Doppleganger (7)
“It's coming.”
Rumble—
The displayed remaining time vanished entirely, and black waves began surging through the entire dungeon. Ahead of Han Yeoul's party, the black waves were rushing in at breakneck speed.
“Ugh...! Master...!”
“H-Her... majesty...?”
From behind, the clone dopplegangers were charging like zombies. Han Yeoul opened his inventory.
“Everyone, get in the inventory!”
His solution was surprisingly simple. Lately he'd been letting them roam free outside, but originally, he'd always kept his onaholes stored in his inventory. Even after his inventory had expanded under the influence of his Unique Authority, there was no need to store onaholes that had grown limbs and could move on their own—he'd just left them out. But as his possessions, his onaholes were still 'items' that he could stow in his inventory at any time. He couldn't store living creatures, but items? No problem.
Thanks to my authority, the black waves don't affect me. If I can just hold out until they pass...
Brina and Slami, with their smaller frames, entered first. Jeanne, who had been drawing the dopplegangers' attention with her [Taunt] skill until the end, spoke to Han Yeoul just before vanishing into the inventory.
“Be careful.”
“Worried about me for once?”
“If you die, there's no one left to pay off my debt to the underworld.”
With that, Jeanne entered the inventory, and the black waves immediately engulfed Han Yeoul.
Whoosh—
Through the limited visibility amid the crashing black waves, Han Yeoul spotted the approaching dopplegangers and gripped his weapon.
“I had a feeling, but yeah—they're immune to the dungeon gimmick.”
“Uwaaaah...!”
The black waves raged for about a minute. Short, but in a situation where enemies swarmed from all directions, it was more than enough time to decide life or death.
“I was trying to avoid mana-heavy techniques if possible...”
With poor visibility and overwhelming numbers, conserving resources wasn't an option. Han Yeoul decided to leave the boss fight to his onaholes and prepared his strongest single strike. Fortunately, the lingering effects of [Taunt] still had the dopplegangers' attention elsewhere. Maybe the waves were limiting their vision too.
“Hoo...”
Thanks to that, Han Yeoul took a moment to steady his breath, lowered his stance, and extended his senses to dominate the surroundings. The dopplegangers, sensing the mana radiating from him, locked onto him en masse and charged.
Feeling them close in through his senses, Han Yeoul waited until the maximum number clustered around him.
A bit more... a bit more... now!
The instant a doppleganger was a step away, his sword moved. His full mana—rated at 38—converged to a single point and unleashed as a technique.
New Moon
His sword sliced through the black waves, tracing a crescent moon. Like a beam of moonlight piercing night clouds, the illuminated field revealed every doppleganger within a 5-meter radius around Han Yeoul bisected diagonally and collapsing.
New Moon—a technique that compressed mana to the sword tip and expelled it like an extended blade, slicing distant foes with precision—performed perfectly.
“Whew, that took it out of me.”
As Hose had warned, the Moon Shadow Sword Han Yeoul learned was an incomplete version missing its core. He'd succeeded by brute-forcing it through mana compression and expulsion, but it was a crude imitation, not the proper method. True mastery would materialize mana with minimal loss, but in this flawed state, it guzzled mana like all the other Moon Shadow techniques.
His remaining mana was nearly gone, but since he'd cleaved every doppleganger nearby, Han Yeoul leaned against the wall and rested until the waves passed.
“You took them all out solo?”
Once the waves cleared and Jeanne emerged from the inventory, she glanced at the vanished horde and looked at Han Yeoul.
“Barely. Mana's basically tapped out now, so the boss is all yours.”
The onaholes nodded at his words. Whether those were the last clones or not, no more appeared after the waves. Still wary of threats, Han Yeoul advanced toward the labyrinth's heart under their guard, sensing the thickening mana signaling the boss room nearby.
“Mana's so low my skin's prickling.”
With depleted mana came weakened magic resistance; the dungeon's dense mana stung like needles. Curious, Han Yeoul wondered how it felt for his other onaholes.
“A power I handled fine until recently now feels so alien.”
“I've never wielded necromantic mana by my own will, so I wouldn't know.”
“Mana~? What's that~?”
“Even without mana showing as (-), you're not hurt by it? Wild.”
He pondered briefly why onaholes with negative mana weren't affected, but they reached the boss room before he could dwell.
“Ah, there's the door to the boss room.”
“Finally, the boss.”
They'd arrived faster than expected, but with no mana left, Han Yeoul could do little. He felt uneasy. If the clones were that aggressive, how strong was the original? No turning back now. Resting wouldn't help in a mana-saturated dungeon anyway, so he pushed open the boss room door and entered.
The boss room was a massive eyeball. Han Yeoul advanced cautiously, alert for the boss doppleganger.
“......?”
But no attack came, no matter how long he waited. Instead, a faint presence stirred in the corner.
“Brina, check it out.”
“Understood.”
In case it was a trap, the nimblest—Brina—headed toward the sound. She returned dragging something, her face twisted in confusion.
“What the hell is this?”
“I believe it's this dungeon's boss...”
“...This?”
Brina had dragged in the boss doppleganger—mimicking her appearance, staring blankly into space like a broken doll. It let itself be pulled limply, like a puppet without strings. Curious, Slami poked it, and it shifted from Brina's form to Slami's. As expected of the original, it could even transform into Han Yeoul—though only superficially.
Expecting a brutal fight, Han Yeoul stayed vigilant and tentatively designated it as an Onahole Transformation target.
The designated target lacks a sense of self. Neutralized. Eligible for Onahole Transformation.
Confirmed neutralized via his authority, Han Yeoul sheathed his weapon. An enemy without a self posed no threat.
Clearing the boss without a fight was great, but why was it like this?
“No, seriously—is this the boss doppleganger? Why's it in this state? No sense of self? Any guesses?”
He scanned his onaholes, but they were clueless. In truth, Han Yeoul was the cause.
The clones copied onahole bodies near-perfectly, with durability to withstand his actions. But the core controlling them was still just a doppleganger. Unable to endure the overwhelming pleasure that would have rebuilt an onahole's self—like Brina's—its ego collapsed. Losing control made the clones zombie-like, their egos fading. The boss's remaining power was forcibly drafted by the dungeon to produce those hordes blocking their path, draining it dry. Now, the boss Brina dragged was a mere husk—weaker than the clones.
Not what he'd expected, but his goal was to onahole the boss. He activated his authority on the neutralized doppleganger.
[Onahole Transformation]
Onahole Transformation
Gurgle—
Splorch—
The boss, shifting forms on contact, reverted to its true doppleganger state: a squishy, amorphous black slime. It compressed repeatedly into a small black handhole.
“Looks like a hardcore-material onahole from the color... let's see—argh, fuck!”
Han Yeoul grabbed the doppleganger handhole and swore, hurling it away. On touching his hand, it morphed into a massive 20cm+ dildo.
Forced to grip a dildo, he grimaced and checked its status window.
Doppleganger Onahole (D)
Durability: 122/150
Growth Stage: Stage 1
Material: Doppleganger
Skill: Clone Creation (A)
Unique Ability: Doppleganger (A)
Techniques: None
Semen Capacity: 0ml
Special Notes: Lacks a sense of self, so racial unique ability Doppleganger (A) is uncontrolled.
Detach a part of itself to create a clone. Clones are degraded versions of the original and can be directly controlled by it. Absorb clones to recover spent power and resources. If a clone dissipates, the resources used to create it are lost as well.
Doppleganger racial unique ability. Perfectly copies the external appearance and physical abilities of a touched target, and can copy fragments of their memories. Cannot copy skills or abilities of equal or higher rank. Killing the original while transformed absorbs all their abilities intact.