What the heck was that battle earlier?

While I was mass-producing poisoned darts and eating little grape-like fruits as snacks besides the face tree, something suddenly started yelling and charging at the face tree from the other side.

Startled, I quickly hid myself using my camouflage ability and picked up my bamboo blowgun to defend.

The invaders were 2 tall and lean ape-like monsters, one a bit bigger than the other.

I aimed at the bigger one first.

My shot did nothing more than to pause him for a second, but that was enough to halt their momentum and allow my friend, the face tree to strike at them.

It missed however.

Then, I shot another dart.

But the dart was blocked by my target's weapon, a stone sword.

These new monsters... They had good reflexes.

Then, before I could load another dart, the ape came over and broke my bamboo blowgun with his sword.

The ape had a complacent look on its face, as if it did something great... even though I was still standing there, right in front of it.

It seemed that, compared to other monsters I've fought so far, this one's senses... aren't so wild.

Moving as little of my body as possible to maintain most of my camouflage, I scratched the ape's guts with one of my tentacles, hard. Unfortunately, my claws are not very long and could not cause a fatal wound.

The ape backed away. Then its pal saved it from the face tree's next blow.

When the face tree's branch was chopped off clean like that, it had a face that painfully cried. I felt sorry for it.

Thus, I leapt onto the face of that ape carrying the stone axe and strangled him as hard as I could.

But there was too much muscle in his neck. I couldn't break it. Instead, I had to latch hard to prevent the big hand he grabbed me with from prying me off.

Then the ape with the sword smacked my head with the flat of its sword.

I didn't expect it to attack while I was right on its pal's face.

It hurt...! A lot!

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My head ached so much.

If my opponents didn't have an incomprehensible argument full of "Ooo!"s, "Oo"s, and "O!"s, right near my hearing organ, I would not have woken out of the pain as quick as I did and jumped off of the ape with an ax's face in time to dodge the next smack.

That attack ended up landing on the ape with an ax's face instead, knocking it unconscious.

Then, the ape with a sword got knocked away by the face tree's counterattack.

I killed the unconscious ape with its own ax, and then went back to the tree to pick up another one of my bamboo blowguns to snipe the ape running away.

...That battle was tough. If they had fought us calmly 1 v.s. 1 each, then me and the face tree probably would have lost. Or maybe we would have all died before nightfall after I shot them, with us dying first to blades and them dying later to my poison.

The reason they lost was simply because they were too stupid, especially the one with the sword.

Anyway, the first gain from that battle came from the system:

Killed stage 2 level 28 ko-o warrior. Gain 1050 exp. Level +1

It broke the record for the most amount of exp I got in one battle by a lot.

Even considering their stages being 2 and levels being in the late 20s, why was it so high?

I take a look at my status.

Name: Gosh Species: Faux kat (Stage I) Level: 11 (80%) Innate Abilities: Poison Ink Glands, Stretchable Titanium Shell, Night Vision Eyes, Retractable Titanium Claws, Camouflage Pigment Acquired Skills: Spit level 3, Dash level 1, Constrict level 3, Swim level 1, Cook level 2, Whack level 1, Scratch level 3, Leap level 2, Twist level 2, Endure level 2, Pierce level 2, Hide level 2, Chop level 0

Quite a few of my acquired skills level up this time, including scratch, leap, endure, pierce, and hide. The stronger the opponents, the faster the applied skills grow. That applies to acquiring new skills too, as I got the chop skill by swinging that ax only once.

My level went up by almost 100%, despite it getting harder to raise as my level goes up.

I'm also expecting another round of exp arriving later. It'll probably raise my level once again.

Could the reason for this abnormally high amount of exp be...

"Meow... (Their weapons...)"

I did not think much about it back during the battle, because it was such a rush, but... do monsters in this world use weapons?

Using weapons is a sign of intelligence. Could they be one of the intelligent species of this world?

Could that be the reason why the exp they gave was so much?

If they really are intelligent creatures, isn't my killing them considered a crime?

But it was them who attacked my (future) house (treehouse) first... The face tree is still nursing its stumped off branch.

Therefore, shouldn't this have been considered as self-defense?

Should I even care about morals when I myself am a monster? When there are no laws to hold me accountable?

"... ..."

Thinking about this right now is pointless. More importantly, I don't want to think about it.

I'm going to rest.

My head still hurts somewhat. Rubbing the top of my head with my tentacle, I think I feel a small crack in my shell... I'll probably need a few days or more to get over that.

That said, dinner still needs to be made, so I can't sleep for long. Healing would only slow down without proper nourishment.

Just before nightfall, while I was roasting freshly caught fish,

Killed stage 2 level 29 ko-o warrior. Gain 1088 exp. Level +1

As expected, it arrived.