Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill lvl 3

XP: 1170

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

The weight of the centipede didn’t all stop once it died, and was still whipping to the side as the knife sunk into the socket, a spray of greenish gray goop coating my hand and forearm. It was at once both a major relief, and worth retching over, the taste of acid bubbling up in the back of my throat but quickly swallowed back down. The weight of the centipede fell down to the ground and the body convulsed and continued to writhe. I knew it was dead because I’d gotten the xp for it, but it still made me want to keep stabbing for good measure.

I pulled out the knife and stumbled away onto the grass, flopping onto my back and looking up into the canopy. I was drained. Why did everything have to be so monumentally dangerous that I nearly die at least twice a day. Or maybe that’s more of a me thing than it is this place. Either way, I’m not this hardened survivalist type. I worked a desk job and was a borderline shut-in. If you gave me the opportunity to never leave my room again I’d have been psyched. Now look at me, a monkey punched full of holes and quite nearly died several times over.

I pulled up my screen to check the xp I’d gained. I wasn’t really paying attention to the number much since I had been so focused on the not dying part. My eyes widened at the sight, letting out an involuntary monkey hoot as I sat up. A thousand xp. A thousand. That was quite a lot. In fact I only needed 300 for my next level up. This was enough to get me to level 4, 5, and nearly to 6. Maybe I was wrong about farming rats being the most efficient method to get xp. I look back to the torn net and the dozens of bladed legs, quickly dismissing that thought.

Still, I had enough to level up once, which I was definitely going to do. I need my hp back. Though should I go from 4 to 5 immediately? After all, having a full heal at the ready at any moment may just be more valuable than a couple more skills and stat points. Plus I would still gain them. It would just mean a bit of delayed gratification in exchange for what is essentially double my hp. When I put it like that it seems like a no brainer.

I step up to the body of the centipede and look it over, thinking about if there was anything that I could reasonably use from this thing as a tool, and the only thing that comes to mind would be like some sort of suit of bug armor, but I lack both the knowledge or the stomach in order to pull that off. I could barely skin a rat without throwing up, much less this monstrosity. Sadly I’ll probably have to just let this one go to waste. I quietly lament the loss of some decent level of protection, but what can you do?

I pressed the level up button and all of the pain in my arms and leg vanished, washed away and left me back to full. Like driving a new car again. Not that I would know, I don’t drive. Still, I jumped in place a bit, happy to be able to move around so much easier again, stretching and taking in one deep breath. Honestly I can’t describe how much better it feels to just undo all the damage in your body with the press of a button. Back home people would kill for this.

I looked at the stat screen and everything looked the same as the last level up [Talent points available] [Ability upgrade available] [Skill upgrade available] [Skill points available] [Spell upgrade available]. So naturally, I start where I'd always started, with the talent point. Though this time I put the point in strength very quickly. I was beginning to see the necessity of getting stronger now if I was going to be doing any damage at all to some of these things. Clicked and confirmed.

Next, my abilities. This was more complicated. I could upgrade my senses again, or one of my abilities. To be frank, upgrading my eyes was a major boon, but I wouldn’t have been able to do all of that swinging around without balance. Who’s to say what upgrading the others might give? However, bluster has objectively saved my life twice now, and I really want to know what I get for upgrading innate magic. I clicked the magic and a familiar [New spells available] popped up at the bottom. So every rank of innate magic gives me a new spell. Good to know. I wonder if that makes it better or worse than being a player mage.

Next is choosing my new skill, and after all that I’d been through, it was a no-brainer. I needed to grab dodge. The amount of damage I’ve taken and near misses there’ve been, I avoided the defensive options for too long. It will be a nice change of pace to not get hurt at all. As for what skill to upgrade, I really need to either focus and make one skill strong or spread it around to cover more bases. Looking over my skills, so far really the one I’ve used the most is either climb or stealth. Though I haven’t really come across a need for better climbing, so stealth is probably the better option. Click.

Now onto spells, I open my spells menu, and give it a look over. Though unlike before it didn’t give me an option for the different types of magic, or even the other types of elementalism. The spell list was a bit further expanded, but all the options were wind magic. I suppose this means that I chose to have a wind organ initially and not a generic magic organ. A little disappointing, as I was halfway hoping to grab a healing spell. Still I pull out the menu and look at the options. Sparrow dive, eagle dive, wind fury, cloud step, all of them sound generally useful, but three look really nice to me. Wind fury, thunder missile, and jet stream.

Wind fury: A common spell, casting envelopes the caster’s weapon or limb with wind, increasing the speed and power of their strikes as they are both driven forward by the wind and feel no resistance from the air for a short time.

Thunder missile: A common spell, casting envelops the caster’s ranged weapon in wind, greatly increasing the speed of the projectile, letting out a thunderous boom.

Jet stream: A common spell, casting surrounds the caster in swift moving winds, making movements effortless and increasing speed for a short period of time.

All of these looked really useful. Windfury was basically just a flat increase of my current abilities. Hit harder and faster, and maybe actually be able to do some real damage in a fight for once. Thunder missile sounds fantastic, a viable ranged option that might be able to punch into armor. Only issue is zero stealth ability, and my throwing skill is abysmal. Maybe I can put this one off until my next upgrade? Jet stream would have made me feel a whole lot safer from that centipede for sure, especially when taken with the dash skill, but it also does no damage, which is my main issue at the moment.

I took about a minute of hovering over the options before I decided. As much as I like the others, I need some damage output, and windfury is just the best option I have right now. So I select it and pad my fist into my palm. I’ll need to do some testing on this in a bit, but as for the upgrade, I go ahead and put that point into bluster. As much as I need damage, bluster is already extremely useful, and upgrading it as far as it has is what kept me alive against that centipede.

I clapped my hands together, finally finished, and feeling better than ever. I took one long breath in, stretching my arms up above my head, and started to get a feel of the changes. The strength difference wasn’t exceptional, but it was immediate. Everything felt lighter, and as I stood up on all fours, walking over to the dead centipede, I got one arm up under it to see how much easier it would be to lift. While easier, still not something I could do with one arm. So I grabbed on with both hands, digging my heels in and flipping the body over. I might be able to lift up a human with significant enough effort… well maybe a teenager.

Then next was to test out my sneak. So I lowered down, and snuck my way over to the nearest tree. I had expected to move silently like a ninja, but I was about as stealthy as before, but faster when doing it. It might be a reasonable speed to follow someone who’s walking now at least. I slowed down to my original sneaking speed, and then I could see a notable difference in noise. Not a ninja monkey yet, but definitely better. Makes me wish I had this back in the cave. Might not have spooked those bats.

Now onto the main event. Windfury… how do I do that? I took a deep breath in, feeling my pseudo-lung fill and gave a swift exhale while thinking about windfury, but a stark rush of wind came out as a bluster again. So back to the “no clue how to use my magic” phase again. I felt the lung slowly filling again as I contemplated how to go about this. Maybe it was because it needed a target, rather than just being automatic. I looked down at my arm and took in another deep breath, thinking about the wind surrounding my hand and blew out the wind towards my palm. This time the wind surrounded my arm, swirling like a mini tornado, kicking up leaves and whipping my fur about. I moved my arm around and where before it felt effortless to move now it felt like my arm was on rails, being propelled forwards in whichever direction I tried.

The power behind it was unmistakable. Not overwhelming, but it was definitely stark. I was about to test it when the winds died away, giving me a sense of the duration as well. It only lasted maybe five seconds. Not fantastic, but I’m not going to snub my nose at it either. I could feel the pseudo-lung already filling back up so it was five seconds of duration, and five more seconds before I could use it again. Also seems like both windfury and bluster share a cooldown. Which makes sense given I only have one magic organ.

I waited the five seconds to pass, raising a fist up and bringing it back down onto the hard carapace with a low thud. My wrist stung a little on impact but it didn’t do any damage. At least none that I could see. So, I raise my fist again, breathe out a small gust of wind, which rushed around my fist as it descended with a whipping whoosh, and impacted with a hefty CRACK. I raised my arm and I didn’t see any mark on the armor, but I’d certainly felt it buckle. Also my wrist really throbbed in a dull ache. I need to be careful when throwing those. I could really break my hand.

Flexing my fingers, opening and closing my hand again, it eventually dulled down. My eyes wandered over to the net, or what was left of it, and there was another twang of pain, this time in my pride. I was actually proud of having actually successfully made that, and I got to use it a grand total of one time. I walked over to the now annihilated bush, and grabbed my second glove, slipping it on, and started to untangle the centipede to see how much of it was salvageable if any. It took longer than I thought it would because the centipede decided that its preferred language was toddler’s shoelaces.

I shoved the body off to the side and looked at the ruined net. If it were just a few vines in the middle that were broken that’d be one thing, but it was the very top, and all the vines attached to the center of it. So the whole net was nearly ripped in half even if only a quarter of it was actually damaged. It looked like it would be faster to just make a new net from scratch. I dropped down on my butt, taking a moment and patting the net. At least I know that it worked, it saved my life after all, and it did net me something around five times as much xp as I’d planned for the day.

I offer a salute to the net for its noble sacrifice, slipping off my gloves and putting them back into my bindle. Though unfortunately now, I don’t have a plan for what to do any more. Going out and making another net seems like way too much work. Maybe now’s the time where I should go and check out the town I saw off in the distance? No, not yet. I saw how dangerous those adventurers were. Maybe I should wait and check it out after I reach level 10? No, I can probably get away with it once I get sneak to up to 3. After all, I'm not going to be fighting the whole town, even if I am level 10.

So I’ll wait until one more level up to check out humanville. For now I should really be focusing on xp. I’m just about a hundred away from a second level up, which would effectively more than triple my hp in a dangerous situation. Actually, how much hp do I get when I level up? I remember I started with 5 and leveled up, and it went to 10. But now it’s at 24. So it’s not just multiples of 5. I’m level 4, so 24 divided by 4 is 6. Oh, duh, I leveled up my endurance. But my endurance is 5. So I guess it must be your endurance plus 1, times your level? That’s a weird way of doing it. Why add 1? I suppose there must be some technical reason for it.

But I’m getting off topic. What should I be doing right now? Maybe instead of focusing on getting the most xp possible I should focus on the most xp for the least effort? Those lizards are about 70 xp, and I’m feeling pretty confident at this point I can take one on without getting hurt, or at least not badly hurt. That shouldn’t be all too much of an issue… theoretically. I’ve had every expectation and plan I’ve had in these past two days ruined so far, and I don’t expect that to change now.

Still for now, I think I’ll head back to the monkey village. Well, not a village, what would be the right word for a group of monkeys? A troupe? Or was it a troop? Well technically there’s probably a better term for a group of mandrills but I’ll call it a troupe for now. I’ll head back to the troupe and see how things are going with the family. I could use a bit of rest after everything so far. Even if my body is relaxed after leveling up, mentally I still need to wind down a bit.

So I started my trek back to the troupe, and even when I was sneaking I was way faster than I was before, even the rustling from the trees was much less than it was before, smoothly transitioning from step to step to cause the least disturbance possible. I felt as smooth as butter on bread. Man leveling up is great. It took only a fraction of the time to get back to the watering hole, and the frogs were still there, but they were the only ones this time. Which I’d thought was a little odd until I’d heard the commotion up ahead.

Seems like I’m not the only one who thought to visit the troupe today. I hopped over from tree to tree until the clearing came into view again, and my breath caught in my throat. Dozens of monkeys sat in the trees, looking down and screeching at the ground below, some grabbing fruit and throwing it down at the center of the clearing. I hopped over beside the other monkeys and the clearing came into view. The pale green grass below was stained red, limbs of several monkeys strewn about and the remains of gored torsos and faces only barely recognizable, some only recognizable at all because of the others surrounding them.

My stomach immediately balled into a knot. The worst I’d seen a body look up to that point was the rat. This was another level of brutality, and especially so when in such a familiar shape. Then my eyes whipped over towards the rapid movement below of the culprit of this massacre. What looked like a cat, something about as large as a mountain lion, but the color was different. It had a jaguar’s fur pattern, and the long tufts on its ears like a lynx. Across from it, I could see one familiar figure of Boris, his mane standing on end, massive fangs bared and covered in scratches. His fingers were clutching onto the battered body of another one of the cats that itself was covered in wounds and bites.

The two of them stood in a standoff, the first one to move was Boris, and he was much faster than his size would make you think. He barreled towards the cat like a truck trying to run it over, but the cat moved much quicker, darting to the side and pouncing onto Boris’ back, biting at his neck. The bite didn’t get through his mane however, and the massive monkey reached back trying to grab the cat’s head, but he couldn’t reach it. The cat dug its claws in and scratched at his back, but one hand found purchase on a back paw, grabbing onto it and yanking the cat off and onto the floor.

As the cat landed, Boris raised his free hand up and started raining down punches into the cat’s ribs. The cat wasn’t just going to sit there and take it, and as the arm came down again, the claws sunk in, ripping into the flesh as the arm pulled back. Boris let out another ear splitting screech before rearing up and throwing the cat away from him, shaking his bleeding arm wildly. The cat scrambled to its feet and tried to circle around for another pounce, but Boris turned, trying to bat away the claws and missing. The cat’s fangs sunk into the forearm and it pulled backwards like it was trying to rip the arm off. Boris answered by raising the opposite arm and driving his fist down onto the cat’s head

The cat took the blow and held on, throwing its head left and right like a dog with a chew toy. Boris in turn stopped punching and instead lunged forward with a bite of his own, sinking into the cat’s shoulder and throwing himself forwards on top of the cat, knocking it onto its back. Both of the cat's back paws kicked, clawing at Boris’ belly, but he didn’t seem to care, his free arm now driving down like a ton of bricks into the cat’s stomach. After the fourth blow, the cat’s mouth opened, releasing the arm. A major mistake, as even injured, he raised it to start pummeling as well. Raining into the creature’s exposed belly.

The cat slashed out again with its claws sinking into the side of Boris’ face and ripping down to the nose. Boris let out a screech and flinched back, allowing the cat to roll onto its feet and lunge forward for Boris’ leg, a loud crunch sounding like the end for that bone. Boris howled again, both fists raised up to try and smash into the cat’s back again, but the cat pulled its head back, dragging him forward and landing on his back. The cat kept pulling and dragging him along as Boris reached down, grabbing with one arm while the other pushed his body along the ground to lessen the damage of being dragged.

Eventually he was able to get a hold onto the cat’s ear, but it wasn’t a good hand hold, because as he tried to pull on the cat, he simply ripped the ear off, and the cat kept dragging him. Boris billowed, reaching over to grab the severed jaw of one of the dead monkeys, wheeling his arm around and thrust it into the already injured shoulder of the cat, the disembodied fangs sinking in, staying embedded there as the cat's jaws unclamped from his leg. Boris, despite what must have been horrible pain, put his weight onto that injured leg as he rolled over, standing on all fours, but I could see that leg buckling.

I watched in rapt attention as Boris charged again, black fur hiding the streams of red, the only indication of his heavy bleeding being the slick oily texture over most of his body. To contrast, the cat’s yellow fur was painted in sprays of darkened red, and its face was almost entirely stained. The cat was the first to pounce again, but this time his hand raised, grabbing the top of the cat’s head as it lunged and thrust it straight down into the ground with a loud CRACK.

The paws swiped at air as the second arm raised up and grabbed at the wrist of the injured leg. Boris pulled back with all of his weight and the dull THOK of a dislocated shoulder could be heard even all the way up in the trees. The cat was scrambling wildly, trying to sink its claws into any exposed flesh it could, back legs trying to push away and get out from under his palm. The cat’s blood soaked face was too slick to keep holding onto, and as soon as Boris’ hand slipped off, the jaws opened up and clamped onto his wrist, but the trashing it had done before was much less effective with one leg out of commission.

Boris almost didn’t even acknowledge the bite this time as his free arm wrapped under the cat’s belly. I could see a spurt of blood from his injured leg as he drove his weight down into it, raising up and watching the cat's legs all leave the ground as Boris hefted the cat over his head, and tossing it back down onto the ground with a resounding THUD. The jaw loosed from his wrist and the arm was immediately put to use pummeling the side of the cat’s body. I could see the cat no longer trying to fight, but now trying to escape the merciless beating it was receiving. The legs scrambled and flailed, but couldn’t move more than a foot's distance at a time, which Boris simply followed along beside.

It was a savage display, almost nothing like any of the fights I'd been in. Even against the centipede, I’d just been doing anything I could to survive and made it by the skin of my teeth. This was an exhibition of what the world had in store for anyone so unfortunate to be at its mercy. Boris raised up binging both fists down again and a tear, where red began pooling around his feet. He stopped his onslaught, driving both fists into the ground, rearing up and roared out into the sky, declaring his victory to the whole world.

At that moment, all I could really think was that I’m glad he’s on my side. He knelt down, sinking his teeth into the neck and even as injured as he was, hobbled over to the body of the second cat, dropping them beside each other, dropping down onto his butt and enjoying the spoils of war, biting into the cat and ripping away the meat of its neck. I supposed that answers my question as to why Boris was the highest level here. Only after it was all over did the sound of all the other monkeys fade into focus again, and I turned to see them all hollering and bouncing about in all the excitement.

I couldn’t even say I was horrified by the display, just shocked. It’s one thing to know that the world is a violent and bloody place, and another to witness it firsthand. Though I suppose I should be thankful that I didn’t have to have this horrible revelation by being on the receiving end… I forgot why I was coming back here in the first place now.

Victory