Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill matriarch lvl 10

XP: 469

Size: 75

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 100/100

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 5

HP:25/25

Tony Luciano

Mandrill lvl 5

HP: 25/25

This must be the “centipede” of this area. Or at the very least something like the snake. The massive owl didn’t seem to notice me, or if it did, it didn’t care. Regardless, the last thing I want is this thing’s attention. I didn’t think that my sneak skill was anywhere near as high as that thing’s was. Even worse, I didn’t see it beforehand either. Meaning its hide skill is also high enough to not be seen despite being both bright white and vehicular in proportion. So I turned and started moving again, but still careful not to make any excess noise.

The entire time my eyes were glued to the owl’s back as it ate, hopping carefully over from one branch to the next. Though the boys as usual weren’t even trying to be quiet, just following along, though they were at least both recognizing the owl as dangerous since they both had their eyes locked onto it too. They hopped after me, and ran along the branch to the massive trunk, where I circled around, but in general was happy to have something between me and it.

I peeked from around the tree, where it sat, though as I did, there was a noise behind us, way off in the distance. The sound of something snapping like a twig but much too loud for that. I was going to turn and see what it was, but the owl was faster than I was. Its head swiveled around towards the sound, pitch black eyes locking onto it, and sending a shiver down my whole torso. It was a hauntingly beautiful creature, but man was that creepy.

So then I looked to see what had made the sound, and it looked like it was a much larger version of the lizards that I’d seen in the area below. Does that mean that these lizards migrate up here as they grow? It went from the size of a medium dog to the size of a very large crocodile, but it didn’t crawl on its belly like a crocodile did. It walked on all fours. Though looking at it closer, it looks like its claws look more blunt. I suppose it didn’t really use them as weapons anyways. I only ever saw them bite.

The owl gave the giant lizard a look, but I suppose it had decided that it was more fond of the frog thing it was eating. The lizard looked like the polar opposite of the owl. Where the owl was silent and majestic, the lizard was brutish. Just trudging through the brush without a care, and making as much noise as he wanted. I imagine that wouldn’t go great for his hunting prospects considering how the other lizards below at least tried to be sneaky. Though that thought was short lived, as the crocodile sized lizard spotted the frog-like lizards. The slow trudge breaking out into full gallop.

I was very uncomfortable watching a lizard gallop, and even more so when it came to the other lizards trying to run away. The big guy was surprisingly agile, but the frog-lizards could zip away faster and once they were in the water it was no contest. Actually, looking at them, they do look similar. Maybe they were branched changes just like the matriarch and patriarch were for me. So lizards can either become frog-lizards or croc-lizards? Not sure why you’d become the frog-lizard but there do seem to be more of them.

Either way, my initial thoughts about these being a possibility to farm seemed to be dwindling as I watched them zip away from the larger lizard through the water. My attention returned to the owl, but mostly to make sure it wasn’t looking at me before I decided to make my exit. I kept my head down, lowering down onto a branch and scampering across it in the exact opposite direction of the action. If I was going to find a farming ground, it would need to be… less active.

I practically held my breath, as I made my escape, looking back every few seconds to assure that silent death wasn’t descending from the sky. Just knowing that the owl exists is daily anxiety inducing on its own, and it’s not even night yet. I started making a promise to myself that I was never going to be up here in the red area with the sun down. Nope, that would be instant death.

Though after I was far enough away that my hair wasn’t standing on end, I tried to resume my lookout for potential farming spots as well as giant murder birds. After that brief period of action however, there was a long stretch of nothing at all. Which reminded me of the first time I came up here. I wonder if there’s a reason for these vast empty areas. Maybe they know something I don’t? Maybe most of the life up here is nocturnal?

The silence continued for another ten minutes before I heard something above me. I looked up, and saw something flying way high up in the branches of the trees. A bulbous shape scuttling around, along the branch. It was an ant by the look of it, or maybe a termite? I’m not a bug person. It was certainly ant shaped, segmented body, antennae, six legs, tiny eyes, and big jaws. Now, my initial thought was that there was no way I’m hunting ants, but I paused to consider it.

Ants usually mean specializations. Big warrior ants would be bad, but tiny little worker ants? That wouldn’t be too bad. If I could pick off the little guys on their own, then that’d be a way better source of xp. Or theoretically anyways. I tapped a finger on my chin, contemplating if I really wanted to try and literally kick and anthill. Ants are like one of the worst animals you could possibly mess with, but at the same time they are still just dumb bugs, and I have the benefit of time.

I climbed up the tree, keeping an eye out for owls as I came to a closer branch to the ant, but not close enough that it would spot me. I spared a glance back and saw the boys still struggling to climb. It was really evident the difference a few points in a skill can make. Though it makes me wonder what it is that they actually spent their points on. After all, I can only really see their hp, and that hasn’t gone up. Maybe they’re putting their points into the bite skill? Eh, best not to worry about that right now.

I huffed lightly as I made my way onto the branch, watching the ant searching about. I wondered what it was actually looking for, but the thought was short lived as it came up to part of the branch that had a bit of discoloration, and started sawing away at the bark. It looks like it’s harvesting lichen? I kind of expected that an ant this big must be carnivorous, though I suppose it could be omnivorous as well. It scuttles back onto the trunk of the tree and effortlessly starts walking back down to the forest floor, a risky business.

I on the other hand stayed with the boys up in the trees, watching the ant from above as I jumped from vine to vine, rather than trying to jump to branches. It was the only way to really keep up with the ant. Since it really seemed to not slow or stop for anything, and I was having to wait on the boys so we wouldn’t get separated. Though eventually we did come to what must have been the home of the ants.

There was a cluster of about eight trees near each other, and all around the base of the trees was a massive mound of earth with tunnels dotting the surface. There were even holes in the trees as well, so it looks like they hollowed out the center of them. Around the outside of the mound there even looked to be a trench dug, filled with mud. I watched as the worker I was following came up to the trench and raised his back end to start waving it in the air. At first I thought she might be trying to get someone to see her but ants have poor eyes. So she’s probably making some sort of pheromone to signal.

It took about thirty seconds before a soldier ant came out of the tunnels holding a log in its jaws. It was literally more than twice the size of the worker. The worker was smaller than me, but the soldier looked human sized. It had a head and jaws that were disproportionately large, with a wicked looking stinger on the back end that curved like a hook. It was actually quite anxiety inducing to look at.

The soldier set the log down across the trench and the worker walked across it, and as soon as the worker was over, it lifted the log and brought it back inside. I was surprised at the level of ingenuity. I knew ants were relatively smart for bugs, but they were still bugs. Either I underestimated ants back home, or the ones here are smarter than the ones back home, which would be bad news. Either way, I stuck around watching the ant hill to see if I could catch a glimpse of something exploitable.

So I sat there, watching ants pop in and out of the tunnels with the same sort of routine. Soldier ants bring logs to walk across, and worker ants scuttling to and fro with bits of plant in their jaws. Though after maybe thirty minutes, one ant came back with a giant mushroom in its jaws and basically everyone stopped what they were doing. Five or six of them gathered around to inspect the mushroom before scuttling back inside in unison. It was an oddity to be sure but I didn’t really know what it meant until a few minutes later when I saw several soldier ants carrying logs to make a bridge.

I watched as workers poured out in droves flanked by soldiers as they marched their way across and into the jungle proper. So, it looks like mushrooms are a big deal to the ants. Good to know. I followed the marching line, though this time more slowly so that the boys didn’t tire themselves out, and followed in tandem with the train of workers. They walked without rest for almost an hour, which made me glad I decided to take it slow, but eventually I came to the destination.

There was a patch of trees which were all surrounded by these massive mushrooms. They must have been about the same size as the ants themselves. They were all orange on the cap, but the underside and the stalk were white. The ants were systematically harvesting every last mushroom they could grab, sawing them down with their jaws and carrying them back to the anthill. This gave me ideas, but it also made me wonder why they were so interested in these mushrooms. I mean I do remember something about some forms of ants growing fungus intentionally, so maybe these guys really are just herbivores?

I watched the harvest for a bit before hearing several loud thuds, looking around and seeing another one of the big lizards galloping towards the line of ants and I just stood back to watch what would happen. The soldiers weren’t as quick to notice as me, but as soon as they did, they formed a line to defend the tiny workers. The big croc opened his jaws veering towards the workers, but the soldiers interposed between them. One snap and those jaws clamped down on the soldier, practically tearing it in half, but the other five soldiers around started snapping their jaws onto the scaled hide.

The ant’s bites didn’t seem to get through the scales of the lizard, but once they had a grip, the back end curled under to get that stinger in. The lizard seemed mostly unaffected by the stings, but they were probably poisoned. The lizard whirled around, its tail slamming into one of the ants and knocking it off its feet before snapping onto another one and shaking its head back and forth to tear it in half. Still the ants latched onto the lizard and kept stinging, and it seemed dissuaded by the repeated stings.

After another snap, it shook violently to try and get them off, turning and starting a gallop in the direction of a tree, slamming one of the hangers on into a pulp and trying to rub itself against the bark to get the rest off of him. Though it didn’t seem to work, as the ants were remarkably strong. He managed another tail swipe to smack one away, but there was still one left on his side. He snapped again, but couldn’t reach the ant, just falling short before the next sting hit.

The croc slammed his weight into the tree again, and managed to dislodge the ant, but instead of finishing it off, he slapped it away with the tail and started to bolt back into the woods again. Seemingly having enough of this poison barrage. I sat, contemplating the little bout and what I could glean from it. Firstly, the lizard was much more powerful than the ants were. He was able to kill quite a few of them. But with the ants, they seem to be sort of glass cannons. Those jaws and poison are a pretty strong combo but also they don’t mind throwing their lives away either. The croc’s scales were tough, but the underbelly was much softer.

Good info to have, but for that matter, it isn’t particularly useful to me. If I were to go up against either of them I would definitely lose. I huffed, sitting down on the branch as I contemplated how I could abuse this information, but then something occurred to me. The workers were much weaker than the soldiers and up until this point they all went off alone. I don’t really need to go on a full frontal assault like Mr. Bitey down there. If I could get a hold of one of those mushrooms, I could set up a trap and just pick off one at a time.

A great idea on paper sure, but the question is how. If I just set up something like a mouse trap, they would probably figure it out eventually making my trap smell like a dead ant. So what if I were to set it up so they come searching for the mushroom, but I kill them somewhere else? How would that even work? I felt like I was trying to mash together puzzle pieces but a few were missing from the box.

Maybe… if I could do something like a pit trap. Not an actual pit trap obviously, they can walk up walls and I’m not spending twelve hours digging a hole. But the same concept. If I can bring them to a place, have them trapped, and then kill them. But the question is how. I wish I could make one of those rope traps you always see in cartoons where they get snagged around the leg and flung upside down. I suppose I could use all of these vines around for rope, but the issue is in the trap part.

I sat there tapping my foot as I watched the mushroom field being gradually whittled away to nothing. Then I remembered, I did make a net before. Sure I couldn’t automate the trapping process, but I could still manually do the trapping. Lure an ant with a mushroom, net it and then kill it, and repeat. Doesn’t seem like a bad idea but again, on paper. I could give it a try at least, see if the idea is any good first, and if not, back to the drawing board.

So, I grabbed one of the hanging vines to start hauling it up onto the branch with me, or at least that’s what I tried to do, but those vines are actually heavier than they look, and you can’t just lift them effortlessly. So instead, I made my way over to one of the trees that wasn’t surrounded by ants, say fifty feet away or so, and tried chopping one down. I pulled out the ax and brought it straight down onto the vine, and it cut about halfway through. I brought it down again and it was maybe two thirds. One last go and it came free, falling down into the jungle below.

I climbed down, and found the vine laid out. Now, using the whole vine would make a net that weighed a hundred pounds, so that’s out of the question, but I can cut it into strips, see if that will work. So I pulled up the ax head and started slicing it up into strips. It wasn't too hard to do, but it was time consuming. Though eventually I had something similar to what I had last time, but it was still all attached at the bottom.

I did the same diamond knot tying pattern to make that sort of fishnet look. I messed up the knot tying several times, and had to restart on four different occasions, but I did eventually get myself a functional net. It was a little bit too big, but better to be too big than too small in this case. I set the net aside and went to peek around at the ants at the mushroom patch. They looked like they’d already harvested about a quarter of them, and they didn’t seem to be making any effort to slow down.

The way things are going, it looks like I won’t be able to get any of the leftovers if I don’t try to sneak one away right now. So I set the net aside and started sneaking forward, only for my attention to be pulled away when I heard the boys following behind me. I gave a huff and turned back around to the two of them, gesturing vaguely as I had before for them to stay. Eventually they seemed to get the idea.

Once they were parked up, I kept my head down and flexed my, as of recent, underused sneak skill. I kept my ax in one hand, getting on the opposite side of the mushrooms from the ants and found the nearest one to the edge. I sat down on my butt for stability, took the ax in both hands and gave it a swift chop from the side. It wasn’t perfect but it did the job. A few more goes and I had managed to bake it half way through the stalk. It felt kind of like chopping down a tiny tree, if that tree was made of rubber.

I finished chopping and gave a sigh, as the cap fell over and I went to pick it up. Though as I did, I realized that the ants are way stronger than I’d thought. This mushroom was low density sure, but it still was fairly heavy for one little monkey. I had to put the ax away, and use both arms to pick it up, walking wobbly on two feet as I made my way back to the boys.

I stepped around to where I’d left them and found Tony chewing on one of the failed attempts at a net, and Lao was picking bugs out of Tony’s fur. I, knowing that hauling both the mushroom and the net around was going to be an ordeal, opted to place the mushroom in the net and just drag it around like a sack. Unfortunately this means we’ll be stuck on the ground, but if worse comes to worse, I can just drop it and run.

So, now that I’ve got this thing in hand, all I've got to do is bring this thing back to the cave. Or rather instead of the cave, somewhere I can be sure that it’s relatively unaccosted. Last thing I want is to go all the way out of my way to get this thing and just have it lost due to leaving it out where anyone could grab it. I gave another short sigh as I brought my hand to my chin.

Actually, could I try and farm these giant mushrooms? I don’t know all too much about growing plants, much less mushrooms, but I could at least try and plant them, see if it goes anywhere. Though it might all be for bunk if this trap doesn’t work. I’ll try and go searching for more mushrooms later to see if I can grow them some other time. For now I need to stay on task.

So I started dragging the net with the mushroom in hand, it was actually surprisingly easy to do once you had leverage on your side. All I had to do was hang it over my shoulder and half the weight was basically gone. Still heavy, but not nearly as bad as I’d imagined. Now my eyes were just busy scanning around for more owls, as well as any of the other ground dwelling monsters I’d seen so far. I fully suspect to be ambushed at some point before my arrival.

Though now that I’m busy dragging the thing, one thought does cross my mind. Why are the ants trying to harvest the mushroom anyways? I suppose it could just be food, but they could have gotten any food. For some reason as soon as they found mushrooms they dropped everything and organized this whole parade. Maybe it’s just that it’s so easy to grow that ants can do it without effort. Or maybe it has some property like the persimmons that heal you and that’s why.

I would wager more of the latter. If it were just easy they probably wouldn’t need so many of them. They’d just take what they needed. Though the question is, what would they get? My first guess would be more healing but I wouldn’t expect there to be two readily available sources of healing in such close proximity to each other.

Maybe something like stamina boosting. Would make sense for bugs that constantly work like machines to value stamina. Or maybe I have that backwards and they would see stamina potions as useless thanks to already having superior biology. Or maybe these are like decomposers? Like they use these to make fertile soil so other things grow better? That might be beyond the scope of an ant though.

I dragged the net along through the long stretch of uninhabited wilderness, still weirded out by the long silence, keeping my eyes open and looking for any signs of life. I was maybe half way back to the waterfall, but along the way I started to get curious. I could always test it the hard way. Take a bit of the mushroom and eat it. I’ve got the paste to cure poison if it turns out it's poisonous, and I’ve got the hotspring to heal me up if it does any damage.

Though even so, I’d need to make sure I’m in a safe place beforehand if I’m going to do so. If it turns out to be something like paralysis that is going to suck, but I doubt that the ants would be harvesting them if that were the case. Surprisingly, I didn’t run into anything for the entire stretch back to the cliff face, and simply followed it back to the waterfall.

Now, I know I am not going to be able to lug this thing back and forth up and down this cliff several times. I doubt that I could even carry it up one of these trees if I wanted. So my idea for now, is to wedge it up under the roots of one of these big trees and hope nothing finds it before I get back. Though as I did, I could feel the curiosity burning in the back of my mind. I could just take a small piece off, just to test it.

There was a solid thirty seconds of internal debate before I pulled out the ax, and shaved off just a little piece, about the size of a cherry pit, and tucked it into my pouch. I’ll be back for this thing once I figure out the specifics of how this trap is going to need to work. I’ll hammer out the specifics, come back up here and set up the trap, see if we can set up a sort of ant farm, and if so, maybe a mushroom farm too. Or at least theoretically.

I checked on the boys again, making sure they were following before climbing back down into the dungeon again, and across the bridge. Though, now, looking around at the different sections, I was imagining how they could be upgraded individually. The hot spring’s upgrade made sense, but how was the belfry going to be upgraded? Though personally, I think the next thing worth upgrading is going to be the boss room. I imagine that might actually affect me more personally.

I made my way back up to the hotspring again, just in case there were some sort of unforeseen consequences, I would at least prevent poison if it was a case of poisonous mushrooms. While I passed by, I saw Boris laying flat on his belly, taking a nap, which made me chuckle. And climbed my way in through the windows to make my way back down to the hotspring again.

Though this time, I made sure to actually strip down out of my clothes before getting in, which felt… weird. Getting undressed was always awkward, but I don’t know how to feel about it as a monkey. Then glancing back to see the boys behind me, just made it feel even weirder. Though I opted to just ignore it and shove the awkwardness into a corner of my brain. It can sit in there with all the trauma.

I set all my stuff aside, stepping up to the edge of the hotspring and taking a seat. I pulled out the tiny bit of mushroom and looked at it, temptation sparking in my brain. If it turns out these are amazing, and maybe boost magic, or strength, or even luck, then I’d be kicking myself not to find out. If it’s poison though, I will be kicking myself for trying. I sat in contemplation for a long moment before I came to an ultimatum.

It’s better to try it once, and find out if it’s good or bad, and then I will have a bunch of new options open to me in the future, rather than just sitting and wondering. So I ate the little mushroom bite, and accepted whatever consequences came with it, tensing up and preparing for more painful poison.

+1 XP