Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill lvl 9

XP: 570

Size: 70

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 48/72

Strength: 6/Speed: 10/Endurance: 7/Magic: 5/Plasticity: 1/Luck 6

Senses: Vision 3, hearing 4, smell 2, taste 1, touch 2

Abilities: Balance 2, omnivorous 2, aposematism 1, innate magic 5

Skills: Bite 1, strike 3, grapple 2, throw 2, climb 2, sneak 3, hide 1, dash 1, dodge 2, block 1, discern weakness 1, mysticism 1, quickstep 1, tumbling 1

Spells: Bluster 5 MAX, windfury 5, jetstream 1, cloud step 1, thunder missile 1

I felt the weight of the frog sink down onto my shoulder as soon as the window popped up showing the gain in xp, and I just turned rather than trying to throw it off me, letting it slide to the ground. I knew there was still the third frog, and I knew which direction it was generally in after I blew it away. I expected it was going to be over there, probably headed this way to join in trying to bite my head off. What I did not expect was that it was so close, the jaws already snapping forwards to try and crush my skull. Now this next part I freely admit, was a bad idea. I raised my hands up to the snapping maw, one palm on the nose and the other on the chin to hold them at bay. The jaws however, were stronger than expected.

-6 hp

The toothless jaw clamped shut, and all the fingers of my left hand suddenly swelled with white hot pain, the sound of small bones snapping like baby carrots. My arm buckled immediately, the frog’s head bulldozing its head into my gut. I lifted my free hand up and tried to hammer it back down to stab it in the head, but no blade impacted. I must have dropped it. Still the punch did have a decent thud to it. The frog’s jaw opened up again, before just as quickly snapping again around my lower forearm. I needed to do something. I’m not just letting him eat my arm while my hp drops.

-6 hp

That was when my cooldown came back again and I did the first thing I could think of, grabbing a hold of a rock with my foot, swinging it upwards like a full on kick to the gut. I would lose my balance, falling backwards, but that was fine by me. My foot came up unto the frog’s belly and the rush of wind cracked out like a whip. I watched as the stone bulged out of the frog’s back before ripping right through as the thunder missile sailed up into the canopy, raining bits of gore down with it.

130 xp

I fell backwards, the frog landing on top of my lap as I focused all of my attention on my fingers. A dull throbbing ended in sharp stings with every movement. So I lifted the jaw open and pulled my hand out of the mouth, only to look away immediately. All four fingers from the knuckle down were purple, and just in the center of them was a divot like I had another joint halfway up bending the opposite direction. I pulled my arm in curling it up against my chest as I shoved the remains of the frog off of me. Now, I am not really close to leveling up just yet, so going out hunting for 200 more xp wouldn’t be hard, I don’t think I could stand hunting with these fingers. Another dull throb of pain coursed through my arm for emphasis.

Though now that the fighting was done, I started searching around for the knife I’d dropped, looking over the ground, in the bush to the right and maybe still inside the other frog, but no it wasn’t there. Searching felt like it took hours but that was just because of the fingers. More likely it took something like fifteen or twenty minutes before I spotted it, dropped in the pond. Fishing it out again and tucking it back into my pouch with a frustrated huff. I really need to get over to those persimmons. They’re the only way that I know of to heal my wounds now. I suppose I should be grateful that I have a way to heal at all.

My frustration ebbed away as I realized that, taking a deep breath in, and slowly letting it back out again to calm myself down. I know where the tree is, it’s not far away from here, just a ways to the south. Or south-east-ish. I followed the best direction I could remember, one arm tucked into my underbelly as I awkwardly ambled forwards. Thinking about it, I took to walking on all fours pretty easily. I suppose like with the skills the knowledge imparted in them sort of just becomes instinctual, so when I became a monkey it just downloaded monkey walking software along with it. I wonder to what extent that actually works. Like if you were to pick up a fishing skill, would you be better or worse than someone who simply learned to fish naturally? Or is it that you are trading points for time essentially, skipping all the learning needed? Though points are a limited resource. It’s an interesting thought though I don’t really want to speculate on it too much.

I reached the persimmon tree, and felt relief in my arm just by looking at the little reddish fruits on the ground. I didn’t hesitate a moment to run up, grabbing one of the fruits and popping it into my mouth, not even finished chewing before grabbing another to stuff in my gob along with it. As soon as I swallowed the fruit, I looked down at my mangled fingers again to watch the healing happen in the same way the level up did. Though this worked differently. With the level up, it just seamlessly patched up the wounds like nothing ever happened. With the persimmon, the purple color didn’t fade but the indentation in the finger did, smoothing back down and leaving a lighter colored scar across my fingers. Suppose that explains Boris’s scars too.

+10 hp +10 hp

The pain didn't stop entirely, but it wasn’t the same crippling shock as before. I set my hand down on the ground again, testing the weight on it first, looking down at the scars now running across my hand. Back home, the idea of having permanent scars across my fingers would have been something that would have bummed me out, but frankly now in this world I’m not exactly worried about my looks any more, and the scars just kind of look cool really. A bit of light gray to contrast the dark skin. Though as I did, I looked at both hands to contrast them. Only to realize something. The ring I was wearing.

Wait a second. The ring I just got. That was supposed to heal me after I got a kill wasn’t it? My brow furrowed slightly. I had just gotten hurt quite a bit, and that would have really come in handy a second ago. So I opened up the inventory menu again to see the ring sitting in the slot, just like it was supposed to. I poke it once to see the description and it hadn’t changed either. The ring of envy: Upon killing a creature, heal for 20 hp. So why didn’t I heal? I grumbled slightly before poking around the inventory menu for a moment, wanting answers. That was until I noticed the slot the ring was sitting in. They were all labeled if you selected them. The ring of envy was sitting in a slot labeled as “inactive rings”.

I was almost incredulous, but I suppose it was my fault for not paying attention. So I took off the ring and it disappeared from the menu, and then slipped it back on the other hand. It popped back into the inactive ring slot. So I kept switching fingers until it popped up in another slot. Turns out the “active ring” slot only corresponds with the ring that is on the ring fingers. I pursed my lips slightly but at least now I know that next time. I will actually be able to benefit from this magic item that I nearly died getting. Though this does mean that I probably can only wear two magic rings at a time if I have any more.

I grabbed two more persimmons between two fingers to pop one into my mouth, and stash the other away in my second pouch. With that one, I felt the last of the pain in my fingers dull and fade completely. Leaving me able to fully articulate my fingers again. Now I just need to get the last 200 xp so that I can get to level 10 and figure out what all the fuss is about. I just need to find something that gives 200 xp around here, or just a couple more lizards if I can find them.

+6 hp

Taking a brief pause, I rolled my shoulders a bit, looking down at my hand one last time before circling back to start for the trees. My plan as of right now was basically find the quickest thing to fight and get me that 200 as soon as possible, but I’m not fighting one of those centipedes again either. So the quickest and easiest thing possible I suppose. I hopped up one tree and jumped from one branch to the next, now seemingly not even needing to think about it. I’ve sort of gotten used to it now with the higher climb skill. So, I leapt from branch to branch, trying to be a little bit stealthy, but not really sacrificing very much speed. So the bare minimum stealth, I suppose.

After what was about ten more minutes of looking I did run across something that looked promising. It was a tunnel in the ground. Now normally I’d just overlook a hole in the dirt as nothing more than that, but it looked like the ground around it was dotted with webs and that told me that there was most likely a spider of that same familiar sort as I’d seen the night previous. Not something I really would like to not think about it too much, as I shivered from the memory

As much as I’d want to burn down the section of forest hiding such a nightmare, I wonder if I could kill a spider in its hole without ever having to touch it or see it or what have you. I could maybe throw some fire in and cover its exit, see if it suffocates. Well no, the fire would die out before the spider would, and besides, I don’t know if there’s another exit to the hole. Probably best to just not bother with the spider. Let it handle all the other giant bugs in the area. So I continued onwards, hopping to the next tree over and searching idly through the woods until I saw something I hadn’t seen yet. A pig. Or maybe a boar, I don’t know the difference if there is one.

It looked mostly like the domestic pig, fat, short snout, pink, but with two teeth protruding out from its bottom lip, and not in the normal tusk way, but dead center of the jaw, both pointed forward like a hippo. It did look tougher to fight than the frogs, but that also meant that it probably gave more xp too. It couldn’t be that hard to kill a pig right? I mean we’ve been doing it for thousands of years. All I really have to do is drop down onto it and stab it a couple times. So I stealthily traversed the branches to position myself up over the hog, watching as it rooted around through the grass. I took one deep breath in, pulled out the knife and dropped from the tree.

I landed one hand first, grabbing onto its back as both my legs swung around either side, and the other arm hammered down into its side, sinking in deep. The hog squealed loudly, and I had expected it would freak out and start thrashing, but it didn’t. Instead it broke out into a full galloping sprint through the foliage. I gripped onto a roll of fat on its neck as it barreled forwards, ripping through shrubs and bushes. I couldn’t tear the knife out for another attack while holding on for dear life, so I was just carried off in a dead sprint, gripping into the body like my life depended on it. Which it might. Though after bursting through the fifth bush and getting smacked in the nose with a stick, I’d had just about enough of this joy ride.

I reared my head back barking out a rush of wind that surrounded my snout, before lunging forward and sinking my teeth into the nape of the neck and shaking my head like a police dog. Though as I did the pig let out another loud squeal quickly turning in place and I could feel my legs lose their grip. If not for my jaws and the knife, I’d have been thrown off, but even with those, my weight had been thrown off center. My free hand reached back around the pig and grabbed onto the shoulder, and dug into the armpit to drag myself back onto its back. It didn’t last long though as it pivoted and bucked again, but this time throwing me against the side of a tree.

-1 hp

I felt my side scrape against the bark, and threw myself again to the other side, the knife hand pulling free and thrusting in again, this time higher up the body, but it didn’t last long as the pig scrambled forwards, rolling onto its side. The weight rolled onto my arm and over my shoulder, pinning me beneath it. The impact threw my hand and jaw free as I was rolled over. Laying flat on the ground for a moment as the pig scrambled to his hooves.

-2 hp

It didn’t hurt too bad but enough to make me hesitate, which turned out to be really bad, since the pig wheeled around instantly and dragged his head to the side, tusks down low before throwing his head up wildly. The tusks cracked directly into my side as I laid prone, and with a frankly shocking amount of power, lifted and threw me end over end, pinwheeling through the air. As windfury died off once again.

-8 hp

That pig hit like a truck, and as soon as I’d landed, I tumbled over my shoulder to at least stay on my feet. Which proved to be a good call, as the pig whipped around again to charge at me as soon as I’d landed, two tusks pointed forwards to try and gore me. I’d seen how fast it can throw its head around so dodging to the side isn’t going to be a good idea. So instead I raised up almost like I was exposing my belly to be stabbed but once it got close, I leaped up and over the pig, hearing the loud THOK of his head impacting the tree behind me. I was turning before I even touched the ground, jumping again to grab onto his back, and pull my knife free.

-1 hp

Once I had my hands back on my knife I didn’t try for another stab. It was already in, so I just pulled up. It wasn’t a knife built for slicing, but it could certainly still rip through the muscle with enough force. I yanked upwards and a gout of red splashed over my palm, seemingly having cut something important, yet the pig was still thrashing. Apparently pigs have a boatload of hp, which I suppose I should have expected. The pig bucked again trying to throw its head around to gore me again, but obviously that wasn’t happening while I was on its back. It did mean however, with the blood soaked knife, the only hand that was holding on was gripping onto a roll of neck fat, which wasn’t exactly the strongest handhold.

-1 hp

Another toss of the pig’s head and I rolled off of its back again, still holding on, but from the ground now as it broke into another sprint, dragging me along the ground, over sticks and debris as it scraped up my shoulder dragging along the dirt. I wasn’t going to be able to stay holding on forever, and if I let go those tusks were coming for me again. So when I felt the pseudo lung filled again, I decided on a different approach.

-2 hp -1 hp

I let go, letting my feet drag on the ground so that I remained upright for when the tusks swung for me. And as soon as I let go, they did, swinging in an upwards hook for my ribs. I exhaled roughly as the wind started to roar around my limbs, jetstream giving me that extra boost of speed. I sidestepped the attack and countered without even thinking, raising my fist and swinging a punch right down between the eyes. I wasn’t planning on punching. I actually wanted to go for another stab but the knife was in the other hand and couldn’t get up to stab in time. Instead I drove the head down into the dirt, my hand throbbing from the pain of punching a solid mass of bone.

-1 hp

When the dead hit the ground, it bounced back quickly, throwing its head up for another goring attack, but with jetstream I could step out and back in faster than he could finish his swing. So this time I raised the knife arm, swinging up into an uppercut that stabbed the knife directly into the neck. This stab I could tell did some damage, as it immediately started to get sluggish, turning to run again, but instead stumbling as the blood started to pour out faster, like I’d punched a hole in a water hose.

-1 hp

This death wasn’t as climactic as the others tended to be, the struggling pig still trying to fight, but getting slower and slower over time, slowly faltering until its knees buckled, flopping over onto its side and breathing heavily. I was panting too, and bleeding as well, but I knew that it was going to bleed out much sooner than I was going to.

-1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp -1 hp

180 XP +20 hp

And as soon as the message popped up telling me the pig had died, I looked down and my ring glowed a pale green. The pain in my side where the tusks had gored me sealed quickly and stopped the bleeding. Which was doubly good now. Cause I know that to counteract the bleeding, all I need to do is activate the ring and it’ll both heal the hp and end the bleed. I didn’t quite get all the xp I needed to from that but I’m just about as close as you can get.

I just need twenty more and that should do it. Though I think I’ve had my fill of fighting for the time being. I think I’ll just head back to the other monkeys, do some grooming and get the last 20 xp the slow and safe way. I wiped the blood off of my knife by rubbing it on the pig’s back before starting on the way back to the other monkeys. Which was going to take a little while, seeing as the pig took me on a bit of a joyride through the woods, and I needed to regain my bearings first. I did eventually spot a landmark though, which was just a rock that was shaped kind of like a hand giving a thumbs up.

With that I was able to find the pond again, and after finding the pond, I followed it back up stream, washing the blood off my hands idly as I passed by. Eventually I did come back to the lake, finding the rest of the monkeys gathered around in their little groups as always. I trod up to the closest group to me and flopped down, arms tired from all the walking and just let my mind wander a bit. With this one I’ll have met my first real short term goal, and I’ll probably need to get to thinking about what I’m going to do next, and probably some more long term goals really.

If I want to make an actual home in this world I’m going to need to think about a few things like skills dedicated to making, building, crafting and such. Also for that matter I’m going to need to get the other monkeys to actually go along with me, but I don’t know how I’m actually going to do that aside from individually training them all like a pack of dogs. Which, I don’t know if you can train monkeys? I assume you could, they’re plenty smart, but I’ve never even really trained a dog before either.

It can’t be that hard, I don’t think. Cavemen managed to do it after all. It should, theoretically, just mean giving them food when they do good things. That and making sure they understand what the good things are. I tapped my chin lightly with a thumb as one of the other monkeys started grooming, and I came up behind them to form the grooming train. Probably my least favorite part of being a monkey… next to all of the things trying to kill me I mean. That is still way worse than eating bugs.

1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP

Still, the main thing that I’m wanting to actually do is make a place that is relatively comfortable for me and all the other monkeys, where we can just sit there, groom each other and eat fruit all day. Well, at least they can do all that. I will still need to go out and level up and everything, which will take a bit more work. Can’t just sit back and grow fat waiting for some adventurer to come kill me.

1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP

I shuddered a bit as I ate one of the bugs again, still can’t get used to that. It’s just awful. I don’t want to just get stronger for the sake of getting stronger either. I want to be smart about how I do things, and I really don’t want my whole life to be dominated by endless combat. The best possible scenario would be that I learned some form of communication with the humans so that they actually don’t fight in the first place and we just leave each other alone. Live and let live.

1 XP 1 XP 1 XP 1 XP

As soon as I got that last one, I had the perfect 900 xp needed to level up, and the level up button appeared again. I hesitated for just a brief second before I clicked, and shot up to level 10, and then a pop up appeared right after.

Evolution available