A famous line from a movie lingered in my ears.
'Don't touch the cards. Your wrist will go flying.'
I hadn't even touched the cards, and my wrist went flying.
-<Mimic-'Tainted Treasure Chest of the Ancient God'>
-A chest that once kept the 'Star Fragment of the Ancient God' in the depths of R'lyeh.
It seems to have fallen for the coaxing of 'the One Whose Name Cannot Be Spoken' and turned into a fiend.
-Combat Power: 999
-Traits: <Cutting>, <One-Bite Chomp>, <Mastication>, <Hibernation>, <Ironclad Skin>
Mimic.
A monster that disguises itself as a treasure chest and, when an adventurer puts a hand inside, takes the wrist clean off.
Looking at the mimic before my eyes, I thought.
'What a seriously brutal world.'
If it's a treasure chest, it should just quietly cough up treasure, so why does a monster that looks like a treasure chest have to pop out and make a scene?
'To think the reward I won by going through that deadly ordeal is a mimic.'
......But grumbling changes nothing.
I decided to think as positively as I could.
'Right. If anything, this is good. If I eat that mimic, I can not only recover my Combat Power but even grow further.'
My Combat Power at present had dropped a great deal, to 94.
The mimic's Combat Power was a whole 999.
Normally, it was an opponent I could barely beat only if I fought it in perfect condition.
But as I was now, I had no other option.
'Even if I run, I'll die anyway if I can't eat proper prey within 94 minutes. In that case, I'm better off eating this thing here, whatever it takes.'
My Combat Power is cut as time passes, but the same goes for my opponent.
And when you absorb an opponent's Combat Power, it is always counted at its maximum value before the fight.
In other words, even if I ate the mimic after bringing its Combat Power down to 0, the Combat Power I could absorb would be 999.
'Normally I'd have run without looking back, but...... this thing has one 'weakness.''
I circled around the mimic.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
The mimic came after me, clashing its teeth.
I stretched out two tentacles and attacked the mimic.
One was intact, and the other had been almost entirely cut off when the mimic bit into it.
It does vary with the length left, but...... every time a tentacle is cut off my Combat Power drops by roughly 100, so the math checks out.
SMACK—
I swung a tentacle like a whip and struck the mimic.
But the mimic ignored my attack as if it were nothing.
If anything, the one that felt pain was me.
'This punk is awfully hard.'
It was probably because of the 'Ironclad Skin' trait it had.
An ordinary mimic doesn't have a trait like this, but perhaps because this was a named individual with a name of its own, it seemed to hold quite a powerful perk.
In any case, it had the ability to harden its own body every time it was attacked and nullify the impact.
'Its whole body is tremendously hard, so attacks don't get through at all. The only place I can land a blow is inside its mouth, but.......'
I stole a look into the mimic's mouth.
CLACKCLACKCLACKCLACKCLACK!
If I stuck my one remaining tentacle into that maw, opening and shutting at a frightening speed, that would be the end of it.
I wanted to pass on a rice-and-barley game of death.
'A mimic has no eyes, so lighting up is no use at all.'
But there was a way.
I kept on smacking the mimic, smack, smack.
Ignoring my tentacle whip, the mimic closed the distance right up.
GA-PE!
The moment it opened its maw wide.
'Bite on this!'
I thrust a tentacle into the mimic's mouth.
But the tentacle's shape was a little different from before.
...CHOMP!
My tentacle got caught between the mimic's teeth.
Unlike before, it could not sever my tentacle in one go.
Why? Because this time I had put the tentacle in rolled round and round into the shape of a snail's shell.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
Had the tentacle been stretched out long, it would have been severed, but balled up tight, its thickness had grown several times over.
The mimic tried to close its maw with my tentacle bitten in it.
But the half-open maw would not close.
SQUEEEEEZE......
The standoff between the mimic and me went on.
I had succeeded in prying the mimic's maw open, but with no tentacles left, I could not attack the inside.
......But.
'Lure successful.'
I had already got what I wanted.
CREEEEAK—
When I tried to pull the tentacle back out, the mimic bit down and hung on doggedly.
I put even my body weight into it and threw myself flat on my back.
[Igik?]
The mimic was dragged toward me.
And behind that.
...SPLASH!
There was cold seawater.
[Burrrrrble!?]
The mimic was aghast at the seawater pouring into its mouth.
I smiled a smile of satisfaction.
'Welcome to Bikini Bottom.'
A mimic is basically a land monster.
Naturally, it cannot live in the sea.
It had been able to survive within the hermit crab's territory until now because it had been in hibernation with its mouth clamped shut.
But what about now?
GLUUUUUUG!
With its maw half open, it was gulping down seawater in great swallows.
It would want to close its maw even now, but that was impossible.
Because one of my tentacles, rolled round and round, was jammed tight between its teeth.
GULP— GULP— GULP— GULP—
Salty, cold seawater surged like mad into the mimic's mouth.
It thrashed wildly, but the more it did, the more water it swallowed.
It would want to spit out my tentacle, but not a chance.
I kept on stuffing the tentacle deeper into the mimic's maw.
...SHOVE! ...SHOVE! ...SHOVE!
Who was it that said so?
That if a dog or a cat bites your hand, you should not pull it out but push it in.
If you yank your hand out, not only will it never let go, you will be torn by its teeth and wounded all the worse, but if you push your hand in instead, it gags and has no choice but to spit it right out.
The mimic, too, gagged and tried to spit out my tentacle.
But it was already too late.
-<Mimic-'Tainted Treasure Chest of the Ancient God'>
-Combat Power: 897 [-102]
-<Mimic-'Tainted Treasure Chest of the Ancient God'>
-Combat Power: 691 [-206]
-<Mimic-'Tainted Treasure Chest of the Ancient God'>
-Combat Power: 370 [-321]
Its Combat Power dropped rapidly.
'Not that it's any of my concern, of course.'
It doesn't matter even if the prey's Combat Power becomes 0.
Because when you eat an opponent, the increase in Combat Power is guaranteed at the maximum value.
In other words, if I ate this mimic after bringing its Combat Power down to 0, my Combat Power would rise by 999 regardless of that.
......In the end.
GLUUUUUUG!
A vast quantity of bubbles shot up from inside the mimic's mouth.
The last of its life force had all been spat out.
DROOP—
The mimic's maw fell completely open and a long tongue popped out.
The mimic's corpse, bobbing up to the surface of the water.
I looked at my status window.
-<Kraken 'Juvenile Form': Lantern Anglerfish Ghost Tentacle>
-Combat Power: 34
I had truly almost died.
Had the mimic held out just a little longer, it would probably have been my tentacle that was severed, and in that case I would not have escaped death.
'Quick, quick!'
I was so hungry my head was spinning.
My ten tentacles were long and short and, anyway, every which length, like hair that had been hacked in a mess.
Using the tentacles that were left comparatively long, I took the mimic apart.
CRACK— RRRIP!
Taking a mimic apart was similar to preparing a scallop.
You grip the two shells shaped like a treasure chest, pull them apart, then break them.
Then you dig around under the lower shell and chew up the tongue-shaped adductor meat, and that's it.
MUNCH— MUNCH— MUNCH— MUNCH—
The taste was horrible this time too.
I thought shellfish meat would be tasty, but this was, well...... not much different from chewing up a clownfish alive.
Cold, salty, fishy and nauseating.
Is it because I'm someone who doesn't like seafood in the first place?
'I think I'm going to throw up.'
Of everything I had eaten so far, the tastiest, such as it was, had been the flesh of my kin.
'At this rate it really does amount to nothing but encouraging cannibalism.'
I thought, chewing the mimic's thick tongue.
Before long, the status window changed greatly.
-<Kraken 'Juvenile Form': Lantern Anglerfish Ghost Tentacle>
-Combat Power: 1,033 [+999]
-Traits: <Absorption>, <Basic Poison Resistance>, <Cannibalism>, <Powerful Luminescence>, [+]<Ironclad Skin>
My tentacles were restored to 10 again.
They seemed far thicker and longer than before.
My Combat Power had grown beyond what it had been, and I had gained a new trait too.
'Oh, I took a good trait.'
Of the mimic's traits, the one that had given me the hardest time was this very 'Ironclad Skin.'
A trait that hardens the whole body and greatly raises physical defense.
With this alone, I would be able to keep pointed things from being driven into my body.
In a cave with many sharp, pointed terrain features, it was quite a useful trait.
Just then.
...THUD!
I felt something heavy and dull move inside the mimic's shell.
'Huh, come to think of it?'
A detail of the lore I had seen on the game's community came to mind.
According to a developer interview carried in the newsletter, the mimic is a monster created with the 'pearl oyster' as its motif.
Just as a pearl oyster holds a pearl beneath the soft flesh inside its shell, a mimic too is highly likely to be keeping something valuable inside its flesh, or so they said?
'In other words, some useful treasure might be sleeping in the mimic's belly.'
When you think about it, that does not stray far from its original purpose as a treasure chest.
'Let's see. What's in here?'
I felt around inside the mimic's shell with a tentacle.
Before long.
...CLATTER!
Something caught on the tip of my tentacle.
I took it out.
At that moment.
'Huh, what? Why is this coming out of here?'
I could not help but open both eyes wide.