Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill matriarch lvl 10

XP: 0

Size: 75

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 65/100

Strength: 8/Speed: 11/Endurance: 8/Magic: 8/Plasticity: 5/Luck 10

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

Abilities: Balance 2, omnivorous 4, aposematism 3, specialized innate magic 6, Voice 1, coordination 2

Skills: Piercing bite 6, Jab 8, grapple and strike 7, precise throw 7, agile climb 7, nimble sneak 6, hide 1, rapid dash 6, dodge 2, block 1, discern weakness and strength 6, mysticism 1, quickstep 1, tumbling 1, leadership 4, mystic channeling 1, adaptability 1, infliction 1

Spells: Wind drake breath 6, windfury 5, jetstream 1, cloud step 1, thunder missile 1, misty path 1

Boss ability: mob boss

Lao Tzu

Mandrill lvl 4

HP:20/20

Tony Luciano

Mandrill lvl 4

HP: 20/20

I looked down at my body, seeing the wounds in my chest and side already closed from the healing from the ring. Though my lower body was still extremely sore from being crushed. I reached down into my pouch to check and see if everything was still intact after being crushed. My two knives and the flint were fine, and so were the gloves, but the glass vial I had been keeping in there got shattered, along with the mashed pulp of a persimmon. I couldn’t even eat it since it had glass shards in it. That had me thoroughly bummed. So I took the pulp and glass shards, pouring it out of the bag and onto the ground.

I stuffed the gloves into the bag with the knives and flint, now intent on letting the second bag be the persimmon exclusive bag. In case of emergency, break glass sort of thing. Well, in this case breaking glass was actually a bad thing though but whatever. I still need to heal up a bit, and I should keep some on me to heal Tony and Lao too since they seem to just level up automatically instead of storing them up like me. I’d feel better if they had that same sort of buffer I had, but I suppose that’s a bit much to ask monkeys to not immediately get stronger if they can. I don’t imagine they’re big on delayed gratification.

Once Lao hopped down from the tree looking positively spherical, I had to bite my lip to keep from bursting into a giggle fit. He clearly ate too much, and had to waddle his way over to us. I stood up, and started to guess which direction the persimmon tree was. I had a very basic map in my head of the forest, and where the cave was, but my sense of direction wasn’t perfect. I’ve gotten lost on more than one occasion as a human and that was with maps available. I knew I had to head sort of north-east-ish, more east than north. I got up and started walking, headed towards the general direction of the persimmon tree.

I looked back to make sure they were both following, and Tony was still right behind me, but Lao naturally was lagging behind. I figured it would be faster to go on foot instead of forcing him to try and climb through the trees. Another sigh escaped my lips but I wasn’t mad so much as exasperated. It really is like having two little brothers. It was a slower pace to get back, and I did find the cliff face before I found the tree, but once I knew where I was it was easy to navigate. I just wish this world’s system was like one of those games that had a map in the menu, or at least a minimap or something.

It is odd that I get supposedly reincarnated into a new world, and it has an rpg-ish sort of system attached to it. I’ve thought about it before, but surely it must be intentional right? A game-like system doesn’t happen by accident right? There’s no way you can spin this sort of thing to be some natural phenomenon like gravity. It translates language, and imparts skills. This must be the work of a god or some sort of cosmically powerful creature, right? Though, thinking back to humanville again, they do have a catholic church. Why would the Christian God make an rpg system in one world and not another? Though then again, this world has a number of differences to the old one. Like overt magic, and monsters. Undead and dragons. Dungeons and bosses. Pondering the mysteries of the universe is making my poor monkey brain hurt. I was a B student back home, and becoming a monkey did not make me smarter.

I cut off that line of thought once I reached the tree, finding the fruit still scattered across the jungle floor. I casually picked up as many as I could, and after stuffing everything into one pouch, this second one was big enough to carry a total of eight persimmons. Which would be about 80 hp worth of healing. Given that the other two only have fifteen, I’d say that this was good enough for now.

+10 hp, +10 hp, +10 hp, +5 hp

Though thinking about it, this world probably has classic fantasy style health potions, right? I wonder if persimmons are an ingredient to health potions. I might have to invest into an alchemy skill if there is one. Getting a hold of potions and the myriad of effects that you can get from those would be a massive boost to us in terms of survivability, not even mentioning the stuff we could hunt if we could make potions of strength or something... I hear chewing.

I turned my head and saw Tony eating a persimmon, but more importantly I saw Lao trying to force himself to eat one. I glowered at him, trodding over to take the persimmon from his hand. He hooted angrily and slapped his hands on the ground, bouncing in place as he threw a little tantrum. You are practically bursting at the seams you silly monkey you can’t fit any more in your gut or you’re going to throw up. He started reaching for another one and I quickly popped him on the back of the hand, which he quickly retracted and clutched to his chest.

I started walking north again, starting to lead the group back to the other monkeys. I need to rest for a bit, my legs are still sore from the world’s worst compression socks. I still spared a glance back at the other two to make sure they were following. Tony looked fine but Lao was still grumpy about not getting his fruit fix. I thought about checking back in behind the waterfall again, but seeing as how I recall the upgrading of the dungeon did require xp, there was no sense in going back in there until I was actually able to collect some xp myself. Which means going up the cliff. Which means upgrading these two more.

Slowing your progression sucks, but once I actually get both of these two fighting fit it’ll be way better. I’ll have basically two copies of myself that can triple my damage, health, action economy, a massive buff compared to the other two options. Not to say the other two weren’t good, and if it’s anything like the other skills, it probably improves too. Meaning eventually I’ll probably get even more monkeys. Thinking about it makes me really want to fast track myself up to level 20… But realistically, I really should be focused more on right now instead of plans for the future. What things do I actually need to do right now? I need to get these two to a higher level, yes, but what else?

I thought for a full minute in silence. I knew there was something else I needed to do, but I was just drawing a blank at the moment. Surely there must be something else besides leveling up that I need to be doing, right? I distinctly recall making a list earlier in the day. The more that I thought about it, the more certain I was that I had something else I needed to do, but the less certain I was what that thing was. Really I was just too tired. It had been a really long day. Clearing a dungeon, leveling up several times, discovering a new dungeon, evolving, nearly dying half a dozen times, maybe I should just call it a day and save the power leveling for tomorrow instead. What could that hurt?

Once I came back to the lake again I looked around and saw the rest of the monkeys gathered by the tree line, or more accurately in the trees. I furrowed my brow slightly, seeing them all up there means something must be going on. The last time I saw them all up a tree was when I saw those big cats fighting Boris. I looked down the shoreline but didn’t see Boris, though after a while I did hear the sounds of rustling foliage beyond the loud hooting of the other monkeys. A few moments later, both Lao and Tony immediately scampered up the nearest tree, though Lao it took much more effort. I, on the other hand, ran along the beach towards the commotion.

I pushed my way through the brush and saw the familiar sight of Boris raised up on his back legs, baring his fangs at the looming shape in front of him, but this time instead of the big cats, it was another one of those giant spiders, sending a shiver up my spine as it came into view. Now, I was confident that Boris could kill the spider, but remembering my time in the cave, the spiders have poison. If Boris gets poisoned it may only take one bite to kill him. I still don’t know the limits that poison has yet.

The huge tarantula raised up, four legs in the air and two huge reddish black fangs pointed downwards. Boris slapped his hands on the ground making a big show, bobbing his head up and down as he huffed loudly. I on the other hand circled around the trees to the other side of the spider, but seeing it from this angle didn’t make it any better. Those huge pitch black eyes pointing up to the sky, but several smaller ones dotted around the top of its head to look behind it. I watched Boris throwing his head down, and the much deeper hoot he gave rumbling in his chest. Both of them looked to be trying to intimidate each other rather than actually fighting at first, but looking about fifteen feet away, I saw one monkey on the ground dead. Must have been killed and alerted the group.

Boris was the first to charge forward, but the spider just flexed its legs, spreading out wide to make itself look bigger, which stopped Boris in his tracks. It didn’t do anything but intimidate him but it was very effective. Maybe I should keep that in mind, intimidation can be a pretty potent tool if you have the confidence to pull it off. Boris took a step back but didn’t run, still just bobbing his head in place. I might need to step in here to try and break this stalemate, but there’s no way I’m getting in close to that thing to start this off. I padded around for any stones I could find, waiting for an opportunity. As soon as Boris slapped his hands on the ground, and the spider tried to make herself look big again, I exhaled, wind gathered around my fist as I threw the stone.

CRACK

It ripped through the air towards the spider, and impacted the side of the abdomen, letting out a practically demonic hissing as it bolted around to face me, my face sinking as I caught its attention. Those two black eyes locked onto me and in one swift jolt, started to dart towards me, much faster than anything that big had the right to be. I scrambled backwards, but I wasn’t nearly as fast moving back as it was moving forward. I saw the front legs raised in preparation to grab me, but then tilting over suddenly as it was tackled from the side. Boris slammed his body into the side of the spider and practically flipped it over, but it got back up to its feet, giving another hiss and rearing up again.

Boris, now confident he can fight the spider, wasn’t bothered by the display running in again, and swiping at it with an arm. I circled around behind again, and did the same, swiping at the spider, but mine was more of a distraction as I really did not want to get close to it. The spider started to back away, but I was putting myself behind it every time. It tried to rear up again, this time lunging to bite at Boris, but I instinctively reached out to grab its back leg. The spider did not like that, its lunge falling short as Boris gave it another smack to the side. The back leg then kicked up rubbing along its abdomen furiously and suddenly the hairs on its back shot out like a cloud around it, irritating my eyes, and making me let go of the leg. I hopped back without thinking, blinded as my eyes watered from the irritation.

I wasn’t really in pain, but I couldn’t see anything, every time I opened my eyes again, they filled with tears instantly. I could see where the spider was, but that was just a big brownish blob in my vision. I blinked the tears away, but they refilled in an instant. This was not an issue I had foreseen in the slightest. Blinded by tears, not only unexpected, but really pathetic sounding too. Imagine dying and having a “couldn’t fight and cry at the same time” on your tombstone. Still, I pulled my knife out blinking again to get that quick second of clear vision again, seeing Boris grabbing the front leg of the spider and yanking it roughly so that it simply snapped off. I took the moment to stab at the abdomen with a quick jab before it devolved into a wriggling mass of tear water again.

The black shape in front of me wrestled with the brown shape, but I couldn’t even guess at what was going on until I blinked again, and suddenly two hairy legs were wrapping around my torso, and fangs pushed towards my chest. I didn’t even think about it, my response was immediate. Both hands shot up to shove into the underside to try and keep it away from me, but even before that I let out what must have been the world’s most blood curdling screech as it thrust those teeth downwards. My sight once again disappeared and I could practically feel my stomach in my throat. That is, before I felt the mighty thud and rip, as I was dragged forwards. Boris had dragged the back half of the spider and yanked, as I could tell when it involuntarily let me go and raised up over me. I felt a thud as the spider landed, reaching a hand up to rub my eyes. Once I could get another peek, Boris was standing on top of the spider and slamming his fists down into it with loud crunches every time.

I could hear loud rips and more hissing, but all I was focused on was rubbing my face until I could see again. For such a simple attack it was remarkably effective. I’m lucky something like this wasn’t done by something of a markedly higher level. I’d be done for by now. I rubbed my eyes again until it died down from blindness to just severe irritation, but I could see again. Boris, in those seconds that I took to recover, had battered the spider, ripped off all of its legs and was pummeling the writhing body on the floor. I wasn’t sure if it was dead or not, but once I saw Boris tear the abdomen from the head, I was fairly certain it was dead. I was sad that I didn’t get any XP for it being dead, or at least Lao and Tony, I wouldn’t have gained any even if I did get the kill.

I was hoping that participating would have at least counted towards participating in the kill, but no it does not. I shivered a bit, recalling the horrible sight of those fangs wiggling towards me, just inches away, and frankly it wasn’t even because of the danger. Danger I have dealt with. The skeletons were worse danger than the spider, but the psychological damage of having that horrible sight lunging at me? Nope, I’m gonna remember that in my nightmares. Though mentioning it now, why doesn’t nearly dying a dozen times affect me more? Maybe I was just always the type of person that I could just shrug it off, but nothing like this ever happened when I was human so I wouldn’t really know. Or maybe it’s just because I died once already? Maybe it’s one of the magical properties of becoming a monster. “Hey your life is going to be full of death and trauma, here’s a bit of PTSD resistance so you don’t keel over within ten minutes.” Seems a bit overly kind for this system. I’m going to go with the idea that I’m just awesome and can shrug off trauma like a champ cause I have no reason to believe otherwise and I need the confidence boost.

I stumble my way over to the lake again and dip my face in the water, trying to wash my face free of all the little irritating hairs still clinging to my face and making me itchy. It took several minutes but I did eventually get into a workable place, where it wasn’t insufferable. Seeing my reflection in the water, my eyes were all red and puffy, but otherwise the same monkey like all the others. It’s still hard coming to grips with the fact that I look at my reflection and don’t see my own face, but a monkey’s face. Well, I suppose this is my face now, but I still think of myself in my human face I mean.

I closed my eyes, imagining my old face in front of me again as I reached forward, touching the surface of the water. I could practically feel the face in front of me, my long hair, smiling eyes, non-blue cheeks. Then I opened my eyes again and saw my gray paw in the lake, black furred arm reaching down, and the unmistakable monkey mug looking back at me. I’m not unhappy, surprisingly, but I still think of myself as a human. Eh, why am I getting so sentimental all of a sudden? I still have work to do. I should be focusing. I need to be trying to level up Tony and Lao. Though, that pain in my legs kept a dull ache and I couldn’t help but imagine that maybe taking a nap would be a good idea. If for no other reason than just sleep off the soreness, and maybe to get some energy back after all of this fighting and exploring.

I half debated the idea in my head before I decided that if I was going to be spending all day leveling up Lao and Tony, they’ll have plenty of energy from the leveling but I’m already worn out as is. Not only that, but the effort that I’ve already expended was this draining, and I can only imagine that since I can’t level up and my legs are already sore, these issues were just going to compound further the longer I leave them. Clearly taking time to rest is only common sense, even for pro athletes, if you just jump into the deep end that’s a good way to burn yourself out. I masterfully debated myself into submission. I need a nap.

I could still feel the irritation from the hairs in my face, but after washing off I could at least keep my eyes open without the world turning into an orb of wobbly tear creatures. I trudged determinedly up to the nearest tree to the lake, and made my way up to the top in a few seconds. I closed my eyes, laying my chin down on a branch as I let myself attempt to drift off to sleep. I felt the branch buckle slightly and raised my head, seeing both Tony and Lao climb up onto my branch.

I wasn’t bothered by this, after all it only makes sense that they’d both be beside me as I fell asleep. The past few times I woke up literally in a pile of other monkeys so I imagine it’s normal for them. I laid down my head again and felt them bounding up the branch to do the same around me. After the first few seconds I could feel myself drifting out of consciousness, but one last question lingered in my head, I wondered what’s going on back home.

I was suddenly in a world of inky blackness, looking down at my hands, human hands that looked like they were all white, sketched in pencil. I stood up slowly but looking around, I couldn’t see anything as a point of reference. So, I just started walking. Eventually in the distance I saw a path made out of bright white bricks. I assumed that this path was the one I was supposed to be on and walked down it, as it was suddenly right in front of me. Out of the darkness appeared windows and doors to either side, all outlined in white, and appearing like they were being drawn in real time. I walked past a few doors, but after a few, I sped up to a window to look inside.

There was a TV on and a couch in view, but no one inside, just watching furniture appear as it was drawn in. Stepping back, I walked over to the next window to see if it was different, and it was. The room inside the second house had stairs and a dining table with several plates of food set out on it, but no people. I looked around the path which was now more detailed. Each of the doors had their own little pathways and front lawns to them. Gardens of all white flowers inked in out of the dark. I walked back to the brick path and started walking again suddenly feeling a bit awkward having looked into someone’s window.

I walked for another minute or so down the path until a bus station appeared, and a figure standing there, waiting for the bus. He too looked like he was outlined in white ink, but wearing an all white suit. I looked at him, then down at my own hand which was in pencil. I don’t know what that means. I walked up to the man to start waiting for the bus alongside him, and he turned to me. I could see a speech bubble forming above him, but I couldn’t read what it was saying. It was just a jumbled mess.

“Hello?” I tried to answer, and he replied to me, but again I couldn’t read it. He reached into his pocket, pulling out a cigarette and lighting it. The smoke from the tip was like a solid strand of white streaming from the tip, and I instinctively took a step back but I couldn’t actually smell anything. After that, we both waited in silence for the bus. The quiet didn’t bother me normally, but this world so far had been utterly silent. No sound, except the ones I made. I could hear my footsteps, my voice, but everything else was just silent. It made waiting awkward.

After a few minutes, I looked down at my legs to see what I was wearing, and saw I was in a skirt, about knee length. I remember this one, it was supposed to be green, but here it was just penciled in. I was also wearing my favorite jacket, the nice black leather one with a belt around the waist. It always looked good with this skirt. It was very warm, but that was kind of pointless when wearing a skirt.

My thoughts weren’t interrupted so much as interjected into, as the bus suddenly arrived in front of me, the door opening and the man in the suit stepped on. I took a moment to look at the bus driver, a man that looked… not old, but close to forty. He had the lines in his face but he was still broad shouldered and in decent shape, wearing one of those old newsboy caps. He looked way more detailed than the other man in the suit. His speech bubble popped up and I still couldn’t read it, but I could guess that he was asking for a fare. I reached into my pocket and found the change waiting for me, quickly dropping it in the box. He smiled at me and waved me in.

I walked up to a seat towards the middle lane, and took a seat, we three were the only ones on the bus at the moment. He started driving and I watched as the buildings started passing by. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but then one passed that I recognized. It was a butcher’s shop, I saw it every day on the way to work. It always made me want to stop there and get some fresh chicken rather than buying fast food so much.

I started paying more attention, and I saw another shop that I recognized, it was an old mattress store that was connected to the pizza place. If I recall they are both owned by the same guys. Two brothers. I ordered from there every once and a while. But that means I’m on my bus home from work. That’s odd. Especially since I haven’t done any work today. Have I? Regardless, this means I’m about twenty minutes away from home. I rested my head on the back of the seat for a moment and felt time suddenly rushing by while I wasn’t paying attention.

Suddenly I was jerked forwards, and I hit the back of the seat in front of me. I looked towards the front of the bus and saw the first color in this world, bright red light shining from the windshield as the bus swerved away from it, and tipping over. My head hit the window and I flew out, rolling across the road for a few feet, inches away from the bright red shape beside me. I could tell I was injured, looking down at my stomach there was a metal piece of the window stuck in my side. I couldn’t really move anything other than my head very well, everything else was sluggish.

It took a few seconds before I realized the bus had crashed into at least two other cars before looking up again. There I saw the man in the suit, noticeably more disheveled now, and one arm looked hurt, but he grabbed me by the leg and started dragging me towards the red light. I didn’t want to be dragged like this, the injury in my side was throbbing and I’m pretty sure he could see up my skirt. Though once he dragged me into the light, it enveloped my leg and kept dragging me into it.

Now, I didn’t know what to think of this, red usually means bad, but it didn’t feel like it hurt. In fact I didn’t really feel anything, so I just let it happen to see what it would do. My right leg disappeared into the light, and then the left, and it slowly pulled me in, down to the thighs, then hips, after that, it just slowly dragged until it was up to my chin, then it was too bright not to close my eyes. After my head went through I found myself in blackness again, floating like I’m in water, but looking down at my hands, they were gone. All I had was a rough shape like a shadow. Which sucks, I was happy to have my hands back.

I looked around again and I could feel a heartbeat, so I turned around behind me, and I could see it. A heart, a massive one, beating off in the distance, but an immeasurably vast distance, like I knew it was as far away as the sun. Yet I could still feel the thrum. Each beat of the heart vibrates my entire body. This was gradually more terrifying the more I watched. The sheer power of the thing, and that’s just the heart. What could it possibly be connected to?