The Mimic in Monsterland

Rain battered against the hold of my coat. The rain showed no signs of letting up anytime soon. I looked up at the sky for a second, then readjusted the hood and continued walking. The streets weren’t as empty as I thought they would be. People scrambled around, trying to get to their respective destinations as fast as they could. I was among that crowd.

I never cared for the rain much. I loved swimming and water in general, but the rain was a different beast. It was nearly a guarantee while hiking and trailblazing with the energetic geriatric man I grew up with. Still miss you, Gramps, you cheating bastard. I smirked. But all in all, trudging through the rain was nothing new to me. And I even had a stone path to walk along so that was nice. No slipping and sliding halfway down a mountain while that old man cackled into the sky.

I stopped at the gate leading to the Academy District. I knew the route here well enough by now (I definitely did not make three wrong turns). I grew a little nervous when I watched one of the guards on duty. Len said I was a citizen but he didn’t give me a card or any form of ID. Will they ask to see my Character Sheet? Can they look at it on their own? I shook my head. Whatever.

I straightened out my back, correcting my posture, and walked up to the open gate. Then walked on through. The guards didn’t so much as even look at me. They appeared to be huddled next to a covered and lit brazier. Don’t blame them, this post has to suck on days like this. But a paycheck’s a paycheck. They probably have families to take care of. “Family.” the word came out of my mouth on its own. I sighed and then trekked into the district.

These streets were much emptier than the other but that was to be expected. Schools didn’t shut down back home on Earth for rain, so why would they on Kniyas. Knowing how gung ho everybody here is for training, I’m betting some classes are probably training in this crap. The rain picked up.

My speculation ended up being spot on. A whole class of teenagers were running laps in the mud. And another group took turns fighting a training doll. I watched a poor scaled boy fall on his tail a few times. I’m so glad I got reincarnated here as an adult, cuz that looks like it sucks.

It wasn’t long before I arrived at the guild hall. A single guard was posted by the door this time, looking bored out of his mind as well while he leaned up against his spear. And it didn’t appear the gnomes were working. Only the best for us. I stepped under the roof of the stairs leading to the guild and lowered my hood. The human guard in basic leather armor straightened up and gave me a once over. I couldn’t see any trope on his person, most likely hidden by the armor.

“Good morning. Been here long?” I greeted him. He gave me a tired look. “Yep.” He yawned out. “You’re good. Head inside.” He finished and resumed his original position. Chatty one eh? “Have a good one,” I said while walking into the door.

Found the gnomes. The gnomes were up and about today, running around the entrance hall, each carrying something and running around the place. Some tools, some materials. It looked like pure chaos to me but they probably had a method to the madness. The head gnome yelled some unintelligible thing to the others, which made one gnome drop his hammer on another’s foot. This led to a small scuffle between them, which the chief came over and put a quick stop to with a swift chop to the head to the both of them. I hurried over to the training room, trying to get out of there before I started laughing at the nonsensical little guys. I swear it was like watching the Three Stooges live except there were like fifteen of them.

I lucked out, none of the gnomes were doing any work in the room. I took my jacket off and laid it on the counter closest to me. It did its job well and kept me dry enough for the most part. I spread it out so it could dry out. I turned around. I walked into the middle of the room and closed my eyes.

Without the rain and other distractions, my mind wandered onto what happened this morning. That frustration pricked at me again. How that elf treated me and Mrs. Warbler. “I felt so…”

“Powerless? Weak? A cocktail of the two perhaps?” Tutor spoke up, for the first time in a while.

That thorny feeling only worsened. Her words cut deep, but they were true. That was exactly how I felt. Like I couldn't do anything to stop. Probably because it's the truth. I knew she could kill me without breaking a sweat. Or if nothing else, make my life a living hell.

I didn’t feel like conversing with Tutor; I was not in the mood for snarky banter in the slightest. I came here for a reason, to do something to distract me from all that and alleviate all this tension. I looked around the empty room, looking for something to hit, repeatedly.

My gaze fixed on a large training dummy in the corner. It was pretty big, probably seven feet tall. It had a monster-like face, not any particular animal came to mind when examining it. It wasn’t nearly as sophisticated as the mannequins sitting outside. Truthfully, I wanted to bring one of those inside, training with them felt better, but I had no idea how to turn them on. Plus, grabbing one from outside and dragging it in here in the rain sounded awful.

I picked up a practice sword that was leaning up next to the counter and made my way over to the dummy. I swung the sword around a few times, it felt heavier and less balanced than my mithril sword. Man, I want it back. I lifted it and with as much might as I could muster, slammed it into the side of the dummy. It didn’t budge an inch. The vibrations shot up my arm and made me drop the wooden blade. “Damn it. I really do suck with weapons.“

I picked it up off the ground and gave it a few more thwacks. But it felt pointless eventually and did nothing to make me feel better. Maybe even made it worse. I ran through some of the exercises from Len’s training notes I used out in the woods. However, this ended up being as fruitless as the last attempt. After battling in the raid and the break in yesterday, those exercises just seemed pointless. When the hell were burpees going to be necessary to fight off 6 foot wolves and geckos?

“UGH!” I yelled out while throwing a punch into the training dummy. I was about to scream again, but a dragging sound rang out in the room coming from the back entrance. I looked over and saw one of the mannequins from outside making its way into the building. Or at least trying. It was a smaller one shaped like a lizard or a salamander. Still over 5 feet wide, but it was smaller than the bear one from yesterday and definitely too big to fit through the door. At least without some tricky maneuvering. Did someone turn it on?

I watched it more closely and noticed it wasn’t moving from any of the joints and no magical lights illuminated it. It was moving more like someone was trying to shove it inside. But I could not see anyone from where I was standing.

I walked over to the door and looked around, finding a familiar dogeared dwarf huffing and puffing as he struggled to bring the mannequin into the training room.

He gave up after another big push and threw his arms up. “Blasted thing! I told them it would be a good idea to make the door bigger. But nooo why would anybody listen to Fennel? A dwarf from a family known and respected for its veteran craftsmen.”

I decided to speak up before the poor guy ranted any further. “Need some help?”

He turned to me in a flash. Recognition flashed in his eyes. “Yes. Yes, I could.” I grabbed the front of the mannequin. “Okay, it's getting hung up on its front left foot. You twist here and I will lift.”

It was the first time I was glad that there were no clocks in this world because getting that stupid thing into the training room probably took an embarrassingly long amount of time. But we did manage. It was sitting upright in the middle of the open training mat in the center of the room. We both panted while sitting on the floor.

Fennel spoke up first. “So what brings you to the guild hall on this oh so beautiful day, Liam?”

“Rough morning, felt off and really wanted to burn off some energy.” I gave him a vague answer. I still didn’t know the guy that well.

He nodded. “Same here.”

“I thought some training might help, but after yesterday. It felt kind of useless for some reason though.” I explained.

Fennel looked over at me. “You were in the battle yesterday right?”

“Yep.”

“That’s normal. You’re far from alone in that regard. I remember the day after my first raid. I went back to the barracks and started doing my basic warmup routine and some practice swings with my sword. I got so irritated I ended up throwing the darn thing right into the wall of the squad hall. Freaked the crap out Lukans. He was sitting on the other side. Blade poked him right in the shoulder.”

He laughed as he finished and I scoffed as well.

“Jaren explained it to me like this. After your first big battle with monsters, all the basic exercises feel unnecessary. Pointless like you said. What good are some push ups in the face of a tusxic charging at you?”

“Yeah, I thought the same except with burpees.”

“With what?” His ears twitched as his head tilted.

“Oh yeah, it's named something different here. The exercise where you do a push up, stand up, and then jump up.”

Fennel nodded. “Ah, Ups-and-Downs. Evil exercise.”

“Right! Len made me do them in my Ursa form. The absolute worst.” I exclaimed, thrilled to be able to share my hatred of that damned exercise with another.

“Yep.” he nodded. “But the thing about those basic exercises is that they are in fact crucial fundamentals. Those exercises keep you in shape and strong. So you should avoid skipping them.”

“So just fight through the pain then?”

“That’s what most of the instructors say. But Jaren isn't like most instructors. He advises the exact opposite actually. He says the best thing to do is to listen to your instincts and work on whatever you have fun with. Like practicing your favorite ability or a brand new one.”

He got to his feet. “Since you helped me get it in here, have the first crack at it.” I rose to my feet and replied. “I don’t even know how to turn the thing on.”

“Right, you didn’t go to an academy. It's pretty easy here, let me show you.” He walked over to the side of the lizard construct. He pointed to the back of the thing's head. There was a strange symbol in the center. “Place your hand on it and a prompt will appear.” He walked away from the mannequin to give me some space.

I put my palm on the symbol. A notification flashed in front of my vision.

Activate the [Reptan] Mannequin?

[Yes] [No]

That is, in fact, basic. I clicked the yes option.

At What Tier?

[4 (70)] [5 (150)] [6 (400)]

“Okay, it's asking about the tier and has a bunch of numbers,” I say to Fennel.

“That’s what approximate tier the mannequin will fight at and how much Mana you have to give it to activate at those levels. Do you have enough MP?” Fennel asked.

“Yeah, I can easily pay for tier four, barely for five. Six needs a crap load though.”

“That's how the designers made it, to make sure weaker splicers don’t fight too far above their means. Choose whichever you feel comfortable with. The mannequins only fight at the baseline of the tier. So the five is more like an upper four. If that makes sense. And they won’t have any elemental powers. Not this one at least.”

“Gotcha.” I clicked the 5 option. I felt the odd sensation from using mana flow through my hand. It was like when I used my feather to cut stuff, but more intense since I used nearly all of it at once.

“Okay now back away from it and ready yourself before you make the selection.”

“I already clicked it.” The magical lights flickered on. “Ooo, you should’ve waited.”

The mannequin’s tail sprung to life while Fennel spoke. It collided with my side before I could prepare myself, knocking me a few feet away.

“Ow.”