The pathway was significantly longer and more mysterious compared to the one leading to the first layer of the dungeon. However, eventually both Jordan and Cookie could see light up ahead, signalling that this layer most likely displayed a more bright and daytime like environment. Once they reached the end of the passage, there was once again a long stone staircase leading downwards towards the ground of this layer, but from where the duo stood they could see nothing but the top of trees that continued on for a long while. The distance between the stone walls encasing this layer seemed to be a lot larger compared to the more compact first layer.

"Woah...Its just pure jungle out here." Cookie said, raising a flipper over his eyes, trying to see further without the sun covering his face.

Jordan looked up to see a clear blue sky, and the sun's heat battering down. It seemed as though dungeons were truly spectacular since each level was like a completely different dimension compared to the last.

Suddenly, something caught Cookie's eye as he kept scanning the top of the trees from their vantage point. Smoke seemed to be rising directly north from where they were, and the smell of cooking meat on the air wafted up Cookie's nose.

"I can see some smoke, and I can smell something cooking on the air. Maybe that's where your enemies are for this layer?"

Jordan nodded, following Cookie down the stone steps, the two touching down on the soil of this jungle layer, traversing forward into the trees and bushes ahead. They walked ahead with a goal in mind at the very least to reach whoever was making that smoke rise, and what was cooking. Jordan unsheathed his blade, cutting away at any huge leaves that blocked their path, while Cookie seemed to lead the way at times, his nose proving to be a very useful guide in this environment. On the other hand, in terms of physical wellbeing, Jordan's shirt was still torn from the back, but his scratches and torn skin had fully healed. He assumed it was a light reward from the magical dungeon for clearing the first stage. In Cookie's case, he was still rather shaken up from being used as bait before, but also felt extremely dizzy from the heat, his body not built to survive in these types of climates.

Jordan noticed and stopped Cookie, "You okay? I can carry you on my shoulder instead. You don't weigh much after all."

"Thank you so much!" Cookie exclaimed, nodding quickly at the offer presented to him.

Jordan lifted the Penguin up onto his shoulders, keeping him there as it gave him orders on which exact paths to take in this jungle. The boy looked up to the sky after what felt like hours, the sun still glaring down at him and his little compatriot. He yearned for the feeling of water on his tongue, or even something sweet like cake. Jordan's mind began to drift off towards the slice of cake his Uncle had left in the fridge two nights prior, its velvety texture making him wonder if he should have even come here at all.

His fantasies were quickly stripped from him as Cookie whispered both extremely quietly and urgently, "Get down. We're here!"

Jordan duck, letting Cookie hop off his shoulder so the two could hide in the overgrown bushes surrounding this small open part of the jungle. What laid before them seemed to be four humanoid figures, dancing around what seemed to be another figure roasting on an open fire. Jordan's eyes widened, his jaw dropping in shock as he realised what exactly was occurring here. Four rather large white chimpanzee's, all wearing armour and carrying mace's were dancing around what seemed to be the corpse of a small dark Monkey being spit roasted.

"So Ape's are eating other Ape's here..." Cookie whispered, jittering a little at the sight.

Jordan grumbled to himself at the sight of the Chimpanzee's. It was said in books that Jordan read in his earlier days of school that Chimps were physically stronger than human's and much more brutal. The idea of facing off against four of them was frightening to say the least, but he had already come all this way. Turning back now without reaching the end of this Dungeon was out of the question.

Cookie on the other hand felt deep in his core that these Chimpanzee's were much more brutal and animalistic than even the Lizardmen on the layer above. He shivered a bit, rubbing his flipper's together due to the uneasy emotions clouding his mind, as he turned to Jordan, he was stunned to see his pink-haired companion was nowhere to be seen. Cookie quickly whipped his head back towards the Chimp's from his position in the bushes and saw Jordan standing there, unsheathing his blade.

The edge of his sword gleamed under the sun which glittered across the entire Jungle. The heat continuously beating down on Jordan as his tightened his grip on the blade, his entire body sweating as he panted a little from fatigue. All four Chimps instantaneously stopped their dance around the fire, facing Jordan due to his sudden appearance. They grinned and cackled sinisterly amongst each other, all reaching for their hand axe's, slamming the back of their weapon's against their own armour as a way to intimidate Jordan. However, much to their dismay, the boy didn't budge, extremely driven on completing this Dungeon that was beginning to irritate him to some degree.

One of the Chimp's instantly lunged at Jordan, swinging it's hand axe horizontally. Jordan dodged under the attack, bringing his hand to the ground as he whipped his body around, slamming the back of his foot onto the side of the Chimp's lower leg. It was knocked of off it's balance slightly, glaring down at Jordan, it's eyes suddenly widening to see his supposed dinner had disappeared. The boy had slipped under the Chimp's leg's, his goal being to both force it to spread it's stance, allowing him to go under it's leg's, and to knock it off balance. It looked around for a moment, turning around at the wrong moment as it's face was split in half by an overhead slash from Jordan's blade.

In the overgrown bushes nearby, Cookie had his flippers over his mouth, stunned by the display of strength shown by Jordan.

"I used to fight animals like you all the time in the forest at home." The silhouette of an individual flickered in Jordan's mind before he turned his attention back to the other three Chimp's in front of him, "Give me your best. This is a great training ground for me!"

The other Chimpanzee's looked infuriated, all tightening their grips, slamming their weapon's against each other's armour and crying out as though they were charging into war. They all dashed at Jordan, a murderous and savage look gleaming in each of their eyes. Their attacks were relentless as Jordan was forced on the defensive, constantly bobbing and weaving attacks that rained on him from the right, left, above, and even below him. He suddenly parried an overhead slash from one of the Chimp's hand axe's, but was kicked from behind by the other, sending him rolling and tumbling into a tree. His back slammed into the bark, his injuries from before reopening regardless of the healing prize granted by the first layer of the dungeon.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"F-fuck...I don't wanna die." Jordan stuttered, trembling up as his grip only tightened more around his weapon, the trio of Chimp's walking slowly towards him to allow the factor of fear to set in. After all, prey always tasted better if they gave themselves up.

The air slowly began to grow even hotter in the vicinity as a ball of flames came flying from beyond some bushes, slamming one of the approaching Chimpanzee's in the face, the creature falling to the ground, writhing around in pain as the other two along with Jordan cocked their heads to the direction the attack came from. Cookie stepped out with tears in his, aiming his flippers forwards, an orange glow surrounding his arms.

"I'll support yo-you Jordan! Do your best!" Cookie screams.

The penguin's cries motivated Jordan to dash forward with his blade, impaling the inflamed Chimp on the ground directly in it's neck. One of the last two was running towards Cookie, who was yelling and continuously launching fireballs from his glowing flippers at the Chimp chasing him. It was a surprise to Jordan that Cookie could use magic in some form, considering it was widely stated that only human's or humanoid's could properly control the output of their magic.

"So it's just me and you. Alone, you filthy Chimp's aren't anything special." Jordan grinned, pulling his blade out of the charred Chimp's neck, walking towards the one standing before him.

The Chimp facing Jordan lunged at him, flailing it's hand axe around frantically. Jordan on the other hand dodged with ease, the thought of Cookie being caught and eaten alive lingering in his mind. He himself knew that finishing this fight quickly and helping Cookie out was the most important thing. The Chimp swung it's hand axe from Jordan's left forcing him to parry the attack. The Chimp's arm's flew back from the strength behind the parry, leaving itself wide open. Jordan took the opportunity to slash at the Chimp's head, slicing it in half horizontally, it's body flopping onto the ground lifeless. This allowed for Jordan to now clearly see Cookie's struggling body being lifted up by the final Chimpanzee, a sinister grin on it's face as it leaned in to take a ferocious bite out of Cookie's face.

Jordan, without time to think, was forced to throw his weapon from afar to alert the bloodthirsty Chimp of his presence, incapable of reaching Cookie in time from where he stood. The blade soared through the air, eventually piercing the final Chimpanzee directly in the temple, pinning it's head to the tree to it's right.

Cookie screamed in pure fear and terror as he fell to the ground from the limp animal's grasp, instantly waddling over to Jordan and hiding behind his leg.

"A-are they all gone!?" Stuttered the small frightened penguin.

Jordan sighed and walked over to where his sword was stuck, yanking it out of the lifeless Chimp's head, blood staining its edge's. He wiped the blood on the corpse's fur, sheathing his blade once more before taking a seat. Cookie waddled over, nervously looking at Jordan's injuries.

"Cookie. You can use magic?" Jordan started, rubbing his arm slightly.

"Yeah! I've always known magic from what my body's telling me. I don't remember much from before you found me being chased, but I do have a lot of knowledge."

Jordan raised an eyebrow as he stood, realising his wounds and fatigue from this layer were fading due to the layer possibly being cleared, "What does that mean?"

"I don't know...I don't have memories of my experiences but I have a lot of knowledge on specific topics."

Jordan looked at Cookie for a moment, realising the struggling expression on the penguin's face before sighing, "It's fine. I was just healed up, so this layer must be over."

Suddenly, the ground around them began to shake, tremors forcing the trees, bushes and everything to shake furiously. Jordan quickly picked up Cookie to make sure he didn't go falling to his death through any cracks. The floor where the spit roasting monkey slowly began to move to the side as though it was a door leading to an underground passage. The tremors came to an end and Cookie pointed towards the opening part of the ground which was shaped in a perfect square, blending perfectly into the ground.

"Look. It seems the Dungeon was designed to open this passage once we cleared out the Chimp's."

Jordan slowly walked over, gulping nervously, worried that he'd have to jump down a dark hole once more. He had a feeling the landing wouldn't be so kind to him or Cookie this time around. However, once he opened his eyes and peered over properly, he saw stone steps and stone walls lit with torches leading downwards. He internally cheered, and heard Cookie sigh with relief. The penguin must have been thinking the exact same thing as him.

The duo looked at each other and nodded nervously, making their way down this passage, the flames lit along with wall's flickering with each step Jordan took. Cookie stayed on the boy's shoulder, clinging and peering around every now and then. Once they reached the bottom, the unlit flames around the dark stone room they were in began to light up one at a time in a linear fashion. All around them there were skulls, bones, tattered clothing, destroyed armour and weapons of previous individual's who had either been defeated, or consumed by the beast which lay dormant in this layer.

The final torches in this room lit up as a large white gorilla with glowing orange eyes, hopped down from its humongous throne made of sticks, moss, dirt and stone. The Gorilla itself looked to be around ten feet tall, towering above the duo. It reached for its weapon, the armour it was wearing rattling with each of it's movements. The weapon it had picked up seemed to be a rather well crafted stone bat covered in dirt and a pile of dried blood from previous battles. It banged the weapon on the ground repeatedly before roaring at both Cookie and Jordan.

Jordan unsheathed his blade, turning to Cookie, "You reckon this is the boss of the Dungeon?"

"Seems so. H-He must be the boss of those Chimpanzee's we fought up there. Judging by all the corpse's here...It might even be the boss of this entire Dungeon!" Cookie said, cowering slightly while clinging to Jordan's back, looking over his shoulder.

"Alright. Well I can't go home unless I conquer this filthy Ape. Smells like shit and death down here too, so I'll be relying on you for support Cookie!"

Cookie nodded frantically, his heart beating fast as his flippers began to glow with a mythical orange glow, tiny flames appearing. He knew facing such a beast was terrifying, but Jordan was relying on him, and he couldn't let the man who saved him multiple times down.

Jordan dashed forward, jumping into the air using his developed muscle strength to slash at the Gorilla's hand which held it's weapon. It however, was not going to stand there and allow this to happen. The white furred Gorilla lifted his arm up quickly, moving his arm away from Jordan's attack before going to slam the stone bat down on both of his assailant's. With a roar, he felt as though he had already defeated them both with this incoming blow, when suddenly, a ball of fire came streaming out from behind Jordan. He had not anticipated that there would be a magic user amongst the duo, his attack stopping as he tripped on his own feet, falling onto the throne behind him with full force, the entire seat crashing and breaking apart. He writhed and wriggled in pain as one side of his face had been charred and burned to a crisp by the

"Beautiful work Cookie!" Jordan yelled, sighing relief that the attack aimed at him was stopped.

Cookie smiled and giggled bashfully at Jordan's compliment before aiming his flipper's once more, the dust around the fallen and burned Gorilla clearing up.

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"Oh? New challengers who were able to topple this tub of lard? I'm interested..."