The Mimic in Monsterland

I knelt down next to the river. Lapping water into my hands, I washed the blood from my face. Goosebumps grew on me as the cold water did its job. But I had quite the affinity for that river. This rushing water has single-handedly been the most important resource I had in this foreign place.

First and foremost, I’m rather fond of being clean. I was the type to shower every morning, no matter what. I was late to class plenty of times back on Earth because of this strict routine. My morning showers prepared me for the coming day. It was my cup of joe. Without it I felt awful, my body just felt wrong. So having access to running water, even if it was cold as all hell, was truly a blessing.

It was also my number one food source. Schools of fish have spent their final moments in confusion as a rock opened its mouth. But I needed it. It's the only way my mimic body heals itself.

I had asked Len if that was normal, for food and sleep to be a cure-all in Kniyas. He told me that it was in fact pretty regular. Food and sleep were universal in the recovery of HP, but he did comment that my recovery was fast. Not entirely rare, but noteworthy.

He said many genes came with this kind of fast recovery. I had asked which kinds and he gave me an exhaustingly detailed list. Hell if I could remember them all but there was a common factor. They all sounded either reptilian in nature or bovine. Two wildly different animal groups. But mimics didn’t really fall into either of those categories. Well, maybe reptilian.

I hope they’re not bovine. A horrifying image of a treasure chest with udders forced its way into my mind. “Ugh.” I splashed more water in my face.

The red blood flowing down the river brought my mind back, and I thought back on the fight with the cat. I smiled. I had won. It was an unfamiliar feeling. One I hadn’t truly felt in a long time. I killed scores of gremlins and monkeys while training with Len in the last few months but I knew he was watching out and making sure I never got too hurt.

No, I won that fight, me and me alone. And that meant something. I outsmarted it and got a powerful new form. I thought about the new form and brought up its record.

 

TIGRIS - Proficiency Level: 1

Type: Beast

Timer: 2 hours

Stat Changes:

STR + 5

DEX + 7

AGI + 11

CON - 6

INT - 2

WIS - 5

CHR + 10

Abilities:

Pinnacle of Nature:

While at full health, gain a ([proficiency level] + 2)% boost to all physical stats.

Learned Behavior:

N/A

 

“Tigris. Like the river. Neat.” I guess I was wrong about it being a panther, from the name it was a tiger. It didn’t look like one. I was no expert, but they were among my favorite animals at the zoo, so I had spent some time looking at tigers. That cat only had solid black fur. No stripes of any kind. Or at least that I could see, maybe it was black with black stripes.

It also looked a little small to be a tiger. Tigers were massive creatures. Huge orange balls of fur and death. The actual kings of the jungle.

But this is a different world from Earth. Maybe that's just what tigers looked like here. A small part of me hoped I would get to see a normal tiger out here. I squashed those thoughts immediately. “That’s all I need. Some metal or fire tiger attacking me. Like a screwed up Chinese zodiac monster.”

Pinnacle of Nature, I cringed at the name of the ability. But its benefits would probably be substantial down the line. Percentage boosts are king in number based systems. I wonder if the cat had a similar ability. The fight shifted real quick after I hurt its eye.

I looked at the stat changes for this form. It was crazy how much they gave with it only being at level one proficiency. The form didn’t even lower my mental stats that much. It gave a tremendous boost to charisma. It followed suit with the rest of my forms in that it lowered two mental stats and boosted the third. But they were almost negligible. This was a full 10 points, at level one.

I was still hazy on what exactly each stat did. I had asked Len, but his answer was much the same as Tutor’s when I first arrived. Strength was just that, physical power. Len explained you wouldn’t see much change with each point. It wasn’t until you got about an extra 10 that you noticed a difference.

Dexterity was your overall ability to move your body, or how well your body listened to your mind. Which was a weird but wholly accurate way to describe it. Apis and Gremlin gave me the biggest boost in Dex. Without it, I doubt I could run through the treetops or wield weapons half as well.

Agility was overall speed, I felt that speed in Tigris form. I would never have been able to keep up with the panther… I mean tiger, without the boost.

Constitution was a strange one, at least compared to how most games implement it. The biggest difference being that it in no way influenced your health. Health was a separate and everyone gained it every level. It could never be anyone's detrimental stat. A good thing considering. If CON was your detrimental stat, than you'd be screwed never gaining anymore health. Constitution, instead, was about how durable your body is. It was pretty much a flat defense stat. That's why Ursa could take a spear to the stomach and come out fine. If I tried that in Gremlin, oof.

The mental stats are where things get tricky. Len said it was really hard to gauge these properly with just stats. He said broadly speaking that intelligence was for how much knowledge one could absorb and hold on to. Apparently, bird splicers are the ones who typically have high Int.

I wondered what having a crow gene would be like. Those little guys were among the smartest animals on Earth. In my last apartment, I had managed to train one to come around every so often. By train, I just left food out on my back porch. It left me bottle caps. That bird was starting an economy if you ask me. Or maybe they had one all along.

Wisdom was a kind of catch-all from how Len described it. It represented quick thinking and the ability to make good choices. It seemed to be the most useful from an all around perspective.

Charisma was the hardest to explain. It was like one’s will power, and their ability to share and spread their emotions to others. Especially positive ones. It is why those with high amounts of charisma made strong leaders and were popular. It's not that they were better looking or more competent, I’m sure that helps. But people are emotional creatures and we like being around those who make us happy. Or if nothing, validated.

Which made Tigris form even more strange. I thought back on what I said and thought about while in that fight. My face started to flush.

“I sounded like such a jackass. What was with all the predator-prey talk?” Soon after the words left my mouth, Tutor chimed in.

“What’s going on with the pinnacle of all creation?” Her sarcasm stung. I went full on tomato faced and dunked my head in the water. I scrubbed and scrubbed, futilely hiding from the shame I felt. The worst part was I could still hear Tutor’s full belly laughter.

After bringing my head out of the water I sat down. “I can’t believe I said that. Who says shit like that?” Tutor, still chuckling, added in “Yeah, and what was that pose you struck? It looked like it was straight out of Jo...” I yelled “Shut up,” at the top of my lungs before she made me feel any worse.

“I know alright, it was stupid and cringy.” I said with a sigh. “How does that form have the best charisma?”

“IDK, it's a weird stat. It might not seem the most amiable but you have to admit. You looked the most confident you’ve ever been. At least on Kniyas.”

It was true. There was no denying the overwhelming confidence I felt in that form. I knew I would beat that monster as soon as I laid eyes on it. Which is funny because my eyes were the only thing that changed while I was in Tigris form. My eyes matched that of the panther. Bright, almost neon green with feline pupils. And the claws. Can’t forget about those.

I pulled up the other forms records to compare against the Tigris page.

 

URSA - Proficiency Level: 4

Type: Beast

Timer: 1 hour

Stat Changes:

STR +12

DEX - 9

AGI + 5

CON + 14

INT - 10

WIS + 5

CHR - 5

 

Abilities:

Ursa-rage:

Put yourself into a fit of Rage. While raging, you gain a + 10 boost in STR and CON, at the cost of - 9 to all mental stats. You also gain a 14% unarmed damage increase and a 14% damage reduction. These bonuses increase with proficiency.

Learned Behavior:

Preflex:

May predict where an attack will land. Chances of activation increase with proficiency level and wisdom. Also boosted when in ursa form.

Activation % = Proficiency + (Wisdom/ 10) rounded down + 5 (only if in form)

Current = 6%, in form 11%

 

SQUIRREL - Proficiency Level: N/A

Type: Critter

Timer: 15 minutes

Stat Changes:

N/A

 

Abilities:

Bark Skim:

Gain 20% increase in DEX and AGI while in a tree.

Learned Behavior:

N/A

GREMLIN - Proficiency Level: 3

Type: Creep

Timer: 45 minutes

Stat Changes:

STR - 7

DEX + 10

AGI + 7

CON - 7

INT - 6

WIS + 3

CHR - 7

 

Abilities:

Fight and Flight:

Gain a +13 boost to your DEX and AGI at a significant cost to stamina. If use of this ability will cause you to run out of stamina, you will receive EXHAUSTION(-10 to all stats until removed). Stat boost will increase with proficiency.

Learned Behavior:

Dark Sight - See in the dark. Up to 10m.

 

APIS - Proficiency Level: 5

Type: Beast

Timer: 1 hour

Stat Changes:

STR + 5

DEX + 12

AGI + 6

CON - 8

INT + 3

WIS - 8

CHR - 5

Abilities:

Ignorant Ears:

Ignore the effects of sound based abilities.

 

Learned Behavior:

N/A

 

It had one defining trait compared to the other forms, its cooldown timer. It was a solid two hours. Double that the next highest-timer creature forms. Maybe that was how this world’s systems ranked the forms. The more powerful the form the longer the cooldown was. It made sense.

Gremlin was by far my weakest form with the worst stat gains, not counting squirrel form which didn’t have any. Gremlin’s timer was 45 minutes and the other two were an hour. Squirrel’s timer was 15 minutes which added more credibility to my hypothesis.

I decided I may as well look at my Character sheet while I’m at it.

 

CHARACTER SHEET

Liam Foster

Level: 3

Race: Human

Monster Gene: Mimic

Stats:

Health Points: 140

Stamina: 290

Mana: 140

 

Strength: 21

Dexterity: 21

Agility: 21

Constitution: 21

Intelligence: 21

Wisdom: 21

Charisma: 22

 

Abilities:

 

Active:

Mimicry(Object) (lvl 5): Copy the likeness of one object. You gain the stats of the object while active. May be canceled at any time. (Recorded Entries)

Mimicry(Creature) (lvl 3): Mimic one creature of your choice. This may include stats, abilities, spells and other aspects. May be canceled at any time. (Recorded Entries)

Passive:

Learned Behavior: You may gain a portion of the stats and/ or abilities from a mimicked monster. Benefits given depend on the creature mimed and only given if you become adequately proficient in that form. With higher proficiency, benefits may increase.

Dark Sight - See in the dark. Up to 10m.

Preflex - Predict incoming attacks.

 

Spells:

None

 

Everything looked to be in order. My eyes wandered down to the bottom of the page, to a particularly empty section. I said the section’s name out loud. “Spells.” This section had been bothering me for some time.

Not a single one of my creature forms has a spell section. Not even an "N/A." There wasn’t any indication that I would even learn spells from them at all. I wondered if spells aren’t inherent to monster genes. Like they have to be learned from a book or something.

Asking Len about it wasn’t fruitful either. When he was still around, I had questioned him on the nature of spells but got one of his patented “Don’t worry about it. Go train.” I assumed his fire manipulation was a spell, but it might not be. He did a lot of different things with that fire. I wish I had pestered him more.

Tutor's answer was, well, you can probably guess by now.

Maybe only certain rare monsters, and subsequently monster genes, give the ability to cast spells. But why wouldn’t a freaking fire elemental use spells for chrissakes. Then I remembered how he explained his primary stats were Charisma and Dexterity. And how he said his power came from within and not the surroundings. Dex must contribute to how he controls the flames so well. Maybe magic is something that comes from outside oneself. I scratched my head.

He really only ever spoke to me about stamina conservation when using abilities and such. Never about MP. He said MP was something else I didn’t need to spend time on right now.

I looked up at the ever full blue bar in my HUD. I know it had uses in this world. Whenever I cut anything with the Roc feather it used some mana.

One morning after waking up in a gremlin camp, I tried it out. It sliced through three gremlins nigh perfectly but when I attempted a fourth, the feather just brushed off its body. I caught a stab in the shoulder for that blunder. I learned it required way too much mana to be useful in combat. At least with multiple combatants. It probably had uses when up against one very strong opponent.

It needed more testing. Like maybe the stronger the monster’s skin the more mana it consumed.

Could this usage of mana mean a Roc form would grant me spells? How awesome would it be to shoot lightning out of my hands? I made the force lightning hands and imagined arcs of electricity skittering across the river. Yep, rad as hell.

I wanted to use the feather to do all the cutting and such while building the camp, but Len said no. “That it would be a waste of good training,” were his words if I remember right. It did see some use. I made a few amenities that he didn’t fault me for.

I made a stone table for us to eat on by cutting a large stone into discs. It took a couple of tries to get the thickness right. I even managed a makeshift stove top. I did it so we didn’t have to keep just impaling animals on sticks and roast them over an open flame. That usually ended with the food getting overcooked on one side. I wanted to make a stone pot, but a four foot feather made for a terrible chisel.

After laying on a patch of grass near the river, I put my hands behind my head and closed my eyes. “I deserve a quick siesta after that craziness with the panther… Dammit, I mean tiger.” I brought one hand to my chin. “Maybe a piger, nah sounds weird.” Tutor threw her two cents in with, “How about tanther?”

“Yeah, that’s better.” I stifled a yawn. “Stupid tanther.”