Mimic

The exploration went smoothly after that. Although they encountered a few more Parasitic Demons, they disposed of them just as easily.

Lorenzo had thought nothing else could stand in their way. After all, anyone with a little common sense could see that if their iron cavalry kept advancing, those monsters trying to stop them were like mantises trying to stop a chariot. How could they possibly succeed?

He was even thinking about what to eat when they got back when Frieren suddenly stopped ahead of him.

Lorenzo nearly walked into her.

"What is it?"

Frieren didn't answer.

She just stared straight ahead.

It was a rather cramped stone chamber. There were no corpses in the center, no Parasitic Demons, and no magical traps that looked particularly dangerous.

There was only a treasure chest.

The chest sat quietly on a stone platform, its surface free of dust. Its metal corners even reflected a faint gleam under the magical lighting, making it look entirely out of place amid the dilapidated surroundings.

That's obviously a Mimic, isn't it? And its disguise is way too crude. Who would fall for that?

Lorenzo looked at the chest, then at Frieren.

Oh no. Her eyes are already lighting up.

"Wait."

Lorenzo spoke up at once:

"That thing is way too suspicious."

He probably couldn't stop her, but he had to try.

"It's a treasure chest. There might be a grimoire inside."

"There might also be a trap."

"I can check it with magic."

Frieren raised her staff, aimed it at the chest, and cast an appraisal spell.

A faint Mana glow swept over the chest.

A moment later, she said confidently:

"There's only a ninety-nine percent chance it's a Mimic."

"Only?"

"There's still a one percent chance it's a real treasure chest."

"Don't touch it anyway."

Frieren didn't answer. She continued staring at the chest, looking as serious as if she were facing a major problem that demanded a decision.

"There's a one percent chance."

"So?"

"If there really is a grimoire inside, I might never find it again if I pass it up."

"But there's a ninety-nine percent chance it'll bite you."

"It's fine."

Frieren took a step forward.

"I'm very experienced with this."

...Shouldn't all that experience be exactly why you don't touch it?

Before Lorenzo could stop her, Frieren had already reached the chest, crouched down, and lifted the lid.

The next instant, the once-quiet chest snapped open. There were no gold coins or grimoires inside, only row upon row of sharp, interlocking teeth and a huge, wet tongue.

Crunch!

The Mimic swallowed Frieren's upper body in one bite.

The stone chamber fell silent again, with only Frieren's legs sticking out.

Her long white dress and twin tails hung over the edge of the chest, swaying gently as the monster chewed.

"Whoa, it's dark! This is scary! Let me out!"

Her muffled cries for help came from inside the chest. It seemed winning a gamble was the scariest outcome of all. Still, Frieren's body was surprisingly tough; even after being bitten like that, she hadn't been bitten in half. He wondered if she had cast some kind of magic beforehand.

"Stop watching."

Frieren kicked her exposed legs hard a few times.

The Mimic seemed to grow a little impatient with her kicking. Its body rocked from side to side on the floor, its wooden boards striking the stone with muffled thuds.

"Help me."

"How?"

It was an anime Lorenzo had watched in the life before his previous one, and he could no longer remember some of the details clearly.

"You just have to push me in. Its insides are similar to a human mouth, so if you push hard, the Mimic will feel sick and spit me out."

Why does that sound a little strange? It's like doing something weird with the Mimic. Oh well, it's probably what they call the Heimlich maneuver.

So Lorenzo grabbed Frieren's legs and gave them a quick, forceful push inward with both hands.

Sure enough, the Mimic spat her out!

Plop.

Frieren landed on her backside.

Her long white hair hung in disarray over her shoulders, her twin tails were covered in slime, and her dress and cloak were soaking wet. There was even a small piece of bone from who knew what caught in her hair.

As soon as she was out, Frieren picked up her staff and aimed it at the Mimic, which was still struggling on the floor, as if taking revenge. A beam of magic flashed out, piercing straight through the monster's body. It struggled a few more times before going completely still.

Frieren lowered her staff and began fixing her tangled hair.

But the slime inside the Mimic was unusually sticky. She tried several times, but not only did she fail to restore her twin tails, she also ended up with several strands of white hair stuck fast to her cheeks.

"Do you have any magic you can use for cleaning?"

Lorenzo asked Frieren, who seemed to have given up.

"No."

"Then what do we do?"

Frieren gave it some serious thought.

"Wait for it to fall off."

That really was a distinctly elven way of dealing with it.

"Let's wash it off with water instead."

He raised a hand, and Mana slowly gathered at his fingertips.

With the faint sound of running water, a pool of clear spring water appeared in midair. It didn't fall to the ground, however, instead forming a continuously flowing sphere of water.

"Amazing."

Frieren looked up at the spring water.

"You can't learn it."

"Then write down how you cast it."

"There's no point writing it down."

"I can add it to my collection. Besides, I might be able to learn it someday."

"Let's talk about that after we leave the labyrinth. The priority now is to wash you off."

The sight of Frieren's head covered in slime was honestly a little disgusting to Lorenzo. And when she had said she was "very experienced," could she have meant not that she knew how to deal with Mimics, but that she had long since grown used to the feeling of being covered in slime after getting swallowed?

Lorenzo couldn't help imagining it.

During her past travels, Frieren had opened treasure chests again and again, been swallowed by Mimics again and again, then crawled out again and again with a head full of slime and a blank expression.

Somehow, it felt even more disgusting.

No.

He should stop thinking about it.

Once some things formed too clear a picture in your mind, they were hard to forget completely.

Frieren didn't notice Lorenzo's increasingly complicated expression. Instead, she bent down and cupped the water in her hands, washing her face and head clean. Then she said:

"Let's keep going. I have a feeling there are definitely valuable magical items deep in the labyrinth."

"Wasn't that the same feeling you had when you opened that Mimic just now?"

"That was different."

"Was it really?"