F-Rank Mimic Chest: My SSS Mimic Skill Lets Me Become Anything

Dane Rook was counting the last few coins in his pocket after a cheap dinner with his wife when everything went wrong. He died reaching for June. When he opened his eyes again, he was trapped inside Brackenvault Dungeon as an F-Rank mimic chest. No hands. No voice. No way to stop his lid from opening whenever someone came too close. The first adventurer to open him died while Dane was still trying to scream. His starting stats are miserable: Control 0.03%, Cognition 4, and an SSS-Rank Mimic Skill sealed so tightly it might as well not exist. The dungeon treats him as property. His mimic body sees people as food. Dane hates both, and surviving long enough to change that becomes his only goal. His progress begins with tiny victories—a lid that closes a little slower, a coin nudged out of place, the urge to bite held back for half a second, a dead man's ring spit out instead of swallowed. Every act of resistance makes him stronger, hungrier, and draws more attention from the dungeon that owns him. Then Vera Pike arrives. A mage buried in debt with sharp instincts and a life of her own. She isn't June... but something about her soul reminds Dane of his wife, and his sealed SSS-Rank Mimic Skill reacts as if she is the most important person in the world. His human mind wants to protect her. His mimic body wants to devour her. To escape Brackenvault, Dane will need stronger stats, more coins, allies who barely trust him, and enough control to become something more than a monster disguised as a chest. First, a broken chest. Then a travel trunk. Then a door, a coffin, a wagon, a market stall... Until one day, he can become anything.