Katelyn.
"Wait—wait! But I haven't—"
The world resolved itself once more as Katelyn was partway through her objection, mind abruptly breaking from the hazy stupor in a near instant as she was dropped in the darkness, her phantasmal hand still reaching out to the battlefield of possibly staggering potential which had just been left there, unlooted and filled with experience…
Then, she was back again, the monster looking around a familiar cave with wide and bulging eyes.
She had no idea why she'd felt so incontinent before things had reverted again, but now that her faculties were back, Kate was pissed!
"Son of fucking asshole!" She shouted, wanting to scream as she glared around at the tiny room that was quickly becoming 'frustratingly' familiar. Again, two more chests were beside her, and again, the entrance to the chamber was partially disguised...
"Seriously? You couldn't have waited, like, two more minutes to revert things?"
Though she had no real idea if two minutes would have been enough for her to overcome the strange daze she'd been in, the numbers were more symbolic, to begin with.
Regardless, no answer was forthcoming, so Katelyn just sulked for a moment and bitterly ate the chest beside her.
She didn't need anything inside, but she was feeling spiteful at the moment and saw it as a 'fuck you' to the dungeon, for whatever it was worth.
There were so many bodies! And not just that, but one of them had been a boss!
How many levels had she just lost?
How much loot?
She grumbled a little bit, perhaps more than just a touch snarly, but eventually, she opened up her status page and, after accepting the situation for what it was, smiled at what she saw.
Her monster form had two levels pending. Both of which she accepted, bumping her all the way to the fourth.
Likewise, she'd gained another Kate level, to which she did not distribute all of her points right away.
No, Kate was decidedly hesitant on that note.
The encounter with the mage had managed to rattle her, and the damage to her confidence was stark as it was spectacularly effective…
She hadn't had the opportunity to glance at her health, given what had happened, but Katelyn hadn't felt 'good' afterward.
Maybe she'd even been close to death given how loopy she'd been, which, so far as answers towards why she was suddenly feeling so clear-headed after resetting, was a good enough theory to cement as fact for the time being.
It made the dangers of risk that much more frightening. If her mental capabilities were at risk of complete collapse if her hit points got too low, well, Katelyn wasn't terribly fond of the concept as a whole.
What was worse was the reality that was the team of adventurers she'd encountered…
The young woman shuddering to imagine what fighting them would have been like if it were on fairer terms.
Hell, by the look of it, she'd engineered the situation entirely by accident, happened upon them in the direst of moments, ambushed them, and still nearly perished!
And that was after her unwitting allies had killed, maimed, and run off one of their members!
Just the mage alone had been—terrifying to have any form of distance from her, and, she was sure, had the girl had a mind, she could have finished her.
Thankfully, the woman's concerns had clearly been elsewhere.
The reflection was sobering to say the least, yet her concern on the matter didn't feel like it could be resolved through brute force alone.
She'd been completely overwhelmed, and all within moments…
All at the hands of magic.
Katelyn had been helpless, despite her having been the unknowing aggressor!
Sure, she'd gotten something out of it, but thinking of herself, as she was now, no matter where she put her points, she struggled to imagine herself as anything 'but' kindling…
She slumped back on the floor for what might have been minutes or, possibly hours, for all she knew, just replaying the encounter again and again…
She was so compromised by the sheer shock of it all that she nearly missed the moment four figures entered her sphere of vision.
The quartet laughed and joked as they rounded a corner, noticing her lone presence in the cave before they cheered and, as a group, wandered into the small cavern!
Two of them stretched and loosened their loads as they plopped down against a nearby wall while the other pair approached her, simply speaking conversationally as though it were just any other day.
To her eyes, they were nearly kids.
Teenagers, to be sure, but probably closer to young adulthood than tweens. She herself was only twenty-three, but still, at a certain point, everyone who was younger just started looking so baby-faced...
The scruffy man who was speaking animatedly with a beautiful girl just at his side looked on the better end of eighteen; his smile was bright, teeth without a hint of decay, and his mood so jovial that Katelyn might never have suspected what would—inevitably, come next.
He was just so at ease… they all were, even as she quickly inspected them, not seeing a level above six, their collective jovility and general 'calm' made her take a second to sit back and consider it all.
The wild contrast between what she saw right now and what she'd just been a part of was, honestly? A fairly decent disconnect which allowed her thoughts to drift…
The jarring juxtaposition of where she'd been but minutes ago, fighting for her life, screeching in pain, wondering if she was going to die, only to then get just dumped back here where it was all to start again felt wrong…
And more than that, for the first time since she'd arrived, her placement in this 'realm' of ridiculosness was almost beginning to feel like a genuine punishment again.
Katelyn crushed the boy's spine the moment he opened her lid, swallowing him with meaty snaps before she lashed out at the horrified and shocked girl who might have passed for deep-fake CGI for all her flawless perfection…
Chomping down on her as well, even as her robes caught in Katelyn's teeth, the monster swallowed her second victim with savage efficiency.
The brief outcries of horror and edged weapons that clattered against her hide felt—numb to her as she allowed instinct to take command, Katelyn watching with detached indifference, noting the horrid carnage before her without really seeing it.
Before long, the darkness came for her again. The world vanishing after the final member of the group was thoroughly chewed, then swallowed.
But, just a moment later, she was returned to yet another cave with yet another two chests at her side.
A loop…
She was stuck in a fucking loop…
"Ha…" Was all Katelyn could manage as she listlessly wandered out of her small chamber and just—started eating things.
She'd leveled up again—then—again, and, soon after, again…
The cycle was unending, the process becoming mechanical, her mind slowly drifting away further and further with every victim that came near.
A great devourer.
Nothing was safe.
Not adventurers, not goblins, not Katelyn's sanity.
Eventually, she stopped caring about the other chests beside her, giving up on trying to find an exit, giving up on trying to get stronger to 'see' what would happen—giving up on any reason to keep going.
Losing all hope of escape as her mind turned inwards, her body simply waiting whenever it appeared.
Sometimes she found the world to simply vanish without her ever seeing anyone; at other times, people occasionally passed without ever finding her cavern. Less still actually found her, and like that, they'd engage her in an unsuspecting battle.
Never once did she die or come near falling as she had before.
Never once, when a party chose to enter her small domain, did they leave to speak of any tales.
Her levels rose, both in spirit and body as time passed without meaning, interest fading from her glazed eyes as life within the dungeon became monotonous and routine.
It was always the same...
She'd appear in this room, spending hours or minutes within it. Then, be sent back to the void.
It was inevitable.
Whether she stayed or wandered.
Whether she fought or hid, ate or was passed by.
Nothing truly deviated.
There was no exit she could ever find, no end to the labyrinth within!
She couldn't seek help!
Couldn't escape!
Katelyn was simply trapped within this unending purgatory of nightmarish absurdity, the only driving force behind her existence being the hunger which she was forced to satiate...
Everything took on a certain—floaty meaninglessness, Katelyn hardly managing to work up the interest to actively level and distribute her points.
She had no idea how long she spent resetting again and again in the tiny room. Losing count after they had reached well beyond the initial double digits, her mind fully receding into itself...
Existence, much like those moments between restarts, fading away to darkness, leaving little but the monster to remain.
As though snapping from a daze, Katelyn woke some indeterminate time later, her body currently the midst of a gory meal as blood was splattered across her cavern as if it were a blank canvas, and she was some eccentric and satanically touched artist…
There were—words coming from somewhere around her as she methodically chewed, gulping what was left, even as she peered around herself, expecting to see her next morsel.
Still, the voice prattled on, not screaming, not calling for help, or growing distant as it ran away… simply talking, more 'at her' than anything else...
Frowning, the young woman focused or tried to, finding her head fuzzy with an almost sleep-like haze while she redoubled her effort to find who it was that was being so damned loud.
God, couldn't she just fade away in peace and finally be done with it? Why now? Why bring her focus back to the land of the living.
"Hey, I know you can hear me in there! No monster just becomes as successful as you without waking up, so spill it; you may as well stop acting dumb!"
Katelyn took a slight and hesitant step to the side, allowing her phantasmal self a view of the small creature that had been sharing space with her nonexistent eyes, staring at the sparkling and tiny winged form for several long moments.
"Hey? What's wrong? Can't you hear me?" The creature asked again, fluttering with hands upon its hips as it glared downwards at Katelyn's box. An air of supreme smugness and condescension practically radiating from her form.
Huh…
She hadn't eaten one of those before…
Quick as a cobra, she struck out with her tongue, earning herself a squeal of surprise before the faint and momentary sensation on her muscular appendage vanished, even as she pulled it in.
The tiny creature reappeared where it had previously been in a slight flash of light, her teeny expression sneering as she let out a little huff.
"Oh, think you're funny, hm? Want to play games? I'm your boss, you dumbass box! Try it again, and you can see what sitting in my inventory feels like for a few weeks!"
Again, her tongue shot out, uncaring of the creature's nonsense. But, again, the tiny creature broke free, her pixie-like face twisting into an outright snarl as Katelyn held back from making a third attempt at it, if for nothing more than her piqued interest, which was rising by the second, dragging her from the swampy abyss of near-catatonic disinterest to something that almost resembled normal thought.
"Okay…" The pixie whispered, tone curt as her little head offered a short nod. "We can do things your way."
And, with that, the little woman snapped her fingers, and the world evaporated as it had countless times before.
However, unlike all previous instances, it did not resolve itself into a new cavern...
Katelyn counted the seconds as they passed, then minutes as nothing around her happened.
She was in the void again yet the smile that perked on her lips was genuine.
The loop had finally been broken!
And though she wasn't free, this first deviation from the endless spiral of it all finally dragged her to complete consciousness.
Idly, she peered around herself and was unsurprised to see—nothing. Just as it had appeared before. No sense of smell, no more musty cave or iron, no more dripping water! O-or distantly hollering goblins… it was nice, in a fashion.
Therapeutic…
The first god-honest break she had from all the madness allowed her to restore the fractured parts of her psyche.
All the murder and death,
Pfft…
Needless to say, even for her, a break from the dreary and miserable cave was, if nothing else, bizarrely appreciated…
Her next thought arose almost as if it had been with her her whole life, even as screens appeared before her, like existence was sensing her intent.
'Monster her' was already level ten, the experience bar maxed out, and the first star blinked at her, awaiting her attention.
There wasn't a stat below thirty, with the highest being Endurance and the lowest Dexterity.
More, her trove of valuables was considerable… several of the crimson potions and other green ones and purple ones all filled her bottomless insides, which were, well, not that interesting, to be honest.
She found any prior attachment to her worldly material possessions to be somewhat bland at that given moment, though she would probably go through it all later.
Kate was essentially a hoarder at this point, but the only thing keeping her from burning it all to the ground was that she couldn't actually see it lying on the floor.
Thus, her collection of random shit didn't churn her guts with an initial degree of vehement disgust.
Her surprise did spike, however, as she gazed at her Katelyn status page. There, she was also level ten; the experience bar likewise maxed out. Her statistics were largely left alone from what her monstrous self shared with her, save for that single point of luck she'd played about with.
No, the real curiosity was the utter cascade of attached messages she'd left unread.
"Congratulations on reaching level ten! Please select a specialization to reach the next tier."
"Congratulations on reaching level ten! Please select one available feat."
"Congratulations! You have been awarded the achievement (Classless) for advancing through a tier without any active classes. You may choose one extra feat while ranking up."
"Congratulations! You have been awarded the achievement (Murderer) for advancing through a tier with your primary source of experience coming from other people. You may choose one extra dishonorable-aligned feat while ranking up."
"Congratulations! You have been awarded the achievement (Glutton) for devouring the majority of your foes to feed yourself. You will gain the feat (Gourmand) while ranking up."
"(Gourmand) infers the ability—(quality cooking), which is the advanced form of (cooking). (Gourmand) unlocks the profession—(Chef) for those not already possessing it.
"Congratulations! You have been awarded the achievement—"
Katelyn—closed the remaining windows and instead just looked at her stat sheet herself, seeing at least four other achievements she'd managed, all ranging from the somewhat vile but appropriately earned to a more obscure anomaly, which outright labeled her by the system as some sort of aberration.
It didn't quite call her a cheater, but it wasn't far off as it poked fun at the fact her capabilities far exceeded what they otherwise should.
"Still though, it doesn't really seem to 'care' regardless…" She mused, glancing at the feat point she was being awarded 'for' her so-called cheating, all the same.
Katelyn had been, in total, awarded nine of them, whatever the points were good for, with the implication that they could be used when ranking up.
The problem, however, arrived when she tried to do as much.
The window was simply blank.
"More shit that just doesn't work, is it? Not surprised at this point, but why bother telling me about it if…" Her words drifted as she closed the window, then mentally nudged the little glowing star, opened it again, discovering the same issue before delving back into her Monster's page.
There, much like the other, the star was awaiting her perusal.
With a shrug, she activated this half of her supposed rank-up and was immediately presented with three options. The new tab that opened was titled somewhat curiously as 'Evolutions.'
"Okay…" Katelyn whispered, nodding her head slightly. "I can—work with that…"
Gazing at the first option available, she mentally crossed her arms, reading the display aloud, part of her mind not yet giving up that she was human.
"Greater Mimic. This evolutionary stage of the monstrous family is a direct improvement on its previous form. Larger, stronger, and considerably more enticing to behold, it is the natural next step of the species.
Requires Strength; forty, Endurance; forty.
Provides size increase, ten points to Strength, ten points to Endurance.
Gain the ability to decorate oneself with treasure."
Not—bad," Katelyn mused once she was finished reading. The stat increases were a definite bonus, and so far as she could tell, there weren't any real downsides.
Being able to decorate herself also sort of implied she could wear things by attaching them to her—well, box.
Curiously, Katelyn glanced at the myriad of magic items she'd amassed within herself; just the thought that all those damned rings could actually be used and give her a significant bonus was attractive, assuming it did indeed work like that.
Still, she made herself look at the next entry, already sort of sold on the first pitch but knowing that proper due diligence was the key to success.
"Mimic-kin. This evolutionary stage of mimics is rare, as it is feared. Larger and deceivingly fast for its unsuspecting victims, it is perhaps the most terrifying of mimic evolutions.
Requires Strength; twenty, Agility; thirty, Dexterity; ten.
Provides size increase, ten points to Dexterity, ten points to Agility.
The Monster grows retractable arms and hands with opposable thumbs. Monster grows retractable legs that can adjust for size."
Katelyn nodded along with the final words, picturing what she might have looked like if she were sprinting down a hallway with legs twice as long as humans, gaining ground with every gangly step while drooling copious fluids as adventurers shit themselves trying to run away.
"Yeah, it is some pretty decent nightmare fuel…" She admitted, knowing how quickly people could break down when confronted by something so—alien…
The uncanny valley aside, her culture was filled with tales of overly lanky creatures emerging from the darkness, with that single and simple idea sprouting countless fables of creatures like the boogeyman or something along the lines of suit-wearing faceless horrors in the forest…
While having arms and legs was undoubtedly useful, Katelyn felt like she'd done fine as she was. Her tongue being prehensile and, of course, her stubby appendages carrying her wherever was needed, the first option still felt 'better' in her mind.
Sure, mobility was great, but getting that large also painted a target on one's forehead. And, as it was always said, the higher one was, the harder they would fall.
The final entry was the most bland when she first read it, though it slowly grew on her as time went on. She re-read a moment later, then again as her mind spun up with a rapidly kindling spark of intrigue.
"Prop Hunter. This evolutionary stage of a mimic is a rare deviation from the norm. Focusing not on raw power but, instead, deception and stealth, little is known about the species beyond its tendency to be frighteningly lethal in its attacks.
Requires Dexterity; thirty.
Provides the ability to shapeshift.
Unlocks, trait; intelligence.
Capacity to shift one's form linked to internal and available mass. Mass is lost when the shape is repaired or destroyed.
New shapes require the expenditure of mana to maintain; new forms can be locked in as a baseline should mana regeneration be sufficient to maintain a form for twenty-four hours…"
Katelyn leaned backward as though she were resting on a railing, her phantasmal tongue clicking as she regarded the final entry with a sort of uncertainty…
Regardless of how she felt, the first option was still, without question, the most immediately powerful. Heck, even the second wasn't that bad and an easy choice if the first hadn't been present.
However, the last option was still burning in her mind's eye.
"Shapeshift…" She mused aloud, contemplating what exactly that entailed.
The easy assumption was that she could turn herself into something utterly unassuming—like a bucket…
Hell, maybe she could even turn into a sword that could be picked up, and that would certainly let her easily score a quick kill.
It also carried with it the implication that she could be taken from the dungeon, leaving it behind, which had been something she'd been interested in trying…
But, after failing to find the exit, she hadn't bothered dwelling on it given the sight of a 'chest' waddling out into what she assumed was at least a town, given how many people there were, would doubtless earn her a trip to an early grave.
However, if she could make herself look like a sword, then she could silently ride along for the journey until her targets decided to somehow leave...
Once outside, oh, she didn't know, maybe she could turn into a bird and then fly away?
She paused, a mind-stalling thought sitting right on the edge of her focus...
Then her eyes widened as yet another, this time, a more daring and much more desirable idea flashed before her eyes!
Desperation rose like a cryptid through the mist as her mind whirled with possibility!
Could she 'mimic' a human?
Not everything, not all the 'pesky organs' and bones or all the internals given surviving as a wooden shell clearly had its advantages, but… the fun bits?
The parts that would allow her be a real person again and maybe even let her flick the bean for a while, simply to help alleviate the freaking boredom?
Katelyn scanned the text for anything that might outright prohibit her plan, gaze narrowing at the intelligence and mana requirements, but, even then, was it worth the risk?
Well, regardless of her grander designs, if she could start actually hiding instead of always being a freaking treasure box, then she knew she could pull off some sleazy shenanigans that might at least entertain her if nothing else…
It was certainly the safest option available from a cowardly standpoint, though admittedly not the strongest.
That said, there was always something to be said about subtlety and exploitation…
And fun, let us not forget about the all-powerful allure that was her desperate need for amusement!