The Mimic in Monsterland

Why, as humans, couldn't we be blessed with the biological ability to shut off our noses? We can close our eyes at anything distasteful. And my ex-girlfriend was great at shutting her ears to any complaints I had, instead just shoving another stupid short clip in my face. But smells, nope, we get to experience all the horrifying musks and odors the world throws our way. Sure, we can close them with our hands, but we still have to breathe. And sadly, the sense of taste and smell are connected.

On the Kniyan side of the argument, I feel like it would make tons of sense for mimics to have an ability that blocks out their sense of smell. I’m positive the dungeons that most mimics live in can’t smell great. They have to be filled to the brim with mold, mildew, and all sorts of other nasty things that traipse around. Not a lot of fresh air blowing through the many sealed rooms. But no. Even in the object forms, sense of smell works perfectly. I’m pretty sure the healing thing that happens clears out my sinuses, so I smell crap even better when I’m a damn rock.

I was, of course, lamenting because of the bodies I’d been working with lately. I found more gardenia sprouts inside the corpse pile. Exclusively inside the monsters’ stomachs. My current theory was this is how the flowers spread themselves out. They let themselves be eaten, and if the monster died while the seeds were inside, they would consume the nutrients of its host. The flowers must lose the energizing effect once they have taken all the nutrients from the corpse.

Only problem I saw with my theory: what if the monster didn’t die? Can the seeds just live in monster stomach juices indefinitely? Are the seeds poisonous? Do they kill whoever eats them? I only ever ate the petals, never cared for seeds, so I just didn’t try them. Glad my picky tastes came in handy for once.

The brittle bones were my best clue at which bodies contained seeds. Issue was, digging through that many decaying corpses was no bueno. Like at all. I used spears and other tools to move the bodies off the pile and examine them, but the stench. I lost a few lunches.

But I really wanted to see this magical flower thing through. I was serious about wanting a form of income when I got to the city. Len probably would have set me up with something, but I needed to be self-sufficient. It's how I was raised. And I owed Len plenty already; the guy not only saved my life but also helped me survive out here. These little magical flowers seemed like a great solution.

Every time I found a body potentially containing some seeds, I dug a new hole and planted the whole carcass in the ground. Funnily enough, it was working. I spent the last week on this and some buds were popping up out of the ground.

The smell of the rotting corpses must not agree with monsters either, because they stayed far away from the new plants. I guess that's a positive. One of the boar's bodies slid off the pile and its stomach ruptured, releasing another fetid blast of death into the air. "You know, there are probably better ways of making a living." Tutor pointed out.

"Yeah, but I can work on this now." I replied.

I grabbed a nonmagical flower petal out of my pouch and chewed on it. As ironic as it may be, chewing on the flowers really helped mask the scent. Not completely. But it was better than stewing in it.

After a prod at the boar's head, the skull crumbled. ”Another one. Probably going to be the last for today.” There is no way to accurately describe how thoroughly done I was with digging around in monster guts.

Last week wasn’t completely devoid of monsters. They popped up a couple times while I was researching. A few moose and some boars that I demolished quickly in Tigris form. I wasn’t focusing on training right now, so I just handled the monsters with my best form. It even gained a new ability after it hit proficiency level 3.

 

TIGRIS - Proficiency Level: 3

Abilities:

Pinnacle of Nature:

Blah Blah Blah strong when at full health.

Eternal Shade:

Create an aura of darkness surrounding your body. Size and intensity of aura increases with proficiency.

 

Ooh, edgy preteen Liam would be freaking out right now. Now that I think about it, I guess I am edgy teenage Liam again. Not mundane over-thirty Liam. Eternal Shade, what a name. Must be the ability the tanther used all those weeks ago. The unnatural darkness that surrounded it amongst the trees. I had to try it out immediately. After I wash off the decaying monster bits, that is.

 

After a rinse in the biting water, I shifted into Tigris form and started roaming the forest. I could use another fresh carcass for the food pile. Saving the meat was slowly becoming a pain. A thaw was coming to the forest and I couldn’t just freeze the leftovers outside at night. I had to gorge myself on some not so fresh meat a couple nights in a row. I also didn’t have any salt to cure the meat. Not that I had any idea how. A lesson gramps never got around to.

I ventured to my hunting grounds, ready to teach any insignificant speck its place… stop. I shook my head. Bad Liam. Quit with the hubris.

What’s the best way to test this ability? It's the first ability that actually changes the world around me, not just a boost to my body. I could hardly contain my excitement. My hips swayed back and forth for a second before finally activating the ability.

Darkness poured out of my body like a steady stream, but in every direction. It moved outwards about 3 feet away from my body before it stopped. It filled up around me until the darkness was all I could see. But my eyes pulsed green and I could see through the darkness almost perfectly. It felt like I was in a see-through egg that had a slight tint. I moved my hands around and found there to be a slight resistance. This darkness wasn’t just the absence of light, but something tangible. Magical maybe?

I looked at my status bars. MP was full, so not mana based. 10% of my stamina was gone and the rest was ticking down little by little. Using one point of stamina every thirty seconds. Meaning the ability couldn’t be kept on for a long amount of time. Less than ten minutes currently. I wondered what it looked like from the outside. No great way to find out right now. I turned it off. But before continuing, I heard a twig snap off in the distance. Maybe I can test it.

I stalked my way closer to where the sound came from and found my prey. Preys actually. It was a group of five spikey boars. Odd. I’ve never found these paltry pigs in a group. No matter, they shall fall all the same.

The group was traveling slowly, stopping to sniff and snort different spots in the dirt. However, they kept moving in one direction. It was away from my camp and corpse garden, so I didn’t really care. I gave them a wide berth and moved into a grove, the group…pack?... no, herd, that’s it. The herd was heading in.

Before they arrived, I walked into a mostly vacant spot and turned the ability on. The darkness engulfed me, just like earlier, and I waited. The snorts started getting closer, but I didn’t move an inch. I don’t know if sound travels through the darkness.

Finally, a tusk broke through some shrubbery. My claws flexed instinctively while I maintained laser focus on the pig, ready to strike at a moment’s notice if the beast were to strike. But it didn't. One by one, the pigs came into the clearing and just sniffed around. Not a single one paid any notice of me. I smiled. The shade worked better than expected.

Until one of them got a tad too close. A tusk poked into the darkness. I backed up, but the darkness didn’t move with me. Must be stationary, probably should’ve checked that beforehand. I extended my claws, the tusk closer, and the boar’s head poked up. Probably on account of losing its sight.

Before it could investigate its new reality any further, I ripped the creature’s throat out with perfect precision. It fell to the ground with a quick squeal. “Dang it, I was hoping that would be quieter.” I whispered, slowly raising my head to see what his brethren were doing.

Each pokey pig head swiveled towards their recently deceased buddy. Mental note: doesn’t block sound.

The leader and largest member of the bacon squad squealed in anger and rushed forward, directly into the darkness. Considering its body took up most of the space, I had to jump out of the shell, but not before I gave him a good slash right down his belly. The ability broke as soon as I left the darkness. I stood among the three remaining piggies.

Without a single moment of contemplation I said, “Come at me, foul beasts, learn…” They attacked before I could say anymore. I dodged the first charge deftly, giving the boar a swipe above its eye. The last two charged at the same time, which I dodged less deftly. I only managed to slice one leg on each boar. I backed up to a tree. The two mostly uninjured pigs turned back towards me and charged again. But I had a plan this time. Their hooves tore through the dirt, accelerating, green ooze shedding off their tusks into their faces.

“Detestable cretins.” I said under my breath, not moving from my place under the sturdy tree. Just before the toxic tusks speared me was when I finally jumped and climbed up the tree. The two pigs were now on a collision course and couldn’t stop. I squatted down on the edge of a branch, priming for my counter.

The two slammed full force into the tree with a pained squeal. Cracking sounds resounded as the tree fell, breaking from the incredible might of the boars' combined strength. Yet I was no longer in the tree. I had already pounced. While the two boars squealed, I landed on the back of one and tore its eyes out of its head. Its miserable wails, music to my ears. I hopped off it and landed right next to its dazed brother. It slumped to the ground after my claws tore out its esophagus. The blinded boar rampaged around, I watched with glee as it tried and tried to fight whatever stole its sight. It eventually ran straight into another tree, knocking it out. I stood before the bodies, basking in the glory of my victory, until a tusk pierced through the side of my stomach.

I looked down and saw the red-stained ivory. How dare this wretch damage my perfect body. The pig with the bleeding forehead must have attacked while I was amusing myself watching the blind one muck about. I sent my claws behind my back, straight for its face. I felt its head and dug in. Ripping and tearing any flesh I could get ahold of. It squealed and attempted to remove me, but I wasn’t going anywhere.

It fell to the ground. With great and aching effort, I pulled myself away from the tusk.

I laid on the ground, huffing uncontrollably. That worthless, despicable, vermin, scum hurt me. ME! The pinnacle of nature itself. I will not allow the likes of them to walk this planet. “Each and every one of these despicable swines will FEEL MY WRa…”

I turned the form off before the thoughts could get anymore obnoxious or self-righteous. The persona changes in each form is crazy. I shifted into log form before I lost any more blood. I got up and checked where the tusk speared me. The skin on my stomach felt baby fresh, but even the smallest amount of pressure almost had me screaming. A notification popped up in my face.

 

You Leveled Up! Nice Going! You are now Level 4!

 

A wide, goofy smile grew on my face. “Hell Yes! Let’s GO!” I jumped up for joy, immediately regretting the choice as landing nearly toppled me over from pain. I held my stomach and grimaced, but the smile didn’t subside. Level 4 was the level Len told me where he could sneak me into Laurelhaven without too many questions.

Which meant people. I could talk to real actual people again, not just a snarky voice in my head.

I looked at the smallest of the boars. My stomach growled, agreeing with the plan forming in my head. “I deserve a quick celebration snack after that.” My tongue, rolling out of my mouth. I walked up to the delicious pile of bacon in front of me until my stomach lurched. A wave of nausea slammed into me. I looked up and saw a green flashing skull under my status bars.

“Oh yeah, poison….”

The sun had set by the time I finished eating my meal. Stars started coming out. I was still about 30 minutes away from the camp but Darksight. So I wasn’t worried about getting lost. It was just cold as hell.

I began thinking about the small herd. Why had they grouped up? They never showed that type of behavior before. Boars on earth traveled in small groups, but they were usually family units, if I remember correctly. These guys were just that, guys, all male. No females that I could tell.

Also, where were they going? I looked back in the direction they were moving in as I wondered. Was there something drawing them? Part of me wanted to follow the path they were on and find out, but after the level up, I just wanted to get back to the cave and see if there were any major changes. Doubtful, level 5 seems like it will be the next big change with the increase of mimic records.

Thinking about the level up brought another grin to my face.

“Well, aren’t you peachy?” Tutor said.

“How could I not be? I finally get to return to civilization. Meet real genuine fantasy races and people. Eat real food. I’m tired of all this isolation and day-in, day-out training and surviving.” I responded.

“What, already tired of me?”

Yes, excruciatingly exhausted.

“That’s not it. I know you’re here, but you're not here. If that makes sense.” I responded, deciding not to voice my inner thoughts. For all the snark and sass, I probably would have gone crazy without Tutor. Having someone to talk to keeps the mental problems at bay. Even if she was just a voice in my head. Better than a blood painted volleyball, at least.

“Mhmm, sure. Oh by the by, seedlings.”

Crap. I forgot to bury that last seed filled body.

“Ehh, that sounds like tomorrow’s problem.” I said.

I didn’t love the idea of returning to my nasty corpse garden tonight, especially after the queasy afternoon. I wanted to cool it with the disgusting stuff for today and just sleep. Besides, no monster had messed with the bodies this far. And the bodies weren’t gonna go anywhere.

I returned to the cave and rolled onto my bedroll. Sleeping more soundly than I had in a while.

 

I woke up and stretched; there was a little pain in my stomach from the recent impalement, but nothing debilitating. Having a quick bite, I left the camp and trekked towards my corpse garden. I shut my nose, prepping for the inevitable stank of the corpses. But as I got closer to the site, the normal visceral air didn’t tingle on my taste buds. I titled my head and released my nose.

The air smelled fresh and devoid of the death stench. I picked up the pace.

I stood dumbfounded. The towering pile of corpses was gone, including the seed-filled boar from yesterday. Not a single corpse was in the clearing. I quickly checked the buried ones with seedlings. They were fine, not tampered with in the slightest, buds looked good too. One flower even started showing signs of blooming soon. Wild how fast they grew. But that wasn’t particularly important.

I walked on top of the empty ground, blood and viscera scattered around. I looked around and found what looked like a trail of blood and guts going into the forest. In the same direction as the boars from yesterday.

“Oh that can’t be good.”