Re:Mimic [MONSTER MC LITRPG]

{Domain core located. New [Quest] given: Identify the domain core. Reward: information packet on Domain cores. Good Luck, Lucas.}

As he heard Wiki's voice, his heart couldn't help but clench.

'Is the Domain core what's producing the sound?'

Lucas thought as he looked down at the frantic animals. He frowned as he thought of something quite troubling.

'Just what is it? Is it controlled by some creature? Or is it just some mechanism of the cavern itself?'

Hum.

Crash finally chimed in with a confident hum. Lucas' expression loosened slightly as he nodded to what Crash said.

'Yeah, Crash. There's only one way to get to the bottom of this—following the horde. But first, let's use that Attribute point, we need to be as prepared as possible.'

Lucas could tell whatever was going on was not something he could handle casually. If he got cocky due to his recent victories, he would be digging his own grave.

He headed back to the putrid smelling cave once more and sat on the grimy floor. He opened his status screen with a thought, pushing the pandemonium going on outside to the back of his mind.

'Status.'

———

[STATUS]

Name: Lucas Maverick

Species: Mimic

Tier: 0

Level: 5

Essence: Freedom

Achievements: [Anomaly], [Tough nut to crack]

Attributes:

•Physique: 5

•Spirit: 1(+)

•Mind: 2(+)

Skills:

•Guide [Special]

•Mimicry [Level 5]

•Leech [Level 4]

•Spirit sense [Level 4]

Attribute points: 1

—————

"Weird, it seems I can't add any points to Physique any more. Why is that? Is there some kind of hard limit for how many attributes I can have?"

Lucas was confused by this development and even slightly worried. If all his attributes met a road block while the cavern creatures kept getting stronger, he would be in trouble.

Shaking his head, he said,

"There's nothing I can do about it for now. Thankfully, this point is going into Spirit anyways."

With his choice already made, he assigned his attribute point to Spirit. The instant he added the point, he sensed torrents of Spirit energy surge towards his core. He didn't need to activate his [Spirit sense] to see as the threads of Spirit energy weaved a translucent cocoon-like structure around him. The cocoons color vibrant but undefinable to his perception.

Unlike with his Physique, the enhancement of his Spirit was very calm. There were no extreme effects to the environment or excruciating pain to accompany the process.

Hum!

Crash let out a satisfied hum as it ferociously devoured the incoming Spirit energy and made it its own. Lucas sensed the process and had a thought.

'I should be able to level up my [Spirit sense] by watching how Crash transforms.'

He knew it would probably not work since he could not watch the process of his Physique getting enhanced but he was willing to give it a try. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he activated his skill.

'Oww!'

He was immediately forced to shut it off due to the blinding radiance he saw. With a wrinkled expression, he opened his eyes in frustration. His thoughts stirred.

'As I thought. The energy is too intense, it's like staring at the sun—'

Hum Hum!

Just as he was about to begrudgingly dismiss his idea, Crash hummed with fervor. To Lucas it sounded like a man drunk off power or a child that didn't understand the concept of limitations. It pushed him to try again, to be willing to do whatever he wanted without fear.

'I can't Crash. If I push too hard, something in my mind will break. I can feel it and so can you.'

Hum!

With that response, Lucas fell silent and repeated what Crash said out loud.

"Be free?"

Those two very vague words would not mean much for most others, but for Lucas, it meant something profound.

Wasn't that why he was doing all this? To be free? In the truest sense, his life was over. What he was doing now was building himself back up from nothing.

What was all this hesitation for? So what if his mind broke? He had already lost so much and still hung on to his former identity as a person? Wasn't that absurd?

"Hahahaha!"

Lucas laughed out loud when he reached this point in thought, a weight he didn't really acknowledge being taken off his chest.

'I can be free.'

Hum!

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Crash urged. Lucas turned his attention to his core once more and could tell the process was almost over. The Spirit energy within Crash was surging wildly as if trying to escape the core containing it. The cocoon around him had dimmed considerably but still held quite a bit of spirit energy.

Lucas could feel Crash's desire to break out of the core and express its might to the world. As he witnessed that sight, Lucas had a slight smile on his face as he let go of his inhibitions and activated [Spirit sense] once more.

The Spirit energy immediately drowned out all his senses, the only thing he could feel, taste, hear, smell, and see was Spirit energy.

"Ahhhh!!"

Hum!!

With a wild roar like a wounded beast, Lucas could feel the cocoon around him searing his flesh and burning his eyes but somehow, he held on. His determination to succeed was as solid as a monolith.

HUMMM!

Crash let out a deep hum, their desires to break through all restrictions matched in that moment. For the first time ever, both entities' thoughts were completely aligned and they became whole for a fleeting instant.

A jolt ran through Lucas' body as he felt something click in his mind. The original ungraspable flow of blinding energies had become something more palatable. It was now a chaotic dance of countless threads of Spirit energy moving in a very orderly sequence into his core.

Even though he could not understand what he saw, he could at least see something. He smiled and kept watching for a few seconds before the process came to its end soon after.

Cough cough.

As he coughed up mercurial, deep crimson blood, Lucas felt a small prick in his mind as he and Crash came apart once more. A bloody grin was soon plastered on his face as he and Crash shared a mental high five, reveling in their success.

"Hell yeah!"

Hum!

To further affirm his accomplishment, he received a series of notifications and heard Wiki's pleasant voice.

{Congratulations, [Spirit sense]has leveled up from level 4———>level 5. +1 attribute point.

Requirements met,[Achievement]— [Tough nut to crack] has evolved into [Daredevil]. Good job!}

{[Quest]—raise [Spirit sense] to level 5—completed. Rewards unlocked. Activate information packet? [Yes] [No]}

"Yes!"

In his excitement, Lucas pumped his fist and tried to open his eyes. He was met with a sharp piercing pain. With his mind now cooled off, he could tell something was very wrong with him.

Apart from his eyes, he couldn't smell or taste the overwhelming odor of death from the cave anymore, nor could he feel the hard rock he was sitting on. With further investigation, he could tell the maddening wails and howls from outside were completely quiet now. This was very bad.

"So I lost all five senses huh? Hahahaha, you know what? I'm not surprised."

He spoke in an unusually loud voice. Being deaf does that to a mimic.

'At least, it can't get much worse than this—'

Bang!

Lucas was suddenly smashed to the floor by a powerful force creating a sizable crater. He hastily activated his [Spirit sense] to get a better grasp on what's going on. What he sensed left him completely baffled.

"When did a giant bat get here?!"

He could see a bat shaped cluster of crimson Spirit energy bearing down on him with its massive wing. This bat was at least thrice the size of the ones he easily dispatched.

With his skill being at level 5 now, he could sense things much further now. In fact, sensing at his maximum range gave him a migraine. The bat exploited this opening as it smashed into him once more.

Hastily restraining his [Spirit Sense] to a manageable level, he sensed something that made him go a little pale. He could sense tens of massive bats swarming outside his cave and the horde below had not diminished in the slightest.

'The hell????'

Panicked, Lucas lashed out at the bat above him. Not holding back in the least, his two upper tendrils cleaved apart the bat's wing. The creature screeched and tried to fly back but Lucas didn't relent.

With the aid of his lower tendrils, he sprang up with a leap, impaling the bat with a tendril while activating [Leech]. He made short work of the bat but couldn't help but frown as he sensed himself and his surroundings. He could sense tens if not hundreds of glowing Runes on his form turning him into a beacon.

'What are these?'

Lucas thought as he bolted out of the cave with a daring jump over an incoming bat. Mid-air, he stomped on its head to give himself an even higher boost.

"Hahaha, can't believe that worked!"

He laughed as he swung away using a tendril. Since he made the choice to watch his Spirit advancement, much of the weight on his psyche had melted like snow.

With his Spirit energy rumbling in his chest and Crash by his side, he felt like whether or not he died at this very moment, at the very least he should have fun.

The bats didn't care about his demeanor though. The colony gave chase as they furious screeched at him. To Lucas' dismay, each sound wave from them carried a strange crimson Spirit energy that glued to him and engraved more runes on him.

'So that's how they found me!'

It immediately clicked in his mind.

'The little guys couldn't win so they called in backup?'

He thought to himself, a sharp light flashed within his empty eye sockets for a brief moment Lucas could sense the bats gaining on him, their raging red outlines cutting through the chaotic blend of colors his [Spirit Sense] provided. He had to switch tactics and fast. Since he couldn't outrun them or hide away, there was only one option left—to fight!

Hum!

Crash agreed as it flooded his form with Spirit energy. He let his Spirit energy circulate through him without holding anything back as he suddenly retracted his hooked tendril mid-air.

With a small correction to tuck his arms in, he began to crash to the floor feet first with a stylish spin, picking up more and more velocity with each rotation. The wind whipped his hair as he felt the closest bat surge forward. The distance between them closed in an instant.

Using his rotational force and four scythe-tendrils, he slashed at the first bat like a helicopter's propeller; immediately eviscerating it. The Runes on his blades glowed brightly as he kept spinning, forming two crimson rings.

Undeterred, the bats charged in head first, eyes brimming with bloodlust and malice.

Slashslashslashslashslash.

In less than two seconds, Lucas sliced through 4 bats like butter and crashed into the horde below like a missile, killing a few creatures from the impact. He immediately produced four more tendrils and absorbed them.

A bat closed in from the sky like an asteroid, Lucas tried to command a tendril to lash out but felt a sharp pain in his mind once again. His attack staggered.

Boom!

This mistake proved costly as the huge bat smashed Lucas' head into the rock floor with a crimson claw. The impact rattled his skull and left him in a daze.

The bat took to the air once more leaving faint scratches on his burned face as another bat crashed into Lucas, this time on his chest. The impact created multiple microfractures on a few ribs, causing Lucas to wheeze in pain. The bats cycled over Lucas and took turns attacking him from the sky with ruthless precision.

'My mind can't handle the strain of using more than eight limbs anymore!'

Lucas gritted his teeth and absorbed all but one of his tendrils. He timed the next attack and rolled to the side at the very last moment, he then smoothly impaled the bat with his tendril through its skull.

Before he could get his bearings however, something collided with him from behind with extreme speed and force.

Bang!

He smashed through several weaker creatures in the horde before coming to a stop. He didn't have to think too hard to know he was just hit by a beetle. Its enigmatic Spirit energy outlined its brutal form in an even more terrifying way, making its size and shape distorted and jagged. Luckily, the beetle was immediately taken out by a ghastly centipede.

He took the chance to concentrate on his [Spirit Sense] for a moment and saw that the creatures of the horde had fallen into chaos. The sight was an overbearing blend of colors and vibrations that melded, writhed, and broke apart all at once.

'Ahhh!'

A sharp pain stabbed at his psyche for merely witnessing such turbulent Spirit energy. He hastily regained his focus with his smile wiped off his face. He had noticed the situation had somehow gotten even more out of control.

His fight with the bats had knocked some of the creatures out of their trance and they had returned to their hyper aggressive ways, leading to more creatures waking up and adding to the chaos.

Lucas immediately took the chance to escape. He was confident in his abilities but not suicidal, there was no way he would willing participate in this battle. Not in his current condition at least.

'I just have to find a quiet cave and figure out how to get rid of these runes.'

With a plan formed, he moved towards the direction of the domain core, hoping to give some distance to the bats. Sadly, things were never that simple in the cavern.

As he dashed away, avoiding every creature with inch perfect moves and twists, he could sense something strange was going on with the cavern. As the creature fought even more brutally, he felt the amount of Spirit and Life energy in the air spike dramatically.

Hum!

Crash suddenly warned Lucas of the energy shifts on the tunnel wall. Lucas brought his attention to energy and immediately frowned.

The energy flowed and writhed within the tunnel enigmatically, almost like veins pumping rainbow colored blood. As the seconds ticked by, Lucas felt a strange pressure on his body and mind as the energy pulled him towards the walls. Each step he took felt awkward as if gravity was now sideways.

He could sense numerous creatures melding into walls, some even exploding into Spirit energy at random in an extreme display of aggression and defiance, while some simply vanished like they were never there. The colors and vibrations got so intense Lucas was forced to a screeching halt as he mentally exclaimed.

'What the hell is going on?!'

He suddenly felt the energy finally get a grip on him and he vanished. An instant later, he fell from the sky and crashed into the floor face first.

His tendrils immediately flared as he stood up ready for combat. When he sensed around himself, he froze and was filled with abject confusion.

In front of him stood five humanoids, all pointing various firearms and melee weapons at him.

'Things somehow keep getting worse.'