Everybody Loves Large Chests

Gainful Employment 8

The Murk Dweller Queen was, as expected, huge. About the size and shape of a two story peasant house, closer to a crab than a lobster. Its shell was much harder and one swipe of its massive claw would probably crush a person into paste. The Quest’s four-star rating basically said one would need to be a Level 100 adventurer in order to take one of these down by themselves. This may seem like overkill considering the Queen had only a Level of 65, but that assessment was pretty accurate. Because Queens never fought alone, regardless of species.

*SKREEK*

She let out another loud screech that echoed through the marshes. It caused every Murk Dweller in the vicinity to stir and wake up. Two dozen Murk Dwellers popped up out of the ground and started looking for the intruder that dared to attack their mother.

So why did a creature that was a Level 39 Mimic, Level 25 Warlock and Level 12 Artificer go off looking for one of these? Because it had a way of leveling the playing field, of course. But first it had to make some preparations, before the Queen’s disgruntled subjects found it. The thick fog wouldn’t help it in any way, either. Those Murk Dwellers seemed to have some way of tracking it that wasn’t reliant on sight and were rapidly approaching.

That was fine though, Boxxy was confident it could manage as long as they were bunched up. It opened its Storage and retrieve the apple-sized, twelve-sided Spell Crystal it had prepared in advance. It’s a good thing that Queen showed up so soon, otherwise it would have wasted a focusing crystal. Those things cost 120 GP and it didn’t feel like wasting that money by letting the Spell Crystal expire. Thankfully, the Level 5 Crystallize Magic Skill afforded it a generous 30 minute window in which to use it.

*SKREEE*

It would appear Queenie wasn’t wasting any time. Heavy footsteps and numerous splashing noises made it abundantly clear that she and her brood were sent tremors through the soft ground as it approached the Mimic’s location. A gigantic 8-meter tall and oddly cubic crab entered the Mimic’s magical perception. That particular trait had expanded its active range from 10 to about 11 meters thanks the Artificer Job and the Perception (PER) Attribute it gave on Level Up. It was a big help in ferreting out the hiding lobsters, as well. And right now it was telling it that its target was far too close.

Boxxy broke into a run.

“Snack! Arms! Come to me!” it commanded telepathically.

“Yes, Master.”

“On my way, boss!”

Kora had been ordered to stay about half a kilometer away since that fiend was the complete opposite of subtlety. She should still reach Boxxy pretty quickly given her physical ability and the size of her stride. As for Xera, she swooped in from above not two seconds after being called and glided along the ground on her demonic winds, just above the Mimic. It’s a good thing she had a telepathic link with it, or else she might not have been able to find the box at all in this thick fog.

“Snack, take the sucky thing and use it! Make sure you get all the small crabbies!”

Boxxy stretched out its tongue and handed the completely pitch black Spell Crystal to its familiar. The succubus grabbed hold of it and a rather troubling twinkle appeared in her eye.

“Do not get caught by the sucky thing! I will need your magic for the next part!”

“... Yes, Master,” she replied, with a hint of disappointment.

Her Master still wasn’t 100% sure about the nature of her eccentricities, but it had already noticed how… enthusiastic she got whenever she handled items of great destructive power. The succubus gave her wings a few powerful beats and ascended into the night sky. She was able to easily see the massive shadow of the Queen pass under her. The gigantic monster had no trouble keeping up with the agile spider-chest due to her massive gait, but her brood were still as slow as ever and trailed behind their mother in a tight-knit group. She wasn’t sure exactly how many of them had gathered by now or whether that would be enough, but orders were orders.

“Master, I’m going!”

“Okay.”

“Banana,” she chanted.

The pitch-black Spell Crystal in her hands shimmered slightly in response, indicating it had been properly armed.

“1… 2… Now!”

She let the item fall out of her hands and then rapidly ascended. The crystallized form of the Mimic’s Singularity Spell fell silently through the night sky. It landed squarely on top of the large Queen, shattering open and releasing its contents. A miniature black hole appeared in the next instant and started pulling everything towards.

The mud, the water, even the very air all got dragged towards a singular point. The Murk Dwellers following their mother unwittingly entered its effective range and began floating helplessly up into the air. Even the gigantic Queen was unable to break away from the sudden gravitational pull and had to resort to digging her massive feet and claws into the dirt in an effort to remain grounded. Some of her offspring did the same, but the vast majority of them floated upwards and coalesced into one gigantic ball of floating crayfish. Since the event horizon of that black hole was next to the Queen’s head, it almost made it seem like the giant crab had an afro hairstyle made out of smaller crabs.

Boxxy was also not quite exempt from the effects of this Spell. The distance between itself and the point of impact was only 16 meters, while the Singularity had an effective radius of just over 20 meters. Still, the pull was much weaker this far out, allowing it to also cling desperately to the ground and avoid getting caught up in it.

However, while Xera did indeed manage to hit the vast majority of the ‘crabbies’ with the ‘sucky thing,’ none of them were actually dying. Oh sure, the ones at the very center of that floating lobster sphere were getting crushed, the majority of their brethren were unharmed. The Singularity Spell did not do much in terms of damage. That was fine though, it brilliantly did its job of both grouping up and restraining those Murk Dwellers. The first part of its plan was done.

As for the second part, it simply had to open its Storage and start unloading a series of 8 brown satchels. The Singularity caught the lightweight hemp bags the instant they left the pocket dimension and swept them up into the air. They flew off and got lost somewhere inside the floating mass of angry crustaceans. The sheer force of gravity, combined with the small and flexible nature of those bags meant they should slip in between the writing Murk Dwellers and find their way into the middle of that!

“Snack! Light it up!”

Xera had, as instructed, managed to fly beyond the range of the Singularity in time and avoided getting sucked into that crawling mess beneath her. She hovered just on the edge of Singularity's range and pointed her staff downward while chanting her favorite Spell.

“Inferno!”

The towering pillar of magical fire illuminated the night and wrapped the entire floating ball-o-crab. It clung to the monster’s bodies, continuing to burn away at them. However, while that was an effective area attack, it wasn’t nearly enough to kill all those monsters. Nor was that the Spell’s main purpose.

*KABO-BO-BO-BOOOOOOOM*

The numerous Blast Powder explosives packed within those satchels were set off almost simultaneously. The already large mass of fire expanded to become an even larger fireball as many Murk Dwellers were ripped to shreds by a combination of shockwaves and shrapnel. The sheer force of the explosion sent a large number of charred Murk Dweller bits and green, sticky blood scattering in every direction, although only briefly. The pull of the Singularity’s gravity field quickly pulled everything back together.

*SKREEEEEEEEE*

The Queen was, understandably, not entirely pleased with this development. Not only did that series of explosions hurt like hell, but they also did a number on her brood. The shell protecting her upper body was mostly in pieces, not to mention that the succubus’s magical flames clung persistently onto it.

“Snack, finish off the crabbies, I’ll get the big one!”

“Yes, Master.”

The Singularity’s effects ran out a few seconds later and the Queen, along with the few surviving Murk Dwellers, was finally released from her magical prison. She angrily swung down a massive claw towards the one who was doubtlessly responsible for all this. That infuriating half-spider, half-box, half… human?

“Mind Blast ~♪!”

The massive crab recoiled and wavered mightily as the Domination Spell assaulted her consciousness, making her claw miss her target by a wide margin, hitting nothing but soggy swampland.

“Frostbite ~♪!”

Six icy fangs flew out from Boxxy’s sides, three from the left, and another trio from the right. They drew an unnatural horizontal arcs as they flew through the air, almost as if someone had thrown a bunch of boomerangs. They struck the Queen’s vulnerable upper body from both sides like a pair of icy jaws.

Granted, they didn’t do much. That big-ass monster was sure to have mountains of HP at its disposal and barely even flinched. The relative size between her body and those projectiles was pretty much like prodding a person with a toothpick.

“Frostbite ~♪!”

That was fine, however. Boxxy could fire off as many of these as it was necessary.

This Spell was one of the more efficient ones in the Mimic’s limited repertoire. Its damage was comparable to a Dark Explosion at only a fraction of the MP cost. The chant was also really short, to the point where it could be completed even faster than a Shadowbolt.

The problem with it was aiming. The odd path those projectiles took, not to mention their relatively slow speed, made it substantially difficult to hit a human-sized opponent if they were standing still, or downright impossible if they were moving around.

“Frostbite ~♪!”

But for a target that’s as big as a barn, that wasn’t much of a problem. What was important here was that it needed to be whittled down steadily.

The third barrage of projectiles also hit true, but it would likely be the last one. The Queen starting moving around again, a clear inclination it had recovered from the-

“Mind Blast ~♪!”

“Ebonfire ~♪!”

Jet black flames poured out from under the Queen’s shell.

“Frostbite ~♪!”

“Magma Cannon!” rang out Xera’s identical voice from besides Boxxy.

A dinner-plate-sized patch of mud next to her feet lit up with a bright red glow. A glob of molten lava then launched itself out of the ground, accompanied by a gust of steam and smoke. It drew a heavy arc through the air before splattering across the Queen’s face.

*SKREEEEOOOK*

She definitely felt that one, but it would seem she had already recovered from the Mind Blast. She ignored the Ebonfire enveloping her being and raised a claw, preparing to take out both Boxxy and Xera with a single swing.

“Mind Blast ~♪!”

The Mimic tried to stop her once again, but it was no good. This opponent’s mind had already sealed itself off due to the repeated assault and would take time before it loosened its mental guard. The giant pincer was swung sideways, closing in on the Mimic from the side. But it wasn’t worried, because its backup had finally arrived.

“ORRRA!” yelled Kora as she leapt in the path of that wide swing.

The crab’s claw slammed into her double cross-arm block. It was a heavy blow as expected, but fiends were no pushovers. Kora grit her teeth, tensed up every muscle in her body and stood firm. Her powerful legs dug two narrow trenches into the soft ground as she was pushed back for about a meter, but that was it. She had successfully parried a monster that was easily 3 times taller than she was. She then immediately hit the claw away with a double straight punch that left a sizable dent in the limb’s hard shell. It even caused the Queen to lose her balance and stumble backwards, buying the trio a few seconds of time.

As expected of the stupidity-powered strength of a fiend.

“Snack, crabbies?” asked the Mimic.

“Dead, Master. This is the last one.”

“What do I do, boss?” asked Kora with a hint of anticipation. Boxxy turned to her and bonked her lightly on the head with its staff.

“Huh?”

“Dark Infusion ~♪!”

“Ohhhh, there we go!”

The fiend let out a gasp of pleasant surprise as Boxxy’s Spell took hold of her. A dark, malicious aura enveloped her body, causing it to overflow with power.

“Kill it,” commanded Boxxy.

“Fuhahahahaa! Say no more! Grit your teeth, Crabzilla!”

She coiled her legs and leapt at the towering Queen’s upper half. Her well-toned body did a half spin in the air, allowing her to plant a fierce dropkick right between the monster’s eyes. The toothy smile on her face was so wide it almost looked like it was about to break. Of course Kora was ecstatic. It’s not every day she gets to fight an opponent bigger than her and she got a dose of her favorite power-up to boot. And being able to throw down like this after two weeks of mostly babysitting a ruin made the occasion all the more sweeter.

“Snack, support her.”

“Understood. What will you do, Master?”

Boxxy’s imitation of Xera disappeared and three tongues holding daggers took her place. Its MP reserves were already nearly dry. As expected of a Warlock’s magic.

“I’m killing it,” it answered, simply.

The battle that broke out from that point on lasted for another 10 minutes. Not only did the Queen appear to have nearly bottomless HP, but it was supported by many defensive Skills. She also started spewing a rain of acid once her mouth and face had recovered enough halfway through the fight. Boxxy and Xera were able to avoid it easily, but Kora was caught unawares. She had to activate Demonic Carapace and Second Wind in rapid succession to survive that deluge of corrosion. The subsequent gusts of acid she was able to mostly avoid by reading her opponent's tells.

Xera mostly circled around out of harm’s way while pelting the monster with magic whenever she could. She also had to use the Purge Spell on the other two several times as the Queen released poisonous clouds around her. Her newly-acquired Magma Cannon Spell seemed quite effective, but she had to land on the ground to use it. A spray of acid from a stray Murk Dweller blindsided her when she was doing so. The attack didn’t kill her outright, but cost her the use of her wings, which drastically eliminated her mobility. She was crushed under the Queen’s claw a few seconds later.

As for Boxxy, it kept alternating between bombarding the Queen with magic and crawling all over while stabbing away at her flesh. It even threw the last remaining bombs it had inside some of her deeper wounds. It was a far more desperate struggle than it anticipated, but it managed to triumph in the end.

“YESSHAAAAA!” it screamed into the night sky.

It danced a dance of triumphant joy on top of the massive corpse of its defeated foe. It had thrown nearly 900 GP worth of explosives and consumables at this thing, but it had succeeded in its task.

“Huff! Huff!” panted Kora as she leaned against the gigantic carcass. “Huff! Yeah! Take that! That’ll show you to mess with me! Huff!”

The fiend was acting tough, but she was barely able to hold on. Both of her left arms were completely melted away by the acid and huge chunks of her torso and legs were missing. The Mimic took its fair amount of punishment as well, but was able to pull through splendidly thanks to the incredibly delicious SKill it managed to unlock mid-battle.

This seemed to be the same thing that Fleshmaiden kept using to keep herself alive despite losing sizable chunks of her body to the Mimic’s attacks. Having the same ability made Boxxy’s survivability shoot through the roof. It was honestly like a dream come true. No longer would it have to rely on potions or dodging attacks like crazy in order to pull through grueling fights. Or so it thought until it got a bit cocky when it took the Queen’s acid splash head on and lost about 850 HP in an instant. It had to hurriedly drink 3 of its more expensive potions in order to get its health back to a safe Level.

But that was then, this is now. And the Boxxy right now had one thing on its mind - dinner. It opened its maw wide and started chowing down on the mountain of fresh meat underneath it. And it was truly tasty, for it was the taste of victory. It crunched and munched at the corpse, burrowing in deeper and deeper like some sort of flesh-eating parasite.

Almost exactly like that, actually.

Once it had eaten beyond its fill, it let out a satisfied burp. Tonight was a truly splendid night. Could it even get any better? Of course it could. There was still that one thing that would make it a perfect evening!

“Kadahah Akhsohsohn!” it chanted, full of anticipation.

Countless purple tendrils shot out in all directions, embedding themselves inside the walls of flesh and blood around it. The mountainous body shriveled up at truly frightening speeds over the next 2 seconds as Boxxy’s Skill greedily slurped it up.

“...”

It honestly didn’t know what it expected.

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