The Achievement Junkie

'Where did you hide it! It's got to be somewhere!' Argyle's shouts filled Jack's, Tralon's, and Bowzer's heads.

'15... 16… 17…' Jack continued to quietly count as he laughed at Argyle.

'Jack! What did you hide in here? Is it in the basement? No… Is it in the attic?'

'Tralon, why can't I go in too?' asked Bowzer.

'Just wait and see. I'm sure Jack will say something soon,' answered Tralon.

'Jack, speak up!' Argyle shouted.

With a growing smile, Jack replied, '28… 29… 30! Alright, Argyle, get out of there!'

'But I haven't--'

'Get out now before it's too late!'

'I… Okay.' Hurrying down the stairs, Argyle rushed to the front door with a heavy frown on his face.

'Hurry!'

Argyle slowed down as he leaned on the front door. 'Jack, what's up? I almost found it didn't--'

'Get out of there already! Now!'

'Fine…' sighed Argyle.

The swordsman stepped out, unhappy and discontent with Jack's attitude. He stepped out of the two-story building and descended the few steps at the entrance. Argyle's frown was apparent to all, but he noticed that even Tralon was smiling.

Suddenly, Argyle heard a low snarl from behind him. A glance behind him, however, revealed nothing.

Not understanding what was going on, Argyle looked back to Tralon, who simply pointed back at the safe house.

Following Tralon's finger, Argyle looked back to the home he had just exited and noticed something different, something that startled even him. Argyle immediately drew his sword and prepared to defend himself.

'Now you understand.' Jack sighed, also drawing a peak-tier lv. 45 sword from his collection.

'What is that thing?' mumbled Argyle.

'If I remember correctly, it's a giant mimic. Jack put it in here as the "safe house" in order to trick inexperienced ancient heroes and anyone who dared to enter the dungeon without being a member of the guild,' explained Tralon.

'Oh… So that thing was Jack's idea?! You pestro! That thing almost ate me!' Argyle leered at Jack, his gaze felt like daggers to the lower leveled hero.

'What? I told you that I made this place because I was bored and I wanted it to be spontaneous. Isn't that pretty out of the ordinary?' Jack laughed as he watched the house in front of them start to shift and quake.

Right before there eyes, the party witnessed the transformation of the "safe house" into a giant, mobile mimic. A vast number of tentacle legs lifted the "house" off the ground as a dozen massive tentacles rushed out of the open windows. The inside walls of the home started to secrete mucus and seem more flesh-like. The window to the great room suddenly blinked, revealing itself as a giant eye, twitching and watching the party's every step.

'Jack, why did you put something like that in here?!'

'Calm down, Argyle. If you think this is bad, just wait till the eleventh floor,' Jack scoffed. 'Consider this the mini-boss that guards the last half of the dungeon.'

'But it's lv. 69!' Argyle was shocked. Not only was it massive, but it almost rivaled his level. The giant mimic was obviously going to be more difficult than most lv. 69 beasts from its size alone, not including the dozens of tentacles it had at its disposal.

'Well… It was only lv. 62 when I put it in here. How was I supposed to know that it would grow so much?' Jack argued while clenching the hilt of his sword tightly. 'Mind if I attack first? I want to see how strong I am at full power now that I'm lv. 47.'

'Be my guest!' Argyle laughed as he slapped Jack on the back, forcing the hero forward.

The giant mimic also began its attack as it launched its giant tentacles at the approaching enemy, unfazed by Jack's sudden growth and the raging flames that covered his body.

'Eat this!'

Blood-red energy covered Jack's blade as he thrust it forward unabashedly.

In turn, the giant mimic roared and lashed out one of its many tentacles to gage Jack's strength. The framework of the "house" twisted into an eerie smile as its tentacle was only damaged superficially with a decent-sized cut and some minor burns. But it had successfully repelled the attack and launched Jack backward, forcing Jack to revert to his normal form through sheer pain.

'Oof!' Jack couldn't contain a grunt of pain as he was roughly caught by his father-in-law. 'Can't you be gentle?'

'Gentle? You were thrown back by a giant monster more than twenty levels higher than you! Be lucky I caught you at all and broke your fall!'

'Fine… Thanks.' Jack wiped the blood from his mouth and took a heavy breath from his aching chest. 'I guess we'll have to work together.'

'I can't do much for now, but at least I can support.'

Jack felt a rush of vitality wash over him as he looked back to Tralon with a smile. 'Thank's Tralon. Bowzer, you're allowed to use your strongest flame body here. Don't hold back.'

'Finally!'

Bowzer bolted toward the house at full speed. The fox was smiling wide as he grew larger and larger, nearly matching the giant mimic in size.

Snarling, the giant mimic's one eye glared at Bowzer, wary of the fox's powerful bloodline despite sensing the fox's low level. Tentacles curled into fists as they launched themselves at the barreling fox mercilessly.

With a growl, Bowzer spewed white-hot flames, dowsing the tentacles in inextinguishable flames.

'Tzzzz…'

The aroma of charred tentacles filled the air, smelling like the most putrid, rancid roasted octopus that the party members had ever smelled.

Jack pinched his nose shut as he smiled at Bowzer, who was nearly even with the giant mimic. Thanks to the upgrade to his bloodline skill, Jack's flame body was gaining a tinge of white as well, but it was still nothing compared to Bowzer's unstoppable, evolved flames.

While Bowzer kept the giant mimic from charging the party, Argyle flanked the monster with a combination of attacks. The swordsman launched a total of five attacks, each creating a long-range wave of sword energy.

Smiling with excitement, Jack watched the attack combo carve into the mimic, forcing the "house" to grimace and pay Argyle more attention. Though it was cool to watch, Jack was more excited to learn that attack from Argyle's skills and make it his own. Such high-level long-range sword attacks were hard to come by in Modern Kartonia, so Jack was anxious to try it himself.

'Bowzer, keep pressuring it!' shouted Argyle. 'We'll flank it and bring it down together!'

Jack remained on the side, not wanting to disrupt the teamwork between Argyle and Bowzer.

Unlike Jack, Tralon had many spells that would work as support and not just offense. To keep the mimic controlled Tralon cast Earth Wall twice, once on each side of the giant mimic. This forced the monster to face either Bowzer or Argyle and left it with no path of escape.

Try as it might, the giant mimic was cornered and forced to keep Bowzer at bay. Though the fox was low-leveled, the white flames were too threatening to the giant mimic. With less focus on Argyle, it was only a matter of time until the giant mimic fell by the sword.

Panting, Argyle chuckled, 'Jack, thanks for the workout. If I didn't give you half of my EXP, I would be pretty close to leveling up right now.'

'Don't mention it. I'm glad I could help keep you in shape,' Jack laughed, giddy at the sight of him and Bowzer reaching lv. 49. 'It's nice to be carried for once.'

'Let's rest for a while before we take the last of the treasures you've left behind,' Tralon stated. 'Jack, are you sure you don't want to attack the other mimics?'

'Let the councilmen try and steal my treasures. I'm sure they'll enjoy playing with all the mimics of the labyrinth.'