76 Running into a Jackpot

It was one thing if a mimic could pretend to be an item or other human. Yet somehow each one that attacked him was able to replicate his old teammates, impossible for them unless they somehow saw his friends in the altar's sacrificial pile of black crystals. Even then, his real friends were most likely petrified with no way to voice their complaints, so it was unlikely that these monsters were basing their copying off of the originals.

The biggest theory Galahad had ready was something else was working with the mimics, something capable of seeing into his mind. One of the biggest problems of living in a world filled with magical beast and strange creatures was the amount of random bullshit that could spring itself upon him. Especially now that he was living with strange secrets and an unknown power rapidly growing in his body.

Galahad took one last look at his broken skull mask and sighed. It may have been an odd trinket to have sentimental feelings for, but it served a purpose in keeping people away from his identity and preventing them from interfering with his plan.

'I'll have to find a replacement later, after I figure out what the hell is going on with these monster doppelgangers.' He tossed a broken chunk of the skull mask to the side and looked on at the still dying Victor mimic.

It was still pinned to the wall, the axe made of its hardened skin was crushing it between the sword's hilt and dirt. When it saw Galahad was coming for him next; it tried changing its shape faster to escape, but the panic only slowed down the process.

Galahad spoke at the monster in a low voice, but it still flinched as though he was yelling. "What told you to do this? Where did you learn these faces and voices?"

"H-He doesn't lik-ke it when we talk t-to-too long." Mimic Victor was puttering his words, truly afraid about what Galahad was going to do to him. Death seemed inevitable, but the slim chance of anything else was making it cooperative. "He hurts us even when we listen, others die badly because of his anger. Then he hurts everyone else more."

The monster tried to put on a brave face as he stammered through his sentences. He wanted Galahad to understand that only pain would befall him if he looked for his slaver, but Galahad only took it as instructions on how to get him to talk.

"Oh so pain gets an answer out of you? Well no problem then, I have plenty of experience with such things." Galahad said as he grabbed the hilt of blade and twisted it so the blade would twist open his stomach more, spilling more blood on the floor.

Mimic Victor began screaming out in pain, it was curdling and getting more watery like Mimic Heath's gargling voice. Soon after the eyes rolled back and the second row of spindly teeth emerged from his gums. After letting out a few more screams, it started gasping as more blood spilled down the wall

"I'll offer you a quicker death if you can tell me who he is. Otherwise we keep this going for as long as possible."

"GAAAGHAAHGHA!" The monster shrieked on for a few more minutes, till death was only a few seconds away. Just when it was about to experience the sweet relief of dying, Galahad pulled a vial of something out of his bag and dumped it on the monster.

It was the cheapest minor healing potion he could buy from the market, only to act as a prop with all the other stuff he carried around. If someone were to search his bag and find nothing but mana orbs, they'd think he stole them or was moving them illegally across the market to some unlicensed mana pool. He wanted to cover all the bases if case the guild decided they needed to inspect his gear.

Only when he saw the monster was about to die and not give him more information about how they learned about his friends did he use the potion. Spending the credits on another potion irked him to no end, but anything could prove vital for a fight. He survived this long because he had been reading up on every monster text he could get his hands on. It was dangerous to fight things stronger than himself, but fighting the unknown is far worse.

The mimic felt his body grow weaker as the potion was making his body generated more blood to pump through his weakening heart. He earned a few extra minutes of pain before death.

"I have a dozen more of those in my bag. We can keep this going for as long as I want." Galahad lied to get the monster more scared. "Wanna tell me who you're working with? More importantly, what monster?"

"Gagah gah, p-please kill me!" It choked as blood started spilling out between its teeth.

"Give me a name or something. Then it'll be over." Galahad said as he twisted the blade in the other direction. It was a bluff that would kill the monster quicker, but he figured he could take the chance. There was no real loss except for the credits to buy a new potion, but the monster drop from the Vesplug was worth at least three potions. He would just have to buy more later.

"GAAAHAHA-ITS SLADDUS. GWAH, SLADDUS THE FLAYER." It screamed out it's final burst of energy before passing out from the blood loss and pain combined.

"A Flayer? As in a mind Flayer? Well that explains the headache I got earlier. Your boss likes rummaging in the minds." Everything started making so much more sense now. He had never experienced a mind invasion, so how was he supposed to know that a mind flayer was the cause.

Now he knew what to expect, making the next part of the night certainly interesting.

"Oh right, I guess I made you a promise." Galahad said as he grabbed the hilt of the magic sword with both hands, yanking it from the wall.

The mimic came spilling off the compacted dirt and fell limp to the floor. It remained unconscious, even up to the point Galahad brought the blade down across its neck, silencing the tunnel for a long while.

Galahad picked up all the orbs of the mimics and found the Mycroft one had dropped something as well. It was a thin veil of some kind of webbed skin, somewhat transparent in the light and milky like the monster's eyes.

'Awesome, two drops in one night. It was a good call to stay, I just need to make sure I don't lose my cool again.' Galahad thought as he organized his stuff.

When he first saw his friends faces and voice on those monsters, he felt all kinds of emotions building up inside him. Before he even realized it, he became the same rage filled animal he was before working with Regin. Seeing how he remorselessly destroyed the demons was a wake up call about being more careful.

The four months he spent making progress were slow, but they were calm and headed in a direction he felt was best. If the black orb's voice came back, his plans would become much more difficult to execute.

Before Galahad started moving further down the tunnel, he smashed the wooden chest in the middle of the tunnel. He wanted to see if there was anything special about it, but it seems the box was nothing more than bait to the trap he sprung.

Seemed the Flayer was smart enough to use objects as tools to draw in food, leaving Galahad concerned about what he was about to witness.

Mind flayers were just as tricky as mimics, but for entirely different reason. A mimic could alter its form and throw off anyone's decisions of attack, they could rearrange body parts to make all sorts of problems. Meanwhile a mind Flayer was supposedly a nimble little demons that could feed off the thoughts and emotions of anything close enough to enter its domain of control.

Galahad had never met a Mind Flayer before, and up until half an hour ago, he also had never fought a mimic. He had only read about them along with hundreds of other monster he had never seen before in the books he bought around town. Aside from knowing a basic description about Mind flayers' appearances, he knew they mostly spawned in Luminote, the continent ruled over by one elven family of royalty.

There were even elves that fought in the dungeons of their continent, having gone through extensive training to block out mind invasions. It wasn't just the monsters that could mind reading powers, some adventurers could learn how to use telepathic skills through mana and use them to steal information from others without them even knowing.

Galahad didn't have his old mana flow and power over mana tethers anymore. The non-dissecting studies Regin did on him proved he had a weak mana flow that was no different than a regular battle class. He could only assume it would build back up when he unlocked his magician class, of course it'll be a while since he planned on unlocking the summoners class once again.

As the tunnel expanded to a wider structure, Galahad checked his progress bar. He used up five, lvl. 20 Vesplugs during the fight so he shouldn't have been too far away from leveling up. Originally his progress bar was 3/4 of the way to level 29, but after the fight and using them to heal, he was a measly [ +15 XP ] away from the level up.

'I still have the remaining mimic orbs, I'll save them though. Better to heal with them and level up during the fight instead of wasting them in a rush right now.'

Galahad stored the orbs in his pocket and walked through the darkening tunnels, finding more and more traces of long term activity. The ground was matted down from a lot of footprints from various people, most likely a mix of the mimics and their unsuspecting prey they had lured through.

'The shift won't happen for another hour, but if this tunnel normally stands during the quakes then I can just wait it out here. Once I'm done with the Flayer, I can finally try for the third floor.

Galahad stopped and debated if he should wait right in that spot for midnight to pass. If he was going to be in the dungeon all day, there was no risk to wait out the shift. He could rest for a moment and enjoy a bit of peace.

He wished to take his break, but as reality likes slapping him across the face, he didn't get what he briefly desired.

Just as he sat against the wall and searched for a water bottle, he felt a panic rise in his chest again.

The nonphysical presence was suddenly right there, blaring soft wind at him. Galahad didn't wait to see what it was, sprinting the instant he was up on his feet.

'What the fuck?!? I thought the creepy wind was the flayer, why is it coming from behind me?' Galahad thought as he sprinted through the tunnels.

Apparently his assumption of the creepy wind being a part of the mimic's attack strategy was wrong. Something else was coming after him at the same time he was preparing to fight. There was now an unknown threat chasing him from behind and a known threat waiting in the front

'Alright you know what, I am just gonna take a quick look at the monsters and leave. No more fighting tonight, I'll just do something more relaxing like pass out in the armchair again. Or maybe take that hot bath I've been putting off since I was eleven.' Galahad was realizing this night was all over the place, not giving him a break to even breathe.

He planned for a relaxing evening one he was back up in the surface. Taking a moment to think during an afternoon off instead of nearly dying sound like a better way to develop new plans for growth.

Potions and mana orbs made skills and level ups appear more often than he thought possible. So if he could spend a day mentally recharging and researching other items, maybe another useful item could present itself. Galahad could even grow strong enough to get the orbs necessary for running the Dungeon Lock before having to actually looking and fighting level three-hundred demons.

'Alright it's settled, quick glance now and then leave. Quick glance and leave, quick glance and leave, quick glance and-' "Oh shit."

Galahad dropped down a pit that led to another tunnel, much wider and spacious than before. It wasn't a cavern, but it was close enough to nearly be the same.

The raw light crystals were rearranged from the their original place of random, to neatly lined up rows. The light distribution was equal around the wall and ceiling, giving the place a look of refinement.

Galahad stumbles into what felt like a completely different world within the dungeon. Not just from the lights, but objects inside of them as well.

Boxes, crates, and miscellaneous weapons were lined up along the wall in an orderly manner. It looked like a long hallway of a market shop, but in hell rather than a normal building.

'Oh this is certainly a jackpot.' Galahad grabbed a few smaller weapons and immediately started stashing them in his bag.

He might have to leave earlier than he expected, but most of the items here would set him up for a long time. Money wouldn't be a looming issue while he bought new armor to replace the broken crap he left behind with the melting mimic corpses.

Without stopping to breath in the glorious view, Galahad was searching rapidly and nabbing whatever fit in his bag, knowing this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He almost didn't stop when an unknown voice started echoing inside his head.