Preview of Those Who Are Left 7

It had barely been 20 seconds since a certain catgirl-shaped monster and its pet assassin leaped out of Reginald’s window that it reappeared and sat idly on the windowsill.

“Hey, Reggie, me again.”

“What is it, Boxxy?” he asked in a calm tone. Which was quite surprising considering he was currently reevaluating his entire life. “Did you forget something?”

“Yeah. How long does a Doppelganger take to Rank Up past Level 25?”

“About 12 to 15 years.”

“That’s way too long!”

“Well, I don’t know about your case, but a baby Doppelganger's mind still needs to develop to a certain degree before it can start properly interacting with others and properly gaining Levels. It’s something our kind shares with those enlightened children, you know.”

Come to think of it, when Boxxy Ranked Up the last time, it was already a prepubescent child rather than a baby. Perhaps that was why it was already getting so close to Level 25 of the Job, despite it being less than half a year since then. As informative as that was, however, it was the answer to the wrong question.

“I mean the actual Rank Up process. How long does it take?”

“About three, maybe three and a half hours.”

“That’s way too short!”

Boxxy’s first Rank Up lasted for a few days, while the second one took well over a week. It had already been worried how it would explain Keira’s disappearance for a prolonged period of time, and was even considering putting it off until after the war.

“Well, cross-species Rank Ups are always more time consuming. One of my… associates took a good 15 days to become a Shoggoth Slime.”

“... And why haven’t you Ranked Up?”

Surely a Doppelganger that has presumably lived for a long time would have already reached Level 50.

“Because, to the best of my knowledge, our species can only evolve into combat-oriented monsters that have a lot of trouble fitting in, as it were. The Shoggoth Slime I mentioned could get by, but my options are especially… unbecoming. I’d much rather live out my life as a Doppelganger than become an Abomination or a Wendigo, you see.”

Boxxy knew of those monsters through that shapeshifter’s encyclopedia it read through a while back. Abominations were essentially house-sized lumps of meat, that while technically shapeshifters, had no way of passing off as anything but a monster. Wendigos on the other hand lived high in the snow-covered mountain peaks. It was easy to confuse them for werewolves, except that a Wendigo could freely change between their brilliantly white animalistic form and a more human-looking appearance. However, even then they still looked more like beasts than men.

In other words, if Reggie were to Rank Up, he’d have no way of maintaining his place in elven society.

“I see. I completely understand,” nodded Boxxy.

If forced to choose between Ranking Up and giving up on a literal building full of shinies, then the Mimic would probably also choose the latter.

“Thanks for the info, Reggie!”

“Please, it was no trouble. After, all, this is the kind of knowledge I offer to every newcomer that passes through my- Oh, it’s gone already, huh?”

Boxxy had abruptly and silently left the office while Reginald was falling into his old, prideful habits. He shrugged the whole disappearing act off and once again resumed trying to figure out whether today was a bad dream or not.

P.S. This is still a rough draft so things may change in the final release