<~> Chapter 38The four of us were looking at the newly transformed mimic standing naked in front of us. At least I think it's still a mimic.

  Torien still looked wary, "You sure it won't attack us now? I don't even know what you did to it." She quickly put her hand up. "No, don't tell me what you did. It's probably better that we don't know. Is it still a demon?"

  It was twisting and turning to look at itself, she was more ied in her new form than paying attention to what we were saying. I poked its shoulder to get its attention. "Does your status still list you as a demon?"

  It tilted its head for a moment before replying, "My status says I'm a 'Succubus Mimiow instead of a 'Demon Mimic. My body looks weird now, I've never been able to turn into something I've never seen before." It ening and closing its hands staring ily at them.

  "What was your normal form before the ge?"

  "I looked like the demon mimic that birthed me, a dlestick like I was before."

  "Hey, how did you know I was a succubus?"

  It's ruby eyes looked up at me. "I have a skill called [Perfect Identify], I use it to uand something's qualities so I transform into it. Afterwards, I use my [Alter shape] ability to- Oh! My [Alter Shape] ability turned into [Racial Specialization: Shapeshifting]! It says I ge into any form I support with mana now, even living things!"

  It looked at me ily before its form turned into a copy of my own. I was looking at aical copy of myself. But when it tried to move the illusion pletely fell apart. The colors didn't stay sistent, occasionally it would fsh it's normal gold and silver tohe way that it moved looked a little unnatural, like it wasn't used to bending the way that it did. Its eyes looked gssy like the mimic didn't really uand hoere actually looking at things.

  Bel looked really unfortable, "Lilith tell it to stop, it's creepi."

  Suddenly it snapped back to its humanoid form and started panting heavily, "Wow, it's cool that I turn into one of you but it's really hard and weird. You things are moving and talking all the time. It's super hard to focus on so many things at once." It started looking at it's hands closely again.

  Man inched closer, "You're doing it right now. You look like a... well kind of like a beastkin, isn't that the same thing?"

  "I only look like one of you things oside, I'm normal on the inside. See?" An unnoticeable seam on its stomach opened up into the signature gigantic mouth filled with the sharp teeth you'd expe a mimic.

  Man paled and jumped back, for a moment I even saw a swirl of fire mana. It seems that it was just an impulse rather than a hostile a though since she let it dissipate a moment ter.

  "'t you just make the outside look like one of us?" I asked.

  It tilted it's head to the side, which looked kind of cute despite its expressionless fad gem eyes. "It doesn't work that way. Maybe I could do something like that but it would take practice. Besides moving around like this is exhausting. I think I want to sit still for a while." It immediately reverted back to the familiar dlestid sat pletely still.

  "So uh, what should we call you?" Bel asked the dlestick.

  "I don't know, I don't have anything in my name slot like you four. I've never even seen anything in the name slot before you."

  Torien raised a hand. "Uh, should we give you a hen? Are you a birl? You seem to have... both parts..."

  There was a silence for a moment before the mimic responded, "I don't know what that means, what's the difference?"

  After a moment Man awkwardly replied, "Uh boys... fertilize girls and girls give birth or y eggs."

  "...It doesn't work that way for mimics. When mimics collect mana and make it dense enough they press it into another mimic. Thehe seimic gets big enough the first one eat it to collect its mana back plus anything the new mimic collected itself. If the first mimic waits too long though the seimi escape or evehe first mimic if it's big enough. I don't... really like eating the others though so I just try to avoid them. They always try to eat me and they don't speak like you guys so they're b anyways."

  I cut in, "It sounds like your species is genderless but it's kind of awkward for us to call you 'it' all the time. It makes it sound like you're not a person to us. Would you prefer if we picked one or should we avoid it and just call you they instead? It's up to you."

  "I don't really care, all that sounds silly. Are all of you boys irls?"

  "We're all g-girls..." Bel squeaked out.

  "Okay! I'll be a girl too then."

  "Are you sure?" I asked again.

  "Yeah, I don't care anyway. If it makes it easier to think of me as a girl then that's fih me. I don't pn on making any other mimics though, eating the others makes me feel bad."

  "Uh, yeah. I'd prefer if you didn't make any others. At least until you uand some things a bit more first."

  "Okay!"

  I looked around awkwardly. "So about your hen?"

  Man's tail suddenly jumped iement. "Oh! Since we're thinking of her as a girl anyway how about Mimi!"

  Bel smiled. "That sounds cute..."

  "Okay! My name is Mimi, Mimi the Mimic!" It giggled cutely.

  I struggled really hard not to roll my eyes at the name. I looked down at the stationary dlestick again. "Well, that solves that problem but what are we going to do about you? You don't seem to want to walk around with us much but I don't think we carry you around very easily while trying to protect ourselves." Suddenly a thought occurred to me. "Oh! how about this!"

  I pulled the broken sword from its sheath and id it on the ground, Mimi shifted bato her humanoid form and looked down at the sword before peeking over at the sheath on my belt.

  I tinued, "If you shift into a sword I could carry you around fortably and you could stay stationary while riding along."

  "Yeah! That sounds fun! B-but... I don't want you to hit things with me. I don't think I'm dense enough yet for it not to hurt."

  "Oh, yeah I wasn't really thinking about actually using you as a sword..."

  "Okay! Sounds fun to me. So then, I eat this?" she says pointing to the broken bde hilt. "[Perfect Identify] says it's broken and it would help me uand what I'm doing."

  "Sure, if it'll help. Also, si's broken I'll show you the differeween the broken one and my current sword." I id my Cymore dowo the broken bde. "You look at this sword too but do it."

  "Hmm hmm, iing. Should I be a cursed sword too?"

  I froze. I had been a bit ed about that but after using it for a while I didn't think it was actually cursed.

  "Lilith's bde is cursed?! What kind of curse is it?" Torien asked quickly.

  "Hmm? It says its a curse of hunger, [Cursed Cymore of Hunger], this sword will slowly e the sustenance of its wielder when fighting and vert it into magic damage."

  "Oh, that actually doesn't sound that bad." Man said.

  Bel's eyes met mine and it clicked. "Oh shit, that makes sense."

  "What? I've barely seen you eat anything since we came in here!" Torien put her hands on her hips.

  "Succubi don't actually o eat much... We get sustenance from uh, something else." I was suddenly very curious about Mimi, did she have [Sexual Appetite] like me and Bel or not? I'll have to make a point to ask ter.

  I picked up my apparently cursed sword aed the bde on my back. Somehow I actually felt more fortable with it now that I kly what it did. Actually, it didn't seem like a cursed sword so much as just a magic on with a small drawback. Still I should be careful with it and take its drawbato sideration when fighting. It's probably not a good idea to get too horny and go into heat in the middle of bat if I avoid it.

  I looked down at the broken bde, "Anyway, go ahead ahe broken sword. Make sure you're short enough to actually fit in this sheath though." I poio it on my waist.

  "Okay!" Mimi's huge maw opened wide and she threw the sword hilt ih one of her hands. The mouth closed, it didn't make any other the sight was still a bit grotesque. I almost expected to hear awful metal grinding noises.

  Man looked a bit pale again. "That will never not be disturbing."

  Mimi looked at Man and tilted her head, "Hm? Does eating look gross to you?"

  Man looked put on the spot. "Oh uh, no, what I mean is just that I'm not used to seeing, uh, someone's stomach open up and swallow things. It looks kinda scary."

  "Scary?" Mimi asked turning her head the other way. "Sorry, I'll try to eat more discreetly iure then." She then focused on the scabbard again. "Okay I'm going to give this a try. I think [Shapeshifting] lets me make modifications to my form now so I'm gonna try being a prettier sword.

  Her form melted into a puddle of liquid metal and she shifted into the shape of a sword ying on the ground where the broken bde had been. Mimi's sword form looked very or funal. It looked like a sturdy sword with a mirrored shine and a very decorative looking hahe crossguard had etched designs with gold and silver veins in intricate patterns, the haself looked like it was ed in well crafted leather and the pommel had a ruby gem that matched the eyes of her humanoid form.

  I reached down to pick her up. "Oh god, you're heavy." As the words escaped my lips the sword suddenly became light as a feather and I almost fell back from he differen weight. "Whoa, what happened."

  Mimi's androgynous voice came from seemingly nowhere but was clear to all four of us based on the looks of my party members. "I adjust my density a based on how much magic I have on this side of my pocket dimension. I wasn't sure how heavy to make the sword so I made it as heavy as the cursed one."

  Pocket dimension, Now that's going to have to be a versation for ter. "Uh, that sword is heavy because of how much metal there is, this sword shouldn't be nearly that heavy. It's a bit too light right now though. you just make it as heavy as it would be if the bde was the same weight ay of the broken bde? No wait, actually make it a bit heavier than that."

  "Like this?" The weight suddenly felt perfect. It was a bit heavier than Mark's old sword but I actually preferred that. I swung her around a bit to get a feel for the bance. "Bu-but don't hit things with me! I'm just going on a ride remember?"

  "Don't worry, I remember." I sheathed the sword in the perfectly fitted scabbard and gripped the handle gently with the muscle memory stolen from Mark. "This feels rather fortable. you see okay in there?"

  "Yep! I don't o look at things with my eyes to sehem but since I put one on the pommel anyway I see great from here!"

  "Uh good..." The ruby gem was one of her eyes like I suspected. It probably shouldn't creep me out as much as it does. "Does it bother you if I touch your ruby eye?"

  "No? Why would it? Makes it a bit harder to see I guess."

  "Right, well. Sounds good then. We should probably get moving."

  This was going to take a bit of time to get used to.

  Saine

  Hello! This is my first post on Sunday! If you hadn't read my st author note, I'm going to start posting twice a week for now on. Not really much else to say this time, I hope you enjoyed reading! See you ime <3

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