Chapter 17: Improvement

Muns dark vison was no longer just blobs of white and black, after so many times using it, his vison had once more improved, the Shadows and white mix together to form a very grainy vison, as if looking at a very old movie. He noticed a new shade of grey take over his sight, he could now tell big objects apart from one another.

Mun finds himself chipping against the cave walls, collecting bits of stone here and there and very rarely finding scarps of metal. He is improving himself. He thought about how strong the slavers are, and how strong the Lamia was, he realizes that he can’t t always be able to rely on his level alone. So he wants to find weapons of any sort, natural weapons, imaginative new ways to attack.

Stones growing like flowers out of his wooden fists, came to mind. Idea after idea popps into his head, anything that will increase his survival.

The monsters in the dungeon, scream as they are forced to test, Mun’s weapons.

The goblin gnarled, its sharp nose flaring up, warning Mun to take a step back. Mun only smiles, looking at his newest test subject.

Mun flings his tendril around the monsters neck, taking it by surprise. The goblin’s hands grab onto the tendril, causing small cuts on its hand, from the razed metal Mun embedded into the wood. The next moment Mun pulled, sliding the shards of metal across the goblins neck. With another tendril reinforced with iron, it flies across like a bullet, heading straight for the goblins heart.

The goblin’s body goes limp, his fingers no longer able to grip onto the tendril, his entire body droops as the blood on its chest pours onto the stone floor. Mun then quickly absorbed the goblin into his body.

“Now I need to find a safe zone.”

After spending sometime collecting bodies and minerals, Mun’s huge body bulging with insect legs and other monsters limb’s. each one trying to escape, as if it the dead creature wanted another oppurnuinity to life.

He needed to let his body assimilate all of the things in his body and dispose of whatever was unnecessary, before going on the hunt again.

If I kept a steady pace, I might be able to buy Yeo earlier that the deadline. Enough gold, and getting stronger, I hope.

Mun looks around the dungeon, searching for the bright purple stones, indicating the safe zone.

Before long, he finds the arched entrance, the edges of which are covered in the purple stones.

Mun enters and looks at a small section of the room, it was the place the Snake women slept the previous night. He recalled her hair, it was the same as his mothers. After many years, he still couldn’t deal with women that remind him of her, but the snake women was younger than his mother, her reptilian green eyes made the difference even more clear. The only thing in common was the brown hair, perhaps even that was enough to disturb him, he didn’t know.

He wondered who the creature was; she, unlike the other monsters, seemed to have an understanding look in her eyes, as if she understood her situation well, she was scared, and ran away. Her eyes looked at him, and they shined brightly, unlike the other horrid monsters in the dungeon. The only other monster he had encountered like that was Maximus, the self-proclaimed king of monsters. The thought entered Mun’s head, that she too was like him, like maximus, an intelligent monster aware of its actions.

There was a part of him that wanted to help her, a piece of his heart telling him that it is the right thing to do, but another part that told him to pay no mind to it, to let this run its course. He remembered his old friend. She too was a woman, not yet an adult, but older than he. She was the sole reason, that he is now able to talk to most women in a somewhat normal way. Otherwise, every woman would remind him of his mother. He would remember the beatings he got, or the terrible things his mother forced him to do. How a woman like that was allowed to run a foster care still alludes him. Corruption, or incompetence?

Mun shakes off the anger that begins to build inside him, choosing instead to remember the girl who saved him from that hell. She saved him, he tries to picture every woman he meets like her, but more often than not trauma and hatred only remind him of his mother. “woman can’t be trusted”, not that men are much better, he knows that, but his hatred and perhaps fear, is only directed at woman.

“If I see her, I’ll tell her” Mun muttered under his breath, making a firm and yet weak decision.

The time passed slowly, Mun had only his wooden tendrils to entertain himself. Mun had even begun to remove some of his excess wood and sharpened an iron blade to carve with.

His wooden hand, clumsy and a bit difficult to use. Mun for the first time since becoming a mimic, missed his hand’s, they were far more accurate and more nimble. Even so, Mun carved away at the bits of wood to pass the time. Strange deer with butchered legs, or ducks with jagged bills, Mun practiced away with the glow of the stones as lighting. Letting his body heal and allowing the materials he had taken, to be absorbed completely by his body.

Mun practiced his wood carving technique, every once in while checking how much longer until the completion of assimilation.

After a long while, Mun decided to move out again.

Mun had taken but a few steps out of the safe zone, before seeing a large scaled creature slither in the corner of his vison, his mana sense picked the rest of its form up.

“Hey.” Mun turned around to face the snake, only to have it run faster than his mana sense extends, disappearing somewhere deep into the darkness of the dungeon.

“Afraid..” Mun said aloud. The snake women is afraid, Mun could tell by the way she was acting. Perhaps she had never left the dungeon in her entire life. She doesn’t know anything but the mindless monsters that lurk in the corners of the dungeon. Perhaps like Mun, She is constantly attacked by the residents of the dungeon.

I’ve got no time to worry about her. Mun brushed the thought of chasing after her, deciding that helping the girl trapped with the slavers was more important.

Mun continued his hunt, a goblin here a monster rabbit there. It didn’t take long for Mun to find his way back to the boss room.

“This will be the fifth boss” Mun said to himself. One from his home dungeon, two the previous day and another two this day.

The bosses spawn at an irregular rate, sometimes almost instantly after someone leaves the dungeons and other times years, Mun didn’t know but the Boss monsters were respawning at a much faster rate the ordinary.

Mun wants to make sure to keep the dungeon room clear if he needs to run to the first floor for whatever reason. Mostly because he noticed that monsters very rarely chase him up the stairs, something he took note of, the day prior.

This time around it an enormous serpent, three times the size of an ordinary human. The Snake moves its head hypnotically, waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Mun backs up against a nearby wall to keep a safe distance from the serpent.

The two monsters stared at each other, measuring the others worth. The snake stretched it’s body trying to make itself look bigger, its red eyes beaming through the darkness. Mun was changing his hands into wooden spears tipped with iron, preparing to lunge at the snake the moment it moves.

The silence was almost unbearable for the two. They didn’t move a muscle until; until the drop of a loose stone from the cave ceiling, made a tink tink sound as it tumbled onto the ground.

The serpent made its move first, fast as lighting it lunged, Mun lifted both hands in an attempt to use the snakes momentum against it, but it was to late, the weight of the snakes body forced his sharpened hands out of the way, the snake wins the round taking a huge chunk of wood out of Mun.

Again, both stay still like objects, surely if an adventurer entered the room, they would think the two monsters are nothing more than frightening statues.

Mun began to move several stones and sharpened bones in his body, to the edges of his wooden skin. If the snake attempts the same thing, Mun will make sure that it is not only him who will suffer damage. The stand off lasted several seconds, but the wait for the next attack was an eternity.

The snake lunged, Mun now knew he was too slow, instead of attempting to dodge or moving his limbs, he spiked his body with jagged rocks and bones. The snake notices to late and chomps on a large goblin femur sharpened into a javelin. Mun drops to half; but his victory is all but inevitable. the goblin bone pierced right through the snakes mouth. It had become erratic squirming everywhere trying to remove the goblin bone. In its confusion. Mun sharpened his tendrils and struck, after ten hits with a sharped wood, the snake finally collapses dead.

“That was a little to close for comfort.” Mun relaxed his body, stretching his wood across the room. he rested until his health recovered, something that didn’t take as long as he thought it would. A monster’s body had its benefits.

Mun decided he would continue to hunt. His Shapeshift ability was now able to carry a heavier load after leveling up, Mun didn’t want to waste the opportunity.

Mun had grown accustomed to fighting single enemies, He decided to increase the amount of enemies he would fight to two.

He spotted his prey, Two large Spiders lurking in the darkness. Mun ran in his human form, using a sharpened hand to pierce through one of them, the spider staggers, but before Mun can attack a second time, the other spider spits acid in Muns direction.

Mun turns around to run, he tries to use a hit and run tactic. Tick tick, the sound of a third spider become louder and louder. The third spider appears in front of Mun, its legs already pointed to attack.

Mun is forced into a face off against 3 large spiders, they had him surrounded, two behind and one in front.

“I guess it’s time to test a few more things.” Mun takes his cloak off, dropping it to the ground. He then begins sharpening, and creating, new appendages, creating eight in total. Placing his eye sockets in the center of his much smaller body. His legs were long, the tips of them were tipped with iron. His eyes coated in iron and the wood that made his body condensed to form a material as hard as stone.

In the darkness of the cave, any rookie adventurer would think they are facing a spider, a professional, would be shocked that a mimic had done such a thing.

Using his new appendages, Mun slashed the two spiders behind him, and pierced the eyes of the Spider in front. The spider in front staggered for a moment, giving Mun takes the opportunity to leap over it, Mun is never one to not make the best of his situation, he sends another powerful claw into the monsters back. One hit two hits, three hits in a matter of moments, Mun managed to escape the encirclement and cripple one of the three spiders in the process.

With a swift moment of his feet, he turns around to face the spider, slashing it once more, the last hit finally drops the spider to the ground dead.

The other two spiders are already coming close dashing towards him, tick tick, the sound grew louder as they closed in. one comes from the ceiling the other from the floor. Mun could hear the terrifying hissing emitting from the two spiders, they were angry. The top spider spit a strange fluid onto Mun, causing his wooden body to deteriorate, acid Mun thought. The bottom spider attacked with its mandibles, but Mun preemptively back away. Mun extracted some left over metal inside his body to form a metallic tendril his back. Mun dashed towards the bottom spider, slashing its eyes with two of his legs and attacking the third with the tendril on his back, trying to swipe its legs off the wall.

The bottom spider staggers backing away, the spider above barely budges and throws another acid attack at Mun.

Mun realizes that if he takes more hits, it will certainly be the last hits he takes. The bottom spider recovered and began preparing its next attack, Mun moves his body backwards, dodging the slash, but is hit with another dose of acid. Mun prepares his next attack, only to be hit by goblin he hadn’t noticed, while being preoccupied with the spiders, Mun didn’t notice a goblin step behind him. Mun’s wooden leg snapped in two at the force of the goblins attack.

Mun wasn’t going to let this situation get him. He turned his leg into a large wooden vine, the vine searched like a snake its prey, for the goblins neck. Mun couldn’t believe what he was about to do but after getting a good grip on the goblins neck, its feeble attempts to dodge failing; Mun flung the goblin towards the Spiders like a rage doll.

The legs smack the top spider across the face. The spider instinctively pierced the poor goblins flesh with its pincers. The goblin then, like a mallet, hit the bottom spider on top of the head, dazing both the goblin and the spider. Using his metal tendril, Mun pierces right through the goblins stomach and into the bottom spiders armor. Both laid there dead, impaled together into a demented kind of shish kabob.

Mun instinctually knew that another acid attack would mean his death, he tries to flee, but the kabob kept him from going, it was asking to be eaten, not letting go of its creator go.

The spider above seemed to prepare its acidic salvia, Mun watched as the Spider prepared its attack, Mun didn’t know if he would die or not, but he couldn’t accept dying like this. Dying by his own arrogance, trying to collect money to save a girl he didn’t know.

What would become of Aura, man thoughts raced in his head.

“I won’t die here!!” Mun extracted wood from his body to create a shield, the spider spits its acid, hoping to hit Mun before his shield is full up, but its to late, the wooden wall is almost entirely up, leaving Mun as an amalgamation of metal and monsters parts, his body was almost entirely gone. Only a small amount of wood to hold up his eyes remained.

His eyes were getting heavy, but he couldn’t sleep now, Mun send another metal tendril, penetrating his wooden wall and into the spiders head. The spider loses its grip on the wall falling onto its dead comrade.

Mun couldn’t keep his eyes open, his vison was becoming hazy, everything was turning white. He could still hear the spider in front of him, it was still alive, and coming closer.

“I can’t die!!” Mun yells, “not here.”he says with a whimper . To turn the bad to worse, he could feel something coming up behind him, another monster he thought.

“I’m dead” his eyes fall to the ground, to heavy to lift, and his exposed heart trying to find the abundant metal to hide inside.

*Beeb*

Condtion: Crtical Evolution requisuties met Emergency Evolution Intiated