Chapter 37

We continued to explore the maze like hallways that sprawled on for ages without any logical organization. This place was essentially a maze that just happened to look like a mansion, rather than a mansion that felt like a maze. It was around a bell before we ran into another mimic.

This time the mimic didn't seem to understand that a chair shouldn't be on top of one of the dressers.

"Are you the one that can talk?" I yelled out to it. It didn't react at all to my call. "If you're the one that can talk say something otherwise we'll attack." It still didn't budge. It's possible it isn't a mimic but that seems unlikely. "Okay Morrigan, give it a shot."

"With pleasure." Morrigan shot one of the fireballs that had been swirling around her staff and struck the chair dead center. The mimic screeched in pain and ran at us mindlessly.

I stepped forward and cleanly bisected the chair in two. It was almost anti-climactic how easily I killed it. The independent pieces wriggled unnaturally but they never reverted from looking like a chair. It didn't turn into some other creature when it was killed. Actually did we even know for sure that it could shapeshift? Maybe this one always looked like a chair.

[Your party has defeated a Demon Mimic][Black Cat has increased from level 3 to level 4][Level increases by 1][Learned Luck Magic Spell Melee Hex]

[Melee Hex - Luck Magic Spell]After landing a successful melee or touch attack the caster may cast Melee Hex to curse the target. While an enemy is cursed they are more likely to fumble attacks, more likely to receive critical hits, and more likely to stumble and fall. The intensity of this effect is increased with [Luck]. The maximum number of targets that can be cursed at once is [Magic Control] divided by 10.

Before I could say anything Morrigan jumped up and down excitedly. "I got a class level and a main level from that! I leveled to twelve and got a new passive!"

"Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone your main level, that's private!" Torien looked exasperated.

The atmosphere got really tense as Bella and Torien looked at each other awkwardly.

"My main level just went up to twenty-four."

This time it was Bella who was shocked, "Li-Lilith!"

"What, it's not a big deal."

Bella covered her eyes with her hands. "It is a big deal."

The awkward silence reasserted again until Torien broke it. "I didn't realize you were that much higher level than us... I suppose we're lucky you're trustworthy."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"It's just, you hear a lot of stories about higher leveled adventures taking advantage of newbies by taking them on as 'apprentices' so they can get out of work while the rest of the group can fight higher leveled enemies and take slightly more dangerous missions. It can be doubly bad for slave adventurers."

Torien looked introspective before looking me in the eye. "Fourteen." Morrigan gasped and bounced with excitement.

Everyone looked at Bella expectantly. "Man this is so weird, I leveled to... thirteen in the last fight..."

Torien nodded. "Hmm, it looks like we're all pretty similar in level other than Lilith. That'll be good for fights, it means that we shouldn't take much of an experience penalty and Lilith's would probably get a lot more experience than usual."

I was confused. "Wait, isn't that bad? If you're taking a penalty wouldn't you level slower?"

"No actually, like I said earlier, we'll be able to fight higher level enemies so we'll probably get much more experience than usual even despite the penalty. And since there's three of us and one of you, you'll be taking a larger cut than in a regular party. We'll probably eventually catch up to you but since you have more than ten levels on us it'll probably be a while."

Morrigan was creating more fireballs to spin around her staff, there were already more than twice the number that was there before. "As messed up as it is being stuck in here, this place has been really good experience for us. I don't know the exact level of the monsters here but they're probably a lot higher than us. I got super lucky that they're weak to fire in an area with so much fire aspected mana."

Lucky huh?

Torien was scanning the room again before she froze. I followed her gaze and saw the familiar candlestick sitting awkwardly on the edge of a table down the hall a bit. It looked positioned so that it could take cover behind the table if it had to run away again. I squinted at it and finally realized why it looked so peculiar to me, the area around it looked warped because I could sense the mana around it using mana sense.

[Mana Sense has increased to level 3]

This skill seemed to be leveling really fast for some reason. I decided that train of thought wasn't important right now and focused back on the mimic.

"Hey! We heard you talk earlier, we don't want to fight you if we don't have to. What is it that you want? Maybe we can help each other out?"

When I first started talking to it, it looked like it was going to run but it seemed to get caught on the tablecloth and felt to the floor. It quickly jumped up but once it heard me finish speaking it seemed less afraid. It was clearly still wary though.

"You p-promise not to burn me?" Its voice sounded feminine and had a somewhat musical timbre to it.

I shared a glance with Morrigan and she let the fire mana dissipate back into the environment. Once that happened the candlestick wiggled a bit looking at each of us before it moved a little closer. Suddenly the candlestick's color lightened to a shiny gold and it stretched and grew into a candelabra, confirming that it could in fact shapeshift.

It was now eye level with us but it was a little difficult to know where to look since it didn't really have a face. I was really curious about it, mimics are usually one of the most hated enemies in games since they tend to be well known for hiding as chests. But I thought it was kind of cool to get to talk to one.

"So, what is it that you want? You seem to be following us but you don't seem like you're trying to hurt us or anything."

The shaft of the candelabra shifted and wiggled, it didn't exactly look gross but something about it still looked unsettling. "You things are weird, you follow each other around and like to talk to each other. No one else here will talk to me so I wanted to know why you guys like talking so much. And then I saw you two fighting in the bed but you seemed happy after. I wanted to know why you all seem to be happy around each other instead of always hurting each other when you get too close."

Bella was covering her face with her hands, ears bright red, Torien was watching the mimic carefully and Morrigan looked on the verge of laughing. Well damn, it did see us fucking.

"We're all friends, we help each other out and protect each other. We got trapped in here so we're trying to find the end of the dungeon so we can escape."

"Friends? Can I be a friend too? I don't like it when the others try to eat me. I can help you find the end! I know where it is!" It wiggled in what I assumed was excitement.

Torien leaned near me. "The last one was called a Demon Mimic, if it's a demon we can't let it leave this place when we destroy it."

The thought was sobering. This thing seemed harmless but demons were no joke in this world. After fighting those things in the courtyard, I normally wouldn't want anything to do with them either. I felt bad though, she seemed so innocent. I had an idea but it meant revealing my race to the girls.

I decided I would do it. I might have to be cagey with how I approach this. "We would love to be friends with you but there's a problem... We can't be friends with demons."

The candelabra drooped. "We can't be friends?"

"Don't worry though, I know of a way that we can be friends but it means you won't be a demon any more. Is that okay with you?"

Bella gave me a concerned look with a furrowed brow but didn't say anything. The catgirls looked at me like I was crazy.

"Yes! Yes! I don't like being a demon, I wanna have friends!"

"You realize our eventual goal is to destroy the dungeon right? That includes all of the other mimics in here, we'd only be sparing you."

"That's fine, I don't like the others anyway."

"Good, then I'm going to turn you into something els—"

"Oh! Are you going to turn me into a succubus like you! I can't wait!" it said wriggling with excitement again. I looked at it shocked, how did it know that? Even if it could read my status I should be displayed as Beastkin (Sheep). I looked at Torien who took a step away from me looking wary.

"Don't worry, I promise I'll explain everything later," I said to Torien. She stared at me a moment before deciding to nod. I nodded back before putting my focus back on the mimic. It seemed to be watching me carefully again unsure of why we were talking to each other.

"Okay, in order to become a succubus you need to take an oath to serve me. We can be friends and I'll do my best to help you out and in exchange you will be my friend and try to help me out. Taking the oath also means you will no longer be able to knowingly attack or work against me. But that'll be okay because we will be friends with the agreement to help each other." I was going to continue but the hyper mimic cut me off again.

"Okay! I take the oath to serve you!"

Without anymore preamble I felt [Soultouch] activate whether I wanted it to or not.

[Soultouched Bonded - Level increases by 1][Karmic Energy gained][Converting soultouched target to companion]

The mimic began to glow brightly and its form started to change shape. The first, most obvious difference was that it very clearly became humanoid, though maybe a bit short at around 5 feet tall. Its head formed and a deer like muzzle pushed out of it matching Bella's, on its head large oversized cat ears formed, looking like elongated versions of the twins' ears, and ram horns somewhat thinner than my own spiraled out of her head. She had a lithe body but had a disproportionately large chest on her thin frame, her big but perky breasts capped with pert nipples stuck out from her body proudly. She had subtle hips but they definitely looked feminine rather than boyish, and between her legs was very obviously a cock. It wasn't disproportionately large like its breasts but it wasn't exactly small either.

When the light faded we could see that it looked like it was made of flowing metal. Its two-tone 'coat' was gold with a silver chest and belly. Despite being humanoid it looked like a moving statue rather than something made from flesh and blood. Its eyes looked like static polished rubies inset into its head and didn't blink or betray the intelligence behind them. Its nipples and penis looked like they were made from semi-transparent black glass with a deep red shade to it. Behind it trailed a pair of cat tails of gold tipped in silver. The mimic became something like a lewd statue created to be an amalgamation of the four of us and made out of precious materials.

"Yay!" The mimic ran up to me and smoothly wrapped its arms around me in a hug. I was caught off guard seeing what looked like a metal statue running straight at me. Once it wrapped its limbs around my back, I found that it was actually soft to the touch despite its weird coloration.

"Um, looks like we have a new party member?" I said to the group.