Re:Mimic [MONSTER MC LITRPG]

As Lucas sat on the dim tunnel's floor, he couldn't help but get anxious. He had just defeated a very powerful opponent but before he could even bask in the triumph, a bigger threat showed up.

'Shit.'

Lucas felt a pit of despair beginning to well up within him as he watched the green humanoids approach with heavy steps. Their booming steps sounded like the bell tolls of his funeral. His originally excited core had come to an almost full stop, now dim and static. 90% of its energy used up in destroying the metallic slime.

<Be cautious. If the Thraxxar is here, we're in for a hard battle.>

Lucas was jolted awake from his gloom by the deep voice in the distance. He had no clue what they were saying but his eyes watching them hardened. His core blazed with what little energy it had left.

'I have to escape. No need to face them directly. I just need one opening. But first...'

He wrapped a tendril around the black glowing orb from the slime. He placed it within his infinitely malleable flesh and began hatching an escape plan.

'I just have to hide and hope they don't notice me. If they do then I run. Simple, right?'

He looked to his core as if searching for some form of affirmation. Oddly enough, the core glowed and moved even more chaotic, the Life energy absorbed from the slime revolving around it.

Lucas' originally dim gaze brightened up at the sight of this change. Feeling pressed for time, he spread himself as thin as possible and lay completely flat on the ground.

Activating [Mimicry], he envisioned himself as part of the ground. Completely inert, cold and dark. His color swiftly changed, matched the floor, his skin also contorted and changed becoming much rougher.

By the time the process was complete, Lucas was indistinguishable from his surroundings. The dark green humanoids were still cautiously making their way through the tunnel. Their heads looking up as they searched for the "Thraxxar".

Even though Lucas couldn't see them, he could hear them. With his exceptional hearing and their close proximity, he could sense them in monochrome detail. Eventually, they cautiously made their way to Lucas' spot.

Two moved to the edge of the tunnel, hoping to sense something while one blocked the tunnel's entrance. The two remaining humanoids stood near Lucas. Their primitive spears held at the ready.

<Vekarn, do you sense anything?>

The larger of the two humanoids spoke up. It had a very rough voice, it almost sounded like wood was being scraped together to produce the harsh sound. The smaller humanoid it was speaking to moved and stood directly on Lucas' center. Lucas felt it was familiar but he had no idea why.

Its stature was noticeably shorter and leaner than the rest, its rough skin being a lighter green. After a few moments, it held its spear with both hands horizontally and began to glow with a bright green light. If Lucas could see its face, he would notice two runes were now inscribed on its eyes.

Lucas felt its Spirit energy moving in a strange way. It directly interacted with the Spirit energy all around the tunnel and especially where the smaller humanoid stood. This immediately gave Lucas a bad feeling.

<It's here!>

Lucas didn't need to understand it to know he had been spotted. The four other humanoids turned their focus on Vekarn but it was too late. Lucas rapidly morphed into a gaping maw that surrounded Vekarn, lined with rows upon rows of jagged fangs.

Lucas immediately snapped up and chomped into Vekarn like a Venus flytrap. A wet crunch echoed out as Lucas maimed and incapacitated his prey, its spear braking like a twig within Lucas' maw. With no ounce of hesitation, he went for the kill.

'[Leech].'

<Ahhhh!!>

With a harsh wail filled with pain and terror, Vekarn struggled to get out of Lucas' death grip but that just made his tendrils tear it apart faster. In the end, it got absorbed in under three seconds. All that was left behind was fine black dust.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The rest immediately leveled their spears and prepared to attack this terrifying foe. If they felt any fear or anguish, it didn't show on their wooden faces.

Lucas had other plans though. After securing the kill, he transformed once more to a smaller and even more compact version of his usual spider-like stature.

The closest humanoid attacked with a simple thrust but given the dull green glow of the spears tip, Lucas wanted none of it. Lucas side stepped the attack and hopped on to the cavern wall like an actual spider.

With the manageable amount of Life energy he had absorbed, he shot across the wall like a red streak of light. The single humanoid guarding the tunnel entrance couldn't react before Lucas raced past it.

Just when Lucas felt he had succeeded, he shivered as a wave of fear flooded his core. The feeling was so intense it almost forced him to stop dead in his tracks.

Focusing on his [Spirit Sense], he could sense all four of them holding their simple wooden spears like javelins. Each one had multiple pitch black Runes etched on them.

This change didn't come without a cost however. They now looked like withered trees, their size, stature, and color took a massive hit from activating this attack. Before Lucas could comprehend what they were doing, the first javelin shot at him.

It easily surpassed his speed and impaled him into the rough wall. With barely any delay, a second spear followed, then the third, and finally the fourth. In the end, Lucas looked like a pincushion. These four attacks destroyed his eyes and crucified him to the wall.

To make matters worse, the spears were disrupting the Life energy within him as dense black energy flowed out of them into his core. He could feel himself rapidly decaying with each passing second.

'Am I dying?'

Lucas could feel the cold embrace of death caressing him once more. This time it felt truly inescapable. His core seemed to agree as it had dimmed to almost pitch black.

Numerous thoughts race in Lucas' mind, trying to find a way to get himself unstuck, a way to survive, a way to get away from all this. Nothing panned out though. He would die, that was it.

Then memories of his entire existence flashed across his mind, his mom, his friends, his countless hobbies, frantically struggling for survival within the cavern. All these memories and feelings solidified into one immutable thought.

'I want to live. I'm going to live!'

His core blazed, the extremely minute Spirit energy left within him being used to change his body's composition. With his will to escape guiding his [Mimicry] and with his Spirit as fuel, his form took on a very dull grey glow as he became almost liquid. In the blink of an eye, he slipped away from the spears and regained his form.

He dashed away from the tunnel as fast as he could, paying no mind to the humanoids that almost killed him. He wasn't out of the woods yet.

With no sight, he used his hearing to navigate the winding pathways of the cavern. With all the pain and panic he was in, the best he could do was follow a random path and hope for the best. The only thing on his mind was getting away.

He streaked by multiple cavern creatures which promptly ignored him given his velocity. Eventually, he found a random unoccupied cave and collapsed in it. Completely spent and at the edge of death. But at the very least…

'I survived…'

That was his final thought before everything went black. When he came too once again, he could still feel a very sharp pain all across his body. Especially the four spear injuries. Thankfully, his natural regeneration had pulled him away from death's door. After checking on his surroundings and making sure he was safe and alone, he inspected his injuries with his mind.

Fortunately, apart from the four spear wounds, he was mostly fine. The effects of spear attacks seemed to have faded. Checking his core, he saw it was oddly dimmed and static. When his mind tried to interact with it, it felt like he smashed his brain directly into a brick wall. This development greatly worried him and led to him subconsciously thinking.

'I'm still too weak.'

Unlike in his heightened ego state, he thought nonchalantly. No angst or wounded ego to be found.

'That's right, I am weak. I can change that though. My choices matter and from now on I need to put a tighter leash on myself.'

He sent his mind to the orb he collected. Somehow, it had survived the onslaught of the tree-like humanoids and his subsequent dash across the cavern. He removed it from within himself and held it out with a tendril, taking a closer look.

It still glowed with a dark light. Holding it with one tendril, it felt strangely heavy in his grasp. Beyond that, he could feel a high amount of Spirit energy within it. This prompted him to analyze it with his [Spirit sense]. When he activated the skill, he could see the orb filled the entire cavern with its dark light.

His instincts told him to absorb the orb with his core. Promising he will be satiated like never before. He could hear whispers of matchless transformations the longer he held on to the core.

Suddenly, he let go of the orb. He still vividly recalled his fight with the slime, how arrogant and deluded he was by his own Spirit energy.

'No… it wasn't my Spirit energy. It just heightened what was already there.'

He thought of how he initially planned on fighting the slime on his own terms after he came up with a strategy. But the moment he felt that attitude was stifling, his Spirit energy shifted, feeding into his growing arrogance instead of cooling his mind as usual. A sharp light flash in his eyes.

'Never again. My will is my own and I'm going to wield it properly. Getting drunk on power is definitely off the table.'

At that stern thought, his core began moving once more. Gaining a little bit of its original light. Lucas kept thinking further.

'I will use this core to become human once again. Not because I crave power, but because it is my choice. Becoming human may not be advantageous to me in any way, shape, or form but it is what I want to do. So it shall be done. I will go out on my own terms.'

His core regained a bit of its original spark during his monologue, Lucas didn't notice though. His sole focus was on absorbing the core and becoming human once more. No matter how painful the process.