Zanya. "I imagined it would be, but I had hoped otherwise."
Shiina took a long look at the item as Ife handed it over. It looked kinda like a trap, except the runes were quite different, and there were no fake lines. "So that was made by an archmage?" She could tell it was intricate, but it didn't feel that powerful.
"Level forty five minimum," Ife replied. "As soon as it hits the ground we all get teleported away, the arbiter symbol is burned into the ground, and that wizard will be the only person who shows up on any divination spells for the killing." She chuckled. "And since they're probably somewhere on the other side of the world that should be the end of matters."
"It's amazing they'd be willing to spend the time to create magic items for something like this," Delilah said, her eyes flickering over every little spell rune.
Ife's tail twitched. "They probably only do the enchanting. Have an apprentice spend a few weeks making it then spend two minutes to charge it up and ship it to the Arbiter's headquarters. It's their contribution to keep uncontrolled dungeons from bothering their research."
"Where will we be targeting it?" Delilah asked quietly as she sat up.
"Here," Zanya replied. "It'll be easier to clean up the mess, and we can just blame heavy drinking if Shiina's vomit eats through the floorboards."
Shiina sniffed. "Throwing up is a problem for people who keep their stomachs around when they're not using them." She was not looking forward to the disorientation that apparently accompanied it, but she was pretty sure her biology wouldn't react that violently.
"So that's our way out," Ife spread out a map of the castle. "And this is our target. The King's bedchambers." She tapped the room that had been circled. "Now to figure out how to approach."
The map was honestly kinda confusing. There were different floors and then the outside areas, and so many doors and paths, all with names that were probably super important to humans. But Shiina was used to dungeons, where monster population was random.
Delilah pointed at a section. "Is this a secret passage? If we can get through the traps that would be a good entrance point wouldn't it?"
"Ooh." A secret passage sounded like a good idea to Shiina. It'd be nice and shadowy, and they'd be able to surprise people on the other side!
Zanya shook her head. "A good idea, but it'll put us out on the bottom floor. Even if we get past all the alarms we'll need to kill guards along the way. No chance we will avoid being spotted."
That was too bad. Shiina had hoped for some proper underground infiltration. Well if that was off the table they'd have to try something else.
She peered at the map again, but the thing just wouldn't process properly in her brain. After a bit she decided to try retreating to novels. "How about the roof? It's closer to the King's chambers and I bet there aren't any guards up there."
Ife grinned. "An interesting idea. But how do you plan to get up there without being noticed? We can't climb up without drawing some attention."
Shiina got the feeling this was a test or something, so she considered it. "Uh, I can quickly get up there if it's only around fifteen feet. And I can bring one of you. Maybe I can drop a rope down after?"
"A rope would be too slow," Zanya said. "But that won't be needed. I can make a similar jump while carrying someone. That means we need to find a way to get up in fifteen foot sections. Or about one story each. Think you can pick one out?"
A pang of despair hit Shiina as she focused again on the map. She tried sticking to the edges, but she had no idea which areas might be guarded. And what windows people might be looking out of. Eventually she gave up. "Um... Help?"
"Maybe here?" Delilah rushed to her rescue. The half elf pointed at a lighthouse near the seaside wall. "We can use the lighthouse stairs to get up here, then move to the wall. After that we can get to this lower part of the roof and from there to the section that will lead to the King's balcony." Her finger traced the path over the map, the leaps making Shiina's brain spin, but the other two were nodding along.
"Not a bad plan for a beginner," Zanya said. "Now tell me why it won't work."
Shiina and Delilah looked at each other. There was nothing in the map that would explain that. Delilah started looking over the documents while Shiina turned to her limited experience. Hopping on the roof worked in all the stories. Most humanoids were bad at looking up, and they didn't want guards wandering around their roofs making noise at night just in case an assassin might one day show up.
After a moment though the obvious answer hit her. "They've read all the stories too haven't they. There's a trap or alarm on the roof. Something magic."
"Indeed. Almost certainly an alarm," Ife said with a nod. She tapped her ornate necklace. "I've enhanced my gear so that I can see those alarms from a distance. But if we're jumping up to the roof there's no way we can disarm it before triggering it. So the roof is no good."
Shiina sighed and looked back at the increasingly annoying map. "So what should we do?"
"It's a good starting point," Zanya said, patting her on the back. "We just need to change things here. Instead of going to the roof, we use the attic window. That gets us into an underused area of the castle close to our target."
"That's good, but won't they also have alarms on the windows and balconies?" Shiina asked. It seemed like if you were worried about assassins that would be the best thing to do.
"Some of the windows, yes," Ife replied as she leaned on her knee. "I'm sure the king has quite the array of defenses, all attuned to him and his family. But the common areas won't be as well warded. The attic for example needs to be cleaned out regularly, which means wards and alarms on the windows aren't worth the expense and maintenance."
Zanya tapped on the balcony. "Meanwhile this part of the castle doesn't have many good lines of sight to it. Great for avoiding someone shooting your king with an arrow, bad for noticing skilled mimics disabling the magical defenses while being supported from the attic." The woman's slitted eyes turned to her. "You can do that, right Shiina?"
"Uh, I've never actually disabled an alarm before, but all the materials say it's a lot easier than disabling a trap," Shiina replied. "So I guess I'll be okay?"
"I'll see about giving you practice," Ife said, waving it off. "After that we cut a hole in the glass doors and shoot King Zyber the fifth until he's dead."
Delilah looked between them all. "Will it be that easy?"
"No," both the veterans replied. That was too bad in Shiina's mind. She was hoping for easy.
Zanya picked up the scout reports. "There will be unforeseen issues, people out of place, and just general problems. We'll have to deal with them as we encounter them. Remember we won't have our luck helping out. Maybe if Shiina went solo she'd be able to get past most of that. But then she'd almost certainly run into something she couldn't get past alone."
Delilah ran her hands through her hair. "So what's our backup plan?"
"First we try to handle things quietly and non lethally," Ife replied. "Be civil and polite and pretend we belong. If that fails, kill everyone who tries to stop us and charge the target."
Shiina gave a weak laugh. It was admittedly a very mimic-like plan. Stealth into overwhelming violence. But given her race's survival time was 'one dungeon run' it was a little worrying. Still she didn't have anything better.
"But before that, let's do some money earning missions and get Delilah's new staff," Zanya said. "We'll scout the lighthouse after that."
I imagine some people are wondering how healing magic works on both humanoids and mimics. The answer is simple! Healing magic isn't actually a thing. Standard "healing magic" is actually three different types of spells, depending on what needs to be done.
Look, Mali made me read a whole book on this for the adventurer test and it wasn't even on the quiz. So you have to suffer too.
The most basic healing is a spell to close wounds rapidly. Seal the damaged area so blood doesn't pour out. More advanced spells improve the wound closing, and do other useful things like 'remove foreign objects' and 'put bones back in place.' That's all kinda useless for me, but very important for humans.
The followup spell is throwing magic into the body's natural recovery process in order to fix all the messed up stuff. The body's natural recovery goes into overdrive and finishes the repairs. That's what works on us mimics. We don't need the sealing, but the fixing spell does just fine. It's also why healing can't work after five to ten minutes after the heart stops. There's no natural recovery to help.
Lastly are poison cures. Sending the body into overdrive can actually be bad against poisons. So instead the usual method is to find something that neutralizes the poison then use magic to target the toxins inside the person to stop the damage. After that you can give the body energy to recover.
Obviously it gets more complex after that. I hear diseases are a real problem. But those are the basics of healing.
At least Zanya had needed healing too. Shinna had given the woman a few nice bruises with the practice knife. Sure the warrior had been going easy on her, but any success was good.
Delilah seemed similarly sore from all the throwing. Shiina had a sneaking suspicion she'd have to learn that too. At least she could experiment with good ways to toss things. Following humanoid examples seemed like a losing game. Especially with their weird eyesight.
That left Ife as the only person who wasn't hurting. And she was somehow being smug about it without actually acting smug. Shiina was starting to suspect she was a secret princess or something. She was too good at it.
The fox woman waited until everyone else had found a place to start resting before pulling out a thick envelope from under the bed. "It seems our agents have delivered the information we need."
Shiina forced herself to slide closer to take a look. The arbiter duo had explained that local agents usually did most of the spying, setup, and cleanup work for assassinations. They would only need to handle the killing. Of course that was the hard part, but having someone else do most of the legwork would help both groups avoid suspicion.
Ife carefully pulled out the documents and spread them out. "Ah 'wonderful.' This is going to be another runic extraction mission." She showed the platinum orb to the group before handing it to Zanya. "I imagined it would be, but I had hoped otherwise."
Shiina took a long look at the item as Ife handed it over. It looked kinda like a trap, except the runes were quite different, and there were no fake lines. "So that was made by an archmage?" She could tell it was intricate, but it didn't feel that powerful.
"Level forty five minimum," Ife replied. "As soon as it hits the ground we all get teleported away, the arbiter symbol is burned into the ground, and that wizard will be the only person who shows up on any divination spells for the killing." She chuckled. "And since they're probably somewhere on the other side of the world that should be the end of matters."
"It's amazing they'd be willing to spend the time to create magic items for something like this," Delilah said, her eyes flickering over every little spell rune.
Ife's tail twitched. "They probably only do the enchanting. Have an apprentice spend a few weeks making it then spend two minutes to charge it up and ship it to the Arbiter's headquarters. It's their contribution to keep uncontrolled dungeons from bothering their research."
"Where will we be targeting it?" Delilah asked quietly as she sat up.
"Here," Zanya replied. "It'll be easier to clean up the mess, and we can just blame heavy drinking if Shiina's vomit eats through the floorboards."
Shiina sniffed. "Throwing up is a problem for people who keep their stomachs around when they're not using them." She was not looking forward to the disorientation that apparently accompanied it, but she was pretty sure her biology wouldn't react that violently.
"So that's our way out," Ife spread out a map of the castle. "And this is our target. The King's bedchambers." She tapped the room that had been circled. "Now to figure out how to approach."
The map was honestly kinda confusing. There were different floors and then the outside areas, and so many doors and paths, all with names that were probably super important to humans. But Shiina was used to dungeons, where monster population was random.
Delilah pointed at a section. "Is this a secret passage? If we can get through the traps that would be a good entrance point wouldn't it?"
"Ooh." A secret passage sounded like a good idea to Shiina. It'd be nice and shadowy, and they'd be able to surprise people on the other side!
Zanya shook her head. "A good idea, but it'll put us out on the bottom floor. Even if we get past all the alarms we'll need to kill guards along the way. No chance we will avoid being spotted."
That was too bad. Shiina had hoped for some proper underground infiltration. Well if that was off the table they'd have to try something else.
She peered at the map again, but the thing just wouldn't process properly in her brain. After a bit she decided to try retreating to novels. "How about the roof? It's closer to the King's chambers and I bet there aren't any guards up there."
Ife grinned. "An interesting idea. But how do you plan to get up there without being noticed? We can't climb up without drawing some attention."
Shiina got the feeling this was a test or something, so she considered it. "Uh, I can quickly get up there if it's only around fifteen feet. And I can bring one of you. Maybe I can drop a rope down after?"
"A rope would be too slow," Zanya said. "But that won't be needed. I can make a similar jump while carrying someone. That means we need to find a way to get up in fifteen foot sections. Or about one story each. Think you can pick one out?"
A pang of despair hit Shiina as she focused again on the map. She tried sticking to the edges, but she had no idea which areas might be guarded. And what windows people might be looking out of. Eventually she gave up. "Um... Help?"
"Maybe here?" Delilah rushed to her rescue. The half elf pointed at a lighthouse near the seaside wall. "We can use the lighthouse stairs to get up here, then move to the wall. After that we can get to this lower part of the roof and from there to the section that will lead to the King's balcony." Her finger traced the path over the map, the leaps making Shiina's brain spin, but the other two were nodding along.
"Not a bad plan for a beginner," Zanya said. "Now tell me why it won't work."
Shiina and Delilah looked at each other. There was nothing in the map that would explain that. Delilah started looking over the documents while Shiina turned to her limited experience. Hopping on the roof worked in all the stories. Most humanoids were bad at looking up, and they didn't want guards wandering around their roofs making noise at night just in case an assassin might one day show up.
After a moment though the obvious answer hit her. "They've read all the stories too haven't they. There's a trap or alarm on the roof. Something magic."
"Indeed. Almost certainly an alarm," Ife said with a nod. She tapped her ornate necklace. "I've enhanced my gear so that I can see those alarms from a distance. But if we're jumping up to the roof there's no way we can disarm it before triggering it. So the roof is no good."
Shiina sighed and looked back at the increasingly annoying map. "So what should we do?"
"It's a good starting point," Zanya said, patting her on the back. "We just need to change things here. Instead of going to the roof, we use the attic window. That gets us into an underused area of the castle close to our target."
"That's good, but won't they also have alarms on the windows and balconies?" Shiina asked. It seemed like if you were worried about assassins that would be the best thing to do.
"Some of the windows, yes," Ife replied as she leaned on her knee. "I'm sure the king has quite the array of defenses, all attuned to him and his family. But the common areas won't be as well warded. The attic for example needs to be cleaned out regularly, which means wards and alarms on the windows aren't worth the expense and maintenance."
Zanya tapped on the balcony. "Meanwhile this part of the castle doesn't have many good lines of sight to it. Great for avoiding someone shooting your king with an arrow, bad for noticing skilled mimics disabling the magical defenses while being supported from the attic." The woman's slitted eyes turned to her. "You can do that, right Shiina?"
"Uh, I've never actually disabled an alarm before, but all the materials say it's a lot easier than disabling a trap," Shiina replied. "So I guess I'll be okay?"
"I'll see about giving you practice," Ife said, waving it off. "After that we cut a hole in the glass doors and shoot King Zyber the fifth until he's dead."
Delilah looked between them all. "Will it be that easy?"
"No," both the veterans replied. That was too bad in Shiina's mind. She was hoping for easy.
Zanya picked up the scout reports. "There will be unforeseen issues, people out of place, and just general problems. We'll have to deal with them as we encounter them. Remember we won't have our luck helping out. Maybe if Shiina went solo she'd be able to get past most of that. But then she'd almost certainly run into something she couldn't get past alone."
Delilah ran her hands through her hair. "So what's our backup plan?"
"First we try to handle things quietly and non lethally," Ife replied. "Be civil and polite and pretend we belong. If that fails, kill everyone who tries to stop us and charge the target."
Shiina gave a weak laugh. It was admittedly a very mimic-like plan. Stealth into overwhelming violence. But given her race's survival time was 'one dungeon run' it was a little worrying. Still she didn't have anything better.
"But before that, let's do some money earning missions and get Delilah's new staff," Zanya said. "We'll scout the lighthouse after that."
I imagine some people are wondering how healing magic works on both humanoids and mimics. The answer is simple! Healing magic isn't actually a thing. Standard "healing magic" is actually three different types of spells, depending on what needs to be done.
Look, Mali made me read a whole book on this for the adventurer test and it wasn't even on the quiz. So you have to suffer too.
The most basic healing is a spell to close wounds rapidly. Seal the damaged area so blood doesn't pour out. More advanced spells improve the wound closing, and do other useful things like 'remove foreign objects' and 'put bones back in place.' That's all kinda useless for me, but very important for humans.
The followup spell is throwing magic into the body's natural recovery process in order to fix all the messed up stuff. The body's natural recovery goes into overdrive and finishes the repairs. That's what works on us mimics. We don't need the sealing, but the fixing spell does just fine. It's also why healing can't work after five to ten minutes after the heart stops. There's no natural recovery to help.
Lastly are poison cures. Sending the body into overdrive can actually be bad against poisons. So instead the usual method is to find something that neutralizes the poison then use magic to target the toxins inside the person to stop the damage. After that you can give the body energy to recover.
Obviously it gets more complex after that. I hear diseases are a real problem. But those are the basics of healing.
Thanks again to everyone reading. As a couple of asides : First I am also on Royal Road so if you have an urge to throw a long form critique at me (or just smash stars on my face) that's an option.
Second : A bonus a pic from my friend Stuffman after learning of Shiina's fight with that site's rules on women's attire : Ethereal Lurker
Second : A bonus a pic from my friend Stuffman after learning of Shiina's fight with that site's rules on women's attire : Ethereal Lurker
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Very nice indeed! Looking forwards to seeing our favorite Arbiters at work. One small thing: The two most recent threadmarks are both named "First Regicide 1", and either this one needs to be renamed to First Regicide 2 or the previous one needs to be renamed to Gaius 8, depending on what you consider the dividing line between the arcs.
Which is actually an incredibly effective way to do infiltration, by the way.
Walk with certainty, act like you belong, and most people won't give you a second glance.
Edit:
Wait a minute….
*recheck your name, goes to the royal road page to make absolutely sure*
You're the author of soul merger! Loved that work!
In particular, I am quite happy to see they I can expect this story to actually have a conclusion, that is so, so are in fics.
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Yep! And glad to hear it. Yeah this is the work I hinted at in the post mortem.
I should warn that I'm not planning on the same explosive climactic end here. Instead I'm plotting it out in arcs. That way I can deliver story chunks after proper consideration instead of on a soul killing deadline. Of course things can change here and there. And I do plan on tying things off properly when I hit the end of my good ideas.
First Regicide 3
Four days later Shiina found herself staring at an hourglass in their room at the inn. The staff had been finished, the cleanup runs had been boring if profitable. And now they were planning on committing regicide.
Apparently the best time to go murder someone who lived in a castle was a few hours after midnight. Late enough that even the people who worked long hours would be going to bed, but before the people who needed to start working early would rise.
And since Shiina didn't need to sleep, she was the one who got to keep watch on the hourglass to know when to start moving while the humanoids rested. Not that Delilah was doing a good job of it. The half elven woman took a while to get to sleep, and usually only made it ten or twenty minutes before stirring back awake.
As the last sands started to spill out, Shiina took mercy on the woman. "You can stay awake. It's almost time."
Delilah gave a quiet groan. But after a bit she rolled out of the bed and started checking her gear. She and Ife had both added cloaks to their outfit, while all of them were wearing masks.
Shiina wasn't going to bother, given she'd be recognizable as a mimic no matter what if someone got a good look at her. At least she could pretend to be gear for most of the trip.
When the hourglass emptied out, Shiina reached up and gave Zanya and Ife a shake. Zanya popped up almost immediately, giving her a nod of thanks before gathering her weapons. Ife growled and snapped as she was woken. But after a bit she forced herself upright. After a bit of a struggle she got on her feet and grabbed her necklace and staff. "Why do assassinations have to happen at such ridiculous times? Kings should wander into secluded areas sometime around noon to be killed at a reasonable hour."
"If they were willing to take time out of their life to help people in need they wouldn't be kings," Delilah muttered as she tightened her facemask.
That got a tiny smirk out of Zanya. "At least it's a good moon for killing." The ophidian finished her checks and offered an arm to Shiina. "Ready?"
"For hours," Shiina said as she slipped onto the woman's back. She'd checked her shields and dagger twice already.
Ife was ready after about a minute. With that done Zanya opened the window and hopped out.
The alley was dark, the nearest lamps down at either end with the larger streets. A light mist filled the city, making things cold and clammy. Shiina's ears heard little sounds here and there as the nocturnal predators and late night workers shuffled about. But nothing was close.
Delilah and Ife dropped down into Zanya's arms. Shiina reached up with a pseudopod and closed the window, getting a nod from the magic knight. With that they put up their hoods and started towards the castle.
As they moved through the streets Shiina felt her excitement and nervousness rise. Every step was a chance some guard would demand to know what they were doing out this late. But the cloying fog gave them cover from distant eyes.
She relaxed for a second when she saw the pulsing lantern of the lighthouse above them, but the feeling returned as she realized this was going to be the hard part. She couldn't just lay in wait for her prey. She'd have to hunt him down.
The lighthouse itself was easy to handle. The stone stairs were slick, but that didn't mean much to a mimic. Delilah took a little longer to climb, but they all made it to the foot of the building without much effort.
Shiina stretched a little, eyeing the distance to the wall. It should be within range, and while the slick stone would have given a grappling hook trouble, she should stick nicely. She let her side partially engulf Delilah, the half elf flinching a second before leaning into her grip. Then she snapped a tendril over to the wall and when it landed yanked herself across.
The wind whistled around her as they flew towards the wall. As the stone got closer she realized she was a little lower than expected, so she held Delilah over her main mass. She smacked into the parapet but she managed to place the half elf on the battlements beyond. As Shiina pulled herself over the side, Zanya and Ife landed with a rush of wind nearby.
From here they could see the whole castle. Most of the windows were dark, but lanterns filled the courtyard below. The castle towers also had lights, probably for the poor guards on night watch.
Zanya pointed to an open attic window. This one was a wooden slat on a pole as opposed to pane glass of the lower floors, making it easier to get through without a lot of noise. Shiina nodded and carefully grabbed Delilah again.
This time she deliberately let herself aim a little low. The impact against the wall wasn't fun, but she didn't have too much trouble sticking to the side. From there she pushed Delilah towards the window.
The half elf banged her shoulder on the pole and then flinched as the slat fell on her back, but she wriggled through anyway. Shiina crawled in after, taking a moment to engulf the window slat and pop it off its hinges. Her body kept the sound down so no one should notice. She plopped into the attic proper after that.
Setting aside the window slat, she looked around. There were a lot of various items all concealed by dust covers. It looked like furniture and sculptures, with an occasional box of something or other. She had an urge to sift through a chest she saw, but she pushed that down.
Ife wriggled through the window, followed by Zanya. The magic knight must have held onto the windowsill while Ife slipped in. Now that Shiina thought about it, this had been a hole in their plan. If Shiina hadn't been able to pop off the window cover they might have been in trouble.
After a moment looking around, Ife started moving away from their target. Shiina wondered if this was a special plan before Zanya corrected her. They moved around the boxes towards a ladder that led to the upper attic.
Zanya was first up, but the woman froze as she reached the top. After a moment she slipped back down. The woman said as softly as she could, "Someone's sleeping in our way. Looks like an apprentice houseboy or something."
"Can't we ignore him?" Delilah asked. Shiina looked at the others. That seemed like a good idea to her.
Ife shook her head. "Too dangerous. Can you knock him out?"
Delilah hesitated. "I can, but he'll wake up when I start putting him under. I have some other alchemical mixtures, but anything else might mean he won't wake up ever again."
"I can cover his eyes," Shiina offered. If he didn't see them it wouldn't matter if he woke up before Delilah drugged him. And she knew humanoids needed their eyes to see.
Zanya nodded in approval. "Do it."
Shiina slipped up the rough wooden ladder. The upper attic had less stuff in it, but it was still something of an obstacle course of unused goods. Still there were clear lines for people to walk, and one of those led to a simple straw bed with a boy sleeping in it. Shiina was iffy with human ages, but she figured he was in early teens. Definitely not at adulthood.
She slipped across the floor silently, moving towards the head of the bed. The boy was sleeping soundly which was good. Still she turned her hand into a makeshift blindfold and hovered it over his face. No need to take chances.
Delilah was more hesitant getting over to them, but she was fairly quiet. After she was next to the sleeping kid she pulled out a handkerchief and a bottle. Shiina could taste the horrid bitterness even this far away as she opened the bottle and poured some on the cloth.
The half elf gave her a nod and Shiina put her hands over the kid's eyes. The boy jerked awake in surprise, but his cry of alarm was muffled by Delilah putting the cloth over his mouth and nose.
The kid tried to push them away and get free, but his struggles started weak and quickly faded away. After a few moments he went limp. Delilah pulled away the cloth and checked his pulse before she stepped back. Shinna reverted to her preferred form and moved on.
Zanya and Ife were up the ladder soon after. After a bit of looking around the ophidian led them to a window overlooking the balcony they needed to infiltrate. Shiina took the liberty of removing the shutter here too.
Ife murmured quietly, "Curiosity grant Vision." and tapped Shiina's head. "You should be able to see alarm spells from a distance now. If the alarm vanishes before you're done, you've been spotted."
"Then three pulls on the rope," Shiina replied. "And two pulls if something's wrong but I'm not spotted."
Zanya gave her a thumbs up, then slid the rope out the window. Shiina latched on, then followed the rope and the wall out into the damp night air.
The balcony was very nice. A table and chairs of wrought iron and glass, along with a fancy railing. The glass doors leading in were also a work of art. Shiina almost felt bad she was going to have to break them. And next to those doors was a fairly complicated alarm. Shiina slid down closer, pausing before the door's top to peer into the king's chamber.
It was empty. No king in the bed, no people in the room, just double doors and a few closed curtains.
Two pulls on the rope had Zanya hauling her up quickly. Shiina added her own limited speed and squirmed into the attic as fast as she could. After a moment she whispered. "He's not there."
"Not there?" Delilah looked confused.
"No king. Empty bed." Shiina stated.
Ife hissed. "If we end up having to do this the hard way because that fool decided to bed some maid tonight...."
"Was the bed made properly?" Zanya asked.
"Er..." Shiina tried to remember. "No. It was a little rumpled."
Zanya rubbed her forehead. "Okay. We wait a few minutes, then look in. Don't show too much of yourself though." Apparently Shiina's confusion showed. Either that or she wanted to explain to the other girls. "Hopefully it's just a late night piss."
The others deflated a little. Ife looked seriously annoyed, but they returned to waiting. Shiina spent some time pretending to be the trunks in the attic.
After the allotted time Zanya tossed the rope over again, and Shiina slipped out. Reaching the ropes end she peered just past the top of the doors and froze. The king was standing there, scratching himself and drinking a glass of water. Shiina pulled herself back up quickly, hoping no one was looking this way. "He's in there. Need more time."
"Right." They wanted to make sure he was asleep to guarantee the kill. And honestly Shiina wanted it to be a surprise. A proper mimic kill.
After a bit of waiting Zanya put down the rope again. Shiina slid down. This time the king was properly sleeping. She turned her attention to the alarm spell that was glowing here.
It did in fact look similar to a trap. However the runes were totally different. She saw 'warning,' 'aggressor,' 'self,' and 'deception' written out, with lines going all over the place. The only good thing was she didn't see any false trails.
After a few moments looking it over, Shiina decided she had to act. She carefully cut the connections around 'warning', then 'self', after that she chewed through the runes that looked like they gave power to the whole thing. The runes faded slowly, but they cleared away.
She gave a single tug of the rope, then dropped to the balcony. The glass separating them from their target was thick, but she could probably cut through. Still she forced herself to look over the whole area just in case.
As the other's dropped down Shiina confirmed there were no more magical wards on the doors, hinges or handles. Then she paused. With a hesitant hand she reached out and pulled down on the handle. The glass door slowly opened.
It hadn't been locked.
Shiina carefully pushed the door open and gestured for her friends to enter. Delilah looked disappointed, while Ife was holding back laughter. But they walked through. Zanya pulled out the runic extraction item and handed it to Ife, before drawing her axe and stepping forwards.
Delilah's eyes flickered back out to the balcony and she hissed and started waving. Shiina turned her attention back and found several shadows on one of the watchtowers were leaning over the parapets to get a look over at the balcony.
That was bad.
Zanya rushed forwards, axe dropping, A terrific crunch sounded as she cut through the king's body into the bed beneath. Blood splattered everywhere at the same second a warning bell started to ring.
Zanya hopped back as the guards outside started knocking on the doors. It was a good thing they didn't know why the alarm was ringing. Shiina and Delilah moved close to Ife, who threw down the magic item.
There was a flash, some smoke and then they were in their room at the inn. Shiina felt dizzy as her brain tried to figure out how she'd gotten there. Her form sagged as her mimicking ability lost track of what was happening.
The others were much worse. All three of the other humanoids fell to the floor. Delilah threw up, while Ife had a few shuddering dry heaves. Zanya was the best off, closing her eyes, huddling up, and just looking miserable."
"You all okay?" Shiina asked.
"No," Ife muttered.
Delilah spat. "I need water."
Zanya flopped on her back. "I've had better days."
Shiina was considering her response when the sound of alarm bells hit. First quiet, then increasing at the various towers picked up the alarm. Lights came on across the city as people woke up to find out what the disturbance was.
"Well, time to 'find out what's going on'," Zanya said as she handed Delilah a canteen.
"Can we pretend we're sleepy and sick instead?" Delilah asked. It seemed like a fair question.
"We have to do that in the common room," Ife muttered. "Don't worry. It won't be too hard to fake."
Shiina decided she'd stick to being a box herself. She didn't trust herself not to act smug. Especially since she'd been right about the teleportation. Internal organs were pure liability.
All the stories about master wizards talk about their abilities to teleport all over the place, so I wondered why we had to walk. According to Ife, teleportation is really hard. Lots of little details, just like when you try to mimic a living thing. That's something a mage can fix if they're teleporting themselves, but unless the mage travels along it's really easy for something to go wrong.
For living things, something going wrong usually means you die. Humanoids of course will just drop dead if you misalign their veins or forget to put all the skin on, but even mimics have a bad time if we get twisted up or put into another object.
Generally the longer distance you go the more dangerous it gets. The arbiter runes we have are limited to around three miles and require preparing the location you teleport to. That's about the best you can get for safe travel. Past that though things start getting dangerous. As in 'one in a hundred people die dangerous.' And it gets worse really fast, especially without special targeting runes.
Inanimate objects are apparently a lot easier. If for no other reason then their insides aren't moving around all over the place. They still break every so often, but that's why they only teleport items that are needed quickly and can be replaced. Everything else is handled by runners.
Apparently the best time to go murder someone who lived in a castle was a few hours after midnight. Late enough that even the people who worked long hours would be going to bed, but before the people who needed to start working early would rise.
And since Shiina didn't need to sleep, she was the one who got to keep watch on the hourglass to know when to start moving while the humanoids rested. Not that Delilah was doing a good job of it. The half elven woman took a while to get to sleep, and usually only made it ten or twenty minutes before stirring back awake.
As the last sands started to spill out, Shiina took mercy on the woman. "You can stay awake. It's almost time."
Delilah gave a quiet groan. But after a bit she rolled out of the bed and started checking her gear. She and Ife had both added cloaks to their outfit, while all of them were wearing masks.
Shiina wasn't going to bother, given she'd be recognizable as a mimic no matter what if someone got a good look at her. At least she could pretend to be gear for most of the trip.
When the hourglass emptied out, Shiina reached up and gave Zanya and Ife a shake. Zanya popped up almost immediately, giving her a nod of thanks before gathering her weapons. Ife growled and snapped as she was woken. But after a bit she forced herself upright. After a bit of a struggle she got on her feet and grabbed her necklace and staff. "Why do assassinations have to happen at such ridiculous times? Kings should wander into secluded areas sometime around noon to be killed at a reasonable hour."
"If they were willing to take time out of their life to help people in need they wouldn't be kings," Delilah muttered as she tightened her facemask.
That got a tiny smirk out of Zanya. "At least it's a good moon for killing." The ophidian finished her checks and offered an arm to Shiina. "Ready?"
"For hours," Shiina said as she slipped onto the woman's back. She'd checked her shields and dagger twice already.
Ife was ready after about a minute. With that done Zanya opened the window and hopped out.
The alley was dark, the nearest lamps down at either end with the larger streets. A light mist filled the city, making things cold and clammy. Shiina's ears heard little sounds here and there as the nocturnal predators and late night workers shuffled about. But nothing was close.
Delilah and Ife dropped down into Zanya's arms. Shiina reached up with a pseudopod and closed the window, getting a nod from the magic knight. With that they put up their hoods and started towards the castle.
As they moved through the streets Shiina felt her excitement and nervousness rise. Every step was a chance some guard would demand to know what they were doing out this late. But the cloying fog gave them cover from distant eyes.
She relaxed for a second when she saw the pulsing lantern of the lighthouse above them, but the feeling returned as she realized this was going to be the hard part. She couldn't just lay in wait for her prey. She'd have to hunt him down.
The lighthouse itself was easy to handle. The stone stairs were slick, but that didn't mean much to a mimic. Delilah took a little longer to climb, but they all made it to the foot of the building without much effort.
Shiina stretched a little, eyeing the distance to the wall. It should be within range, and while the slick stone would have given a grappling hook trouble, she should stick nicely. She let her side partially engulf Delilah, the half elf flinching a second before leaning into her grip. Then she snapped a tendril over to the wall and when it landed yanked herself across.
The wind whistled around her as they flew towards the wall. As the stone got closer she realized she was a little lower than expected, so she held Delilah over her main mass. She smacked into the parapet but she managed to place the half elf on the battlements beyond. As Shiina pulled herself over the side, Zanya and Ife landed with a rush of wind nearby.
From here they could see the whole castle. Most of the windows were dark, but lanterns filled the courtyard below. The castle towers also had lights, probably for the poor guards on night watch.
Zanya pointed to an open attic window. This one was a wooden slat on a pole as opposed to pane glass of the lower floors, making it easier to get through without a lot of noise. Shiina nodded and carefully grabbed Delilah again.
This time she deliberately let herself aim a little low. The impact against the wall wasn't fun, but she didn't have too much trouble sticking to the side. From there she pushed Delilah towards the window.
The half elf banged her shoulder on the pole and then flinched as the slat fell on her back, but she wriggled through anyway. Shiina crawled in after, taking a moment to engulf the window slat and pop it off its hinges. Her body kept the sound down so no one should notice. She plopped into the attic proper after that.
Setting aside the window slat, she looked around. There were a lot of various items all concealed by dust covers. It looked like furniture and sculptures, with an occasional box of something or other. She had an urge to sift through a chest she saw, but she pushed that down.
Ife wriggled through the window, followed by Zanya. The magic knight must have held onto the windowsill while Ife slipped in. Now that Shiina thought about it, this had been a hole in their plan. If Shiina hadn't been able to pop off the window cover they might have been in trouble.
After a moment looking around, Ife started moving away from their target. Shiina wondered if this was a special plan before Zanya corrected her. They moved around the boxes towards a ladder that led to the upper attic.
Zanya was first up, but the woman froze as she reached the top. After a moment she slipped back down. The woman said as softly as she could, "Someone's sleeping in our way. Looks like an apprentice houseboy or something."
"Can't we ignore him?" Delilah asked. Shiina looked at the others. That seemed like a good idea to her.
Ife shook her head. "Too dangerous. Can you knock him out?"
Delilah hesitated. "I can, but he'll wake up when I start putting him under. I have some other alchemical mixtures, but anything else might mean he won't wake up ever again."
"I can cover his eyes," Shiina offered. If he didn't see them it wouldn't matter if he woke up before Delilah drugged him. And she knew humanoids needed their eyes to see.
Zanya nodded in approval. "Do it."
Shiina slipped up the rough wooden ladder. The upper attic had less stuff in it, but it was still something of an obstacle course of unused goods. Still there were clear lines for people to walk, and one of those led to a simple straw bed with a boy sleeping in it. Shiina was iffy with human ages, but she figured he was in early teens. Definitely not at adulthood.
She slipped across the floor silently, moving towards the head of the bed. The boy was sleeping soundly which was good. Still she turned her hand into a makeshift blindfold and hovered it over his face. No need to take chances.
Delilah was more hesitant getting over to them, but she was fairly quiet. After she was next to the sleeping kid she pulled out a handkerchief and a bottle. Shiina could taste the horrid bitterness even this far away as she opened the bottle and poured some on the cloth.
The half elf gave her a nod and Shiina put her hands over the kid's eyes. The boy jerked awake in surprise, but his cry of alarm was muffled by Delilah putting the cloth over his mouth and nose.
The kid tried to push them away and get free, but his struggles started weak and quickly faded away. After a few moments he went limp. Delilah pulled away the cloth and checked his pulse before she stepped back. Shinna reverted to her preferred form and moved on.
Zanya and Ife were up the ladder soon after. After a bit of looking around the ophidian led them to a window overlooking the balcony they needed to infiltrate. Shiina took the liberty of removing the shutter here too.
Ife murmured quietly, "Curiosity grant Vision." and tapped Shiina's head. "You should be able to see alarm spells from a distance now. If the alarm vanishes before you're done, you've been spotted."
"Then three pulls on the rope," Shiina replied. "And two pulls if something's wrong but I'm not spotted."
Zanya gave her a thumbs up, then slid the rope out the window. Shiina latched on, then followed the rope and the wall out into the damp night air.
The balcony was very nice. A table and chairs of wrought iron and glass, along with a fancy railing. The glass doors leading in were also a work of art. Shiina almost felt bad she was going to have to break them. And next to those doors was a fairly complicated alarm. Shiina slid down closer, pausing before the door's top to peer into the king's chamber.
It was empty. No king in the bed, no people in the room, just double doors and a few closed curtains.
Two pulls on the rope had Zanya hauling her up quickly. Shiina added her own limited speed and squirmed into the attic as fast as she could. After a moment she whispered. "He's not there."
"Not there?" Delilah looked confused.
"No king. Empty bed." Shiina stated.
Ife hissed. "If we end up having to do this the hard way because that fool decided to bed some maid tonight...."
"Was the bed made properly?" Zanya asked.
"Er..." Shiina tried to remember. "No. It was a little rumpled."
Zanya rubbed her forehead. "Okay. We wait a few minutes, then look in. Don't show too much of yourself though." Apparently Shiina's confusion showed. Either that or she wanted to explain to the other girls. "Hopefully it's just a late night piss."
The others deflated a little. Ife looked seriously annoyed, but they returned to waiting. Shiina spent some time pretending to be the trunks in the attic.
After the allotted time Zanya tossed the rope over again, and Shiina slipped out. Reaching the ropes end she peered just past the top of the doors and froze. The king was standing there, scratching himself and drinking a glass of water. Shiina pulled herself back up quickly, hoping no one was looking this way. "He's in there. Need more time."
"Right." They wanted to make sure he was asleep to guarantee the kill. And honestly Shiina wanted it to be a surprise. A proper mimic kill.
After a bit of waiting Zanya put down the rope again. Shiina slid down. This time the king was properly sleeping. She turned her attention to the alarm spell that was glowing here.
It did in fact look similar to a trap. However the runes were totally different. She saw 'warning,' 'aggressor,' 'self,' and 'deception' written out, with lines going all over the place. The only good thing was she didn't see any false trails.
After a few moments looking it over, Shiina decided she had to act. She carefully cut the connections around 'warning', then 'self', after that she chewed through the runes that looked like they gave power to the whole thing. The runes faded slowly, but they cleared away.
She gave a single tug of the rope, then dropped to the balcony. The glass separating them from their target was thick, but she could probably cut through. Still she forced herself to look over the whole area just in case.
As the other's dropped down Shiina confirmed there were no more magical wards on the doors, hinges or handles. Then she paused. With a hesitant hand she reached out and pulled down on the handle. The glass door slowly opened.
It hadn't been locked.
Shiina carefully pushed the door open and gestured for her friends to enter. Delilah looked disappointed, while Ife was holding back laughter. But they walked through. Zanya pulled out the runic extraction item and handed it to Ife, before drawing her axe and stepping forwards.
Delilah's eyes flickered back out to the balcony and she hissed and started waving. Shiina turned her attention back and found several shadows on one of the watchtowers were leaning over the parapets to get a look over at the balcony.
That was bad.
Zanya rushed forwards, axe dropping, A terrific crunch sounded as she cut through the king's body into the bed beneath. Blood splattered everywhere at the same second a warning bell started to ring.
Zanya hopped back as the guards outside started knocking on the doors. It was a good thing they didn't know why the alarm was ringing. Shiina and Delilah moved close to Ife, who threw down the magic item.
There was a flash, some smoke and then they were in their room at the inn. Shiina felt dizzy as her brain tried to figure out how she'd gotten there. Her form sagged as her mimicking ability lost track of what was happening.
The others were much worse. All three of the other humanoids fell to the floor. Delilah threw up, while Ife had a few shuddering dry heaves. Zanya was the best off, closing her eyes, huddling up, and just looking miserable."
"You all okay?" Shiina asked.
"No," Ife muttered.
Delilah spat. "I need water."
Zanya flopped on her back. "I've had better days."
Shiina was considering her response when the sound of alarm bells hit. First quiet, then increasing at the various towers picked up the alarm. Lights came on across the city as people woke up to find out what the disturbance was.
"Well, time to 'find out what's going on'," Zanya said as she handed Delilah a canteen.
"Can we pretend we're sleepy and sick instead?" Delilah asked. It seemed like a fair question.
"We have to do that in the common room," Ife muttered. "Don't worry. It won't be too hard to fake."
Shiina decided she'd stick to being a box herself. She didn't trust herself not to act smug. Especially since she'd been right about the teleportation. Internal organs were pure liability.
All the stories about master wizards talk about their abilities to teleport all over the place, so I wondered why we had to walk. According to Ife, teleportation is really hard. Lots of little details, just like when you try to mimic a living thing. That's something a mage can fix if they're teleporting themselves, but unless the mage travels along it's really easy for something to go wrong.
For living things, something going wrong usually means you die. Humanoids of course will just drop dead if you misalign their veins or forget to put all the skin on, but even mimics have a bad time if we get twisted up or put into another object.
Generally the longer distance you go the more dangerous it gets. The arbiter runes we have are limited to around three miles and require preparing the location you teleport to. That's about the best you can get for safe travel. Past that though things start getting dangerous. As in 'one in a hundred people die dangerous.' And it gets worse really fast, especially without special targeting runes.
Inanimate objects are apparently a lot easier. If for no other reason then their insides aren't moving around all over the place. They still break every so often, but that's why they only teleport items that are needed quickly and can be replaced. Everything else is handled by runners.
Unfortunately, we can't all work on the pure power of magic and some of us require cells to specialize and form those kind of structures to be proper multicellular organisms.
There probably should be one, but a lot of the time it'd be empty speculation on their point and kinda boring, so I fear this particular best practice will only appear when there's something big to be learned.
Well that sounds like a 'you' problem!Unfortunately, we can't all work on the pure power of magic and some of us require cells to specialize and form those kind of structures to be proper multicellular organisms.
Fishing 1
It was a few hours past dawn when an explanation for the alarm bells came through the city. The King had suffered an illness in the middle of the night and passed away. Town criers and official notices all proclaimed a week of mourning before the coronation of the prince.
"What's a stroke?" Shiina asked quietly. She had a feeling they weren't talking about axe stroke, but she couldn't exactly spill that detail in public.
"Brain injury caused by blood loss," Delilah muttered before yawning. "Can we go back to sleep now?"
Ife stood up and turned to the stairs. "Yes."
"We'll miss a chance to earn more cash before we sail out," Zanya protested weakly.
"Don't care," Ife replied, ears and tails drooping. "Sleep."
This seemed to be a popular opinion, so Shiina followed the crowd up, waiting as each group entered their room. As they got back in through Shiina noticed something was different. A pouch was sitting below the bed.
She waited until the door was closed before pointing at it with a tendril. "What's that?"
"Wages," Ife said, tossing off her necklace before falling face first into the bed. "Take your share. But save some for the ship fare."
Zanya stretched. "We should probably ask if you want to stay with us."
That was right. They'd gotten their revenge. Now they had to decide if they wanted to be arbiters.
Shiina looked at the group then up at Delilah. "Um, I think I want to join. Mali said I should see new places. And I think I can learn a lot doing this. Also it's way better than acting as a wizard's guard box."
Delilah yawned again. "I'd forgotten we hadn't officially joined. If I get tired of wandering I'll take a desk job or something. For now, sure." She lay down next to Ife and closed her eyes.
"Good," Zanya said. "Glad to have you." The magic knight took a little more time, removing her gear carefully while sitting on the bed.
"Uh, before you sleep, can you tell me why they pretended the king died of a sickness instead of looking for assassins?" Shina asked.
"Arbiter rune," Zanya replied before flopping down. "Better to shove it under the rug then deal with the previous mistakes. Anyway, boat tomorrow."
Shiina accepted the explanation and settled in to wait. She was curious what sailing would be like.
Sailing turned out to be pretty cool! She was admittedly a little iffy on being over water. The novelty of the massive ocean had worn off after a few hours of travel. The rocking of the ship was a little weird. And seagulls were horrid creatures that she needed to exterminate. The sailors all said killing them was bad luck, but she swore the wretched things were trying to poop on her. That was only a minor detail though. Because she'd discovered the finest sport humanoids had ever created.
Fishing.
It was such a simple yet genius system. Put a fake fish on a sturdy line, throw it off the back, and wait patiently for a real fish to be lured in so you can strike.
This sport was made for her.
Delilah sadly was unable to fully appreciate the brilliance of the setup. She and Ife were suffering from sea sickness. Shiina could understand the problem. The ground moving all the time wasn't natural. And while her dungeon honed mimic skills let her ignore the pitch and sway of the ship, her friends weren't as lucky.
Meanwhile Zanya wasn't affected at all. Apparently ophidians had a different way of handling balance, so she was just practicing her footwork on uneven surfaces.
Shiina had to admit the ship itself was interesting too. The two masted vessel could apparently get between Gaius and Jalopae in only a couple of days propelled by the big sails. It seemed kind of strange that it took them longer to walk between neighboring countries then to move between entire continents. Then again the seas here were good for travel according to Mali's books.
The body of the ship was also interesting. It was bigger than the inn, but still seemed small with all the space taken up by water, food, and cargo. The humanoids would have to sleep in hammocks among the gear.
A tug on the line brought her attention to the fishing pole. She jerked to hook the fish then began fighting with her foe, pulling and relaxing the line as needed to exhaust her prey.
This was a little different than her preferred hunting. A battle of endurance instead of a quick kill. But it was fun. Giving and taking bits of line to draw her prey closer and closer. Soon she was seeing the fish splashing at the surface, its final escape attempt foiled.
She pulled up her catch, a two foot long maidfish, its 'skirt' of spikes flaring as it tried to defend itself. Sadly that tactic wouldn't work on this predator. With a flick of a tendril she killed the fish with a knife and tossed it in a bucket.
"You really are good at this." Shiina looked up to see Maikei, the catfolk who'd taught her the basics and leant her his rod. "Ever consider sailing as a career?" the dusky skinned man asked with a big grin.
"There's probably more to it than fishing," Shiina said. "And I'm still iffy on this whole boat thing. The ground should shift around smoothly, not all this wobbly stuff."
Maikei laughed. "Too bad. You've got the skills to be a good swabbie." He looked over the haul she'd picked up. "Mind if I take these to the cook? Best to start the cleaning while they're fresh."
"Oh I was thinking I was gonna eat them right here." Shiina opened her mouth wide as she picked up the fish. Maikei gave a double take, and she laughed. "Gotcha." She could eat the fish whole, but it'd be more fun to share.
The sailor wagged his finger, but he was still smiling. "You enjoy that too much girly."
Shiina's reply was cut off by a call from the crow's nest. "Serpent to port! About three knots off!"
"Turn to starboard! Prep the barrels," the captain yelled in response.
"A sea serpent?" Shiina let her attention sway over the ocean but she couldn't see anything. "Are we in trouble?" She'd heard stories of the massive creatures that attacked whales and ships with massive coils and steam breath.
Maikei looked more annoyed than worried though. "Nah. Damn worm will just make us late. Hope it gives up fast." He scurried off to help turn the sails.
Shiina was still uncertain how a hundred fifty foot long faux dragon could be 'just annoying,' but fortunately Zanya had stopped her exercises to join her at the stern. "Is this common?"
"In this part of the sea? Yeah," the ophidian replied, her slit eyes swaying over the waves. "About once every four voyages."
"Uh, is that why sailing is so dangerous?" Shiina asked.
"No. That's pirates, storms, and falling from the rigging. Sea serpents are some of the safer things you can run into. The dangerous monsters hide in the deep usually." Zanya's eyes stopped searching and she pointed.
Shiina focused on that section of water and this time she saw the rippling green and occasional splashes as the sea serpent's spine broke the waves. Compared to the boat, it was moving much faster. She could see it coming closer and closer every minute, and she found herself wondering what kind of shape would be good if she got tossed into the water.
"Barrels on deck! Take stations!" someone called out. Shiina focused behind her and saw the crew had rolled out two large wooden barrels that were labeled 'fire danger'. Ife and Delilah had roused from below as well.
Zanya tapped her on the head. "We should get back. They're gonna need the space." Shiina didn't know what the woman was getting at but she followed along to where her friends were waiting.
The sailors meanwhile were rolling the barrels to the stern of the ship. As they reached the back they started adding chains and weights to the barrels. A woman Shiina recognized as the ship's wizard was back there too, looking over the preparations. After a minute she nodded and called back, "Charges ready captain!"
"Good work," the captain responded. "Wait for the challenge, then release at your command."
"Challenge?" Delilah asked.
Zanya nodded. "Sea serpents attack ships to mark their territory. Some are worse than others. Normally if a ship runs away the serpent considers that a victory and the trouble stops there. But this one seems to be determined to fight. So it'll challenge us before moving in for the kill."
As if summoned by her words, the serpent lifted its head out of the water. Even with the thin frame it's head was still big enough to swallow Shiina whole, and probably add a humanoid for some more meat. Milky lids fell off its red eyes, and it let out what was closer to a screech than a roar. Steam burst into the air hundreds of feet, searing a couple of seagulls in flight.
"Uh, can't it blast our ship with that breath?" Shiina asked. It seemed like that would be a serious issue.
"It'd have to get closer," Ife said. "Fortunately they care more about the ship itself than the sailors. So they insist on moving in to break the hull."
Zanya adjusted her cloak. "And the matter will be settled soon."
"Drop one!" the ship's mage yelled out. Sailors all pushed as a group to roll the barrel and its weights overboard. As the clattering barrel started over the side the mage intoned, "Through Patience, Fiery Destruction."
Shiina waited for the promised destruction, but the barrel just continued over the back into the sea. Their boat picked up a bit of speed, the captain likely pulling on a magic item to accelerate. But the sea serpent was getting closer. The massive ribbon of green starting to thin out as its tail movements grew shorter.
A massive gout of water blasted into the sky. For a second Shiina thought she saw the serpent's head revealed, but it was gone too quickly. The boat rocked a little harder as the wave from the blast rolled under them. And then it was done.
As they sailed on the green coils behind started to darken and fade. "Hit captain! The bastard's done."
"Excellent. Secure the spare and turn back to our destination."
"Aye captain!" The sailors began running around again, turning sails, pulling ropes, and tying the other barrel down to the side railing.
Shiina turned her body to face Zanya and Ife. "What happened? There's no way a monster that big was killed by an explosion that small."
To her surprise Zanya looked to Ife. The mage took a deep breath. "Air can compress, water can't. That means the explosion is amplified. Even a monster that big will be stunned by the force." She pointed at the stern. "You should be able to see some of the fish that were stunned or killed by the blast at the edges. And that's with them having run away from the sea serpent."
Shiina focused on the water and sure enough there were a few fish appearing at the surface. The gulls were swooping down to eat them already. "Wow."
"Can't that damage the ship?" Delilah managed to ask.
"Yes," Ife replied. "Which is why monsters that attack from directly below are much more dangerous than the shallow ones."
Zanya spoke up again. "Meanwhile pirate ships can dodge. Or try to approach from the front or sides." Humanoids really did have some impressive tricks Shiina had to admit.
A thought struck her. "Ah! My fish!" She searched around and found the bucket had been moved back. She relaxed a little. "Okay. Let's get those to the kitchen." Humanoids had impressive tricks, but she could learn them. And excel at them!
The fish in between the Iron Eye Continent and the Striped continent are apparently smaller than their relatives outside the inner sea, but they're still pretty big. I've never seen a lake fish as large as the ones people fished up.
So far my favorite is the violet fin gulper. They're hard to pull up, but they look and taste amazing. The fins really are a dark violet that's hard to get without special dyes. And the way they're partitioned gives it a nice fan appearance. Sadly the color doesn't last past a week or so. The fish itself has a very savory flavor. More similar to red meat than white if cooked right.
Maidfish are super neat, just because of their spines. Instead of normal back fins they've got a spiny skirt, so when something tries to gobble them from behind they'll flare it and bounce off the predator's lips. The bones are pretty hard too, unlike most fish bones, so they can block the bites of small sharks. Sailors use them as makeshift spear points apparently. The taste is pretty standard whitefish.
On the other end of the spectrum is the hellfish. They look super generic, like any other mackerel, except for an orange spot on the sides and bottom. They're super spicy, with a bitter heat that washes through in a minute or so. Eating a full hellfish is a dare among some ship crews. More commonly they're used as seasoning on ship, since more expensive spices are better kept as cargo.
( AN : There's a poll on update plans for the future here if you have strong preferences )
"What's a stroke?" Shiina asked quietly. She had a feeling they weren't talking about axe stroke, but she couldn't exactly spill that detail in public.
"Brain injury caused by blood loss," Delilah muttered before yawning. "Can we go back to sleep now?"
Ife stood up and turned to the stairs. "Yes."
"We'll miss a chance to earn more cash before we sail out," Zanya protested weakly.
"Don't care," Ife replied, ears and tails drooping. "Sleep."
This seemed to be a popular opinion, so Shiina followed the crowd up, waiting as each group entered their room. As they got back in through Shiina noticed something was different. A pouch was sitting below the bed.
She waited until the door was closed before pointing at it with a tendril. "What's that?"
"Wages," Ife said, tossing off her necklace before falling face first into the bed. "Take your share. But save some for the ship fare."
Zanya stretched. "We should probably ask if you want to stay with us."
That was right. They'd gotten their revenge. Now they had to decide if they wanted to be arbiters.
Shiina looked at the group then up at Delilah. "Um, I think I want to join. Mali said I should see new places. And I think I can learn a lot doing this. Also it's way better than acting as a wizard's guard box."
Delilah yawned again. "I'd forgotten we hadn't officially joined. If I get tired of wandering I'll take a desk job or something. For now, sure." She lay down next to Ife and closed her eyes.
"Good," Zanya said. "Glad to have you." The magic knight took a little more time, removing her gear carefully while sitting on the bed.
"Uh, before you sleep, can you tell me why they pretended the king died of a sickness instead of looking for assassins?" Shina asked.
"Arbiter rune," Zanya replied before flopping down. "Better to shove it under the rug then deal with the previous mistakes. Anyway, boat tomorrow."
Shiina accepted the explanation and settled in to wait. She was curious what sailing would be like.
Sailing turned out to be pretty cool! She was admittedly a little iffy on being over water. The novelty of the massive ocean had worn off after a few hours of travel. The rocking of the ship was a little weird. And seagulls were horrid creatures that she needed to exterminate. The sailors all said killing them was bad luck, but she swore the wretched things were trying to poop on her. That was only a minor detail though. Because she'd discovered the finest sport humanoids had ever created.
Fishing.
It was such a simple yet genius system. Put a fake fish on a sturdy line, throw it off the back, and wait patiently for a real fish to be lured in so you can strike.
This sport was made for her.
Delilah sadly was unable to fully appreciate the brilliance of the setup. She and Ife were suffering from sea sickness. Shiina could understand the problem. The ground moving all the time wasn't natural. And while her dungeon honed mimic skills let her ignore the pitch and sway of the ship, her friends weren't as lucky.
Meanwhile Zanya wasn't affected at all. Apparently ophidians had a different way of handling balance, so she was just practicing her footwork on uneven surfaces.
Shiina had to admit the ship itself was interesting too. The two masted vessel could apparently get between Gaius and Jalopae in only a couple of days propelled by the big sails. It seemed kind of strange that it took them longer to walk between neighboring countries then to move between entire continents. Then again the seas here were good for travel according to Mali's books.
The body of the ship was also interesting. It was bigger than the inn, but still seemed small with all the space taken up by water, food, and cargo. The humanoids would have to sleep in hammocks among the gear.
A tug on the line brought her attention to the fishing pole. She jerked to hook the fish then began fighting with her foe, pulling and relaxing the line as needed to exhaust her prey.
This was a little different than her preferred hunting. A battle of endurance instead of a quick kill. But it was fun. Giving and taking bits of line to draw her prey closer and closer. Soon she was seeing the fish splashing at the surface, its final escape attempt foiled.
She pulled up her catch, a two foot long maidfish, its 'skirt' of spikes flaring as it tried to defend itself. Sadly that tactic wouldn't work on this predator. With a flick of a tendril she killed the fish with a knife and tossed it in a bucket.
"You really are good at this." Shiina looked up to see Maikei, the catfolk who'd taught her the basics and leant her his rod. "Ever consider sailing as a career?" the dusky skinned man asked with a big grin.
"There's probably more to it than fishing," Shiina said. "And I'm still iffy on this whole boat thing. The ground should shift around smoothly, not all this wobbly stuff."
Maikei laughed. "Too bad. You've got the skills to be a good swabbie." He looked over the haul she'd picked up. "Mind if I take these to the cook? Best to start the cleaning while they're fresh."
"Oh I was thinking I was gonna eat them right here." Shiina opened her mouth wide as she picked up the fish. Maikei gave a double take, and she laughed. "Gotcha." She could eat the fish whole, but it'd be more fun to share.
The sailor wagged his finger, but he was still smiling. "You enjoy that too much girly."
Shiina's reply was cut off by a call from the crow's nest. "Serpent to port! About three knots off!"
"Turn to starboard! Prep the barrels," the captain yelled in response.
"A sea serpent?" Shiina let her attention sway over the ocean but she couldn't see anything. "Are we in trouble?" She'd heard stories of the massive creatures that attacked whales and ships with massive coils and steam breath.
Maikei looked more annoyed than worried though. "Nah. Damn worm will just make us late. Hope it gives up fast." He scurried off to help turn the sails.
Shiina was still uncertain how a hundred fifty foot long faux dragon could be 'just annoying,' but fortunately Zanya had stopped her exercises to join her at the stern. "Is this common?"
"In this part of the sea? Yeah," the ophidian replied, her slit eyes swaying over the waves. "About once every four voyages."
"Uh, is that why sailing is so dangerous?" Shiina asked.
"No. That's pirates, storms, and falling from the rigging. Sea serpents are some of the safer things you can run into. The dangerous monsters hide in the deep usually." Zanya's eyes stopped searching and she pointed.
Shiina focused on that section of water and this time she saw the rippling green and occasional splashes as the sea serpent's spine broke the waves. Compared to the boat, it was moving much faster. She could see it coming closer and closer every minute, and she found herself wondering what kind of shape would be good if she got tossed into the water.
"Barrels on deck! Take stations!" someone called out. Shiina focused behind her and saw the crew had rolled out two large wooden barrels that were labeled 'fire danger'. Ife and Delilah had roused from below as well.
Zanya tapped her on the head. "We should get back. They're gonna need the space." Shiina didn't know what the woman was getting at but she followed along to where her friends were waiting.
The sailors meanwhile were rolling the barrels to the stern of the ship. As they reached the back they started adding chains and weights to the barrels. A woman Shiina recognized as the ship's wizard was back there too, looking over the preparations. After a minute she nodded and called back, "Charges ready captain!"
"Good work," the captain responded. "Wait for the challenge, then release at your command."
"Challenge?" Delilah asked.
Zanya nodded. "Sea serpents attack ships to mark their territory. Some are worse than others. Normally if a ship runs away the serpent considers that a victory and the trouble stops there. But this one seems to be determined to fight. So it'll challenge us before moving in for the kill."
As if summoned by her words, the serpent lifted its head out of the water. Even with the thin frame it's head was still big enough to swallow Shiina whole, and probably add a humanoid for some more meat. Milky lids fell off its red eyes, and it let out what was closer to a screech than a roar. Steam burst into the air hundreds of feet, searing a couple of seagulls in flight.
"Uh, can't it blast our ship with that breath?" Shiina asked. It seemed like that would be a serious issue.
"It'd have to get closer," Ife said. "Fortunately they care more about the ship itself than the sailors. So they insist on moving in to break the hull."
Zanya adjusted her cloak. "And the matter will be settled soon."
"Drop one!" the ship's mage yelled out. Sailors all pushed as a group to roll the barrel and its weights overboard. As the clattering barrel started over the side the mage intoned, "Through Patience, Fiery Destruction."
Shiina waited for the promised destruction, but the barrel just continued over the back into the sea. Their boat picked up a bit of speed, the captain likely pulling on a magic item to accelerate. But the sea serpent was getting closer. The massive ribbon of green starting to thin out as its tail movements grew shorter.
A massive gout of water blasted into the sky. For a second Shiina thought she saw the serpent's head revealed, but it was gone too quickly. The boat rocked a little harder as the wave from the blast rolled under them. And then it was done.
As they sailed on the green coils behind started to darken and fade. "Hit captain! The bastard's done."
"Excellent. Secure the spare and turn back to our destination."
"Aye captain!" The sailors began running around again, turning sails, pulling ropes, and tying the other barrel down to the side railing.
Shiina turned her body to face Zanya and Ife. "What happened? There's no way a monster that big was killed by an explosion that small."
To her surprise Zanya looked to Ife. The mage took a deep breath. "Air can compress, water can't. That means the explosion is amplified. Even a monster that big will be stunned by the force." She pointed at the stern. "You should be able to see some of the fish that were stunned or killed by the blast at the edges. And that's with them having run away from the sea serpent."
Shiina focused on the water and sure enough there were a few fish appearing at the surface. The gulls were swooping down to eat them already. "Wow."
"Can't that damage the ship?" Delilah managed to ask.
"Yes," Ife replied. "Which is why monsters that attack from directly below are much more dangerous than the shallow ones."
Zanya spoke up again. "Meanwhile pirate ships can dodge. Or try to approach from the front or sides." Humanoids really did have some impressive tricks Shiina had to admit.
A thought struck her. "Ah! My fish!" She searched around and found the bucket had been moved back. She relaxed a little. "Okay. Let's get those to the kitchen." Humanoids had impressive tricks, but she could learn them. And excel at them!
The fish in between the Iron Eye Continent and the Striped continent are apparently smaller than their relatives outside the inner sea, but they're still pretty big. I've never seen a lake fish as large as the ones people fished up.
So far my favorite is the violet fin gulper. They're hard to pull up, but they look and taste amazing. The fins really are a dark violet that's hard to get without special dyes. And the way they're partitioned gives it a nice fan appearance. Sadly the color doesn't last past a week or so. The fish itself has a very savory flavor. More similar to red meat than white if cooked right.
Maidfish are super neat, just because of their spines. Instead of normal back fins they've got a spiny skirt, so when something tries to gobble them from behind they'll flare it and bounce off the predator's lips. The bones are pretty hard too, unlike most fish bones, so they can block the bites of small sharks. Sailors use them as makeshift spear points apparently. The taste is pretty standard whitefish.
On the other end of the spectrum is the hellfish. They look super generic, like any other mackerel, except for an orange spot on the sides and bottom. They're super spicy, with a bitter heat that washes through in a minute or so. Eating a full hellfish is a dare among some ship crews. More commonly they're used as seasoning on ship, since more expensive spices are better kept as cargo.
( AN : There's a poll on update plans for the future here if you have strong preferences )
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Fishing 2
Port Kalaria was different from either of the two cities Shiina had seen before. The most obvious was the stonework. Instead of grey stone and wood, almost everything seemed to be yellow stone or brick. The air tasted different as well. She'd been surrounded by the salt of the sea the whole time, but here it was mixed with a fishy bite.
The rocky cove of Gaius had given Shiina a chance to see how big the city was again as they sailed out. In fact, the city had seemed even more impressive, hemmed in by the mountains on either side. Kalaria's breakwaters however made the city look smaller. It was a crescent of buildings, leading into a thin strip of green farmland, and surrounded by the dusty yellow of the desert on both sides.
"Doesn't look like a great place to live," Delilah said. "They've got barely any farmland."
Ife chuckled. "They're probably wealthier than most cities. This is the best commerce port for over a hundred miles on either side. If people upriver want to trade, it goes through here."
Zanya nodded. "Don't expect much in the markets though. This is just a waypoint between the real rich folk."
As they got off the ship and started to walk inland Shiina noticed more details. Windows had shutters of baleen or driftwood, and thick lines zigzagged between roofs to create canopies and laundry lines. Wells were also common as soon as they got far enough inland.
Gaius had been primarily about its glass and crystal. Port Kalaria seemed to be more about the sea. Goods from all over were shown in markets, but the local stuff was fish, shells, whale oil, and sea monster items.
"Do they really hunt sea serpents here?" Shiina asked after seeing a spear made from an extra long spine barb.
"No," Zanya replied. "The dungeons here are creature dungeons. The Belly of the Whale is the most famous. But there's others."
Delilah grimaced. "Creature dungeons are the ones where you have to walk through flesh tunnels right?" Now Shiina remembered. Apparently those were the dungeons that seemed like giant monsters. She'd always wondered if people living near those dungeons could just hack out meat whenever they wanted. Judging from the stalls selling chunks of 'greatfish' the answer was yes.
"Yeah." Ife sighed. "We'll have to do one run to get travel funds. But if we're lucky we can visit the Bloody Cove instead." Her ears shifted towards Zanya. "Do you remember the guild scheduling rules here?"
"No. I don't even remember the name. The guilds here aren't united like they are on the Eugradi continent," Zanya said with a shrug. "We'll have to visit the guildhouse today to check."
As they continued down the streets Shiina let her attention drift to the people wandering by. It was only fair, since they were staring at her being pulled along by Delilah. And there were a lot of people here.
The average citizens here seemed to be dog and catfolk, both tending towards sandy yellow black hair. Of course there were a number of humans and halflings wandering about, but there were also a couple of lamia and Shiina saw an arachne tout trying to get people into her silkworks. It was the first time she'd seen other 'monstrous' races around.
There were also two different styles of dress. Half the people leaned towards vests and loose pants. Clothes similar to what the sailors had worn. Meanwhile the other half seemed to like loose robes with scarfs or head coverings. It didn't seem to be different based on race or class though. Shiina made a note to ask Zanya why later.
The guild building here was a small affair, dwarfed by the taverns sitting next to it. It at least looked clean to Shiina's eyes. The request board had been organized by someone and there were only a few people inside. A couple of clerks and a man in armor.
They moved to the open window, Ife taking over the lead. "Excuse me, we're new in town and wanted to know the rules for dungeon runs in this city."
The secretary gave a slight bow, her cat ears flattening forwards. "Of course. May I see your guild certificates and get your current levels?"
Shiina pulled out her documentation. As the others produced their papers she took a look over their guild marks. Delilah was a copper tier like her and had a copper tag to prove it. Zanya's paperwork had her listed as a 'hummingbird' tier warrior along with a rainbow feather encased in resin. Meanwhile Ife's bronze capped scroll certified her as a Rank III traveling wizard, with the number of 'verifying dignitaries' longer than the declaration itself.
"Our current levels are twenty six for us, seventeen for Shiina, and sixteen for Delilah," Ife added.
The woman marked that down. "Given your rank Lady Ife, you can enter any dungeon you desire. We handle delves at the point of entry. You only need to consult with the guild for paths requiring level thirty or higher, which I don't believe you'd want to attempt with your current party."
"Er then how will we get to be the lead team?" Shiina asked. First come first served was bad, but doing it at each dungeon seemed even worse. Her companions seemed similarly put off.
The guild woman laughed. "Oh that shouldn't be a problem. Most of our adventurers are travelers like you looking for quick coin. There's not many people here that run dungeons full time. There's no glory in gathering shellfish, bone, and flesh chunks. The guard comes by once a week and does runs on the dungeons that need cleaning."
Ife frowned but nodded. "Well hopefully that's true for us as well."
"Excuse me." Shiina turned her attention to see the armored man had walked over to them. "I couldn't help but overhear you have two sub twenty adventurers and two close to thirty. Might the lower level ones be a healer and trapfinder?"
"Perhaps you should introduce yourself first?" Ife asked with a sharp smile.
The man bowed, tail wagging slowly. "Apologies. I forgot I was not properly representing myself." He stood up and flipped his caplet over his shoulder showing an embroidered sea monster skull, mouth wide. "I am Augustus, a captain in the city guard. I was here to schedule a posting for a team that closely matches yours, if my assumptions are correct."
Shiina turned to face the man, curious. The others seemed similarly intrigued. "How so?" Zanya prompted.
"As mentioned, the city guard does a lot of work keeping our dungeons clean, so our troops need to be able to confront both monsters and men," Augustus said. "We have a squad of trainees that are up for a dungeon run, but there's no appropriately leveled healer or trapfinder in the group."
"Wouldn't it be better to have an overleveled healer?" Delilah asked. Her expression fell a little. "That way if something goes wrong...."
The man shook his head. "We want high levels supervising. But if the healer's too good they might get careless. And if the trapfinder's too good they won't feel a need to run protection duty. They aren't children to babysit, they're Kalarian guards. They need to learn to handle risk."
Shiina slowly nodded. Delilah's experience with dungeon training had been pretty messed up. But Shiina had seen plenty more adventurers go through and learn the basics. Sometimes what they learned was 'you aren't cut out for adventuring' no matter how skilled they were on the practice grounds. Some of those people had died, but a lot more had figured it out before they got killed.
She turned to face the others. "I suppose it'd depend on the details." Ife stepped forwards to help negotiate.
"There's seven guards in the group, all around level sixteen. Dungeon is sixteen average. Pay is four hundred each. Gear and items found go to auction." Augustus reached into a pouch and pulled out a contract. "You're allowed to put your personal and group safety first, though losing more than four people is grounds for default. The guard is in charge of the operation but you may refuse any demand that you feel is especially dangerous. In case of unresolvable dispute pay will be based on the amount of the dungeon cleared."
Ife took the contract and quickly looked over it once, then twice. "Seems reasonable. Delilah do you have any issue with it?"
The half elf shifted on her feet a few times before shrugging. "It's a squishy dungeon, but I suppose it's fine in the end. We're bringing over double the standard party size. I'll do my best to keep everyone healthy."
"Alright," Zanya said. "It's settled. Let's sign and confirm."
"The city thanks you for your aid." Augustus' tail wagged happily as they each wrote their name on the contract. "We'll meet at the Serpent's Nostril half after first light's bell. You can meet the group and plan how you're going to work with them."
Shiina pulled out her shields and knife to give them a once over. This could be interesting!
So I should probably move this earlier for my fellow mimics, but I only really got it all figured out myself now. In any case, I'm sure you've noticed, being outside a dungeon is really overstimulating.
We mimics are awesome. We don't need sleep, we need a lot less food, and we can focus all around us. But we're specialized to sit in a dungeon room that doesn't really change for long periods of time. It's super easy to zone out for a week, or even a year, and just not worry about stuff because nothing's happening. Maybe there's a patrolling skeleton or something but those are easy to tune out.
As I'm sure you've noticed, the outside world is a lot more chaotic. After a bit of time you can get used to stuff. Especially sounds, like birds and insects. But the shifting lights, and movements can really get to you. We may not need to sleep but I think being on edge all the time isn't good either.
So if you want to take a mental break, or enjoy reading or something, I suggest a thick blanket or box. Without sudden movements to draw your attention you can easily focus on something, or nothing if you want.
The rocky cove of Gaius had given Shiina a chance to see how big the city was again as they sailed out. In fact, the city had seemed even more impressive, hemmed in by the mountains on either side. Kalaria's breakwaters however made the city look smaller. It was a crescent of buildings, leading into a thin strip of green farmland, and surrounded by the dusty yellow of the desert on both sides.
"Doesn't look like a great place to live," Delilah said. "They've got barely any farmland."
Ife chuckled. "They're probably wealthier than most cities. This is the best commerce port for over a hundred miles on either side. If people upriver want to trade, it goes through here."
Zanya nodded. "Don't expect much in the markets though. This is just a waypoint between the real rich folk."
As they got off the ship and started to walk inland Shiina noticed more details. Windows had shutters of baleen or driftwood, and thick lines zigzagged between roofs to create canopies and laundry lines. Wells were also common as soon as they got far enough inland.
Gaius had been primarily about its glass and crystal. Port Kalaria seemed to be more about the sea. Goods from all over were shown in markets, but the local stuff was fish, shells, whale oil, and sea monster items.
"Do they really hunt sea serpents here?" Shiina asked after seeing a spear made from an extra long spine barb.
"No," Zanya replied. "The dungeons here are creature dungeons. The Belly of the Whale is the most famous. But there's others."
Delilah grimaced. "Creature dungeons are the ones where you have to walk through flesh tunnels right?" Now Shiina remembered. Apparently those were the dungeons that seemed like giant monsters. She'd always wondered if people living near those dungeons could just hack out meat whenever they wanted. Judging from the stalls selling chunks of 'greatfish' the answer was yes.
"Yeah." Ife sighed. "We'll have to do one run to get travel funds. But if we're lucky we can visit the Bloody Cove instead." Her ears shifted towards Zanya. "Do you remember the guild scheduling rules here?"
"No. I don't even remember the name. The guilds here aren't united like they are on the Eugradi continent," Zanya said with a shrug. "We'll have to visit the guildhouse today to check."
As they continued down the streets Shiina let her attention drift to the people wandering by. It was only fair, since they were staring at her being pulled along by Delilah. And there were a lot of people here.
The average citizens here seemed to be dog and catfolk, both tending towards sandy yellow black hair. Of course there were a number of humans and halflings wandering about, but there were also a couple of lamia and Shiina saw an arachne tout trying to get people into her silkworks. It was the first time she'd seen other 'monstrous' races around.
There were also two different styles of dress. Half the people leaned towards vests and loose pants. Clothes similar to what the sailors had worn. Meanwhile the other half seemed to like loose robes with scarfs or head coverings. It didn't seem to be different based on race or class though. Shiina made a note to ask Zanya why later.
The guild building here was a small affair, dwarfed by the taverns sitting next to it. It at least looked clean to Shiina's eyes. The request board had been organized by someone and there were only a few people inside. A couple of clerks and a man in armor.
They moved to the open window, Ife taking over the lead. "Excuse me, we're new in town and wanted to know the rules for dungeon runs in this city."
The secretary gave a slight bow, her cat ears flattening forwards. "Of course. May I see your guild certificates and get your current levels?"
Shiina pulled out her documentation. As the others produced their papers she took a look over their guild marks. Delilah was a copper tier like her and had a copper tag to prove it. Zanya's paperwork had her listed as a 'hummingbird' tier warrior along with a rainbow feather encased in resin. Meanwhile Ife's bronze capped scroll certified her as a Rank III traveling wizard, with the number of 'verifying dignitaries' longer than the declaration itself.
"Our current levels are twenty six for us, seventeen for Shiina, and sixteen for Delilah," Ife added.
The woman marked that down. "Given your rank Lady Ife, you can enter any dungeon you desire. We handle delves at the point of entry. You only need to consult with the guild for paths requiring level thirty or higher, which I don't believe you'd want to attempt with your current party."
"Er then how will we get to be the lead team?" Shiina asked. First come first served was bad, but doing it at each dungeon seemed even worse. Her companions seemed similarly put off.
The guild woman laughed. "Oh that shouldn't be a problem. Most of our adventurers are travelers like you looking for quick coin. There's not many people here that run dungeons full time. There's no glory in gathering shellfish, bone, and flesh chunks. The guard comes by once a week and does runs on the dungeons that need cleaning."
Ife frowned but nodded. "Well hopefully that's true for us as well."
"Excuse me." Shiina turned her attention to see the armored man had walked over to them. "I couldn't help but overhear you have two sub twenty adventurers and two close to thirty. Might the lower level ones be a healer and trapfinder?"
"Perhaps you should introduce yourself first?" Ife asked with a sharp smile.
The man bowed, tail wagging slowly. "Apologies. I forgot I was not properly representing myself." He stood up and flipped his caplet over his shoulder showing an embroidered sea monster skull, mouth wide. "I am Augustus, a captain in the city guard. I was here to schedule a posting for a team that closely matches yours, if my assumptions are correct."
Shiina turned to face the man, curious. The others seemed similarly intrigued. "How so?" Zanya prompted.
"As mentioned, the city guard does a lot of work keeping our dungeons clean, so our troops need to be able to confront both monsters and men," Augustus said. "We have a squad of trainees that are up for a dungeon run, but there's no appropriately leveled healer or trapfinder in the group."
"Wouldn't it be better to have an overleveled healer?" Delilah asked. Her expression fell a little. "That way if something goes wrong...."
The man shook his head. "We want high levels supervising. But if the healer's too good they might get careless. And if the trapfinder's too good they won't feel a need to run protection duty. They aren't children to babysit, they're Kalarian guards. They need to learn to handle risk."
Shiina slowly nodded. Delilah's experience with dungeon training had been pretty messed up. But Shiina had seen plenty more adventurers go through and learn the basics. Sometimes what they learned was 'you aren't cut out for adventuring' no matter how skilled they were on the practice grounds. Some of those people had died, but a lot more had figured it out before they got killed.
She turned to face the others. "I suppose it'd depend on the details." Ife stepped forwards to help negotiate.
"There's seven guards in the group, all around level sixteen. Dungeon is sixteen average. Pay is four hundred each. Gear and items found go to auction." Augustus reached into a pouch and pulled out a contract. "You're allowed to put your personal and group safety first, though losing more than four people is grounds for default. The guard is in charge of the operation but you may refuse any demand that you feel is especially dangerous. In case of unresolvable dispute pay will be based on the amount of the dungeon cleared."
Ife took the contract and quickly looked over it once, then twice. "Seems reasonable. Delilah do you have any issue with it?"
The half elf shifted on her feet a few times before shrugging. "It's a squishy dungeon, but I suppose it's fine in the end. We're bringing over double the standard party size. I'll do my best to keep everyone healthy."
"Alright," Zanya said. "It's settled. Let's sign and confirm."
"The city thanks you for your aid." Augustus' tail wagged happily as they each wrote their name on the contract. "We'll meet at the Serpent's Nostril half after first light's bell. You can meet the group and plan how you're going to work with them."
Shiina pulled out her shields and knife to give them a once over. This could be interesting!
So I should probably move this earlier for my fellow mimics, but I only really got it all figured out myself now. In any case, I'm sure you've noticed, being outside a dungeon is really overstimulating.
We mimics are awesome. We don't need sleep, we need a lot less food, and we can focus all around us. But we're specialized to sit in a dungeon room that doesn't really change for long periods of time. It's super easy to zone out for a week, or even a year, and just not worry about stuff because nothing's happening. Maybe there's a patrolling skeleton or something but those are easy to tune out.
As I'm sure you've noticed, the outside world is a lot more chaotic. After a bit of time you can get used to stuff. Especially sounds, like birds and insects. But the shifting lights, and movements can really get to you. We may not need to sleep but I think being on edge all the time isn't good either.
So if you want to take a mental break, or enjoy reading or something, I suggest a thick blanket or box. Without sudden movements to draw your attention you can easily focus on something, or nothing if you want.
The most interesting part of this little advice for me is the simple fact that I can easily see the last part being said without any irony.
To explain why, you have to remember that humans are bad at focusing on nothing, we can sorta attain this sort of states but our brains aren't optimized for it and are likely to react to any stimulation and concentrate on it. There are studies about being bored and it shows we are willing to hurt ourself just to stop it.
Meanwhile, as Shiina points out, mimics are literally made to be able to focus on nothing, they can't get bored, so an advice that could sound like a joke to a human observer is actually completely sincere.
That's the kind of small details I love in well made non human POV stories.
I wonder if Shiina could do Halfling Lamia; might be easier than legs. Perhaps a wheelchair, if they exist in-universe...
Reading it, I did not even see the problem when given to a human. Even human can appreciate some time thinking nothing, or nothing that matters, in a featureless room or a comfortable blanket, as a mental break or to let a migraine pass or as semi sleep.
The difference between us and mimics would be in how often we would want to, and how long we would stay in (hours for us, weeks/month/years for mimics) before it shifts from peace to hallucination and stress (or actual sleep) for us and hunger for them.
And also, I guess, what would count as oversimulation.
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Fishing 3
The Serpent's Nostril looked exactly like it should. Having seen a real sea serpent the massive thirty foot tall head was obviously something different. But it was dragon or serpent like. And there was a nice stairway leading to its massive nose holes, in addition to the path leading down its throat.
"Heya!" Shiina looked over to see a group of people, likely the guards they were supposed to help. All of them were in uniform hard leather or steel armor, though there had been little alterations to suit each individual. The group was five men and two women, at least to Shiina's eyes. And all had weapons with good reach, either boar spears, two handed swords, or halberds.
The man who'd called out to them waved, spear lazily resting on his shoulder. "You're the assisting group right? Boss said it'd be all women and you'd have a mimic gal."
"That's us!" Shiina happily called back.
The two groups met up and exchanged polite greetings. Zanya introduced the group. "Ife and I will be in the back in case of emergencies. Shiina is our rogue and Delilah our healer."
"I'm Thadius," the man said. "She's Sheari, the trio are Primus, Ahmed, and Tertius. Erudnie is the gal with the weird hook thing, and Lenius is the man pretending he's not staring at Ife's chest."
The dog man called out growled. "Shut it, Thadius."
Ife smirked. "It's okay, I'm used to it. Best to get your looking in here where it's safe though. It'd be a shame to die to a monster because you were looking the wrong way."
The other guards laughed and elbowed their embarrassed comrade. After a bit things returned to business. "So our usual tactic is we move in as a combat line and clear the place out. If we need to we'll split up to handle multiple targets. We decided both of you should follow the smaller group to help out."
Shiina nodded. That sounded good to her. Delilah tapped her staff. "Alright. I should warn you my support spells are going to be weaker than usual because of the group size. But my healing won't have that problem. So bring the wounded to me quickly."
"Yeah that's the downside of moving in large groups," Thadius said. "So it goes. Anyway, enemies are pretty simple. The common enemies are white slimes, fishmen, and razor worms. The last ones are ambush predators so if you see holes in the ground be cautious around that area."
"Nothing intelligent?" Shiina asked. She wasn't expecting to run into any kin but she figured she could check.
Erudine spoke up. "We've never seen a mimic in these dungeons. Occasionally there's been an eelman, but it's a tame dungeon so they usually just walk on out. No one really wants to live in a meat tunnel."
Shiina nodded. That made sense. Even if the meat was tasty you probably wanted to live somewhere else.
"Anything else before we start the mission?" Thadeus asked, ears twitching between the two groups. Shiina didn't have anything and it didn't seem like anyone else did either. "Alright. Let's go." The seven guards formed up and began heading up the stairs, Shiina and Delilah following, with Ife and Zanya after.
As they got closer Shiina could get a good look at the dungeon entrance. The Nostril was about eight feet around, and she immediately understood why people called it a squishy dungeon. Every footstep caused the flesh to deform and leak a little. Shiina could taste the meat through her bottom, though it wasn't anything great. Just savory and fishy. The entrance continued until it met up with the other nostril. There the path got wider, finally leading to a fleshy ramp that sat a little above the ground. If she remembered right this was what humanoids called the 'epiglottis.'
"First room 'opens' when we step on this here," Thadeus said.
"After that the dungeon is live," Erudine added.
Delilah held up her staff. "Let me give what boosts I can. Blessing of friendship. Aid of life. Strength of courage." Magic washed over them, but Shiina couldn't tell the difference between the current enhancement and what Delilah had given her in the last dungeon.
After the spells completed the guards began up the fleshy ramp. The way it shifted under their weight felt weird, but it wasn't too unsteady.
The irregular hollow they entered was different from the dungeon rooms Shiina was used to. This place had no furnishings. Just bumps of meat, thick hairs, and pillars of thick sinew.
It also had a number of white slimes. The large gloopy masses sensed the change in atmosphere and started towards the group. Shiina was curious, since she knew these things were weak, but had never seen them in battle.
The guards moved as a unit, making sure they couldn't get attacked from behind. Whenever they got in range of a slime they stabbed the monster. Sometimes the creatures rolled away, but usually they puckered up as white liquid spilled out. As the slimes tried to seal their wounds a heavy slash would confirm the kill.
"Another wave," Erudine called out. Shiina let her attention shift back to the room and saw that a batch of slimes had rolled in from one of the exits. She wasn't used to that either. Normally doors stopped that kinda nonsense. Still it didn't look like there were enough to be a threat.
Shiina worked her way behind the line of guards and waited with her dagger. She saw Delilah hit one with a rock, but the creature just kinda shrugged it off. "Blunt damage won't work," one of the guards called back.
"Well at least I hit it," Delilah muttered.
One of the other slimes got close enough that Shiina was able to reach out and stab it. The outer coating was actually really hard to get a good puncture into. The rubbery skin trembled and deformed while still resisting the stab. And when she managed the thing managed to pucker up and close the wound. She'd have to use some poison next time.
Of course that slime got stabbed and slashed soon after. This wasn't really a fight, so much as an extermination. The dungeon was a little crowded from not having been cleaned, but the first rooms were still pretty short of challenge. After a few more minutes all the slimes were puddles of goop on the ground.
"Alright, all clear. On to the next room," Thadius said, starting towards the open passage leading further in.
"Nope! Wrong! Minus twenty points!" Shiina called out while holding her arms above her in an 'X.'
The guards all paused and looked at her. "What, should we be looking for traps? The slimes got through fine."
"Are you a slime?" Shiina asked, getting a few chagrined head shakes. "There might be traps at head height or something. But also, you forgot to loot the room."
"Wait, there's no way there's some treasure here, I mean-"
Thadius stopped as Shiina cut open a thin layer of sinew to show a flesh pocket with three pink pearls sitting inside. She waved her finger at the greenhorns. "Rule two, there's always treasure in the first room." Ife shook her head while Zanya smirked.
The guards kinda looked at each other and shrugged, while Delilah leaned over. "Is that actually true?"
"Mali always said so," Shinna replied. "Though if the place got cleaned out recently it'll probably only be like a coin or two." She turned back to the dungeon path and worked her way to the passage. "Now let's make sure we don't get like coated in acid or something." It was trap finding time
So I imagine a lot of you mimics out there are wondering what's up with humanoid senses. Or you're humanoids wanting to know about how awesome mimics are. Well here's a quick primer on the differences.
The big thing is humanoids have distinct sensory organs. Well okay they can 'feel' everywhere around them, and magic sense is linked to that. But all their other senses require specific organs, and sometimes those are weird.
Eyes are the biggest difference between mimics and humanoids. Unlike us mimics who can sense light from all around giving us complete vision of our surroundings, humanoids (and a lot of other animals) need to see using their eyes. That's right, if a humanoid isn't facing you, they can't see you, so use that for extra surprises!
It's not all weaknesses though. Humanoids get great depth perception and can accurately guess the distances to things hundreds of feet away. If they can see you, you're in danger from arrows or other projectiles. We mimics need to focus to see things that far out, leaving blindspots similar to humanoids. And I still don't get how they aim so well.
Humanoid hearing requires ears. Which honestly doesn't matter that much, since sound carries. Humanoid ears can get blocked or damaged, but sometimes that can help. I really hope mimics are immune to siren song....
The weird one is taste and smell. We mimics don't bother with smell, but the humanoid ability to taste is located only on their tongue, they have another way of sensing stuff in the air. It's linked to their nose, since they need to breathe in air anyway, and apparently its similar but different to taste? I'm not sure how that helps. The whole mess is a huge disadvantage in my opinion. Though I suppose that means they don't have to taste what's on their streets....
"Heya!" Shiina looked over to see a group of people, likely the guards they were supposed to help. All of them were in uniform hard leather or steel armor, though there had been little alterations to suit each individual. The group was five men and two women, at least to Shiina's eyes. And all had weapons with good reach, either boar spears, two handed swords, or halberds.
The man who'd called out to them waved, spear lazily resting on his shoulder. "You're the assisting group right? Boss said it'd be all women and you'd have a mimic gal."
"That's us!" Shiina happily called back.
The two groups met up and exchanged polite greetings. Zanya introduced the group. "Ife and I will be in the back in case of emergencies. Shiina is our rogue and Delilah our healer."
"I'm Thadius," the man said. "She's Sheari, the trio are Primus, Ahmed, and Tertius. Erudnie is the gal with the weird hook thing, and Lenius is the man pretending he's not staring at Ife's chest."
The dog man called out growled. "Shut it, Thadius."
Ife smirked. "It's okay, I'm used to it. Best to get your looking in here where it's safe though. It'd be a shame to die to a monster because you were looking the wrong way."
The other guards laughed and elbowed their embarrassed comrade. After a bit things returned to business. "So our usual tactic is we move in as a combat line and clear the place out. If we need to we'll split up to handle multiple targets. We decided both of you should follow the smaller group to help out."
Shiina nodded. That sounded good to her. Delilah tapped her staff. "Alright. I should warn you my support spells are going to be weaker than usual because of the group size. But my healing won't have that problem. So bring the wounded to me quickly."
"Yeah that's the downside of moving in large groups," Thadius said. "So it goes. Anyway, enemies are pretty simple. The common enemies are white slimes, fishmen, and razor worms. The last ones are ambush predators so if you see holes in the ground be cautious around that area."
"Nothing intelligent?" Shiina asked. She wasn't expecting to run into any kin but she figured she could check.
Erudine spoke up. "We've never seen a mimic in these dungeons. Occasionally there's been an eelman, but it's a tame dungeon so they usually just walk on out. No one really wants to live in a meat tunnel."
Shiina nodded. That made sense. Even if the meat was tasty you probably wanted to live somewhere else.
"Anything else before we start the mission?" Thadeus asked, ears twitching between the two groups. Shiina didn't have anything and it didn't seem like anyone else did either. "Alright. Let's go." The seven guards formed up and began heading up the stairs, Shiina and Delilah following, with Ife and Zanya after.
As they got closer Shiina could get a good look at the dungeon entrance. The Nostril was about eight feet around, and she immediately understood why people called it a squishy dungeon. Every footstep caused the flesh to deform and leak a little. Shiina could taste the meat through her bottom, though it wasn't anything great. Just savory and fishy. The entrance continued until it met up with the other nostril. There the path got wider, finally leading to a fleshy ramp that sat a little above the ground. If she remembered right this was what humanoids called the 'epiglottis.'
"First room 'opens' when we step on this here," Thadeus said.
"After that the dungeon is live," Erudine added.
Delilah held up her staff. "Let me give what boosts I can. Blessing of friendship. Aid of life. Strength of courage." Magic washed over them, but Shiina couldn't tell the difference between the current enhancement and what Delilah had given her in the last dungeon.
After the spells completed the guards began up the fleshy ramp. The way it shifted under their weight felt weird, but it wasn't too unsteady.
The irregular hollow they entered was different from the dungeon rooms Shiina was used to. This place had no furnishings. Just bumps of meat, thick hairs, and pillars of thick sinew.
It also had a number of white slimes. The large gloopy masses sensed the change in atmosphere and started towards the group. Shiina was curious, since she knew these things were weak, but had never seen them in battle.
The guards moved as a unit, making sure they couldn't get attacked from behind. Whenever they got in range of a slime they stabbed the monster. Sometimes the creatures rolled away, but usually they puckered up as white liquid spilled out. As the slimes tried to seal their wounds a heavy slash would confirm the kill.
"Another wave," Erudine called out. Shiina let her attention shift back to the room and saw that a batch of slimes had rolled in from one of the exits. She wasn't used to that either. Normally doors stopped that kinda nonsense. Still it didn't look like there were enough to be a threat.
Shiina worked her way behind the line of guards and waited with her dagger. She saw Delilah hit one with a rock, but the creature just kinda shrugged it off. "Blunt damage won't work," one of the guards called back.
"Well at least I hit it," Delilah muttered.
One of the other slimes got close enough that Shiina was able to reach out and stab it. The outer coating was actually really hard to get a good puncture into. The rubbery skin trembled and deformed while still resisting the stab. And when she managed the thing managed to pucker up and close the wound. She'd have to use some poison next time.
Of course that slime got stabbed and slashed soon after. This wasn't really a fight, so much as an extermination. The dungeon was a little crowded from not having been cleaned, but the first rooms were still pretty short of challenge. After a few more minutes all the slimes were puddles of goop on the ground.
"Alright, all clear. On to the next room," Thadius said, starting towards the open passage leading further in.
"Nope! Wrong! Minus twenty points!" Shiina called out while holding her arms above her in an 'X.'
The guards all paused and looked at her. "What, should we be looking for traps? The slimes got through fine."
"Are you a slime?" Shiina asked, getting a few chagrined head shakes. "There might be traps at head height or something. But also, you forgot to loot the room."
"Wait, there's no way there's some treasure here, I mean-"
Thadius stopped as Shiina cut open a thin layer of sinew to show a flesh pocket with three pink pearls sitting inside. She waved her finger at the greenhorns. "Rule two, there's always treasure in the first room." Ife shook her head while Zanya smirked.
The guards kinda looked at each other and shrugged, while Delilah leaned over. "Is that actually true?"
"Mali always said so," Shinna replied. "Though if the place got cleaned out recently it'll probably only be like a coin or two." She turned back to the dungeon path and worked her way to the passage. "Now let's make sure we don't get like coated in acid or something." It was trap finding time
So I imagine a lot of you mimics out there are wondering what's up with humanoid senses. Or you're humanoids wanting to know about how awesome mimics are. Well here's a quick primer on the differences.
The big thing is humanoids have distinct sensory organs. Well okay they can 'feel' everywhere around them, and magic sense is linked to that. But all their other senses require specific organs, and sometimes those are weird.
Eyes are the biggest difference between mimics and humanoids. Unlike us mimics who can sense light from all around giving us complete vision of our surroundings, humanoids (and a lot of other animals) need to see using their eyes. That's right, if a humanoid isn't facing you, they can't see you, so use that for extra surprises!
It's not all weaknesses though. Humanoids get great depth perception and can accurately guess the distances to things hundreds of feet away. If they can see you, you're in danger from arrows or other projectiles. We mimics need to focus to see things that far out, leaving blindspots similar to humanoids. And I still don't get how they aim so well.
Humanoid hearing requires ears. Which honestly doesn't matter that much, since sound carries. Humanoid ears can get blocked or damaged, but sometimes that can help. I really hope mimics are immune to siren song....
The weird one is taste and smell. We mimics don't bother with smell, but the humanoid ability to taste is located only on their tongue, they have another way of sensing stuff in the air. It's linked to their nose, since they need to breathe in air anyway, and apparently its similar but different to taste? I'm not sure how that helps. The whole mess is a huge disadvantage in my opinion. Though I suppose that means they don't have to taste what's on their streets....
Sounds like Shiina could do with a nice pair of boots, at least some of the time...
- Location
- London
Given her trouble with legs I feel like she really needs a rug rather than boots.
Fishing 4
A quick search of the tunnel showed there was actually a thin wall on the side that probably led to somewhere bad. "Okay don't lean on this," she said. Continuing on she made it to the next room, the guards following. This room was another mess of flesh and hairs. A few bloody crusted holes were on the floor. "Uh, think those are the bad holes?"
"Yeah," Thadius said. "Keep an eye out for tunnelers. We'll move to clean them out."
Zanya's sharp voice came from behind. "If there's a chance of ambushers, keep your healer close."
"Ah right." Some of the guards looked more chagrined than others, but they motioned for Shiina and Delilah to follow as they moved towards the holes.
They were about halfway there when Shiina noticed the meaty floor start to move. Small lumps forming and spreading as something tunneled closer. "They're coming," she said. The guards readied their weapons in a loose line.
A horror of sharp black edges attached to a pasty grub body burst free in a shower of gore. The razor worm was at least six feet long and four feet around and it let out a screech as it raised into the air, ready to snap its jaws down on Erudine.
The catgirl swung her bardiche in an arc that slammed into the worm's side. The creature was jerked to the side as its body burst open. More gore spilled out, and the razor worm flopped to the ground, its upper half still trying to attack.
Similar scenes occurred along the line. The sole exception was Lenius, whose spear punctured the creature, but didn't knock it aside. The worm twisted and struck his arm, blood spurting as the razor worm's mouth latched on.
The dog man screamed, twisting the spear and trying to use it to push the creature off. But the worm ignored its guts being torn open. Shiina was reaching out to move closer, when a blast of light pierced the worm's head, leaving a massive hole. The creature spasmed a few more times, then dropped dead.
Delilah moved up to start healing the injured man, while Ife lowered her staff. "Your formation was bad. You should have had the spear users in the middle if these things can ignore deathblows."
The trainee guards looked either chagrined or annoyed at that. "Never happened in practice," Primus muttered. Shiina gave the man a look. Lots of things never happen in practice. She wasn't even that experienced and she knew that!
Speaking of experience, she moved closer to the worms. One of the halves was still twitching and snapping. How would she kill one of those? After a moment she decided poison was probably her best bet. Maybe something caustic that wasn't common in nature. She decided on 'stomach burster' poison and gave the worm a stab.
The grublike body was again surprisingly resilient, but her blade did puncture through. A dark stain appeared on the creatures body and the thrashing increased as the stain spread. Soon a good chunk of the worm was a mottled purple and the creature lay still.
Meanwhile Delilah seemed to have finished her healing. "Is your arm okay now?"
Lenius rolled his shoulder a few times and nodded, his tail wagging slow. "Yeah, thanks. And sorry."
"It's why I'm here," Delilah replied with a smile.
Thadius grinned in return. "And now to move on. Er with a better formation."
"And after I check for traps," Shiina added pointedly.
"Right, right." The fighters parted so Shiina could look over the next passage. This one had some kind of sphincter blocking the way. Probably this thing's version of doors. And she saw veins leading to some type of trap. Time to get to work.
The door was fairly easy. Just a three rune holding, acid, release setup. She cut the link for acid first then the rest. "Okay! Ready to move on."
The next few rooms went smoothly. It was early on, and the worm ambush had gotten the guard crew to pay attention. But as they continued on the difficulty started to ramp up.
Shiina really didn't like the fishmen. The creepy things were about four feet tall, used long stabby weapons, and had a tendency to leap over the battle lines. Worst of she couldn't find a poison that would disable or kill them quickly. She'd had to hunt down their weak points which were mostly in the lung area. Or the gills area? She wasn't certain.
The room they'd just burst into had a dozen of the little annoyances, along with some white slimes and acid pools. Shiina had no idea why there were pools of acid sitting around, but they'd made sure to stay away as much as possible. The guards had set up two lines each between acid pools and were hacking away at the monsters.
As the front lines bottled up, three of the fishmen did their wriggling leaps over the heads of everyone. Ife burned one from the air, and one was heading towards Zanya, but the last turned back towards Delilah. "I got it," Shiina said as she moved to face the creature.
She let her big shield sit just outside her body, while moving her small shield and knife to get ready for the creature's attacks. The fish thing started off poking at her with a trident, so she slapped the weapon away with her buckler. It wasn't a heavy hit though, so the creature was able to get off another stab. This time Shiina slapped it into the meaty ground where the barbs got stuck.
With a quick move she slashed the creature's hamstrings as it tried to pull the trident out. Pain caused it to lose its balance, and she moved a little forwards to stab its chest. A flailing arm turned that into a stomach stab, so Shiina politely gutted the monster. With half its entrails on the ground it didn't resist her killing blow.
Turning back to the fight it looked like things were getting cleaned up. Delilah was healing the bruises that the fishmen had managed to inflict while the rest of the group was finishing off the wounded that were still aggressive.
Shiina let her focus wander in search of hidden valuables. There'd been a few chests along the way and even more hidden pockets of pearls, but there didn't seem to be anything here. "Drat. No money."
Thadius shrugged. "Yeah this is a pretty low return dungeon. We'll get to carve out steaks or something when we leave I guess. Anyway the boss is up ahead. It's a giant spine mite. Kinda flat body, armored, with big spikey antennae and two claws. It's got a nasty jump too, so keep an eye it doesn't land on you."
"Right." Shiina kept a spare escape tendril in the back of her mind so she could call it up fast. She then moved to check the last passage. The final door seemed safe and there weren't any traps on the lead up. Good.
She gave Thadius a side eye when he moved through without officially declaring the place trap free, but it didn't really matter. Instead of complaining she moved to the back of the group.
The bosses room was a large pulsing chamber. Wind and water rushed through in streams from pores in the sides, while an alcove in the back suggested a treasure area. The boss was sitting in the middle of the room, waiting.
As the guards moved in and started to surround it, it began to quiver. Second later it rose up, revealing the creature had been partially burrowed into the floor. It was about twenty feet long, and had antenna just as long up front. In addition two big claws and a multitude of clawed legs scrabbled in the air in anticipation.
Shiina decided she wasn't a fan.
With the beast mostly surrounded the guards started moving in, but the first attack came from the creature. The two thick barbed antenna swept backwards from the creatures face, forcing Primus and Ahmed to block with their heavy weapons.
As the two staggered the rest of the guard group charged. Shiina couldn't keep track of all the attacks, but she was pretty sure most of them drew blood and a few of the creatures legs got severed.
The thing did a spring bending dip and push and flew into the air, straight towards the entrance. Delilah squeaked as Shiina grabbed her and threw a psuedopod where the monster had been. With a mighty pull she flung herself under the jumping arthropod landing in the meaty depression it had carved out while it slammed into the floor where they'd been.
The guard squad rushed after the beast, using their heavy weapons to land hits. This time the monster jumped and spun in place, lashing out with its pincers, but Thadius and Erudine had already dodged. In return one of the mantis arms got a solid crack from a two handed sword.
Shiina was starting to edge forwards when the spine mite spasmed and shuddered before dropping to the ground twitching. She wasn't sure if it was dead to start, but the hacking that followed probably sealed the deal if it wasn't.
One boss defeated.
The guards let out a cheer. "Alright! Time to finish the mission and head back. Wasn't too bad," Thadius said.
Shiina let her focus shift. Delilah was healing up the bruises caused by flailing limbs and antenna. There was a chest and some cash in the alcove. No traps on the chest. And the alcove-
She saw the holes in the ceiling just as Thadius walked past her towards the treasures. "Stop! Don't-"
The razor worm burst from the ceiling and stretched down, mouth open. Shiina stretched out her arm with as much strength as she could. The poisoned dagger hit the skin and punched through into the creature right below the head. The purple death stain started to expand....
The razor worm still buried its maw into Thadius' neck. Blood burst out as the dog man lost the left side of his neck.
A flash of light burned the creature in half and the worm collapsed.
And so did Thadius.
Shiina pulled herself over as fast as she could. The bite had gone almost half way through, and blood was leaking out of holes all over. She had no idea what to do.
Delilah was there a moment later. The half elf started a spell, then stopped and shook her head.
Slowly the other guards joined them. Shiina wanted to hide away, but she had to face them. "I'm sorry. I was too late."
Erudine shook her head slowly. "You warned him to watch out for traps." She knelt by her fallen comrade and moved his half cape over the wound. "Damn it Thadius. We were so close...."
They'd finished the dungeon, but it didn't feel like a victory anymore.
"Seventy percent of adventurers die in their first ten dungeon runs. In places with very heavy training requirements, that number drops to about twenty percent, with another third quitting for something safer, like the army."
That's the first paragraph of the adventurer's study book the Iron Eye guild gives to people. And it's something Mali drilled into me constantly. For that matter I got to see it on some level. Plenty of parties came back out of the dungeon missing one member, or with people saying they were going to quit.
It's a completely different thing to watch someone die personally. Especially someone in your party. Even if it was a temporary thing.
I'm dungeon born. Dungeons are my home and I will probably never stop delving. But if you have any hesitation? Quit now. If you're fine with beating up dungeons half your level and don't want to challenge something hard? Not a bad career. The only way to fail at dungeon delving is to die.
"Yeah," Thadius said. "Keep an eye out for tunnelers. We'll move to clean them out."
Zanya's sharp voice came from behind. "If there's a chance of ambushers, keep your healer close."
"Ah right." Some of the guards looked more chagrined than others, but they motioned for Shiina and Delilah to follow as they moved towards the holes.
They were about halfway there when Shiina noticed the meaty floor start to move. Small lumps forming and spreading as something tunneled closer. "They're coming," she said. The guards readied their weapons in a loose line.
A horror of sharp black edges attached to a pasty grub body burst free in a shower of gore. The razor worm was at least six feet long and four feet around and it let out a screech as it raised into the air, ready to snap its jaws down on Erudine.
The catgirl swung her bardiche in an arc that slammed into the worm's side. The creature was jerked to the side as its body burst open. More gore spilled out, and the razor worm flopped to the ground, its upper half still trying to attack.
Similar scenes occurred along the line. The sole exception was Lenius, whose spear punctured the creature, but didn't knock it aside. The worm twisted and struck his arm, blood spurting as the razor worm's mouth latched on.
The dog man screamed, twisting the spear and trying to use it to push the creature off. But the worm ignored its guts being torn open. Shiina was reaching out to move closer, when a blast of light pierced the worm's head, leaving a massive hole. The creature spasmed a few more times, then dropped dead.
Delilah moved up to start healing the injured man, while Ife lowered her staff. "Your formation was bad. You should have had the spear users in the middle if these things can ignore deathblows."
The trainee guards looked either chagrined or annoyed at that. "Never happened in practice," Primus muttered. Shiina gave the man a look. Lots of things never happen in practice. She wasn't even that experienced and she knew that!
Speaking of experience, she moved closer to the worms. One of the halves was still twitching and snapping. How would she kill one of those? After a moment she decided poison was probably her best bet. Maybe something caustic that wasn't common in nature. She decided on 'stomach burster' poison and gave the worm a stab.
The grublike body was again surprisingly resilient, but her blade did puncture through. A dark stain appeared on the creatures body and the thrashing increased as the stain spread. Soon a good chunk of the worm was a mottled purple and the creature lay still.
Meanwhile Delilah seemed to have finished her healing. "Is your arm okay now?"
Lenius rolled his shoulder a few times and nodded, his tail wagging slow. "Yeah, thanks. And sorry."
"It's why I'm here," Delilah replied with a smile.
Thadius grinned in return. "And now to move on. Er with a better formation."
"And after I check for traps," Shiina added pointedly.
"Right, right." The fighters parted so Shiina could look over the next passage. This one had some kind of sphincter blocking the way. Probably this thing's version of doors. And she saw veins leading to some type of trap. Time to get to work.
The door was fairly easy. Just a three rune holding, acid, release setup. She cut the link for acid first then the rest. "Okay! Ready to move on."
The next few rooms went smoothly. It was early on, and the worm ambush had gotten the guard crew to pay attention. But as they continued on the difficulty started to ramp up.
Shiina really didn't like the fishmen. The creepy things were about four feet tall, used long stabby weapons, and had a tendency to leap over the battle lines. Worst of she couldn't find a poison that would disable or kill them quickly. She'd had to hunt down their weak points which were mostly in the lung area. Or the gills area? She wasn't certain.
The room they'd just burst into had a dozen of the little annoyances, along with some white slimes and acid pools. Shiina had no idea why there were pools of acid sitting around, but they'd made sure to stay away as much as possible. The guards had set up two lines each between acid pools and were hacking away at the monsters.
As the front lines bottled up, three of the fishmen did their wriggling leaps over the heads of everyone. Ife burned one from the air, and one was heading towards Zanya, but the last turned back towards Delilah. "I got it," Shiina said as she moved to face the creature.
She let her big shield sit just outside her body, while moving her small shield and knife to get ready for the creature's attacks. The fish thing started off poking at her with a trident, so she slapped the weapon away with her buckler. It wasn't a heavy hit though, so the creature was able to get off another stab. This time Shiina slapped it into the meaty ground where the barbs got stuck.
With a quick move she slashed the creature's hamstrings as it tried to pull the trident out. Pain caused it to lose its balance, and she moved a little forwards to stab its chest. A flailing arm turned that into a stomach stab, so Shiina politely gutted the monster. With half its entrails on the ground it didn't resist her killing blow.
Turning back to the fight it looked like things were getting cleaned up. Delilah was healing the bruises that the fishmen had managed to inflict while the rest of the group was finishing off the wounded that were still aggressive.
Shiina let her focus wander in search of hidden valuables. There'd been a few chests along the way and even more hidden pockets of pearls, but there didn't seem to be anything here. "Drat. No money."
Thadius shrugged. "Yeah this is a pretty low return dungeon. We'll get to carve out steaks or something when we leave I guess. Anyway the boss is up ahead. It's a giant spine mite. Kinda flat body, armored, with big spikey antennae and two claws. It's got a nasty jump too, so keep an eye it doesn't land on you."
"Right." Shiina kept a spare escape tendril in the back of her mind so she could call it up fast. She then moved to check the last passage. The final door seemed safe and there weren't any traps on the lead up. Good.
She gave Thadius a side eye when he moved through without officially declaring the place trap free, but it didn't really matter. Instead of complaining she moved to the back of the group.
The bosses room was a large pulsing chamber. Wind and water rushed through in streams from pores in the sides, while an alcove in the back suggested a treasure area. The boss was sitting in the middle of the room, waiting.
As the guards moved in and started to surround it, it began to quiver. Second later it rose up, revealing the creature had been partially burrowed into the floor. It was about twenty feet long, and had antenna just as long up front. In addition two big claws and a multitude of clawed legs scrabbled in the air in anticipation.
Shiina decided she wasn't a fan.
With the beast mostly surrounded the guards started moving in, but the first attack came from the creature. The two thick barbed antenna swept backwards from the creatures face, forcing Primus and Ahmed to block with their heavy weapons.
As the two staggered the rest of the guard group charged. Shiina couldn't keep track of all the attacks, but she was pretty sure most of them drew blood and a few of the creatures legs got severed.
The thing did a spring bending dip and push and flew into the air, straight towards the entrance. Delilah squeaked as Shiina grabbed her and threw a psuedopod where the monster had been. With a mighty pull she flung herself under the jumping arthropod landing in the meaty depression it had carved out while it slammed into the floor where they'd been.
The guard squad rushed after the beast, using their heavy weapons to land hits. This time the monster jumped and spun in place, lashing out with its pincers, but Thadius and Erudine had already dodged. In return one of the mantis arms got a solid crack from a two handed sword.
Shiina was starting to edge forwards when the spine mite spasmed and shuddered before dropping to the ground twitching. She wasn't sure if it was dead to start, but the hacking that followed probably sealed the deal if it wasn't.
One boss defeated.
The guards let out a cheer. "Alright! Time to finish the mission and head back. Wasn't too bad," Thadius said.
Shiina let her focus shift. Delilah was healing up the bruises caused by flailing limbs and antenna. There was a chest and some cash in the alcove. No traps on the chest. And the alcove-
She saw the holes in the ceiling just as Thadius walked past her towards the treasures. "Stop! Don't-"
The razor worm burst from the ceiling and stretched down, mouth open. Shiina stretched out her arm with as much strength as she could. The poisoned dagger hit the skin and punched through into the creature right below the head. The purple death stain started to expand....
The razor worm still buried its maw into Thadius' neck. Blood burst out as the dog man lost the left side of his neck.
A flash of light burned the creature in half and the worm collapsed.
And so did Thadius.
Shiina pulled herself over as fast as she could. The bite had gone almost half way through, and blood was leaking out of holes all over. She had no idea what to do.
Delilah was there a moment later. The half elf started a spell, then stopped and shook her head.
Slowly the other guards joined them. Shiina wanted to hide away, but she had to face them. "I'm sorry. I was too late."
Erudine shook her head slowly. "You warned him to watch out for traps." She knelt by her fallen comrade and moved his half cape over the wound. "Damn it Thadius. We were so close...."
They'd finished the dungeon, but it didn't feel like a victory anymore.
"Seventy percent of adventurers die in their first ten dungeon runs. In places with very heavy training requirements, that number drops to about twenty percent, with another third quitting for something safer, like the army."
That's the first paragraph of the adventurer's study book the Iron Eye guild gives to people. And it's something Mali drilled into me constantly. For that matter I got to see it on some level. Plenty of parties came back out of the dungeon missing one member, or with people saying they were going to quit.
It's a completely different thing to watch someone die personally. Especially someone in your party. Even if it was a temporary thing.
I'm dungeon born. Dungeons are my home and I will probably never stop delving. But if you have any hesitation? Quit now. If you're fine with beating up dungeons half your level and don't want to challenge something hard? Not a bad career. The only way to fail at dungeon delving is to die.
Looking back, the biggest mistake was made here:
But the man had already been warned, I don't think he would have listened anyway, and it is so, so easy to think everything will be fine.
Probably one of the most important advice she could give to anyone.
Sometimes the price really isn't worth it.