Chapter 72: Seventy

“Come on, Kip! Put your back into it. I thought dwarves were meant to be good at mining?” Pia jeered as Kip and Victoria worked in tandem to chip away the stone bottom of the sarcophagus.

 

“I’m a merchant, not a miner,” the dwarf grunted in response. 

 

A loud crash, followed by an expletive from Kip, drew my attention to where he and Victoria had stopped chipping away at the stone bottom of the sarcophagus. Packing away Trismegistus’s book, which I’d been reading whilst I waited. I stood and moved over to the sarcophagus where the pair had created a hole that looked just large enough for my vulpine form to fit inside. 

 

“We’re running out of time,” Victoria said, eyes flicking between me and the hole. “The stone is too thick, and by the time we make the hole large enough for a person to fit through, the boss will have revived. We don’t even know if there is anything down there worth all this effort.” 

 

“You can’t be suggesting we send Kadia down by herself, she doesn’t know the first thing about traps. She’ll get herself killed.” Kip spluttered, and I pinned my ears back in indignation at his assumption I wasn’t smart enough to know how to avoid traps. 

 

Shoving the dwarf aside with my shoulder, I allowed my human form to melt away and leapt into the sarcophagus. Seconds before I jumped into the hole, a large hand closed around the scruff of my neck, and I was yanked back out of the sarcophagus. 

 

“You don’t just go crawling into holes Foxy, you’ve got no idea what could be in there.” Victoria scolded, holding me up at eye level.

 

“Yeah, at least put a condom on first.” Pia chirped.

 

 I let out a whine of annoyance both at being held up in the air by my scruff, and the Faun’s poorly made joke. The thought of biting or burning the Kijo holding me was a tempting one, but considering Victoria grew up with six brothers, I was pretty sure she was capable of some inventive punishments. I still didn’t know how she managed it, I could barely stand having one annoying sibling, let alone six, five of which were younger. Considering that, I didn’t blame her for, as Pia put it, ‘ditching them’ in favor of being captain of her own team. The Kijo’s brothers, all Orcs, were teamed together with the older of the six being the team captain. 

 

“Rainy, wrap a vine around Foxy so we can tug her out if needed, and use a second one to gag Bambi.” The captain ordered, and I craned my head around as the faun let out a squeak, before making a hasty retreat across the room to escape the vine chasing after her. 

 

Twin tails wagging with glee, I let out an excited yip as I watched Pia get tripped up by the vine coiling around her feet, and dragged across the floor by her ankles. As Pia clawed at the ground, dramatically acting out a frantic attempt to escape, another vine wrapped itself around my body forming a makeshift harness. 

 

“Tug on the vine if you need to be pulled out.” The captain ordered.

 

Letting out a short yip in confirmation, I conjured a small flicker of flame to light up the darkness as I was lowered into the hole. I didn’t need to be lowered far, as I soon landed on a set of stairs that descended from the head of the sarcophagus. Cautiously, I edged down the stairs, testing each one with a paw before moving my weight onto it fully to check for any pressure activated traps. 

 

 I wasn’t cautious enough however, as halfway down I managed to activate a trap that had a dozen pendulum shaped blades swinging in and out of the walls. Darting forwards, I made it past the first blade, which sliced into my safety vine on its backwards swing. 

 

“You still alive down there?” Kip shouted, and I let out a loud answering yip, before rushing past the next blade as it disappeared into the wall. 

 

What a dumb question, you can feel I’m alive if you focus on the team rings. After making it through the swinging blades, I found myself standing on the last step, staring out at a room filled with shimmering gold coins, jewelry, weapons, armor and other random items like a white fur cloak. Treading carefully, I stepped into the room, half expecting to fall into a pit trap or for some other unfortunate chain of events to occur and claim my life. 

 

When nothing happened, I moved closer to the treasures, headed straight for the gold when something laying propped up against a shield caught my eye. 

 

My wagasa! What’s it doing here? Shifting back into my human form, I snatched up the umbrella, inspecting it for any signs of damage. Seeing it was intact, I turned my attention to the other weapons with more interest. 

 

Are these things all items that people have lost in the dungeon? I guess that makes sense, the dungeon would have no use for them, so it dumps them all here. I bet the Whispers send someone in every few days to clear out the loot, if not, then there would be mana crystals in here. I concluded after a cursory glance around the room showed no signs of the crystals growing, plus there were some faint tool marks on the walls and ground, indicating someone had been using a pickaxe in those locations. 

 

There isn’t as much treasure in here as I’d assume a pharaoh would have, so I guess the Whispers already claimed the loot originally belonging to the Pharaoh, and this is all from those who’ve died or dropped items in the dungeon. 

 

A sharp pain clawing at my right hand which held the wagasa had me letting out a shocked cry, and I looked down to see half a dozen thin gray tentacles were wrapped around my wrist. Snarling, I tried to claw the tentacles off my wrist, while also trying to let go of the wagasa from which the tentacles appeared to be growing. 

 

"Get off!" I screeched, fire coating my arms, and surging over the gray tentacles encircling my wrist.

 

Screams resounded around the room as I tried to fight off the mimic. I was screaming, the wagasa was screaming, the pile of gold was screaming.

 

Freezing in place, I stared in horror at the gold before sending a wave of fire in that direction. The pile of gold let out another ear shattering scream, and coins went rolling across the floor as a second much larger mimic revealed itself.

 

"Like fuck am I dying and losing my second tail right after I got it!"

 

I shouldn’t have left Pyr behind to play torch for the others. I despaired as I tightened my grip on the wagasa, which tightened its own hold on my arm in return.  

 

As I struck out with the pointed tip of the wagasa, stabbing it into one of the bigger mimic’s tentacles, the mimic who’d taken the form of the wagasa shifted away from my wrist. The wagasa rippled, and I watched in fascination as the mimic seemed to flow down it to attack the mimic I’d stabbed. Pulling back the wagasa, I slashed and stabbed at the tentacles while using my left hand to direct fireballs into the center of the creature. With each stab of the wagasa, the mimic attached to it morphed a sharp toothed maw around the pointed metal tip of the weapon, biting down on the opposing mimic. 

 

I didn’t know why the creature possessing my wagasa was aiding me, when moments ago it was trying to eat my hand, but so long as it continued to attack the larger mimic, I would leave it be. 

 

“Submit to death!” Screaming out my battle cry, I grabbed the wagasa with both hands and using all my strength, stabbed it into the coin-covered mimic. 

 

A wave of power flowed through my left hand, causing the mimic-possessed umbrella to whimper as the power passed through it and into the mimic I’d just stabbed, which let out a piercing shriek. The pile of coins shuddered and shook, before collapsing to the ground. Coins rolled across the floor in all directions, and the tip of the wagasa that was once pierced through rubbery flesh now impaled a round gray orb.

 

“Oi, spit it out,” I scolded, forgetting I was talking to a mimic and not Leo, when a long tongue curled around the cracked orb, trying to pull it into a toothy maw. 

 

Whining, the mimic spat the orb back out onto the floor, the mouth and tentacles retreating into the wagasa, leaving it with the appearance of a normal oriental umbrella. 

 

Did it listen to me? It’s not attacking me either. How strange, it feels like Leo does. Did I bond with it? 

 

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“Get out of the wagasa.” I ordered, tapping the tip of the wagasa on the ground. 

 

Faint feelings of reluctance and fear brushed across my mind, before what looked like dark gray slime dripped off the wagasa to form a puddle on the floor. Nudging the slime with the toe of my boot, I watched as the puddle quickly rose to cling to the leather, sinking into the boot and disappearing from sight. 

 

“Interesting.”

 

 The mimics in Avalon weren’t like this from what I can recall, and they couldn’t be tamed either. That didn’t stop Corvus from sneaking a chair mimic into my lab, though. Those mimics didn’t leave the item they were pretending to be when they died, and stayed as what they were mimicking when dead. Unlike those, these mimics seem to be a form of slime or similar gelatinous creature that melds with the item. I thought as I lifted my foot to inspect the mimic possessed boot.

 

Upon observation, the mimic shows signs of distress when not merged with an item, and I suspect a ‘formless’ mimic is significantly weaker than those who have merged into an item. I have also noted a difference in the size of the mimics located in the treasure room; those of a large slime form can merge with larger items and appear to have an increased level of strength. The smaller mimics can not merge with an item that is larger than its form can completely cover. I believe the cores left behind after the death of a mimic to be similar to those produced by-.

 

“Foxy! What the heck? We’re up there getting our asses whipped by the boss, and you’re down here reading books?”

 

Huh? Boss? Looking up from my notebook, I saw a flushed looking Pia stomping across the room towards me. What was Pia doing in my lab? Wait, this is the dungeon! Leaping to my feet, I quickly stuffed my notebook and pen into my bag, as my cheeks burned with shame. 

 

“I’m so sorry, I got distracted.” I babbled, waving my hand at the items near my feet, each containing one of the two mimics I’d tamed in the treasure room. 

 

There’d been five of the creatures hidden in the room, but of those five I’d only been able to overpower and bond with two. Aside from the larger coin mimic, there’d been one hiding in a tower shield and one in a white fur cloak that had been killed, each leaving behind a pale gray orb. The second mimic I’d tamed was a quarter the size of the one that possessed my wagasa, and was hiding inside a pen, which had tried rolling itself away into a corner to hide when I’d killed the fur cloak. 

 

“You found your wagasa? Seriously, you were down here for over an hour because of your shitty umbrella?” The Faun shrieked, kicking out a hoof towards the aforementioned wagasa. 

 

The moment Pia’s foot made contact with the wagasa, gray tentacles latched onto her ankle, and before I could stop it, the mimic bit down on the Faun’s leg. 

 

Letting out a shriek, the Faun shook her leg and swung her spear downwards to impale the mimic which had latched onto her. 

 

“Stop!” I shouted, rushing to grab onto the spear and kicking the wagasa away from the Faun as it released her. 

 

“Foxy let go, that thing is a mimic.” Pia shouted, yanking her spear out of my grasp. 

 

“It’s my mimic,” I explained, shifting to block her as she tried to move around me. 

 

“Your mimic? What do you mean by your mimic?” The Faun demanded. 

 

“I kind of tamed it, well, two of them actually.” I admitted, relaxing slightly as she lowered her spear. 

 

Telling the story of my encounter with the mimics didn’t take long, and soon we were packing our bags with the items in the room, while Pia filled me in on the events in the boss room. Apparently, not long after I’d gone into the sarcophagus, the stone coffin had sealed itself, much to the shock of my team. Shortly after that, the lid of the sarcophagus had flown off as the boss rose from within. During the ensuing battle, the team had struggled to bring down the boss, and Kip was flung clear across the room, his skull crushed by the impact. With the dwarf’s death, the boss got even stronger as it fed on the mana released from Kip’s core. 

 

“If not for Commander Rodericks team showing up when they did, we’d have wiped.” Pia explained, stroking her hands over an ornate round shield. “Healer Dorian was even able to revive Kip, which means he won’t lose as much power as he would have if his core needed to regenerate an entire new body.” 

 

“Was my brother with them?” I asked, glancing towards the stairs, but Pia shook her head. 

 

“No, just Commander Roderick's personal team. They were coming down for a redemption run after they failed to reach the boss their first run through,” the Faun snickered, swapping out her own shield for the one from the loot pile. 

 

“This is mine, I’ve always had it.” She informed me of this matter-of-factly as she put her old shield into the backpack we were storing the loot in. 

 

“I’m surprised you’re the only one who came down.” 

 

“I was the first one who could fit, everyone else was too broad for the hole that Victoria and Roderick were able to make. I’d say it won’t be long before Kip and the dwarf from the commander's team come down.” 

 

“Bastian,” I informed her, stuffing the white fur cloak into one of my personal bags. “This is mine, I’ve always had it.” 

 

“This is Kips, he’s always had it.” Pia replied, putting a thick gold ring into a pouch. 

 

“These are Vickys, she’s always had them.” I added, grabbing a pair of silver bracers. 

 

“Was it the green necklace or the blue that Rainy’s always had?” The Faun asked, holding up a pair of pretty necklaces. 

 

“I think she had both.” 

 

“Yeah, now that you mention it, she did, didn’t she?” Pia said with a snicker, tucking the necklaces away into a pouch. 

 

As Pia predicted, Kip and Bastian soon found their way into the room, with Kip immediately making his way to the gold coins we’d yet to begin picking up. The dwarf was giddy at first, thinking I’d spent the last hour laboring away, packing up mounds of treasure. Only for Pia to cheerily inform him she’d found me scribbling away in a notebook, completely oblivious to the treasure or the fact I was still technically inside a dungeon. 

 

Cheeks as red as my hair, I silently stuffed handfuls of gold into a bag, whilst the two dwarves stared at me with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. When we exited back out into the boss room, bags heavy with loot, Pia once more told her tale of finding me sitting amongst the treasure scribbling away in a book. I prayed for the ability to transmute myself into air and disappear, but sadly it seemed Trismegistus either wasn’t listening or took too much amusement in my embarrassment to fulfill my prayer.