Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill lvl 3

XP: 0

Size: 70

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 18

Strength: 4/Speed: 8/Endurance: 5/Magic: 1/Plasticity: 1/Luck 6

Senses: Vision 3, hearing 3, smell 2, taste 1, touch 2

Abilities: Balance 2, omnivorous 1, aposematism 1, innate magic 1

Skills: Bite 1, strike 2, grapple 2, throw 1, climb 1, sneak 1, hide 1, dash 1

Spells: Bluster 3

I watched from above as the humans gathered in front of the door, seeing how large it really was. Each of those spikes framing the edges looked as big as me, and the door itself twice as big as the humans. The carvings inlaid into the stone depicted what looked like a river, with above the river carvings of people working in a field, harvesting something, maybe wheat. Below the river were skeletons, reaching up from below. Very spooky to look at.

The humans however were just chatting with each other outside the door, some looking a bit agitated by the previous fight, having taken a little roughing up, but no injuries I could see. They exchanged a few more words before the mage pulled out a bottle, handing it to the soldier. It looked like a bright blue liquid inside, which he quickly downed and handed the bottle back. There was no telling what it was. Usually in games, blue means a mana potion, but they gave it to the soldier for one, and for another, I don’t know if they even have mana in this world.

The group walked up to the door, pushing it open, though it took all four of them to do it. I on the other hand used the sound of the stone sliding across the floor to climb down from the pillar unseen. I waited for them to walk inside before I followed, standing on the edge of those hefty spikes to peek around. Seeing them descending a flight of stairs into a large open room, which I didn’t get long to look at, because shortly after they entered, the doors started to close again.

Naturally, I didn’t want to be left in the room alone, so I dashed through to the other side. I had plenty of time to enter, but I didn’t want to even risk the idea of being squished between those stone slabs, each as thick as I was long. Once inside however, I peeked over the edge of the stairs to see the group heading down. The room looked like an amphitheater in its design. That same sort of half circle of seats all surrounding one central stage. Though instead of an open roof, we were clearly still underground, and there looked to be some scaffolding above us.

On the stage however, it was not empty. One very large sarcophagus laid in state, as if presented to a congregation. The tomb was covered in the same sort of carvings as the door, but depicting some sort of regal figure on the front, a man with two curved swords in his hands and folded across his chest. His upper body uncovered but his legs bore a long skirt that reached his feet. On his head he had something of a headdress that looked like a lion’s mane. No doubt a depiction of whoever was inside.

The adventurers stepped onto the stage and no sooner than a foot landed on the platform did the stone of the coffin begin to shift to the side. I became acutely away of my situation at that moment. Looking around, in an amphitheater there is nowhere to hide. At most I could sit right here and flatten myself onto the floor, hoping to be unseen. The loud clunk of the stone falling away emphasized how it was too late for me to think of anything else either.

The figure slowly raised from the tomb, where the depiction showed some regal looking man, here I saw a mummified figure, all of the soffit bits had melted away, and the remaining flesh was all desiccated. The face was gone entirely, with only strips of flesh keeping the jaw together. The lion’s mane he had in the depiction was regal and proud, whereas what was left of it looked more similar to a matted clump of fur like a wild dog. The two swords in his hands upfolded from his chest as he stood, outstretched to either side, the rusted iron heavily corroded, and almost falling apart.

The mouth opened and an ethereal voice came out, though I still couldn’t understand the words, it was clear what he was saying was some sort of challenge or threat. The adventurers all raised their weapons, readying themselves for battle as the deathly visage of the man began to levitate, the skirt blown about by some invisible force as his battle cry wailed out, marking the start of the battle. Two arrows were loosed as soon as he’d moved, sinking into his chest, but he didn’t even react. He charged towards the mage, blades carving a circle through the air around him before the soldier interposed himself between the two.

The blades screeched against the shield as the soldier brought his own blade up to hack at the creature’s arm, getting the blade parried back by his off hand. The mage meanwhile had cast a spell onto the soldier, whose shield began to glow a bright blue. The next strike tried to come down from above the soldier, but impacted an invisible force, rippling with a faint blue sheen in the air. It looked like the spell widened the area that the shield covered, and the second blade achieved the same ineffective screech.

Another pair of arrows landed, this time in the creature’s back, causing it to whirl around and turn its attention on the pillow man. It started to dash away towards him, when the soldier let out a shout that itself sent another ripple through the air. The creature, which had turned its attention to the archers, whipped around and glared daggers at the soldier. It charged full force at him, landing a heavy slash on the invisible portion of the shield, directly where the soldier’s leg had been, the second coming in a wide arch over towards his face, causing the soldier to flinch, but still managing to block it.

The mage once again started casting, but instead of a blue glow, this one was a bright white, and it came over the longbow of Aragorn-ish. He raised the bow and where before he’d loosed the one arrow, now a second phantom arrow landed just behind the first, leaving three arrows to impact the creatures back again. There was another shriek from the monster before his own blades started to glow a pale green color. He didn’t slash at the fighter’s shield this time, but instead in the air in front of the shield, a wave of greenish tinted smoke polluting the air around both the soldier and the mage, the both of them starting to cough, the mage trying but unable to cast without catching their breath.

The pillow man hung his bow from his hip drawing his two short blades and charging in after seeing the smoke. The undead creature was floating about five feet up, so he had to jump to reach him, but he was able to make some impressive height, burying one blade in the shoulder, and the other in the ribs. It floated up another five feet in the air, thrashing about to try and get him off, but the pillow man was surprisingly strong, able to stay held on. This did not however keep him from being attacked, as those two blades arched around to stab into his sides. His armor was able to take the blow but it was clear it still had an effect.

Another two arrows landed, punching into the creature’s stomach as Aragorn-ish circled around to the front of the creature, shouting something to the group. The soldier, sheathing his blade, his feet started to glow again, though this time he’d leapt up alongside the pillow man, grabbing onto the maned collar and dragging them all to the ground. All three landed with a thud, both men piling atop the creature. As soon as they’d hit the ground however, and just before the pillow man could draw out his blades for another stab, green smoke enveloped the both of them, erupting again into a coughing fit.

Luckily, this time the mage was ready for it, and one after another quickly cast a spell, causing first the soldier to glow a vibrant green for just a moment and followed shortly by the pillow man. The coughing ended immediately, and the both of them drew their blades stabbing down into the prone monster. I was actually very impressed with the display. While the creature clearly was much stronger, the group looked to be winning handily.

The creature being eviscerated on the ground, let go of the blades and made a motion with his arms, and the whole center of the platform was swallowed by a thick darkness. I couldn’t see what was going on inside, but I could hear the three of them still slashing and screeching as metal impacted wood and iron. The mage and Aragorn-ish both stood by pensively, aiming at the black sphere and hoping for an opportunity, but not willing to risk striking their allies. The pillow man was the first to emerge from the dark, a wound staining his upper arm red.

The mage quickly cast a spell to heal the wound as soon as he arrived, and he fell back, quickly drawing his short bow to aim at the black sphere. Inside the soldier was shouting and the sounds of battle continued for what felt much too long. Eventually the black sphere began to fade, and the both of them came into sight again. The soldier looked worse for wear, but the monster looked to be in tatters, one arm being held on by nothing but a string of tendons hanging from the elbow.

As soon as they had visual, three more arrows sunk into the chest, letting out another screech. Clearly they were starting to have an effect. He charged forward with his good arm forward, blade screeching over the top of the shield, and impacting his chain covered shoulder, but it didn’t pierce. He forced the edge of the shield forwards, punching directly into the jaw which now hung loosely from one side.

The mage shouted something to the archers, who both shouted back in unison, doubling their rate of fire, and landing another six arrows into it, looking more like a pincushion than a boss battle now. The pale green blade circled around, but this time jabbed directly through the toe of his boot, causing the soldier to buckle to one knee. The mage then dashed forwards, staff glowing brightly as they came up for one big baseball bat swing. The blow landed on the dead center of the creature’s chest, sending it back and bouncing off the ground, the last bits of the bad arm tearing away and flying another ten feet beyond.

The soldier forced himself to his feet as the arches both drew their swords and bore down on the once again prone monster, hacking off the one remaining arm and proceeding to stab until the body was no longer recognizable. The group all looked up at the same time before giving off an exhausted sounding cheer. They must have received the notification of the xp, meaning the adventurers can see those too. Good to know.

As they finished the fight, they gathered up the two rusted blades, and what looked like a pendant that had spawned upon his death. The group sounded happy, but now I realized why they looked so banged up last time I’d seen them. They walked over to the coffin and pulled a large bag out, which had been hidden behind Aragorn-ish’s cape. They opened it up and started shoveling gold coins into it. If this were back home, these adventurers would be pretty well off if they did this every day, but I don’t know how much a gold coin is worth in this world.

They just started chatting with each other idly now that their work was done, but I realized something then that I hadn’t thought of… how am I going to get out of here? The only door is behind me, and I have nowhere to hide. I was worried about that before, but luckily for me they never left the central platform to fight. Now they are going to leave, which means coming right back up the stairs and directly towards me, who will be right in their line of sight. Even if I were to sneak around away from the door, I will still have to get back through it before it closes…

Crap.

This is not good. I was struck by the feeling of weight bearing down on me. I’m kind of stuck between the option of getting stuck in this room for an entire day, and maybe having to fight Mr. grumpy when he respawns, or risk getting spotted by the adventurers that successfully killed Mr. grumpy trying to chase after them before the doors close behind them. I was not a happy camper.

I have had many anxiety inducing decisions in my life, but this was new for me. I circled about thirty feet from the door, quietly lowering myself down onto the first row of seats in the hopes that I could maybe stalk up behind them and weasel my way through, covering the sound of my running with the grinding of the stone doors. In no way a foolproof plan, but really it was the only one I had. I’m sure someone might be able to come up with a better plan, but I am not the cleverest monkey in the world. As evidenced by my two near death experiences in one day.

The group took longer than expected, taking their sweet time to chat and pick up all of their rewards, healing up the wounds they had received. Eventually however, they did come around to climbing the stairs. I flatten myself down, watching them closely as they passed. They weren’t even paying any attention luckily, certain that they’d cleared the room and were out of danger. They walked up to the doors, which opened for them automatically, the grinding of stone being my cue to circle behind them, climbing up around and trying to stay right beyond the edge of the stairs so they couldn’t see.

They walked through the doors and I tried to keep as far behind as I could before the doors started to close, the sliding stone covering for when I dashed through to the other side. Unfortunately for me, the adventurers were lollygagging, and so I was cutting it close with the door. The heavy stone narrowing to where I could have sworn they touched my shoulders, but it was likely my anxiety talking. That only left me about ten feet behind them as I squeaked through the door right at the end, frozen there, wishing they would just go.

I wasn’t hidden by anything, just a little black monkey standing there in front of the door as they took their sweet time ambling forwards, even stopping to chat with each other. I felt both like I was walking behind people who walk slow and take up the whole sidewalk, and like I had accidentally fallen into the bear cage in the zoo. Simultaneously annoying, frustrating and terrifying all at once. I held my breath once again, trying to do as little as humanly (monkely?) possible, to attract no attention.

There were a few tense moments as Aragorn-ish looked to the side to say something to the pillow man, but I stayed still as a statue, just waiting for them to go. Their sense of certainty over having killed everything won out in the end, and I let out the breath that was stuck in my throat. As soon as they were far enough away I snuck my way between the pillars to follow them back to the doors. This time I was in no hurry, and waited a full thirty seconds before opening the door to follow after them, rounding the corner to once again slowly follow their torchlight to the end of the path.

They stepped through the mine door and once again I waited a solid thirty seconds before stepping through as well, back into the spider room. I wished I could properly sift through the loot dropped by the spiders, but it wasn’t really possible with no light of my own. So I followed the torchlight to the bend, and eventually they came out into the sunlight once more. A relief washed over me as I saw trees again, knowing I wouldn’t have to be doing this ever again… Or at least not until I knew I could handle this dungeon myself, which was not any time soon.

As soon as those humans were properly out of sight, I headed right to my clearing where all my fellow monkeys were, and flopped face down into the grass, just laying there for what must have been only a minute but felt ten times as long. I really wanted to just relax for the entire rest of the day, but part of me knew that I really couldn’t. I can’t just stay level 3 forever. I need to get more levels… also I need water, my mouth is as dry as that mummy was.

So I lifted myself back up onto my feet, pausing to look around at my fellow monkeys once again descending from the trees down to the jungle floor. Maybe it would be better to go with a group to avoid more frog problems like last time. I shuddered slightly at the memory of my broken ribs pressing into my chest again. I never would have expected a frog to have given me that much anxiety in my past life. So I look around for any other monkeys that look like they’re going for water.

The monkeys did look like they were forming into groups, however most of them looked to be grooming each other. So I figured I’d eat while I waited. I went around to grab some more fruit that had fallen from the tree above, eating a couple, but kipples aren’t exactly thirst quenching like an orange might be. Still it tastes way better than bugs and a full belly is a full belly. I reclined against a large root, just watching the canopy above, golden leaves shimmering as the wind blew.

I Reached down into my bag to grab my knife, as eating the skin of these kipples was not the most appetizing. I reached into my pouch, but instead of finding bone I grabbed at leather. My brow furrowed and I looked down at the gloves in my hands, having totally forgotten I’d grabbed them just a short time ago, yet now it felt like hours. I looked at them, no signs or markings, no particular style, just a pair of plain leather gloves. I reached my hand in to try and put one on, but it was clearly made for human hands, not monkeys. Like a toddler wearing her dad’s shoes.

I kept looking them over, trying to see if there was a way to inspect it and see if there were any statistical benefits from it, but no new screen popped up, leaving me with more questions. So I tried the old fashioned way, checking my stats, putting it on, checking again, and taking it off again. After about 5 more tries of this I determined that there was no change I could see. Disappointing. Still, a few more answered questions I suppose. Plus, maybe it would be different if I killed the creature instead, and it dropped little monkey sized gloves.

I shoved them back into the bag, pulling out the knife to start peeling, but spotted a group of monkeys headed for the pond, stowing it away in my bag for later, which feeling now, is probably maximum capacity for this pouch. A knife, two gloves and a fruit. I suddenly wished this system had some sort of hammerspace inventory, or at least a proper backpack, but no such luck. Which, to be fair, I’m not really a “player” in this so-called game. I’m a monster. My name even told me I drop loot when I die.

I caught up with the other monkeys, pushing through the brush to the watering hole, and in the center once again, three frogs. Which means the one I killed respawned in one day. Part of me was insulted by that, staring daggers at the amphibian. Though, really it should be expected. Makes me wonder though, does that mean I respawn? Or if I die, would I be replaced by a different newly spawned monkey? Not something I want to really know the answer to actually.

We walked up to the water’s edge and the other monkeys stuck their faces down in the water to drink. I started to lean in to do the same, but wanting to keep my eye on those frogs, I reached out with a hand to cup the water instead, and bring it to my mouth so I didn’t need to crane my neck to watch them. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but it made me feel better, so might as well. Why do I feel the need to justify my decision? No one can even see what I’m doing besides a bunch of monkeys and frogs, I can do what I want.

The cold water was a relief, making me wish I had a canteen or something as well. Making one of those however is way beyond what I can do at the moment. The more I think about stuff, the more I realize I need. Which is unfortunate, given my main source of gaining new skills requires my leveling up, and I currently need 300 xp in order to just get to level 4. What I need is a good old fashioned xp farm. The question is on how to do it. What would be the fastest possible way to get xp in this woods that I know of? Well, other than the cave, which I’m still not ready for.

I take a few more palmfuls of water while I contemplated the ways I could think of from my time playing various games. Usually you just do things until you find the most time efficient method and exploit it. Given that there have been no quests in this game that I can see, and crafting has as of yet yielded me no xp either, then the only option is killing other things. When it comes to xp farming with monsters, the best way in games is usually kill the biggest meanest thing you can, but that’s rarely what ends up as the most efficient option. Oddly enough, more often than not it’s to find the easiest thing you can kill in a single blow and gather up a bunch at once. Funnily that’s essentially what I’ve been doing with the grooming thing, but it’s still too slow for my liking.

I looked over to the other monkeys as they drank, feeling a bit of envy that they never had to worry about xp or hp or anything. I took another drink and stood, raising my hand to my fuzzy chin. Even getting 2 xp instead of 1 would be a major difference. The question really is, how much damage do I do, and what is both numerous and xp rich enough to make it worth the effort? I’ll need to go on a more broad excursion through the jungle to see what all is really around here in what I assume is basically a starter zone.

Come to think of it, the cave did say that it was a level 10 dungeon. Does that mean everything in this area of the jungle is between levels 1 and 10? The image of the centipede came to my mind again. That thing must be what level 10 looks like then, if that’s true. Wait, does that mean Boris is level 10? I suppose it would make sense given the stature difference between him and the rest of us. Though that raises the question of how he got that much xp. Was he just the oldest one here? Something to think about later.

As the other monkeys started back towards the group, I stalked back up to a tree and started climbing, pretty sure this is the one the lizard bit me off of. I was going to need to go exploring around a bit, and that’ll be dangerous no matter what I do, but with my newfound eyesight, and paranoia I’m much better off than I was before. All I really need to do is keep a lookout, and stay stealthy so that I don’t get yet another near death experience that I’ll need to add to the trauma I’m currently bottling up.