The Mimic in Monsterland

Every morning began the same way. I would go to sleep in the forest and wake up in a camp of gremlins. It wasn’t always in a cave, however. The little guys set up shop all over the place. One morning would be in a camp in the forest, next by the river, next in the middle of a grass field. Then bloodshed ensued, mostly gremlin blood at least.

It was pretty taxing the first few days; I would fall asleep almost as soon as we made camp. Len never once divulged how he moved me without me ever noticing. Or the gremlins for that matter.

They became easier and easier to fight, especially when I was in a creature form.

One night, when I wasn’t completely exhausted, Len asked me to talk about mimics while he grabbed his leather journal and began preparing to write. I told him how they were mostly known for laying ambushes. How the most common type would hide as treasure chests. They didn’t have those in this world, much to my disappointment. Always wanted to know what they felt like to open with my own bare hands. It also felt like a disservice, giving me a mimic form but having no chests to mimic.

I continued with how they could mimic other objects as well but the common thread was they usually guarded treasure. He was shocked to hear mimicking creatures wasn’t in any of the records, considering how integral it was to my powerset.

But this was a different world, so the rules would be different too. After finishing my explanation, he closed his book and spoke.

“Okay, I believe I have a good enough grasp now. Let’s talk about what happened with the feather.”

A rush of embarrassment washed over me. I wanted to forget about that event.

“Sorry again for that.”

“No need. That outburst of yours is pretty common. You see, all of us, the spliced, go through something like that. And I’d be lying if I told you this will be the last time it shows its ugly head. Part of the cost of having the power of a monster flowing through our blood…” He closed his fist and flared his powers, which caused the campfire to grow a few feet.

”Is that we also get some of their … mmm predilections. Or maybe behaviors might be the better word. It's sort of like when you first used your Apis form. You got hyperactive and playful. Those are common personality traits of people with monkey genes. But what you felt when your feather was missing is the next step up. It’s more like glimpsing at the true essence of that monster inside you.” He waved his hand over the fire and seemingly grabbed it. The flames now sat in his palm. “When you look at these flames what do you see?”

I went to answer but Len continued.

“Is it power? The power to destroy anything.” The flames grew violent in his hand, raging even. Their heat was so intense, I worried he was about to catch the surrounding trees on fire. “Or do these flames bring light and warmth and ultimately life?” The flames grew calm in his hand. They didn’t die out or shrink, just condensed into one brilliant plume gently swaying in the breeze. Much like the fire of a lit candle. “If only monsters cared for that.” There was a listlessness to how he said those words. “No, the instinct I fight is hunger. The want, no need to consume all around. To let my flames spread and spread until every living and nonliving thing is devoured by my all-consuming flames. Until I alone stand on the ashes of those I consumed.”

He closed his fist killing the flame in his palm and reigniting the campfire. He took his seat and looked over to me. “And it looks like your fight might not be so different. From what you have told me about mimics, you share an overwhelming desire to gather and hoard. Or something along those lines. Yours is probably closer to greed rather than my gluttony. But it is something you have to fight, otherwise you will become just another monster in this world already filled to the brim. But that’s enough for tonight. We can discuss it more in the upcoming weeks. You have a lot of training ahead of you.”

Once he finished, he stood up and walked over to his sleeping area and lied down. He started snoring almost immediately. It was comically loud, like the man slept with a chainsaw at the ready. Like a warrior lumberjack forced to sleep with his weapon at the ready lest he be caught unawares by a group of deadly trees. I chuckled at the amusing thought. I wondered if there are tree monsters in this world. With that thought, I shrugged and crawled into my tree tent.

After eight days of the gremlin wake up routine, I leveled up.

You Leveled Up! Nice Going! You are now Level 2!

The notification appeared after a fight with a group of ten gremlins rudely awakened by my sudden appearance. It was a relatively quick battle; the gremlins never strayed from their usual tactics, which made manipulating the fight quite simple.

I rushed over to Len as soon as the fight ended. He was, of course, occupied with writing in his journal. I asked a few times what exactly he was writing, but his only response was “Notes.”

He dropped his pen and tilted his head with his mouth opened slightly. He slowly turned his head towards me.

“What?” Len asked.

“I finally hit level two. I thought it was going to take forever. It sucks how I can’t check how much experience I need to level up.” That last line was more directed to a certain sassy voice, but she didn’t take the bait.

“Character sheet. Now.”

Familiar text appeared in front of my vision.

[Share Your Character Sheet with: “Leonard Ainsworth”]

[Yes] [No]

I clicked yes and decided I would look at my sheet as well.

Liam Foster

Level: 2

Race: Human

Monster Gene: Mimic

Stats:

Health Points: 100 + 20 = 120

Stamina: 250 + 20 = 270

Mana: 100 + 20 = 120

Strength: 15 + 3 = 18

Dexterity: 15 + 3 = 18

Agility: 15 + 3 = 18

Constitution: 15 + 3 = 18

Intelligence: 15 + 3 = 18

Wisdom: 15 + 3 = 18

Charisma: 16 + 3 = 19

Abilities:

Active:

Mimicry (Object) (lvl 3): Copy the likeness of one object. You gain the stats of the object while active. May be canceled at any time. [Recorded Entries]

Mimicry (Creature) (lvl 2): Mimic one creature of your choice. This may include stats, abilities, spells and other aspects. May be canceled at any time. [Recorded Entries]

Passive:

Learned Behavior: You may gain a portion of the stats and/ or abilities from a mimicked monster. Benefits given depend on the creature mimed and only given if you become adequately proficient in that form. With higher proficiency, benefits may increase.

Dark Sight - See in the dark. Up to 10m.

Spells:

None

Hmm. Threes across the board. I wondered how this would affect me. Would I notice the boost in strength or speed? Or does it take a lot of levels to see the progress?

Looks like my mimicry abilities leveled up too. Why didn’t I get any notifications about those? Weird. I asked Tutor.

“Why didn’t you tell me stuff was leveling up?”

“Not my job dude.” Dismissing my question as per usual.

“I don't know why I bother asking.” I took a deep breath. With little hope for a positive answer, I asked, “Would you let me know if those changes occur? Please.”

“Like I said, not my… what?” She paused in the middle of her response.

“I don’t think it's that complicated.” I said.

“Not you. Ugh Fine. Looks like it is now my job to notify you when there are noteworthy changes in your abilities. All my years doing this and I’m reduced to a ringtone.”

“Wait, what do you mean years doing this?” I asked.

“Nothing, ignore that. Oh, by the way, your mimicry skills have leveled up.”

I was about to respond with a snarky comment until Len spoke up.

“You actually did level up. But how? That's way too fast.”

Why was he so confused by the level up? I definitely killed over 50 gremlins in that past week. In video game logic, that would probably be more like two or three levels. I was worried it was taking too long to level up. I guess it might be a bit slower here on Kniyas.

“Is it that strange? I have been decimating those gremlins for a while now.” Len just shook his head.

“You don’t understand. Most don’t get to level 2 until they are ten years old. They don’t start training until five, but even under the strictest training regiments you might see someone hit level 2 by nine, but that’s a rarity. You leveled up in a couple of days. You were fighting real monsters and not practice dummies so I expected it to be quick, but like months. Not days.” He went back to reading my sheet.

I flinched at that. Months is a long time to be scrapping with gremlins. But five years to get to a single level. What does the experience curve look like for this world? Do monsters give an insane amount of XP compared to regular training? But even then, it wouldn’t make much sense.

I hadn’t put much thought into it at the time, but Len said that most 18 year-olds were level 5. I figured they didn’t start training until they were in their teens. Not as early as five. Isn’t that unhealthy for children? But this meant Len was prepared to stay out here a couple of years to train me. That’s a daunting thought. Years in the woods with no one except a voice in my head and a middle-aged flame wizard.

But Len hadn’t finished remarking about my level up. “Your stat gains are so evenly spread.”

“Is that weird?” I said.

“Yes. Your first level is considered the most important. It normally guides you into what type of splicer you will be. Whether you are frontline fighting material or backline support. Your starting spread isn’t uncommon. Having 15 in every stat at level 1 is on the higher end but for a level up to give you the same gains for each stat is… different to say the least.”

He paused his explanation while grabbing his journal. He went to a page labeled Liam Stat Spread.

“You normally get around five or six points in two stats. We call these your Primary stats and are mostly determined by your gene.” He pointed to a column on the page named Primary. He wrote N/A under it.

“My primaries are charisma and dex. Which is normal for us elementals. Our powers come from the strength of our inner being, otherwise known as charisma, and dexterity helps us mold that power. Splicers also have two stats that get no points on a level up. These are your detrimental stats.” Under Detrimental he wrote the same N/A.

“These are the stats that normally define your role. You can’t have a tank whose constitution will never increase or a spell slinger with stagnant intelligence.” He stopped talking and wrote more in his journal.

I wondered what this meant for me. Am I getting a 3+ increase each level? It seems pretty low. It also makes me wonder about the stat changes from the creature forms. They don’t amount to much as they are. Take Ursa. The rage ability gives a huge boost to my fighting prowess, but the stat changes inherent to the form seem kinda negligible.

“Are the gains the same at every level?” I asked.

“No, the actual numbers usually fluctuate, but the distribution is always the same. For you, this means your level ups will always look like that.” He picked up his notebook and began furiously writing in it. I asked him a few more questions, but he just told me to take the day off and go do something.

That level up changed how Len handled my training. The next morning, I opened my eyes, ready for the gremlins. But there wasn’t any. I woke up falling out of a tree. I caught myself on a branch below. My chest hurt from the impact. I ignored it and began pulling myself up.

It felt awesome being able to pull up my full body weight; in my last life, pull-ups were a struggle even when I was in good shape. Now I could do it without breaking a sweat. As I finished and found my footing, I straightened out my back and came face to face with a pair of small black eyes I swear I had seen before.

Oh a jackanape, those little monkey guys. My realization came too late though. The tree came alive with their terrible yowls and screeching. I clenched my ears. I could feel my brain melting like last time. But the past few weeks have sharpened my thinking in the heat of battle. I can beat this. So I turned on Apis form.

As the fur grew on my body, Ignorant Ears activated and the sounds of the screeching stopped bothering me. It sounded like a lovely serenade now. A grin formed on my face. The jackanape in front of me attempted to screech louder. Its face met my fist with an awful crunch. Probably broke something. Its body fell to the forest floor below. A good fifty feet by the looks of it. Splat!

“Eww.”

Normal people would probably be terrified by the height, but Apis form delighted in the thrill. I spun my tail around the branch I was on and leaned far over the side, looking for more of the loud monkeys. My next target was yowling in a branch a tree over. I squatted down and bounded across. I landed on its branch and delivered a swift kick to its noggin. Second verse, same as the first. Turned into monkey paste.

I gazed over at the branch I jumped from and the grin grew into a full-blown smile. A thought blossomed in my mind. Oh, this is gonna be fun.

Len met me at the bottom of the tree. I was covered head to toe in scratches and bite marks but happy as a lark. I relayed the battle to him.

After taking out about four jackanapes, they wised up and stopped using their song ability. The rest came at me among the branches. But I knew how they fought, so dispatching the other six was no problem at all.

I was about to do my whole log form healing, but Len stopped me. He crossed his arms and spoke. “You know, that was supposed to be a challenge.” He said.

“Would this be a bad time to say it was a ton of fun?” I smirked while saying it.

“It's because of Apis form. I just kind of know their attack patterns and abuse them. I did the same with the gremlins.”

Len nodded at my statement. “Then this training method won’t work so well.”

“Why, I just need to level up right? I want to go to the city and I need to be level five for that. So beating the hell out of these guys is a good way to level.”

He shook his head before he continued. “That was the original plan, but it looks like you’re gonna progress too quickly. Getting levels is important, but I thought we would be out here for a few years. I would have more time to teach you real battle strategy and techniques, not just the instincts you’ve been relying on.”

My tail flicked. Looks like my previous suspicions were correct, Len was ready for the long haul on this one. I questioned him about the timeline he had in mind. “How long do you think it will take till I’m level five?”

“At the current rate, maybe half a year. I’ll have a better estimate when you level up again. Side note, is your health sufficient?”

After seeing it was at about 80%, I responded with “Yeah, it's good.”

“And stamina?”

The green bar was a little over half. “Over half. Why?”

“Because today’s training isn’t done yet.”

I heard more of the lovely screeching off in the distance. I hopped to the nearest branch and rushed up the tree. A wild grin blossomed on my face once again as I waited for the new group to come. Waiting for my fun to start again.