ROTTEN BRAT AND DAMNED MONKEY

After Lynne finished up exploring both the pouch and the ring, he decided to scout the island a little bit. Although he doubted he’d find anything useful, he may as well trouble his thoughts with something else other than the unpredictable future. As such, he left his little sanctuary while the sun gave some way to the clouds, making a day dim slightly.

He moved through the forest to the hillside and climbed atop of the highest one. The island on the other side was practically the same – sand shore followed by forest and hillside. If it were not for the towering mountain at the northwest side of the island, Lynne figured it would have probably been completely symmetrical. Seeing as there was nothing else odd about the patch of land, he headed towards the mountain.

It rose slightly over four hundred meters into the air, and was relatively steep due to the narrow foundation. Stones towered over one another as his gaze swept upwards, and he couldn’t find a single breath of life anywhere on it. He began circling the mountain, looking for the best place to climb up, and as he reached the other side, he was slightly stunned as he saw a large opening on the mountain, leading directly beneath it. Curious, he flicked his fingers when a small ball of flame began dancing above his palm, and thus headed into the cave.

Unlike outside, the cave was much more humid, and the descent was quite steep and narrow. Walls around were exceedingly sharp, so Lynne had to rely solely on his feet to maintain the balance. After descending for about fifteen minutes, he finally heard some sounds coming from some place away; perking his ears, he recognized them as drops falling into a pond of water. There’s some pond this deep? Lynne figured he must have descended at least two hundred meters by now and found it odd that there was a pond somewhere in there. While still brimming with curiosity, he now became much more cautious in his approach. He crouched lightly and muffled his footsteps as much as he could before moving forward.

About a minute later he finally found the endpoint of the descent, which led him into a strange, round clearing. Across the walls small gems shimmered, illuminating the entirety of the clearing, but not by a large margin. At the center of the clearing, as Lynne suspected, there was a pond of water – not really large, merely two by two – but what stunned him was that he recognized the water: Mana Spring!! he quickly exclaimed inwardly, still fighting the shock.

Mana Springs were natural, massively condensed bodies of water formed completely by Essence of Mana. Judging from the size of the pond, it must have taken hundreds of years or more for it to expand as much as it did. The pond shimmered brightly under the light of the gems, its surface completely translucent, leading Lynne to believe that the pond was about twenty centimeters deep. To put it into perspective, he could probably process this entire pond within a year, which would equal to about ten years of practice back at the Palace. Mana Springs were some of the rarest treasures throughout the world, and he was completely baffled that he had encountered one here. Just as he was about to approach it with drool already condensed at the corners of his mouth, he heard approaching footsteps from somewhere within the clearing. Pausing, he saw a small silhouette dart from the far corner of the clearing towards the pond, bend over slightly and start drinking the water. Oh my God it’s actually drinking it!! Are you insane?! Don’t you know how precious that thing is!! Just as Lynne was about to jump and stop the imbecile, a pair of crystalline clear, silver eyes looked at him. Two stared at each other for but a moment before both of them screamed out; Lynne fell back onto his butt while the figure almost fainted as it began shaking.

“Y-y-you, you, who the hell are you?!” the figure suddenly spoke, stunning Lynne even more. This little creature definitely wasn’t a human, and its voice was rather high-pitched. Upon closer inspection, Lynne realized that it was actually a monkey!

“Damn monkey, why the hell are you drinking it?!” Lynne immediately berated the poor creature with the string of insults. “Did your parents eat your brain when you were born? Is your head so empty wind whistles through your ears? Freaking monkey actually drank from Mana Spring! Even if I whipped you for ten years, I still wouldn’t be satisfied!”

“W-who are you calling a monkey you damnable human?” the little creature retorted back quickly, spewing curses right back at Lynne. “Look at your ugly face, are you here because your mother couldn’t look at you without vomiting?”

“Even if ugly, at least I have a brain!”

“Screw your brain, I’ll eat it right out!”

“Not if I fine-roast you before chewing your bones!”

“Ha! My bones are harder than steel! Look at your ugly, rotten teeth, you couldn’t chew through bread even if you tried!”

“Damned monkey, do you want me to drill a hole in your skull? Actually I need to do it. I can’t believe somebody so dumb actually exists!”

“Dumb? I’m the smartest thing-- I mean person you’ll ever see in your life you little brat! Who are you gonna drill? I’ll bite your ass off brat!”

“Humph, who are you calling brat you brat? Look at you. Even chicken are bigger than you!”

“Screw your chicken! I’m the mighty Ape!”

“Ape? What part of you is Ape-like? Maybe only your intelligence.”

“Even if I’m the dumbest thing-khm, person in the world, I’m still trice as smart as you are!”

……….

The curses echoed throughout the small clearing for good two hours before both of them could no longer say anything. As they panted they still viciously stared at one another; by now, both had forgotten to inquire about the other, and simply couldn’t bow down and accept the defeat in the Art of Cursing. Lynne completely forgot that he was actually talking to a monkey, while the little creature completely forgot that a human suddenly trespassed onto its territory. They didn’t care for anything else but their face at the moment. This damned monkey sure has a tongue… This damned brat is pretty good, huh…

As they panted, Lynne crawled over to the spring and sat cross-legged. The little monkey said nothing, but instead took two gulps of the Mana Spring and closed its eyes, processing it slowly. Lynne, on the other hand, absorbed a massive burst of Mana and put it into temporary storage before slowly guiding it, strand by strand, through his veins, into his soul. Tranquility lasted for about an hour before both of them had completely recovered.

“Shrewd brat, aren’t you ashamed of your ancestors to curse like a mad dog?” the fight immediately resumed.

“Humph, my ancestors would curse my name tenfold if I let a damned, chicken monkey spit in my face!”

“You should be honored that I even spoke to you, rotten-mouth-guy!”

“Ha ha, what’s that? Is that the best nickname you can come up with? Ha ha, damnable monkey, go back whence you crawled from and train for another hundred years!”

“Damned brat, are you looking for a fight? I’ll snap your neck like chicken’s if you don’t shut up!”

“Ha, threats? Ha ha, it only means you lost damnable monkey!”

“I’m a mighty Ape you lowly brat! Look at you, all skin and bones! Did your parents even feed you? Oh right, I forgot, who’d feed a mouth that’s as filthy as yours!”

“Damnable monkey!”

“Rotten brat!”

…….

Half a day passed in such fashion, but the cursing never stopped. They would get tired and then resume the fight, over and over, until neither had anything new to come up with. Then they’d just repeat the things they already said. Eventually though, they both realized that it doesn’t matter what they said; both had skins thicker than anything else in the world, and neither would budge. As such, temporary peace was established in the little pond.

“Damned brat, how did you get here anyway?” the little monkey asked after gulping down another two mouthfuls of the Mana Spring.

“Damned monkey, stop drinking it! Do you know how precious this thing is?!!” Lynne spoke prancingly.

“It’s just a freaking Mana Spring brat, what’s the big deal?” the monkey scowled as he saw Lynne’s expression.

“Just a Mana Spring?! With this thing, I could train here for an entire year!”

“It’s just a low-grade Mana Spring kid, and you actually want to use it to train? Not only are you ugly, but you are also dumber than I thought.”

“… you haven’t a clue just how rare these things are, do you? Only big-time sects actually have one or two lying around, and only top disciples are allowed to actually use them!”

“How about this damned brat,” the monkey sneered lightly as he spoke. “If you accept me as a Master and kowtow three times, I promise you you’ll never run out of Mana Springs for the rest of your life! Forget Mana Springs, I’ll also lead you to some Mana Rivers and Mana Lakes, and give you tons of manuals for spells! Huh? What do you say?”

“… the day I accept a damned monkey as my master is the day time will begin flowing backwards. How about this damned monkey,” Lynne sneered right back. “You accepted me as a Master, kowtow three times and swear your loyalty, and I’ll give you potions and pills that will have you salivating, and lead you to the places you never thought existed! Huh? What do you say?”

“… the day I accepted a damned brat who still wets his bed as my master is the day Dragons turn to chicken.” the monkey said angrily. “How about we make a deal then?” however, as angry as he was, Lynne’s words were still tempting, and Lynne would be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted by the monkey’s offer either. “You supply me with pills and potions, and I’ll lead you to the nature’s treasures, huh? Here,” the monkey suddenly took out something from behind him; when Lynne inspected it closely, he realized it was a rather thick book with a title of ‘Mastery of Alchemy’. “This is a rare book that will help you when concocting pills and potions. As long as you master it completely, you will be the top-dog among the top-dogs. However, for every three pills or potions you concoct, I get one. What do you say?” by nature, monkey was a beast – despite its intelligence. Due to this, however much he wanted to, he could never learn Alchemy or even become a Magus. Beasts had completely different structures and ways of increasing their strength, which is why he proposed such a deal to Lynne.

“Hmm, interesting,” Lynne’s lips curled up in a smile; Alchemy, after all, was a lucrative business. He would be swimming in gold if he could become Master Alchemist in the future. “However, what natural treasures were you talking about?”

“Ah, you interested?” the monkey smiled wryly; he was no taller than thirty centimeters and was quite thin, and his hair was rather short and brown, with dashes of white and black throughout. Its pair of eyes was almost completely silver save for two golden dots at the center. Each time he’d smile, Lynne had to do everything in his power not to burst out in laughter. “Natural treasures mean everything, of course: forget Mana Springs and Lakes, I can even find most precious gems, weapons, spells, recipes… whatever your heart desires, you will have it if you stick to me!”

“Oh?” Lynne arched his brow slightly. “How do I know you’re not simply running your foul mouth even more than usual?”

“Humph,” the monkey snorted coldly. “Why the hell would I bother lying to a rotten brat like you? I’m a descendant of War Apes, Divine Beasts, and my bloodline is pure!” Holy shit, no way!! Lynne screamed inwardly but remained calm on the surface. “One of my innate abilities is my sensitivity to anything valuable. Humph, rotten brat, you still dare doubt me? The only reason I even want to make this deal is because my bloodline isn’t awakened yet, and potions and pills are the fastest way to do it.”

“Alright,” Lynne nodded, faking indifference. I’ve struck damned gold! A mountain of freaking gold! War Apes… holy crap, I can’t believe I actually found a War Ape in this backwater place! “As a sign of good will, I’ll give you a batch of ‘Anti-Venom Potions’ and ten ‘Twice Refined Jade Pills’. How’s that sound?”

“Deal, deal!” the monkey screamed immediately, but as he realized his outburst, he forcibly calmed him self, coughing lightly. “I mean, yeah, sure, why not? Here,” he then handed over the book to Lynne. “I can tell you have the innate Gift of ‘Comprehension’, so it shouldn’t be hard for you to learn it relatively quickly.” Lynne took the book, startled slightly by the monkey’s words.

“I do?” Lynne asked.

“Huh? You don’t know?” the monkey asked back, shocked. “How the hell couldn’t you know? Don’t you damned humans always test for the innate Gifts the moment you are born?”

“….”

“… you actually don’t know?” the monkey said, awe-struck. “You don’t know about ‘Mana Manipulation’ and ‘Elemental Affinity’ either, do you?”

“….”

“… you really thought I’d make a deal with some no-talent sniveling brat?”

“….”

“... rotten brat…”

“… damned monkey…”

“We’ll stay here for a month,” the monkey said after a short silence. “You should be able to understanding the basics by then, and it should be enough time for me to process the potions and pills you promised. Also, increase your damned strength brat. What’s with that pitiable Mana reserve? When did you start training? Five days ago?”

“… I’ll roast you like a chicken if you don’t shut up.”

“Humph… fine, fine. Just gimme what you promised.” Lynne flung over a batch of ‘Anti-Venom Potions’ and ten ‘Twice Refined Jade Pills’, before opening the alchemy book to study. Although he appeared indifferent on the surface, his heart couldn’t stop beating quickly; with this damned monkey around, my plans should accelerate like a gale of wind! He could barely suppress his excitement as he divulged himself into the study of Alchemy while the monkey took the potions and pills and retreated back to the corner of the clearing, slowly beginning to process them.