Chapter 45 – Mr. Sneaky Pants

Cam was right that the Mimic possessed the Abilities of Adhesive Skin and Tongue Lash, but Eron was right that there was a surprising third Ability... and, while the prompt from Soul Harvest didn't give any details, just the name alone was enough to pique his interest.

Harvest Ability(Mimicry)?

What did it do exactly? He couldn't be sure. He had never heard of a monster called a 'Mimic', even if the name implied a few things. What exactly was the monster mimicking?

In this case, a loot chest was his best guess. Did that mean Mimicry would allow him to impersonate a chest as well? That would be an incredibly specific- and almost completely useless- Ability... but if it wasn't so specific, then there was some potential there. He wasn't sure if there was much combat application, aside from the small possibility of it being used in ambushes...

But the only way to know for sure would be to grab it and check. Which, while it risked him not being able to harvest another Ability on this Floor... considering the lack of monsters usually found on a Puzzle Floor, was a small risk.

"Better to grab something while I can than to hope for something that may not come." Cam shrugged as he harvested the Ability.

Mimicry

Active: Allows the user to assume another form of a similar size(plus or minus 10%).

For a second, Cam just blinked at the incredibly brief description, never having seen such a simple and straightforward Ability; While Iron Skin had a similarly short description, it at least also listed a mana cost and a duration! And this Ability had neither!

Which brought up several interesting points...

If a mana cost wasn't listed... then there wasn't a mana cast, and the same went for the duration... but the only Abilities Cam knew of that didn't have even a mana cost were people's Innate Abilities- like his Soul Harvest, or Cole's Clone that he took...

"Do some monsters have Innate Abilities?"

"I'm missing some key information to make this banter work, man!" Eron laughed from behind him. "But I'm guessing you found something crazy! Did that thing seriously have an Innate Ability?"

"I mean... maybe?" Cam grunted, pausing for a second in his thoughts to check how his clone was doing; Seeing Eron mostly recovered, he took a second to subsume and resummon him, granting him the new Ability as well... and suppressing a shudder as the memories of being nearly burned alive flitted through his mind.

It was definitely worse than he had thought, and he knew he must be crazy to be able to handle something like that...

"Yeah, this is wild!" Eron exclaimed in wonder, just a second before his figure blurred for an instant... only to look almost exactly the same, just six inches taller. "Holy shit, man, this is cool!"

"Just a shame I'm still shy of six feet tall, but this is the most it can increase with Mimicry."

"That's still a lot." Cam replied, looking up at his now taller clone; While he was used to being towered over by people his age, always having been one of the shorter people, seeing a version of himself that was nearly at the same height as everyone else was... odd. And a bit interesting. "Not much of a practical purpose to being taller, even if it is something I've always wanted..."

"Honestly... now that the chance is right in front of me, I'm not sure I like it."

"Same." Eron grunted in response before a cheeky grin flashed across his face. "Of course, a new Ability deserves testing... So, I wonder just how much of a change I can make!"

Before Cam could respond- even if they both knew he would only agree to his clone being the one to test it-, Eron's figured blurred again, shrinking this time to a version of himself six inches shorter... which was equally as strange to the duo, seeing themselves drop below five feet tall...

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Without waiting for a comment on it, Eron was quick to put the Ability through its paces. First, he altered himself into a chest similar to the one they had just looted- and similar to the Mimic, though a bit smaller, as he lacked some of the bulk of the Mimic-, then into a near replica of Davis's favorite chair...

A block of gray stone, a Kawe like from the previous Floor- just a little larger-, a near perfect replica of Cole- which was a little uncomfortable for both of them, considering their still slightly conflicted feelings on killing the man and harvesting part of his soul...

Before settling back to their normal height and looks. Mostly. Except for the part where the clone apparently thought it would be amusing to take the form of them as a woman.

"Ok, so it feels a little weird, cycling through all those changes, and I couldn't actually move as a chest- but I think I could move if I had turned into a mimic, even if it would have been awkward as hell, and I don't think I could effectively mimic the Mimic's attacks... heh, get it? Mimic the Mimic?-, but I think I can still cast our spells in any form... Also, fun note, but apparently when we turn into a woman it looks to be a complete change."

"As in..."

"As in lady parts and all... which feels a little weird. Not bad, just... weird, you know?" He said slowly, shifting slightly as if adjusting to the new figure. "Lacking the parts in my pants is one thing, but how do women deal with having boobs!? These things are heavy! I can see why so many of them complain about back pain!"

"That's because you made them so big, dumbass!" Cam huffed- not that he blamed his clone, exactly; Every guy, at some point or another, had had that one thought or conversation, wondering what it would be like to be a woman for a day... But looking at his face, softened and made more feminine, on a woman's figure, was... not something he ever expected. "Are you going to change back now?"

"Yeah, I can't imagine trying to fight like that; It's no wonder so many of the girls hated combat training!" Eron laughed, his form shifting once more to be a mirror of Cam. "I can definitely see some potential in this Ability!"

Rolling his eyes at his clone, Cam knew a joke when he heard it; While Eron was trying to mess with him about the possibility of changing into a woman, he knew the clone's real thoughts were more along the lines of the Ability making it easier for them to 'disappear' when they needed to.

Sneaking around on different Floors would be easier if they could look like the mobs... and, even if they couldn't because the mobs were too big or too small, the ability to look like an innocuous object had a lot of potential.

To say nothing of them now being able to just 'vanish' in Foundation City; it wouldn't matter if people tried to hunt him... if he could just not be himself for a time. Even better, combined with him having a clone that no one knew about... there were a number of ways he could run any aggressive or hostile force in circles, as long as he was careful about it.

"This Ability is huge for us, even if it doesn't have a ton of direct combat options!" Cam exclaimed, already thinking about the possibilities.

"Yeah, its cool and all... But you still need to grab the loot before we can move on!" Eron laughed. "Though, I feel I should add, there is a little... I guess I would call it 'mental pressure'... from rapidly shifting like that; It wasn't bad, just more like it would become a strain if I kept going. Like doing too many push ups in a row, and then your muscle is just jelly until you rest and let it recover. I think. If that makes sense."

"It does." Cam rolled his eyes again; They were the same person, so of course he understood! Though... to be fair, he could imagine his and his clone's usual rambling way of communicating being weird and incomprehensible to others...

Shaking off the thought, Cam turned back to grab the loot that had dropped... and, again, was not disappointed.

Sneaky Pants

Tower Value=9

Armor = 3

Special Effect: Reduces the chances of enemies detecting the wearer by 10%.

"I think this is for you." Cam laughed, tossing the pants to his clone- who did most of their scouting-, as his mind went over what he knew about similar items.

The math wasn't exactly straightforward, his lessons had warned. Basically, if enemy detection was scaled from 1 to 100, with a 1 meaning they have no chance to detect you, and a 100 being that they are guaranteed to see you... then, if their detection was a 100, the pants would reduce that to a 90, giving you a small chance to sneak past. If their detection was a 10, then it would only be reduced to a 9... so, better, but a smaller change.

Still, even a small bonus is still a bonus... though the pants would definitely be better for a Class with stealth skills that further reduced the chance of being detected.

Technically, that detection wasn't just visual, as some Tower monsters used other means: hearing, scent, some rare instances involved things like vibrations in the floor- or even the air, for extreme cases...

It was clear that the pants had to be a fairly rare drop, as that was a comprehensive effect; Cam would have expected something more along the lines of allowing the wielder to blend into shadows better, or something that reduces how much noise they make when moving- or even something that limits their scent... but a 10% reduction in being detected was huge!

To say nothing of the fact that the black leather pants also added armor.

"Hey, I'll take it!' Eron laughed, already pulling on the new pants. "More armor and being sneakier? Yes, please!"