Name: Natasha

Race: Mandrill lvl 6

XP: 10

Size: 70

Type: Beast

Faction: Unaligned

Armor: 0

HP: 36/36

Strength: 5/Speed: 10/Endurance: 5/Magic: 2/Plasticity: 1/Luck 6

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

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

Skills: Bite 1, strike 2, grapple 2, throw 1, climb 2, sneak 3, hide 1, dash 1, dodge 1, block 1

Spells: Bluster 5 MAX, windfury 2

The very large monkey looked down his nose at me, nodding his head up and down and letting out a breathy chuff. I understood slightly that what he was doing was intended to be intimidating, which it was. He is a monkey about half the size of a grown man. He let out a low rumbly noise as I backed away slightly from him, not sure what it was he wanted me to do. Though as soon as I made a move away, he reached out a hand grabbing my ankle and turning quickly. He started walking and just dragged me by the leg along with him like I was a handbag. I tried to protest, flailing and making monkey noises, but he just ignored me, dragging me along through the grass.

To be honest it was a bit humiliating, but more than that, I felt like I was being scolded like a child. Though I suppose technically I am a child considering I was born just two days ago. Still, being dragged around was not what I had in mind for plans. He brought me back to the clearing where the other monkeys were and in one swing of the arm, haphazardly tossed me forward onto my face. I landed with a thud, quickly scrabbling back to my feet. I turned, expecting to be confronted by Boris’ face once again looking down his nose at me but he was already walking away.

The whole ordeal felt like an exercise in humility, but I wasn’t even sure what exactly I’d done wrong really. Is there some unwritten rule that only he’s allowed to eat them? I suppose it makes sense, given that he’s the only monkey that’s evolved so far. Still, would have been nice to know before being tossed around like a rag doll. I grumbled slightly under my breath, which sounds really weird without words, picking sticks and leaves out of my fur. What was next on my list again? I can’t really remember. Follow Boris, learn to heal…. Something, something… torch! Right. Learn to make a torch. How would you do that though? Find a big stick, wrap it in something flammable that burns relatively slow. The only thing I can think of would be something like fat. Wait… Isn’t tree sap flammable? How do you get tree sap? I remember once seeing someone collect maple sap once, maybe it’s the same?

I walked away from the group, heading a few hundred feet past the brush for a moment before pulling out the bone knife. No sense in dulling the metal. I walked up to the tree, and took the tooth in hand, chipping away at the bark, and then scraping at the wood. The thing is, it looked like it was working, and I’d dug a groove into it a few inches, but I didn’t see any sap at first. It wasn’t pouring out like maple did in the videos. Then again I don’t have a drill either. So I scraped away until it was about an inch deep before I noticed my knife sticking into the wood more. I waited a second before noticing the glossy sheen to the inner wood, and it started to drip down. Ah, wait! I forgot to grab anything to collect it with!

I quickly scrambled about, running over to something that looked like a huge fern and pulled off a big enough leaf to use as a makeshift bowl, bending it in the middle a bit before scurrying back to the tree. There wasn’t a ton of sap showing, but it was starting to drip down the tree. I held up the leaf against the trunk, just under the cut, and it started to drip inside. Great… Now how do I hold it here? I looked around the ground around me for something, but there wasn't much. I’d need to find some sticks or something to hold it in place. I waited until it dripped into the leaf again before quickly scuttling over to the brush and trying to sort through it for a suitable stick. After about a minute I came back, three large-ish sticks in one hand and leaf in the other. I propped the leaf up under the cut and placed one stick on each corner, and the third up under it so it wouldn’t bend inwards. I waited for a moment to make sure it wouldn’t immediately fall apart, then more securely fastened it in place with a few rocks before finally flopping down onto my butt and sighing. More work than it should have been.

Now that it just has to… do its thing, I’ll need to find a proper torch-y stick. I huffed again, thinking how much of a pain it is to not be able to just walk into the human town and buy torches that they clearly have. Though if I could just walk into town, I wouldn’t be having this problem at all, so that point is kind of dumb. Whatever, I miss convenience. I’m going to take a walk around and look for a big stick. I kept an eye out, looking for any lizards, or horrible centipede creatures as I made my way back west a bit. Most of the sticks that were available all looked too thin for a proper torch, and the ones that weren’t, were too short. It was a tad frustrating at first, but after a bit, I did come across a stream. Likely the one that flows into the watering hole. I walked up to it, lowering my face down to the water to take a drink. I paused for a moment, once again sniffing my fur. I really needed a bath. It’d been too long since I’d had one. Technically I’ve never had one, given this new body.

I lowered myself into the water, and shivered instantly. I was never one for cold showers, but beggars can’t be choosers. What I wouldn’t give to just be able to stand in my own shower and just let the hot water run for an hour. Come out smelling like vanilla and citrus. Climb into my bed and wrap myself up in a blanket with a cup of tea. I took off my skirt, set it beside the water and sank down to my shoulders in the stream, running my hands up and down my arms, my legs. I don’t have soap, but I should still at least try to get as much stink out of my fur as possible. I took a breath in, ducking to submerge my head and running my fingers through my hair and beard. Weird actually having a beard. I stroked my beard like a philosopher pondering the solution to a riddle, but really I was just imagining the taste of tea again. I wonder if I can find any tea-like leaves here in this world.

Eventually I brought my head up, and the chill inside the water was only rivaled by the chill of the open air. I have no clue why anyone would intentionally take a cold shower. I grumbled slightly as I walked back out of the stream, shivering harshly for a few seconds and then shaking out my fur like a wet dog. As soon as I felt moderately dry, my fur was poofed out like I’d been blow dried. Which was better than being cold even if I looked a bit silly. I couldn’t have spent more than ten minutes in the water, but it still feels like I leeched every bit of heat from my bones.

Once I had fastened my skirt back on, tightening and retightening it to be sure it stayed in place, I resumed my search for an adequate torch stick. Another long while of skittering to and fro, grabbing stick after stick I did eventually find one, though it was a bit too large it was better than being too small. Next I went around and found a few long wide fanning leaves. They were all over the place so I just grabbed the bone knife and chopped a few free. I came back to the tree, and luckily the setup hadn’t collapsed, with the sap about half filling the leaf. I gently lifted the sap filled leaf, pouring the sap over the end of the stick and wrapping the leaf around the head of the stick, followed by several other leaves wrapping around the head, and glued in place by the excess sap.

I swaddled the torch head, which stuck together surprisingly well, given how quickly it was made. Next time I should be able to streamline the process a bit more. Still, I learned my lesson from forgetting to set up the collector. I’ll wait until I’ve gotten to the cave before lighting it on fire. A few more layers of leaf and sap to hold itself together, and I’ve got something vaguely resembling a torch. Which means I can actually go into the dungeon myself instead of having to follow the humans in. So now I can actually go exploring down there, rather than just following the same line they did. Maybe I can find some useful stuff down there. Or enemies I can mop up for xp. As I finished with the sap, I set it back up onto the tree, no clue if it was going to fill again, or eventually stop, or whatever.

I hoisted the supposed torch onto my shoulder and made my way back towards the cave. I don’t really intend on doing a lot of hunting of the denizens of the dungeon, but that might be a pleasant consequence of exploration. Now I remember, at least mostly, what the inside of the dungeon was like. There was the initial tunnel, then the cave proper, then the mineshaft , then the dungeon proper, but there were other areas that the humans didn’t go down. Likely because they were just trying to speed through to the end. I’m not in as much of a hurry. I came up to the entrance of the cave,

Makkerache cave

Dungeon level: 10

I stood at the entrance, pulling out the flint and knife as I tucked the torch under my arm. I struck the flint for a bit of the spark, but it didn’t catch. So I tried again, and again, and again… It took much longer than I would like to admit to actually get a bit of a smoke out of the leaves. Another minute later and it was actually burning. Note to self, dry dead leaves are way easier to burn than still green ones. I’ll need to think of a way around that. Though most of what I’m trying to burn was the sap, it seemed very resistant to the flames. Which is a bit frustrating, cause I could have sworn sap was flammable. Still, now I actually have a proper torch, sort of. So I can get to actually making some progress.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I stepped into the cave, and started to walk forwards, but no sooner did I cross that threshold than I saw the familiar form of a massive rat, the originator of my first bone knife, and my satchel. No sooner than I had lit my torch did I need to put it down, quickly pulling out the metal knife. My discern weakness skill was able to peek into my mind that the rat only had one weapon, the teeth. So if I controlled the head then the fight was all but over. The rat scampered forward, almost looking like it was dodging left and right as it approached. I wasn’t too scared though, quickly huffing out a breath, and coating my knife in windfury. Just before the rat got close enough to lunge I lowered myself down one hand reaching out in front of me preemptively. The rat snapped forwards but instead of sinking its teeth into me it came up just short, and I reached out to snag it by the ear while the other arm cut upwards into the chest. The first stab didn’t seem to bother it much, but the next few all in rapid succession tore gouges in the hide. It let out this awful screech as I held it, head swinging like it was trying to tear off its own ear to get free. Which it might have been.

After the stabs, the rat threw its weight onto me, shoving me harshly over and I heard the snapping of those front teeth loudly in my ear. I’m sure to a human this rat didn’t weigh all that much, but it was as big as I was. So I, with my hand still firmly holding onto one ear, tugged its head back, the knife hand sticking in and just ripping straight up like splitting a curtain. The body flopped unceremoniously to the floor on top of me, and I quickly pushed it away. Uncomfortable when it was still alive, much less now. I looked down at myself, and thanks to the black fur all the blood blended in, but I still felt sticky. I grumbled, lamenting the waste of an adequate bath, only to muddy myself again.

45 XP

So, I could sit here for a moment and attempt to butcher the rat as best I can, and now that I have a proper knife, no doubt it will go much better than last time, but to be honest I cannot be asked to do it. I want to get on with exploring. I can do this on the way back out anyways, and I wouldn’t even be in any rush. I took a moment to look at the rat, it probably would have been harder to kill it, if not for the whole ‘rushing me down like a bloodthirsty berserker’ thing. Though should I be alarmed with how easily I’m adapting to this whole “kill or be killed” thing? Surely this cannot be a healthy mindset to have 24/7 right? Best not to think about that too much. On through the tunnel.

I took the moment to collect my torch, thankfully still burning. I picked it up, hefting it onto my shoulder and walking deeper into the cave and around the bend. Even with the torch I could just barely see anything inside, but I could at least see where I was going. Eventually I came upon the entrance to the large domed cavern. And once I saw it, I remembered what exactly came next. Oh right. The spiders. The humans gathered in the middle and sniped them off the walls with bows, and stabbed any that got close. I’m going to need to kill a lot of spiders. Now, think. How am I going to do that? I turned my nose up in thought, trying to use discern weakness to retroactively check the spiders, which surprisingly actually worked.

The spiders have long spindly legs and a bulbous body, so their legs are very weak. They don’t run exceptionally fast, and their only weapon looked to be their fangs, which required them to get close to use, but are likely venomous. Their legs might possibly have claws, for either another attack or a grab to get those fangs in. they didn’t seem to have a lot of health either. They did die all from singular blows. I tapped my chin in thought. My only weapon that I have requires I get in close, which isn’t good for being surrounded. I could use the torch, but I do not want to risk putting it out accidentally. I suppose my only real option to deal with the spiders is to just kite them around the room and try to pick off what I can, since I’m faster than them.

I did not want to step forwards, having to take a few deep breaths to psych myself up before quickly scooting into the center of the room and holding up the torch, which was less helpful than the human’s torch had been. I could no longer see the walls of the cavern and 80% of my DNA seemed to be telling me this was a mistake. Still, I sat and waited for the spiders to descend the walls, eventually creeping out of the shadows and towards me. Now one thing I had thought of, but didn’t expect to be quite the issue. The room is round. So with me in the middle, the spiders would naturally surround me. My first thought to kite them was just to run around in a circle, but I hadn’t realized that being unable to see the walls means I can’t tell which direction is safe to run towards. Crap. Welp, time to improvise.

I start towards the wall to my right, getting closer to the spiders and finally getting an actual good look at them. Now I don’t know a ton about spiders, but of the ten or so that I can recognize, this one looks mostly similar to an orb weaver. Though instead of bright yellow it was black and white. The fangs were tiny, and close to the eyes, and I was kind of right about the claw with the legs, but it looks like only on the front two. As soon as I got close however, and much to my surprise, it dashed forwards to meet me, whipping those front legs out and quickly hooking those claws into my fur. They didn’t hurt, but the spider was light enough to lift itself and climb onto me. My brain went into panic mode, the only thing I was thinking about was that venom. So, naturally as anyone would do as they were crawled on by a big bug, I flailed wildly about to throw it off, and batting it away with the torch. It fell and landed on its back as I regained my bearings, seeing two more dashing towards me. Now seeing the folly of my plan, I dashed back towards the center of the room.

This was bad, very bad. Rather than thinking of how to kill them I might need to formulate how to escape. The entrance to the cavern is just ahead of me now, but an unknown number of spiders are standing between me and it. So how do I-... Oh I’m stupid, why didn’t I think of this first? I dashed backwards again as another rushed forwards, then another coming in from behind me that I’d dashed towards. This time I dodged, the quick step avoiding the clawed limb trying to hook my fur again. I jumped over it instead and dashed again, trying to circle the perimeter of the room. I could hear them all now, and seeing there were no more descending from above, then they were all running along the floor. Their exoskeletal digits clacking about sounded like someone was dropping a thousand sticks down a flight of stairs. I circled again, and again until I could reasonably assume, even if I couldn't see them all, that they were all in one big cluster. My arms and legs were getting sore from all the running after all the running, panting out hot breath in the chilled cavern air. I ran them about until I got them between me and the wall, dashed forwards, took one deep breath in, and gave the hardest bluster I could, dashing the spiders both against the wall and each other.

15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP

I watched the chunk of xp roll in, but that was only ten or so spiders. With that breath however, my light flickered, the wind threatening to snuff my torch in my hand. That is not good. Just after having figured out something to kill the crowd, I’m reminded that cheap tactics come at a cost. If I’m not careful, I’ll be fighting blind. After the initial scattering, I could hear them scrambling to try for another go at killing me. I was still faster, but holding up this torch was making one arm ache, while using the other to run was making the shoulder and fingers sore. As I came close to the wall again I stopped to take a breath, waiting until they caught up once again, now just delaying until my bluster comes back up. It didn’t take two seconds before they were coming back into the light again, and I was having to move. This was a stressful game of ring around the rosie, but at least it seems like I’m winning for now. I circle round again, trying to gather as many between me and the wall as I could before taking that breath in again, trying for another sharp gust, this time holding the torch out behind me, and as far away from the wind as physically possible.

15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP

That was another hefty chunk of xp. These are probably better to farm than the rat swarm was, but the idea of doing this repeatedly every day did not seem like a preferable pastime. Especially considering that I would need to constantly worry about blinding myself and venom. I’m having trouble even keeping up the pace of just constantly running in circles this whole time. The torch still flickered, even when I held it backwards, but at least there can’t be that many left. That was like twenty spiders. How many more could there be? So another round of jogging in circles, though now I was actually starting to slow down, and the spiders seemed to have a higher endurance than I expected, cause they aren’t.

Crap. If they catch up to me now, from the sounds there are still like a dozen alive. All it will take is one lucky bite and I’m probably paralyzed. Unless of course poison has a status effect like in games, like a damage over time effect, or something like that. I don’t want to find out. In fact not only don’t I want to find out, I have no clue how to cure it either, so if it’s not on a timer, I’m just going to die eventually anyways. This was very poorly thought out. I felt the pseudo-lung filling in my chest as I circled around to try once again for a final go at the bluster to hopefully end it.

15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP 15 XP

As soon as the cacophonous crunching sounded with the impact of the spiders against the stone, I stopped in place to listen, holding up the torch above my head. My arms were sore and my breath was short, but surely that had to have been all of them. I listened for a few seconds and the skittering had died down but hadn’t stopped. There were at least a few left. I let out a long sigh, waiting in place for them to enter the light, when eventually three more came into view, only three. Which was good, much more manageable. I could kill three spiders. I set the torch down on the floor and drew the knife again, watching the closest spider and waiting for it to dash. Last time it had dashed, I leapt away, but this time I wanted to end the fight.

It lined up to sprint, the other two a short distance behind and darted forwards, front legs outstretched to grapple. I had a similar plan, my left arm held out in front, I pushed on the top of its head and into the ground. It was not stronger than me, so that’s good. Then I stabbed down into its eyes. The stab didn’t land immediately, the hard shell deflecting the first few tries, but eventually one came right where it was needed and the arachnid curled inwards.

15 XP

There wasn’t time to congratulate myself however, as the time it took to kill the one was more than I wanted, another pair of legs gripping one of my shoulders. Before I could even react, little pinpricks of legs jabbed at my side and a pair of fangs sunk into the arm, a shot of cold shooting through the limb.

-2 hp

I didn’t have time to react as the second spider sprinted forward as well. I wanted to get my knife arm up, but instead managed to lift my other elbow up, jamming it into the joint of the grabbing leg. It tried to climb but my knife hand came up, slicing right into the joint, connecting a leg to the body. I expected that to disable it, but instead it collapsed as well.

15 XP -2 hp

A second bite sunk into the shoulder, and I reached around to where one of the pinpricks was stabbing me, and grabbed a leg. I yanked, and the other legs tried to hold on, but a second yank on the now loosened grip pulled the spider off. I lurched forwards with the weight freed, but didn’t let go. The spider smacked into the ground and I did with it, crawling on top of the awful creature and jamming the blade into any place it would fit.

15 XP -4 hp

The spiders were all dead. Great. But now my right arm is starting to feel numb. Not great. Also, that tick of damage must be the venom. Exactly what I was worried about. So close to the finish line too. Perfect. Welp, time to learn how venom works…