yemalu

After making sure Odeta was completely clean of rat guts, we continued through the Dungeon with Katsuki remaining as our guide.

The monsters that we met after that Rat Knight seemed to still be Rat type monsters but now the Rat Knight has joined the normal monster pool patrolling the Dungeon.

Seriously, what\'s with this Dungeon\'s obsession with Rats?!

Is this entire Dungeon a Rat\'s nest?!

I was still complaining about it in my mind when I felt a tug on my sleeve.

"Mistress, treasure chest."

I turned my gaze to where she was pointing and sure enough, there was a chest sitting in a small alcove along the Dungeon wall near an intersection.

Ohhh! Lucky! Could it be a treasure chest full of sweets?!

I skipped up towards it but before I could reach the chest, several Dungeoneers appeared from the intersection.

They saw the treasure chest as well and immediately ran to it.

Since they were closer, they managed to reach it before me and they stood in front of it to prevent me from getting near it.

"Hey! I saw it first!" I protested.

A female Mahun wielding a bow waved her finger at me, "Too bad, we got to it first! Now scram!"

The other three members in her party also gave me mean looks while their hands rested on their weapons, showing that they would not hesitate to use their weapons if necessary.

I tried looking at their stats and found that they had stats within the three hundreds range, meaning that I could probably take them on if I wanted to.

Surprisingly, Katsuki tugged on my sleeve to stop me, "Mistress, it\'s not worth it."

Eh? It\'s not? But I thought people die all the time in Dungeons? It wouldn\'t be a big deal if these people were to disappear as well right? It would just be another number on the list of casualties.

Oh well, I\'ll just defer to Katsuki since she would know these things better than I do. Maybe her plan was to attack them from behind while they were distracted?

I took a step back from them to show that I had given up on the chest, though two of them continued to watch me while the other two went to open the chest.

I was just thinking if we should just leave the place for now when a scream came from the robe wearing mage that had been tasked to open the chest.

Everyone turned to him to see the poor mage currently stuck halfway into the treasure chest.

Ah… It wasn\'t a treasure chest…

[Name: Dungeon Mimic

Stats:

560 Strength

540 Dexterity

500 Endurance

200 Magic

Skill:

Camouflage (Tier 2)

Magic Skills:

Somatomancy (Tier 2)]

Oh… Oh damn… This thing is strong… It\'s even stronger than the boss monster from before…

The mage got snapped in half by the mimic, the bottom half of his body dropping onto the ground with a soft thud.

Everyone just stared at the Dungeon Mimic chewing up the mage for a moment, as though still trying to comprehend what was happening.

The warrior of their party was the first to recover as he raised his sword into the air above his head. A second passed and his sword was wrapped in an aura of light before he slammed it down on top of the Mimic.

The monster let out a roar of pain which spat out the top half of the mage\'s mangled body.

I thought the Mimic might be stuck in its chest form, but arms sprouted out from the sides and it even rose up in height to reveal a pair of feet under it.

Standing upright, the Mimic was at least two heads taller than Odeta and the mouth of the Mimic was big enough to swallow an entire person whole if it wanted to.

"Can we save him?!" The warrior shouted, his gaze locked on the Mimic.

The priest knelt down to check the mage before looking up, "We might if we get him out of here!"

The warrior raised his sword to defend against a swipe from the Mimic, the man almost losing his balance from just parrying the blow.

"We have to escape! We can\'t fight it!" He grunted.

The archer girl from earlier shot an arrow at the monster, the projectile hitting it on the top of its lid which caused it to let out a roar of pain.

The Mimic quickly recovered and tried to attack the Archer, only for the warrior to block its way.

That seemed to piss the Mimic off as it changed its target to the warrior again, its clawed hand raising up to slam down on him.

The warrior rolled away at the last moment to avoid it, the floor shaking from the force of the impact.

Before he managed to get up on his feet, the Mimic had swung its hand to slam against the warrior\'s side.

The Mahun screamed as he slammed against the wall with a loud crack, the telltale sound of several of his bones breaking.

The priest was already trying to cast healing magic on the warrior but that seemed to gain the aggro of the Mimic as it shifted its sight to the priest almost immediately.

The priest only had time to widen his eyes before the monster had leapt towards him to swipe at his head, decapitating the priest in a single blow.

The warrior was met with a similar fate as the Mimic stomped down on his head, his brain matter splattering all over ground and staining it red.

An entire party was effectively wiped within just a few seconds of meeting the Mimic…

The archer turned to us, silently pleading us with her gaze to save her.

Odeta was not impressed, "Hmph, she dared to be rude to us but now they meet some strong monster she want us to save her?"

Hmm… Honestly I wouldn\'t care if they all died and I have no problems just leaving this archer to her fate, but the glowing sword from the warrior caught my eye.

I kind of want it…

I turned to Katsuki, "If I save her… Can I get the sword?"

Katsuki turned to the archer, "We are willing to aid you in return for everything, do you agree?"

"Yes! Yes!! Please!!" The archer girl cried desperately, already running towards us while the Mimic busied itself with swallowing the priest whole.

"An agreement has been made, Mistress. We will own everything if we can save her from that monster."

"Oh… Umm… I guess we should stop it before it eats that guy with the sword."

Taking that as the cue, Odeta leapt forward with her fist cocked back.

The Mimic was in the midst of turning to face Odeta when it got sent flying towards the wall as the Amrap\'s fist crashed into the side of the Mimic.

The archer girl was so stunned by the sight that she forgot about running and stood there to stare at the sight of the fallen Mimic.

Odeta let out a warcry and jumped on top of the Mimic, her fists raised in the air to hammer down on the monster.

The Mimic let out a roar of its own and tried to swipe Odeta off, only to get its arm blasted with a gout of flames from me.

Katsuki had also taken that opportunity to throw a few poisoned needles at the Mimic, the projectiles flying straight inside its open mouth.

It clawed at its mouth in a futile attempt to get the needles out as it was stuck at the very back of its mouth.

Odeta also wasted no time in continuing her barrage of blows on the monster, punching it into the ground again and again.

The Mimic was in pain from both the poison that was now coursing through its body and Odeta\'s punches, the monster not knowing which one to deal with. And whenever it would try to throw off the Amrap, either myself or Katsuki would be there to stop it.

The archer girl was still staring at the scene in shock when Katsuki slapped her on the head, "What are you gaping for? Are you a new Dungeoneer? Why aren\'t you helping?"

She recovered and quickly drew her bow to start firing arrows at the Mimic.

I could tell that Katsuki obviously did not think the archer girl would be of any help but the fact that she was simply watching us save her must not have sat well with my Inugami maid.

With all of us working together, the Mimic was unable to do much to us despite its superior stats.

I have to admit that it did turn into a slog fest because of the monster\'s high Endurance but the fact we were not struggling that much against it was a win in my books.

Then again, it\'s not like the monster had some really strong skills in the first place so after it lost its element of surprise, it\'s just a monster with high stats.

Soon enough, the Mimic let out a low groan before its arms dropped heavily on the ground, breathing its last.

Heck yeah, we beat it!

But what do we do with the archer girl now?