Hidden within a deep corner of the highest level of the mine, a group of four, lightly-armoured adults was hunkered down in a small, cavern-like chamber that they had made their camp. But, hearing a metalic thud near the entrance, two of the bandits looked to their leader, who ordered them to go and scare off the golem. The two bandits begrudgingly headed off, grumbling under their breaths that this was the fourth golem to wander towards their hideout, and they had half a mind to try fighting them, knowing full well they'd get folded or more accurately, flattened. But, upon turning the corner, the two weren't greeted by the expected golem. Instead, they were face to face with a death-glare-wearing Zalroth as he clanged his iron-coated Frostbite armament gauntlets together, giving the duo an applause for being the first to fall for Metsu's trap idea.

  "Are you sure this plan will work, boss?" the one remaining bandit asked with a faint sense of concern as he heard the metallic clangs get quieter and quieter. The bandit leader groaned in frustration, growing irritated by the repeated questioning of their plan, leaving them to wonder how they could get such worrywarts as accomplices. Reaching into their pocket, the bandit leader slammed something on the table, making the other bandit flinch as they saw what the item was: a ten-cm3 copper cube etched with a diamond pattern and a black frame around all its edges.

  "Why do you keep asking me that question? This Bag of Devouring will trigger that golem totem around the corner and cause more golems to form; that'll speed up the rate at which the mine generates ores," the leader bandit explained.

  "That's a box," Zalroth remarked as he planted the two knocked out bandits on the ground, placing them down without a sound, aided in part by the constant clanging of the golems' loud metalic footsteps echoing through the surrounding tunnels. Hearing the muffled retort, the bandit leader slumped his shoulders, assuming Zalroth was one of the two bandits they sent to shoo off the golem, who was the culprit behind the snarky remark.

  "Look. Once all those golems bite the dust from those adventurers the town will call for, all we'll have to do is wait for the mine to turn them into higher quality ores that we can mine. And then, we can sell it all to the blacksmiths for a higher price; thanks to the sudden scarcity from all those golems making the miners cautious to enter," the leader bandit explained, laying out their grand plan to make a quick profit.

  "Is that so?" Zalroth asked with Yai and Metsu giggling quietly from behind the bend of the chambers' entrance tunnel. Only after hearing the giggles did the bandit leader register that they didn't recognise Zalroth's voice. But, before the two remaining bandits could respond, Zalroth chopped the two in the nape of their necks, knocking them out cold instantly before they flopped onto the floor.

  "I suppose scalping prices isn't a death-worthy crime, so we'll hand them over to Naz to deal with," Zalroth explained coldly, his tone needlessly aggressive as he stepped over the bandits. The enchanted water slime took its cue as its body rippled, its form rapidly expanding and shooting behind Nero as it transformed its body into a cart.

  "Load them up, guys," the enchanted water slime requested as its two cohorts effortlessly dragged the bandits across the ground, intentionally doing so at Yai's subconscious order from her deep-rooted hatred for videogame console scalpers. While the slimes "carefully" lugged the unconscious bandits onto the water slime cart, the three humans gathered around the table where the cube-shaped bag of devouring sat, a reserved sense of anger oozing from it, directed at the bandit leader, that caused Yai and Metsu to shiver slightly.

  "So, they're a type of mimic, right?" Yai asked nervously, recalling the mimics from a certain 2D boss fighter sandbox game. Zalroth lightly sighed, his only knowledge of any sort of mimic being that of the tabletop and horror movie variety.

  "Do I look like I play video games? Besides, only Chronia would care enough to have a glossary level of classification of things," Zalroth retorted before the trio fell into silence. As the three stared at the seemingly inert mimic, Metsu and Yai side-eyed each other, a vocalless conversation shooting between their eyes in an instant. Slowly backing up, Zalroth thought the duo were simply scared of the mimic, but the two's uniformed movements told his senses something was up/

  "Not it," Metsu and Yai exclaimed before booking it, jumping onto Nero's back and making a getaway down the tunnel. Left by himself with the mimic, Zalroth sighed dismissively while scratching his head. Briefly taking his focus off the mimic, Zalroth opened up his Map and watched as the icons representing the two girls made a straight line for the exit, focusing on it so intently that he didn't bother responding to the jingling noise.

  "At least they treat me like a monster and not an object, unlike those robby humans," a cheeky girly voice remarked from just out of Zalroth's view, "But here you are, treating me like I'm not even worth being scared off."

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Glancing back at the table, the spot where the box-formed mimic once stood now carried the figure of the same creature, now sporting a humanoid appearance. Zalroth stared at the mimic girl, his eyes sporting the recognisable look of someone contemplating punting an annoying child. He was greeted by the mimic girl's teasing aura, which triggered the same receptors in his brain as Chronia does when playing an MMO.

  [The Mimic Girl is a humanoid mimic with the appearnce of a young adult female; she has neck-low pure white hair with metalic copper ends, a single glowing pure white eye with a copper iris inside her mouth, slightly pronounced thighs, ash grey with pure white spiral tattoos on the back of her palms and the sides of her thighs, and the stature of a six-year-old]

  [She is wearing a copper string one-piece swimsuit-looking bodysuit, black metal chain ankle bracelets, and black metal chain bracelets on her wrists and neck]

  "Well, duh, he's over the trippled digit mark by five times," Zalina bragged as she floated beside Zalroth and planted her fists on her rounded hips with her torso in the undeniably shape of a coin, having managed to eat the treasure coin in its entirety. The mimic girl tilted her head, amusement evident on her eyeless face as she realised getting Zalroth to be her master would be way more fun than the bandits could ever have been.

  "Now I feel dumb for considering those bandits even stood a chance of their plan working," the mimic girl remarked, that after all their talk of reaping their rewards, she ended up being the one with the best laurel. Kicking her feet up on a nearby crate beside the table she was on, the mimic girl lounged around like she was on the beach and getting a tan, basking in her new freedom from the bandits while gazing around the treasureless room and groaning at seeing there wasn't anything for her to eat, making her more mad at the bandit leader for lying about them having more treasure lying around.

  "He's already got a treasure finder, sister," Zalina shouted passionately, recognising the look in the mimic girl's eyes, unwilling to let her position on Zalroth's team be threatened, or worse, taken from her. A smug, coy smirk formed on the mimic girl's face, pleased to see there was a fellow treasure lover, like herself, in Zalroth's entourage, and imagining all the treasure Zalroth probably already possesses only made her more excited to make him her master.

  "But wouldn't an ability and an item stack make finding treasure faster?" the mimic girl shot back, blindsiding the fae with her sound reasoning. The fae threw a hand to her chin in contemplation, humming loudly enough for Zalroth to think she was doing it intentionally, which was far from the truth, as the humming wasn't from her throat but her brain struggling to think of a convincing counterargument. Try as the fae might, Zalina drew a blank, the time-old adage of two heads are better than one playing on repeat in her mind.

  "She's got a point, Zalroth. You should take her with you," Zalina murmured, utterly defeated with her body now back to its normal shape, as if the coin felt bad for her and gave up retaining its shape.

  "Wow, you were convinced fast," Zalroth said amusedly before a pop-up appeared in front of his face.

  [Trikuel(The Box of Void) would like to be tamed]

  [Accept]

  [Y/N]

  "So, you don't need to be a tamer to tame monsters?" Zalroth remarked as he clicked the Y icon. The screen blinked, showing its acknowledgement, before shrinking away with a quick, digital pop.

  "To be fair, you use magic despite not having a mage-adjacent class," Zalina mentioned, slowly returning to her spot on Zalroth's shoulder as the jingle of Trikuel hopping off the table clanged against the chamber's wall. Feeling Trikuel scalling his back, Zalroth peered backward, watching the white mass of hair take up more of his view as the mimic girl made herself comfortable on his back before he decided to ask, "What are you up to?"

  "I was planning on turning myself into a backpack so I wouldn't have to walk or scare people by being a mimic, but mostly the walking thing," Trikuel teased while wrapping her legs around Zalroth's torso for support, the force behind her thigh's grip unnaturally strong for something with a single point in her Attack stat, making the feat of causing HP loss in Zalroth somehow more confusing.

  "Trust me, the people on the surface didn't even bat an eye at Nero or Yai, so you don't need to worry," Zalroth grumbled, knowing the craft team would ask too many questions if he showed up wearing something they didn't make, and dreading having to repeatedly answer the same type of questions over and over again.

  "Oh, is that so?" Trikuel mumbled, relieved she could remain in a less compact form for a while longer and slightly glad Zalroth valued doing things with the least amount of effort, just like her.

  Before the guy could protest, she pressed her chin on Zalroth's free shoulder and instantly put a timed sleeping curse on herself, knocking her out in a snap. Left to stare at the sleeping mimic girl, a single thought entered Zalroth's mind, one born of a newfound path for health for Nagami as he remarked, "Definitely going to have her use that on Nagami if she tries to pull one too many all-nighters in the future."