Chapter 24

After I won the match, I was immediately restrained and brought back to my cell. And even though this time I won without putting my life at too much risk, that Glydon still managed to inflict some nasty injuries on me. Especially this spike bullet that was still embedded on my wound. Seriously, that spike bullet would surely prevent the wound from closing up. To make matters worse. My body also felt incredibly heavy after abusing the use of Haste on that match. Of course, I knew it was necessary. After all, I was only able to keep up with Glydon's speed because the skill was consistently on all throughout the match. But there was one problem with that…

Looks like I am slowly becoming too dependent on that skill… And to think that I complained when I got that title… How ironic…

Honestly, I never thought that I would end up this reliant on this seemingly mediocre skill. But as it turned out, this skill had now become an integral part of fighting style. Not only that, this had also saved my ass multiple times. Well, this skill would surely be more powerful once it evolves. Though, I still had no idea how evolution of skills works.

Anyway, this injury of mine wouldn’t be healed unless I remove the spike bullet embedded inside. And since there was no hospital or any doctor in here, I needed to remove this spike bullet myself. Fortunately, I had already experienced something similar when I was still a human. It was actually during that time when I was still alone and had no one else to turn to but myself. That time, because I had no money or connection, I was forced to treat myself whenever I was wounded. Because of that, I became quite used to the pain of treating up a wound without using any anesthetics.

For now, I had no other way to remove the spike bullet besides my claws. Luckily, I was still able to reach my wound even though my legs were bound by some vines. And so, to remove the spike bullet, I reached out to my wound and tucked two of my sharp claws inside it.

While being careful not to worsen the wound, I slowly moved my two claws inside to search for the spike bullet. Because of that, a pained whimper came out from my mouth. But that was only natural, after all, being used to pain was completely different from not feeling it at all. Well, if you were a masochist or a completely broken person, your reaction would probably differ from normal.

When I finally felt the spike bullet on the tip of my claws, I meticulously pulled it out. Once the spike was finally removed, I let out a sigh and tossed it away. But because of the excruciating pain from manually pulling the spike bullet, my ears were ringing and I was completely out of breath after the procedure.

Normally, I still needed to stitch the wound after removing the spike bullet. Because unless I did that, the wound would just continue to bleed. Luckily, this world has skills. And among those skills, there was one called Recovery which I also have. That was why instead of stitching the wound to close it up, I only needed to rest and the wound would close on its own since it wasn’t a fatal injury in the first place. Besides, the thick muscles of this body were also preventing the wound from completely bleeding out. Most likely, it was the effect of my skill Toughness.

What a really convenient world.

Though I was thinking things like that, I also knew how cruel this supposedly convenient world could be. Well, I guess this isn’t much different from that world. Especially because in exchange for those convenient skills, dangerous and powerful monsters freely roamed around.

While I was being all philosophical on my mind, I noticed someone entering the prison like area.

Oi, oi, oi! Don’t tell it isn’t over yet?

Cold sweat ran through my whole body as I started to imagine the worst possible situation. But who could blame me? I mean, seriously. With my current condition, never mind fighting at full strength; I wouldn’t even be able to put up much of a fight. Yes, it might still be possible to activate Haste for a full minute, but I doubt a minute would be enough to kill a monster living in this area. And to make matters worse, I wouldn’t be able to move when that full minute ran out.

This is seriously bad!

While I was panicking inside, a Banobo entered my vision and stopped directly in front of my cell. Probably because my thought was in disarray, my vision became much narrower than usual and all I could see was the Banobo’s face looking down in my direction. But then, the Banobo suddenly threw something inside and it landed in front of my face.

Shocked by the sudden turn of events, I curiously gazed at the thing that was lying in front of me. Wait… This is… And what I saw in front was a dead monster.

It was only then that I realized that the Banobo didn’t come here to pick me up for a match. Instead, it was probably here to give me something to eat. And that should only be natural, after all, all the monsters that were imprisoned here would die if they didn’t eat.

After that, the Banobo proceeded to remove the vine that was bounding my mouth. And probably to make sure that I wouldn’t try to escape, the Banobo pointed a huge lumber on my face while gesturing to me to start eating already. Of course, being that eating would help me recover, I started munching on the corpse without any complaints while the Banobo was watching me upfront.

Man… What a big misunderstanding… I thought while letting out a sigh.

***

Intermission: Rise of the Apes

In a jungle type area full of tall trees and vicious plants, there was a gigantic tree. Compared to the other trees growing on that place, this particular tree was so massive to the point that it was towering above that place as a whole. But that wasn’t the only strange thing about that tree. Because for some reason, the monsters living on that place seemed to be avoiding going near that gigantic tree. Of course, it wasn’t as if those monsters were afraid of that gigantic tree in particular. In fact, the monsters weren't afraid of the tree but the monsters living on that three. To be more specific, the monsters were afraid of the whole species of ape type monsters that had taken residence on that gigantic tree.

At that point in time, those ape type monsters had completely taken over the whole place. And though the ape type monster’s strength played a large role in it, that wasn’t the only reason why they managed to turn the whole place into their domain. To be exact, it has something to do with the reigning leader of those monsters and the fact that a single monster was now ruling all of the ape type monsters in the area.

In the past, there existed multiple packs of ape type monsters competing for supremacy in the jungle type area. And because those packs always clashed with one another, the ape type monsters’ forces were spread too thin and wide. This fact not only diminished the ape type monsters’ forces, but also made their life expectancy low which meant that there were only a few who reached a higher evolution stage. But for better or for worse, all of that changed after the appearance of a single monster.

The monster in question was also an ape type monster. But the catch was, not even the original ape type monsters living in the area knew where it came from. All that they knew was out of nowhere, a powerful ape type monster appeared and then proceeded to defeat an alpha that was leading one of the ape type monsters’ packs. Following that, the powerful ape type monster fought and defeated every single alpha in the area one by one. And at the very end, after all the other alphas were finally defeated, the powerful ape type monster became the sole ruler of all the packs left behind by the defeated alphas.

After that, the ape type monsters made the gigantic tree at the center of the jungle type area their dwelling. Once the ape type monsters were done taking that gigantic three for themselves, they finally made a move and started spreading their influence slowly but surely at their immediate surroundings.

At first, the ape type monsters hunt around in groups on the surrounding area near the gigantic tree. But unlike before, the ape type monsters were now coordinating with the other members of their group. Sometime after that, the ape type monsters also somehow learned to coordinate between multiple groups.

Then, as if to put the nail in the coffin, the evolved forms of ape type monsters started appearing one after the other. Finally, it didn’t take too long before every group of the ape type monsters became spearheaded by an evolved species from their kind. As a result, the ape monsters influence rapidly expanded, until at last, the whole area was completely taken over by them.