[Status: Level 10 Milestone Reached]
[Evolution Type: Mobility Upgrade]
My wood didn't just thicken this time; it screamed.
The four corners of my base—the heavy, obsidian-black oak—began to bulge and split. It wasn't a break, but a birth. From the jagged cracks, four thick, multi-jointed limbs burst forth. They weren't flesh, and they weren't exactly wood. They were a terrifying fusion of serrated steel plating and blackened timber, dripping with a thick, purple ichor.
[Evolution Complete!]
[New Species: Iron-Bound Stalker Mimic (Rare)]
[HP: 250/250]
[Agility: +20]
I shifted my weight. The limbs responded instantly. They looked like the legs of a massive, armored spider, ending in sharp, hooked talons designed to grip stone.
I flexed.
*Klak. Klak. Klak.*
For the first time in my life—both this life and the boring one I left behind—I wasn't just standing. I was *towering*. I stood nearly five feet tall now, my chest body suspended in the air by my powerful, arachnid-like legs.
[New Skill Unlocked: Skitter]
[Effect: You can move at high speeds across floors, walls, and ceilings. Speed increased by 50% when out of combat.]
[New Skill Unlocked: Ambush Leap]
[Effect: Use your powerful legs to launch your entire mass onto a target. Deals 200% Physical Damage and has a 50% chance to 'Pin' the enemy.]
I took a step. Then another. It was clumsy at first—like a toddler learning to walk—but within minutes, the *Wind-Step* essence I'd absorbed from the Archer kicked in. I began to move with a fluid, predatory grace that felt disturbingly natural.
I skittered up the north wall. The stone cracked under my steel claws, but I held firm. I was a three-hundred-pound metal vault hanging from the ceiling like a common house spider.
"This," I hissed internally, my lid clicking in delight, "is a game-changer."
I looked down at my room. The place where I had spent days waiting, hoping, and eating scraps. It looked small. It looked like a cage.
I skittered back down and approached the door.
For ages, that door was the boundary of my world. It was where the "food" came from. Now, it was just a piece of wood. And I was the king of wood.
*Klak-klak-klak.*
I pushed the door open with a clawed leg.
The hallway outside was long, lit by flickering torches and filled with the distant sounds of battle and the groans of the undead. I could smell them—the other adventurers, the monsters, the *treasures*. My *Mana Sense* lit up like a Christmas tree. There were larger mana signatures deeper in the dungeon. Stronger souls. Shinier loot.
[New Quest Discovered: The Great Migration]
[Objective: Reach the Second Floor.]
[Reward: Mutation Point / Skill: 'Mimicry: Furniture Morph']
I didn't want to just be a chest anymore. I wanted to be a wardrobe. An Iron Maiden. Maybe a throne for some unsuspecting king to sit on.
I turned my "eyes" toward the darkness of the corridor.
"I'm not the loot in the room anymore," I thought, my steel teeth glistening in the torchlight. "I'm the nightmare in the hallway."
I launched into a sprint, my legs clicking rhythmically against the stone, a hungry shadow moving through the dark.
The dungeon was about to learn a very important lesson: Never, ever leave a chest unattended.