'He became a huge fucking bear!'
'Holy shit! His head just got cut off!'
'What the fuck? What the hell is going on here?'
'Now, Dirge is Ligma all along?'
'I wanna go home.'
Those were Muck's thoughts as the events transpired before him. He couldn't do anything other than watch as it happens. Despite his best efforts in keeping a neutral stance, he was affected by the red mist.
"Eeek."
Suddenly, he couldn't move. His body was out of his control, and now a surging lust took over. Thankfully for him, Annera was there to save the day with her Dispel.
'It's warm.' He thought as he realized that his nether regions were suddenly moist from sweat and piss.
"Can I go home now?" He uttered.
Muck was afraid. The monster that he thought was his friend was strong, equally contending against a full party of adventurers. There was no room for him in this place.
Thud~
He fell on his knees as they trembled. He doesn't know what was happening. He doesn't even know what happened to his friend, Dirge. At that time, Muck could only stay still and think.
'Ah, fuck.'
The moment he realized, he cursed. The body they found within that shabby shed. That corpse that had an indistinguishable visage was none other than the friend that he grew up with, the real Dirge.
'For fuck's sake.'
He looked back and saw the corpse. The corpse did not resemble Dirge's physique so he never made the connection. But that was a mistake as the body has decayed significantly.
Muck tried to stand.
SCRRRRREEEEEEEEEEECH~
But he couldn't. The monster that mimicked his friend screeched loudly, causing Muck's heart of courage to shatter into pieces. His legs wouldn't budge at all.
In desperation, Muck turned his entire body and laid on his belly. He used his hands to crawl towards the corpse.
"Calorie Burn!"
"Blinding Light!"
"Fuck you, Minion! You blinded me again!"
"Fuck off, Enma."
"Cluck cluck!"
Such were the sounds that Muck heard as he crawled desperately. He didn't feel great at all as the closer he gets to the corpse, the heavier his eyelids were.
'Dirge, you son of a bitch.'
He cursed as he reached the corpse. He inspected it once more. Just to confirm because he wanted to deny the fact that his friend is no longer with him.
'Wait, where's his necklace?'
The bracelet was still on the corpse, but the necklace was nowhere on the body.
'Oh. Silly me, I already have it.'
"Hey, Dirge. Do you know the meaning of your name?" Muck spoke as he dragged the corpse into his lap.
"Heh. Dirge is a mournful song typically for funerals." He properly sat up. Stroking Dirge's hair as he said.
"Should old acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind?" Muck sang alone.
"Should auld acquaintance be forgot And days of auld lang syne?"
Muck stroked the corpse's hair as he sang.
"Rubbish, isn't it?" He asked, but no one answered.
-
"Just how much HP does this asshole have?" Minion cursed as he was running out of mana to control the fight.
"This should be a hidden boss, right?" Annera asked.
She was skeptical. They've been hitting the thing for quite a while now and the hit points it had were significantly lower now. However, whenever it got to a critical level, it always regenerates.
'Is this a type of boss that requires a certain element to defeat?'
She looked back, the only thing that she could relate this monster to was the shed. That shabby shed may contain secrets towards killing the monster that's near impossible to kill.
"Cluck cluck!"
The flames that ravaged the area dissipated, almost everyone in the party used all of their resources but they haven't managed to kill the monster. It was getting repetitive and boring.
"Don't die without me!" Annera cautioned everyone in the party.
In reality, she ran out of mana. She was effectively useless at this point so she chose to run towards the shed to uncover some secrets.
When she arrived, she couldn't see jack shit. The shed didn't have any lights, after all. She doesn't have enough mana to at least flash a spell or two to illuminate the vicinity.
"I may have miscalculated, but I'm already here."
Annera didn't give up and got inside the dark shed anyway. After scrounging with her hands far away from her body, she couldn't find anything useless.
'That's a leather boot.'
But it wasn't. It's better if she doesn't know.
With no goal in sight, Annera gave up and went out. She just went through that ordeal for no real purpose. Now, it was time for her to help her party.
"Hunger Strike!"
She heard Bob's mighty scream as he swung his spear as hard as he could. Then the monster just died.
"Eh?" Annera was confused, however, her face hardened moments later.
She didn't get experience at all, that could only mean that the monster was still alive. But that wasn't the case this time.
The monster morphed into a huge feline animal and coughed blood like a shounen main villain. It looked more like a person due to its figure but the fur around its body indicated otherwise.
"KROSIS!" The monster cursed.
"EH?" Her confusion continued as the monster died for good and turned into blue light.
"EHHHH?"
-
"Pfft. Sucks to be you." Minion laughed at Annera's misfortune.
Annera was too far away from the fight and didn't contribute for a while after she left. The game presumed that she abandoned combat and didn't include her in the lists of players to reward.
"########" Annera blurted out curse words in her native language. It seems she turned her translator off for that instant.
"###"
- We will get back to your regular content in a few moments -
"So, what did you get?" Annera calmed down and began asking questions.
"It's crap." Minion couldn't have said it any other way.
They didn't receive much experience. It was only worth a single level or something and they didn't get a single loot, at least that what everyone thinks.
"It's a quest monster." E interjected.
The only reason why they were in Sunnyside village was to look for Jovanni's Bestiary as instructed by Crazy Dude Maral. The quest did not have much to work with but it seems that it has come to an end.
"I got this, the Bestiary that we've been looking for." E declared.
He brought out a book. It had a leather case with string bindings all over its spine. However, it didn't look anything out of the ordinary.
'This book is this one's personal book of monsters who cross the world in secrets.'
"Or so that's what's written in the leaflet page." E explained.
Flip~ Flip~
E flipped through the pages. He found listings of monsters that were leagues beyond their party's current capabilities. It was a mess, there's no catalog and the entries were put in randomly.
The author also wrote in a bizarre tone.
'Jovanni believes that they are, aggressive. This one also believes that they struggle to find mates, krosis, just like Jovanni.'
E read to everyone and it didn't make sense. It was a random entry, after all.
Flip~ Flip~
He continued flipping through the pages and read something that piqued his interest at the last of pages.
"Doppelganger?" He read audibly.
Not one person said anything and simply waiting for E to read the entry.
'Jovanni has found things. Horrible things. This one is afraid that Jovanni will be next. Jovanni doesn't want to become a rug or a fur coat. However, this one knows what that thing is capable of.'
'It steals one's face! Krosis! Neighbor Jageet has been accused of stealing bread but I know the truth! This one witnessed Jageet get murdered in the night a few moons ago, Jovanni is sure of it!'
'Jovanni tried talking to this fake Jageet. This Jageet remembers our past, this is real Jageet? This one is confused.'
'The clan is slowly dying. This one is worried that the clan is going to die. Jovanni's collection of books will be sent to everywhere, but this book remains here in the clan.'
'The doppelganger has come for Jovanni.'
"Wow." E was amazed after reading the entry out loud.
"That made no sense at all." He continued.
The transcript was hard to understand. The speech pattern was too foreign for them.
"I understood all of it." Blight spoke.
Blight, the usually silent guy, spoke up to inform the party of what he understood from that text.
"The doppelganger prefers to kill their copy target and it seems that they can consume the memories of their victims. However, I doubt this doppelganger was strong enough to consume Ligma."
"Also, another thing to take note of, it seems that the doppelganger can also use their victim's abilities. Just like how this particular doppelganger could use Ligma's spells and enchants."
"It also takes over their personality. The doppelganger gets affected by the memories it took."
"I guess that explains the night couple escapades. This doppelganger was lustful because of Ligma's influence." Annera commented.
They continued discussing as they walked towards the village. They may have had a fruitful adventure, but they still had to rest.
"Rest well, brother." Muck said in a lonely tone.